The effect of supplementary grass silage and standard concentrate on milk fat fatty acid composition and iodine value when cows are fed a whole rapeseed-based concentrate at pasture

peer-reviewedThe use of grass silage and concentrates to supplement fresh grass intake is commonly practised in dairy systems. However, the effects of such supplementation within a dietary regime designed to produce a spreadable butter are unknown. Sixteen Holstein Friesian cows were used in an incomplete changeover design to investigate the effect on milk fat of supplementation with grass silage (GS) or standard concentrate (SC) when offering a concentrate based on whole rapeseed at pasture (RC+G). A control diet of fresh grass and standard concentrate (SC+G) was also included. Diet had no effect (P > 0.05) on milk yield or on the lactose concentration of milk. The iodine value (IV; grams of iodine per 100 g milk fat) of milk fat with the RC+G diet was greater (43.9, P < 0.05) than with the SC+G diet (39.9). The iodine value of milk fat was reduced (P < 0.05) when RC+G+GS was offered (41.5 g/100g), but not when RC+G+SC was offered (43.1 g/100g), compared with when RC+G was offered. The proportion of unsaturated fatty acids in milk fat was higher (P < 0.05) when the RC+G diet was offered compared with either RC+G+GS or RC+G+SC. If supplementary feedstuffs are to be used in combination with a wholerapeseed- based concentrate and pasture, then inclusion of standard concentrate would be preferred over grass silage because the negative impact on the iodine value of milk fat was less. However, further research is required to investigate the effect on IV of milk fat when a standard concentrate supplement is offered at levels that increase milk yield

Work Expectations and the Able-Bodied Adult: Myths and Realities in Food Stamp Reform

Since at least 2012 congressional Republicans have been seeking ways to strengthen work requirements in the SNAP (Food Stamp) program as a means both for reducing the size and cost of the program and for reinforcing the moral value of work. Most of these proposals have built on an existing requirement that limits access to SNAP benefits for able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) who are not working at least half-time. Implicit in this requirement are assumptions about the inherent employability of able-bodied adults and the availability of a sufficient number of suitable jobs into which they can be hired. In fact, neither of these assumptions is accurate, and the ABAWD rule currently results in the denial of food assistance to hundreds of thousands of genuinely needy persons. Nonetheless, current proposals seek to expand and strengthen the ABAWD rule in ways that dramatically increase its exclusionary effects. A work requirement in a safety net program such as SNAP is a legitimate means for targeting aid to the impoverished persons who are the program’s intended beneficiaries. However, the ABAWD rule is a flawed instrument for accomplishing this purpose because its application to all able-bodied adults without children results in denial of food assistance to persons who are unable to work as well as those whose unemployment is voluntary. Proposed congressional “reforms” would only magnify this flaw by extending the reach of the ABAWD rule to an even broader population and removing or limiting what little flexibility the rule currently incorporates. Rather than compounding the errors of the past, Congress should rethink its approach to work in the SNAP program and develop work rules that effectively test participants’ willingness to work without penalizing their inability to do so

The Spending Power after NFIB: New Direction, or Medicaid Exception?

In National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (NFIB) seven Supreme Court Justices opened the door to a re-examination of Spending Clause jurisprudence, striking down a congressional measure for the first time since the 1930’s and highlighting the important constitutional interests implicated by expansive conditions on federal grants to the states. The Supreme Court’s 1987 decision in South Dakota v. Dole had validated any condition that was somewhat related to the purpose of the grant so long as the conditioned grant was voluntarily accepted by the state. In NFIB the Court appears to reconsider the breadth of this authority. NFIB rejects a condition requiring states that receive Medicaid funds to implement a massive expansion of the Medicaid program, based on the perceived coerciveness of the condition. The coerciveness principle on which the Court relies had been mentioned in Dole, but had received little attention in subsequent cases, and was widely regarded as unworkable. Its elevation to a primary rule of decision in NFIB seems to indicate the Justices’ readiness to more strictly police Congress’ use of spending conditions that impose federal policy choices on the states. However, the NFIB opinions provide little guidance concerning the analytical principles by which such enhanced policing might be conducted. Although the opinions speak at length on the constitutional values that are threatened by an over-broad power to condition federal grants, they fail to develop coherent, generally applicable principles for determining when Congress has gone too far. It is possible that the analytical elisions in NFIB are deliberate, an attempt in a highly politicized case to justify a result not clearly supported by precedent. Alternatively, the NFIB opinions may represent the first tentative steps in a transition toward an analysis of congressional spending conditions that is capable of vindicating the constitutional values expounded on by the Court. Such a transition could move in either of two directions – refinement of the coercion analysis to realistically reflect state decision-making concerning offers of conditioned funding, or placement of substantive limits on the types of conditions that Congress may attach to grants. This article argues that even a robust coercion analysis is inadequate to protect and balance the important state, federal, and constitutional interests that infuse the Spending Clause issue, and advocates development of are clear, judicially manageable, and constitutionally based substantive limitations on spending conditions

Turner in the Trenches: A Study of How Turner v. Rogers Affected Child Support Contempt Proceedings

In its 2011 ruling in Turner v. Rogers, the Supreme Court held that a nonpaying child support obligor may not be incarcerated in a civil contempt proceeding if he did not have the ability to pay the ordered support or the purge necessary to regain his freedom. The Turner case arose in South Carolina, a state in which civil contempt proceedings are a routine part of the child support enforcement process. The author observed child support contempt proceedings in South Carolina both before and after the Turner decision to assess the extent to which indigent obligors were being held in contempt and incarcerated despite their apparent inability to make the court-ordered payments. Findings from this study confirm that incarceration of indigent child support obligors such as Mr. Turner was common in South Carolina prior to the Supreme Court’s decision, and indicate that judicial treatment of indigent child support obligors remained essentially the same after the Turner decision was handed down. Turner did contribute to a reduction in the incarceration of indigent obligors in South Carolina, but this reduction was due to an administrative response to the decision rather than a judicial one. Pre-screening procedures that were promoted by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement following Turner had the effect of averting judicial hearings for large numbers of indigent obligors, thus avoiding for those individuals any possibility of incarceration. Further reductions in the number of indigents going before the court should result from new OCSE regulations requiring steps to assure that child support awards more closely reflect obligors’ ability to pay, thus reducing noncompliance and contempt referrals

Graduate Recital, Voice

Entitled You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman: Pastoral Reflections by Passionate Women, this recital seeks to sing the unsung. The program features music of forgotten composers, forgotten cultures, and especially of forgotten women. The recital speaks on behalf of these composers through pastoral themes. The women of these texts express love and loss through communion with nature. They see their hearts\u27 reflections in the sun and the moon, the flowers, the birds, and the seasons. These women articulate their emotions and explore their identities within a pastoral framework

Report of Test Excavations Along FM 3359 in Panola County 41PN3 41PN4

The archeological testing at sites 41PN3 and 41PN4 reported herein, came about as a result of discovery of these sites during an archeological reconnaissance of the proposed right of way on FM 3359 near Deadwood in Panola County, Texas (Figure 1). Reporting and preliminary testing of these sites was completed so as to be in compliance with Public Law 89-670 (The Department of Transportation Act of 1966), 36 CFR 60, 36 CFR 800, and the Memorandum of Understanding between the State Department of Highways and Public Transportation and the Texas Antiquities Committee, dated January 5, 1972. Both sites were discovered by members of the staff of the Archeology Section of the Design Division of the State Department of Highways and Public Transportation. Surf ace reconnaissance of the area produced 8 plain pot sherds, a few flakes and sandstone fragments from 41PN3 and one broken biface and a few flakes at 41PN4. No shovel tests were conducted during the reconnaissance, Preliminary testing of the two sites was conducted by an archeological crew of three persons from July 11 through July 20, 1978. This Initial investigation was implemented to provide information allowing assessment of the cultural resources to be affected, to formulate a plan for mitigation, and to assess the two sites as to their eligibility for inclusion within the National Register of Historic Places

Initial Testing Report and Recommendations for Archeological Resources along Proposed F.M. 3359, Panola County, Texas

The archeological testing at sites 41PN3 and 41PN4 reported herein, came about as ,ill result of discovery of these sites during an archeological reconnaissance of the proposed right of way on F.M. 3359 near Deadwood in Panola County, Texas (Figure 1). Reporting and preliminary testing of these sites was completed so as to be i.n compliance with Public Law 89-670(The Department of Transportation Act of 1966), 36 CFR 60, 36 CFR 8·00, and the Memorandum of Understanding between the State. Department of Highways and Public Transportation and the Texas Antiquities Committee, dated January 5, 1972. Both sites were discovered by members of the staff of the Archeology Section of the Design Division of the State Department of Highways and Public Transportation. Surface reconnaissance of the area produced 8 plain pot sherds, a few flakes and sandstone fragments from 41PN3 and one broken biface and a few flakes at 41PN4. No shovel tests were. conducted during the reconnaissance. Preliminary testing of the two sites was conducted by an archeological crew of three persons from July 11 through July 20, 1978. This initial investigation was implemented to provide information allowing assessment of the cultural resources to be affected, to formulate a plan for mitigation, and to assess the two sites as to their eligibility for inclusion within the National Register of Historic Places