The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has announced $21.9 million in awards to 111 grant programs through the Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grant Program (MPIRG). This additional funding brings the total funding to $54.6 million.

The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently published the results of an investigation into the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), noting fraud is likely. During the pandemic, USDA through the CFAP provided producers with $31 billion for various commodities.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a memorandum directing federal agencies to ensure peer-reviewed articles originating from federally funded research are freely available upon publication. This guidance is to be implemented no later than the start of 2026 and applies to data that is necessary to validate scientific findings reported in the publications.

According to a new report by Rabobank, the third quarter outlook for the global beef market remains robust. Most beef retail prices continued their upward trend in quarter two or remained steady.

Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA), along with 34 members of Congress sent a letter to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, requesting the USDA to postpone a poultry plant safety study. The letter contains a list of over 20 questions the congressmen would like answered before September 30th.

The Livestock Regulatory Protection Act would ban the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from issuing permits under the Clean Air Act for any carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, water vapor, or methane emissions resulting from biological processes associated with livestock production. While the EPA has not proposed any so-called “cow-taxes” on greenhouse emissions from livestock operations, there is a concern that a move in that direction could be imminent.

ASAS and EAAP are long term partners. In September of 2022, ASAS Sent 14 speakers to give presentations at the 2022 EAAP meeting. Here you can read a few highlights from speakers and ASAS Sponsored symposia.

Predicting how greenhouse gases can warm the planet is critical to finding short- and long-term solutions to global warming. At the European Federation of Animal Sciences meeting in Porto, Portugal, September 5-9, 2022, ASAS member, Frank Mitloehner from the University of California – Davis, discussed why we should rethink how methane from animal agriculture impacts global warming.

Research over the past decade have provided critical information on the factors that drive enteric methane emission in ruminants. At the European Federation of Animal Sciences meeting in Porto, Portugal, September 5-9, 2022, ASAS member, Alexander Hristov from Pennsylvania State University focused on nutritional strategies that can mitigate enteric methane emissions.

Ruminants play a key role in the food system because they can convert fiber-rich plants into highly nutritious food for humans. However, there is a growing concern about livestock production because of its negative environmental impact, mainly due to enteric methane (CH4) emissions but also as a result of N excretion leading to nitrate (NO3−) leaching and ammonia (NH3) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions.

The methane yield (g methane/kg dry matter intake) was 34% lower in sheep fed 100% forage rape and 11% lower in sheep fed 75% forage rape compared to sheep fed 100% ryegrass-based pasture. Sheep fed 25% and 50% forage rape as part of their diet had similar methane yields to sheep fed 100% ryegrass pasture.

Given the significant negative impact of livestock disease outbreaks on animal and public health, preventing disease spread through biosecurity practices is important. In this article, we assessed the economic implications of the adoption of biosecurity practices on Irish dairy farms.

Mutton is characterized by a typical species-related flavor named “mutton flavor,” which is mainly associated with branched-chain fatty acids (BCFAs), such as 4-methyloctanoic acid, 4-ethyloctanoic acid, and 4-methylnonanoic acid. Previous studies demonstrated that Allium mongolicum Regel ethanol extract (AME) reduced the concentration of BCFAs in the muscle and adipose tissues of lambs.

The zinc finger protein 280B-like, Y-linked ZNF280BY is a bovid-specific Y chromosome gene, playing important roles in testicular development and male fertility. In this study, we found that the ovine ZNF280BY was highly expressed in the testis and significantly upregulated during testicular development.

In higher temperature conditions, dairy cows under pasture-based automatic milking systems may experience heat stress, affecting their health and productive performance. In the present study, the relationships between heat stress, measured by the temperature–humidity index (THI), productive traits, and grazing behaviors were evaluated.

Copper is a nonrenewable mineral resource that is essential for all biological organisms. After banning the antibiotics, copper has received considerable attention due to its antimicrobial properties that improve performance in animals when fed over the minimum requirement.

Preslaughter acute stress can cause physiological and metabolic disorders of broilers and lead to deterioration of meat quality and high incidence of pale, soft, and exudative (PSE)-like meat, which block the development of broiler industry. Acute stress-induced imbalance of redox status and insufficient energy supply are important reasons for meat quality reduction.

Beef production systems rely on efficient cow-calf operations, that is, farms where the cow herd has a high level of fertility and pregnancies are common. Bull fertility also plays an important role in terms of pregnancy rates.

Composite breeds are commonly used in the U.S. beef industry since they provide producers with benefits such as breed complementarity and retained heterosis. However, cattle composite genomes are not well characterized.

Our study dealt with strategies on how to reduce biases (inflation and level-bias) and improve a parameter related to accuracy (stability) of genomic predictions of breeding values that combine genotyped and non-genotyped animals, which are denoted as single-step genomic predictions.