ASI Research Update Podcast Looks at Mastitis

With lambing completed in many parts of the United States, the focus now turns to managing flocks. And a major concern in that area is mastitis, which negatively affects not only the ewes but often their lambs, as well. That’s why Utah State University’s Dr. Chad Page addresses mastitis in this month’s ASI Research Update podcast.

Mastitis is simplistically defined as “an inflammation of the mammary gland. Now this inflammation can be caused by a variety of things, but generally by some kind of bacteria pathogen,” Page said.

The disease can be divided into two categories: clinical and sub-clinical. Clinical mastitis is things that producers can visually see and can easily tell there is a problem. Clinical signs might include abnormal colored milk, milk with a foul odor, a ewe off feed or appearing lethargic. Udders might appear discolored or develop hard lumps.

“Sub-clinical mastitis is a little bit harder to quantify,” Page said. “There’s something wrong there, right. Maybe we lose some milk yield or some production, but we can’t see any visual identifiers that that’s happening.”

Click Here to listen to the podcast.

 

Parasite Webinar Available at SheepUSA.org

For those who missed it on Tuesday, this week’s American Sheep Industry Association-sponsored webinar – Integrated Parasite Management Strategies for Sheep Producers – is now available in the webinar archive at SheepUSA.org.

Dr. Andrew Weaver of North Carolina State University led the webinar and discussed how an integrated path to parasite management is necessary, including both animal-based and environment-based approaches.

Nearly 40 educational webinars are now available through the archive, which generally provides access to both the webinar video and the slideshow used by the presenter.

Click Here to access all of the webinars.

 

Australian Market Falters After Strong Run

After a month of continuous rises, the Australian wool market retracted this week, mainly driven by falls in Merino fleece types. The national offering rose by 3,288 bales to 45,059 bales. With only five selling weeks left in the current season, the total amount offered continues to track well above last year. Compared to the corresponding sale of last season, there have been 140,070 more bales put through the auction system – an increase of 9.1 percent.

With low vegetable matter types in increasingly short supply – this week only 37.4 percent of the fleece selection was less than 1 percent vm – these types again attracted excellent buyer support and were least affected by the falling market. So too were wools with favorable additional measurement results. Fleece wools carrying high levels of vm, lesser style lots and wool with poor additional measurement results did not fare as well and, in many cases, were heavily discounted.

By the end of the week, the individual Micron Price Guides across the country for Merino fleece had fallen by between 1 and 43 cents. The only exception was the 19 micron MPG in the North, which recorded no change. The skirting and crossbred sectors recorded minimal price movements, while strong demand for oddments helped push the carding indicators up by an average of just more than a cent. The end result of these movements was the AWEX Eastern Market Indicator dropped by 14 cents for the series. The EMI closed the week at 1,420 Australian cents.

Due to a strengthening Australian dollar – the AUD added a full cent compared to the USD since last week – when viewed in USD terms, the market recorded an overall gain. The EMI added 4 U.S. cents for the series, closing at 1,008 U.S. cents.

Next week, the national offering decreases. Currently there are expected to be 37,291 bales offered in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle.

Source: AWEX

 

ALB Hosts Nourish With Lamb Workshop

The American Lamb Board partnered with Australia and New Zealand to host a hands-on culinary medicine workshop for dietitian influencers in New Orleans.

Eight leading dietitians from across the United States convened at the Tulane Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine for the Nourish With Lamb event. They received a deep dive into the various cuts of lamb, how to prepare them and lamb’s role in a healthy diet.

“The Nourish With Lamb culinary medicine workshop was a great opportunity to integrate lamb producers and nutrition thought leaders,” said Peter Camino, ALB chair from Buffalo, Wyo. “Our long-range plan supports this type of collaboration and communication to inspire health and nutrition professionals and provide information about nutrient-rich lamb.”

During the two-day seminar, dietitians learned from David Fischer – an ALB board member from West Texas – about how he manages his flock and land. Kris Doll – a local New Orleans butcher – conducted a live demonstration to explain the location of different cuts of lamb.

Lastly, attendees heard from registered dietitian and chef Heather Nace – director of operations at the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine. Chef Heather led sessions on the Culinary Medicine Model, which blends the art of food and cooking with the science of medicine, and its basis in the Mediterranean Diet, along with a cooking demonstration highlighting ways to build flavor using different cuts of lamb.

During the event, attendees participated in hands-on cooking sessions while learning how to pair lamb with fresh herbs, spices and vegetables. Some of the recipes included Lamb Mushroom Burgers, Lamb Bolognese and Lamb Stew.

On the final day of the workshop, attendees were grouped together with a different cut of lamb and challenged to create their own recipes from scratch. Nourish With Lamb will host another culinary medicine workshop for leading dietitian influencers in September of 2022.

Nourish With Lamb is a collaborative initiative between the United States, Australia and New Zealand lamb producers to increase awareness in the United States of the nutritional value of lamb and its place in a healthy American diet.

Source: ALB

 

USDA/NIFA Invests $25 Million in Workforce Training

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture announced on Thursday an investment of $25 million as part of the American Rescue Plan for meat and poultry agriculture workforce training.

NIFA will invest $25 million through new and existing workforce development programs to provide a pipeline of well-trained workers to meet the demand of increased independent processing capacity.

“These investments will enhance equity and capacity across the food supply chain by supporting meat and poultry research, education and training at the local level. USDA will leverage its robust regional education and Extension networks and establish new, or supplement existing, Centers of Excellence at Minority-serving Institutions to support this capacity-building effort,” said Acting NIFA Director Dr. Dionne Toombs. “Workforce training will increase the resiliency and competitiveness of our local and regional supply chains and support the industry’s urgent need for highly skilled talent to meet labor demands across the country.”

NIFA is leading two funding opportunities:

• Extension Risk Management Education and Sustainable Agriculture Research Education Programs: An investment of $5 million will be split equally between Extension Risk Management Education and Sustainable Agriculture Research Education programs. Work in these programs will support development of meat and poultry processing training and educational materials for place-based needs, particularly relevant to small- or medium-sized farmers and ranchers. Additionally, training local and/or regional meat and poultry workers presents a unique opportunity to address the demand from niche markets, like mobile processing units fulfilling market demand from fresh markets, on-site processing, farm-to-fork (restauranteurs), boutique grocers and others.
• Community/Technical College Ag Workforce Training and Expanded Learning Opportunities: This Agricultural Workforce Training investment makes available $20 million to qualified community colleges to support meat and poultry processing workforce development programs. The AWT program seeks to develop a workforce ready for the field as well as industry jobs in the food and agricultural sectors. By creating new workforce training programs, or expanding, improving or renewing existing workforce training programs at community, junior and technical colleges/institutes, this program will expand job-based, experiential learning opportunities, acquisition of industry-accepted credentials and occupational competencies for students to enable a workforce for the 21st century.

To sign up for notifications of these and other NIFA funding opportunities, visit NIFA’s website.

USDA also announced more support to strengthen the American food supply chain as part of many actions that USDA is taking to expand processing capacity and increase competition in meat and poultry processing to make agricultural markets more accessible, fair, competitive and resilient for American farmers and ranchers.

NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education and Extension across the nation to make transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges. NIFA supports initiatives that ensure the long-term viability of agriculture and applies an integrated approach to ensure that groundbreaking discoveries in agriculture-related sciences and technologies reach the people who can put them into practice. In FY 2021, NIFA’s total investment was $1.96 billion.

Source: USDA/NIFA

 

Video of the Week

A wayward sheep decides to break free from the flock in the latest commercial from Volkswagen.

Click Here to watch the video.