Evan Schnadt Milton, Wisconsin Dairy Performance Programs Specialist ABS Global

Tracey Renelt Watertown, South Dakota Extension Dairy Field Specialist South Dakota State University

The beginning of 2012 has seen significant changes in U.S. ethanol policy. The VEETC blending credit and a tax on ethanol imports both expired on December 31, 2011, and U.S. ethanol industry groups have shifted their political weight toward initiatives like E15 and advanced biofuels. Although these developments improve Brazil's access to the U.S. ethanol market in 2012, the reality is that the Brazilian cane industry may struggle to fully satisfy even its own domestic demand in 2012 owing to a sharp downturn in cane production and an uncertain outlook for output growth.

Picture this: A man who lives on an upper floor of an apartment building comes home late at night and starts to undress. He first takes off one shoe and drops it loudly on the floor, waking up the occupants on the floor below. He is struck by the thought of his sleeping neighbors and remembers to be quiet. To that end, he takes off the other shoe and sets it down carefully and silently. What seems like an eternity passes before his neighbor, who has been lying awake all this time, yells up, “Enough already! Drop the other shoe!”

Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW) is celebrating its 20th year in 2012, including its 20th Business Conference. Progressive Dairyman interviewed with Shelly Mayer (right), dairy producer and PDPW executive director, to talk about how the organization has evolved and what it means to be a “professional dairy producer” today.

Click here to download a pdf of the latest checkoff watch, provided by Dairy Management, Inc. PD

James De Jong (right), agriculture analyst for Rabobank N.A., began his morning seminar echoing how important the export market is to the U.S. dairy industry for 2012 and beyond. “Without this global market we would not have been able to grow at the rate we are accustomed to in the U.S.,” De Jong said. The U.S. dairy industry is highly linked to the global market. To exit that market would mean contracting the industry by 8 to 10 percent, a feat that would be detrimental to most dairymen.