News

Animal Welfare Approved announced a call for proposals for its 2011-2012 Good Husbandry Grants. Now in its fourth year, the Good Husbandry Grants program has funded nearly 100 projects across the country to improve farm animal welfare. Certified farmers and those who have submitted an application for AWA certification may apply for up to $5,000 towards projects such as mobile housing, breeding stock, and on-farm processing equipment. Slaughter plants working with or seeking to work with AWA farmers are also eligible for funding.

ABS Global held its 2011 Spring Tour June 6-9 in scenic Idaho. The tour drew more than 60 participants worldwide, including individuals from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, and the U.S. On the tour, participants were able to view progeny as well as outstanding results of ABS programs including Reproductive Management System (RMS), Genetic Management System (GMS), and the ABS Cornerstone progeny test program.

East Central/Select Sires Inc.’s Select Reproductive Solutions (SRS) specialist, Phil Dieter, was named Select Sires’ 2011 SRS Specialist of the Year. Dieter received this honor at Select Sires’ SRS Conference, held in Green Bay, Wisconsin, May 16-20.

This national award is presented to an SRS specialist that exemplifies the qualities that best accomplish the mission of SRS – to do whatever it takes to increase the production of pregnancies in dairy and beef operations. Highly trained SRS specialists are the foundation of accomplishing that mission.

Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) announced plans to expand lysine and threonine amino acid production capacity at the company’s Decatur, Illinois, facility. When the expansion project is completed in the second half of 2013, ADM will have the ability to produce 340,000 metric tons of lysine or threonine annually.

ADM has also begun preliminary engineering work to increase lysine production capacity at its Clinton, Iowa, corn processing complex, with a target total capacity of 70,000 metric tons of lysine HCl equivalent. Both expansion projects include investment in plant infrastructure to enable further capacity increases in the future as needed.

The enzyme solutions available to nutritionists, producers and others looking to optimize nutrition in poultry, pork, beef, dairy, aquaculture and companion animals will be expanding as the result of a strategic collaboration announced between Novus International, Inc. and Verenium Corporation.

The partnership is the result of the focus Novus has on generating enzyme solutions to optimize nutrition – and the resulting feed costs – in a number of production livestock species, as well as companion animals with the highest performing quality solutions.