The Wisconsin Holstein Association has scheduled this year’s Barn Meetings for March 24, 28 and 30 and April 1. All meetings will start at 11 a.m. and will feature presentations by Dr. Chris Booth or Dr. Matthew Dorshorst on reproductive tools and current reproduction protocols.

Behind every American farm family is the backbone of the operation: the farm mom. Monsanto is honoring her contributions to her family, farm, community and industry with the 2011 America’s Farmers Mom of the Year program.

National Dairy Herd Information Association (DHIA) recognized Harlan Borman, Kingdom City, Missouri, with the H. Victor Joachim Distinguished Leadership/Martin A. Wilson Memorial Award on March 16, in New Orleans, in conjunction with the association’s annual meeting. This award goes to a DHI dairy producer and/or spouse who has held a leadership position in DHIA or the dairy industry, and rendered outstanding and unselfish service for many years, along with a notable contributions to advancing DHIA in the U.S.; or, is a worthy person who has been employed in a DHI management position for at least five years and has been dedicated to improving DHIA.

Steve Schram, AgriLabs president and CEO, announced that AgriLabs has aligned with ImmuCell Corporation for the development, sales and marketing of certain current and future products featuring ImmuCell's First Defense bolus. “This collaboration furthers our commitment to make available relevant and technically driven products that get newborn calves off to a strong start," Schram said. “The arrangement bolsters ImmuCell's ability to reach more calves with First Defense products, and fits AgriLabs business model of collaborating with companies who can benefit from a broad reach sales and marketing organization such as AgriLabs."

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) has revised its popular standard for agricultural machinery management data.

The revised standard, ASAE D497.7, Agricultural Machinery Management Data, simplifies fuel consumption equations. This standard is used in conjunction with ASAE EP496.3, Agricultural Machinery Management; to report typical tractor values for tractor performance, implement power requirements, repair and maintenance costs, depreciation, fuel and oil use, reliability for field operation, probable working days, and timeliness coefficients as measure by experiment, modeling or survey.

The corn market, along with most other commodity and financial markets, was negatively impacted by the uncertainty created by the natural disaster in Japan and on-going conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East. The Japanese situation is especially important for corn since Japan is the largest importer of U.S. corn.

Part of a relatively new state program aimed at preserving farmland would be eliminated under Gov. Scott Walker's budget to help erase Wisconsin's $3.5 billion deficit over the next two years. Proponents of the program say the move by Walker would deal a severe blow to efforts to permanently protect agricultural land from development. Walker's 2011-'13 budget proposal recommends eliminating the purchase of agricultural conservation easements program and $12 million in borrowing that was approved in 2009 to help fund the program.

Corbitt Wall's USDA Livestock Grain Market News feeder cattle report for March 18.

Click here to download a pdf of the latest export watch provided by the U.S. Dairy Export Council. This update highlights world prices at three-year highs.

Here are some of the new products or updates to previous products that have been announced as of March 18, 2011. Return to this section of the Progressive Dairyman website periodically to find out what new products will be impacting the dairy industry.