A dairy producer may occasionally ask, “Why is my community against me?” Of course, angry residents will always attack a dairyman about his level of environmental stewardship or animal care. However, on a local level, a large dairy can also have socioeconomic impacts producers should not ignore.

Producers all over the country are proud to dairy. Another producer has found a new way to share that pride at her local fair.

It would be nice to have a crystal ball to predict what 2010 will bring for the dairy industry. After getting through the past several months of high feed costs coupled with low milk prices, there are still feelings of uncertainty and uneasiness on how we will contend with events in the new year. While we can all hope for a year of relief from volatile markets, we certainly cannot expect market stability. Therefore, you should continue to make business decisions with caution.

Everyone knows that the highest- paid position in pro football is the quarterback. But who gets the second highest pay on an NFL team? Forget about the flashy names of runners and receivers or even kickers and punters. Don’t think about the defense either. The second-highest-paid position is the left tackle.

The past 10 months have been some of the most challenging times the dairy industry has faced in over a generation. With low milk prices combined with high feed costs, many dairy farms have suffered significant losses throughout 2009. Although we have seen some seasonal improvement recently, it appears that the suffering will continue into 2010.

Good relationships among family members are important for successful two-generation farming arrangements. Poor communication starves a relationship while good communication nourishes it. So improving communication skills is important for success. But this doesn’t just happen. Both the receiver and the sender must work at developing verbal and listening skills.

Fostering teamwork on your dairy is critically important to maximize milking parlor performance. More than half the workers on most dairies are milkers. Milkers work in shifts or teams. This is the one area of dairy operations that is dependent upon teamwork to maximize productivity and profitability.

A tour offered by the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW) highlighted an array of heifer facilities in Northeastern Wisconsin on October 20. The busload of dairy producers traveled to four farms to learn about the structures and protocols implemented to raise healthy heifers.

The natural centuries-old art of dairy cow milking has undergone significant and irreversible change in the last 40 years. In the effort to maximize dairy production, owners have fine-tuned the science of feeding for maximum milk production, made other improvements in protocol, and improved milking parlor sanitation.

Dairyman Skip Hardie from the Finger Lakes region of New York has held an interest in methane digesters for quite sometime. He owns and operates Hardie Farms, along with his two partners, Steve Palladino and John Fleming.