The 45 cows in Japan suspected of being infected with mad cow disease have all tested negative, said Japanese officials. One herdmate died in January of mad cow on the farm where it was raised in the town of Bekkai on the northern island of Hokkaido.

Authorities treated the 45 animals as if they were suspected of carrying disease.

Source: Canada.com/ Canadian Press/ Associated Press, Feb. 13, 2006
Source URL: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/agriculture/story.html?id=d1512344-7856-46d2-affd-a42e8ce91403&k=9374

Livestock producers seeking to build new facilities in Iowa will continue to be subjected to the more stringent master matrix, the scoring system to help officials judge whether new livestock operations can be built. The matrix is meant to have producers exceed state standards in order to obtain construction permits.

County lawmakers had until the end of January to decide not to use the matrix, and only 14 of the state’s 99 counties did so as of Jan. 27.

Source: Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier/ Matthew Wilde, Feb. 7, 2006
Source URL: http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2006/02/07/news/metro/
cbc62e02a21f7c908625710e004fabd6.txt

Ridley Inc., one of the leading animal nutrition companies in North America, today reported results for its fiscal 2006 second quarter ended December 31, 2005.

Revenue increased by 6.5% to $138.3 million compared with $129.9 million in the second quarter of 2005. Generally, a comparison of revenue on a dollar basis is not necessarily indicative of the strength of Ridley's business because revenue can be influenced by fluctuating commodities prices. In fiscal 2006, revenue includes an increase of 2.9% in feed sales volumes and higher selling prices per ton, reflecting higher input costs.

Gross profit was $25.8 million compared with $26.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2005.

Source: CCN Matthews/ Ridley Inc./ News Release, Feb. 13, 2006
Source URL: http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?
action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=579828

Very few changes were made this month in the supply and demand for feed grains. In corn, the only change was a 25-million-bushel increase in the expected use for ethanol production. Prices for ethanol are expected to continue strong, especially with industry reports of phasing out methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) blending in gasoline after May 2006. The change resulted in a decrease in ending stocks, but corn prices are unchanged. Other small declines were made in barley imports and oat exports to reflect conditions during the first half of their marketing year.

This month’s changes in global coarse grains production, use, and stocks were mostly offsetting, but world trade prospects were reduced some, mostly for corn. Argentina’s corn exports and Egypt’s imports were reduced.

Source: USDA/ ERS/ Allen Baker and Edward Allen, Feb. 13, 2006
Source URL: http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/so/view.asp?f=field/fds-bb/

The USDA’s February report of world supply and demand conditions appeared to provide more bad news for soybeans. Prices, however, remained firm in the face of prospects for a mounting surplus of soybeans.

For the domestic soybean market, the USDA lowered the projection of the 2005-06 marketing year crush of soybeans by 10 million bushels. This change reverses the 10 million bushel increase made in January and reflects the slow down in the rate of domestic crush in December, as reported by the Census Bureau in late January. The projection of domestic consumption of both meal and oil were reduced. The year-over-year increase in consumption is now projected at 3.2 percent for soybean meal and only 1.6 percent for soybean oil. The meal projection still seems large in the face of slow growth in poultry and pork production and increasing supplies of distillers dried grains from ethanol processing.

Source: Farmdoc/ University of Illinois/ Darrel Good, Feb. 13, 2006
Source URL: http://www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/marketing/weekly/html/021306.html

Above-normal temperatures prevailed nationwide during the month. Temperatures were particularly mild in the northern Great Plains, where temperatures nearly 20 degrees Fahrenheit above normal depleted protective snow cover, leaving winter wheat exposed to potential cold weather. Dry conditions in the southern Great Plains stressed winter grains, with most of Texas's winter wheat and oat crops rated in very poor condition.

Winter wheat acreage planted this year increased to 41,367 thousand acres, up from 40,433 thousand a year ago.

Source: USDA/ NASS, Feb. 9, 2006
Source URL: http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/nassr/field/pcp-bb/2006/crop0206.txt

Aims of the present study were to compare efficacy of intrauterine instillation of Eucacompland Lotagen (R), respectively, and to investigate their effects on fertility.

In cases of severe endometritis, Eucacomp (R)-treated cows were inseminated much earlier (37.2 +/- 14.9 vs. 71.4 +/- 41.3 days; P < 0.05) and with more success (GTR: 54.5 vs. 38.0%) than in Lotagen (R)-treated cows. Supplementary administration of PGF2 alpha (group B) did not yield apparent advantages. Results did not differ from those obtained after sole application of Eucacomp (R).

Source: Efficacy of intrauterine administration of Eucacomp((R)) and Lotagen((R)) in cases of puerperal and postpuerperal endometritis in dairy cattle. Praktische Tierarzt 86 (3): 188+, 2005. Handler, J.; Aslan, S.; Findik, M.; Kalender, H.; et al.

We investigated protein and gene expression in the lag phase of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis CNRZ 157 and compared it to the exponential and stationary phases.

Good correlation between protein and gene expression studies was demonstrated for several differentially expressed proteins, including nucleotide biosynthetic enzymes, adenylosuccinate synthase (PurA), IMP dehydrogenase (GuaB), and aspartate carbamoyl transferase (PyrB); heat-shock protein DnaK; serine hydroxymethyl transferase (GlyA); carbon catabolite control protein (CcpA); elongation factor G (FusA); and cell division protein (FtsZ).

Source: Differential Expression of Proteins and Genes in the Lag Phase of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis Grown in Synthetic Medium and Reconstituted Skim Milk. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2006, p. 1173-1179, Vol. 72, No. 2. Nadja Larsen, Mette Boye, Henrik Siegumfeldt, and Mogens Jakobsen.

A new weapon could be on tap for fighting bacteria that cause mastitis, an inflammatory udder disease of dairy cows costing around $2 billion annually in animal and milk-production losses.

In trials at ARS’s Bovine Functional Genomics Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, scientists Max Paape and Douglas Bannerman showed that injecting the cows’ mammary glands with the sugar Poly-x reduced mastitis infections at about one-twelfth the cost of antibiotics.

Source: USDA/ ARS/ Jan Suszkiw, Feb. 13, 2006
Source URL: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/feb06/mastitis0206.htm

Following is a list of national and international events of importance to the dairy industry. To see events more than a month out, follow the “Click to read more” link. If you have an upcoming event that you would like publicized, please send it to Patt Ligman, pattligman@metafarms.com or MetaFarms, 2980 Commers Drive, Suite 400, Eagan, MN 55121. The next EventTrak is scheduled for February 27, 2006.

February

--"Understanding Animal Agriculture and the Environment," February 15, 2006, Holiday Inn, St. Cloud, Minnesota. Contact: 800-646-2282 or Mindy Spiehs at 612-625-4262 or www.manure.umn.edu/workshops

--2005 National Electric Code for Agricultural Buildings, February 15, 2006, La Crosse, Wisconsin. Contact: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/aginfo/news/2006releases/code.html

--Fi Asia-China 2006, February 15-17, 2006, Shanghai New International Expo Centre, Pudong, Shanghai, China. Contact: http://asiachina2006.fi-events.com/

--“Women Managing the Farm Conference,” February 17-18, 2006, Wichita, Kansas. Contact: farmksu@humec.ksu.edu or 1-866-327-6578 or http://www.k-state.edu/farmksu/

NEW: New Mexico 14th annual Ag Expo, February 21-22, 2006, Roosevelt County Fairgrounds, Portales, New Mexico. Contact: http://cnjonline.com/engine.pl?station=clovis&template=storyfull.html&id=15591

NEW: Central Plains Irrigation Conference and Exposition, February 21-22, 2006, Comfort Inn, Colby, Kansas. Contact: www.oznet.ksu.edu/sdi/REvents/cpia.html

--26th Kentucky Alfalfa Conference, February 23, 2006, Lexington, Kentucky. Contact: http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Forage/26th%20ky%20alf%20conf%20prog%20columns.pdf

--Eighth Symposium on Advances in Dairy Product Technology—Concentrated and Dried Dairy Ingredients, February 27-28, 2006, The Cliffs at Shell Beach, Shell Beach, California. Contact: Laurie 805-756-6097 or www.calpoly.edu/~dptc

March

--Ice Cream Technology Conference, March 1-3, 2006, Renaissance Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Arizona. Contact: www.idfa.org or 202-220-3557

--Western United Dairymen’s Annual Convention, March 1-3, 2006, DoubleTree Hotel, Sacramento, California. Contact: http://www.westernuniteddairymen.com

--2006 Westpac Dairy Conference, March 8, 2006, Whareroa Research Centre, Hawera, New Zealand. Contact: Dawn Dalley at 06 278 0090 or 0274 952239 or dawn.dalley@dexcel.co.nz or http://www.dexcel.co.nz/main.cfm?id=214&nid=112

NEW: Banff Conference on Agriculture Food and Environment: Connect, Grow and Learn, March 8-9, 2006, Banff Conference Centre, Banff, Alberta. Contact: http://www.aia.ab.ca

--Food Safety World Conference & Expo, March 8-10, 2006, Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, D.C. Contact: www.foodsafetyworldexpo.com

--"Managing Nutrients and Biomass for a Sustainable Rural Economy," March 8-10, 2006, London Convention Center, London, Ontario, Canada. Contact: http://www.istmm.com/Home.htm

NEW: FamilyFarmed.org EXPO March 10-11, 2006, Historic Chicago Cultural Center, Michigan Avenue and Randolf Street, Chicago, Illinois. Contact: http://www.sustainusa.org/familyfarmed/2006-expo.html

--2006 American Forage and Grassland Conference, March 10-14, 2006, Westin Riverwalk, San Antonio, Texas. Contact: http://www.afgc.org/