Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Dr. Glen Birrenkott, elected AC-2 Chair last year, did not attend this year?s meeting because Dr. A. B. (Bud) Bodine was appointed Department Chair at Clemson University during 2003. Therefore, Terry Kiser agreed to chair this year?s meeting. Peter Burfening gave an update on the REE Strategic Plan, which had just been released. He also provided a handout that presented a NRI funding summary, updated NRI competitive grants deadlines and main contacts, and several other informative items. David Morrison informed the group that the ED?s office had a new administrative assistant in Ms. Donna Pearce. Her email address (donna_pearce@ncsu.edu) and phone number (919-513-4285) were provided. He also informed the group of the new SAAESD web address (www.cals.ncsu.edu/saaesd). In addition, he provided handouts on the Science Roadmap for Agriculture, the National Research Priorities 2005-2010, and reviewed the criteria for mid-term review of MRF projects. Dr. Morrison also went over the process for adding faculty to new or existing MRF projects and asked AC-2 members to work closely with their Experiment Station Directors to inform them of the need to add faculty. The AC-2 group then proceeded to provide review comments about each of the southern regional multi-state activities. A summary of those comments follows: Mid-Term Reviews S-299 - (Dr. Morrison-monitor) Progress of this project has been good but the level of collaboration needs to be improved. AC-2 believes this multi-state group should not be judged too harshly as this is the first 5-year period for this project and the group should be encouraged to increase the use of shared protocols and perhaps better document the collaboration that may exist. Information and technology transfer for this project is considered good. S-1000 - (Dr. Jenny-monitor) Progress, collaboration and information/technology transfer of this project was considered to be good to excellent. The group should be complimented for the addition of animal scientists and animal science objectives to the project for this 5-year period. It is requested that the publications in the annual report be broken out by type, i.e., refereed journals, proceedings, abstracts, etc. S-1005 - (Dr. Wagner-monitor) Progress and collaboration for this project was considered to be good, however, it was not apparent that Objective 1 of the project was being addressed. The information/technology transfer for this project was considered poor as there was a rather sparse list of publications. S-1006 - (Dr. Lacy-monitor) A SAES 422 report could not be obtained for this project; nothing was on the project web site. This project is related to S-1005 and AC-2 decided to give this project the same ratings as S-1005 because the two groups apparently met together for their annual meetings. Concern was expressed that S-1006 needs to document their activities separately from S-1005. Other activity evaluations: S-285 - (Dr. Havenstein- monitor) - this group is currently in the middle of a re-write to continue the project for another 5 years. The current project is scheduled to terminate in September of 2005. A DC has been approved as DC305 and John Kirby of Arkansas is writing committee chair. This has been a very active and productive group and AC-2 recommends continued support. S-289 - (Dr. Connor- monitor) - no information was provided on this project other than it was being re-written. Project is scheduled to terminate September 2004. S-291 - (Dr. Lacy- monitor) - no report was provided S-292 - (Dr. Birrenkott- monitor) - no report was provided (Dr. Connor agreed to be the new project monitor) S-1008 - (Dr. Jenny- monitor)- This is the replacement for S-284. Good collaboration by this group was reported. The 2003 National Dairy Genetics Workshop was planned under the leadership of this group. Recommendations developed by this group have been implemented by the dairy industry. AC-2 recommends continued support for this project. S-1012 - (Dr. Mathew- monitor) - This is a replacement for S-288 related to swine nutrition. The new objectives were reviewed. This has been a very productive group and AC-2 recommends continued support for this project. S-1013 - (Dr. Kiser- monitor) - This is a replacement for S-277 related to beef cattle genetics. The new project objectives were reviewed by group and concern was expressed about the need to better organize how Objective 4 would be addressed. AC-2 recommends continued support of this project. IEG 72 - (Dr. Humes- monitor) - This group meets each year in conjunction with SAAS. At these meetings, a particular topic related to reproductive enhancement in cattle is selected and invited speakers from within the group present information. These activities have been positive and well received and AC-2 recommends continued support of this activity. IEG 75 - (Dr. Hembry- monitor) - This group also meets each year in conjunction with SAAS. Main topic this past year was how best to standardize reporting of data related to supplementation of grazing beef cattle. AC-2 recommends continued support of this activity. SERA- IEG 15 - (Dr. Nickerson- monitor) - Dr. Kiser represented Dr. Nickerson in reporting on this activity. This group continues to plan the Southern Dairy Conference (February 9-10, 2004 in Atlanta). They meet prior to this conference to facilitate the IEG activities. AC-2 recommends continued support of this activity. Dr. Paul Humes was elected as AC-2 Chair and Dr. Bob Harmon was elected Secretary for 2004-2005. Next year?s AC-2 meeting will be held on February 3-4, 2005 in San Antonio again in conjunction with NCBA annual meeting. Additional recommendations/ concerns of AC-2 were as follows: 1.) Are the impacts of MRF projects being captured well enough within each State?s Plan of Work? 2.) MRF technical committees must ensure that they are doing a thorough job of documenting multi-state collaboration occurring within the project. 3.) AAs should make sure the criteria for conducting mid-term project reviews are adequately communicated to MRF technical committees. The animal, dairy, and poultry science salary survey was completed and distributed to AC-2 members. Submitted by: David G. Morrison Administrative Advisor for AC-2