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Dear Editor,
I could not help but respond to your article about why fluid milk consumption is falling in America. Here is an alternative and objective view of your milk market.
What’s a building block in the food pyramid that’s important for building and maintaining bone mass? It’s milk.
Whether it’s from cows, goats, sheep or another mammal, milk and milk products are an important source of calcium throughout a person’s life.
In the next few pages we will share some of the information we have gleaned from the data and results of our most recent poll. The most recent poll asked whether or not (raw) milk should be legalized for retail in all 50 states.
Votes by date
The graph to the right chronicles voting over the life of the poll, which began in May and ended in July. A signficant spike in votes corresponded with the awareness campaign promoted by the Weston A. Price Foundation. (Click here for the full story.)
Editor's note: This article is the extended version, which contains more content from the interview, of the article that was published in the August 11th issue of Progressive Dairyman.
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) recently announced its support for the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2011” or S. 1258, a Democratic-sponsored legislation for immigration reform. The proposed legislation includes a dairy H-2A visa eligibility provision (S. 852) that was introduced earlier this spring by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), which NMPF also supported.
Editor Walt Cooley spoke with NMPF’s Jaime Castaneda about why the group has thrown its support behind these bills.
In the closing days of the 111th Congress, the DREAM Act passed the House with bipartisan support and fell just a few votes short in the Senate despite receiving support from both Democrats and Republicans. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) reintroduced the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2011 or “The DREAM Act” a few months ago as S. 952. In late June, the Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security of the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on S. 952.
The DREAM Act offers permanent legal status to illegal immigrants, up to age 35, who arrived in the U.S. before age 16, provided they complete two years of college or serve two years in the military. These individuals draw special attention because, in most cases, they are in the U.S. not by their own actions, but by those of their parents.
Here are excerpts of statements made and testimony presented at the hearing.
to jump to the article.
Summary: The August 11th issue, with a topic of facilities and business planning, highlighted a bedded-pack barn in western Ohio that's providing optimal cow comfort. Producer Doug Boots joined forces with consultant Don Themm in Michigan to design a barn that keeps cows cool in the summer and warm in the winter with minimal labor.
Because this article was so popular, we asked Boots a follow-up question:
Q: Since the article appeared, has anyone visited your place to see the barn for themselves? What has been some of your advice?
A: Since our farm was featured, we have received numerous inquiries about the facility. We received calls from interested dairymen from coast to coast. Many dairymen from the Grand Lakes St. Marys watershed area in Mercy County, Ohio, visited and expressed a real interest in the facility because they are experiencing enforcement of stricter government regulations regarding manure runoff. Many of the dairymen had freestall barns for their housing and were interested in the use of loose housing (manure pack) facilities.
Why expand a dairy portfolio in such a volatile environment? Will historical cycles in the industry hold true, or will cycles be deeper but shorter? Are higher feed costs and breakeven milk price levels here to stay?
Expansion projects can create a great deal of excitement for a company. Whether the project is a new milk parlor, a hay barn, a silage pit or waste disposal system, these projects typically signify growth. While growth is exciting, it can also be a time of uncertainty.
Large expansion projects generally come with large costs and questions of how those costs can be managed. In addition, they provide a number of tax planning and saving opportunities.
Long-term business planning is a management function that not many dairy producers seem to enjoy. This is a conclusion I have drawn based on the few comprehensive business plans I have seen over my many years of work in the dairy industry.
Too often when I see a good plan or someone reaches out to me for help, owners really want it for their banker and not themselves. One of the more extreme examples of this dynamic is illustrated by a phone call I received from a Southwestern dairyman on a Monday morning several years ago that went something like this:
Feihe International Inc., formerly known as American Dairy, said Monday that it plans to sell its two dairy farms in China to a Chinese investment company.
The investment firm, Haerbin City Ruixinda Investment Company Ltd., will pay about $18 million in cash for the two farms. It will also supply Feihe with milk for the next year and a half, which Feihe estimates will be worth about $114 million.
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