The news earlier this summer that Amazon is purchasing Whole Foods struck the food industry like a thunderclap. The one-time trendsetter in natural and organic food retailing is now being swallowed up by an even bigger disruptive force in e-commerce retailing.

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It was a beautiful, sunny, summer day when 120 women and a few men gathered at Road View Dairy in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, for the 2017 Vita Plus Chick Day on Aug. 16.

People issues can be a make-or-break proposition for your dairy. How do I know this? I’ve spent more than 38 years in the dairy industry. Wow, the time has gone by fast. I still have a desire to go to the barn at 4:30 every morning, and I love it as much as I ever did.

The American Farm Bureau Federation and American Farm Bureau Insurance Services have been working collaboratively with other partners to develop a new insurance product for dairy farmers. The proposal is for a Dairy Revenue Protection (Dairy-RP) policy.

One purpose of a milk pricing system is to give dairy farmers the economic signal to produce the milk components of greatest value. For many years, our U.S. milk pricing system placed the greatest economic value on the skim portion of milk and the components in the skim, especially protein.

For Charles and Ellen Coblentz and their sons, there is no such thing as too many irons in the fire. Milking 500 cows, farming more than 8,000 acres, raising 1,000 head of beef and running a fertilizer business means everyone is all hands on deck all the time.

Three years ago, Indiana dairyman Brian Houin walked by all the colorful milking robots on display at World Dairy Expo and thought to himself, “They’re for smaller dairies, not larger ones.”

Despite the challenges in the dairy industry, the companies that provide and service the equipment for dairy farms remain focused on their role. Three different suppliers speak to the challenges they face and how they have adjusted their business models to continue to support their dairy farm customers.

From cowside data to automated milking systems, dairies today are more technology-driven than ever before. But behind each box and button is a milking equipment dealer who has invested in their own future and that of the industry by leading the charge of change.