Digest Highlights

• USDA suspends livestock RFID plan
• Animal activists may be posing as Census employees
• 12 named to National Dairy Board
• FSA county committee elections set to begin

The USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) continues to update 2019 Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) enrollment numbers, and dairy producers have about seven more weeks to sign up for 2020 participation.

Digest Highlights

• Agri-Mark implementing base program in 2020
• Lawsuit seeks to block USDA cattle eartag requirements
• Bill targets reduction in farmer suicide rates
• California ‘quota’ Phase 2 meetings rescheduled
• USDEC in Mexico this week
• House proposal provides student loan forgiveness for young farmers
• USDA offers organic dairy compliance course

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include market commentary. September 2019 U.S. milk production grew by about 1.3% compared to the same month a year earlier, ending an 11-month streak in which monthly year-over-year growth was less than 1%.

A petition drive to make whole milk available for school children is being circulated by Grassroots Citizens for Whole Milk for Healthy Kids. About 6,450 online signatures and 3,000 paper signatures had been gathered as of Oct. 21.

America’s dairy producers are an important part of our rural communities and local economies. Dairy producers established the Professional Dairy Producers Foundation, an educational foundation, in 2002 to ensure our family dairy farms remain viable and socially responsible for generations to come.

Despite the ongoing challenges of declining fluid milk consumption, the picture of the health of the dairy industry is much brighter than the doom and gloom conjured from selective use of data.

Digest Highlights

• August fluid sales volume gets better grade
• Global Dairy Trade index steady
• Texas dairy farmer elected to lead USDEC board
• Idaho Milk Products completes expansion
• Grant funds MD & VA partnership project
• Friedly named Southeast and Florida FMMO market administrator
• CalBio and Bloom Energy to generate electricity from dairy waste

October is National Co-op Month, and a good time to review how dairy cooperatives stack up among the leading cooperatives of all types in the U.S.

The USDA has clarified that acreage seeded to alfalfa-and-grass-mixture forage crops is not eligible for federal payments under the Market Facilitation Program (MFP).