I was sitting in a room full of dairy farmers recently, fidgeting in my dress slacks as the meeting was about to begin. There was lots of chatter about who was from what area, how many cows each of us milked and of course the weather.

Inspire. That was the theme of the 2016 PDPW (Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin) Business Conference held recently in Madison, Wisconsin. Throughout the two-day event, I was inspired with ideas that I can use on my farm, in my classroom and in life. My inspiration actually started the day before the conference.

This month’s VAS DC305 tip is a tool that can help you track events and when they are happening by month, month of freshening and days in milk (DIM). You can also use it to analyze calf sex, calf mortality and twinning.

The Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD), a part of the Animal Drug Availability Act of 1996 (ADAA), has been amended by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in order to better regulate how antibiotics deemed medically important for human use are utilized in livestock.

Growing milk production on AMPI member farms, along with increased orders from food service customers, combined to push sales for Associated Milk Producers Inc. (AMPI) to $1.7 billion in 2015. The annual business meeting of the cooperative, owned by 2,200 Upper Midwest dairy farmers, concluded on March 23 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota.

President Barack Obama’s historic trip to Cuba was accompanied by an announcement U.S. agricultural commodity checkoff programs will be allowed to finance some marketing, promotion and research activities there. What impact it has on the U.S. dairy industry will take time, investment and congressional action.

A revised settlement agreement in a six-year-old northeast U.S. milk marketing class-action antitrust lawsuit was sent to dairy farmers in March. Vermont dairy farmer Alice Allen was one of the plaintiffs filing the original lawsuit. The open letter she wrote to fellow producers regarding the settlement agreement follows.

Stronger financial returns at the cooperative level helped take some of the sting out of lower milk prices at the farm, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) leaders told members attending the organization’s 18th annual meeting, March 21-23, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Much of the agricultural community’s conversation surrounding the use of “drones” has concerned the potential positive aspects of inspecting cropland or viewing grazing cattle in remote areas. However, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology creates the potential for animal rights and environmental activists to spy on concentrated feeding operations (CAFOs) and other farming practices.

More than a year away, Walmart’s planned entry into the milk processing business is already sending ripples through the dairy industry.