Attitude Comparison Among South Dakota Family Members Regarding Estate Planning and Farm Transitions

Estate planning and intergenerational farm transitions are the focus of research and extension programs across the nation due to the potential tax consequences faced by farm operations, retirement funding options available and utilized by farmers, changes in asset transition tools available, and communication (or lack of communication) issues related to bringing an heir back to the family operation.Past plans for research projects and extension programming developed across the nation and in South Dakota (SD), were created with many assumptions regarding the attitudes of farm family members towards the transition of ownership of the operational assets and personal assets of the landowner generation, and towards the transition of workload or labor and management responsibilities. However, no one had asked the family members about these attitudes.This research seeks to identify these attitudes. The research analysis is based on primary data from an online survey of South Dakota farm family members. These members were categorized as the landowner generation (current owner of the operational assets), returning to the operation heir (on-farm heir), off-farm heir (heir that has a career and, or, family not actively involved with the farm operation), spouse of the on-farm heir, and spouse of the off-farm heir.The survey included two sections: estate planning and transition planning. Statements elicited information used to analyze prior assumptions.The survey targeted participants from past extension workshops via email invitations, and solicited participation via press releases posted on www.igrow.org and published in statewide media. Attorneys and insurance agents delivered additional invitations to an unknown number of individuals with farm estate planning experience. Sixty-five respondents completed the survey. There were an insufficient number of responses to the survey from the spouses of either category to be included in the analysis.Survey results were analyzed regarding the validity of maintained assumptions regarding specified aspect of estate planning and transition of a farm family operation.Of the ten assumptions proposed the results of the analysis failed to reject six of the assumptions (at levels of statistical significance p Perceptions about the quality of communication within families differ by category. The landowner generation has found determining how to pass on personal and farm assets to be a difficult task. Farm families need more information and knowledge to create or finish their estate plans. Farm families have found it difficult to find and utilize industry professionals. The landowner generation and heirs have similar attitudes toward transitioning workload or labor responsibilities. The landowner generation and heirs have similar attitudes toward transitioning ownership of minor assets. These results support the content of currently offered estate planning and transition planning conferences for farm family operations. Farm families need methods they can use to communicate effectively about the estate planning goals for the operation and the drafting of plans to accomplish those goals. They also need assistance in learning about estate planning tools, and in finding industry professionals to assist in implementation. Survey data analysis indicates that there needs to be an increase in the quality of communication between landowner and off-farm heirs. Many of the perceptions regarding an understanding about the value of the assets being distributed, and understanding about the plans being implemented indicated a different level of response from the landowner generation and the on-farm heirs. This is particularly evident in the distribution of assets. The results associated with transitioning management to the next generation indicated a disconnection between the heirs and the landowner generation with respect to labor and management.The survey data analysis highlights specific areas that need additional focus in creating educational programs, although a majority of the individuals responding to the survey indicated that they have communicated with their families about their estate plan, as the study analysis indicates there is a difference in communicating about creating an estate plan and managing the implementation of the plan

The Cost of Wet Corn at Harvest

Producers with slowly maturing corn—either from a shortage of growing degree day units or from weather damage—face increasing unit costs of production due to potential grain drying. Corn in storage needs to be 85% dry matter before long-term storage is considered. Corn stored with moisture levels higher than 15% will mold, spoil, and bridge. Corn producers with cattle have a few more options than cash grain farmers. Silage and wet corn piles can provide feed for the operation with no additional drying costs. However, you still need to consider moisture levels for each of these storage options before choosing a storage method (fig. 1). The most-common options available to producers include taking a dock for shrink at the elevator, heat drying on the farm, air-drying the corn in the grain bin, or a combination of those options. The most cost-effective option for you depends on your estimatation of the energy needed to drop the moisture content

Creep Feeding Beef Calves

Creep feeding is a way to provide nursing calves with supplemental nutrients with the use of a gate that restricts the access of cows to the feeding area. The type of creep feeds available vary from grain-based feeds that primarily supplement energy, to limit-fed high-protein feeds, to “green creeps,” which are high-quality pastures grown for the sole purpose of grazing by nursing calves. Creep feeding for the purpose of increasing weaning weight alone may not be profitable; therefore, the decision to creep feed calves should be based on the analysis of expected increases in performance and income compared to the cost of feed

Factors Influencing Price of South Dakota Feeder Calves Fall 2021 and Winter 2022

Study Description: Data was collected at Faith, Philip, Hub City (Aberdeen), Mitchell, and Ft. Pierre Livestock Auctions during the weeks of October 4, 11, 18, and November 1, 2021. Data was collected and analyzed on the approximately 116,000 head of calves that were marketed during that time frame. Data collected included: auction barn, date, seller id, sex, number of head per lot, average weight, hide color, uniformity information, vaccination data, creep feed, implants, branded programs, weaned, horns, mud score, price per hundredweight, price per head, and additional comments. Uniformity score and weighted average price per hundredweight was calculated for each seller. Sellers were grouped into “herd sizes” to compare uniformity and determine value. Additional data will be collected in February and March 2022 to assess the value of backgrounded calves. Data from the fall calf run are currently being analyzed. Preliminary analysis indicates no differences in price per hundredweight for black versus black-white face calves (P \u3e 0.05), so data was combined and classified as black. The same was true for red versus red-white face (P \u3e 0.05), so were classified as red. Significant differences (P \u3c 0.05) were identified for auction barn, hide color, vaccination program, lot size, drug free and horns. There were no differences for implanted cattle versus non-implanted cattle (P = 0.99) or creep fed calves versus non-creep fed calves (P = 0.97)

The next generation of South Dakota producers, are the operations prepared for the transition of assets and management?

This study used primary survey data and we found there is still a need for educational programming about creating both of these plans and the importance of writing them down, communicating the plan to the family members and not leaving the decisions until after the death of the current generation. There was a level of consensus found between the reasons farm operations were not creating estate or transition plans in our survey of interested third party participants and the responses reported by Universities. The transfer of knowledge to the next generation about the management of the operation and allowing the next generation more management and decision making opportunities needs to be included in the transition planning process. The dynamics of each family involved in a farm operation having an estate plan and a transition plan in place can prevent problems at the death of the senior generation involved in the operation. The written plans will aid in a smooth transition to the next generation, in a manner that accomplishes the goals of the family

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

Global burden of respiratory infections associated with seasonal influenza in children under 5 years in 2018: a systematic review and modelling study

Background: Seasonal influenza virus is a common cause of acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) in young children. In 2008, we estimated that 20 million influenza-virus-associated ALRI and 1 million influenza-virus-associated severe ALRI occurred in children under 5 years globally. Despite this substantial burden, only a few low-income and middle-income countries have adopted routine influenza vaccination policies for children and, where present, these have achieved only low or unknown levels of vaccine uptake. Moreover, the influenza burden might have changed due to the emergence and circulation of influenza A/H1N1pdm09. We aimed to incorporate new data to update estimates of the global number of cases, hospital admissions, and mortality from influenza-virus-associated respiratory infections in children under 5 years in 2018. Methods: We estimated the regional and global burden of influenza-associated respiratory infections in children under 5 years from a systematic review of 100 studies published between Jan 1, 1995, and Dec 31, 2018, and a further 57 high-quality unpublished studies. We adapted the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale to assess the risk of bias. We estimated incidence and hospitalisation rates of influenza-virus-associated respiratory infections by severity, case ascertainment, region, and age. We estimated in-hospital deaths from influenza virus ALRI by combining hospital admissions and in-hospital case-fatality ratios of influenza virus ALRI. We estimated the upper bound of influenza virus-associated ALRI deaths based on the number of in-hospital deaths, US paediatric influenza-associated death data, and population-based childhood all-cause pneumonia mortality data in six sites in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Findings: In 2018, among children under 5 years globally, there were an estimated 109·5 million influenza virus episodes (uncertainty range [UR] 63·1–190·6), 10·1 million influenza-virus-associated ALRI cases (6·8–15·1); 870 000 influenza-virus-associated ALRI hospital admissions (543 000–1 415 000), 15 300 in-hospital deaths (5800–43 800), and up to 34 800 (13 200–97 200) overall influenza-virus-associated ALRI deaths. Influenza virus accounted for 7% of ALRI cases, 5% of ALRI hospital admissions, and 4% of ALRI deaths in children under 5 years. About 23% of the hospital admissions and 36% of the in-hospital deaths were in infants under 6 months. About 82% of the in-hospital deaths occurred in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Interpretation: A large proportion of the influenza-associated burden occurs among young infants and in low-income and lower middle-income countries. Our findings provide new and important evidence for maternal and paediatric influenza immunisation, and should inform future immunisation policy particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. Funding: WHO; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.Fil: Wang, Xin. University of Edinburgh; Reino UnidoFil: Li, You. University of Edinburgh; Reino UnidoFil: O'Brien, Katherine L.. University Johns Hopkins; Estados UnidosFil: Madhi, Shabir A.. University of the Witwatersrand; SudáfricaFil: Widdowson, Marc Alain. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Estados UnidosFil: Byass, Peter. Umea University; SueciaFil: Omer, Saad B.. Yale School Of Public Health; Estados UnidosFil: Abbas, Qalab. Aga Khan University; PakistánFil: Ali, Asad. Aga Khan University; PakistánFil: Amu, Alberta. Dodowa Health Research Centre; GhanaFil: Azziz-Baumgartner, Eduardo. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Estados UnidosFil: Bassat, Quique. University Of Barcelona; EspañaFil: Abdullah Brooks, W.. University Johns Hopkins; Estados UnidosFil: Chaves, Sandra S.. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Estados UnidosFil: Chung, Alexandria. University of Edinburgh; Reino UnidoFil: Cohen, Cheryl. National Institute For Communicable Diseases; SudáfricaFil: Echavarría, Marcela Silvia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. CEMIC-CONICET. Centro de Educaciones Médicas e Investigaciones Clínicas "Norberto Quirno". CEMIC-CONICET; ArgentinaFil: Fasce, Rodrigo A.. Public Health Institute; ChileFil: Gentile, Angela. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital General de Niños "Ricardo Gutiérrez"; ArgentinaFil: Gordon, Aubree. University of Michigan; Estados UnidosFil: Groome, Michelle. University of the Witwatersrand; SudáfricaFil: Heikkinen, Terho. University Of Turku; FinlandiaFil: Hirve, Siddhivinayak. Kem Hospital Research Centre; IndiaFil: Jara, Jorge H.. Universidad del Valle de Guatemala; GuatemalaFil: Katz, Mark A.. Clalit Research Institute; IsraelFil: Khuri Bulos, Najwa. University Of Jordan School Of Medicine; JordaniaFil: Krishnan, Anand. All India Institute Of Medical Sciences; IndiaFil: de Leon, Oscar. Universidad del Valle de Guatemala; GuatemalaFil: Lucero, Marilla G.. Research Institute For Tropical Medicine; FilipinasFil: McCracken, John P.. Universidad del Valle de Guatemala; GuatemalaFil: Mira-Iglesias, Ainara. Fundación Para El Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria; EspañaFil: Moïsi, Jennifer C.. Agence de Médecine Préventive; FranciaFil: Munywoki, Patrick K.. No especifíca;Fil: Ourohiré, Millogo. No especifíca;Fil: Polack, Fernando Pedro. Fundación para la Investigación en Infectología Infantil; ArgentinaFil: Rahi, Manveer. University of Edinburgh; Reino UnidoFil: Rasmussen, Zeba A.. National Institutes Of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Rath, Barbara A.. Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative; AlemaniaFil: Saha, Samir K.. Child Health Research Foundation; BangladeshFil: Simões, Eric A.F.. University of Colorado; Estados UnidosFil: Sotomayor, Viviana. Ministerio de Salud de Santiago de Chile; ChileFil: Thamthitiwat, Somsak. Thailand Ministry Of Public Health; TailandiaFil: Treurnicht, Florette K.. University of the Witwatersrand; SudáfricaFil: Wamukoya, Marylene. African Population & Health Research Center; KeniaFil: Lay-Myint, Yoshida. Nagasaki University; JapónFil: Zar, Heather J.. University of Cape Town; SudáfricaFil: Campbell, Harry. University of Edinburgh; Reino UnidoFil: Nair, Harish. University of Edinburgh; Reino Unid

Precision mouse models with expanded tropism for human pathogens

A major limitation of current humanized mouse models is that they primarily enable the analysis of human-specific pathogens that infect hematopoietic cells. However, most human pathogens target other cell types, including epithelial, endothelial and mesenchymal cells. Here, we show that implantation of human lung tissue, which contains up to 40 cell types, including nonhematopoietic cells, into immunodeficient mice (lung-only mice) resulted in the development of a highly vascularized lung implant. We demonstrate that emerging and clinically relevant human pathogens such as Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, Zika virus, respiratory syncytial virus and cytomegalovirus replicate in vivo in these lung implants. When incorporated into bone marrow/liver/thymus humanized mice, lung implants are repopulated with autologous human hematopoietic cells. We show robust antigen-specific humoral and T-cell responses following cytomegalovirus infection that control virus replication. Lung-only mice and bone marrow/liver/thymus-lung humanized mice substantially increase the number of human pathogens that can be studied in vivo, facilitating the in vivo testing of therapeutics

Global patterns in monthly activity of influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza virus, and metapneumovirus: a systematic analysis

Background: Influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza virus, and metapneumovirus are the most common viruses associated with acute lower respiratory infections in young children (<5 years) and older people (≥65 years). A global report of the monthly activity of these viruses is needed to inform public health strategies and programmes for their control. Methods: In this systematic analysis, we compiled data from a systematic literature review of studies published between Jan 1, 2000, and Dec 31, 2017; online datasets; and unpublished research data. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they reported laboratory-confirmed incidence data of human infection of influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza virus, or metapneumovirus, or a combination of these, for at least 12 consecutive months (or 52 weeks equivalent); stable testing practice throughout all years reported; virus results among residents in well-defined geographical locations; and aggregated virus results at least on a monthly basis. Data were extracted through a three-stage process, from which we calculated monthly annual average percentage (AAP) as the relative strength of virus activity. We defined duration of epidemics as the minimum number of months to account for 75% of annual positive samples, with each component month defined as an epidemic month. Furthermore, we modelled monthly AAP of influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus using site-specific temperature and relative humidity for the prediction of local average epidemic months. We also predicted global epidemic months of influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus on a 5° by 5° grid. The systematic review in this study is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42018091628. Findings: We initally identified 37 335 eligible studies. Of 21 065 studies remaining after exclusion of duplicates, 1081 full-text articles were assessed for eligibility, of which 185 were identified as eligible. We included 246 sites for influenza virus, 183 sites for respiratory syncytial virus, 83 sites for parainfluenza virus, and 65 sites for metapneumovirus. Influenza virus had clear seasonal epidemics in winter months in most temperate sites but timing of epidemics was more variable and less seasonal with decreasing distance from the equator. Unlike influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus had clear seasonal epidemics in both temperate and tropical regions, starting in late summer months in the tropics of each hemisphere, reaching most temperate sites in winter months. In most temperate sites, influenza virus epidemics occurred later than respiratory syncytial virus (by 0·3 months [95% CI −0·3 to 0·9]) while no clear temporal order was observed in the tropics. Parainfluenza virus epidemics were found mostly in spring and early summer months in each hemisphere. Metapneumovirus epidemics occurred in late winter and spring in most temperate sites but the timing of epidemics was more diverse in the tropics. Influenza virus epidemics had shorter duration (3·8 months [3·6 to 4·0]) in temperate sites and longer duration (5·2 months [4·9 to 5·5]) in the tropics. Duration of epidemics was similar across all sites for respiratory syncytial virus (4·6 months [4·3 to 4·8]), as it was for metapneumovirus (4·8 months [4·4 to 5·1]). By comparison, parainfluenza virus had longer duration of epidemics (6·3 months [6·0 to 6·7]). Our model had good predictability in the average epidemic months of influenza virus in temperate regions and respiratory syncytial virus in both temperate and tropical regions. Through leave-one-out cross validation, the overall prediction error in the onset of epidemics was within 1 month (influenza virus −0·2 months [−0·6 to 0·1]; respiratory syncytial virus 0·1 months [−0·2 to 0·4]). Interpretation: This study is the first to provide global representations of month-by-month activity of influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza virus, and metapneumovirus. Our model is helpful in predicting the local onset month of influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus epidemics. The seasonality information has important implications for health services planning, the timing of respiratory syncytial virus passive prophylaxis, and the strategy of influenza virus and future respiratory syncytial virus vaccination. Funding: European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative Respiratory Syncytial Virus Consortium in Europe (RESCEU)