Registration open for AFIA regulatory training short course

The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) is offering a 2013 Regulatory Training Short Course (RTS) from November 20-21, 2013. The short course will be held at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel, Virginia, USA.

“This course is a high-demand seminar that always sells out quickly,” said Leah Wilkinson, AFIA’s director of ingredients, pet food and state affairs. “It is AFIA’s third time offering the course and we anticipate not only a full room yet again, but have lined up influential speakers discussing topics beneficial to those serving the regulatory side of the feed industry.”

The programming is an opportunity for regulatory professionals in the feed, ingredient and pet food industries to come together to develop the necessary skills to lead their company through the regulatory maze. RTS was created for regulatory directors with several years of industry experience and will cover advanced topics and regulatory strategies. The seminar will include topics such as the Food Safety Modernization Act, Working with State Regulators and AAFCO and Preparing for and Dealing with a FDA Inspection.
This year, AFIA will offer an Introduction to Feed Regulation in the U.S. seminar prior to the two-day event for attendees new to the regulatory area for an additional fee. The seminar has limited attendance in order to focus more on individual instruction and will be held on November 19, 2013 at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel. 

View a pdf version of the agenda here.

More information...

Former Murrumbidgee Milling building. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Almost 1,000 licensed medicated-feed mills in North America

At 985 locations around the United States and Canada, companies hold medicated feed licenses from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), varying from well-known companies such as Tyson, Cargill, Perdue, Foster Farms, and Land O' Lakes to small family businesses never heard of.

When a feed miller has successfully completed the application process it can start mixing antibiotic growth promoters in livestock feed. The medicated feed mill industry accounts for 80 percent of the annual antibiotic use in the United States.

Not all are good
FDA inspects feed mills for animals just as it does food manufacturing facilities for humans. Recently two mills (in Kansas and Virginia) received warning letters after the FDA found ‘significant deviations’ from Current Good Manufacturing Practice. Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little, The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine and the International Milling Directory from Perendale Publishers

Foreign markets opening quickly for U.S. farm goods

Foreign markets are opening up quickly for US farm goods, as is reflected by the current high prices for US grown crops. American farmers are positioned well to meet these demands and get a very good payday for doing so, says Virginia Economist Dennis Gartman.

Gartman publishes the Suffolk, Virginia based Gartman Letter, a daily commentary on commodity and marketing issues. He has been publishing the daily commentary since 1987, and over the years has conducted numerous presentations and courses on issues relating to the capital markets and derivatives for various brokerage firms, central banks, and US government entities. Read more ...  

This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine from Perendale Publishers.

Corn and soybean farms hiring more help in 2010

There was 1,157,000 hired workers on farms in US farms and ranches during the period of  October 10-16, 2010. That's up four percent from last year, the largest increase in the number of workers hired from last year was California, and in the corn belt (Illnois, Indiana and Ohio), Appalachian (North Carolina and Virginia) and the Northern plains (Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota) regions.

Due to the above average precipitation in California there was more acreage to be cropped due to increased availability of irrigation water. Therefore, more hired workers was needed. In the remaining last three regions the weather was ideal compared with last years. Read more...