Accomplishments of ARPAS during the last year were possible because of the excellent guidance and dedication of our Executive Vice President, Kenneth Cummings. By his fine examples, Kenneth keeps us organized and inspires members to be active. I deeply appreciated his leadership and helpful approach.

1. The purpose of the ARPAS Foundation is to provide educational programming for current members of ARPAS and to enhance the certification process for prospective members. 

2. The Foundation will encourage current members and supporters of ARPAS to contribute funds to the Foundation to build a financial base. 

3. The bylaws state that only the income from the Foundation assets can be used for the educational programming and enhancement of the certification process.

First let me thank the members of the American College of Animal Science (ACAS). I am honored to have been elected as an ACAS officer and look forward to the coming year as ACAS President. I also want to thank John Bernard for his service as ACAS President for the past year, Kenneth Cummins for his service as ARPAS Executive VP, and Kelsey Grant of FASS for her hard work with the ACAS administrative duties.

Our research group has submitted a paper to the ARPAS journal, The Professional Animal Scientist, which is scheduled to be published in the August 2016 issue. This has been a major project, and we are excited to share the results with the industry. The results and conclusions challenge some of the standards we have come to accept as “real.” The TDN, RFV, RFQ, and in vitro disappearance all have major flaws when trying to predict alfalfa hay quality. This likely means that many of our procedures for ranking of ingredients do not have strong relationships to animal performance.