We Apologize!
Our previous email stated that the deadline for the Willy the Plumber Scholarship is April 20th. The deadline has been moved to April 30th at 11:59 p.m.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email scholarships@utahcf.org.
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Secretary Perdue Announces New Senior Leaders at USDA
(Washington, D.C., April 19, 2018) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced the selection of senior leaders in several U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies. Perdue appointed Ken Isley as Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) Administrator, Joel Baxley as Rural Housing Service (RHS) Administrator, and Martin Barbre as Risk Management Agency (RMA) Administrator. In addition, Perdue announced the appointment of Tommie Williams as Minister-Counselor for Agriculture at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome.
“President Trump has made increasing prosperity in rural America a priority for his administration, and our new USDA team members will be key in advancing us toward that goal,” Secretary Perdue said. “Improving economic conditions in rural America involves providing services to farmers, ranchers, foresters, and producers, and it also means helping people who live in those communities. In addition, we must continually try to find new markets for the agricultural bounty they produce. Our new leaders in FAS, RHS, and RMA will help us carry out our mission.”
Ken Isley, FAS Administrator
Ken Isley most recently served as Special Adviser for Corteva Agriscience, the agriculture division of DowDuPont. For the previous five years, he served as Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary of Dow AgroSciences, and was a member of Dow AgroSciences’ Corporate Management Committee. Isley was also Associate General Counsel of Dow, with oversight of Dow’s Latin America Legal group. He spent nearly 29 years of service at Dow, beginning his career with the firm in 1989. Isley is a member of the Indiana Bar Association, Michigan Bar Association (inactive), and the American Corporate Counsel Association.
Joel Baxley, RHS Administrator
Joel Baxley comes to USDA with 23 years of real estate finance experience, including 13 years providing valuations of complex property types. He most recently served as the Consulting Services Director and the senior real estate technical consultant with RSM US LLP’s Financial Advisory Services consulting practice. Baxley holds an undergraduate degree and MBA from the University of Alabama and two post-graduate degrees from the University of Oxford.
Martin Barbre, RMA Administrator
Martin Barbre owns and operates Chestin Farms and grows 6,000 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, grain sorghum, and alfalfa, as well as specialty crops. He is a past president of the National Corn Growers Association Corn Board and a member of the Illinois Corn Growers Association (ICGA), having served on the board of directors from 1995 to 2006. Barbre served as vice president of the ICGA in 2003 and president in 2004. He graduated from Southeastern Illinois College in 1974 with a degree in Ag Business.
Tommie Williams, Minister-Counselor for Agriculture, U.S. Mission to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome
Tommie Williams began his career as an onion farmer in Toombs County, Georgia and later founded several successful businesses, including marketing native pine straw and growing olives on a 30-acre farm. He has worked in Italy, China, Belize, and Israel. Williams was elected to the Georgia State Senate in 1998, eventually rising to the ranks of Majority Leader and President Pro Tempore before retiring in 2006. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Georgia and a Master’s Degree in Education from Georgia Southern University.
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LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTER – 2017 ANNUAL UNITED STATES HIGHLIGHTS
Total red meat production for the United States totaled 52.1 billion pounds in 2017, 3 percent higher than the previous year. Red meat includes beef, veal, pork, and lamb and mutton. Red meat production in commercial plants totaled 52.0 billion pounds. On-farm slaughter totaled 87.6 million pounds.
Beef production totaled 26.3 billion pounds, up 4 percent from the previous year. Veal production totaled 80.2 million pounds, down 1 percent from last year. Pork production, at 25.6 billion pounds, was 3 percent above the previous year. Lamb and mutton production totaled 150.2 million pounds, down 3 percent from 2016.
Commercial cattle slaughter during 2017 totaled 32.2 million head, up 5 percent from 2016, with federal inspection comprising 98.5 percent of the total. The average live weight was 1,349 pounds, down 14 pounds from a year ago. Steers comprised 52.9 percent of the total federally inspected cattle slaughter, heifers 27.2 percent, dairy cows 9.4 percent, other cows 8.8 percent, and bulls 1.7 percent.
Commercial calf slaughter totaled 512,300 head, 5 percent higher than a year ago with 98.2 percent under federal inspection. The average live weight was 250 pounds, down 16 pounds from a year earlier.
Commercial hog slaughter totaled 121.3 million head, 3 percent higher than 2016 with 99.3 percent of the hogs slaughtered under federal inspection. The average live weight was unchanged from last year, at 282 pounds. Barrows and gilts comprised 97.2 percent of the total federally inspected hog slaughter. Commercial sheep and lamb slaughter, at 2.18 million head, was down 3 percent from the previous year with 88.9 percent by federal inspection. The average live weight was down 1 pound from 2016 at 133 pounds. Lambs and yearlings comprised 94.8 percent of the total federally inspected sheep slaughter.
For a full copy of the Livestock Slaughter 2017 Summary report please visit www.nass.usda.gov. For state specific questions, please contact:
Arizona – Dave DeWalt 1-800-645-7286 Colorado – William R. Meyer 1-800-392-3202 Montana – Eric Sommer 1-800-835-2612 New Mexico – Longino Bustillos 1-800-530-8810 Utah – John Hilton 1-800-747-8522 Wyoming – Rhonda Brandt 1-800-892-1660
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Whether Fired Or Inspired,
5 Tips To Reinvent Yourself
In an age of much change in the business world, more people are reinventing themselves. That could mean learning new skills to fit a new job, landing in a new industry or starting a new business.
Sometimes the change is forced upon someone (fired); other times they force it upon themselves (inspired). The person might even be comfortable in a job, but a new opportunity or goal motivates them to try something much different – to reinvent.
Nigel Parker, for example, left a long career as a high-level engineer and manager in aerospace and other high-tech industries so he could reinvent himself. He became an inventor and started a company.
“Change often means reinvention,” says Parker, founder/CEO of RashEndZ Inc., (www.RashEndZ.com) and inventor of REZair, a skin-aeration liner that can be inserted inside a diaper, incontinence garment or wound dressing, helping to keep the skin dry and speed healing. “When a seismic shift happens in our lives, like leaving a job, moving, losing someone close to us, we have to choose who we want to become or else feel like we never reached our potential.”
Parker was inspired to help find a solution to a problem, suffered by many, that hit close to home. His cousin, Colleen John, a neonatal ICU nurse, told him of the severe diaper rashes she was treating in premature babies, and how those can develop into pressure ulcers or bedsores. Also a major concern for nursing homes and hospitals, bedsores lead to the deaths of about 60,000 patients each year.
John started using oxygen at the babies’ beds to direct air on the rashes to mitigate the problem. Parker invented the technology to more efficiently deliver oxygen to the diaper and skin.
“It put me on a mission,” says Parker. “The chance to help others is a gift. We have to keep growing, and when you find a new passion, you reinvent.”
Parker gives five ways to help you reinvent yourself:
Put your vision on paper. Parker says it’s a matter of visualizing and verbalizing what you want. “Imagine what it will be like, outline it, energize yourself with happy details that counter the expected valleys you’ll encounter,” he says.
Find the right people. Networking is vital, Parker says, and easier with the Internet and all forms of social media. “You can connect with people who encourage your change and make it for the better,” he says.
Learn all you can. “Some people make the big mistake of thinking they don’t want to learn anymore,” Parker says. “Reinventing is about growing, and in some ways like you never have before.”
Organize your tasks. It can get overwhelming, so stay on top of things by prioritizing daily and weekly. “You need to create to-do lists and have great time management geared to the goals in mind all the time,” Parker says.
Experiment. “Much of pursuing a dream or new vision is trial-and-error, learning from mistakes,” Parker says. “Your mind has to be free to explore all the possibilities of your new endeavor.”
“Sometimes you can’t wait for your future to find you; you find it,” Parker says. “That’s much of what reinventing is about. It’s a twist in the road on the long journey.”
About Nigel Parker
Nigel Parker, founder and CEO of RashEndZ Inc. (www.RashEndZ.com), is a senior management and systems engineer professional with more than 25 years experience in aerospace, medical simulation and other high-tech industries. While working at Honeywell from 1984 to 2001, he worked on the space shuttle, military aircraft and commercial aircraft, among other projects. Parker is the inventor of REZair, a skin-aeration liner that can be inserted inside a diaper, incontinence garment or wound dressing, helping to keep the skin dry and speed healing.
