Digest Highlights: The milk pipeline to the Southeast filled despite Hurricane Harvey, but now Hurricane Irma may be on the way. Wisconsin sent 17,000 pounds of cheese to Houston food banks. Saputo is acquiring Southeast Milk’s ELS fluid business. Work advances on California quota plan. Find a summary of these and other news here.

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) launched a “Peel Back the Label” campaign to focus consumer attention on “fear-based” food labels.

Dairy markets are moving on from the dog days of summer. Time to review as we kick off the new season.

The enrollment period for participation in the 2018 Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy) is open Sept. 1, but don’t rush into your Farm Service Agency (FSA) office just yet. And, U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue has given dairy farmers another option – they can opt out of MPP-Dairy altogether next year.

The impact of Hurricane Harvey on the Texas dairy industry should be minimal. However, dairy producers feeding cottonseed could likely see short-term impacts on availability and price, according to marketers contacted by Progressive Dairyman.

The percentage of dairy operations using computers hasn’t changed much in recent years, but dairy farmers continue to move toward higher-speed internet connections when and where it is available, according to a biennial USDA report.

Digest Highlights: Milk deserves income insurance options similar to crops. Canadian mid-year cow and heifers numbers up slightly. McDonald’s sets antibiotic framework requirements for suppliers. There’s an updated Spanish language Form I-9 web page. A class action lawsuit over parmesan cheese product labels is dismissed. Find a summary of these and other news here.

Dairy leaders from the U.S. and Mexico issued a list of priorities, including repeating previous criticism of European Union (EU) and Canadian dairy trade policies, as North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) talks get set to resume Sept. 1-5, in Mexico City.

Did you know that when contemplating the price of equipment, clothes, feedstuffs or anything else, you’re battling biases in your mind? Hidden forces are at work against you, and that’s worth a peek inside your head.

“It’s better with butter” might be a marketing theme, but it’s also true when it comes to dairy farmer milk checks. Without the strong U.S. butter prices during a recent period of weak world prices, domestic milk prices would have averaged more than $1 per hundredweight lower than they did during the entire 12-month period of August 2015-July 2016.