One purpose of a milk pricing system is to give dairy farmers the economic signal to produce the milk components of greatest value. For many years, our U.S. milk pricing system placed the greatest economic value on the skim portion of milk and the components in the skim, especially protein.

Despite the challenges in the dairy industry, the companies that provide and service the equipment for dairy farms remain focused on their role. Three different suppliers speak to the challenges they face and how they have adjusted their business models to continue to support their dairy farm customers.

Dairy farmers today are looking for options to diversify the farm income stream. With labor costs and milk pricing often squeezing most of the profitability from the dairy, staying in business can mean finding new ways to utilize the skills and resources you already have.

“What’s your why?” Heath Slawner, a member of Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why” team, asks. “And by why, I mean what’s your cause? What’s your purpose? What inspires you in the morning to wake up and go to work?

In 2016, OSHA finalized rules it hopes will improve the tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses. Some of the regulations that accompanied this ruling have percolated through the system, and now dairy farmers have a number of changes coming their way.

If you employ foreign-born workers on your dairy, preparing in advance for a raid by ICE is a lot like buying insurance. You hope you never have to use it, but you want it to be there if and when it’s ever needed.

There are family members and employees who use their cellphones too much these days. They are texting everyone, watching Youtube videos or getting up-to-date with their Facebook feed instead of doing what they are supposed to be doing: working.

Joe Borgerding Joe Borgerding of Belgrade, Minnesota, says he turned into a “reluctant grazier” about 20 years ago.

There are plenty of financial indicators of which dairy producers should keep close track. Milk prices, of course. Your income over feed cost is certainly important, and knowing your margins is a key to maintaining healthy liquidity. But if there’s one number that every dairy producer should know, it’s the cost it takes to produce 100 pounds of milk. Regardless of herd size or breed, knowing your farm’s cost of production could provide the answer to the crucial question: Is this the year I make an investment, or do I tighten the belt?

It should be one of the happiest days of any parent’s life: the day the son or daughter – the presumptive successor of the family dairy farm – gets married. Often unspoken, the day can also bring worry about the future of the family’s dairy farming legacy.