New Zealand has followed a similar economic trend to its biggest customer, supplier, and investor, Australia, and it hasn't been pretty. But New Zealand is now beginning to mimic Australia's resource-driven...
Every day a milk truck comes to Shoestring Dairy. We exchange our normal "G'day Mate," then the friendly man hooks up the hose and pumps our cows' hard work from our tank into the truck. He prints off...
Summer starts next week, but milk prices are already sizzling… much to our continued pleasant surprise. Throughout January, February, and March we watched with some dismay as Class III price futures...
U.S. dairy exports are on the upswing, according to the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service's Summary of U.S. Dairy Exports released June 9, 2011. During the February to April 2011 time period, exports...
Most June dairy celebrations have come and gone, but June Dairy Month still has 15 days to go. Are you finding ways to celebrate, educate, or at least partake in three servings of dairy each day? With...
Our well-respected dairy products got special recognition when the USDA released its new, MyPlate nutrition education tool. The MyPlate program replaces the Food Pyramid which had been the government's...
Last weekend several members of the Hoard's Dairyman staff had the opportunity to attend and volunteer at Cows on the Concourse on the square surrounding Madison's capitol building. A dedicated group of...
Farm safety is always an important discussion topic, but sometimes we forget about farm safety when machinery leaves the farm to travel on public roads. Tractor and machinery traffic has risen now that...
Cash receipts from milk marketed last year totaled $31.36 billion. That was a 24 percent rise over 2009's $24.34 billion. Milk sales totaled $34.85 billion 2008. These numbers come from USDA's annual publication...
My hometown has a population of about 5,000 people, and it is the largest town in my county. There were almost 450 students in my high school, and the surrounding schools had fewer students and were located...
USDA finally appears ready to make a decision on national ID. According to the May 24, 2011, Wall Street Journal, "USDA wants every cow to have a unique numerical ID, stamped on an inexpensive ear tag...
Opposition to the federal government's seemingly single-minded support of ethanol production as a solution to help the U.S. become more energy self-sufficient reached a new boiling point last week, with...
While at the sixth annual AgSTAR conference last week, Jerry Bingold had plenty to announce. First, he explained all the initiatives that the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy was taking part in, and they...
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...
Delegates to the bi-annual National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments yesterday narrowly defeated a proposal to reduce the somatic cell count (SCC) legal limit from the current 750,000 cells per...
Only 13 percent of the nation's corn crop has been planted according to USDA's most recent Crop Progress released May 2. This year's cool, wet spring weather has limited farmers' ability to work fields...
Have you ever been in the middle of a huge mess or fight with no exit door? But when you think about it, you're not exactly sure what got you into the chaos in the first place? For those of us in agriculture,...
Under ideal conditions, corn will emerge in 10 days or less after planting. But, the cool, wet weather throughout much of the Corn Belt during April has been anything but ideal. Given these cooler soil...
Milk production continues to climb. Across all 50 states, milk production in March was up 2.2 percent over last year. Milk production has been above the previous year's level for 13 months in a row. Cow...
Scott Nordstrom, D.V.M., has seen it happen over and over: He cuts the number of vaccinations calves receive and then watches them do better. "One of the first things people need to recognize is there...
