On Dec. 17, Chobani celebrated the grand opening of its second domestic manufacturing facility. Located in Twin Falls, Idaho, Chobani invested $450 million to build this one-million-square-foot operation in less than 11 months. More than 2,000 men and women put in over 1.7 million man hours to build the state-of-the-art facility. Click here to view photos of the grand opening from Progressive Dairyman's InFocus section.

Members of Family Dairies USA, Manitowoc Milk Producers Cooperative and Milwaukee Cooperative Milk Producers successfully voted today to merge the three cooperatives, creating the largest dairy marketing cooperative in the Midwest. The new, combined cooperative, known as FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative, will begin business function as a unified entity on Jan. 1, 2013.

Progressive Dairyman is proud to present a video tour of Todd Moore's farm as part of our 2013 World Ag Expo seminars on February 12, 2013 at 1 p.m. Watch the first clip of our interview with Todd as he talks about creating and marketing his own products. Join us at World Ag Expo for all our seminars or check back here or our YouTube Channel for the complete interview with Todd in February.

According to the USDA, fluid milk consumption for the month of October increased 1.9 percent (84 million pounds) from the previous year and increased 9 percent (386 million pounds) from the prior month to 4.7 billion pounds. Fluid milk consumption, on a quantity basis, has not reached this level since March 2011. In addition, this is the largest year-over-year increase in more than three years. Although one month's increase cannot be counted as a trend, it still comes as encouraging news to an industry that has been worrying about declining fluid milk consumption for many years.

Cattle and dairy officials in Idaho say dairies and ranches could have a tough time getting financing if the Idaho Supreme Court upholds a district court's decision putting feed producers ahead of a bank in recovering debt from cows sold at a south-central Idaho dairy that defaulted. The Idaho Business Review reports that the Idaho Supreme Court plans to review the May decision by the Twin Falls County district court involving the Green River Dairy. However, a hearing date hasn't been set.

U.S. dairy suppliers have been shut out of the Russian market since September 2010. But President Obama’s Dec. 14 signing of legislation granting permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to Russia represents a major step toward reopening business with one of the world’s largest dairy buyers.