CWT export assistance efforts focus on dairy products that positively impact producers’ milk checks: American-type cheeses, anhydrous milkfat, butter containing 82% butterfat, cream cheese and whole milk powder.

Editor’s note: Progressive Dairyman features recipients of the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy’s eighth annual U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards. Three farms – Cinnamon Ridge Farms of Donahue, Iowa; Majestic Crossing Dairy of Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin; and Philip Verwey Farms of Hanford, California – were recipients of Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability awards. In addition to the Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability honorees, General Mills and Foremost Farms were recognized for Outstanding Dairy Supply Chain Collaboration, and Gleaners Community Food Bank was recognized for Outstanding Community Impact.

It goes without saying how much your national and local checkoff staffs care about dairy farmers. We understand how difficult this year has been for you, and there is nothing harder than watching families we know exit the industry.

Video games, participation ribbons and obscene amounts of time spent on social media don’t develop work ethic, instill values or build self-esteem. But showing cattle can do all that and more to prepare adolescents and teens for the world ahead.

There has been a lot of talk about plant-based diets lately, and many dairy farmers have asked me what that means for dairy foods.