World Health Organization delegates approve dairy marketing restrictions for infants and children. USDA streamlines acreage reporting requirements and extends the deadline to report restructuring or operational changes affecting participation in federal farm programs. A Pennsylvania law raises allowable milk truck weights. Key dates for potential immigration reform loom. This and other U.S. dairy policy news can be found here.

Good news is hard to come by as we reach the halfway point of 2016. Heading into the locker room, milk prices continue 2016 swoon, but the latest GDT auction showed improvement. U.S. farm wages are higher. Tightening margins trigger more MPP-Dairy payments. Russia is expected to extend import embargo, weakening U.S. dairy export outlook. This and other U.S. dairy economic news can be found here.

A bill requiring California dairy farmers and other agricultural employers to pay overtime for workers after 40 hours per week fell short of the necessary votes. A U.S. district ordered Idaho to pay legal fees to animal activist groups. Three Midwest Farm Credit groups are exploring a merger. This and other U.S. region-by-region dairy news can be found here.

Chobani is expanding its Idaho yogurt facility. The national fluid milk promotion board gets some new appointees. Cooperatives Working Together assists with export sales. ‘Acres and Avenues’ launches a second year. New FDA labels may not be too sweet for dairy. This and other U.S. dairy industry news can be found here.

About 345 dairy farmers participating in the Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy) will see indemnity payments this month.

National Cattleman’s Beef Association president Tracy Brunner joined livestock economists to present economic and regulatory updates to a House agricultural subcommittee.

The federal dairy farm “safety net” needs some patches, dairy economists and a dairy cooperative leader told a House subcommittee recently.

The number of hired workers on U.S. farms rose in April, most worked a little longer and average hourly wages increased, according to a quarterly Farm Labor report from the USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service.

Alan Zepp, risk management program manager at Pennsylvania's Center for Dairy Excellence, provided a dairy market update and discussed risk management options during his monthly “Protecting Your Profits” conference call on May 25.