When the kids were little and we needed a babysitter to go on a date, it took effort. After we finally found a night that worked for someone to come, inevitably something happened. An irrigation ditch flooded. We got snowed in. The kids got sick. The dog got hurt. Usually, though, the cows got out.

While lawmakers on Capitol Hill continue to debate several points of a potential 2024 Farm Bill, the general public shows a severe lack of familiarity with the proposed omnibus legislation, according to the June 2024 Consumer Food Insights report.

One of the biggest challenges facing modern society is accurately understanding agriculture and its role in our everyday lives. In an era of information being readily available, it is amazing how quickly that information can be misinterpreted or misunderstood.

As a beef producer, sustainability is defined as your continued ability to live comfortably, to maintain a way of life that you have chosen for yourself and to ensure that you can pass that way of life on to your children and your children’s children.

As a dairy producer, I thought it would be interesting to see how different consumers view the dairy industry. For this session, I have interviewed one person with no dairy experience, two with family backgrounds in dairy but no regular experience, and one with heavy farming involvement but not a dairy farmer specifically.

On March 11, 2024, the USDA announced the finalized rule regarding the use of the “Product of USA” label. The Product of USA rule allows the voluntary Product of USA or “Made in the USA” label claim to be used on meat, poultry and egg products only when they are derived from animals born, raised, slaughtered and processed in the U.S.

The U.S. milk production per capita for 2023 was 677.3 pounds, down 3.5 pounds (-0.5%) compared with 2022.

There has never been a better time than now to take the plunge in advocating for agriculture. Thanks to the generous support of the United Soybean Board, all participation fees for the 2024 Animal Ag Allies program have been waived.

When Oxford's Myles Allen talks, I always suggest it’s worth a listen – particularly when he shares information that can help improve sustainability in the cattle sector.