Heading into the presidential and Congressional elections, dairymen and farmers in general are without a farm bill. The Senate passed its version of the bill in April. And the House Agriculture Committee sent its version of the legislation to the full House for consideration in June. Despite what appears to be sufficient support to get the bill passed out of the House, the bill has not yet made it to the floor for debate or a vote. Rather than discuss the different reasons why House leadership has failed to bring the Farm Bill up for a vote (just file that under “politics”), I want to focus on what the failure to pass a farm bill means for dairy and why an extension of the current bill is probably the last thing dairy farmers need right now.

Over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that a lot of people who are highly motivated and driven to succeed “just don’t get it.” These highly productive people are focused on getting results and they expect others to be “doers” too. It seems that these go-getters have a hard time understanding why people don’t operate the same way they do. You see, they don’t need to be told more than once to get them to do something and they get frustrated when they have to repeatedly ask others to get things done.

A family with energetic boys raised cattle on a hobby farm. A well-intentioned neighbor, with decades of experience in cattle production, was critical of the “results” he saw and often shared his wisdom. One evening, as the neighbor chastised the father, the mother stepped in and said, “You don’t seem to understand. We’re not really raising cattle on this farm. We’re raising boys!”

As product and milk markets have climbed, producers are beginning to regain some sense of hope after being hit by the impact of what has become the worst drought in our lifetime. I am asked constantly whether this price move can last and, if so, how long. The quick response, of course, is that neither I, nor anyone else, have any absolute answers to those questions. There are some things worth considering, however, that can help frame our bias going forward. Most exciting among these things is the growing world appetite for dairy products.

By the end of 2011, the dairy industry thought it had taken a turn to better days, but instead it was just a “U-turn” to higher feed prices and dropping milk prices in 2012. Some operations still experiencing weak legs from the 2009 downturn might not be able to pick themselves up off the mat this time. If all of your options have been exhausted, including reorganization under Chapter 11, then you might decide it is time to throw in the towel. For those who go this route, it is very important to consult with your CPA on the tax implications of liquidation.

“You may not be interested in global macroeconomics, but global macroeconomics is interested in you, your business, your family and your personal lives,” Dr. David Kohl said recently at the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW) Business Financial Decision-Making Conference. A professor emeritus of agricultural and applied economics at Virginia Tech, Kohl explained the new normal is black swans, volatility and extremes. In order to play the game of volatility, it is important to understand the conditions that will have an impact. He went on to highlight six key game-changers to watch as we enter a new year.

In 2009, female veterinarians began outnumbering their male counterparts. Food animal medicine continues to be male-dominated but female numbers are on the rise. In 2006, food animal-predominant veterinarians in private practice were 17 percent female. That number has grown to 19 percent as of 2011, according to American Veterinary Medical Association market research statistics. It’s a trend that many in the field expect to continue. “We have been seeing a shift toward mostly female students in the past several years from when we began receiving preceptors eight years ago in our practice’s mentoring program,” says Dr. Angela Daniels. “I think that the current male predominance in food animal medicine is coming from established practitioners because, certainly, the number of people entering into food animal practice appears to be heavily dominated by women.”