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After surviving several months of high feed costs and stagnant milk prices, uncertainty still lingers over how all of us in the dairy industry will contend with 2011.
In our business and most others, periods of economic stress tend to breed new technologies and practices that further advance efficiency.
Editor’s note: The following news summaries highlight activity by groups that are interested in and working towards dairy reform.
Former Specter-Casey Bill to be reintroduced
The Progressive Agriculture Organization recently confirmed it is working with other producers to see that a failed dairy reform bill from the previous session of Congress is re-introduced this year.
The bill, known then as S1645 or the Specter-Casey Bill, would change how raw milk at the farm level is priced and would make it reflective of a national average cost of production and impose supply management. Arden Tewksbury, manager of the Pennsylvania-based organization, said that Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) was reviewing the bill and preparing to reintroduce it.
In today’s volatile marketplace, profit remains, but finding a way to it can be much more difficult than before. At its annual business conference this March, the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin paved a course to set its members on their own “Pathways to Profit.”
In a pre-conference breakout session, a business coach and two dairy producers joined forces to help others find their own path during difficult economic times.
Dr. David Kohl, business coach and president of AgriVisions LLC, said the key to finding profit is to manage revenues, inputs and interest rates and to find a balance amongst all three.
The biennial Western Dairy Management Conference looked and sounded much different than the last time the meeting convened in Reno, Nevada, in 2009 – both in the number of participants and the tone of presentations.
Attendance was up about 6 percent this year. And more of the 2011 presentations were optimistic about producer profitability and opportunities in the future.
Progressive Dairyman Editor Walt Cooley discusses with Utah dairyman and state legislator Bill Wright of Double Tree Dairy in Holden, Utah, the state’s new immigration enforcement and reform bills.
The bill that Wright sponsored, which was recently signed into law, will petition the federal government to allow Utah to create a legalized state guest worker program for illegal immigrants who hold a current job, have health insurance, have not committed a felony and pay a one-time fine as well as current taxes.
Committee on Agriculture Chairman Frank D. Lucas delivered the following in an opening statement at a March 10 hearing to review the impact of EPA regulations on agriculture:
“There is a reason the top issue for nearly every member of the Agriculture Committee is related to the regulatory agenda of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The reason is simple: Many members of this committee believe over the past two years the EPA has pursued an agenda seemingly absent of consideration for the consequences it would have on rural America and production agriculture.
Prepare now to meet the demands of heat stress. Take “the 45-day challenge.” Repair and clean fans, sprinklers and drinking troughs in existing systems.
Hospital pens are supposed to help cows recover, not contribute to additional health problems and longer downtime. Unfortunately, a 2,000-cow Pennsylvania dairy operation we recently visited had an alarming number of repeat visitors and prolonged recovery times in their hospital pen.
This dairy normally averages about 50 cows in the hospital barn. During our visit, that number approached almost 200 cows, and a majority of them had mastitis.
Subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) is a common problem for many North American dairy herds, affecting 20 to 30 percent of cows in high-producing dairy herds.
Field studies have indicated that fresh and high-producing cows affected by SARA produce on average 5 to 6 lbs per day less than their unaffected herdmates.
This can be a tough ailment to overcome as dairy producers and nutritionists are trying to balance high concentrate feeding to meet the high energy demands of these cows.
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