AFACT, a grassroots group formed in 2008 by dairy producers frustrated by the restricted use of bST and one that defended unfair or unwarranted interference in farmers’ production management choices, recently informed its members the group will disband and turn the remainder of its nearly $10,000 operating budget over to a non-profit trust account funding the Holstein Association’s Young Dairy Leaders Institute. Progressive Dairyman Editor Walt Cooley spoke with one of AFACT’s former co-leaders Liz Doornink, who now works in business development with Stewart-Peterson, about the changes and the group’s legacy.

Maximizing your forage supply will be extremely important this year due to tight supplies and high prices for replacement forages. Be sure to use forage analysis on all your forages frequently this feedout period.

While paying off-farm professionals to trim feet on your herd may be cost-effective, relying upon them to treat lame cows is probably not profitable. Lame cows produce less milk, suffer from pain and may become chronic problems unless the issue is dealt with immediately and treated correctly. Waiting even a couple of days for your foot trimmer to return and treat a lame cow is much more costly than training one of your workers to handle lame cows as part of the work routine.

For the fourth year in a row, leaders in the dairy industry will gather in Lexington, Kentucky from Dec. 6-8, for Alltech’s Global Dairy 500. In 2011, the Global 500 will move into uncharted territory, venturing into a world of opportunities and challenges, and exploring the dairy industries' future landscape.

Dairy producers can assess their risk for a violative antibiotic residue in milk and meat by using a new online tool from Pfizer Animal Health. The short, 10-question self-assessment takes only a few minutes to complete and is now live at www.AvoidResidues.com/Assessment.

The National Dairy Promotion and Research Board (NDB) honored Earl Horning as the 2011 recipient of the Richard E. Lyng Award for his dedication and distinguished service to dairy promotion. Horning, a dairy producer from Manchester, Michigan, was recognized at the Joint NDB/National Milk Producers Federation/United Dairy Industry Association (UDIA) Annual Meeting in San Diego, California.

The final session of a three-part webinar series titled “What’s ahead for dairy in 2012” will be held on Monday, Nov. 28, from noon to 1 p.m. CDT. Registration for the webinar, hosted by the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW), is required by Nov. 21.