Friday September 6 Ag News

Ricketts Meets with Prime Minister Phuc of Vietnam

Today, Governor Pete Ricketts met with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc of Vietnam to promote Nebraska’s ag products and investment opportunities.  During the meeting, Governor Ricketts and the Nebraska trade delegation discussed expanding trade in agriculture and opportunities for partnerships in higher education with the Prime Minster of Vietnam.

From 2017-18, Nebraska’s beef exports to Vietnam grew 127%.  In 2017, Vietnam opened its market to American shipments of dried distillers’ grains.

The day’s agenda included meetings with the Ministry of Investment and Planning, the National University of Agriculture, and the Mayor of Hanoi.  The day concluded with a reception for University of Nebraska alumni.  This event, and similar ones on other trade missions, strengthen the state’s network of Nebraskans abroad who help promote the Good Life around the globe.



Husker Harvest Days to use film ‘SILO’ to educate on farm safety

In an effort to raise awareness about farm safety using a combination of cinema and education, the Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health (CS-CASH) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center is partnering with the Grain Handling Safety Coalition (GHSC), Sukup Manufacturing Company and the feature film “SILO” at Husker Harvest Days in Grand Island on Sept. 10-12.

The hospitality tent will host exhibits from CS-CASH, GHSC and SILO. Visitors can participate in hands-on activities and learn safety and health tips. SILO, a film dealing with grain entrapment, will show an exclusive movie trailer and provide information to visitors on how they can host a SILO film screening in their community.

“The movie SILO provides a fresh approach to engaging audiences to talk about farm safety,” said Ellen Duysen, community outreach specialist for CS-CASH.

“Collaborating with CS-CASH, Sukup Manufacturing Company, and the SILO production team is an opportunity to send a consistent message about the importance of using safe work practices,” said GHSC co-founder Catherine Rylatt.

In collaboration with Sukup Manufacturing Company, several free safety training sessions also will be available. On Tuesday, Sept. 10, and Wednesday, Sept. 11, half-hour sessions will be presented at the Sukup exhibit at 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

In addition, a session on preventing grain bin entry hazards will be presented on Thursday, Sept. 12, in the hospitality tent at 1 p.m. Participants will receive free safety gear as well as a chance to win larger safety-related prizes.

“We all have the same goal – to keep farmers, their workers, and their families safe,” said John Hanig, bin sales director for Sukup Manufacturing. “Working together increases our ability to achieve this.”

A free screening of SILO will take place at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Sukup Manufacturing exhibit.

“SILO is proud to partner with these organizations,” said Sam Goldberg, SILO producer. “They work daily to assist farmers and save lives. We believe our film supports these efforts by offering a new avenue to generate conversation and awareness.”

For more information, free resources or to schedule training, visit grainsafety.org.

About the collaborators
The Grain Handling Safety Coalition is a volunteer organization of representatives from across the grain handling industry and is sponsored by the University of Illinois. The GHSC has conducted more than 12,300 hours of training in 23 states and has brought safety awareness to thousands more.

CS-CASH works to improve the health and safety of members of the agricultural community through research, intervention, education and outreach activities. For more information, visit https://www.unmc.edu/publichealth/cscash/.

Sukup Manufacturing Company (www.sukup.com) is the world’s fastest growing and largest family-owned full-line grain drying and storage equipment manufacturer making grain production more efficient for farmers.



NDA AT 2019 HUSKER HARVEST DAYS

Husker Harvest Days is Sept. 10-12 near Grand Island, and the Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) will be there to connect with the community and share information on animal health, farmer mediation, beginning farmer tax credits, pests and pesticide management, noxious weed control and international trade.

“Husker Harvest Days is a great event that highlights innovation in Nebraska agriculture,” said NDA Director Steve Wellman. “With hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of people attending, Husker Harvest Days in a good opportunity to promote agriculture and NDA’s role in the industry.”

This year Husker Harvest Days is adding yet another important link to agriculture with a new International Visitors Center. The new center is a joint effort of Gov. Pete Ricketts, NDA, the Nebraska Department of Economic Development and Husker Harvest Days.

“International trade is such an important part of Nebraska agriculture,” Wellman said. “With this new centrally-located center and special development programs, we’ll be able to better promote Nebraska agriculture and international commerce in the state. Our global business partners and customers interested in buying Nebraska products and investing in Nebraska will be able to see the state firsthand, which is always a big selling point.”

Here are the NDA programs being featured at Husker Harvest Days and where staff will be located throughout the event.
  - Negotiations (farmer mediation) and NextGen Beginning Farmer programs—Look for NDA staff in the Nebraska Farmer Hospitality Tent located at Main and Central;
  - Animal health—NDA’s Animal Health Protection programs will be represented in the Livestock Industries Building in the northwest corner;
  - Entomology/Plant health—Entomology program staff will be in the Nebraska Association of Natural Resources Districts building (lot 39E, southeast side);
  - Pesticide/Fertilizer management—NDA staff from the Pesticide/Fertilizer program will be in the Nebraska Farmer Hospitality Tent (at the corner of Main Street and Central Avenue);
  - Noxious weed control—Staff from NDA’s Noxious Weed program will be at the Nebraska Weed Control Association Tent (lot 116, northeast part of the grounds); and
  - International Trade team members will be at the International Visitors Center (lot 34, north of the Hospitality Tent, at the northeast corner of Main Street and Central Avenue.)

For more information about Husker Harvest Days and the International Visitors Center, visit huskerharvestdays.com.



Nebraska Soybean Board to Attend Husker Harvest Days

The Nebraska Soybean Board (NSB) and its members will berepresented in attendance at the 2019 Husker Harvest Days in Grand Island, Nebraska on September 10-12, 2019.

In attending, the NSB will highlight the $1.5 billion in economic impact of soybeans in Nebraska and the role it plays in marketing the state’s second-largest row crop domestically and internationally. Since its inception, the soy checkoff has existed for one reason: to create profit opportunities for you, America’s soybean farmers. We acknowledge these as “cropportunities.” Soy is in your tires, in your seat, and in your fuel tank as you go from point A to B. It feed the chickens, pigs and cows at the center of your plate. It’s the oil we bake with, fry with and drizzle on our salad.  Finding new uses for soy is what has grown the U.S. soybean industry from $11 billion to $41 billion in the last 25 years.

Be sure to check out the “cropportunities” adding value to your soy. The NSB looks forward to joining you at the Ag Commodities building representing the collective theme of Ag Strong: Growing Value. 



Cover Crop Field Day Sept. 13 at UNL Rogers Memorial Farm

A Cover Crop Field Day will be held at the University of Nebraska Rogers Memorial Farm Friday, Sept. 13 from 1:30 to 4 p.m.

Selecting the right cover crop for your system depends on knowing and meeting the goals for the cover crop. This tour will feature cover crop cocktails that serve specific functions. These functions can include early-season grazing, late-season grazing, nitrogen fixation, building carbon in the soil, diversifying mixes for soil health, reducing compaction, or making soils more resilient.

Speakers will include Extension Engineer Paul Jasa and Extension Educator Gary Lesoing. Jasa will discuss the cover crop demonstration plots and projects at the farm and Lesoing will address dry matter production and nutrient content of various cover crop mixes. The tour also will include cover crops growing in wheat stubble, cover crop recovery after simulated grazing, and row crops growing in the residue from cover crops.

The Rogers Memorial Farm is located at 18630 Adams Street, Lincoln. It's on the north side of the road, about 7.5 miles east of Lincoln, 2 miles north of Highway 34.



Digital Divide, Expanding Ag Markets, Focus of Farm Bureau Leadership Academy D.C. Visit

Eliminating the digital divide between rural and urban America and growing international markets for Nebraska agricultural products was the focus of a recent visit to Washington, D.C. by members of Nebraska Farm Bureau’s Leadership Academy. The Leadership Academy is a yearlong leadership training program to help individuals with personal growth and development, public speaking skills, and training on how to advocate for Nebraska’s farm and ranch families.

“It’s important participants in this program have a first-hand experience in how government works and the role they can play in helping make sure the issues important to their farms and ranches are presented to their elected leaders,” said Jordan Dux, Nebraska Farm Bureau’s director of national affairs, who facilitated the Leadership Academy visit.

Today, nearly one third of rural Americans don’t have access to broadband internet service in their homes as compared to four percent of urban Americans who lack broadband access.

“Digital connection is critical to agriculture and to farmers and ranchers looking to use new technologies to improve the way they manage their operations. Leadership Academy members specifically encouraged Nebraska’s Congressional Delegation to support and co-sponsor legislation that would improve the accuracy of broadband coverage maps to help better direct federal funds for broadband expansion to areas in greatest need,” said Dux.

Leadership Academy members participating in the trip to Washington, D.C. included:
Jolene Dunbar – Taylor, Neb. (Loup County Farm Bureau)
Samantha Dyer – Crawford, Neb. (Dawes County Farm Bureau)
Matthew Erickson – Johnson, Neb. (Johnson County Farm Bureau)
Tyrell Fickenscher – Axtell, Neb. (Kearney/Franklin County Farm Bureau)
Kathie Martindale – Brewster, Neb. (Blaine County Farm Bureau)
Krista Podany – Verdigre, Neb. (Knox County Farm Bureau)
Cherie Priest – Ainsworth, Neb. (Brown County Farm Bureau)
Adam Rathman – Wood River, Neb. (Hall County Farm Bureau)
Owen Seamann – Spalding, Neb. (Wheeler County Farm Bureau)
Brenda Jean Wendt – Bristow, Neb. (Boyd County Farm Bureau)

Growing markets for Nebraska agricultural goods was also on the list of issues touched on by Leadership Academy members. The group specifically shared the importance of Congress passing legislation to enact the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), as well as offering support for securing a bi-lateral trade deal with Japan, and the desire for a meaningful trade deal to be reached with China.

“Members of the Academy did a great job pointing out that by passing USMCA, Congress would help send a message to the rest of the world that the U.S. is open for business and that the U.S. is prepared to negotiate and pass new trade deals that are critical to Nebraska agriculture,” said Dux.



Iowa and Nebraska Teams Top Placers in Youth Crop Scouting Competition

Iowa and Nebraska youth were first, second and third place winners in this year’s Regional Youth Crop Scouting Competition. Clayton County Team A (Iowa, Lacie Orr, Macie Weigand, and Matt Whittle) received first place; Colfax County 4-H (Nebraska, Steve Nelson - Coach, Jestin Bayer, Logan Nelson, Austin Steffensmeier, RJ Bayer, Aaron Nygren - Coach) received second place; and Clayton County Team B (Iowa) received third place.

The Regional Youth Crop Scouting Competition was held at the Field Extension Education Lab, in Boone, Iowa. The host of the regional competition rotates to a different state each year. This year’s competition featured youth teams from five states. New to this year’s regional competition were Minnesota and Kentucky, who began their own state competitions earlier this summer. Nine teams representing Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and Kentucky competed this year.

“We are very excited to have had teams from two new states competing,” said Maya Hayslett, crop science youth educational specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, and organizer of the event. “I think it is a great experience for youth to learn about agriculture in other states. This year we included some team building activities so youth could build lasting relationships with one another.”

The Regional Crop Scouting Competition is designed to educate students through hands-on interaction in crop fields, through scouting for plant injury and identifying pest and situational problems. It culminates in the designing of individual effective solutions and management strategies. During the competition, participants receive the opportunity to interact with university faculty, staff and agronomists as well as professionals in crop-related careers, to learn about STEM related professions, prior to attending a college or post-high school program.

The competition also helps youth learn about the opportunities available in other states, see a world beyond their home town and have fun with other youth. Following the competition, youth were invited to attend a college tour of Iowa State University to learn about its campus and academic programs. Visiting the host state’s university is a part of the Regional Youth Crop Scouting Competition’s curriculum.

The Regional Youth Crop Scouting Competition initially began as an Iowa State University Extension and Outreach program in 2010 to educate high school-aged students about Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and the importance of scouting field crops in Iowa. In 2013, The University of Nebraska and Purdue University, with help from Iowa State, implemented their own crop scouting competitions.

Crop scouting and IPM are important tools for farmers to increase economic returns while reducing unintended environmental impacts. Equipping future farmers and agronomists with crop scouting skills and basic IPM information will help the next generation of farm decision-makers with crop production and land stewardship.

When students were asked in a survey what they liked about the competition, they responded that it was fun and engaging with friendly staff. All team coaches surveyed reported that the competition helped students prepare for a future career in agriculture and helped them learn concepts of IPM, teamwork skills and communication skills



Iowa Farm Bureau Voting Delegates Set State and National Policy Direction for 2020 

Iowa Farm Bureau members met in West Des Moines this week to develop the legislative policy direction on issues important to its statewide membership.

The grassroots farm organization’s voting delegates engaged in lively discussions over the two-day conference on several issues, particularly the two issues weighing heaviest on Iowa farmers’ minds—international trade and implementing the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) as it was written, opposing the abuse of exemptions which devastate domestic demand for Iowa-grown crops.

Delegates approved policy reaffirming the expansion of broadband and identifying and prioritizing rural connectivity in underserved areas.  Members strongly feel rural connectivity is crucial to the vitality of rural communities and rural-based businesses.  

“Broadband access is a vital link for farmers, rural businesses, education, and healthcare to remain competitive,” said Mark Riesselman of Crawford County.

Members showed their support for Iowa’s livestock farmers and passed policy encouraging programs and incentives to maintain the availability of private practice food animal veterinarians to work with livestock farmers.

“The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation’s (IFBF) annual Summer Policy Conference is the culmination of our year-round policy development process and provides our organization with a clear direction on policy for the upcoming year,” says IFBF President Craig Hill.  “IFBF’s policy development process is truly grassroots with active engagement, participation, and input from members in each county, providing members an opportunity to be heard.  This process ensures a strong and unified voice on behalf of our membership to support Iowa agriculture, farm families and their communities, particularly during these challenging times.”    

The IFBF Summer Policy Conference is the final step of the year-round grassroots policy process in each of the 100 county Farm Bureaus across the state and leads the organization’s policy direction for the upcoming year.  National policies are subject to debate during American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) policy discussions, which will take place at the AFBF Annual Convention in Austin, Texas, January 17-22, 2020.



NBB Frustrated by Court Ruling on Small Refinery Exemptions

Today, the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) expressed frustration with a Court decision declining to review the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to properly account for its flood of retroactive small refinery exemptions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit dismissed on technical grounds NBB's petition on the 2018 Renewable Fuel Standard rule.

NBB challenged EPA's decision to continue ignoring small refinery exemptions granted after the annual rule is established, even though the agency quietly ramped up granting these exemptions as it took comment on the rule. The Court dismissed NBB's petition on the grounds that the biofuel industry did not comment on the topic and provide EPA sufficient opportunity to address those comments. The Court declined to examine EPA's flood of small refinery exemptions, but left room for future challenges on the issue.

Kurt Kovarik, NBB Vice President of Federal Affairs, said, "The Court's decision is frustrating. EPA requested comment on its practice of ignoring retroactive small refinery exemptions but did not give notice of its intent to unleash a flood of the exemptions. The Court, however, faults the industry for not commenting specifically on that.

"EPA's flood of retroactive small refinery exemptions are causing severe economic harm to biodiesel and renewable diesel producers, forcing some to close their doors and lay off workers. It's disappointing that the Court did not take this opportunity to address that harm."



U.S. Soybean Crush Rates Surge to Record Levels for July
US Soybean Export Council

The National Oilseed Processor Association (NOPA) issued its monthly soybean crush and stocks data on Thursday, August 15. NOPA member soybean processing surged to 4.575 million tonnes up 0.524 million from 4.051 million in June. This was a sharp rebound after processing slipped further in June by 162,000 tonnes from May and barely edged out the previous July record of 4.565 million tonnes crushed in July 2018. This was the first month in the past five that NOPA crush exceeded last year’s pace after outpacing the previous year totals in the previous five months of the 2018/19 marketing year.

According to analysts’ expectations published by Reuters, the trade was looking for crush to come in near 4.241 million tonnes with the highest guess slightly above the actual at 4.643 million tonnes. While the trade was looking for a modest rebound in processing following transportation delays in May due to river flooding and scheduled downtimes in June, the size of the increase in July is likely to change the market’s opinion for the 2018/19 marketing year crushings. Earlier in the week, USDA cut its forecast for the marketing year by 0.544 million tonnes to 56.200 million tonnes. If these NOPA data represent an average proportion of the industry crush, and August crushings fall slightly above last year, then the September-August marketing year crush will come in closer to 56.7 million tonnes. USDA’s August forecast for the 2019/20 marketing year has been held constant in recent months at 57.561 million tonnes while the agency’s 2018/19 marketing year have been drifting lower in recent reports. This is likely the result of expanding U.S. soybean crush capacity that has come online in 2019. This crush expansion will help the U.S. to advance its position in the global soybean product trade while still meeting growing domestic feed, food and fuel needs.



Lamb industry requires further change, says American Lamb Summit
 
Outcomes from the inaugural American Lamb Summit were clear: all segments of the industry need to further improve lamb quality to keep and attract new customers and become more efficient to recapture market share from imported lamb. Yet, it was just as clear that production technologies and product research put industry success within grasp.
    
"I have never been so enthusiastic about our industry's opportunities, but we just can't allow ourselves to be complacent or accept status quo," said Dale Thorne, American Lamb Board chairman, a sheep producer and feeder from Michigan. Thorne stressed, "the end-game is profitability for all aspects of our industry."
    
The Summit, sponsored by the American Lamb Board (ALB) and Premier 1 Supplies, brought together 200 sheep producers, feeders and packers from all over the country to Colorado State University (CSU) in Ft. Collins, CO, August 27-28, 2019.
    
The conference included in-depth, challenging discussions ranging from consumer expectations, business management tools, realistic production practices to improve productivity and American Lamb quality and consistency, to assessing lamb carcasses. Sessions were carefully planned so that attendees would gain tools for immediate implementation.
    
"We can't keep saying 'I'll think about;' we have to realize that change is required for industry profitability," Thorne emphasized.

The Lamb Checkoff Facebook page features summary videos from the sessions and additional resources. The Lamb Resource Center is the hub for all Lamb Summit information, as it becomes available.

Consumers redefine quality
"Consumers are ours to win or lose," said Michael Uetz, managing principal of Midan Marketing. His extensive research with meat consumers shows that the definition of quality now goes beyond product characteristics, especially for Millennials and Generation Z's. "It now includes how the animal was raised, what it was fed, or not fed, impact on sustainability and influence on human health," Uetz said.

"Your power is in your story. You have a great one to tell about American Lamb," he advised.
 
Lamb production tools
Increasing flock productivity, using genetic selection, and collecting then using production and financial data were stressed as critical steps for on-farm improvements. "The best way to improve productivity is to increase the number of lambs per ewe," said Reid Redden, PhD, sheep and goat specialist, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. "Pregnancy testing your ewes should be part of a producer's routine. Not only can open ewes be culled, but ewes can be segmented for the number of lambs they are carrying for better allocation of feed," he said.

While genetic selection is now common in beef, pork and both Australian and New Zealand sheep, the American Lamb industry's slow adoption is hindering flock improvement and giving competition a definite advantage, said Rusty Burgett, Program Director, National Sheep Improvement Program. The cattle industry offers an example with how it uses EPDs (expected progeny differences) to select for traits. "We can do the same with our tools, but we must get more sheep enrolled into the program," said Tom Boyer, Utah sheep producer.

Carcass and meat quality
Understanding what leads to quality American Lamb on the plate means looking beyond the live animal to carcass quality, stressed Lamb Summit speakers involved in processing and foodservice.

Individual animal traceability is ultimately what is required to give consumers the transparency they are demanding, said Henry Zerby, PhD, Wendy's Quality Supply Chain Co-op, Inc. A lamb producer himself, Zerby was straight-forward to the Summit participants: "Being able to track animals individually to know if they were ever given antibiotics, how they were raised, through the packer is on the horizon. We need to realize and prepare for that." US lamb processors are implementing systems at various levels and offer programs for sheep producers.

Lamb flavor has been an industry topic for decades. Dale Woerner, PhD, Texas Tech University meat scientist, has been conducting research funded by ALB. He explained that flavor is a very complex topic, influenced by characteristics such as texture, aroma, cooking and handling of the product, and even emotional experience. "Lamb has more than one flavor profile, affected by feeding and other practices," he explained. Summit participants tasted four different lamb samples, which illustrated Woerner's points about various preferences and profiles.

"By sorting carcasses or cuts into flavor profile groups, we can direct that product to the best market," he said. The American Lamb Board is currently in the final phase of lamb flavor research with Texas Tech University and Colorado State University identifying consumer preference of American Lamb and identifying those flavor profiles in the processing plant.

What's next
The Summit was designed to instill relevant, meaningful knowledge that can be implemented immediately to address both current and future needs. It also sought to inspire collaboration, networking and information sharing across all segments and geographic regions of the American Lamb industry.

"If we work together to implement progressive production changes throughout our supply chain, we can regain market share from imported product and supply our country with more great-tasting American Lamb," concluded ALB Chairman Thorne. ALB hopes that attendees left the Summit with multiple ideas to do just that.



Beef Producer Adds Perspective to NIAA Antibiotic Symposium Panel on Communication Challenges in Animal Agriculture

Andy Bishop, who will be a speaker on a panel at the 9th Annual NIAA Antibiotic Symposium, to be held Oct 15–17 in Ames, Iowa, has a lot going on.

He is a Director of Farm Services for AgTech Scientific, he chairs the Kentucky Beef Council Board, which means he is also on the Executive Committee of the Kentucky Cattlemen's Association. He's a family man, and he uses Facebook to talk about animal agriculture.

Ask him what he does, and he says simply "I am a cattle producer in the State of Kentucky."

Bishop runs a cow–calf and seedstock operation, and also has an organic poultry and eggs side of his business which sells to Whole Foods.

The panel he will be speaking on is about Overcoming Communication Challenges. He sees social media as somewhere we can have a dialog with people he might not see on an everyday basis. The theme of this year's Symposium is Communicating the Science of Responsible Antibiotic Use in Animal Agriculture.

"I'm not just Friends with other producers, but with consumers, too. There have been times when I've had to educate someone on my position, because I get that they are not just pointing fingers about something they think is wrong, but because they don't understand," says Bishop.

He deals with the question of antibiotics or no antibiotics for his animals on a daily basis. On the organic poultry side, he says it can be a struggle to comply with the No Antibiotics Ever (NAE) standards. "We've had a couple of outbreaks on the poultry side that could have been treated with antibiotics," he says. "They were catastrophic because we couldn't use antibiotics. We not only lost money, we lost entire flocks because we couldn't use antibiotics which would have cured them and kept them alive."

"It's a niche market because that's what people want – No Antibiotics Ever," he says. "We keep our poultry as happy and healthy as we can, but animals get sick and at the end of the day, it would be nice to have the tools to treat them. We do use a big vaccination program," he adds." In his cattle operation, he does use antibiotics judiciously, and he sees changes since the VFD regulations went into effect.

"We use beef quality assurance standards and work closely with our vet, which helps us to know when an antibiotic is necessary and when maybe it is not needed," he says.

"People distant from farming are under the idea that we just pump our animals full of antibiotics and hormones to increase production," he says. "But I want to take care of that animal if it needs it. If it is sick, I want to treat that animal. Just like if one of my kids is sick, I want to get them well."

"When you have a business, you are not going to spend money that does not bring a return," he says, referring to the expense of antibiotics if they were used the way people think. Bishop says he has a vaccination program through his vet for many of the diseases that they face every day. "We start the same program with calves; booster when we need to. It's much cheaper to prevent than it is to react," he says. "It's no different than a flu shot for us, to prevent as much as we can."

But he has a story to show that it is sometimes not enough. "We had a massive outbreak of pink eye on the cattle side" he tells. "It makes the animal uncomfortable; their eye swells up. In some cases, we can take Chlortetracycline (CTC) and add it to their feed or water, but VFD has made it more difficult to use that product. We have to treat individual animals which means manpower and costs."

"We had vaccinated for pink eye, we administered it and it worked in 15 percent of animals but in 85 percent, it was not effective. We had to stress those animals, get them up, run them through the chute, use a more expensive medication, put a patch on their eye. More stress to the animal than treating all of them once in their feed. My whole family was there day in and day out as we found signs of pink eye."

He says he does get frustrated communicating to consumers, because "we want to treat sick animals humanely, and people think antibiotics for animals are a terrible thing and should never be given."

Communication experts have encouraged farmers and ranchers to use social media to help consumers understand them on a personal basis. "My go–to is Facebook," says Bishop. "I am on there daily in some capacity, telling my beef story or talking about my chicken house or things that the kids are doing on the farm and why they are doing it."

Another recommendation is to find ways to share values. "Why is my 7–year old out working?" asks Bishop, reflecting on some of the questions he gets. "We are instilling a work ethic. They are learning how to take care of the animals and the lesson of responsibility for what God gave us. We expose them to everything we can, so as young individuals they can have that opportunity."

"They want to go take care of their animals," he says. "They go with me at 5:30 a.m. to feed the cattle because they understand that the cattle need their breakfast, too."

"I don't post pictures of us treating our animals," he adds, "because no one likes to see that."

The 9th Annual NIAA Antibiotic Symposium will be held at Iowa State University in collaboration with the National Institute for Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Education (NIAMRRE).

For more information or to register for the 9th Annual NIAA Antibiotics Symposium go to www.animalagriculture.org.