A cold front hangs over the country both in terms of temperatures and the near-term outlook for dairy markets. Meanwhile, the USDA updated milk prices, feed costs and income margins from November.

Digest Highlights: National Dairy Board gets new appointees. Pennsylvania cuts over-order premium. California dairy digester deadline nears. Find a summary of this and other news here.

The dairy industry is volatile and unpredictable, and that isn’t likely to change. Dairy managers must embrace and adapt to that mentality to be successful, Michael Swanson, ag economist with Wells Fargo, told dairy producers attending the 2017 Vita Plus Dairy Summit, Dec. 6-7, in Madison, Wisconsin.

It's a new year! I'm sure we all got a few goodies for Christmas, maybe a new pair of boots or coveralls … maybe a can of tuna fish (don't ask, but yes, it was wrapped).

Clichés we should drop from our everyday speech might include, “It is what it is.” I actually used that in an email today and thought, “That’s a stupid statement.” It’s a five-word waste of breath, a 16-character waste of keystrokes. Of course it is what it is – what else would it be?

A fundamental goal to a successful harvest season is that “everyone goes home at the end of the day – whole, healthy and ideally in better shape and condition than at the start of their work day.” There is also a very real financial side to a successful and safe harvest. Prevention of accidents and their resultant injury and illness reduces your annual worker’s compensation bill.

Recordkeeping – the term conjures up hours of office work and data entry. It’s the nemesis of many a productive farmer, a nightmare of paperwork and frustrating computer programs.