Misunderstanding the changing workforce in this country could be as damaging to your dairy as low milk prices. Below are some comments I hear; please check the ones you think are true:

A number of milk prices are published each month. They include: Class I, II, III and IV; Class I Mover; butterfat, protein and other solids; quota and overbase; producer price differential; and blend. All of these prices are important and contribute to determining the price dairy farmers receive for their milk production. But at the end of the month, the most important price to a dairy farmer is the mailbox price. This is the milk price paid to dairy farmers for their milk production after all deductions.

Idaho passed a new state law this year that would make it a misdemeanor crime to interfere with agriculture production by entering a private facility without permission; obtaining its records by force, threat, misrepresentation or trespass; videotaping without consent or due process; or intentionally causing physical damage or injury to the farm, its animals or equipment.

A massive beef recall linked to the processing of cull dairy cows at a California slaughterhouse appears to be an isolated case in which the federal meat inspection system failed, industry participants say. Earlier this year, the USDA issued a recall of nearly nine million pounds of beef produced at the Rancho Feeding Corp. plant in Petaluma, California. The recall amounted to a full year’s worth of production at the plant that was later shut down.