It's no secret that dairy producers are facing a steep deterioration in milk prices. Class III milk futures have fallen about 45 percent from a peak of $24 per hundredweight in 2014. Though this decline is consistent with milk price cycles, the drop is more pronounced than usual in monetary terms.

Karen ScanlonVice President, SustainabilityInnovation Center for U.S. DairyDairy Management Inc.West Lafayette, Indiana

The Food & Drug Administration posted changes to the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. USDA approved use of dairy checkoff funds in Cuba. The American Farm Bureau urged clarity on Internet sales taxes to protect rural merchants. This and other U.S. dairy policy news can be found here.

USDA’s monthly Ag Prices report is released, providing an overview of milk, feed and dairy cows prices. This and other U.S. dairy economic news can be found here.

February 2016 milk prices fell, but lower feed prices kept U.S. average income margins above Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy) indemnity payment trigger levels.

Dairying in the West has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, and Steve Maddox shared those as he spoke to more than 450 dairy industry enthusiasts at the Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference held in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, earlier this year.

I was stuck. My family was gone. I was 20 hours from home in teeny-tiny Kirksville, Missouri, and day one of college classes started the next day. It wasn’t the first time I’d been away from home, nor was it the first time I’d moved. Between summer camps and my family moving from California to Connecticut when I was 10, being away from home and moving were not foreign concepts to me.

More than 300 hoof trimmers, experts and allied industry supporters teamed up to tackle some of the toughest issues facing dairy animal foot health during the 2016 Hoof Health Conference held in Atlanta, Georgia, Feb. 17-20.

Those interested in dairy cattle reproduction or mastitis have organizations dedicated to providing them with information on the latest technology, research and management protocols. However, anyone interested in animal welfare did not – until now.

You have all heard the expression “30,000-foot view.” Commentators often use this phrase when explaining something in a very broad sense. Recently, my wife and I decided to take our four daughters on their very first plane ride. The anticipation of the event was so thick in the days that led up to it that you could cut it with a knife.