When it comes to global trade, many in the American agricultural community feel like they are being passed by as the rest of the world advances with new trade agreements. Given that agricultural exports are often one of the brightest points on our trade balance sheets, not helping us reach new markets or more fully developed existing ones feels like pulling your star quarterback out of the game when you’re still down.

Digest Highlights

• Cropp-Stephenson outlook more optimistic
• NMPF lays out road map for FDA ‘dairy’ labeling rules
• Dairy margins started February flat
• MPP-Dairy margin dips below $8 per cwt
• Class I base price inches closer to $16
• Interest rates start year higher
• USDA dairy export outlook mixed
• New York: 2018 dairy financial numbers reviewed
• Minnesota offers school milk cooler grants

Dairy’s four-year struggle with lower prices of milk has taken a toll on the value of cows that produce it. Preliminary January 2019 U.S. quarterly replacement dairy cow prices averaged $1,140 per head, levels seen more than two decades ago.

Between thawing frozen pipes and putting earmuffs on calves, hopefully these cold winter days allow a few moments to catch up on your reading list. One book in particular has got me thinking deeply and laughing loudly.

Successfully managing a dairy farm requires utilizing both the head and the heart, dairy producers and representatives of allied industries were reminded during the Professional Dairy Producers (PDPW) 2019 Managers Academy, held Jan. 15-17 in Charleston, South Carolina.

Crossbred dairy beef is big news as dairy producers seek to diversify and capture the most value from their bull calves, heifers that aren’t needed for the milking herd or cows which are no longer going to be bred for replacement purposes yet still have a productive milking life.

Nutritional management during the transition period is very important, as it affects health, milk production and reproductive performance of dairy cows.

Ask any producer who consistently feeds close-up dry cows a negative-DCAD diet if it makes a difference for transition cows, and the answer will be yes. Producers routinely report that when cows are metabolically acidified, they have strong labor and calve quickly with fewer problems.

Of all the performance indicators you can monitor on the dairy, fresh cow performance ranks near the top, since the start of the lactation really determines the rest of the lactation.

“Implementation of best management practices for transition cows will plausibly improve metabolic health, immune function and regulation of inflammation,” says Luciano Caixeta, DVM, Ph.D., and associate professor at the University of Minnesota.