MSU Seeks Nominations for the 2024 Dairy Farm of the Year

Jun 13, 2023

The Michigan State University Department of Animal Science is seeking nominations for the 2024 Dairy Farm of the Year Award.

Since 1958, the Dairy Farm of the Year Award has been presented to a farmer, farm partners or family that has distinguished themselves through excellence in dairy farming and outstanding involvement in the industry or their community. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the MSU Animal Science Department to Michigan dairy farmers.

Information about the award, list of past recipients and the nomination form can be accessed online or by searching MSU Dairy Farm of the Year. Even if not all information requested on the form is available, nominations are still welcome.

Nominations are due to Miriam Weber Nielsen, msw@msu.edu, chair of the selection committee, by Sept. 15, 2023. Download a nomination form.

The selected farm will be announced prior to the 2024 Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference and honored at the Michigan Dairy Industry Banquet as a part of the conference.

A portrait of the honoree will be added to the display wall at the MSU Livestock Pavilion, and notice of the award will be provided to the local newspaper of the recipient and to their legislators.

Source : msu.edu

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”

MSU Seeks Nominations for the 2024 Dairy Farm of the Year

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Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

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