A new guilty pleasure of mine has been watching horror films. I used to scorn them for their predictability, cheap tricks and poor plot development. Now, I can’t get enough of them.

Happy New Year, everybody. It’s the first day of breaking all those resolutions. Don’t feel bad; 75 percent of people break their new resolutions within the first week, and the other 25 percent of people are the reason why.

“It is slightly sweet when you first smell it. When you take a first sip, it has the heat you would expect in the vodka, but that heat quickly settles down and leaves you a sweet, almost caramel aftertaste,” says Omid McDonald, founder of Dairy Distillery.

“They ruined the fan, intercooler, hydraulic cooler and radiator – 15,000 dollars.” “Had that happen on a 2388. Insurance would not cover it.” “Just before harvest this year, two took out the radiator core; 1,700 dollars and about 16 man hours to replace.”

Editor's note: This has been updated from its original posting. Digest Highlights Dairy-related programs suspended during government shutdown 2018 dairy cull cow slaughter nears 3 million Butter inventories see drawdown Canadian dairy farm grants available USDA advances bioengineered food disclosure standard Pfaff appointed Wisconsin ag secretary Illinois milk returns stay negative DairyAmerica lawsuit claim forms revised for Upper Midwest FMMO Global Dairy Trade index rise continues What’s in the mailbox?

Economic conditions for dairy producers have been challenging over the last few years, mostly due to pricing pressures putting the squeeze on profit margins. Interest rates, however, were not a major factor, thanks to the Federal Reserve keeping short-term rates historically low in the wake of the recession.

In December 2018, I attended the DTN conference in Chicago. I had the opportunity to be part of a conversation regarding the future and how it affects agriculture in general and specifically dairy, as the group I was there with either have a dairy or provide feed to dairies. We had an interesting conversation regarding the byproducts we feed to our cows and what they may or may not be in five to 10 years.

In 2017, nearly 9.4 million dairy cows in the U.S. produced 215 billion pounds of fluid milk. With that much milk, you could fill 3,100 large tanker trucks, take a dip in 38 Olympic-sized swimming pools of milk or give every single American a bowl of cereal with milk for breakfast – and then some.

In 2015, MGD Farms in Union Grove, Wisconsin, added onto their calf barn to accommodate their growing herd. The 500-cow dairy is co-owned and managed by cousins Myron Daniels and Dave Daniels with help from their now semi-retired partner, Gene Weis.

After growing their milking herd from 300 cows to 500, Myron Daniels, co-owner of MGD Farms in Union Grove, Wisconsin, had too many calves for their 25-pen calf barn.