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Think of farms and images of tractors and combines come to mind. But what about laptops, smart phones and tablets?
The number of farmers with Internet access on a variety of digital gadgets has dramatically increased, changing the way farms do business.
Sometimes there’s just not enough room on the cover of the magazine to specifically highlight all the things I’d recommend our readers to take a look at in an issue. This is one such issue.
If you don’t have much reading time, start with the cover articles. But you may also want to read these articles:
In the last weeks of July 2011, the highest levels of government provided Americans a high-stakes political battle over raising the national debt limit. The current debt at $14.5 trillion was not high enough. To cover annual trillion-dollar deficits, the White House wanted another couple of trillion.
Some in Congress said, “Sure.” Others said, “Not so fast.” And still others simply said, “No!” The White House battled Congress, the House battled the Senate, Republicans battled Democrats, the White House battled Republicans, and Republicans battled Republicans.
Let’s say you were granted three wishes ... would you use one of them on ‘world peace’?
If somehow I was given three wishes, I think I’d use my first one to obtain a million more wishes. And then I guess the idealist in me would say ‘Yes’ to world peace. But as it turns out, I’m afraid I’m stuck being a realist. Now don’t get me wrong, I would still love to live in a land where there’s world peace.
For more than a month, the CME spot cheese trade was able to maintain pricing above $2 per pound. That marks the third-longest stay in the history of the cheese trade above this very closely watched threshold. (See Figure 1.) Much of the thanks goes to a sudden squeeze on available supplies that came in late May following a hold put on 15 million pounds of cheese made in Hilmar’s Texas plant.
Additionally, a very dramatic spring planting season created concerns over available feed supplies in the coming months and year. All of this preceded the seasonal summer heat, which often reduces supplies of milk. Together, these factors presented the cheese market with good cause to move to such levels. It was not alone.
Rabobank N.A., a leading provider of agricultural financing and full-service banking products to the Californian agriculture industry, recently released a report entitled, “California Dairy: Turn West,” illustrating the state’s opportunities and competitive advantages as a global dairy exporter. Progressive Dairyman Editor Walt Cooley discusses the report with its author, Vernon Crowder.
Q. What will producers find most surprising in this report?
A. CROWDER: We’re putting it right on the table, and we’re talking about some of the new limits in terms of domestic growth for California producers. The report may not be a total surprise because a lot of dairymen have suspected these issues.
This summer Congressman Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota), ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee, introduced a dairy policy “discussion draft” aimed at improving the long-term prospects for dairy farmers. The draft was largely based on the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) Foundation for the Future plan.
The proposal consists of three main components – a Margin Protection Program, a Dairy Market Stabilization Program and reforms to the Federal Milk Marketing Order system.
World Dairy Expo Seminars
Industry experts with a vast array of expertise will converge at World Dairy Expo to help dairy operations be more profitable and efficient as part of the 2011 Expo Seminars. Eight free seminars will be offered during the week of October 4 through 8 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin.
Learn more about: Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy, genomic testing, communicating with consumers, robotic milking, calf nutrition, somatic cell counts, feed costs and carbon emissions.
Blair and Kim Sanders, the owners of Black Hollow Dairy in Dublin, Virginia, made the switch to seasonal grazing a decade ago. Seasonal grazing has led them to find something that many dairy farmers do not have an abundance of – free time.
Kim did not hesitate to say it’s the best part of their seasonal operation.
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