The 2012 ARPAS Symposium has been set. The overall theme of the symposium is "Feed Efficiency: Opportunities for Improvement, Economics, and Integration with Environmental Sustainability." It will be held Tuesday morning the week of ASAS/ADSA meetings in Phoenix, and will last 2 hrs and 15 minutes (exact time will be determined later).

As we all know, feed input costs are at historically high levels. At the same time, differences between farm income and feed expenses have narrowed, making feed efficiency more critical now than it ever has been. This symposium will focus on basic principles of feed efficiency, appropriate ways to measure feed efficiency and opportunities for improvement through both genetics and management. Real farm economics will be used to define relationships between profitability and feed efficiency. Finally the authors will integrate productivity to whole farm efficiency to achieve environmental sustainability.

Specific presentations and authors are:

"Feed Efficiency: Basic Principles and Opportunities for Improvement" - Michael VandeHaar, Louis Armentano, and Diane Moody Spurlock, Michigan State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Iowa State University.

"Economic Analysis of California Dairies: Factors Related to Feed Efficiency - Luis Rodriguez, Greg Bethard, Michael McGilliard and Dana Tomlinson, Zinpro Corporation, G&R Dairy Consulting, and Virginia Tech University.

"Integrating Productivity and Whole Farm Efficiency to Achieve Environmental Sustainability - Judith Capper and Dale Bauman, Washington State University and Cornell University.