The USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has processed about $155.3 million in year-to-date indemnity payments issued under the Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy). One group of dairy farmers, those who enrolled in a separate Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy (LGM-Dairy), won’t see any of those payments, even though MPP-Dairy program changes may have been made after they made other risk management decisions.

The USDA’s July World Ag Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report substantially reduced milk price outlooks for 2018 and 2019, while also cutting milk production estimates for both years. Although tempered by lower expected feed costs, lower milk prices will likely weaken producer margins, resulting in lower cow numbers and slower growth in milk per cow, according to the report.

Oregon ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven are now back at the family ranch after a full pardon from President Donald Trump released them from a Southern California federal prison July 10.

Most Progressive Cattleman readers’ pickups are a little over a decade old.

Through some recent life events, I have come to familiarize myself with the acronyms MSHA and OSHA. Before this year, I had never heard of MSHA; I knew OSHA had something to do with safety because I often heard cowboys say, “This probably isn’t OSHA approved,” while doing something fairly dangerous.

What do you do with a problem that is undefinable, hard to understand and lacks a consensus? That’s the constant challenge facing the beef industry because it describes perfectly the issue of sustainability.

July deworming is a frequently overlooked opportunity to control nematode (worm) infections and increase calf weight gains. Many cow-calf producers deworm their cows in the spring. The addition of a July deworming of cows and calves has been shown to provide seasonal control of worm infections in late winter- or early spring-born calves. Calves gain more weight and are heavier at weaning as a result of improved worm control during summer grazing.

Tim Moffett, writer of the Manure Spreader column for Progressive Dairyman, is releasing his first album through a production company owned by famed comics Larry the Cable Guy and Jeff Foxworthy. Moffett has been doing comedy as “Tim the Dairy Farmer” for 16 years.

History tags him as the giant collector. His name was Fredrick the First of Prussia, and he had a passion for giant soldiers, which he collected from throughout England.