There is a lot of volatility in the marketplace right now, according to Chuck Nicholson, who spoke on the cyclical nature of the dairy marketplace at the 2015 Dairy Financial and Risk Management Conference, hosted by the Center for Dairy Excellence.

The hearing to consider a Federal Milk Marketing Order for California ended on Nov. 18, 2015, after 40 days of various witnesses presenting testimony and exhibits and being cross-examined. Now it is up to the secretary of agriculture, based on the hearing record, to issue a decision recommending or not recommending a California federal order.

A healthy owning family with strong values may be the greatest resource a business can have. —Aronoff, C., & Ward, J. (2011). Family meetings: How to build a stronger family and a stronger business. New York, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

As of this writing (early December 2015), milk prices in the first quarter of 2016 may be dropping as the holiday demand for butter and cheese declines. Current butter and cheese prices are higher in the U.S. compared to the world market, while U.S. milk powder prices are similar to the world market.

Maintaining the size of the U.S. dairy herd in 2016 will require heavier culling, based on the USDA’s semi-annual estimate of dairy cows and heifers.

In the approximately 15 years since the conversion of the U.S. milk pricing system to multiple component pricing, dairy farms have made tremendous progress in their production of milkfat and milk protein.

Increasing demand for canola oil has greatly increased canola cultivation. In Canada alone, canola production has grown from about 3 million tons in 1991 to nearly 18 million tons in 2013.

Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series on feed additives and supplements. Click here to read the second part of series (Additives and supplements: What are they supposed to do for me?) If you read any of the dairy magazines, attend any conferences or spend any time on dairy sites on the Internet, you know feed efficiency in dairy cows has become a common topic.

Through years of neutral detergent fiber digestibility (NDFd) work, it is clear there are multiple pools within the neutral detergent fiber (NDF) of forage fiber. Currently, we are focused on three pools: fast, slow and “indigestible.”

As we approach the final stretch of winter, this past year’s harvest may seem like an eternity ago. However, as dairy producers begin to feed out the 2015 crop, they may want to consider testing for mold and mycotoxins.