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Digest Highlights • Wisconsin dairy herds slip below 8,500; task force members named • National Dairy Board appointees named • June global dairy price index weakens • Whole milk buffers May fluid milk sales decline • FDA to enforce dairy labeling regulations • ADC urges FDA action on ‘milk’ labels • State Farm Bureaus press imitation dairy labeling issue • ‘Choose PA dairy’ promotional materials available • ADC seeking support for another dairy labor bill • CMPB launches kid-based milk promotion campaign

The USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has processed about $155.3 million in year-to-date indemnity payments issued under the Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy). One group of dairy farmers, those who enrolled in a separate Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy (LGM-Dairy), won’t see any of those payments, even though MPP-Dairy program changes may have been made after they made other risk management decisions.

The USDA’s July World Ag Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report substantially reduced milk price outlooks for 2018 and 2019, while also cutting milk production estimates for both years. Although tempered by lower expected feed costs, lower milk prices will likely weaken producer margins, resulting in lower cow numbers and slower growth in milk per cow, according to the report.

Tim Moffett, writer of the Manure Spreader column for Progressive Dairyman, is releasing his first album through a production company owned by famed comics Larry the Cable Guy and Jeff Foxworthy. Moffett has been doing comedy as “Tim the Dairy Farmer” for 16 years.

Digest Highlights: • Dean Foods becomes majority shareholder of plant-based Good Karma • Land O'Lakes, CalBio form ‘barn to biogas’ partnership • June Class III, IV prices change little • August California Class 1 prices fall • MPP-Dairy margins forecast: Payments possible into October • Grain stocks, use both higher

You’re busy – milking cows, managing employees, making hay. In our regular conversations with our team of editorial advisers, we learned they not only wanted a recap of dairy news, but they were seeking brief insights into how that news might impact their dairy business going forward.

Board members of Agri-Mark, a major dairy cooperative in the Northeast, are asking for federal support for the U.S. dairy industry in light of burdensome supplies and tariff wars that have sent milk prices plummeting. The co-op has also scheduled a national meeting for mid-August to consider policy and market options as dairy farmers struggle through another year of below-breakeven milk prices.

May 2018 turned in another strong month for U.S. dairy exports, with total sales volumes the third highest on record. However, with retaliatory tariffs on dairy exports now in place, foreign sales, and prices, are already being impacted.

Editor’s note: The following commentary appeared in the June 30 California Milk Producers Council newsletter. It is reproduced with permission here. By a vote of 86 to 11, the U.S. Senate passed its version of the 2018 Farm Bill last Thursday, June 28. The House passed its version by a vote of 213 to 211 on June 21. A conference committee of House and Senate members will now meet to reconcile the differences between these two bills and produce one bill that will be considered by both chambers.