The NSR office will be closed December 24th through January 1st. Regular office hours will resume Thursday, January 2nd.
It’s that time of year to start gearing up for the 2013 World Pork Expo (WPX) held June 5-7 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa. WPX is an industry innovating event that attracts around 20,000 pork producers and allied industry professionals.
This year marks the 25th anniversary for the show. WPX has been a place to discover advancements in technology, swine health, environment, and producer effectiveness from specialists and companies in the industry. It also allows swine exhibitors to compete in different events such as, showmanship, judging contests, and of course showing and selling their pigs.
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This year, exhibitors, sponsors and spectators can stay up-to-date with the 2013 World Pork Expo application featured on many smartphones. Craig Boelling, director of industry resource development for the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) is part of the team that developed the app. The app is sponsored by the National Pork Producers Council and [ … ]
In my last Industry Insightspost, we talked about the “Crate Debate.” This is just one of a handful of animal welfare debates facing our industry, and recent research from Purdue University yielded some “red flag” results for pork producers. Dr. Nicole Olynk Widmar (Agricultural Economics), Dr. Candace Croney (Animal Science) and Melissa McKendree (Agricultural Economics) conducted a survey of U.S. consumers related to perceptions of livestock – specifically pork – production. What they found may come as a shock.
Of the 798 survey participants, nearly one-third had never been to a farm that raised animals for the food system, and only 31 percent had visited such a farm within the last five years – which is representative of the nearly 98 percent of Americans who are not directly involved in agricultural production.These researchers also looked at the consumers’ sources of information regarding animal welfare issues. This chart breaks down the [ … ]
Several fairs in Indiana and Ohio have recently had exhibitors and livestock affected by the influenza virus. Influenza, or the flu, can occasionally be transmitted from people to pigs or from pigs to people. Here are some recommendations from National Pork Board you can follow to help protect you and your animals from illness:
1) If anyone in your family has flu-like symptoms, please do not attend any public livestock events, including your county, state or regional fairs, for seven days after the symptoms began or until you have been fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications – whichever is longer.
2) If any of your animals show signs of flu-like illness on the farm, please check with your veterinarian before bringing them to your county, state or regional shows. In addition to the precautions above, Dr. Tony Forshey, State Veterinarian in Ohio, says that being proactive and doing things as simple [ … ]
