In a ceremonial fly-over, the blasting engine of an F/A-18F Super Hornet took to the skies to help celebrate the opening of the world's largest annual agricultural expo. Pleasant, sunny, moderate temperatures...
Class III futures really took off last week with March climbing to $17.44 and April moving up to $17.10 by last Friday. The momentum continued Monday, as March was up 75 cents to $18.19. April jumped 59...
It is early February and we are just about at the half-way point in the 81st Hoard's Dairyman Cow Judging Contest. So far in 2011, you have seen the Brown Swiss and Holstein classes on our January issue...
Like many of us in the dairy business, our roots are planted deep in history. Not only did Dad grow up on a dairy farm and milk cows daily, but so did Grandpa. That story was true for Bill Payne of Knob...
Do you watch daily Class III milk futures prices at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange? We do. While it's exciting to see rosier financial prospects for the industry in 2011, we're skeptical . . . and wary....
It's just one state and it may not reflect what is happening across the rest of U.S. agriculture, but it's still good news in an industry that can certainly use some: Farmland values in Indiana are shooting...
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...
What a great kick-off to the 2011 Hoard's Dairyman Webinar Series. Yesterday's program was presented by host Mike Hutjens of the University of Illinois. Over 140 people for the inaugural live presentation,...
Just one hour. That's all it will take for you to participate in the new Hoard's Dairyman monthly webinar series starting next Monday, January 10, at noon, central time. And you won't have to go any further...
What goes into a "next year's outlook" prediction? Paying attention all year long this year, talking regularly to producers, studying the economic horizon outside the industry, tracking trends, and decades...
Between a forecast for lower milk prices and the likelihood of higher feed costs, it's hard to not have a gloomy financial outlook for U.S. milk producers in 2011. Sorry. Amid the dreariness, however,...
Rising corn prices mean higher feed bills for dairy producers, which is why a recent forecast about global oil demand points to the possibility of higher milk production costs in 2011. Connecting the dots...
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate approved (81 to 19) the big tax package that extends Bush-era tax rates and includes a number of other measures. One of those measures would extend the Volumetric Ethanol Excise...
This Tuesday, USDA released its monthly Milk-Feed Price Ratio, which was 2.22 for November, down notably from October's 2.4o. The ratio was 2.26 last November. (The Milk-Feed Price Ratio reflects the pounds...
Margins are going to be squeezed for those of us in the dairy business. The cheese and butter prices that drive our milk prices are on the way down, and corn prices are on the way up. Butter prices dropped...
Milk producers hoping for an optimistic feed outlook in 2011 got just the opposite at the Arizona Dairy Production Conference October 21. Instead of lower prices, speakers said there is a great risk of...
Although milk prices in 2011 are forecast to remain near this year's level, higher feed prices are expected to squeeze producer margins, impacting the size of the dairy herd in 2011, according to the USDA's...
I remember having to write an answer to this essay question in my high school English course. We were asked if we would rather be a second-rate artist or be known for making a first-rate soup. While most...
This year has been plagued with countless accidents that have severely injured dairy producers, or worst, taken their lives. Rollovers, auto accidents, exposure to toxic silo gas, hay bale crushing incidents,...
USDA's October forecast of milk production for 2010 is raised slightly from last month as higher milk per cow more than offsets lower cow numbers. The agency now puts the 2010 estimate at 192.8 billion...
