Here are some of the new products or updates to previous products that have been announced as of January 13, 2011. Return to this section of the Progressive Dairyman website periodically to find out what new products will be impacting the dairy industry.

The well-being of the 2011 forage crop will depend on whether producers alleviate some of the stresses caused by past management concerns, according to Purdue Extension forage specialist Keith Johnson.

Darrel J. Aubertine, a former state legislator and a lifelong Cape Vincent, New York, dairy farmer, will be nominated to serve as the Cuomo administration's top agriculture official.

Mark McCormick has watched many of the farms in his community shut down in the past three decades, but McCormick has been determined not to join that fate. It hasn’t been easy, keeping his dairy going. But he and his family have been doing it since 1839, when Christopher McCormick moved to Java, New York, and started farming. That McCormick would leave in the fall to work in New Orleans before returning for the spring planting.

The Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) has approved Alltech’s application for Sel-Plex 1000. This approval makes Sel-Plex 1000 the third product Alltech has listed with OMRI.

At the end of December, the FDA released a first-of-its-kind report on the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals. In issuing the report, the FDA said: “For the first time the report provides the agency and the American public with concrete data that are important for supporting efforts to track antimicrobial use trends and to examine how such trends relate to antimicrobial resistance.”

It is commonly believed that the disastrous dairy farm income situation in 2009 was caused by a “collapse in demand,” especially in the export markets for U.S. dairy products. This is not correct. Total dairy product consumption, both domestic and international, actually grew strongly in 2009. What collapsed was the U.S. dairy industry’s ability to compete in the growing world market in 2009. The resulting collapse in U.S. milk prices was deeper and lasted longer for U.S. dairy farmers than it would have if proper export marketing tools had been available. The immediate cause of the problem in 2009 was a 1.7 percent drop in total commercial disappearance of U.S. dairy products resulting from a 22 percent drop in commercial exports.

Failure often is succeeding at the wrong thing. Complex projects and programs seldom are fixed by single or limited solutions. Whether it be a government regulatory system, a military campaign, a sporting event or running a dairy farm, there are always a lot of things that can be improved or even need fixed. And to complicate things further, there is no correlation between the effort and the result. The big fixes can bring little improvement, while the small yield great change.

It’s surprising to see the many different things people do to save money on a dairy. It’s also very interesting to see how some systems work well and others create chaos. We could look at some examples! 1. Paper towels versus cloth towels for wiping cows’ udders 2. The pros and cons of speed milking 3. To have a night cowman or not This piece is going to give you some definite ideas to help you avoid being “penny wise and pound foolish.”