Livestock Roundup

Thursday, July 20, 2006 10:54 AM CDT

This week's listing of upcoming industry events and announcements.

Fair Celebrates Funding of New Building

A mortgage burn ceremony will be held Friday, July 21 during the Marquette County Fair Meat Animal Auction for the show barn that was constructed on the fairgrounds in 2004. Funds for this $120,000 show building were raised from area families and businesses, and the ceremony will celebrate the fact that the building is now paid for.

The ceremony will begin at 6:45 p.m., just prior to the Meat Animal Auction for Marquette County youth projects.

Swine Breeding, Gestation Course Set For Minnesota

A course focused on alternative swine breeding and gestation management is scheduled for July 31 and Aug. 1 at the University of Minnesota West Central Research and Outreach Center in Morris, Minn.

At the workshop, instructors will examine and evaluate alternative housing systems, including large group pens in hoop buildings and the Swedish deep-bedded system, in addition to comparing these systems to conventional confinement.

The two-day intensive workshop is designed to increase participants' understanding of the factors involved in successfully breeding females and caring for them during gestation in alternative housing systems. The course is appropriate for people with a limited knowledge of pork production, veterans wishing to review the basics and stay abreast on recent developments, and producers who seek researched-based information on alterative systems.

Classroom instruction on the first day of the program will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. A hands-on session, conducted at the center's swine research facilities, will be conducted the second day of the program from 8 a.m. to noon. To maximize student learning and understanding, the hands-on session incorporates numerous activities relating to material covered in the classroom. Participants will be automatically certified or recertified under the Pork Quality Assurance (PQA) program.

University of Minnesota faculty and swine industry experts will provide instruction for the course. The cost of the program is $100 per person and includes learning materials, meals, breaks, instructor fees and biosecurity clothing for hands-on training sessions. Additional participants from the same production system may register for $50 each.

For more information, contact University of Minnesota Swine Extension Educator Mark Whitney at 507-389-5541 or Minnesota Pork Board Education Director Trudy Wastweet at 507-345-8814. A registration form is available at http://www.mnpork.com.

Device Designed To Improve Sheep Shearing

A shearing device that could shave off some of the $44 million the wool industry spends on back injuries each year was recently demonstrated in Australia.

The Shearezy, an upright posture shearing platform, was designed to improve the occupational, health and safety record of the wool industry. It carries the sheep to the shearer on a conveyor and the wool is removed at waist high with the Shearezy rotating the sheep.

"What it means is that the shearer's back does not move out of 10 percent from vertical," said Joe Sullivan, project manager for Australia Wool Innovation. "It also means shearers don't have to catch the sheep and drag them out."

There's still some work to do in the development of the Shearezy, however, Sullivan admitted.

"It's not going to be equal to a gun shearer in terms of productivity," Sullivan said of the Shearezy. Using the standard method, a gun can shear up to 240 sheep a day, but with Shearezy, that number is reduced to about 120. "We're imposing a machine between the sheep and the shearer, and that's going to limit the intuitive flow and shearing technique," Sullivan said.

Beef Checkoff Expands Research & Development Arm

The beef checkoff-funded Beef Innovations Group (BIG), formerly known as R&D Ranch, is intensifying efforts to be the beef industry's primary source for new product information and leadership.

Anyone - from producers and processors to foodservice and retail channels - looking for the latest product trends, technologies and possibilities should "think BIG," said Cattlemen's Beef Board member Hope Huffman, chairman of the beef checkoff's New Product and Culinary Initiatives Committee.

Among the new resources at BIG are: an new website, a step-by-step product development process, and a global tracking system to monitor new beef and veal products arriving in the retail market. These tools are designed to help the BIG team act as an industry catalyst for the ideas and processes that give rise to new beef products.

"BIG has expanded services and resources for the changing times," Huffman explained. "If we're going to compete with other proteins, we must be ready with the ideas, people and systems to roll out the kinds of beef and veal products consumers want."

New initiatives under the BIG umbrella include:

Use of Mintel, a global new product development database, to track flavor trends, new kid-focused products, innovative packaging and all beef product offerings.

The BIG team, comprising scientists, culinary professionals, operation experts, marketers and product specialists, has a notable research and development track record. The checkoff-funded muscle profiling study, released in 1999, resulted in the Beef Value Cuts (BVCs). Some 103 million pounds of these cuts were sold through foodservice last year, and 20,000 U.S. restaurants have menued at least one of these cuts. On the retail side, some 5,000 supermarkets carried the BVCs in 2005, up from 321 in 2003.

Sub-Therapeutic Antibiotic Use Gets Positive Report

A recently released report from the Institute of Food Technologists says that a complete ban on the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics in food animals would not be a good idea. The group advises people to consider all risks when discussing even partial bans.

"There is evidence that there are significant human health benefits from sub-therapeutic antibiotic use to prevent sub-clinical disease in food animals and reduce levels of Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination of poultry carcasses," the report states. "In the future, the public health benefit as well as risks of losing the efficacy of existing and future antimicrobials must be considered. Further, regulatory targeting of specific antibiotic-resistant foodborne pathogens may not be the most successful or cost-effective means to reduce overall foodborne illness."

Download the entire report at http://members.ift.org/IFT/Research/IFTExpertReports/antimicrobial_report.htm.

Florida Restaurant Features $100 Hamburger

A hundred bucks might buy you more than six dozen burgers from McDonald's, but the swanky Old Homestead Steakhouse will sell you one brawny beef sandwich for the same price.

Boca Raton, Fla. Mayor Steven Abrams could barely speak between bites as he recently devoured a 20-ounce, $100 hamburger billed as the "beluga caviar of sandwiches."

"Heaven on a bun," is how restaurant owner Marc Sherry described the burger. The burger recently debuted at the restaurant in the Boca Raton Resort and Club, where a membership costs $40,000 and an additional $3,600 a year.

"We've never had a hamburger on our menu here so we really wanted to go to the extreme," Sherry said, calling the burger "the most decadent burger in the world."

The mound of meat is comprised of beef from three continents - American prime beef, Japanese Kobe beef and Argentine beef.

The bill for one burger, garnished with organic greens, exotic mushrooms and tomatoes, comes to $124.50 with tax, and an 18-percent tip included. The restaurant says it will donate $10 from each sale to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which fulfills requests from terminally ill children.

 

Comments »

---

Comment on this story

Comments will be approved within 48 hours

Name:

Email: (optional)

Comments:

Image Verification: (Case sensitive)