A dispute involving poultry waste has been scheduled for U.S. Supreme Court consideration, and if it is taken up, the resulting ruling could reverberate throughout the livestock industry.

The disagreement between Oklahoma and Arkansas involves the water quality of the Illinois River. One poultry industry representative said the lawsuit has discouraged Oklahoma producers from starting new operations and kept others from expanding current farms. Oklahoma has 98 fewer poultry houses now than a year ago.

Source: Fort Wayne Journal Gazette/ Associated Press, Feb. 18, 2006
Source URL: http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/business/13906155.htm

Safeway Inc. is the latest company to examine animal welfare issues. The company has agreed to form a committee that will consist of company employees and outside experts, including Colorado State University professor Temple Grandin.

The news was hailed by PETA, which lobbied company officials for changes.

Source: East Bay Business Times/ David Goll, Feb. 15, 2006
Source URL: http://eastbay.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2006/02/13/daily21.html?jst=b_ln_hl

I just spent the past two weeks working as a volunteer for the Citizen’s Network for Foreign Affairs in a small farming village in Ukraine. Ukraine is a fairly large country situated to the west of Russia. I’m currently traveling on an express train from Vinnitsa to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. It’s a third class ticket which means we are in a crowded stuffy rail car. It’s Sunday evening and there is high demand for seats since many workers are heading to Kiev. People were rushing to get on the rain for fear they would miss their seat. There was lots of baggage, including farm products, electronics, etc. I saw two men bringing a set of four tires into the passenger section!

Source: Penn State University/ Ken Bailey, Feb. 19, 2006
Source URL: http://dairyoutlook.aers.psu.edu/Weekly/2006/WeeklyDairyMarketOutlook021906.htm

One of the primary reasons for expecting more soybean acreage and less corn acreage in the U.S. this year is the large increase in the direct costs of producing corn relative to the increase for soybeans experienced over the past few years. The larger increase in costs have been driven primarily by high costs of nitrogen fertilizer. The higher cost for corn is expected to result in some switch to soybeans in areas where soybean yield potential is generally high relative to corn yield. Concerns about a dry growing season in 2006 might also motivate a more widespread increase in soybean acreage due to the perception that soybeans are more tolerant of dry growing conditions. A rebound in total acreage in those areas with prevented planting in 2005 may also contribute to an increase in soybean acreage, although spring wheat should compete well for that acreage.

Source: Farmdoc/ University of Illinois/ Darrel Good, Feb. 20, 2006
Source URL: http://www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/marketing/weekly/html/022006.html

Milk production in Oceania continues to decline. In New Zealand, milk production is trending ahead of last year at this time, although still trailing last year on a cumulative basis. Milk producers and handlers remain optimistic that cumulative production figures will come in at better than previously projected levels. In Australia, recent high temperatures may have caused milk production declines to accelerate. Although official December figures have not yet been released, some milk handlers feel that output during that month will be much like November, down slightly.

Source: USDA, Feb. 16, 2006

Lower temperatures in many areas of Europe appear to be slowing milk production growth. Many milk producers indicate that their milk marketings have leveled off from recent gains. For some producers, this is not an adverse situation especially when they were potentially looking at over quota volumes by the end of March. With the slow down in milk receipts, manufacturing plants remain fairly active, although they are not putting pressure on suppliers or traders to move heavier than desired stocks. Sales activity out of Europe continues to be reported as quiet and slow. European traders state that stocks of competitively priced product and often better out of South America and other sources are further slowing sales activity. Traders are hopeful that as the milk production season winds down in the Southern Hemisphere, this will once again encourage international buyers to return to European sourced dairy products.

Source: USDA, Feb. 16, 2006

Cattle are able to produce a full range of Ig classes including the long-elusive IgD through rearrangement of their germline genes.

Reagents are needed to understand better the maturation of B lymphocytes, their responses to antigens and cytokines, and to provide standards for the quantitation of Ig responses in cattle; recombinant methods may help meet this need as Ab engineering technologies become more widely used.

Source: The bovine antibody repertoire. Developmental and Comparative Immunology 30 (2-Jan): 175-186, 2006. Zhao, Y.F.; Jackson, S.M.; Aitken, R.

In the present study, eight genes from human chromosome 8 were selected for mapping in cattle to improve breakpoint resolution and confirm gene order on the comparative map near the 40 cM region of the BTA27 linkage map where a QTL affecting dairy form had previously been identified.

Further studies are underway to investigate the existence of polymorphisms in the bovine ADRB3 gene and their association with traits related to fat deposition in cattle.

Source: Comparative mapping of bovine chromosome 27 with human chromosome 8 near a dairy form QTL in cattle. Cytogenetic and Genome Research 112 (2-Jan): 98-102, 2006. Connor, E.E.; Ashwell, M.S.; Schnabel, R.; Williams, J.L.

Water is the most important nutrient for any living organism. Wise use and management of that water is and will become an increasingly important function of dairy producers. Vmark, LLC is an Ohio-based company whose corporate theme is "rethinking water management". This organization has recently completed a water metering project at a commercial dairy in northwest Ohio in conjunction with Dr. Mike Brugger of The Ohio State University. Vmark, LLC specializes in the design and installation of water purification systems that are customized for large dairy farms. This organization believes that in order to facilitate wise water management decisions, we must first understand where all the water is going.

Source: Ohio State University/ Buckeye Dairy News/ Dusty Sonnenberg, January 2006
Source URL: http://dairy.osu.edu/bdnews/v008iss01.htm#disease

Below is a summary listing of Career notices and awards in the industry. Detailed information about each listing is available by clicking the “Click to read more” link. If you have an announcement you would like us to include here, please send it to Patt Ligman, pattligman@metafarms.com or Metafarms, 2980 Commers Drive, Suite 400, Eagan, MN 55121. The next CareerTrak is scheduled for March 6, 2006.

Job Listings This Week:
None this week

Awards & Accolades:
1. NMC Honors Three Vermont Farms

Faces In New Places:
None this week

In Memory Of:
1. Dr. Don Paarlberg, Noted Purdue Professor, Farm Policy Expert