BOAH welcomes new director of animal health programs

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) announces the addition of Dr. Kerry Peterson, DVM to the staff, as director of Animal Health Programs. Peterson comes to BOAH after working as a private equine practitioner in Anderson, Ind.

As the director, a newly created position, she will coordinate the varied aspects of the agency’s work in the field with the activities within the central office. She will be responsible for streamlining workflow, report submission and data verification for all the large animal species.

Peterson is most looking forward to “learning how the agency operates,” and the diversity involved in her daily tasks.  She sees her biggest challenge as learning about all the different species, and becoming proficient in each.

A native of southern Indiana, Peterson attended the University of South Carolina, then the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine to complete her doctorate.

She credits another member of the BOAH staff as her inspiration – she watched Equine Director Dr. Timothy Bartlett while she was growing up, and he is the reason she decided to become a veterinarian.

Although she is working with all animal species, the former veterinarian has a passion for equine. Peterson and her husband have a standardbred racing stable in Anderson; he is also a driver and trainer.

Illinois team named Reserve National Champions

URBANA, Ill. — The University of Illinois Meat Animal Evaluation team has been named Reserve National Champion at the 2008 National Collegiate Meat Animal Evaluation Contest, the “World Series” of collegiate judging events. The event was held March 27-29 in Oklahoma City and Stillwater, Okla.

Fifteen universities and 122 contestants competed in the event won by Texas Tech University, followed by UoI and South Dakota State. Two of the UoI team members placed in the top 10 overall: Brian Down of Cabery was second high individual, scoring 2,170 points out of 2,600, and Justin Adcock of Moweaqua was seventh with 2,155 points.

The team placed fifth in meat evaluation, second in breeding animal evaluation and market evaluation and fifth in the communication challenge division. Other team members include Rich Chapple of Fults, Daniel Clark of Oblong, Ariel Denny of Dewey, Sarah England of Oneida, Jacob Jones of Pontiac, Whitney Keller of Quincy, Travis Meeter of Taylorville and Rachel Stuart of Edinburg. Jason Perry of Bement was an alternate.

Coaching the team are Tom Carr, Dan Shike and Brandon Yantis, all of the UoI Department of Animal Sciences.

Arnett joins Select Sires’ beef genetics team

PLAIN CITY, Ohio — Aaron Arnett has been chosen to serve as beef genetics specialist at Select Sires. In this role, his responsibilities include acquisition and progeny testing of young sires and beef sire selection management. He will also develop marketing and service programs and acquire a comprehensive lineup of beef pedigree choices for Select’s member-owners.

Brian House, former beef specialist, has been promoted to beef program manager. He will assume all responsibility of managing the beef staff and genetic and marketing programs at Select Sires. Arnett and House are based at the company’s headquarters in Plain City.

Arnett recently earned a doctorate in animal science, specializing in meat science, from Kansas State University. He also holds a master’s degree in cattle reproduction from the University of Kentucky (UK) and a bachelor’s degree in animal science from The Ohio State University. He has been the primary author of four peer-reviewed articles, extension publications and popular press articles.
Arnett also served as an instructor for several animal science courses and as the coach of the UK livestock judging team. He grew up on a beef and grain operation in western Ohio and served as the beef intern at Select Sires in 2000 and 2001.

Day hired to manage Michigan ag business branch

SCHOOLCRAFT, Mich. — Co-Alliance LLP recently announced the appointment of Aaron Day as manager of the Schoolcraft Agronomy Branch on Highway 131 in Schoolcraft.

Day is a longtime Michigan resident who attended Michigan State University, with studies focused on agricultural business management. Originally from the Charlotte area, he was raised on a family farm and has worked for more than 15 years in ag retail management and sales.

Under his leadership, the Schoolcraft branch supplies all agronomy inputs, including seed, fertilizer, application services and technological expertise. Co-Alliance delivers agronomy, seed, animal health, nutrition, grain marketing services, power fuel and home heat energy products to thousands of local farms, businesses and families through branch outlets in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. For more information about Co-Alliance, visit www.co-alliance.com

Freeland, Schram officers of Ind. agribusiness associations

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — John Freeland of Senesac, Inc. was elected as chairman of the board of directors of the Agribusiness Council of Indiana (ACI) for 2008 by members at the recent annual meeting held in conjunction with the Mid America Ag Show at the Indianapolis Convention Center.

Freeland is president of Senesac, an employee-owned crop input retailer with locations in Ambia, Fowler and Otterbein, Ind. He will also serve as chair of the Indiana Plant Food and Agricultural Chemical Assoc. (IPFACA) for 2008. Adriana Ratterman of Dow AgroSciences was chosen as chair-elect.

New directors are Mark Canary of Premier Ag Co-op, Matthew Likens of Helena Chemical and Tom Thomas of PCS.  Shawn Lambert of Co-Alliance LLP was elected to fill a one-year term.

Peter Schram of Cargill and Rosalind Leeck of Demeter were elected as chair and chair-elect of the Indiana Grain and Feed Assoc. (IGFA) for 2008. New board members are Joe Emling of National Starch, Jeremy Mullins of Louis Dreyfus and Dan McNeil of CGB.

The ACI was formed in 2001 by IGFA and IPFACA combining memberships and with more than 90 percent of Indiana’s agribusinesses belonging, it makes ACI the largest agribusiness network in Indiana. The IGFA was founded in 1902 to promote the interests of the grain handling, storage and processing industry in the state. IPFACA started its work in 1966 as part of modern crop production and stewardship in that industry.