Livestock briefs
MADISON
Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding Industry Meeting
The Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding will be hosting its 2016 Industry Meeting on October 4, at the Alliant Energy Center. Dairy farmers and representatives from all sectors of the dairy breeding industry are welcome to attend in connection with the World Dairy Expo activities.
The CDCB is a cooperation between dairy records providers (DRPs), dairy records processing centers (DRPCs), the Purebred Dairy Cattle Association (PDCA) and the National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB), and its mandate is to host and administrate the U.S. national database of dairy records, to provide benchmarks and to carry out the official dairy genetic and genomic evaluations.
The CDCB annual Industry Meeting is an opportunity to provide feedback to the stakeholders on the progress made, the current activities and the future developments.
The program of the 2016 Industry Meeting consists of an initial session of progress reports, including Board actions, staff activities, finances, research and development provided by USDA/ARS/AGIL and Interbull news. The process of defining AGIL’s next five-year research programs will also be presented as part of the reports, as well as the results obtained by the 2016 CDCB Summer internship student.
Then the focus of presentations will turn into the benefits provided to the dairy farmers by the CDCB in collaboration with member organizations. Starting with the efforts to ensure data quality flowing into the system, the invited speakers will also present how the availability of recessive haplotypes and genomic inbreeding estimates enhances dairy herds’ management, what is being done to develop genomic evaluations for health traits and the opportunities offered by genomic sequencing techniques. Cow livability evaluations, the latest product launched by the CDCB, will be introduced to the audience as well.
Finally, different perspectives about where the dairy industry is heading to will be presented as an effort to identify the challenges and opportunities that the dairy industry will be facing in this era of change.
The 2016 Industry Meeting venue is conveniently located inside the World Dairy Expo grounds and holds up to 200 attendees. All interested to participate are gently requested to complete an online pre-registration form prior to attending (https://www.cdcb.us/Survey/index.php/survey/index/sid/485921/newtest/Y/lang/en). The deadline to register is September 16.
NEW PRAGUE, MN
NMC seeks Award of Excellence nominees
Nominations are open for the National Mastitis Council (NMC) Award of Excellence for Contribution to Mastitis Prevention and Control, which recognizes an NMC member who has provided sustained contributions to mastitis prevention and control through research, extension or education, clinical practice or service to dairy producers.
Sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc., the award carries a cash honorarium and travel stipend to attend the National Mastitis Council 56th Annual Meeting, Jan. 29-31, St. Pete Beach, Fla., where the award will be presented.
To nominate an individual, complete the nomination form and submit two to three letters of support. These letters should describe how the nominee has met award criteria, including time in the dairy industry, positions held, major contributions to mastitis prevention and milk quality, research, publications, leadership roles, participation in NMC activities and industry involvement.
Read more about the award and specific requirements at: http://nmconline.org/docs/NMCAward2016.pdf. Nominations are due Oct. 31, 2016.
Previous Award of Excellence recipients include Ken Leslie, University of Guelph; K. Larry Smith, The Ohio State University; Tom Herremans, Michigan Milk Producers Association (now with IBA Inc.); Larry Fox, Washington State University; and Anne Saeman, National Mastitis Council.
NMC is a professional organization devoted to reducing mastitis and enhancing milk quality. NMC promotes research and provides information to the dairy industry on udder health, milking management, milk quality and milk safety. Founded in 1961, NMC has about 1,000 members in more than 40 countries throughout the world.