Lactalis American Group has announced a $40 million expansion to its Idaho plant that will increase its mozzarella production, create jobs and increase the plant's purchase of local and regional milk. The new 61,300-square-foot plant will be built behind the existing Lactalis plant east of Nampa.

Junk food remains plentiful at the nation's elementary schools despite widespread efforts to curb childhood obesity, a new study suggests. Between 2006 and 2010, nearly half of public and private schools surveyed sold sweet or salty snack foods in vending machines or other places, the study found. There was little change over the four years, a surprising finding given vocal advocacy campaigns to improve kids' diets, said researcher Lindsey Turner, a health psychologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the study's lead author.

The Oklahoma Farm Bureau is praising the U.S. Department of Labor's decision to modify its regulations regarding child farm labor. Farm Bureau President Mike Spradling says the original federal rules could have had a dramatic impact on the future of agriculture.

A Vermont Senate committee is considering a bill that would create a farm guest worker program to allow the estimated 1,500 to 2,000 immigrant workers on Vermont dairy farms. The bill would create a state identification for the workers and a registry of those workers that would allow them to be eligible for state services.

EXPO Magazine has listed World Dairy Expo as No. 12 in its listing of the Top 25 Fast-Growing Shows of 2011. This ranking concentrates on performance metrics, conferences and expos that implement new strategies, innovative ways of showcasing exhibitors, blockbuster growth, and use of new media and IT. Eight metrics are used to compare trade shows including square foot size, square foot growth, attendee size, attendee growth, exhibitor size, exhibitor growth, revenue growth and attendees per square foot.

Dairy co-ops throughout the country have, or will soon have, communicated to dairy producers how a recently announced USDA agreement with the E.U. for individual farm testing of somatic cell counts (SCC) will impact them in upcoming months. In Nov. 2011, the USDA notified the industry of a new E.U. health certification program required for all dairy products and dairy ingredients being exported to E.U. nations. In short, the key element of the new program is individual farm testing of SCCs and calculation of a farm’s three-month rolling geometric mean, which must be less than 400,000 SCCs per mL to certify for export to the E.U.

The 27th annual New York Farm Show, Feb. 23- 25, 2012 at the NYS Fairgrounds, Syracuse is the Northeast’s premier indoor farm show and is packed with new and practical equipment, services and products just right for your farming operation. More than 400 exhibitors covering more than 215,000 sq. ft. will be waiting for you. Show hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Visit the show for the best access to products, services and information to keep you up to date with the latest innovations in the agriculture industry. You’ll find hundreds of exhibits to serve and assist you with your everyday needs on the farm. Learn, compare and shop all at one location – the New York Farm Show.

Genex Cooperative, Inc. Holstein bulls derived from the GENESIS Cooperative Herd lead the industry in genomic accuracy. These 54 Co-op prefix bulls averaged a mere $1 drop in Lifetime Net Merit (LNM) as they transitioned from genomic-only genetic evaluations in August 2010 to daughter-proven genetic evaluations in December 2011 (minimum of 40 daughters). The average change among the 1,879 bulls industrywide over the same time period was a $22 decrease.

Click here to see photos and more information about the Today's Agriculture display. PennAg Industries Association, on behalf of the Pennsylvania Alliance for Livestock Care and Well-Being and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, received valuable feedback from the Today’s Agriculture exhibit from its target audience – Farm Show visitors – thanks to a series of interviews conducted by the Animal Agriculture Alliance, a non-profit national animal agriculture organization based in Washington, D.C. On Thursday, Jan. 12 and Friday, Jan. 13, Alliance staff filmed 32 visitors and interviewed an additional 100 visitors after they toured the 10,000 square foot Today’s Agriculture exhibit at the 2012 Pennsylvania Farm Show.