The scholarship selection process has gone from annual to semi-annual. The Scholarship Committee recently selected and awarded $12,000 in scholarships for the spring 2010 semester. Scholarship recipients will be honored at the 62nd AN- LS Dedication Dec.

DNA. DNA. DNA. Everywhere you turn these days, talk in the beef industry is about DNA. The Beef Improvement Federation centered its annual convention this past summer on the role of genomics in improving selection tools. And even the lowliest cowpoke knows what a SNP, or snip is.

Opportunities hide within every challenge, but beef producers can find them through analysis and planning. That was part of the take-home message at the Feeding Quality Forums Nov. 10 in South Sioux City, NE, and Nov. 12 in Garden City, KS.

A coalition of 50 farm and agriculture groups is asking the Obama administration to almost double the USDA budget for competitive research grants to $500 million in its fiscal year 2011 budget request to Congress.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are testing out alternative ways of tilling the soil and rotating crops to see if they can help wheat farmers in Oregon sequester more carbon in the soil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate forecasts are becoming more useful to farmers and ranchers thanks to research by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their cooperators.

David R. Hermes, DVM, of Washington, IN, was elected chairman of the board of directors of the Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization (PAACO) at the groups annual meeting in Kansas City last month. Regional veterinarian for broiler chickens and turkeys for Perdue Farms, Inc.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has extended the states first wolf hunt for three more months into 2010unlike Montana, which ended its inaugural wolf hunt on Nov. 16 as scheduled.

Ranchers are always looking to add another weapon to their arsenal of treatments for infection in horses and cattle. Wounds, pink eye, abscesses, skin infections, and many other conditions can compromise performance and be costly to treat.

Lewis Ziska, Richard Sicher and Jim Bunce all work at the ARS Crops Systems and Global Change Laboratory in Beltsville, MD.