LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Alliance for Animal Agriculture (MAAA) has received $2.5 million in one-time funding to continue its research and outreach activities.

 

The additional appropriation is in the fiscal year 2018 budget and more than offsets a cut of $500,000 in one-time funding for the program that was in the previous year’s budget. MAAA, formed in 2014, is a consortium of eight industry groups in conjunction with Michigan State University extension, MSU Ag- BioResearch and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

In addition, there is ongoing funding for MAAA in the state budget for $399,000 – the money will be used for applied research and extension projects related to animal agriculture.

According to Gov. Rick Snyder’s final budget, the $2.5 million will support partnership efforts between MSU and Michigan’s livestock and poultry industries to address issues such as emerging and persistent infectious diseases, nutrient management and food safety. $1.2 million of the budgeted funds will be earmarked for ag-based workforce development initiatives.

According to an MAAA legislative summary, each year since 2015, funding for the group has increased. “The livestock industry has been trying to develop a long-term solution for funding for animal agriculture,” said Ron Bates, a professor of animal science at MSU who sits on the MAAA’s advisory committee.

“I think the exciting part about the MAAA is it provides funding for a broad spectrum of research and other activities.

It does research as well as very practical things. It provides funding to meet very immediate goals, as well as projects that have a longer-term focus.”

“The purpose of the MAAA is to look at the challenges that we have in the livestock industry,” said George Quackenbush, executive director of the Michigan Cattlemen’s Assoc.; he also sits on the MAAA’s advisory committee. “We were at the table when the group was formed.”

The MAAA has done research into a number of things the livestock industry is concerned about, he said. Among them was a study to determine if rubber flooring would be better for animals than conventional flooring in feedlots.

Another issue that is ongoing is that of bovine leukemia virus, or BLV. According to Quackenbush, 40 percent of dairy cattle have been shown to be infected with BLV. Among other things, research into BLV in cattle would seek to quantify how much the disease is costing producers, with the ultimate aim of helping them manage the disease in the most efficient way possible.

Still another focus of researchers is bovine tuberculosis. Researchers would like to get a better idea of how long the virus can survive in certain environments – for example, how long it can live in haylage.

These are among the unique questions that face the livestock industry in Michigan, Quackenbush said. It’s not clear that research into these particular problems is going to be conducted by anyone else, he explained.

More information about the MAAA can be found online, beginning at www.canr.msu.edu/research/animal-agriculture/michigan_alliance_for_animal_agriculture