California Chapter
The California Chapter completed its annual CEC meeting on October 16-17, 2019. The topics included talks form Dr. Vandehaar on “Meeting the Energy Needs of Cows: How Much Milk Will a Ration Make?”, “Fatty Acid Inclusion and Utilization by Dairy Cattle” by Dr. Lou Armentano, and an update on the work the chapter has been involved in, with UC Davis and the California Almond Board on the use of almond hulls in lactating cattle diets. The trial work is complete and the associated papers are being prepared for publication. A copy of the agenda is attached.

Southern Chapter

Daniel Rivera

Brandi Karisch will be assuming the role of president of the Southern Chapter.

The symposium took the place of the annual meeting this year at the Southern ASAS meetings in Oklahoma City. The symposium examined the consequences of poor management on calf health and performance at the ranch, and calf health and performance after weaning, as well as the economic effect at each level.

The Washington, DC, area chapter has an active agenda with monthly meetings and is planning a spring symposium. The speakers and topics for our monthly meetings are listed below. We alternate meeting sites between CVM (Rockville, MD) and USDA, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Our mini-symposium is planned for April 26.

Continuing Education Conference: October 2017
Chew on this—Another look at fiber
The calendar year and our chapter year are winding down. Our yearly Continuing Education Conference gave our members an in-depth review of fiber. Chemistry, functionality, and utilization of fiber were covered. Attendance was fantastic. We have a meeting policy whereby vendors are asked to avoid using the meeting as an opportunity to make sales presentations. This year this request was well heeded. Thank you to the many vendors/sponsors for making this meeting a success. 

Each year the California-ARPAS group awards scholarships to students that present a preview or completed thesis project. This October at the annual continuing education meeting, the recipients were 
(left to right) Ashley Niesen, Yuki Okatsu, Maia Laabs, Hannah Gautier, and Morgan Wukadinovich.

All papers were submitted, reviewed by an ARPAS education committee, and then presenters were interviewed.

The state and national ARPAS congratulate these students from the University of California–Davis.

The Midwest region of ARPAS and the Midwest Chapter of ARPAS continue to be active in building and supporting ARPAS membership through engaging candidate members at animal and dairy science technical meetings and through targeted sponsorships and ARPAS presentations.