The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.

In the last week, I have had three discussions about the future of professional development for farm owners and leaders. In each discussion, I have suggested that a part of their professional development in supervision, strategy and leadership should be outside of agriculture. Why would I make that suggestion?

I’m not a big cycling guy, so I never really followed the Tour de France. But I love to see people overcome adversity and achieve greatness. So, like many people, I admired Lance Armstrong’s courage to beat cancer, and I paid attention to his cycling career. Year after year, I wanted Armstrong to get the yellow jersey and win the Tour.

A common question I receive is: What is the relationship between my milk price and dairy commodity prices trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)? In answering that question, let me begin by saying the California state order does use CME cheese and butter prices in determining a portion of that state’s milk prices. But federal milk marketing orders do not use CME prices.

The profit margin landscape continues to look favorable for dairy producers as we head into the second half of the year. While down around $1 per hundredweight (cwt) from their highs back in April, forward margin projections remain very strong from a historical perspective, existing at or above the 80th percentile of the previous 10 years through the first quarter of 2014.

Editor’s note: This article is the second in a two-part series about the controversy surrounding aspartame in milk. People are passionate about their milk.

Kim Koehn grew up on a dairy near Copeland, Kansas. Today, he manages High Plains Dairy near Plains, Kansas. The two dairies are about an hour and 4,000 cows apart.

Recently, the Class III futures for the upcoming months trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) have experienced some downward volatility that has eroded much of the narrow profit potential for dairymen.