TRENDING: EXPORTS, TRADE Having ended the previous year on a high note, many dairy analysts believed exports would be key to reversing slumping U.S. milk prices.

TRENDING: NEWSWORTHY IN 2018 New York summit supports dairy supply management About 350 participants, about half of whom were dairy farmers, attended a summit to explore dairy policy and marketing options in New York on Aug. 13.

TRENDING: SAFETY NETS The heavy lifting on dairy safety net reforms – which many were targeting for the 2018 Farm Bill – got some advance help when program changes were inserted in a federal budget bill signed into law in early February.

With a desire to feed top-quality nutritious hay and increase their return on investment, Lars and Ingrid Steunebrink from Kirkton, Ontario, found themselves a new way to dry hay.

A well-maintained skid-steer loader can be one of the most dependable, versatile and highly productive machines in a busy dairy operation.

There are many reasons a person might sell farm equipment. You might have become an executor to an estate; you may be a farm operator wishing to liquidate for cash, upgrading, downsizing or retiring.

Regardless of the season, utility tractors are typically the workhorses in many operations. Keeping tractors serviced properly is time and money well spent to ensure efficient operation and peak performance.

Most of us can relate to what happens when a man tries to get behind the steering wheel of a vehicle after a woman’s been driving. He has to slide the seat back.

Year after year, we listen to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and swoon with wonder at his understanding of the human condition. The three ghosts, Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future, come to all of us in some form or another. In the autumn of my life, I am plagued with all three at one time.

As our industry’s main events – such as World Dairy Expo, NAILE, NDB/NMPF/UDIA joint annual meeting, the Dairy Girl Network Forward TogetHER and more fall conferences and events than I can type – come to a close, we gear up for year-end and the holiday season.