The Summer Board of Directors meeting  will be held Tuesday, June 5 at The Cliffs Resort in Shell Beach, California. On Monday, June 5, our very popular golf tournament will begin at Avila Beach Resort at 9:00 a.m. An outdoor reception, golf awards and dinner will follow in the evening after the golf tournament at The Cliffs Resort, with beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean. Please contact the CPF office by May 1 to reserve your spot in the tournament and make your room accommodations. Phone Sandy at (209) 576-6355 or email sandy@cpif.org.  Click here for more information.  Click here for info on cpf.org

More than 200 million eggs produced by Rose Acre Farms of Seymour, Indiana have been recalled this weekend over fears of salmonella. According to a statement from the FDA, Rose Acre issued the recall after officials traced multiple illnesses back to eggs produced at the company’s facility in North Carolina. Some 22 people have reportedly been sickened with salmonella; no deaths have been reported.

Affected eggs were sold under multiple brand names, including Country Daybreak, Coburn Farms, Crystal Farms, Sunshine Farms, and Glenview. Eggs affected by the recall were sold to grocery stores and restaurants in Colorado, Florida, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. Some the eggs were sold to Walmart and in Food Lion grocery stores, and some also reportedly went to Waffle House. Click here to see a full list of eggs affected by the recall.  Read more

The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, National Chicken Council and National Turkey Federation wish to thank the Senate for its action in confirming Andrew Wheeler as Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Wheeler brings deep expertise in environmental law as well as federal regulatory and legislative policy issues. His substantive knowledge will be a major asset to help him serve effectively in the agency’s leadership.  Read more

Adrian Percy, Global Head of Research and Development for Bayer Crop Science, told California Ag Today recently that he believes the public still trusts farmers.

“There’s a high degree of trust,” he said, “and I think that comes from the fact that there is an emotional connection with food and the fact that growers are known to be trying to work sustainably. Growers look from generation to generation in terms of passing the farm down, oftentimes, and I think that is still understood by the public, even if people have a few reservations about some of the technologies we use in agriculture.”  Read more

Phileo Lesaffre is a subsidary animal health business unit of Lesaffre Yeast Corporation; they are the world leader in yeast technology. Phileo is committed to delivering animal health and performance solutions based on live yeasts, bacteria and yeast products that contribute to food safety and the responsible use of antibiotics. For more information contact Paul Price, North America Poultry Sales Manager, at 682-277-6717 or p.price@phileo.lesaffre.com.

A rare coalition of business groups are banding together to fight President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs, arguing they will hurt U.S. consumers and the economy. Retail, agriculture, technology, manufacturing and other industries say the tariffs on $150 billion in Chinese goods are counterproductive to the goal of holding Beijing accountable for intellectual property theft and other trade practices. The groups are working to keep specific products off the U.S. list and trying collectively to keep levies from being imposed at all.  Read more

Lower stocking density for laying hens was associated with less fecal shedding of Salmonella Heidelberg in a USDA study. Investigators assessed the effect of layer-hen stocking density on fecal shedding of S. Heidelberg and S. Typhimurium, both pathogens that can cause foodborne illness in humans. Hens in the study were in a colony cage system with either 973 cm2 per bird, considered low density, or 648 cm2 per bird, considered high density. Read more

Raising backyard chickens is a defining hobby of California’s urban farmsteaders. Foodies praise the golden yolks of eggs laid by hens who roam freely and scratch the soil for grubs. But after the devastating fires in Northern and Southern California last fall, that backyard chicken scratching struck Maurice Pitesky as a potential food safety concern. Pitesky, a veterinarian on the faculty at UC Davis who studies poultry health and food safety, reminded that “backyard chickens are eating off the ground all the time.” That means the birds and the eggs they produce are a function of the environment they live in. Read more

Northwest Chicken Council 4th Annual Conference the Week

The Northwest Chicken Council‘s 4th Annual Conference and Meeting is this week, April 12-13, 2018 at the Riverplace Hotel in Portland, Oregon. There still is time to sponsor, which helps offset our reception and breakfast. We are keeping our sponsorships at modest levels: $250 – Silver Club and $500 – Gold Club, and we are not trying to profit from your contributions, but we want our annual meeting again to provide a great venue for business updates, networking and informative speakers. This is Oregon and Washington’s premier chicken event.

Sponsors to date:

Gold Club

Aviagen; Bayer; Big Dutchman; Boehringer Ingelheim; Cobb-Vantress, Inc.; Darling Ingredients, Inc.; Draper Valley Farms; Elanco; Foster Farms; Marel; Phibro Animal Health; Sealed Air Corporation; Strand Ag Supply; Vet Service Inc.; United States Cold Storage

Silver Club

Alltech; Alpha Poultry & Livestock Equipment, Inc.; Animal Health International; Diamond V; Ideal Ag Supply; International Paper; Motomco; Novus International, Inc.

Shepard Bros. Inc.

To Sponsor/Register please click the following link:  NWCC Form Sponsorship/Registration.

To shield farmers from feeling the brunt of China’s tariff action, the Trump administration is considering direct payments through the Commodity Credit Corporation analysts say. In tit for tat action between President Trump and China’s President Xi on Thursday night, President Trump announced that he is considering another $100 billion of additional tariffs against China. “Rather than remedy its misconduct, China has chosen to harm our farmers and manufacturers. In light of China’s unfair retaliation, I have instructed the USTR to consider whether $100 billion of additional tariffs would be appropriate under section 301 and, if so, to identify the products upon which to impose such tariffs,” Trump said. Read more