Digest Highlights: ‘Dream Act’ seeks to protect young immigrants. Negotiators asked to defend cheese names in NAFTA. Health and taste have biggest impact on consumer choices for milk. FDA urged to act on imitation dairy labels. A Pew report reviews antibiotic alternatives. Find a summary of these and other news here.

The USDA’s monthly Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy) calculations showed a slight improvement in June. Milk and feed futures prices point to continued improvement through the remainder of the year.

As the dairy industry expands and moves to larger operations, it opens several new avenues of opportunity. For Dan Cooper it was the perfect, though unsuspecting, outlet that combined his interests of biomedical technology, medicine, the outdoors and animals.

The first-in-the-nation indoor feed mixing center on a dairy to feature a drive-over commodity delivery bridge was on display in July at TLK Dairy in Mountain Home, Idaho.

The University of Illinois will be offering dairy and forage classes in the fall 2017 semester.

AGCO, a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of agricultural equipment, and The Climate Corporation, a subsidiary of Monsanto Company, announced on July 26 that a definitive agreement has been signed for AGCO to acquire the Precision Planting LLC equipment business.

Future production success begins as early as the first day of a calf’s life. This is especially true when looking at the functionality of a calf’s immune system. Supplementing specific, functional fatty acids has proven beneficial to one-week-old calves’ immune systems, growth, and performance. When calves are born, their immune system is not fully developed and depends upon colostrum antibodies to develop immune function. The most recent USDA NAHMS survey has attributed the leading causes of calf loss to gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases.

One of the many things my mother has taught me in life was how to feed calves. I don’t recall how old I was at the time, but I do remember that when I offered, she was happy to show me how.