U.S. milk production posted a more modest 1.3 percent year-over-year increase in March, but the subplot in the story was the USDA’s reduction in cow numbers and milk production retroactively to the start of the year.

Editor’s note: A version of this article also appeared in Holistic Management International’s In Practice magazine. Aldo Leopold is one of my favorite ecological thinkers. Leopold was an internationally recognized ecologist and conservationist who lived and worked all over the world, but whose work was particularly inspired by the landscape of the farm he owned along the Wisconsin River. Although I grew up in the corn country of central Illinois, I was drawn as a young adult to this landscape and have made Wisconsin my home for going on 40 years.

Some people breathe easy on the beach, in the mountains or at the spa. I breathe easy when I step off the plane in Texas.

The April 1 inventory of feedlots with over 1,000-head capacity was 11.729 million head, up 7.4 percent from last year. This report was very close to pre-report estimates and contained no surprises. Feedlot marketings in March were 96.1 percent of last year, just about even with last year considering that there was one less March business day in 2018 compared to one year ago. March placements were 90.7 percent of last year. While close to expectations, this placement number is significant because it breaks a string of 12 consecutive months of year-over-year placement increases.

When you look back in the past 10 to 15 years at the data trends, Choice-graded beef has been on the rise.

A growing number of farmers and ranchers are raising grass-finished beef using high-quality forages that facilitate good gain and finish without grain, creating a healthier meat product.

In the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in baleage production in the Southeast. Baleage, or high-moisture forage baled and ensiled at 40 to 60 percent moisture, may provide an alternative source of stored high-quality forage during the winter months compared with traditional hay feeding systems.

Current culture focuses on success. Topics ranging from successful parenting to business success to a successful marriage fill our headlines. What is success? Money, fame, power?

Being the first farmer in New Jersey to begin bottling fluid milk for direct sales, bringing bottling back to the state after a decade-long absence, is quite the accomplishment for young dairy farmer Jared Weeks. Weeks, along with his wife, Treacy, owns Hun-Val Dairy in Hunterdon County. The dairy began bottling their own fluid milk in 2015 and expanded into ice cream, exclusively made with milk from their herd.

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is proposing to update its branding requirements for cattle entering the U.S. from Mexico.