The USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has processed about $155.3 million in year-to-date indemnity payments issued under the Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy). One group of dairy farmers, those who enrolled in a separate Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy (LGM-Dairy), won’t see any of those payments, even though MPP-Dairy program changes may have been made after they made other risk management decisions.

The USDA’s July World Ag Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report substantially reduced milk price outlooks for 2018 and 2019, while also cutting milk production estimates for both years. Although tempered by lower expected feed costs, lower milk prices will likely weaken producer margins, resulting in lower cow numbers and slower growth in milk per cow, according to the report.

Tim Moffett, writer of the Manure Spreader column for Progressive Dairyman, is releasing his first album through a production company owned by famed comics Larry the Cable Guy and Jeff Foxworthy. Moffett has been doing comedy as “Tim the Dairy Farmer” for 16 years.

When Brett Beavers’ dad, Bob, was still in high school, the family farm in Carleton, Nebraska, transitioned from stanchions to a single-five herringbone parlor for the family’s 90 cows.

Following the April 2018 introduction of genetic evaluations on six new health traits, the upcoming August evaluations will include a new version of the Lifetime Net Merit (NM$) index.

Digest Highlights: • Dean Foods becomes majority shareholder of plant-based Good Karma • Land O'Lakes, CalBio form ‘barn to biogas’ partnership • June Class III, IV prices change little • August California Class 1 prices fall • MPP-Dairy margins forecast: Payments possible into October • Grain stocks, use both higher

The CEO Corner contains editors’ compilations of business insights and analysis of current news, which they have tailored for the dairy industry. The column inspires million-dollar dairy business owners to think like CEOs in other industries do.

You’re busy – milking cows, managing employees, making hay. In our regular conversations with our team of editorial advisers, we learned they not only wanted a recap of dairy news, but they were seeking brief insights into how that news might impact their dairy business going forward.

Ah, yes, one of the dairy manager’s most cringe-worthy duties, creating the employee schedule. You think you have it all figured out, and then someone needs a day off, or better yet, your employees want a different schedule all together.

Board members of Agri-Mark, a major dairy cooperative in the Northeast, are asking for federal support for the U.S. dairy industry in light of burdensome supplies and tariff wars that have sent milk prices plummeting. The co-op has also scheduled a national meeting for mid-August to consider policy and market options as dairy farmers struggle through another year of below-breakeven milk prices.