Nine years after a government mandate stemming from human health concerns required the Netherlands’ dairy farmers to reduce antibiotic use, the industry has valiantly risen to the challenge of tighter regulations and increased transparency.

U.S. alfalfa exports to China continue to climb, reaching 1.29 million metric tons (worth $417 million) in 2016. In terms of volume, this was an increase of 23 percent from 2015. (This is due to lower U.S. prices; however, the total value only increased by 1 percent.)

At the recent Precision Dairy Conference, Jason Troyer of RJT Dairy Farm in Centerville, Pennsylvania, spoke about his experience transitioning from milking 150 cows in a double-four parlor to milking 215 cows in a robotic milking system.

Negotiations with China regarding the details of an agreement to ship U.S. beef to China have been ongoing for the last few months, and were finalized June 12. It didn't take long for the Greater Omaha Packing Company to take advantage.

Since wildfires swept across the Texas Panhandle on March 6, 2017, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has urged farmers and ranchers affected by the fires to contact their local NRCS office in USDA Service Centers to make an Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) application for recovery assistance.

On various social media sites, the discussion of whether or not to compensate kids for farmwork comes up a few times a year. There are different ways to look at this, and I want to share with you how we handle this in our family.

Each year as the bottom drops out of the thermometer and winter storms begin to blow through, farmers come up with all kinds of creative ways to stay warm. Some of these strategies have the potential of exposing them, their families and employees to excessive levels of carbon monoxide (CO). In some cases, this exposure can prove to be deadly.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced yesterday the suspension of all imports of fresh beef from Brazil because of recurring concerns about the safety of the products intended for the American market.

Each year, we at Progressive Cattleman release our annual beef statistics poster. And each year, the data tells a different story about the work of our cattlemen and the U.S. industry. Here are a few of the highlights worth remembering in the 2017 version.