Antibiotic-free chicken and pig production news was a popular topic in 2016. These 10 articles drew the most attention from WATT AgNet readers during the past year, ranked by the number of times readers viewed the stories. 1. Tyson eager to meet antibiotic-free chicken demand. The demand for chicken raised with no antibiotics ever (NAE) continues to grow, and Tyson Foods President Tom Hayes says the company is poised to meet that demand.2. 7 antibiotic-free feeding practices beyond additives, Additives are not the only area that require attention when antibiotics are removed from feeds.3. [node:read-more:link]

Pilot testing of the new Canadian Pork Excellence program is just a couple weeks away as volunteer farms nationwide will begin participating in the program that the Canadian Pork Council revamped from its on-farm food safety and animal care assurance programs and combined into one.  In the first phase, farms will begin keeping required documentation and making necessary adjustments before moving to full validation.  In 2018, through the existing validation cycle, Canadian Pork farms due for a “Full Validation” in 2018 will join the Canadian Pork Excellence Platform by completing the Food Sa [node:read-more:link]

Environmental regulations coming down the pike for California dairy producers will require significant capital investment and new-era management practices. [node:read-more:link]

A lawsuit filed by two farms against California labor regulators has been revived by a federal appeals court, which ruled it’s plausible the companies were unfairly targeted.  The dispute relates to law passed by California lawmakers in 2015 that provided some — but not all — farms with safe harbor against certain labor lawsuits. Farms in the state were facing possible class action litigation after court rulings that piece-rate workers, such as those paid based on harvest amounts, must be paid the minimum wage even for breaks, meals and other “non-productive” periods. [node:read-more:link]

European consumers don’t approve of genetically engineered crops, but European farmers are eager to feed them to their livestock, according to a USDA report. As a result, Europe poses an economic opportunity for U.S. farmers while the threat of a consumer-driven trade disruption looms over exports of biotech crops, experts say. “As the global cultivation of GE crops expands, it is increasingly difficult for European importers to source non-biotech soybean products. [node:read-more:link]

Japan began killing some 90,000 chickens today to contain another outbreak of a highly contagious strain of avian flu, officials said. 
The new drive means more than a million farm birds will have been killed in seven mass culls this season as officials work to prevent the spread of the virulent H5 strain, which has been detected at several farms across the country. [node:read-more:link]

Researchers from the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine have received a nearly quarter-million dollar federal grant to improve rural veterinarians’ awareness of endemic, transboundary and emerging diseases of production animals. [node:read-more:link]

The rural-urban divide that splits many states hasn’t reached Idaho yet, a new survey shows. The University of Idaho survey found that residents of Idaho’s two main urban counties see eye-to-eye with their rural counterparts in Owyhee County on many natural resource issues, such as public lands grazing and logging. Owyhee County in southwestern Idaho is heavily dependent on agriculture, particularly raising livestock. Some 80 percent of the county’s economic output is tied to the farming industry. [node:read-more:link]

A research study has found junior groundwater users on Idaho’s Eastern Snake Plain could reduce the financial sting of a settlement agreement by strategically idling marginal land and selling credits to other groundwater users. [node:read-more:link]

Pennsylvania officials are warning consumers who have purchased certain raw milk cheeses from Stone Meadow Farm to discard them immediately because samples from the dairy have tested positive for the bacteria Staphylococcus Aureus. [node:read-more:link]