URBANDALE, Iowa - The Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) invites you to attend its Animal Agriculture Tour and Meeting on Feb. 27, 2007. The meeting will be held in Ames, Iowa, at the Iowa Beef Industry Headquarters, 2055 Ironwood Court.

The day will begin with registration at 8 a.m. at the Iowa Beef Industry Headquarters. At 8:45 attendees will load the bus and travel to the National Animal Disease Center (NADC) for a tour. The NADC is located in Ames and is the largest federal animal disease center in the U.S. It conducts research to solve animal health problems and food safety problems faced by livestock producers and the public.
The group will then return to Iowa Beef Industry Headquarters where it will listen to a presentation on the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers (CSIF) given by Aaron Putze, CSIF executive director. CSIF provides individual farm families with specific help in understanding, implementing and following rules and regulations covering animal agriculture. Following this presentation lunch will be served, catered by Hickory Park.

At 1 p.m. Dr. John Lawrence, professor of Agriculture at Iowa State University and director of the Iowa Beef Center, will give an update on the livestock industry and discuss the impact of renewable fuels on the livestock industry.

The day will conclude with a tour of the biomass energy conversion center (BECON) in Nevada, Iowa. BECON is a focal point for developing value-added products from Iowa’s abundant biomass resources. It provides credible, firsthand information on biomass technologies to create fuels and chemicals, as well as demonstrations of pilot-scale biomass conversion systems. The heart of BECON is made up of large-scale conversion systems that process agricultural-related biomass into fuels and chemicals. Additional equipment at the site also demonstrates how biomass fuels can be used to generate electricity, heat and valuable byproducts.

The group will return to the Iowa Beef Industry Headquarters at 4:30 p.m. This event is free of charge. To RSVP, please contact the ISA office at 1-800-383-1423.