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While milk prices continue to rise and exports to Asian markets have expanded, many dairy farmers are still struggling with the aftermath of several disastrous years and hoping the federal government will do something to help stabilize the industry.
After milk prices plunged and farms began going under, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said a year and a half ago that the industry needed restructuring and his department would look at its programs to see what changes could be made to help create more stability.
More than 30 individuals representing Pennsylvania’s livestock industry convened in Hershey, Pennsylvania, to discuss ways to effectively work together to develop healthy, active animal agriculture coalitions committed to bolstering the state’s livestock, dairy and poultry industries.
As with any consignment sale, a lot of work goes into planning and conducting the annual Michigan State University (MSU) Spartan Spectacular calf sale. What makes the Spartan Spectacular calf sale different from the majority of similar sales is that it is completely managed by MSU students from start to finish.
From selecting consignments to arranging for the delivery of feed and straw to developing a to-the-minute volunteer schedule to complete chores, animal preparation and other routine duties, MSU Dairy Club and dairy cattle judging team members plan, organize and run the consignment sale every year.
As is tradition with our annual State of the Dairy Industry issue, the cover of this issue was drawn by an industry stakeholder. In this case, she is an important one and represents the primary audience of this magazine – dairy producers.
Editor’s note: The following news summaries highlight activity by groups that are interested in and working toward dairy reform.
Dairy Industry Advisory Committee passes policy reform recommendations on to USDA Secretary of Agriculture The member advisory committee that has been studying needed change in the dairy industry for nearly a year met for the last time in March to review and recommend proposed policy changes to improve producer profitability.
The committee’s final report contained 23 recommendations to help address dairy farm profitability and milk prices.
Last year, the world dairy market came back strong. U.S. suppliers enjoyed record export volumes, continuing a long-term trend that’s added up to 14 percent compound annual growth since 2003.
The importance of the export market to the health of the U.S. dairy industry is undeniable; one of every eight tankers of milk that rolls out of your driveway is turned into a dairy product that’s consumed overseas.
When I travel around the world, customers from Guadalajara to Guangzhou tell me they want to buy from the United States. I travel around America’s farm country and most folks here “get it” too.
He was one of the best known Americans of his time, in popularity trailing only his contemporaries Richard Nixon and Billy Graham, both of whom would play important roles in his life. He served as Secretary of the Treasury under Nixon.
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His first cabinet position was Secretary of the Navy in the Kennedy administration. He resigned that position to run for governor of Texas, which he won. As governor, he sat in front of Kennedy as they rode through Dallas in November of 1963. He, too, took a bullet from the assassin’s gun.
What is potential worth?
When you think about potential, it’s amazing how valuable we seem to believe it is. For example, think about many of the purchases and investments you’ve made. It’s easy to calculate how much an investment has returned in the past and how much it’s yielding in the present.
But one of the real reasons you choose to take on the risk of a purchase or an investment is due to the potential gains or savings it will deliver in the future. I guess technically we call that a “forecast,” but essentially we’re talking about potential.
“Take away my factories and I’ll build a new and better factory. But take away my people, and grass will grow on the factory floor.”—Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was no bleeding heart, social humanitarian do-gooder, but rather a Capitalist with a capital ‘C’ – a man whose fortune, in today’s dollars, would stir envy in the heart of Bill Gates.
Yet the immigrant industrialist was simply acknowledging that in his steel business – just as in your dairy business – people mean profit. Your organization’s ability to attract, retain and make productive the best talent available has a direct impact on your ability to grow, make money and sustain a competitive advantage.
Joe Stewart has been dancing around the edges of milk marketing for several years. In fact, in mid-2009, he was profiled in Progressive Dairyman as a producer who wanted to take his farm marketing to the next level and was unsure how to do that.
At that time, a marketing assessment from Stewart-Peterson found Joe scored a 2 in the “experience” area, one of five critical success factors for good marketing. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, experience turned out to be Joe’s chief constraint – the main thing standing in his way of marketing well.
