Competition is dialing into the export hay market, said U.S. Forage Export Council (USFEC) Director John Szczepanski at the California Alfalfa and Forage Association Symposium in Reno, Nevada.

U.S. President Donald Trump joined Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in signing the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) during the G20 Summit Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov. 30. And, President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping declared a 90-day truce in an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China, with the U.S. putting on hold an increase in import tariffs scheduled for Jan. 1, 2019.

As the end of the year approaches, don’t miss the opportunity to prepare your agribusiness for the upcoming year and for the tax season. Whether you want to diversify or grow your operation in the new year, taking a step back and assessing your operation and its long-term financial health is a critical step in planning for 2019. The tax filing deadline for Federal Income Tax Returns is Monday, April 15, 2019, so now is the perfect time to begin organizing your receipts and financial paperwork to kick-start the new year on the right foot. In this article we discuss three key steps to prepare your agribusiness for year-end, as well as tax tips to keep in mind during filing season.

ParlorComp (part of the new VAS Platform) and its desktop companion ParlorWatch are at the forefront of dairy production management. These software technologies are capable of improving the quality and consistency of milk production today — but additional advancements now available have the opportunity to further raise the bar on quality and result in less waste/wasted profit.

USDA and FDA officials reached an agreement Nov. 16 declaring that cell-cultured meat will come under joint oversight from both agencies.

“Hello…er…what was your name again? Yeah, Pete, that’s right. We’re sure glad to have you starting today, two guys left last week and I did most of the milking over the weekend. Put your stuff down over there, here’s a pair of gloves, let’s get in the parlor.

During times of tight margins and economic uncertainty, investing into your business can seem risky, if not impossible. With lenders and consultants telling you to cut expenditures, it’s tempting to put all capital investments on the back burner.

The Dairy Profit Monitor (DPM) is a monthly tool designed to help dairy producers watch their income over feed costs (IOFC) along with other key operating and financial measures. Producers input information from their milk checks, feed and herd management programs, as well as costs and labor hours of the dairy.

Higher milk prices and steady feed costs pushed October 2018’s Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy) margin to its largest of the year. There will be no MPP-Dairy payments at any level for the month.

As dairy producers have become increasingly aware of the significance of current labor issues, much discussion has revolved around labor costs and increasing minimum wages. Although cost has significant implications in the labor topic, understanding how and where employees spend time may be more important than the cost per hour and value of employees themselves.