The National Mastitis Council’s annual meeting was held earlier this year in Savannah, Georgia. Three Progressive Dairyman contributors who attended the meeting offered their thoughts on the major themes and observations they saw from the meeting.

For the last three years, the word “Brexit” has dominated international headlines. Most Americans know that it deals with the United Kingdom (UK) leaving the European Union (EU) but, beyond that, the details get hazy.

When you look online at articles, blogs and comments, it can feel like the whole world is against animal agriculture. Just this year, we have seen the EAT-Lancet Commission report and the Green New Deal.

Food marketers are constantly throwing catchphrases and specialty food labels at us like a politician running for office. Grass-fed, gluten-free and cow-fart-free, just to name a few. When did deciding what to eat become so dang difficult?

Successfully implementing a robotic milking system starts with a clear understanding of the impact and demand on the nutrition program. While robotic systems can be the solution to many challenges on the dairy, they are not without challenges of their own.

Even though the 2018 Farm Bill provided dairy safety net program changes for the next five years, Congress will debate issues directly impacting dairy farmers. Immigration, trade and environmental policies are chief among those, and grassroots efforts are already underway to reform other dairy policies. The New Green Deal looms.

Digest Highlights

• Two Texas ‘ports’ critical to U.S. dairy trade with Mexico
• USDA offers $1.5 million in dairy innovation grants
• Limits raised on farm loans available through the USDA
• Georgia dairy producers approve state promotion program
• Breakfast carts reaching 200 schools
• States suing the USDA over school nutrition program changes
• Global Dairy Trade index up again
• More cow culling expected to pressure prices
• AFBF’s Newton reviews U.S. dairy supply management efforts
• Petition seeks end to California QIP

The Dairy Revenue Protection (Dairy-RP) program is hitting a milestone date in its six-month existence: On April 22, the USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) will announce average prices used to calculate potential indemnity payments for milk revenue covered during the first quarter of 2019, according to Robin Schmahl with AgDairy LLC.

With the 2018 Farm Bill and midterm elections in play, dairy organizations spent about $7.4 million on lobbying efforts in 2018 and another $3.5 million in political contributions in the 2017-18 election cycle, according to latest estimates from the Center for Responsive Politics.

No two days in my life are the same. I work with a very diverse group of nutritionists and dairy producers so that no two days repeat themselves. Let me give you a grand overview.