Digest Highlights

• Poll shows consumers want FDA to end misleading ‘milk’ labels
• Newton: Take a look at Dairy Margin Coverage program
• Court rules against Iowa ‘ag gag’ law
• ECONOMICS: Northwest dairy profitability to remain a struggle
• 2018 a solid year for farm equipment sales
• Weather, trade tariffs impact crop inputs
• INDUSTRY: Chobani launches nondairy, plant-based products
• FirstEnergy Foundation grant aids ‘Fill a Glass with Hope’ milk program
• STATES: Hawaii’s Big Island Dairy to cease operations
• Idaho dairy safety program earns nationwide recognition
• Vermont offers dairy education program grants
• New Hampshire proposal would create state label, dairy fund
• Iowa land values post modest decline
• Interest rates move higher in Dallas Federal Reserve District
• Pacific Northwest ag land values stable

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) annual analysis shows dairy consumers remain safe when it comes to animal drug residues in milk.

Digest Highlights

• Head of ADC urges government cheese drawdown
• Dairy-related programs remain suspended
• MPC seeks MFP payment application deadline extension
• Peterson to head House Agriculture Committee
• Senate ag committee chair Roberts has worked his last farm bill
• Court affirms California almond ‘milk’ ruling
• December Class III falls to 10-month low
• Dairy margins ended December flat
• Wisconsin localizes manure runoff risk forecast tool
• CDFA accepting manure management project grant applications

You’re busy – milking cows, managing employees and attending farm meetings. With that in mind, Progressive Dairyman looks at issues in the news impacting you and your dairy business.

Consumers of dairy products are the people who make the dairy industry an industry. Without the consumer buying that chunk of cheese or gallon of milk, eating a pizza, having a dish of ice cream or purchasing bakery products which use nonfat dry milk powder or whey as an ingredient, there would not be a commercial dairy industry.

Increased components and improved quality are adding to basis on milk checks, but dramatically higher hauling charges are pulling overall basis lower in the Midwest, according to Matt Lange, business consultant with Compeer Financial, Baldwin, Wisconsin.

Milk prices declined in 2018, but announced prices again didn’t tell the whole story. Marketing deductions continued to shrink basis as well.

From an award of attorneys’ fees in Idaho to a new legal challenge in Kansas, “ag gag” laws continue to be in the news. Let’s take a look back at recent legal decisions and where pending litigation currently stands.

Farmers know a lot about the microscopic elements affecting the health of their dairy herds and crops. As researchers at the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute in Marshfield, Wisconsin, we are taking a fresh look at agricultural microbiomes (the clusters of bacteria, fungi and viruses that live together) in different farm environments.

The “forests” of microbes that naturally grow in babies’ guts are increasingly recognized as key players in childhood health and nutrition.