Received an interesting question regarding geographical certification today and so I thought I'd pass on some resources. In 2005 the Western Extension Marketing Committee produced a small book on the subject that many will find useful. You can download a free copy in pdf format from: http://cals.arizona.edu/arec/wemc/certification.html. Geographical certification comes up when Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) is discussed.

The 2002 Farm Bill included a provision mandating that retailers provide country-of-origin information (in the form of a label or placard) at the point of purchase for specific fresh food items. Whole muscle and ground cuts of beef, pork, and lamb; seafood; peanuts; and fruits and vegetables sold through retailers were all included in the mandatory COOL provision.

The 2002 COOL Act was scheduled to become mandatory in September of 2004. However, due to industry concerns about a mandatory COOL program, in January 2004, legislation was signed postponing implementation of a mandatory COOL program for all food products except wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish. There continues to be a debate regarding whether or not a mandatory COOL should be implemented.

A discussion of several of the issues surrounding the COOL debate can be found in the fourth quarter 2004 issue of Choices Magazine (online at http://www.choicesmagazine.org/2004-4/index.htm).

It finally became a mandatory measure and was implemented March 16, 2009, by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. In the case of imported products, the food label indicates where it started, was grown/raised and processed. For example, a meat label for pork might read, “From hogs born in Canada, raised and slaughtered in the United States.”

The law establishes four general meat product categories: (1) Product of the United States in which the animal was born, raised and slaughtered in the United States; (2) Multiple countries of origin. The animal was born and/or raised in another country and then slaughtered in the United States; (3) Animals imported for immediate slaughter; and (4) Imported finished products to be sold at retail. These products are labeled as products of the given originating country.

There are exemptions to the rule. Food operations such as restaurants, cafeterias, food stands, butcher shops and fish markets do not have to label their foods. Grocery stores that sell less than $230,000 a year also do not need to provide this labeling. To read more about COOL go to: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/cool.

So there is geographical labeling from a country standpoint but not a "local" as the interesting question was posed. Given that the wine industry seeks out and receives appellation labels, it might be worth pursuing their path with regard to geographical labeling or certification of meat products.

Mastitis Survey Participation Requested

The greatest cause for death in the first two weeks of a lambs' life is STARVATION!

Mastitis, an infection or inflammation of the mammary gland in the ewe, is a major cause of this undesirable result. There are a variety of causes of mastitis, e.g. staph, strep, mycoplasma, ovine progressive pneumonia or trauma.

Most lambs from mothers with mastitis weaken and die from starvation or become "milk thieves" in a passionate effort to survive. The little robbers then become the world's best transmitter of mastitis organisms to any of the ewes from whom they rob milk. The ewe may survive the effects of mastitis but will likely be culled prior to the next breeding season due to a bad bag.

How many lambs starve to death due to lack of milk production from either acute bacterial mastitis or hard bag? Whether it is the loss of the ewe or the lamb(s) or costly treatments, it translates into a loss in profits. Is your flock affected by this malady? To what extent? Producers are being asked to participate in a survey being conducted by Optimal Ag and Optimal Livestock Services to determine the magnitude of the economic loss to the sheep industry attributed to mastitis. The data collected will support requests for funding to conduct further research on diminishing the negative impact of mastitis on the sheep industry and develop educational materials to disseminate important information relevant to producers.

To participate in this survey, go to https://optimalag.justsurvey.me/536823607265. The link is also posted to the American Sheep Industry Association home page at www.sheepusa.org.

Source: ASI Weekly

The Sustainable Beef Resource Center (SBRC) was formed at the

suggestion of beef producers and branded-beef marketers who recognized the need for a centralized source of facts about technologies used in sustainable beef production. SBRC members include marketing and technical representatives from leading U.S. animal-health companies. SBRC works with third-party experts to develop factual, science-based information about the important role of technologies in producing safe, wholesome, affordable beef sustainably.

The Sustainable Beef Resource Center (SBRC) has a single purpose — to provide useful, science-based information to the entire food chain. Their focus is on filling information gaps about how beef technologies and sustainable beef-raising practices help produce safe, wholesome, affordable food while using fewer natural resources.

The organization’s website at http://www.sustainablebeef.org/ features beef-production facts, and talking points about the environmental and economic benefits of beef technologies. You can also follow them on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/SustainableBeef and on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/sustainablebeef.

Dr. Alec Gerry from the Department of Entomology at University of California Riverside provided the following information:

New Cattle Ear Tag for Horn Fly Management

Y-Tex Coporation has recently registered (in 2010) a new ear tag called “XP 820” for beef and non-lactating dairy cattle in California.  The XP 820 ear tag is registered for control of horn flies and several tick species with control lasting up to several months.  The label also indicates that the tags will reduce face flies when two treated tags are used per animal.

This new cattle ear tag is the first to contain abamectin (a macrocyclic lactone) which provides these tags with a different chemistry than other tags available with organophosphate (OP) and synthetic pyrethroid chemicals.  Abamectin has not previously been used for control of cattle pests in the United States. This new chemistry will make these tags effective against flies which are already resistant to insecticides in other chemical classes currently available with ear tags.  Rotate the use of the XP 820 ear tags with other ear tags containing different insecticide chemistries to reduce the development of insecticide resistance within targeted fly populations.

For more information on the XP 820 cattle ear tag, visit the Y-Tex Corporation web site at: www.ytex.com .  The University of California does not recommend any specific company or product and has not evaluated the efficacy of the XP 820 ear tags.