As I travel across the country and talk with dairymen, there is a growing interest in risk management, and buying put options are overwhelmingly the favorite strategy. Producers are attracted to this strategy because it is flexible but still offers price protection if the market should decline. Along with producers, I hear a lot of interest in this hedge strategy from lenders, accountants and other industry professionals. In order to give you some perspective on this hedge strategy, below is some historical information.

As I grew up, one of my favorite lunches was a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of alphabet soup. My sister, brother and I used to have contests to see who could spell their name or the longest word with the noodles – lots of fun and good for you too, right? Well, it seems that the “alphabet soup” of government regulatory agencies is certainly descending on the feed and animal ag industries recently. FDA, EPA, OSHA, DNR, USDA, CVM and FSMA are just a few of the agencies or programs who “know what is good for us.” But if you had a visit from one of them or an occasion to work through changes due to new, revised or more strictly enforced regulations, I’m pretty sure you would not classify the experience as “fun.”

You’ve heard the saying: “The captain goes down with the ship,” right? But with all of the safety standards and regulations that exist today, did you ever think that this concept would actually apply to a situation in your lifetime? Until recently, I never thought it would. But all of that changed when the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia ran ashore and capsized a few months ago. As of this writing, 30 bodies have been recovered, two people are still missing and the cruise liner’s captain, Francesco Schettino, remains under house arrest.

Each and every one of us wants and needs feedback, often dreads receiving feedback and is frequently uncomfortable giving feedback. Few of us really understand feedback or manage the process of providing feedback. This column will assist you in selecting the appropriate performance consequence. We begin with a definition of feedback from dictionary.com: “The return of information about the result of a process or activity; an evaluative response.” We constantly give and receive feedback, if not explicitly, then implicitly.

During the first half of my career, I worked as a dairy nutritionist primarily in Ohio and the eastern Corn Belt, and believe that experience has greatly improved my ability to consult in the business and financial side of dairy operations. I now occasionally have the opportunity to work with my former nutrition clients and am reminded of a conversation that took place many years ago. I walked into the office of one of my prospective nutrition clients for an appointment and found him very agitated. The conversation went something like this: DAIRYMAN: Greg, it may not be a good day for us to talk.

In analyzing the cost to irrigate a crop or provide water to your barn, there are various factors that influence both short-term and long-term expense. All of the costs associated with pumping can be reduced by properly designing, constructing and testing the well. The most basic factor influencing short-term production cost is pumping head: The greater the pumping head, the higher the cost will be to pump the well. Pumping head can be divided into two categories: actual head (determined by the pumping water level in the well and the distance and elevation change to the field where the water will be applied) and artificial head.

Rising crop and livestock prices have generated significant profits for many farmers – which some are using to buy additional land. The increased demand has driven land values to record highs in some areas. Given these market conditions, the American Bankers Association’s Agricultural and Rural Bankers Committee, comprised of leading agricultural bankers in the country, has developed these recommendations for buying farmland and reminds farmers to consult with their banker throughout the process to ensure decisions you make today best position you to prosper and obtain the credit you may need in the future.

Environmental factors such as temperature and light influence dairy cow productivity and health. Heat stress during lactation accounts for 10 to 25 percent of milk production loss on average. If you were milking cows this past summer, you can probably agree with that. In the upper Midwest, we faced a 4-pound to as much as a 30-pound drop in milk production. It’s easy to quantify the effect of heat stress on milking cows, but how can we really know its effect on dry cows? Does it even have an effect? During the dry period, the udder cells are recovering from the previous lactation and preparing for the next. This is the time to replace the old milk secretory cells and grow new cells that will support milk production in the next lactation. Heat stress during this important time of cell turnover can dramatically impact transition into the subsequent lactation.