Ag biotech industry launches new initiative about GMOs

The agricultural biotechnology companies that develop genetically modified seeds — or GMOs — are coming together to launch a broad, new initiative to provide accurate information and answer the toughest questions about GMOs and how our food is grown. GMO Answers (http://www.gmoanswers.com/) is a new conversation, public Q&A, and central online resource for information on GMOs, their background,

Why Don't Farmers Believe in Climate Change?

ted.bigham/Flickr




This story first appeared in Slate and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
If it isn't torrential downpours, then it's too dry. If there's one thing US farmers can count on, it's bad weather, and perhaps as a result, many of them don't think humanity is to blame for the long-term shifts in weather patterns known as climate change. But even

Breeding for Animal WelfareTuesday

Chickens that do not peck each other to death, sheep with fewer maggots in their tails and double-muscled cows that can give birth naturally. Wageningen researchers are working on breeding programmes targeting animal welfare, reports Nienke Beintema in the latest issue of Wageningen World.

Lots and lots of meat, milk and eggs. Fast growth, strong immunity... it is for characteristics like

The Growing Problem of Heat Stress and the Possible Role for Genetic Strategies to Mitigate Its Effects

Scientists believe that, through genetic selection, genes can be used to improve heat tolerance in Hoslteins, although what still remains is the discovery into what impact heat tolerant genes will have on the economic performance of cattle, writes P J Hansen, Department of Animal Sciences, University of Florida.
Heat stress is a big problem for the lactating cow, write Mr Hansen. Cows exposed to

Case study in crisis communications

While we can’t predict the next public-relations crisis in animal agriculture, we can learn from past experiences and perhaps stamp out the spark before it becomes a firestorm. At last week’s Cattle Feeders Business Summit hosted by Merck Animal Health in Denver, several speakers outlined efforts to avert or manage these issues, with several saying the industry is better prepared than ever to do

Anthelmintic Resistance in Cattle - an Emerging Problem?

Widely considered to have resistance developed in sheep on many UK farms, Dr David Burden of ADAS explores the possibility of developing Anthelmintic resistance problems in cattle.
Back in 2011, more than 50 per cent of farmers asked at the Dairy Event said there were no anthelmintic resistance problem in cattle, according to Dr Burden.
He says that wide spread use of levamizoles, benzimidazoles

Reducing agriculture emissions while maintaining yields - can it be done?

While much of the public attention to climate change focuses on carbon dioxide it is two other greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide and methane that comprise the largest part of agriculture’s contribution to climate change.

Nitrous oxide is released when nitrogen from fertilizers or organic material is transformed by microbial processes in soil and it is nearly 300 times as potent as carbon dioxide

¿Creatividad o control?: retos y evolución del rol de un emprendedor social

Por:Estela Villarreal Junco, emprendedora social Ashoka
En una ocasión, mi familia y yo estábamos sentados en una banca al lado de otros niños. Al vernos, el papá les ordenó a sus hijos retirarse de donde nos encontrábamos (tengo dos hermanos con discapacidad). Eso fue lo que me motivó a fundar Unidos, mi solución al problema de desconocimiento, miedo y rechazo social a las personas con

Science without engagement will not change Africa

We've heard a lot at Africa Agriculture Science Week about the complex problems facing African farmers, particularly as climate changes, populations boom, and ecosystems degrade. Boosting crop yields is simply not going to deliver the needed solutions.

We’ve heard repeatedly that Africa has a lot of potential to scale-up productive agriculture practices to feed its population while

Take advantage of resources to monitor and care for hot cows

Hot temperatures and a recent heat wave have amped up drought conditions in many areas of the country. University extensions are providing advice and tools to help producers care for their livestock as the mercury rises.

To assist livestock operators, a professor from the University of Missouri has developed a smartphone app to monitor beef and dairy cows. Don Spiers, a professor in the

La culpa no es de la vaca

Luego de haber estado unos días como visitante de la Feria Agroexpo 2013, en la cual con mucha alegría me encontré con un gran número de amigos con los cuales he compartido mi programa y mis artículos Temas A Compartir, siendo muy grato volver a tocar temas relacionados con la ganadería.

Este es un evento donde encontramos una gran diversidad de productores de razas, maquinaria, insumos,

BRD vs. endotoxins: How to tell the difference

How can you tell the difference between bovine respiratory disease (BRD) and endotoxins? Well, you can’t. With similar side effects, endotoxin events may be more widespread than anyone knows.

Many BRD wrecks, blamed on the lack of vaccine efficacy, may actually be the result of an adverse endotoxic event. The classic scenario that I see repeatedly is that a producer vaccinates the calves. At

Mitos de la agricultura ecológica que nos tragamos sin rechistar

Corbis

Algunos alimentos que se presentan como producto de la agricultura ecológica son mucho más caros que los normales, pero no aportan ningún beneficio adicional para la salud o el medio ambiente.

La mayor parte de nuestras ideas sobre los productos ecológicos se sostienen en una serie de mitos, indica la revista polaca 'Polityka'.


Lo artificial, ¿malo por naturaleza?
La agricultura

Scientists make citrus deposits to deep-freeze gene bank

Courtesy Agricultural Research ServiceTechnician Remi Bonnart (foreground) flash-freezes plant shoot tips.U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists are depositing citrus germplasm in a deep-freeze bank to preserve it for future breeding efforts.

The process, known as cryopreservation, involves small buds or shoot tips, according to a news release.
Some genebanks maintain living citrus trees

Commodity agriculture: supply chains and sustainability

Global demand for palm oil, beef, cocoa and other commodities is rapidly increasing. The production of these commodities is focused in tropical forest regions, where the environmental and social impacts of food production are greatest. Not least, commodity agriculture in the tropics is associated with extensive deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.

In response to these challenges,

Hard Truth About No-Till

It's been 12 years since I began utilizing no-till as a way to alleviate and remediate compaction on our Nebraska farm. Removing plowshares, disc blades and shank points eliminates the shearing forces that compact soil.




Harvesting in tough conditions adds to compaction issues. (DTN photo by Jim Patrico)

Unfortunately, using heavy machinery (the norm today) and trafficking when

Conservation Works Where Used

The wet spring in parts of the Midwest not only made planting tricky for many farmers, but a new report by the Environmental Working Group said heavy rains at the end of May in particular led to increased soil erosion in parts of Iowa.




Recent heavy rainfall washed away tons of topsoil in Iowa. That issue may be addressed in the new farm bill. (Photo by National Resource and Conservation

Do Parasites Upset the Food Web Theory?

Parasites comprise a large proportion of the diversity of species in every ecosystem.

Despite this, they are rarely included in analyses or models of food webs. If parasites play different roles from other predators and prey, however, their inclusion could fundamentally alter our understanding of how food webs are organized. In a paper published 11 June in the open access journal PLOS Biology,

Destaca industria biotecnológica ganancias por uso de algodón y soya transgénicos

En los últimos 17 años, México ha registrado ganancias aproximadas de 180 mdd gracias a la comercialización de algodón y soya genéticamente modificadas (GM).
Agrobio México, organismo que aglutina a las principales empresas biotecnológicas –Monsanto, Pioneer, Bayer CropScience, Syngenta y Dow AgroSciencie– señala que pese a que México fue pionero en materia de Organismos Genéticamente

Economic Growth Necessary But Not Sufficient to Reduce Hunger, Malnutrition

The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012 presents new estimates of undernourishment based on a revised and improved methodology.


The new estimates show that progress in reducing hunger during the past 20 years has been better than previously believed, and that, given renewed efforts, it may be possible to reach the MDG hunger target at the global level by 2015. However, the number of

Farmers and futurists ponder how to feed 9 billion people inhabiting Earth by 2050

With an estimated 9.3 billion people expected to populate the planet by the year 2050, finding a way to feed them is one of science and agriculture’s greatest challenges.
In 2011, the United Nations (UN) predicted that the earth’s population, currently over 7 billion, will increase to 9.3 billion by the year 2050. Dr. Rick Foster, W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair for Food, Society and Sustainability

Fertiliser: How Much Is In Each Bale?

A huge cost to farmers growing forage, fertilser is a nonetheless vital expense which has trebled per ton of dry matter produced since 2002, writes Dennis Hancock, Extension Forage Specialist at the University of Georgia.

What do you see when you look at a bale? Certainly, many would say it is a source of feed for our livestock. Others see a commodity that is sold to their customers. These are

Quarter Horse Racing More Dangerous Than Thoroughbred Racing

University of California Davis researchers say jockeys and the quarter horses they race are more likely to suffer injuries than their thoroughbred-racing counterparts.




The researchers found the rate of jockey injuries per thoroughbred start is about a tenth of one percent. The rate of injuries for quarter horse starts is almost twice that.
Peta Hitchens is a post-doctoral candidate at the

Aumentar producción de cerdo mexicano en 50% llevará una década

En las condiciones actuales en que se desarrolla la porcicultura mexicana, aumentar la producción de cerdo en 50%, como proyecta la Sagarpa, representaría inversiones superiores a 10 mil millones de pesos y se llevaría, por lo menos, una década, calculó el experto en porcicultura Francisco Javier González Padilla.
Para lograr el crecimiento mínimo que proyecta la dependencia del 40 por ciento,

Tiny Doses of Bile Acid May Blunt Preemie Liver Disease

Giving premature babies small doses of a bile acid might help the newborns avoid a liver disease, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture(USDA) physiologist Douglas G. Burrin and his colleagues.
In a preliminary study with newborn piglets as the animal model, Burrin and his co-investigators showed that the bile acid CDCA (chenodeoxycholic acid) helped combat parenteral nutrition-associated

Technology Makes Dairy Operations More Efficient and the Cows Like it Too

Automatic milking systems are becoming popular on Minnesota farms as evidence of improvements in both production and cow well-being persuade farmers to invest in precision dairying, say staff at Minnesota state University.
Technological innovation covers a broad area and capable of changing the way milk is produced across a whole state.
"Precision dairy is the name used to describe several

Old Fashioned Milk Separator

Milk separator in dairy lab of the University of Florida agricultural college. January 9, 1913. Photo source: State Library and Archives of Florida.




(Note that Thursday is Luddite Photo Day at B.P.A.)