Facebook-f Twitter

Category: Newsflash

California ag industry discusses immigration reforms

Farmers and ranchers worry that their needs for migrant labor will get lost amid the discussions and debates about immigration reform in Washington, D.C.It happened before, said a group of speakers who came Wednesday to Fresno State University to discuss what California’s agriculture industry needs in the next immigration reform bill. In 1986, lawmakers approved a sweeping immigration reform act that included an amnesty program that made nearly 3 million people who had entered the U.S. illegally eligible to stay legally. Read More

Industries try to stop higher-ethanol fuel

A coalition of oil and food industry groups filed a petition with the Supreme Court Thursday asking it to overturn a lower court decision that said they didn’t have standing to sue over a federal decision to allow more ethanol in fuel. The American Petroleum Institute’s Bob Greco said the groups also plan to ask Congress to overturn the federal Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) that he says is "simply unsustainable" because of the allowance of higher levels of ethanol.

Poultry litter not responsible for weed surge

You don’t catch a cold from cold weather. Rubbing a corn kernel on a wart and then burying it under the doorstep will not make the wart dry up. And you don’t get weeds in your fields from applying poultry litter.  At least that’s what the little research currently available shows.  "We don’t have a lot of research on whether applying poultry litter to cropland increases weed pressure," says Joseph Payne, Oklahoma State University Extension livestock specialist.

State bill would threaten farmers

Names can be deceiving. In Communist countries, "the people’s party" is really the dictators’ party. A "pre-owned" car can be a lemon. And in the Bay State, the so-called Prevention […]

Mexican Authorities: More than 1 million chickens exposed to bird flu

The outbreak of bird flu detected in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato is confined to 12 farms that have more than 1 million chickens, the Senasica national agricultural health service reported on Monday.

The agency said in a press release that 10 of the poultry farms are chicken-fattening operations and two produce eggs for human consumption.

Experimental vaccine offers improved protection for poultry

Chickens are vulnerable to a range of infectious diseases similar to those affecting humans. Fowl typhoid is a widespread and devastating illness, particularly in the developing world, where the birds are a vital source of income and nutrition. Now, Ken Roland and his colleagues at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University have developed a candidate vaccine to safeguard poultry from fowl typhoid infection, while also providing protection from a related human bacterial strain – Salmonella Enteritidis.  Read More

USDA offering free webinar to promote Bird Health Awareness Week

The week of February 24 – March 2, 2013 is Bird Health Awareness Week. Activities and programs offered throughout the week will give students, bird lovers and poultry owners the opportunity to learn simple steps to keep their flocks healthy. Bird Health Awareness Week is part of the USDA Animal and Plant Inspection Service’s (APHIS) Biosecurity for Birds campaign to promote awareness of and ways to prevent the spread of infectious poultry diseases.

US poultry groups express support for US-EU trade pact

Following the White House announcement yesterday that bilateral negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union will be launched, the National Chicken Council, National Turkey Federation, USA Poultry & Egg Export Council and U.S. Poultry & Egg Association jointly expressed strong support for the new international trade initiative.