This week is the middle of the five-week voting period for California milk producers to decide whether they want to become the Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) system’s newest and biggest member
Over the next decade, California widened its lead dramatically in both categories. The high watermarks came in 2008 at 16.73 billion pounds and 592,000 cows. But things have changed a lot since then
These are changing and challenging times for the nation’s largest milk-producing state. All of California’s major dairy industry measurements are declining and point to a future that is filled...
The Golden State is known worldwide as a top producer of hundreds of crops and commodities. Due to the rich, abundant soil and ideal, long growing season, California farmers and ranchers have benefited
The “white wave of milk” that swamped California dairy cooperatives for decades is gone.Rapid expansion that began in the Golden State in the 1970s came with a 24/7 problem for co-ops
California is the nation's top exporter. One day each week, every U.S. cow produces milk destined for a consumer outside of America's borders. While that statement is accurate, cows in California are working...
The downturn in California milk production during 2015 is almost unprecedented. For 30 years in a row (1979 to 2008), total output in the nation's largest dairy state went up. Gains were usually large,...
Pull up a chair and get very comfortable, because the official USDA hearing to gather testimony about establishing a Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) in California is going to be a marathon
Yes, there is a "price penalty" for dairying in California, as noted in the June 23 Hoard's Dairyman Intel "A price penalty for dairying in California." The current California system is the penalty. The...
Maybe it was the inch or so of rain that had fallen during the previous several days, or maybe the perpetual optimism that goes with being a farmer of any kind. Either way, there was no panic about the...
Yes, California's pricing system is killing its dairies Leading cheese maker believes the reason isn't low prices, but the system itself. By Hoard's Dairyman Staff If the headline of this article looks...
California's pricing system is killing its dairies Some are already gone. More will follow. The big question is, how many can be saved? The greatest milk-producing machine the U.S. dairy industry has ever...
California and Wisconsin account for 34 percent of the nation's milk. However, market forces impact milk checks differently. The dramatic upward runs in grain prices over the last 18 months have hampered...
California's largest dairy cooperatives have renewed a plea for help to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), warning that survival of the state's dairy industry is at risk
Bad has turned to worse for milk producers in the nation's largest dairy state. Few, if any, California dairies managed to fully recover from the 2009 cost:price crisis before another outbreak in 2012
Over the years, nothing has repeatedly brought out the spirit of cooperation between dairy cooperatives like low milk prices and tough times. Adversarial attitudes arrive when times are good, but working...