As an elementary school student, the greatest threat of punishment for bad behavior was the paddle. At that time, corporal punishment was permissible in Florida, the home of much of my childhood. I never actually saw what a paddle looked like, and still to this day doubt whether one even existed.

Dairy co-ops throughout the country have, or will soon have, communicated to dairy producers how a recently announced USDA agreement with the E.U. for individual farm testing of somatic cell counts (SCC) will impact them in upcoming months. In Nov. 2011, the USDA notified the industry of a new E.U. health certification program required for all dairy products and dairy ingredients being exported to E.U. nations. In short, the key element of the new program is individual farm testing of SCCs and calculation of a farm’s three-month rolling geometric mean, which must be less than 400,000 SCCs per mL to certify for export to the E.U.

We’re staying busy here at Progressive Dairyman. The magazine continues to grow, and we attribute that success to your loyal readership. I often view a deadline to deliver our magazine to the printer every three weeks like I did a project deadline in grade school. This magazine is the result of our reporting over the past three weeks and often many of the articles have been in the works for much longer.

Dan Glickman hasn’t left Washington, even though his last public service office as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture during the Clinton administration (1995-2001) ended in 2001. Glickman has since served as CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America and at several Washington think tanks. He is co-chair of AGree, a recently formed initiative backed by nine of the world’s leading non-profit foundations. Progressive Dairyman Editor Walt Cooley asked him about the initiative’s goal and his perspective on current ag issues.

Dairymen can still legally sell Grade A milk in the U.S. if their herd’s average somatic cell count (SCC) is greater than 400,000 after August 1, but their options may be more limited without some effort. In November, the USDA announced it had agreed with the E.U. to begin certifying U.S. dairy farms that produce milk used for products or ingredients exported to the E.U. that have an on-farm average SCC of 400,000 or less. Many co-ops say they will ask their farms to comply with the agreement’s lower SCC standards, rather than segregate milk supplies. Most will start communicating this month the changes their members will see in order to be in compliance.

Airoso Dairy Farms will be celebrating its centennial anniversary of dairy farming in California during World Ag Expo. The Tulare County family will be hosting two open houses and a registered dairy cattle sale as part of the celebration. “We’re celebrating 100 years of being in the dairy business and 45 years of breeding registered Holsteins,” fourth-generation dairyman Joey Airoso says. Dairy producers and the general public are invited to an open house at Airoso Dairy on Tuesday, Feb. 14, and Wednesday, Feb. 15, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. The dairy is located at 18829 Road 64 in Tulare.