I recently attended a small conference involving several people I have associated with for years. There came an awkward time in the day’s agenda when we were directed to pair up with someone we didn’t know well personally, spending five minutes asking each other questions.

It started out as a year dairy farmers optimistically thought they would see milk prices rise. For some, it’s now turning into an urgent search to find markets for their milk.

Although the 2014 Farm Bill doesn’t expire until Sept. 30, 2018, the 115th Congress has already begun work on its reauthorization. A piece of the 2018 Farm Bill likely to most directly impact the landscape for dairy producers is the Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy), also set to expire in September 2018.

Two more bills addressing foreign-born agricultural workers have been introduced in the U.S. Senate.

Nearly all Wisconsin and Minnesota producers whose existing marketing contracts were terminated on May 1 have collectively breathed a sigh of relief: There’s a home for their milk, at least temporarily.

Midwestern U.S. milk marketing cooperative Family Dairies USA implemented a temporary “base” program, effective May 1, to help manage growing milk supplies.

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is seeking public comments regarding both the proposed California Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO), and procedures to be used if the proposal goes to a producer referendum.

With lower milk prices and tightening income margins, early spring provided more clouds than sunshine in the 2017 dairy picture.

The 36th National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS) is scheduled for May 12-17, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. At least one proposal calls for lowering the maximum allowable somatic cell count (SCC) in milk to 400,000 cells per milliliter (cells/mL).

With his confirmation coming more than three months after President Donald Trump was inaugurated, Sonny Perdue has a lot of catching up to do.