Holstein Association USA is proud to announce nine U.S Registered Holstein herds that have qualified for the 2011 Herd of Excellence recognition. These herds have all achieved the rigorous criteria to qualify for this honor, as follows: must be 25 percent above breed average Mature Equivalent (ME) for milk, fat, and protein; must have classified within the last year and have an actual average classification score of 83 points or higher; must have at least 70 percent of the herd homebred; and must be enrolled in the Association’s TriStar program.

DAIReXNET, the national web resource for the dairy community, now has a presence on Facebook. The group hopes to use the social networking website to cultivate a dialogue with viewers, and use feedback and commentary from that forum to improve what they offer on www.extension.org.

The incredible turbulence we have faced and continue to face in the dairy industry serves notice for the need for management to go to a new, higher level. Albert Einstein’s admonition holds: “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” I believe that for most dairy farms and agribusinesses, quality assurance is a key to achieving this new, higher level.

The USDA’s report of World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) released on May 11 refocused the market’s attention on world crop production and the implications for re-building U.S. and world stocks. The report reflects prospects for some modest increase in world feed grain stocks and prospects for maintaining world wheat and soybean stocks. However, substantial uncertainty remains.

If the cattle industry received the same government support as the ethanol industry, ranchers would get generous subsidies to raise their stock, the American public would be mandated to consume certain amounts of beef and most foreign cattle would carry punitive import tariffs. Of course this is not the case. Ethanol is the only industry that benefits from such a triple crown of government intervention: its use is mandated by law, oil companies are paid by the federal government to use it and it is protected by tariffs. I believe it is time to end this outdated policy that is fiscally irresponsible, environmentally unwise and makes our country more dependent on foreign oil.

If you’ve ever managed a team or even been a part of one, you probably know firsthand how challenging it is to get all your people to move together in the right direction at the same time. And although most managers rank employee management as the most important part of their job, they tend to avoid it because it’s also the most challenging aspect of their job. Ironically, managing employees becomes more and more difficult as a result of avoiding this huge challenge from the very start. So let’s be honest with ourselves. When it comes to work, most of us tend to do the jobs that we like to do first and save the jobs we don’t enjoy doing for last. And employee-related issues usually fall to the bottom of the list. Sure, most of the time you have a perfectly good reason for not dealing with employee management issues. The truth is that you’re probably really busy taking care of all the other important jobs you’re responsible for.

Food safety is truly an issue that affects every American citizen. Foods could be used as vehicles or carriers to deliver infectious agents or toxins in a terrorist attack.