Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with American Feed Industry Association member Bryan Edwardson, president of Midwest Agri Commodities, on the nutritional benefits of using sugar beet coproducts in livestock feed. Midwest Agri, the sole owner of the Unbeetable Feeds brand, is leveraging beet pulp and other coproducts to provide high-fiber, low-protein feed options, selling 1.7 million tons of coproducts per year. 

Last week, a total of 430 in-person and virtual attendees from 43 states and six countries participated in the Association of American Feed Control Officials’ (AAFCO) annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Two AFIA staff members, Leah Wilkinson and myself, were on hand to engage in discussions on some of the hottest topics of the day —as hot as the 104-degree temperature.  

"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." - B.B. King 

Indeed, there are many inspiring, philosophical quotes out there that hint at the beauty and value of learning. Education is often mentioned as the key to positive change in the world. Some go so far as to liken education to life itself. If you look at the benefits of education through a more fiscal lens, perhaps the quote below may resonate with you as well.  

We often look at the calendar and lament, “Where has the time gone?” At other times, it seems like so much time has passed because we can only marvel at how much has changed and how different the world is. In the case of the last five years, both feelings resonate with me.  

Summertime is always when I tell myself I am going to catch up on reading (work-related and personal) and a couple of weeks ago, my flights were cancelled. I could not do the work travel as planned, which left a lot of open time on my calendar. Put these two together and I spent a bit of time reading an article from earlier this year in the Journal of Dairy Science, “Fifty Years of Environmental Progress for United States Dairy Farms.”  

Considering the ongoing highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks and the looming threat of an African swine fever (ASF) outbreak, biosecurity should be on everyone’s mind. Jason Galvis, Ph.D., a research scholar, and Gustavo Machado, Ph.D., an associate professor at North Carolina State University (NCSU), recently published a study about the role of vehicle movement in swine disease dissemination. I spoke with Machado to discuss their findings and, more importantly, if the feed industry contributes to disease transmission and what we can do to prevent it. 

Every July, the U.S. Agricultural Export Development Council (USAEDC) hosted its annual attaché seminar, bringing together United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) cooperators and attachés to discuss the most pressing issues for our industry.  

The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) welcomed three new employees in the past year: Taylor Lekin, Ivy Torres and Madison Wyman. This June, all three attended the Feed Industry Institute (FII) in Minneapolis, Minn., where they learned the ins and outs of animal nutrition, feed, pet food manufacturing and more. Below, they share their experiences attending their first ever FII.