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U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett in Sioux City, Iowa, has rejected a lawsuit that sought to expand access to raw milk.
Bennett dismissed the two-year-old case filed by a nationwide group of raw milk drinkers, producers and distributors. The lawsuit contends that the Food and Drug Administration rule allowing only pasteurized milk to be sold across state lines violates their constitutional rights to travel freely and decide what to feed their families.
The American Bankers Association’s (ABA) annual Farm Bank Performance Report showed that farm lending posted solid growth during 2011. The nation’s 2,185 farm banks increased farm and ranch lending $3.8 billion or 5.6 percent in 2011, for a total outstanding balance of $72.3 billion.
"The growth in farm loans shows banks continue to meet the credit needs of both large and small farms and remain the most important supplier of agricultural credit," said John Blanchfield, senior vice president and director of ABA’s Center for Agricultural & Rural Banking.
The Senate Agriculture Committee is expected to vote on a new Farm Bill later this month, and National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) is ramping up its efforts to ensure that the provisions of the Dairy Security Act are included in the Senate legislation under consideration.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Farm Safety 4 Just Kids (FS4JK). The organization has promoted farm safety to more than 6 million people through local programs and education since 1987.
Over the past 25 years, FS4JK has established a network of more than 120 chapters across the U.S. and Canada that offer farm safety presentations on a local level. In that time, 35,600 volunteers donated 280,000 hours of their time to help promote safety on the farm.
The Idaho State Department of Agriculture will be lowering the current Somatic Cell Count (SCC) tolerance of 500,000 to 400,000 effective June 1. The Rule change will be considered a temporary Rule until it is finalized in the 2013 Idaho Legislative Session.
The change, the first by any state in the nation, was endorsed by both the Idaho Milk Processors Association and the Board of Directors of the United Dairymen of Idaho.
David Valadao was raised in Hanford, California, where he grew up working on the family dairy, which was started in 1973. Now, Valadao serves as the managing partner of Valadao Dairy.
The business consists of two separate dairies, as well as over 1,000 acres of farmland in Kings and western Tulare County, on which David and his brothers grow alfalfa, corn and wheat as feed stock.
Farmers are coming off one of their most profitable years in history and few expect a repeat, according to the latest DTN/The Progressive Farmer Agriculture Confidence Index.
DTN surveyed 500 farmers and ranchers across the country between Feb. 27 and March 9.
Farmers rate their present situation at a strongly positive value of 140.2; at 108.5, their overall survey value reflects cautious optimism. (A value of 100 is considered neutral with higher values indicating optimism and lower values indicating pessimism.)
On the other hand, expectations for the next 12 months were notably pessimistic at 87.4.
This article was #7 of the Top 25 most well-read articles on www.progressivedairy.com in 2012. to jump to the article. It was published in the April 11, 2012 issue. Click here for the full list of the Top 25.
PD Editor Emily Caldwell got a behind-the-scenes look at a robotic dairy start-up, where consultant Paul Berdell walked the Leech family of Virginia through transitioning their 240-cow herd to four Lely robots.
If you read or watch much news – especially if it relates to the upcoming election – you have been getting a hefty dose of conflicting views and positions. But there are still some things that everyone should be able to agree on.
Consumer response from news reports about lean finely textured beef (LFTB) trimmings, dubbed “pink slime” by food critics, pushed the beef industry and its allies, including the USDA, into a high gear public information response.
But those campaigns may have started too late, as meat production plants using LFTB were forced to cut jobs and close some operations due to the public’s response.
