The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Tuesday an atypical case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), a neurologic disease of cattle, in an 11-year old cow in Alabama. This animal never entered slaughter channels and at no time presented a risk to the food supply or to human health in the U.S.

Northeastern U.S. dairy producers have shown remarkable resilience in the face of falling revenues, according to the annual Northeast Dairy Farm Summary. However, sharply declining asset-to-liability ratios and growth in debt per cow are worrisome, according to presenters featured during a recent Farm Credit East webinar summarizing the 2016 results.

Let’s think about what is happening today with dairy farm business owners – you: Milk prices refuse to rebound despite continuing predictions that higher prices are ahead. Many parts of the country have had excess rainfall, delaying planting and hay harvest. The divisiveness of the presidential election shows no sign of lessening.

Two recent articles about supermarkets caught my attention. The first was from the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS). ERS reports retail food prices in 2016 were 1.3 percent lower than the previous year.

When I’m looking to generate more income for a dairy, the milking parlor is one of the first places I look to create cash flow. More often than not, I find facilities, cows and employees are under-utilized, leaving milk on the table you may not even realize is there.

Good management requires good observational powers. You’ve got to see and hear, and sometimes even feel, taste and smell, to ascertain whether or not things are going as planned. Technology makes it possible to move beyond the limits of your own five senses and incorporate data – collected from cameras, ear and leg tags, and robotic milking equipment – into your management plans.

“It’s better with butter” might be a marketing theme, but it’s also true when it comes to dairy farmer milk checks.

During stressful times, it’s easy to let emotions overtake rational thinking – which can lead to poor decision-making. Throughout my nearly 25-year career, I’ve seen U.S. dairy producers feel the stress of volatile markets, increasing regulation and consumer demands.

I’m not sure who sent the stray voltage to the groundhog in February, but I think he was a little off-target this year. While spring yielded to summer early in the South, Old Man Winter clung to some parts of the country when the May flowers were supposed to arrive.

Heat stress and the problems associated with it can be costly to your dairy operation. Not only are there losses in milk production, but studies are also linking heat stress to lower reproduction rates, changes in dry matter and water intake as well as increased rates of lameness.