livestock
WTO rules for US over India’s livestock trade rules
The World Trade Organization agreed with U.S. complaints and ruled that India's restrictions on imports of hogs, poultry meat and chicken eggs violate world trade rules.
Antibiotics for livestock up 16 percent in three years
Livestock producers boosted their use of antibiotics by 16 percent from 2009-12, federal data indicated. More than 60 percent of sales and distribution of antimicrobials approved for food animals in 2012 were medically important antibiotics that are central to a campaign against the rise of drug-resistant disease and infections in humans.
A mini-boom for livestock as the Grain Era ends
fter years of culling herds in the face of high grain prices, U.S. livestock producers "finally have a positive multiple-year outlook," writes economist Chris Hurt of Purdue U, boosted by more affordable commodity prices, waning of drought in the southern Plains and higher household income. "Animal industries are expected to be in a mini-boom phase in coming years led by rising per capita consumption, continued small growth in U.S. population, and growing export demand," Hurt says at farmdoc daily. Some cropland will return to pasture.
Cattle and meatpackers shift north and east from Plains
Recurrent drought has combined with a smaller cattle inventory to begin shifting the cattle industry, centered in the southern and central Plains, to the north and east, says Meatingplace in a seven-part story, "Dry Age Beef."
Feeder livestock borrowing up 50 percent in Fed survey
Agricultural banks say loan volume for feeder livestock rose by 50 percent in the second quarter of this year after rising by 13 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, according to the Federal Reserve in its Agricultural Finance Databook.
Netherlands cuts deeply the use of antibiotics in livestock
Gerbert Oosterlaken, a Dutch hog farmer, says in a Modern Farmer story, “I don’t need to take antibiotics every day. There’s no reason my pigs should either.”
Canada to phase out nonmedical antibiotic use in livestock
Health Canada announced a three-year phase-out of subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in food animals, a step that parallels U.S. action.
USDA projects record US corn and soy crops
Record yields will result in record large US corn and soybean crops, USDA said at its Outlook Forum, based on current commodity prices, which affect plantings, and on normal weather.
Second recall of raw milk in California because of bird flu
California state agriculture officials ordered the recall of raw milk from a dairy farm in the Central Valley after tests found bird flu virus in a sample from the farm's bulk tank. The state Department of Food and Agriculture warned against consumption of milk from Valley Milk Simply Bottled on the grounds that it "may lead to infection with this rare, emerging flu virus." No illnesses were reported.