U.S. milk powder producers are adding 440 million pounds of processing capacity over the next 2 years. The most immediate impact of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union surrounds currency rates and their impact on U.S. dairy trade. This and other U.S. dairy industry news can be found here.

Organic dairy products are drawing a substantial price premium. May dairy producer margins were ugly. June California and federal order prices improve. Rabobank sees recovery pushed into 2017. This and other U.S. dairy economic news can be found here.

Dairy farmers have to navigate several risks – environmental, regulatory, animal care and management succession are just a few. But of all the risks dairy producers must manage, price volatility – which has grown more intense over the last decade – should be a top priority.

Your cattle’s milk production can plummet when heat and humidity rise. Depending upon cattle heat stress level, milk production can drop by 10-35%. That can equate to a loss of up to $4.55 per cow per day.  

The first half of the May-June 2016 Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy) pay period calculation is in, and it’s ugly. Lower milk prices combined with higher feed costs to send the May national average income margin down more than $1 per hundredweight from April, to just $5.77 per hundredweight.

Globally, dairy farmers are starting to react to protracted lower milk prices by cutting production, according to Rabobank’s Dairy Quarterly newsletter. However, despite short-term price increases, demand growth remains slow, pushing producer recovery to sustainable price levels into 2017.

When a New York City-based public relations firm called my cellphone earlier this year to extend an invitation to interview Texas dairyman Donald De Jong, I took notice. Few dairy producers I’ve met before have communications professionals on retainer, especially ones who work in the Big Apple.

Editor’s note: A recent upgrade to our website, Progressive Dairyman, also meant an upgrade in our online commenting system. Check out some recent reader questions and the authors’ responses. Visit the site today to ask a question on any article or leave a comment for the author.

There seems to be two viewpoints when it comes to grazing. It is either grain is poison, or grass is poison. Maybe those are just the loudest voices from either end of the spectrum, and we don’t hear much from the views that lie somewhere in the middle.

The dairy promotion checkoff was started by farmers to increase sales of dairy products here and around the world. Key to that is keeping consumers and others as dairy “champions” – showing them that dairy and dairy farmers are important contributors to society.