LAREDO, Texas -- Agriculture Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Edward Avalos visited livestock inspection facilities on Oct. 14 and announced new efforts to protect the livestock trade between the United States and Mexico. After touring a temporary inspection facility in Laredo with Congressman Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, Avalos announced that USDA will be opening a temporary cattle inspection facility in Eagle Pass, Texas, the third temporary facility opened since the suspensions earlier this year.

Some producers are seeing significant re-growth in wheat fields this fall, and it can provide excellent late-season grazing for cows and weaned calves.

It’s a recurring nightmare. Dairy producers shocking their CIP system in hopes to get it clean. Too many times we hear about the gory details, instead of a happy ending. Such is the case with a Wisconsin farmer milking almost 900 cows, three times a day. He was shocking his system every Saturday, hoping to reduce bacteria counts. In order to shock the system with an alkaline/chlorine base product, this producer pinched off the hose leading to the acid base product, because the two products are not compatible.

Water is essential for life and is the nutrient needed by all mammals in the largest quantity. Water is important for various body functions, in temperature control, and in the production of milk. Milk contains 87% water. Limitations in availability of clean, fresh, and high-quality water can limit milk production quicker than a deficiency in any other nutrient. Water intake also regulates feed intake. Thus, understanding the importance of water and how to effectively manage your dairy feeding system to provide adequate water intake is very important. Important management concepts to achieve this objective include the following.

If you’re in the dairy business, you’ve no doubt seen the grim results of an acute case of coliform mastitis. The fever; hot, painful udder swelling; grossly abnormal milk; lack of appetite; and shock-like symptoms are difficult to watch and even harder to forget. Often, severe cases like this lead to loss of a quarter, at best; and loss of the animal, at worst. We tend to think of these sporadic cases as the only instances in which we deal with coliform mastitis. But, in fact, about half of all clinical cases are caused by noncontagious environmental organisms, including E. coli, Klebsiella and Enterobacter, which fall together under the umbrella of coliform or gram-negative mastitis.

As we face the everyday challenges of operating a dairy enterprise, hiring, integrating and retaining employees are probably some of the key activities that, if done well, will help ensure the success and sustainability of the operation. With an ever-increasing number of immigrants working in dairy operations, how we integrate this talent and how we retain the best will help us reach these goals. Immigrants might have some different needs when it comes to integrating into your operation, but when it comes to retention, the way it is addressed pretty much applies to all employees. People are people anywhere in the world. When you ask what really satisfies people and what makes them stay at their jobs, not surprisingly, the answers are very similar.

Dairy Policy Action Coalition lobbyist and spokesman Dennis Wolff recently spoke with Progressive Dairyman Editor Walt Cooley about the Pennsylvania-based organization’s agenda to ‘clean up’ dairy policy. Wolff discusses the group’s recent efforts to lobby Congress to increase the frequency of dairy product price reporting. Q. How did DPAC get started? WOLFF: A group of dairy farmers started it about 10 months ago with the help of Bernie Morrisey and Sherry Bunting. This was basically a group of producers who wanted less talk and more action. That would be the reason why it is called the Dairy Policy Action Coalition.