Seven Hills Dairy was announced as the first place winner for the 2012 Business Plan Competition, which is part of Ohio's Muskingum County Business Incubator. Conducted annually for the past seven years, the Business Plan Competition is a contest for start-up businesses, as well as existing businesses less than 2 years old. It requires the development of a business plan and projections along with a 15-minute presentation promoting the new business. For winning the grand prize, Seven Hills Dairy was awarded $5,000 in cash and another $5,000 in services.

Crescent Dairy & Beverages is set to invest more than $30 million to establish a new ultra pasteurized beverage processing facility in Colleton County, South Carolina. The initial production output of the facility, which will include an ultra-high-temperature (UHT) beverage processing equipment, is anticipated to be mainly for export markets.

According to a new market research study, the global market for soy and milk protein ingredients was estimated to be worth 8,500 million in 2010 and is expected to cross 13,000 million in 2018. The study analyzes the current and future market potential for soy and milk protein isolates, concentrates and hydrolysates in terms of applications, price trends and product specifications.

Byrne Dairy hopes to build a yogurt plant and visitor center on a 127-acre site in Cortlandville, New York. The facility could bring 80 jobs at first and potentially hundreds more in the future. "If you're going to be in the dairy business and you're going to be in the business of making dairy products, you're going to need to be in the yogurt business in this country," said Byrne Dairy CEO Carl Byrne.

USDA's Agricultural Research Service soil scientists Matias Vanotti and Ariel Szogi have filed U.S. Patent Application #13/164,363 for an invention that could help change on-farm nitrogen management. It’s a system that uses gas-permeable membranes to capture and recycle ammonia from livestock wastewater before the ammonia goes into the air. The two scientists, who work at the ARS Coastal Plains Soil, Water, and Plant Research Center in South Carolina, found that they could use these membranes to reduce ammonia emissions from livestock waste and capture concentrated liquid nitrogen that could be sold as fertilizer.

Alfalfa is a productive and vigorous forage crop. Alfalfa is high-quality forage commonly fed to beef cattle, sheep and horses, and it can be also used for green chop and silage. Alfalfa is a cool-season perennial legume with up to 36 inches of growth and a deep taproot well adapted to dry conditions. Most tillers arise from the crown. Leaves are trifoliloate with serrated leaflets at the tip.

California Dairies, Inc. (CDI), Dairy Farmers of America Western Area (DFA) and Land O’Lakes, Inc. (LOL) have submitted a petition to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) requesting an emergency public hearing to consider a change to the Class 4b pricing formula. The petition specifically requests a temporary modification to the sliding scale that translates market prices for dry whey into higher monetary contributions to the California Class 4b price. This change to the Class 4b milk pricing formula would remain in place for 12 months and would represent the full value of whey as contained in the federal class III pricing formula.

Replacing key employees or hiring a new herdsman can cause turmoil for you and the rest of your workers. When necessary, promoting good workers from within your staff to key middle management positions works better than hiring an “unknown quantity” from another dairy. Not only do you know more about a potential candidate because he or she has a history with you, but you also have a person who is already familiar with you and the “culture” of your dairy. However, the adjustment required by both you and the employee is significant and the preparation to make the change should not be underestimated.

The Animal Agriculture Alliance has added to its board of directors and executive committee. Mark Etienne (Potash Corporation), Billy Frey (Alltech), Scott Oler (Vance Publishing Corporation), Paul Matzat (Genus/PIC) and Kathy Simmons (National Cattlemen’s Beef Association) recently joined the list of 27 board members. Jeff Cannon (Diamond V) and Jamie Jonker (National Milk Producers Federation) were added to the board’s executive committee. Current chairman Chris Ashworth (Elanco Animal Health) welcomed Paul Pressley (U.S. Poultry & Egg Association) as the alliance’s new chair-elect and Sherrie Niekamp (National Pork Board) as treasurer. Kristi Krafka, vice president of regulatory affairs and quality assurance for the animal nutrition and health division of Kemin in North America, will serve a two-year appointment as the chair of the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) Feed Regulatory Committee.