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Dry weather in New Zealand sent global prices higher in the first two months of the year, but heavy supplies accumulated in 2014 still hang over the market.
Oceania prices for whole milk powder and butterfat jumped more than 30 percent in three months. Skim milk powder prices improved as well.
Earlier this year, the UDSA released national and state-specific data about the percentage of operations choosing to use the Margin Protection Program for Dairy Producers or MPP-Dairy.The program was created in the 2014 Farm Bill, and sign-up for the program began in Sept. 2014 and ran through Dec. 2014.
Editor’s note: This text is edited from its original version to fit this space. Visit the Program on Dairy Markets and Policy website to read the paper in its entirety.
This article summarizes and discusses information the USDA has released about enrollment in the Margin Protection Program for Dairy Producers (MPP-Dairy).
All that glitters is not gold. Especially for Google Glass.
If you have been to an industry meeting or conference this winter, wearable technology is being touted as the “next big thing” in agriculture. From smart watches to Bluetooth technology to Google’s smart glasses (Google Glass), it’s all hands-free communication.
For Dr. Luke Miller, the farm manager at Vierra Dairy Farm in Hilmar, California, the answer is yes; cloud-based data storage is right for their dairy. Although the process is not complete yet, Miller has been busy transitioning the 2,000-cow dairy over from DairyComp to the cloud.
If you’re like me and seeing a little more gray on the top or you have an occasional ache or pain you didn’t used to have, you are probably not in the millennial generation.
No, I was not born between 1982 and 2000, which are the traditional boundary years that define generation Y. (I was 19 years old in 1982. You can do the math.)
In our business, we are continually consulting with dairies to recommend the most energy-efficient equipment on the farm. Many farms are starting to take a closer look at their operations and taking steps to improve efficiency.
A financial study analyzed 2103 data from five millionaire model dairy farms (MMDF) and 10 organic dairy farms (ODF). These farms are located in northeast Iowa, southwest Wisconsin or northwest Illinois.
The farms may or may not be representative of the industry because in both groups the farms were selected based on their willingness to supply data or familiarity by extension personnel.
Brian Houin of Homestead Dairy LLC in Plymouth, Indiana, attributes the operation’s growth and success to smart planning and detailed data collection. Houin, along with Joel Gawronski, Ryan Rogers and Matt Houin, own and manage a herd of 3,500 milking cows on three locations. Houin shared the details of the farm’s management success at the 2015 Pennsylvania Dairy Summit on Feb. 4 in Lancaster.
Today’s agriculture industry faces a number of new challenges. From global issues such as feeding a growing population to more specific, farm-level issues like how to treat a sick calf, today’s producers hold a wealth of knowledge and years of forward thinking.
