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Digest Highlights: New Zealand culling herds with Mycoplasma bovis. More cottonseed should be available. Florida FMMO surcharge approved to cover hurricane costs. Find a summary of this and other news here.
With the lagging depressed prices in the U.S. dairy industry, the Wisconsin Farmers Union decided to host five meetings across the state in March to bring farmers together to speak about potential opportunities to stabilize dairy prices.
The fate of a proposed Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) in California is now in the hands of the state’s dairy farmers. The USDA published a Federal Register notice advancing the proposed FMMO to a producer referendum, April 2 through May 5.
Winter injury occurs someplace in Wisconsin every year. Being able to diagnose and manage winter-damaged stands may help prolong stand life and increase production. Below is a brief discussion on diagnosing and managing winter-damaged alfalfa.
Editor's note: USDA announced the sign-up period for the 2018 Margin Protection Program for Dairy will be open from April 9 to June 1.
On the back of falling milk prices and increasing feed costs, February 2018’s Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy) national average margin fell to the lowest level since June 2016, at $6.88 per hundredweight (cwt).
The recent unpleasantness and uncertainty in the dairy industry has caused me to reflect a good bit in the past few weeks. My family was fortunate to know the pleasure of dairy farming in a more hospitable time. Markets were stable and prices allowed for personal growth and enjoyment; it really was “the good old days.”
When the acres of pasture, grass hay, alfalfa, corn and sorgum silages, and grazing wheat in the plains are all added up, forages account for by far the most acreage of any US crop. In fact, land used for grazing is over 780 million acres – equal to 40% of the entire land area of the US and nearly double the land used for other crops of all types. Add to that the 61 million acres of alfalfa, 15 million for corn and sorghum silages, then add in the grass hays and others, and you can see that forages comprise the vast majority of US cropland. And yet, it could be said that forages continue to be neglected when it comes to fertilization.
When the acres of pasture, grass hay, alfalfa, corn and sorgum silages, and grazing wheat in the plains are all added up, forages account for by far the most acreage of any US crop. In fact, land used for grazing is over 780 million acres – equal to 40% of the entire land area of the US and nearly double the land used for other crops of all types. Add to that the 61 million acres of alfalfa, 15 million for corn and sorghum silages, then add in the grass hays and others, and you can see that forages comprise the vast majority of US cropland. And yet, it could be said that forages continue to be neglected when it comes to fertilization.
As temperatures began to drop below freezing, southern Idaho livestock producer Justin Place of Place Farms had doubts about the field of cold-tolerant berseem clover he was trialling as a break crop and whether it would survive.
