“It’s better with butter” might be a marketing theme, but it’s also true when it comes to dairy farmer milk checks.

With monthly milk production reports suggesting weaker growth in milk per cow, the USDA’s latest World Ag Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report made further cuts to 2017-18 U.S. milk production forecasts. However, less production didn’t translate into a more optimistic outlook for farmer milk prices.

Editor's note: The CEO Corner contains editors' compilations of business news from top publications, which they have tailored for the dairy industry. Don’t tell me you’ve never done this before: It’s a blistering day and you’re standing in the farm store parking lot. You ran into town because you just needed that one part to fix a pump or a gate. Now you cannot find your truck keys … until you look through your locked driver’s side window to see them patiently waiting for you on the seat or in the cup holder.

The CEO of a major farmer-owned dairy cooperative in Washington state told a congressional panel today that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has created jobs and increased sales for his company and the entire U.S. dairy sector, and that a renegotiated treaty must maintain market access to Mexico while also fixing trade challenges with Canada.

The names on Rabobank 2017 Global Dairy Top 20 list haven’t changed much from a year ago, but the world’s largest dairy companies are taking different paths as they focus on the future.

Digest Highlights: Utah ‘ag gag’ statute ruled unconstitutional. HP Hood buying former Müller-Quaker yogurt plant. Find a summary of these and other news here.

The recently announced bilateral free trade agreement between the EU and Japan FTA is a threat to U.S. agricultural exports, according to American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) economist Veronica Nigh. Japan has long been a key U.S. market, consistently ranking as the fourth-largest market for U.S. agricultural products, despite high tariffs on many agricultural goods. However, EU-Japanese trade negotiations went into “hyper-drive” after the Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations in January.

Editor's note: The CEO Corner contains editors' compilations of business news from top publications, which they have tailored for the dairy industry. “As the CEO, you have to realize you can’t do everything yourself anymore,” says Michael Dubin, as recently quoted in the July/August issue of Inc. magazine in an article he wrote himself titled “How I created a billion-dollar company.”

May 2017 U.S. dairy product exports hit a two-year high, but U.S. agriculture turned in a rare trade deficit during the month. And, a new trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and Japan threatens U.S. dairy sales to one of its major buyers.

This month’s VAS DC305 tip of the month is on heat stress. We are entering into that time of year where heat abatement is extremely important. Cows that suffer from heat stress will produce less milk, conceive less often, stand longer and become lame, eat less, have smaller calves and are more susceptible to diseases.