Low milk price, high costs of feed, an employee with a really bad attitude – now SCC has spiked for the week – can you take all the pressure? All of a sudden, someone comes and adds to the bad news; you react and you unleash a reaction all human beings have been dealing with since humankind has been around. Even though the thinking human brain has somewhat evolved over thousands of years, there are parts of the human brain that haven’t had a hardware upgrade in about 100,000 years. According to world-renowned emotional intelligence expert Daniel Goleman, most of us are still acting out of the ancient fight-freeze-or-flight response, and an upgrade is long overdue.

Singer and songwriter Bob Dylan said, “The times they are a-changin’.” One could argue the same idea applies to today’s U.S. dairy industry and the tastes of global consumers that demand dairy products. Domestically, consumer preference for dairy is changing. Cheese and yogurt are replacing fluid milk and ice cream as the products of choice.

No one questions the need for teat dip. It’s one of the most important products in the milking parlor and a key to protecting your cows’ udder health and your dairy’s milk quality. But the amount of iodine in commercial teat dip formulations is very much up for debate these days. The question is whether dairymen are getting what they’re paying for, says Allan Britten, president and laboratory director at Udder Health Systems. “It may not be an issue of efficacy or cow safety or animal health, but of value,” Britten says.

We’re a few months into the new 400,000 somatic cell count (SCC) limit for milk used for export to the European Union (EU). The USDA made it official on January 1. So, what have you done differently on your operation? The measurement is made based on a three-month average and doesn’t apply to all milk – only milk that will be sold to the European Union. While some of us may dislike the added regulation and increased recordkeeping by milk haulers and processors, producing a higher-quality product benefits customers and cows. Lower somatic cell counts mean increased production for our cows and increased shelf life for consumers.

One of the things dairy farmers have had endlessly drummed into their consciousness in recent decades is the importance of getting their cows to reach maximum milk peaks at the onset of lactation. Nutritionists, feed salesmen, extension agents, veterinarians, accountants, bankers, semen salesmen and even hoof trimmers all get on the bandwagon of encouraging high milk peaks – because, theoretically, the more milk your cows give, the better your chances of staying in business tend to be. Of course, all those aforementioned professionals have a very biased financial stake in a dairy farm’s financial health.

The following article is the second in a series of three regarding direct tanker loading systems. Click here to read the first article by Earl Biggers in the November 1, 2011 issue of Progressive Dairyman. In a previous article, we provided an overview of some of the criteria a producer should consider when planning for a milk cooling and storage system for the farm. Probably the most significant factor in deciding whether or not to go with a direct tanker loading (DTL) system, is the requirements of the actual market (or plant). After all, installation costs are meaningless if no processor is willing to accept DTL shipments. In this article, we will take a closer look at those market considerations.