Stronger monthly average milk prices offset slightly higher corn and soybean meal prices to improve the income margin picture for U.S. dairy farmers in October. There will be no Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program indemnity payments at any level of coverage for a third straight month.

You’re busy milking cows and meeting with your lender to review year-end financials. With that in mind, Progressive Dairy looks at issues in the news impacting you and your dairy business.

For U.S. dairy farmers, 2019 was dominated by two things many probably wished they had a little more control over: the weather and the government.

With a fair amount of fanfare and promotion to overcome negative experiences related to its predecessor, a new “dairy safety net” was launched in 2019. Approved in the 2018 Farm Bill and based on adjustments made early in 2018 under a federal budget bill, the Dairy Margin Coverage program (DMC) replaced the expired Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy).

With U.S. agriculture feeling the brunt of trade and tariffs wars for a second year, the USDA rolled out the 2019 version of the Trade Mitigation Program (TMP).

The grocery store chain ALDI made headlines last year when it released a cheese advent calendar. Given all the buzz, we decided to create our dream advent calendar with cow and goat milk cheeses from farms across the country.

Digest Highlights

• Thanksgiving meal: Digest the economics
• December Class I base a five-year high
• Dairy margins start November stronger
• October 2019 dairy cow slaughter jumps
• Farm wages on the rise
• USDA buys UHT, evaporated milk, string cheese
• USDA dairy trade outlook shows small improvement

The EPA is making $4.8 million available to expand research into per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination in agriculture and rural areas. EPA Regional Administrator Ken McQueen announced the funding at the 2019 annual meeting of the New Mexico Farm & Livestock Bureau, Nov. 22.

A loophole in the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) is especially costly to Northeast dairy farmers raising dairy replacement heifers organically, according to Fay Benson, project manager with the New York Organic Dairy Program.

We asked our team of editors and illustrators to vote for their top images of the last 12 months. For more year-end coverage, visit our Top 25 of 2019 article.