Federal safety net programs are designed to protect farmers, who actively share in the risk of a farming operation, against unanticipated changes in the marketplace. Farmers who receive such payments are...

The 2015 national feed situation is off to a not very encouraging start, thanks to the March 31 Prospective Plantings report from USDA.According to the report, total corn acreage for the year is forecast...

Frustrated by the clear lack of progress after three years from the "Beef Checkoff Enhancement Working Group," USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced he would take matters into his own hands. The secretary's...

by Corey Geiger, Managing Editor Frustrated by the entire beef industry's inability to come together and enhance the Beef Checkoff program that dates back to 1985, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack told members...

New practices have been put into place to make the nation's favorite form of beef safer than ever. Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced updated...

by Corey Geiger, Managing Editor Even though the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding now calculates all U.S. genetic evaluations, it is clear USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) laboratory in Beltsville,...

Unlike New Zealand's Fonterra Cooperative, which controls over 90 percent of the nation's dairy product trade, the U.S. has a competitive environment with numerous manufacturers that compete openly for...

Great article from Nina Bakht Halal. She certainly shares how important it is for the U.S. cooperatives and independent processors to be on the ground in all the export counties of the world. What so many...

Data collection for the national dairy survey will begin in early 2014. by Abby (Huibregtse) Bauer, Hoard's Dairyman Associate Editor Dairy producers across the country will be asked to participate in...

It's a simple choice for dairies and other farms: take part in all environmental-related discussions or let others make decisions for you that you'll have to live with. What may turn out to be a crucial...

Last month brought some fairly significant changes to our genetic evaluation system that will have long-term impacts on genetic selection opportunities for dairy producers. The two largest changes involve...

It's a study that is cited in almost every issue of Hoard's Dairyman. Those who author herd health, milk quality and facilities-related articles frequently use the NAHMS Dairy 2007 study as a reference

Milk production in October per cow up one pound. Milk production in the top 23 states has been extremely consistent the past three months when comparing this time frame to last year's data. Looking at...

In 1989, a major breakthrough in sperm sexing was reported by USDA scientists in rabbits. Insemination of rabbit does with Y-chromosome-bearing sperm resulted in 81 percent males, whereas insemination...

USDA projected a larger-than-expected U.S. corn and soybean crop in their year-end "Crop Production 2011 Summary" released early Thursday. Most market analysts had anticipated that final 2011 corn estimates...

The Daily Beast (www.thedailybeast.com), an online news site which merged with Newsweek this year, printed their list of the "20 Most Useless College Majors." Let's just say, we don't think they nailed...

We planned to provide more information on groups that help form the farm bill today, but instead will save that for future Wednesdays. Two of our editors had the opportunity to spend the week at the American...

In recent years, it seems that more opinions have given credence to the notion that raising high-producing cows in freestall barns, storing manure in lagoons, and storing silage in bunkers are all better...

Milk production for 2012 is forecast to climb as the decline in milk cows is expected to be offset by growth in milk per cow, according to USDA's World Supply and Demand Estimates released yesterday. Although...

The trend has been up for a long time, and yesterday's much-awaited Crop Production and Grain Stocks reports did nothing to cool the feed-cost fire. According to USDA, 2010 corn production totaled 12.4...