“Acres and Avenues,” a checkoff-funded initiative to protect and grow public trust in dairy, has launched to advance the conversation and help people reconnect with dairy farmers who produce our nation’s milk and dairy foods.

Every year, 7 million children starve to death. Is this sad? Yes. Were many of you shocked by that? Probably not. What many of you may not know, however, is that hunger isn’t just a third-world problem; it’s a first-world problem too.

World Dairy Expo brought together more than 72,000 individuals from around the world Sept. 29 to Oct. 3. While each came with unique experience and ambitions, this year’s central theme, “Dairy in our DNA,” drew on attendees’ shared interest in the dairy cow.

Progressive Dairyman editors Walt Cooley, Karen Lee, Peggy Coffeen, Lynn Jaynes, Jenna Hurty and Emily Caldwell had their eyes peeled at World Dairy Expo this year to bring you another round of “cool stuff we saw.” Here are their observations and new products that caught their attention.

As many of you already know from reading previous articles about our farm and family, you know that we rotationally graze our cattle. It was in the late 1990s when my husband, Peter, came home to farm with his dad. As they got into grazing, he started doing research about what breeds thrive in a grazing situation.

Casey Kasparek, an artist from Alton, Illinois, entertained World Dairy Expo attendees with his unique feed art.

The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, established under the leadership of dairy farmers, is accepting nominations for the fifth year of the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards. The awards recognize outstanding dairy farms, businesses and partnerships for socially responsible, economically viable and environmentally sound practices.

Improving the validity of animal science research can have wide-reaching effects, including improving understanding and application of current knowledge, improving the quality of data for use in reviews and meta-analyses, and allowing other researchers to better identify questions for further study.

U.S. beef imports were up 32.5 percent in the first seven months of 2015. This follows a beef import increase of 31 percent year over year in 2014.