Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Kenneth R. Cummings, Dipl. ACAN
Relative to maturity, ARPAS is in middle-age but still in good health. We continuing to add new members and address new ways to add value for our member and our profession. Ten years ago, our testing process used only paper exams. Our work consisted of evaluating educational programs for CEU credit, working on a strategic plan and assisting the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to train ARPAS members for on-farm feed management evaluation. ARPAS had five active Chapters but the bulk of our ARPAS members had no regional chapter affiliation and could not participate ARPAS associated activities.
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Dave Beede, Editor-in-Chief, PAS/JAAS
The new name of the ARPAS journal will be the Journal of Applied Animal Science (JAAS) beginning January 2019. This change was approved by the Governing Council at the annual meeting in June, following survey input from the ARPAS membership. The new name catalyzes several other changes to the ARPAS journal that will appear early next year including a new cover; a new definition of the applied scope, focus, and value proposition of the journal; a new table of contents (scientific content: food science; forages and feeds; genetics; health and well-being; integrated systems – production and management; nutrition; physiology; sustainability; and, welfare and behavior) and a new editorial board structure to align with the table of contents; and, new description of responsibilities and instructions for authors and reviewers for submission and review of manuscripts. A new feature will be “Experts from the Field,” where ARPAS members will be commissioned to provide publishable comments about the particular relevance and potential impact to the animal sciences and production systems of some published journal articles.
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
2018 Annual Meeting Pictures
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Patrick French, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAS, ACAS President
ACAS Board Certification Update
Patrick French, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAS, ACAS President
I genuinely thank members of the American College of Animal Sciences (ACAS), the board certification arm of ARPAS for electing me as president and look forward to serving the organization in the coming year. I thank Randy Walker for his service as ACAS president for the past year, Ken Cummings for his service as ARPAS executive vice president, and Cornicha Henderson of FASS for her assistance with the ACAS administrative duties.
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Jim Tully
On May 2nd we held our annual Spring Meeting on the first morning of the California Animal Nutrition Conference. Funds are available for increasing scholarships above the 3 graduate and 3 to 5 undergraduate scholarships ($2,000 and $1,000 each respectively). CA ARPAS are heavily involved in a Research project looking at the feeding value of almond hulls, including further work looking at contamination levels. These are a very important feed for the California dairy industry.
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
What have you done for yourself lately? I am not talking about the basics of something in your belly, on your back, and over your head. But, I am talking about what things are you doing to enhance your professional skills? We all have to work with others on our jobs, regardless of what kind of job we have. You may already be an APRAS member but are you involved? Are you networking? I have heard it said before that our working lives are like high school meaning that we need to play nice with others and get along with other people to succeed. Yes, only you took the quizzes and tests in high school yet wasn’t it nice to be a part of a group? Whether that group be a sports team, student council, class officer, FFA, etc….. didn’t the group relationship further your sense of well-being?
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Wayne Kellogg, Editor-in-Chief
The Professional Animal Scientist continues to improve visibility among scientists. We are receiving statistical information regarding readers and citations that was not available previously. Some of this information is provided from our publisher Elsevier. The journal is available to members of ARPAS (just enter the ARPAS site, log in, and click on the Professional Animal Scientist) on the HealthAdvance website (www.professionalanimalscientist.org), and usage increased in the first half of 2017, compared to 2016. In 2016 the average number of monthly downloads was 989. For 2017, the average monthly downloads increased to 1,392. Via a separate website, we also observed an increase in usage by institutional users in 2017 compared with previous months. Earlier this year the papers with the most full-article downloads by institutional subscribers were the symposium paper “Transportation issues affecting cattle well-being and considerations for the future” and the research article “Management characteristics of beef cattle production in the Northern Plains and Midwest regions of the United States” (both from the December 2016 issue).
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Dr. Sharon A. Benz receiving her award
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Note from the Examination Chair
Steve Schmidt, Ph.D., PAS, Dipl. ACAS
It has been between five and seven years since the various ARPAS areas of specialization in the database have been reviewed for relevance and clarity and updated to keep up with changes in our animal and product industries.
Previously, committees were appointed within each of the specialties to spread work around and make recommendations for changes and additions. It also helps to have many eyes looking at questions, because what is clear to one person may not be clear to another. The examination chair is looking for volunteers who would like to participate in reviewing exam questions in their area of specialization.
If you are willing to help, send an e-mail to Steve Schmidt (
sschmidt@auburn.edu) and tell me the area of specialization you would like to help with. I will get you on the list. Thank you in advance!