Mayfield Dairy Farms has announced that the company's visitor center in Braselton, Georgia, will reopen to the public on Friday, Nov. 9. The center has been closed since last fall while the company looked for ways to make it more economically viable.

Back by popular demand, the 2012 Group-Housed Calf Systems Symposium will be held Dec. 12-13, 2012 at the Doubletree Hotel in Syracuse, New York. This innovative conference, organized by the PRO-DAIRY Program at Cornell University, will kick off with an evening session on Dec. 12 designed specifically for those producers who are new to using a group feeding system. The day-long symposium program on Dec. 13 is devoted to understanding the cause of diseases, particularly the effect of environment, and what the impact of changes to that environment through barn ventilation approaches may be.

The University of Wisconsin – River Falls, home to one of the largest undergraduate dairy science programs in the U.S., has announced a collaboration with China Agricultural University (CAU), located in Beijing. Both institutions are recognized as among the finest in their respective countries for quality and strength of programming in dairy science and related fields.

Lancaster Dairy Farm Automation is sponsoring a unique highlight to the 2013 PA Dairy Summit – four-time Pittsburgh Steelers Superbowl champion Rocky Bleier will be the featured guest at the evening reception for dairy men and women. “Rocky Bleier's story is about 'fighting back' and overcoming what must have seemed like insurmountable odds to achieve in the career he chose,” said Summit Chair Keith Spicher of Kish-View Farm in Belleville, Pennsylvania. “Every dairy family in the country demonstrates that same determination to succeed in the industry that they are passionate about.”

The American Hereford Association (AHA) announces a breed-specific DNA profile enabling genomic-enhanced expected progeny differences (GE-EPDs). In partnership with GeneSeek, a Neogen Corporation Company, the Hereford GE-EPDs are powered initially by the GeneSeek Bovine 50K and soon available through the GeneSeek Genomic Profiler (GGP). The availability of the Hereford GE-EPDs is a direct result of a multi-year collaboration between AHA, National Beef Cattle Evaluation Consortium (NBCEC), the USDA, Meat Animal Research Center, Iowa State University, global Hereford associations and GeneSeek.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the head of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, is optimistic that Congress will vote on a $500 billion Farm Bill soon after the Nov. 6 election. Her outlook is based in part on a comment made by Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., during his Oct. 24 fundraising visit to Boise, Idaho. Cantor said that the House will vote on a stalled Farm Bill during the post-election lame duck session.

Organic dairy farmers and University of Minnesota experts will collaborate on a new study aimed at improving dairies’ profitability through improved pasture production, best management practices for animal comfort and more milk production. The project, headquartered at the university’s West Central Research and Outreach Center at Morris, brings farmers together with experts in animal science, entomology, agronomy and economics. A $1.9 million grant from the USDA is helping fund the four-year project.

Garelick Farms is ending production at its Bangor milk-processing plant and laying off 35 employees. Garelick Farms' parent company, Texas-based Dean Foods, says production will be phased out over the next two months and that the facility will close permanently in January. Dean is keeping open Garelick's distribution plant in Bangor, which has 38 employees.

Effective today, the Alliance of Western Milk Producers, a coalition of California dairy processing cooperatives representing 60 percent of California’s milk, will cease to function. The Alliance members, California Dairies, Inc. (CDI) and Dairy Farmers of America Western Area (DFA), have determined that a formal organization is no longer necessary to accomplish a concerted effort of California cooperatives.