Total farm business operating expenditures amounted to more than $187 billion in 2008, according to a recent report from USDA's Economic Research Service. Nearly half of those expenditures were spent locally....

According to current USDA estimates, 80 cents of every food dollar spent in the United States goes to off farm costs, including marketing, processing, wholesaling, and distribution. This leaves a mere...

Expect gradual improvement in milk prices and margins, according to USDA's recent Livestock, Dairy, & Poultry Outlook. Corn prices are forecast to average $3.50 to $3.70 a bushel through this crop year,...

Three years have passed since a U.S. district judge in San Francisco ruled that a more thorough evaluation of potential environmental impact was needed on Roundup Ready alfalfa. That ruling took the product...

April milk production in the top 23 dairy states was up 1.7 percent over last year, according to the USDA NASS Milk Production report released yesterday. This rise in milk production surprised many industry...

Two releases in recent days help shed light on the milk price and feed cost scene in the months ahead. USDA's monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates and USDA's Crop Production were released...

There was a 30 percent drop in the value of milk marketed by dairy farmers last year, according to the USDA-NASS publication, Milk Production, Disposition, and Income released last week. That was a drop...

Domino's is a friend of ours. Last year, the well-known delivery pizza chain launched and heavily promoted (with some help from the check-off) their American Legends pizza line which came with 30 percent...

The firestorm of public opinion that has erupted since Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed her state's controversial new immigration law a week ago appears to be occurring everywhere but in Arizona. Hollywood...

The latest USDA genetic evaluations ushered in numerous changes just three months after January's major base change. Among them were imputed female evaluations and cow evaluation adjustments which put...

Green Bay, Wis., is the site of the 5th national AgSTAR conference. For those of you unfamiliar with AgSTAR, it is a joint program between the EPA, USDA, and the U.S. Department of Energy aimed at encouraging...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced last week that $2 million will be made available to dairy, beef, poultry, and swine producers for energy evaluations. The new agriculture energy conservation...

There was a 0.9 percent rise in milk production during March in the top 23 dairy states, according to USDA's Milk Production report released earlier this week. That was the second month in a row that milk...

They're black and white (or brown) on the outside, but these days there's also a golden glow to cull dairy cows. Even as milk prices continue to slip, beef prices have been moving steadily higher most...

Interest in some type of policy to control milk production or manage milk supply growth continues to gather steam. Even some people and some organizations that have been categorically opposed to the concept...

Anyone who milks cows wants demand for their milk, and the more the better. But as producers saw all too painfully in 2008-09, expanding to meet that demand comes with risk. Recent news from the U.S. Dairy...

One of the most successful leaders of the purebred dairy cattle industry passed away April 6 just eight days shy of his 93rd birthday. James F. Cavanaugh joined the American Jersey Cattle Association in...

Farmers plan to plant a record 78.1 million acres of soybeans this year, according to the Prospective Plantings report released by USDA yesterday. That would be a 1 percent jump in bean acres. Corn acreage...

Consumer demand for dairy products slid last year - commercial disappearance was down 1.2 percent. While this may be disappointing to hear, there is one product category that is making plans for serious...

Maybe we shouldn't have been too surprised with the February Milk Production report released last Thursday. After all, milk production in January had been down just 0.5 percent compared to a year earlier....