We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
The National Dairy Shrine announces the winners of its scholarships for 2011. The scholarships will be presented at the Awards Banquet at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, on Oct. 6. National Dairy Shrine will provide more than $40,000 of scholarship awards to students at that event.
A native New Yorker, Ron St. John came to North Central Florida in 1986, and has blazed a trail of innovation and expansion in dairy farming ever since. St. John lives in Trenton, Florida. He owns five dairy farms, including two in Georgia, and has a new one under construction in Florida.
As a result of his dairy farming success, St. John has been selected as the 2011 Florida winner of the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award. St. John now joins eight other state winners from the Southeast as finalists for the award. The overall winner will be announced on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at the Sunbelt Ag Expo farm show in Moultrie, Georgia.
Dairy farmer Mac Pate of Maryville, Tennessee, is 85 years young. Though he has slowed down some in recent years, he still has the drive and energy that helped him develop and maintain an outstanding dairy farm.
As a result of his long success as a dairy farmer, Pate has been selected as the 2011 Tennessee winner of the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award. Pate now joins eight other state winners from the Southeast as finalists for the award. The overall winner will be announced on Tuesday, Oct. 18, at the Sunbelt Ag Expo farm show in Moultrie, Georgia.
Milk production is excellent, now at about 27,000 pounds of milk per cow per year, down a bit from a peak of 29,000 pounds. At the peak, his 200 cows produced 5.8 million pounds per year. “For two months, our cows produced more than 100 pounds of milk per cow per day,” he adds.
David Areias was recently named Ruan Transportation Management Systems’ 2010 Driver of the Year after being selected from a pool of more than 3,700 professional drivers.
Areias, who operates out of Ruan’s Turlock, California, terminal, and lives in Los Banos, California, has been with Ruan since 2006 and has logged more than 2 million miles during his 40 years as a professional truck driver.
Areias said he was surprised and honored to be nominated for the recognition because Ruan has many exceptional drivers. “You learn something new every day,” Areias said about being a professional truck driver. “Safety is my No. 1 concern. I want to go home to family every night.”
The Robert and Brenda Schanbacher family, who operate a dairy near Newhall, Iowa, will be recognized as one of six recipients of The Way We Live Award at the 2011 Iowa State Fair. PD
—From Central Plains Dairy E-News
Here are some comments Progressive Dairyman has received regarding the raw milk poll.
Yes: We need to be honest with consumers and tell them we as dairymen produce the very best product for humans, as well as bacteria. Sure, pasteurization kills bacteria, but so does old age. I have had enough of academia telling the story of raw milk is dangerous. With the right protocols, I’ll put my milk up against anyone’s, so put your milk where your mouth is. Either raw or pasteurized.
Duncan Smith
Mountain Grove, Missouri
No: I was raised drinking raw milk from my family’s own cow, and I love it. However, when you buy milk from an unknown source, you do not have knowledge of how the cow or milk product was handled. Pasteurization laws came about because of diseases that were passed from cow milk to humans. I would love to trust and believe that all human producers of raw milk took proper care of the cow and her product, but alas … this is not to be. Therefore, I would have to vote “No” to the unlimited sale of raw milk without some kind of safeguards.
Sue Bell
This spring the Western States Dairy Producer Trade Association held the Western Dairy Air Quality Symposium in Sacramento, California. Researchers from across the country presented the latest information about dairy farm air emissions.
The data was informative and overwhelming, but key take-home messages from the symposium were:
1. The dairy industry has increased its understanding of on-farm air emissions, but there is still more to learn.
2. Regulations are likely to occur but hopefully not to the extent the industry expected.
3. There will always be concern from the public about dairy farms impacting the environment.
Here are some of the new products or updates to previous products that have been announced as of July 19, 2011. Return to this section of the Progressive Dairyman website periodically to find out what new products will be impacting the dairy industry.
RSS
