The squeeze on dairy profitability has been getting tighter, and the length of this downturn is exhausting both the financial and emotional state of many farms. “What can I do?” is a common question. A key I have seen in my 40-plus years in the industry is that basics are the foundation of the farm profit. In spite of the technological advances in computers, GMOs, drones, etc., the basics mattered yesterday and they still do today. Highly digestible alfalfa is not helpful if you have not soil tested all the fields you work and applied amendments as indicated.

Atop his bay gelding, the cowboy rides through the undulating hills one last time in search of the missing calf. He is rather certain he knows the calf’s location, but the sheer pleasure of such a ride, in such a place, is worthy of the excuse.

It’s one thing to start, another to survive. What makes the difference? That may seem like a trick question with subjective answers, but ranchers will cite common denominators, tricks of the trade that apply.

Recent rains eliminated or greatly reduced drought in the eastern half of Oklahoma, but conditions in the western half of the state continue to worsen. Nine counties of northwestern Oklahoma and the panhandle have gone 155 days or more with less than 0.25 inches of rain.

Third-generation South Dakota rancher Todd Mortenson testified in a hearing of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management and Regulatory Oversight on March 8.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, announced a plan to provide payments to farmers when the national price for milk falls below $23.34 per hundredweight (cwt).

At the recent Midwest Dairy Day, held Dec. 1, 2017, in Calmar, Iowa, four dairy operations shared strategies, tips and protocols for meeting reproduction goals. Three herds have a pregnancy rate of 33 to 34 percent, while one herd has achieved an outstanding 46 percent.

In a winter in search of warmer news for dairy farmers, the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) released January 2018 sales estimates indicating dairy product exports were up 9 percent compared to the same month a year earlier.

Digest Highlights: Canada’s dairy herd is larger. California’s FMMO is back on track. Milk dumping authority extended in Northeast. Find a summary of this and other news here.

The March 12, 2018, issue of Progressive Dairyman features our annual regional snapshots of “the state of dairy” around the U.S. Expanded previews for individual regions are highlighted in this online series.