Without getting into specifics, U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue said the USDA’s “principles” for the 2018 Farm Bill will include a stronger safety net for farmers “to weather times of economic stress without distorting markets or increasing shallow loss payments.”

Digest Highlights: Two California dairy producers groups asked the state ag department for a public hearing to plea for an emergency hike in milk prices. U.S. Jersey breeders are funding research into A2 milk. New York court dismisses lawsuit seeking collective bargaining rights for farm workers. Find a summary of this and other news here.

With milk production growth expected to continue, the U.S. dairy industry must build up domestic markets while developing a greater international market presence, a panel of dairy leaders told participants at the 2018 Dairy Strong, held Jan. 17-18, in Madison, Wisconsin.

Relationships throughout the dairy supply chain – from the farm to the table – are changing. One touchpoint feeling the biggest impact regards dairy farmers and their supply contracts with milk buyers.

Digest Highlights: The latest Global Dairy Trade auction provided some good news. Pacific Northwest dairy profitability faces large challenges in 2018, although there is slight optimism for the second half of the year. U.S. packaged fluid milk sales were down in November. Find a summary of this and other news here.

Dairy farmers may find glimmers of sunshine in an otherwise dreary outlook, but they’ll have to weather the storm before seeing much price recovery.

Hay marketers had plenty of USDA numbers to contemplate as 2018 got underway. U.S. alfalfa exports continue at a record pace, year-end data showed a smaller 2017 hay harvest, new acres seeded to alfalfa in 2017 were the lowest in a decade, and on-farm hay inventories entering winter were the smallest in years.

Growing-season drought in some major hay-producing states, increased hay exports and large numbers of forage-consuming cattle in the nation’s beef and dairy herds resulted in the smallest on-farm hay inventories entering winter since 2012, according to the USDA’s Crop Production report, released Jan. 12.

November 2017 U.S. dairy exports were the highest monthly total in more than a year, paced by record shipments of whey products, strong sales of cheese and milk powder, and improved volumes of butterfat, according to Alan Levitt, USDEC vice president of communications and market analysis.

With the U.S. dairy herd stubbornly near a two-decade high, cow numbers are frequently cited as a reason for excess milk production stretching processing capacity. While latest information from the USDA shows dairy cow slaughter is outpacing year-ago levels and stabilizing cow numbers, there’s also been renewed demand for dairy replacement heifers in foreign markets.