If Sandy Weaver was an Olympic athlete, she’d be a gold medalist. If she was a singer, she’d be the reigning American Idol. As a calf raiser, she’s every bit as proud of her accomplishments. “In the past two years, my mortality rate has been 1.2 percent,” says the Pennsylvanian charged with rearing more than 400 newborn Holsteins annually. “I can’t even remember the last time we had a really sick one.”

The 2010 Nittany Lion Fall Classic Sale was held Saturday, November 13 in University Park, Pennsylvania. The sale averaged $2,341 and featured a total of 86 lots. Co-managed by the Penn State Dairy Science Club and the Pennsylvania Holstein Association, this annual consignment sale is one of the club's main events.

About 140 women gathered for the fourth Women in Dairy Conference, held in Camp Hill, Pennyslvania, November 9, 2010. This conference began in 2004 and has been held every other year since then. With each conference, attedance continues to increase, says Dr. Lisa Holden, chair of the planning committee.

The 41st annual Dairy Practices Council Conference was held November 3-5, 2010, in Columbus, Ohio. The three-day event featured more than 15 speakers who led discussions about industry hot topics such as animal welfare, somatic cell count regulations and new technology.

The 1940 Republican candidate for president, Wendell Willkie, said, “A good catchword can obscure analysis for 50 years.” The name of a then-new program called “Social Security” made it harder to oppose. Do you oppose social security? Or, stated differently, by opposing Social Security are you promoting social insecurity? Catchwords can and do effectively keep us from focusing on what is really going on, and in the process we miss the real issues and opportunities for solutions.

On the one hand, dairy markets seem susceptible to downward adjustment, with heavy cheese stocks, the imminent passing of the holiday demand season, and plenty of near-term production potential here in the United States. On the other hand, exports have been excellent and markets have generally stayed elevated for longer than expected. On the one hand, high grain prices seem likely to alter milk production potential and, with that, prices at some point in 2011. On the other hand, while $6-per-bushel corn and $13 per hundredweight milk cannot coexist for long, they can coexist for awhile.