If there is one thing that catches my daughters’ attention when we head to the fair, it is the rides. The constant commotion of screaming riders, flashing lights and the thrill of watching machines thrash back and forth, round and round, and up and down has them begging to go for a ride. One of their favorite rides is the mini roller coaster. They spend their time looking for Mom and Dad as they smile and wave from the vantage point of their steel cocoon.

As any experienced litigator will tell you, how a lawsuit and what it is fought over differs from why you are in court in the first place. When it comes to court challenges to administrative decisions, the difference between what happened in the rulemaking and the litigation can be even more different. So it was in the court challenge to the recent USDA decision to shift a quarter of a billion dollars from the pockets of producers to processors. A group of seven dairy cooperatives, United Dairymen of Arizona, Select Milk Producers, Zia Milk Producers, Lone Star Milk Producers, Arkansas Dairy Cooperative Association, Maryland Virginia Milk Producers and Continental Dairy Products, along with two producers, sued USDA to stop its implementation of higher make allowances. After being first in U.S. District Court and then the Court of Appeals hours later, both courts denied the demand for an injunction.

The milk-to-feed ratio continues to decline as producers see less money remain after feed has been purchased. In August 2008, the ratio fell to 1.89 compared to 3.19 only one year earlier. With the lowering milk price and sustained high feed costs, margins are expected to remain tight for the balance of the year. Tight margins bring out the best and worst among dairy producers. Historically, dairy producers are adept at making adjustments and sacrifices to make ends meet, but sometimes those decisions save a dime only to cost a quarter. When tough decisions need to be made, it’s often best to work with an assessment team from outside the dairy.

In recent years, unions have increasingly targeted dairies in their organizing efforts. As organized labor searches for ways to avert a decades-long decline in private industry union representation, unions have targeted industries that employ Hispanic workers, and have focused on industries that cannot be “off-shored,” including the hospitality, construction and janitorial industries. The dairy industry fits this profile, and more and more milk producers find themselves confronted by union-organizing campaigns.

More than any one thing, the amount of milk a dairy cow produces ultimately depends upon the amount of feed she consumes every day. The more feed you can get a cow to eat, in a properly balanced diet of course, the more nutrients there are available for her body to absorb and metabolize – and make milk.

Milk production and reproduction are two key management areas that are relied upon to maintain and advance profitability on the dairy. Because of their integral role in the dairy’s success, it’s no surprise that recent research conducted in Denmark identified these areas as ones that, when improved, resulted in the greatest increase in gross margins for the dairy operation. The study, published in the February 2008 issue of the Journal of Dairy Science, concluded that improving the herd-level lactation curve increased gross margins 2.6 times more than an improvement in reproduction. In turn, enhanced reproduction improved gross margins an additional 5.9 times more than management related to heifers, body condition scores, mortality and somatic cell counts. These top-ranked management areas improved profits the most when even small management changes were implemented.

Typically, in the fall you read articles about increasing the amount of milk replacer to feed to calves. The typical recommendations come from the National Research Council (NRC) predictions for the increased calorie demands for calves under cold stress. While these recommendations are correct, they are also incorrect. In 2007, a detailed set of research trials were published in the Professional Animal Scientist Journal. In these trials, calves were fed different amounts and types of milk replacers in different trials conducted in the winter months (temperatures shown in Table 1*). The calves were housed in naturally ventilated barns with no added heat. Bedding material was also compared. Calves were deep-bedded with dried hardwood shavings or wheat straw.

I can’t help but wonder how it must have felt for the Pilgrims to have stood on Plymouth Rock and gazed out into the vast gray ocean as the windswept waves slapped the shores of a freezing, uninviting wilderness.

Many years ago while I was involved in the dairy business, a most interesting thing took place. Naturally it involved a bit of questionable judgment that compounded itself, and things got worse.

There they stood out on the loading dock at the back of the administration building. Huddled behind a dumpster to protect themselves from the biting wind, they shivered, occasionally glancing over their shoulders at the solid metal door.