TABLE OF CONTENTS

Message from the President

John J. Wagner, PhD, PAS, Diplomate ACAN

DUES and CEU’S: A Regular Newsletter Feature?

Kenneth Cummings, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, Exec. VP, ARPAS

Treasurer’s Report

Carl Hunt, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN

Nominations for 2012 ARPAS “Distinguished Professional Animal Scientist”

Kenneth R. Cummings, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, Exec. VP, ARPAS

2012 ARPAS Symposium Update

Bill Sanchez, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, President-Elect, ARPAS

PAS Journal Report

D. Wayne Kellogg, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, Editor-in-Chief, Professional Animal Scientist

Corporate Sponsorship Report

Dana J. Tomlinson, PhD, PAS, Dipl ACAS

American College of Animal Sciences (ACAS) Report

Jack E. Garrett, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, President, ACAS

ARPAS Chapter News

California Chapter

Midwest Chapter

Northeast Chapter

Southern Great Plains Chapter

Washington, DC Chapter

Tidbits of ARPAS History

Washington, DC, Area Chapter

Spotlight on ARPAS Members' Industry Awards

Leonard S. Bull, PhD, PAS, Emeritus Professor of Animal Science

John J. Wagner, PhD, PAS, Diplomate ACAN 

Season’s Greetings!

The Thanksgiving turkey is all but gone. Our belts are all a little tighter due to the bountiful assortment of pumpkin pies, candied yams, stuffing, and other holiday staples that we have consumed. Family visitors have largely returned to their own homes and it is now time to wind down 2011 and to ensure that 2012 gets off to a great start. The ARPAS Governing Council is currently preparing for the annual mid-year conference call which occurs in January. If anyone among the membership has any issues to address please bring them forward so that they may be addressed.

Although the governing council is busy preparing for the mid-year conference call, I urge the members to remember that the backbone of our organization needs to remain the local chapters. During late October, I attended the annual meeting of the California Chapter at the Harris Ranch Inn in Coalinga, CA. It was an excellent meeting and I enjoyed myself tremendously. I especially want to thank Travis Taylor, Marit Arana, and Jim Oltjen for their hospitality during my visit. I truly enjoyed dinner at Harris ranch with the graduate student scholarship winners Kara Ortega of the University of California – Davis and Amy Housman of California State University – Fresno. These two individuals are incredibly talented and will continue to contribute significantly to the animal industry. I wish to challenge all chapters to expand their mentoring of young people interested in Animal Agriculture.

The continuing education conference focused on "Understanding Oxidative Stress: The Biochemistry, the Biology and Improved Animal Health". This was an in depth educational experience that provided ARPAS members with basic information that they very likely could not have obtained from anywhere else. The learning environment was very safe. I say this from the perspective that anyone could ask questions at any level of understanding and not be made to look silly by the speakers or other members of the audience. There are generally plenty of producer meetings around the country that have been approved for various hours of continuing education credits. These producer meetings are indeed useful; however, it seems to me that Professional Animal Scientists that attend producer meetings for their continuing education credits may be reluctant to engage fully out of the fear of appearing something less than fully competent in various subjects. I encourage the development of continuing education sessions at the chapter level that promotes full engagement by the membership in the educational process.

Finally, I want to extend my sincere wish for everyone to have a joyful Holiday Season and a productive and prosperous new year.

Kenneth Cummings, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, Exec. VP, ARPAS 

Hopefully, you received a notice from FASS to pay dues for one or more Animal Science Societies and ARPAS by email or letter about a month ago. Dues for several of our Chapters are also payable along with your annual ARPAS dues.

At the same time you pay your dues, you should update your CEU’s. You alone are responsible for reporting your participation in meetings approved for ARPAS credit. We do not know which meetings you attend. All we can do is to encourage the various meeting organizers to request evaluation of their meeting content for ARPAS CEU’s well in advance of the meeting and to inform you of the ARPAS credit allowed. Reporting of CEU’s can be done from the ARPAS website www.arpas.org or by sending Yvona an email. You can also determine your CEU status on the website but you will need to use your membership number. You should also look for alternative sources for obtaining CEU’s. We have recently approved a number of webinars for ARPAS CEU’s so if travel is restricted, you can still find a way to keep current. Available meetings are posted on our website. If you attend a meeting that has not been pre-approved, please send me or Yvona at the ARPAS office the program and we will evaluate it for credit.

The strength of this organization is a continuing supply of members who are willing to step up to a leadership position. If you have an interest in being on the Governing Council or one of our many committees, please contact me or one of the Executive Committee or Governing Council members. We will be happy to share the load and anxious to put you to work.

Carl Hunt, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN  

It is a pleasure to provide a Treasurer’s report annually to ARPAS members. The organization continues to be on a solid financial foundation under very diligent executive leadership. With two months left to go in the 2011 calendar year our year-to-date revenues stand at $222,856 (does not include a $15,342 unrealized loss in our equity investments) versus year-to-date expenses of $188,238. While these are just snapshots in time, we have every reason to believe that our expenses at the end of 2011 will be below our revenues, which will provide for a positive net change in our assets. (We can also be hopeful that the asset value of our invested equities will improve, but who knows!)

This newsletter will contain a membership report, but I would also like to make a point about the importance of membership from a financial status of the organization point of view. ARPAS operates on an annual budget of approximately $270,000. For 2011, we planned for $124,000 in regular member dues, or about 46 percent of our budgeted revenue. This is why it is so important to the organization that you renew your dues for 2012! Likewise, revenue from corporate sponsorship is budgeted at $21,000 which is nearly 8 percent of our revenue budget.
Together membership dues and corporate sponsorship comprise well over half of our budgeted revenue. While I have annually reported that ARPAS is on a good financial foundation, it is important to recognize that our membership and corporate sponsorship has been on a gradual downward slide over the last three years; combined revenue to date from these two sources is down $8600 compared with the same time in 2010. Please take the time to renew your membership and encourage other ARPAS members to do likewise!

To close on a positive note, the Professional Animal Scientist journal continues to prosper financially. The PAS serves an extremely important mission of our organization and it is comforting to recognize that the journal is able to generate revenue with at least the same pace that it incurs expenses. We are very fortunate as an organization to have this sustainable activity as an important thrust to our mission.

Kenneth R. Cummings, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, Exec. VP, ARPAS 

The ARPAS Distinguished Professional Animal Scientist award is bestowed annually on one or more emeritus members of ARPAS that have made significant contributions to the Animal Sciences during their active career and served in a leadership position within ARPAS.

Nominations may be made by any member of ARPAS. Final selection will be made by the ARPAS Executive Committee with conformation from the ARPAS Governing Council. The number of awards each year will not exceed 0.2% of the total ARPAS membership. Please contact any member of the ARPAS Governing Council or send your nomination by email to arpas@assochq.org.

Recipients of this award will be recognized with an article in the Newsletter and the PAS Journal and with a tribute at our annual meeting. A suitable award will be presented to them on this occasion. They will also be granted lifetime membership in ARPAS with emeritus privilege.

Bill Sanchez, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, President-Elect, ARPAS 

The 2012 ARPAS Symposium has been set. The overall theme of the symposium is "Feed Efficiency: Opportunities for Improvement, Economics, and Integration with Environmental Sustainability." It will be held Tuesday morning the week of ASAS/ADSA meetings in Phoenix, and will last 2 hrs and 15 minutes (exact time will be determined later).

As we all know, feed input costs are at historically high levels. At the same time, differences between farm income and feed expenses have narrowed, making feed efficiency more critical now than it ever has been. This symposium will focus on basic principles of feed efficiency, appropriate ways to measure feed efficiency and opportunities for improvement through both genetics and management. Real farm economics will be used to define relationships between profitability and feed efficiency. Finally the authors will integrate productivity to whole farm efficiency to achieve environmental sustainability.

Specific presentations and authors are:

"Feed Efficiency: Basic Principles and Opportunities for Improvement" - Michael VandeHaar, Louis Armentano, and Diane Moody Spurlock, Michigan State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Iowa State University.

"Economic Analysis of California Dairies: Factors Related to Feed Efficiency - Luis Rodriguez, Greg Bethard, Michael McGilliard and Dana Tomlinson, Zinpro Corporation, G&R Dairy Consulting, and Virginia Tech University.

"Integrating Productivity and Whole Farm Efficiency to Achieve Environmental Sustainability - Judith Capper and Dale Bauman, Washington State University and Cornell University.

D. Wayne Kellogg, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, Editor-in-Chief, Professional Animal Scientist 

The 27th volume of the Professional Animal Scientist was completed recently. Review articles continue to be popular among scientists. The list of ‘most-read articles’ in PAS (HighWire, November, 2011) is topped by the 2009 review article by Dr. Don L. Palmquist entitled, “Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Metabolism, Health, and Nutrition and for Modified Animal Product Foods”. In second place is the 2008 paper by Drs. Bewley and Schutz, “An Interdisciplinary Review of Body Condition Scoring for Dairy Cattle”. These are followed by (3) “Urea Feeding to Dairy Cattle: A Historical Perspective and Review” by Dr. Al Kertz in 2010, (4) a review on, “Effects of Biological Nitrogen Fixation and Nutrient Cycling on Stocking Strategies for Cow-Calf and Stocker Programs”, by Drs. F. M. Roquette, Jr., and G. R. Smith in 2010, and (5) a review on, “Animal Identification Systems in North America”, by R. G. L. Murphy et al. in 2008. Obviously, review articles lead the list, and that causes me to request that members consider submitting reviews on timely subjects. The most-read research article is, “Markers of Inflammation in Arthritic Horses Fed Omega-3 Fatty Acids”, by D. R. Manhart et al. in 2009, and the most-read Case Study is, “Evaluation of Calcium Propionate and Propylene Glycol Administered into the Esophagus of Dairy Cattle at Calving”, by Drs. S. R. Stokes and J. P. Goff in 2001.

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Stacey Gunter has agreed to serve as Associate Editor. His focus is forage systems for beef cattle, and he has conducted research with nutrition and management of stocker cattle. He is Research Leader with the Southern Plains Range Research Station, USDA/ARS, Woodward, OK. He has worked as Professor and Center Director at the University of Arkansas Southwest Research and Extension Center near Hope and as State Extension Livestock Specialist for the University of Maine in Orono. He has served as a section editor for the Journal of Animal Science and the Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances. He has also served on the editorial board for the Journal of Sustainable Agriculture and has reviewed for several scientific journals.

He joins Dr. Bob Goodband who has been serving as Associate Editor. He is Professor of Animal Sciences and Industry at Kansas State University. His specialization is swine nutrition and management, and he has worked in teaching, research, and extension. Dr. Goodband also serves on the editorial board of Journal of Animal Science.

Dr. Glen E. Aiken, Research Animal Scientist, USDA/ARS, Lexington, KY and Dr. Ron Bates, Professor, Michigan State University agreed to serve on the Editorial Board for 3-year terms. I am grateful for the service of Dr. John Wagner and Dr. David Freeman during the past 6 years on the Editorial Board.

The PAS Journal will begin using standardized SNP identification. Also, the PAS Journal is being evaluated by Thomson Reuters for inclusion in their Web of Science which would include Citation Index. Inclusion would be an additional step in improving the value of PAS for our authors and readers.

Dana J. Tomlinson, PhD, PAS, Dipl ACAS 

Are you an ARPAS member and employee of a company that does not support the National ARPAS organization? As an active member in the growing body of ARPAS chapters we need your help. So far this year we have received $20,000 in corporate sponsorship for the National Chapter of ARPAS, this is fantastic, but we need more and we need your help. The combination of corporate sponsorships and member’s yearly dues generate funds needed to keep our organization financially strong and able to provide training events such as our symposia held in conjunction with the ADSA/ASAS national meetings. Our committee has worked to grow our list of corporate sponsors but we find our best results come from within the organizations. Therefore, would you take a few minutes to go to www.ARPAS.org and click on the sponsors tab on the left hand side of the window? Here you can find a listing of Sponsorship benefits, such as a free ARPAS membership for each $500 gift, Advertisement space in the ARPAS Journal and in our booth graphics along with complimentary copies of the journal.

Please take a few minutes from your busy schedules to consider this request and check with the appropriate person within your organization about becoming a corporate sponsor of the National ARPAS organization. Our local chapters are growing and they need the guidance and support of our National ARPAS organization to become the strong educational groups that they aspire to be.

If you have questions about how to get your company involved, please contact Dana Tomlinson at dtomlinson@zinpro.com, Kenneth Cummings at kennethrosscummings@msn.com , or Yvona Vlach at YvonaV@assochq.org. We will happily answer your questions and walk you through the process.

Jack E. Garrett, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, President, ACAS 

ACAS held its annual meeting this summer in conjunction with the ADSA/ADSA joint meetings in New Orleans. At this meeting, Dr. Randy Shaver, University of Wisconsin-Madison, was elected President-Elect for ACAS. During 2011, we had 4 new members join ACAS, I would like to personally welcome Walter Owsley, John Bernard, Aaron Park, and Nar Gurung as Diplomats in ACAS bringing our total membership to 190. With the primary objective of ACAS being to advance the professionalism in the livestock/animal nutrition, physiology, welfare, food science, behavior and breeding/genetic, it is paramount for all of us to continue our ongoing efforts to participate and promote dissemination of information and education throughout our industries. Also, we need to bring more qualified members into ACAS to expand our knowledge base and ability to serve more. I would like to charge all members of ACAS to continue to spread the word about our organization and each member to seek to bring at least one new member to our ranks within the next year.

California Chapter 

By Lawson Spicer, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN

The CA Chapter of ARPAS continues to have many projects and is always working on how to better the financial use of chapter monies for enhancing animal agriculture. The fundraising entitled “Bang for Your Buck II” raised $9,600 in August, 2011 for the chapter. Bill Vogt made the activity very successful.

The California Chapter Continuing Education Conference (CEC) 2011 held on October 27 and 28 was well attended. Four speakers - Jon Ramsey, Gerald Coombs, Gita Cherian and Mark Engstrom - furthered our knowledge on Oxidative Stress. Heidi Rossow gave an informative presentation on Estimating Feed Efficiancy. Also, Jenne Arcias spoke about the Safe Animal Feed Program. Two graduate students - Kara Ortega, UC Davis, and Amy Housman, Cal State Fresno, received scholarships from the CA Chapter. They both gave presentations on their research.

Ray Hinders was honored for his outstanding work in California agriculture and his involvement in the field of dairy nutrition. Mat Kelley reported that the revised website is up and running. The Alfalfa Hay Project is 95% finished, as reported by Carl Old and John Miller.

At the October CEC meeting, the following new officers were elected:
President - Luis Rodriguez (Zinpro)
President Elect - Gerald Higgenbotham (Cooperative Extension)
Past President - Travis Taylor (TPI/ Nutra Blend)
Secretary - Andy Riordan (Nutri-Systems)
Director at Large - John Martin (Hunt & Behrens)

John Wagner, National ARPAS President, gave us an update of the national activities. We thanks Marit Arana for her tireless help.

Midwest Chapter 

By Dwight Roseler, Phd, PAS, Dipl. ACAN

The Midwest ARPAS Chapter is in its inaugural year for 2012. In October, the leadership team of Midwest ARPAS sent a welcome email letter to the 405 current ARPAS members in the Midwest updating the membership on the development of the Midwest Chapter and soliciting support for the chapter. As a current ARPAS member in the Midwest region, a complimentary membership to the Midwest ARPAS Chapter is included for 2012.

The Midwest ARPAS Leadership team wants to have involvement from all Midwest ARPAS members. An electronic survey is being sent in early December to all ARPAS Midwest members to solicit input on future programming and activities for the ARPAS Midwest Region. Please take time to complete the survey when it arrives into your email. We value your input.

A feature benefit of the Midwest ARPAS chapter is the diversity of species interests across the 405 current members. Networking across species will provide benefits in all areas of our industry. In addition, working together to showcase our high-quality, food animal production system is another important mission. To that effort, the Midwest ARPAS chapter will be sponsoring Dr. Richard Sellars, AFIA vice-president on “The Impact of the Food Safety Modernization Act on Animal Science Professionals” at upcoming meetings in 2012. These include Midwest Animal Science meetings in March, The Tri State Dairy Nutrition Conference in April, and 4-State Nutrition Conference in June. ARPAS will also have a booth at these programs to promote the benefits of ARPAS certification and ARPAS programs. We are asking all current Midwest ARPAS members for their support in promoting and participating in your new Midwest ARPAS chapter.

Welcome all,

Midwest Leadership Team: Dwight Roseler, Joanne Knapp, Ken Zanzalari, Chad Risley, Kenneth Cummings, James Coomer, Dale Hill

Northeast Chapter  

By Jud Heinrichs, PhD, PAS

The NE Chapter held its annual meeting on November 9 at the Holiday Inn Grantville PA as part of the Penn State Dairy Nutrition Workshop. There were 42 people in attendance. Ken Cummings spoke about various activities that other chapters are doing around the US to give us ideas for our chapter. Video conferences were discussed in specific as a way to serve our members with timely material. We voted to maintain the $5 NE dues and hold the meeting next year at the same venue. Frank Janecki takes over as the new president and Steven Emanuele was elected as the new vice president. In the event that the NE Chapter has enough members to have a voting member on the ARPAS Governing Council, Jud Heinrichs was elected to serve as that member.

Southern Great Plains Chapter  

By Chris Reinhardt, PhD, PAS

The SGP Chapter plans to meet next during the 2012 Plains Nutrition Council meeting in San Antonio, TX in April. In the meantime, the officers will meet (via conference call) on November 28 to discuss options for activities and presentations to be conducted at the April meeting, as well as additional meetings and /or activities to be considered for 2012.

Washington, DC Chapter 

By Bill Price, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAS

The WDC Chapter has had three meetings since the August Newsletter. With Vern Purcel passing, Bill Price has been appointed Teasurer. Ken Cummings, ARPAS Exec VP talked at the September meeting where he and Bill Price presented Lee Boyd with his Outstanding ARPAS award. (See picture below.)



Dr. Amy Burke talked about the U Maryland Equine program at our October meeting. (See picture below.)



Lowell Randall, FASS representative talked about the Farm Bill and Congressional Budget issues at our November meeting. Plans are being made for our annual half-day symposium around May 1. Current officers are Lonnie Luther, President; Scott Lough, President-Elect; Robin Kiser, Secretary; Bill Price, Treasurer.

Washington, DC, Area Chapter 

September 20, 1989

The National Organization of the American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists (ARPAS) was established on August 7, 1984. The national organization was created for the need of a national registry of animal scientists qualified to provide technical service and evidence of professional competence.

On June 12, 1986, an organizational meeting was held in which nine members of ARPAS and seven interested visitors determined that there was support for a Washington, DC, area chapter. A petition to the Governing Council, National ARPAS Organization was made on June 16, 1986, and the Governing Council approved the local chapter establishment on Thursday, June 26, 1986. The Washington, DC, Area Chapter has the distinction of being the first chapter of ARPAS. The officers are elected to serve from fall to spring, and no meetings are held during the summer.

In 1986, there were three chapter meetings and there has been increase in the numbers of meetings and the attendance at the meetings. During the 1988-1989 year there have been seven meetings of the chapter, with attendance at the meetings now averaging 40 persons. In the spring of both 1988 and 1989 there have been symposia sponsored by the local chapter. In addition to the purpose of the national organization, the local chapter is able to regularly bring together the animal scientists from research, educational, administrative, industrial, and regulatory organizations in the greater Washington area.

During the regular meetings, there has been an opportunity to learn of the activities and viewpoints of the program speakers, as well as an opportunity for animal scientists in the Washington area to establish or reinforce their personal relationships.

The 1988 spring symposium topic was “The Future Role of Animal Products in the Human Duet,” with a panel of four speakers, representing different viewpoints for a comprehensive discussion of this timely and appropriate subject.

The spring symposium format was expanded for 1989, in which six knowledgeable individuals discussed the “Changes in Animal Agriculture: Key Factors and Their Impact”.

Under the leadership of Dr. Theron Rumsey, the persons who participated in the 1988-89 regular meeting and the spring 1989 symposium have prepared their remarks for issuance of the first set of Proceedings of the Washington, DC, Area Chapter of ARPAS.

Leonard S. Bull, PhD, PAS, Emeritus Professor of Animal Science 

In a previous issue we asked ARPAS members to share their industry awards with us. The following is a response from one of the founding members of ARPAS, Dr. Leonard S. Bull. Here is Dr. Bull’s candidly humorous recollection of the society’s formative years and the awards he’s received over the years.

When I think how far ARPAS has come since a bunch of us including Wayne Perry, Walt Woods, Virgil Hays, Jim Williamson, Dean Hodge, a few others, and I used to meet in Indy at a hotel and plot the future of ARPAS, it is truly amazing! As the records will show, I served on the Governing Council for a few years, was President sometime in the past, and was responsible for the examination process for several years. And it was gratifying! The trials and tribulations of running the examination process! And then the issues of the Professional Animal Scientist! It has been a great experience and I am SO glad to see a FEW young faces in the crowd. Of course, there are a bunch of us "Old Pfahrts" (that is the name of a group that I meet with at 8 AM in a casual restaurant in Bristol, VT , called Cubbers (not open to anyone but us at that hour) to solve the issues of the day.

You asked what activities and recognitions we have had. I was a. Member of the Vermont Agricultural Development Board; b. Member of the Board of Directors of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture; Chair, Past Chair, and now Chair of the Planning Committee of a FORUM on Antibiotic Use in Animal Agriculture (www.animalagriculture.org); c. Member, National Steering Committee, 25x25 (www.25x25.org); d. Senior Author, "Nutritional Energetics" (available on CD for $18, contact me at homebull@aol.com); e. Senior Advisor, UN/FAO/Birchwood Conservancy Program for World Heritage Animal Genetic Resources conservation.

Cheers from an Old Pfahrt!

Leonard S. Bull, PhD, PAS, Emeritus Professor of Animal Science

Have you received an industry honor or award you want to share with other members of ARPAS? We'd love to hear from you. Let us know by e-mailing the ARPAS headquarters at arpas@assochq.org and we'll publish the information in the newsletter.