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Bonus Depreciation Provision for Businesses 2010-2012 - US  5/5/2011
 

President Obama signed House Bill H.R. 4853 (Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010) into law on December 17, 2010. H.R. 4853 includes a two-part extension of the bonus depreciation provision for all businesses, regardless of size. The potential tax benefits may be useful for your customers. We want to let you know about this bill now, because some of its provisions will apply to qualifying assets (including software) put into service in 2010, 2011 and 2012. We encourage you to review this bill and its implications together with a qualified tax advisor.

 On December 17, 2010, President Obama signed into law House Bill H.R. 4853. This new law could allow businesses to claim bonus depreciation on 100% of the cost of qualifying assets (including software) acquired and placed into service after September 8, 2010 through December 31, 2011. This law could also allow businesses to claim bonus depreciation on 50% of the cost of qualifying assets placed into service after December 31, 2011 through December 31, 2012. This bill was signed in an attempt to encourage capital investment through 2012.


THE CONTENTS OF THIS ARTICLE WERE WRITTEN AS A CONVENIENCE TO YOU. THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE TAX ADVICE FROM FEED MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS™ OR ITS EMPLOYEES AND REPRESENTATIVES. IT IS OF A GENERAL NATURE ONLY AND IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR CAREFUL TAX PLANNING AND ADVICE. THIS ARTICLE IS NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE A COMPLETE ANALYSIS OF ALL TAX CONSIDERATIONS RELATED TO H.R. 4853. AS SUCH, ALL READERS ARE URGED TO CONSULT WITH THEIR OWN TAX ADVISORS CONCERNING THE U.S. FEDERAL TAX CONSIDERATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH H.R. 4853, AS WELL AS ANY CONSIDERATIONS ARISING UNDER THE LAWS OF ANY STATE, LOCAL, OR OTHER TAXING JURISDICTION.

THIS ARTICLE WAS NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN TO BE USED, AND SHOULD NOT BE USED, BY ANY READER FOR THE PURPOSE OF AVOIDING U.S. FEDERAL OR OTHER TAX PENALTIES, OR FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROMOTING, MARKETING, OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED MATTERS.
Informational Article -April 2011
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Reportable Food Registry Compliance Guide Available from AFIA   10/13/2009
 
Reportable Food Registry Compliance Guide Available from AFIA

The Reportable Food Registry was created by Congress in the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007.

On Sept. 8, 2009, the Food and Drug Administration announced the opening of an electronic portal for reporting “reportable foods,” the term the act uses to describe products that have the reasonable potential of causing or having caused a serious, adverse health consequence or death in humans or animals.

This legal standard that originally appeared in the Bioterrorism Act of 2002 is best described in the FDA’s Class recall found here. By looking at the Class II and Class III recall standards, firms may determine if a product event could be classified as a Class I recall and thereby become a “reportable food.”

With its legal counsel, the American Feed Industry Association created a compliance guide for member-firms to turn to when determining how and when to report a “reportable food.” There still are some issues to be clarified by FDA, and this guide details them. As with previous such guides, FDA is likely to provide updates occasionally, and AFIA will pass the updates along to members as they occur.

The new provision applies to all feed, pet food and feed ingredients, and firms must report to FDA within 24 hours a “reportable food” once the firm determines that a product is a “reportable food.”

For instance, if a customer reports to a firm that there are animal deaths and alleges the firm’s feed is the cause, that claim does not automatically make the firm’s feed a “reportable food.” In the normal course of verifying customer complaints, the firm will take samples, look at its records and may talk to experts about the feed the animals consumed and the customer’s on-farm practices—all of which assist in helping the firm determine if the feed was the cause of the animal deaths.

If the firm decides that, indeed, its feed did cause the animal deaths, then the firm has 24 hours to report that finding to FDA using the electronic portal.

AFIA’s guide describes how the portal works and what is required for reporting. You may access the guide here.

You may access FDA’s Question and Answer Guide with this link.

You may access the electronic portal and begin reporting a “reportable food” using this link.

For more information about the Reportable Food Registry, contact AFIA Vice President Richard Sellers at rsellers@afia.org or (703) 558-3569.
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AFIA Safe FeedSafe Food Program  9/2/2009
 

Give your customers “Peace of Mind” with this seal.

FMS recognizes and congratulates customers who participant in the American Feed Industry Association Safe Feed/Safe Food Certification Program.

The American Feed Industry Association, the world's largest organization devoted exclusively to representing the business, legislative and regulatory interests of the livestock feed and pet food industries, established the Safe Feed/Safe Food Certification Program in 2004. The mission of the Safe Feed/Safe Food Certification Program is to establish and promote generally accepted food safety guidelines designed to ensure continuous improvement in the delivery of a safe and wholesome feed supply for the growth and care of animals.

The Safe Feed/Safe Food Certification Program is a voluntary, third-party-certified initiative designed for feed mills and feed- and ingredient-related facilities in the United States and Canada. The program establishes comprehensive standards of excellence that go beyond existing regulations to show leadership and maximize food and feed safety. Communicating food safety risks to the industry, building consensus among the segments of the industry, continuing the education process and enhancing consumer confidence in the feed and food supply are all important aspects of the program.

Healthy, productive animals mean a safe, sound food supply. And it starts with "Our Responsibility, Our Promise" to provide the best feed for dairy and beef cattle, swine, horses, poultry, fish and companion animals.

For more information: http://www.safefeedsafefood.org/main/home.cfm?Category=Home&Section=Main

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10 Ideas That Will Change Poultry Nutrition and Health  7/28/2009
 
In the view of one prominent poultry scientist, nutrition is on the edge of breakthroughs.
Poultry nutrition is "on the cusp" of breakthroughs that will make production more efficient, according to Dr Peter Ferket, professor of poultry science, North Carolina State University. "Efficiency has become the mantra of everyone" because of the economic crisis, Ferket said at the first WATT Online Animal Nutrition and Health Forum April 29.

Here is Dr. Ferket's Top 10 List of Future Developments:
  • Computational knowledge to optimise poultry nutrition programmes
  • Replacement feed ingredients
  • Enhancement of nutritional value of feed by enzyme supplementation
  • Nutritional effects on gut ecology
  • Nutritional modulation of gut "health"
  • Pronutrient synergy
  • Feed science and nutrient utilisation
  • Neonatal or perinatal nutrition
  • Nutrigenomics
  • Epigenetic programming
  • We invite you to read the details on the above mentioned points in the recent Watt Poultry USA article link we have provided.

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    Do You Make The Grade? A Report Card for Your Feed and Grain Business  4/16/2008
     

    Feed & Grain Magazine has recently published a series of articles that may be of interest to management staff of feed manufacturers.  We’d like to share the link to the articles with you.

    How do you rate your businesses performance in key areas of emphasis as management, personnel and finances? In this first issue, we examine ways to evaluate performance and take actionable steps to improve your business.In part two, we look at several new metrics you can use to rate your businesses performance in key areas such as business planning, marketing and communications. We examine ways to evaluate performance and take actionable steps to improve your business.  
    Contributors: Dr. John Foltz & Dr. Christine Wilson

    Visit this link to Feed & Grain Magazine and view the complete series of articles and helpful scorecard templates.

    http://www.feedandgrain.com/publication/bio.jsp?contribId=5&pubId=1

     

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    Technology, specifically the full suite of FMS products, allows Form-A-Feed to create specific rations for customers, process feed orders and invoice products electronically, control inventory and costs, and communicate with their Joint Ventures to provide superior products, services and value to the producers at an economical price. "If we don't keep up with technology, everyone suffers. It requires us to perform every job that we do here at FAF better, faster and wtih fewer errors."

    - Marty Nelson Jr.
    Form-A-Feed,
    Stewart, MN