The American Farmers Feed the World Act of 2023 was introduced to ensure that United States-grown commodities remain the cornerstone of international food aid. Currently, the United States Agency for International Development’s Food for Peace Program funds much of the nation's food aid. Under the terms of the bill, the program would be required to spend at least half its funds on purchasing and distributing American commodities.

The Butcher Block Act was recently introduced into the Senate by Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) to increase competition and capacity in the meat processing industry. The Butcher Block Act would create grant and loan opportunities through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to enable small and mid-sized meat processing facilities to expand their operations.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced an investment of $23 million to support dairy businesses and producers under the Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives (DBI) grant program. The initiatives support small and mid-sized dairy businesses in the development, production, marketing, and distribution of dairy products.

More students will have access to school meals due to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) recent announcement that expands the availability of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program. The announcement means that an estimated 3,000 more school districts in high-need areas will now have the option to serve breakfast and lunch to all students at no cost.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced a new partnership with the Urban School Food Alliance to help schools continue to invest in nutritious school meals. The over $60 million in grants will provide training and tools to school districts that will help them purchase high-quality foods while keeping costs low. In recent years schools have faced challenges in obtaining healthy foods consistently, efficiently, and effectively.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced funding to expand efforts to prevent and reduce food loss and waste. The investment, funded under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), is part of a joint agency initiative between USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist (OCE). According to the USDA, over one-third of all available food goes uneaten through loss or waste, in the United States.

Rumen inert fat (RIF) is a type of fat supplement that is used in the diets of beef cattle as early as 6 mo of age in calves and continues through the finishing period to improve the dietary energy density which can be used by the animal to deposit more lipid in the muscle tissue. However, for Hanwoo beef cattle, the precise time of RIF supplementation has not yet been determined.

The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of increasing dietary omega-3 (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplementation on plasma and follicular fluid resolvin D1 (RvD1) concentration, and the mRNA expression of genes related to RvD1 synthesis, inflammatory response, oxidative stress, reproductive hormone receptors and production, and free fatty acid receptors in ewes.

The current food systems are facing several sustainability problems. One major issue is the environmental impact of food production, which contributes to climate change, deforestation, and biodiversity loss (Poore and Nemecek, 2018).

The growing interest of the scientific community on the inclusion of insect-derived products in ruminant diets is leading to a boost of research papers on this topic. Even though in absolute terms the increase in the number of published papers is limited—because limited is also the literature on this topic...

According to recent estimates, about 80% of cattle reside in tropical or subtropical regions (Cooke et al., 2020a). The number of farmers and consumers, as well as overall production (e.g., annual milk production), is also greater in the tropics. However, cattle productivity in these regions is underwhelming compared with most temperate zones characterized by high-input farming practices and yields correlated with the fitness of the breeds to their system.

The adaptability and success of sheep are confirmed by the fact that they are the world’s most diverse mammalian livestock species, contributing some 25% to the global number of farm animal breeds (Cottle, 2010). The latter author showed that the ovine species is indeed globally successful and present in farming landscapes throughout the world, ranging from arid to high rainfall areas and from sea level to the highest mountains.

Feed is one of the greatest costs associated with beef production. Modifying the efficiency that feed is used offers a potential mechanism to improve production efficiency.

Ergot alkaloids (EA) are produced by a parasitic fungus (Claviceps purpurea) during the cereal grain growth cycle. Feeding cereal grain containing EA to beef cattle can cause constriction of blood vessels, hyperthermia, gangrene of extremities (ears, hoof, and tail), reduced feed intake and growth, and even death. Feed cleaning and processing technologies have been developed to remove EA from the human food chain, thus diverting contaminated feed for livestock use.

Wildfires contribute to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution throughout the United States. Wildfire-PM2.5 exposure negatively affects human health and dairy cow production; however, the effects on calves are not known.

Beef cattle residing >1,500 m are subject to reduced atmospheric oxygen levels when compared with beef cattle at lower elevations which may result in hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension and right-side heart failure. Breeders use pulmonary arterial pressures to identify animals at risk of right-side heart failure and to select breeding animals that are less susceptible to the problem.

Neutering contributes to canine obesity risk. In this study, obesity rate of 60% at 21 mo after neutering was observed. Obese dogs had greater serum triglyceride, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and leptin levels and lower adiponectin level than ideal weight dogs.

Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) are indispensable for skin repair, hair growth, development, and regeneration. One major challenge in primary cell culture is achieving efficient growth while maintaining stemness to achieve a high yield.

Extending the voluntary waiting period (VWP) reduces the frequency of calvings. This may benefit cow health but includes the risk of fattening and low milk yield at the end of the lactation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the VWP on metabolism and body condition during different phases of the lactation and start of the next lactation.

ASAS hosted the first of two annual Writing workshops last week in Hollywood Beach, FL. The conference attendees were 25 ASAS member graduate students and young scientists from 12 different schools and agencies in the US and Canada.