One day a few years ago, my son brought home a sport’s bag he got at school in freshman gym class. On the bag was a new, at least to me, dairy slogan: Milk – The Ultimate Sports Drink. One Google search later and I had information about the topic and the seed of a promotion idea.

Causative faith has been on my mind lately. Causative faith is the power that makes miracles happen. That kind of faith is needed to heal the sick, ward off destructive powers and change the outcome of a tragedy.

Demand cost of production Dear Editor, Farmers why do you think you don’t deserve the cost of production for your milk?

In a war zone of diplomacy and development, successes can be far and few between. When we do have one, all the spent effort seems worthwhile, and the terms of success are sustainable. I often write in this column that one of our primary objectives should be coming home. That means we help those that want help, and then when they are ready to do the lifting on their own, we are done.

With the coming of spring and gardening time, I am always awestruck at the beauty of nature and the power of growing things. You put a seed in the ground, give it some water and sunlight, protect it from the elements and watch it grow. Suddenly you have many seeds and food to eat. You can’t explain how it happened, you just know that from a tiny seed grew a fruitful plant.

I have just returned to Baghdad from my final leave in Alma, Michigan. During my 16-month temporary duty assignment, or TDY, I was given three two-week rest-and-recuperation breaks outside of Iraq. The first one in May 2009 found me back home and realizing that I still have a long ways to go on my deployment.

The current issue of Progressive Dairyman contains recaps of several prominent dairy reform plans. The issue should be in mailboxes very soon. (My copy arrived in the mail today.) This morning we received the following comment/question from David Brand in Waterloo, Indiana, through Twitter regarding all of the dairy reform plans and our current poll question. BrandFarms:@PDmag No dairy reform plan allows for already existing internal herd growth. We have 200+ hfrs < a yr old from R own cows. What do we do?

Tell us what you’re doing, DFA Editor’s note: The following letter was sent to Progressive Dairyman as a carbon copy of a letter sent to DFA management by Gary Genske on behalf of California DFA members. As your executives and field representatives have met with many producers recently, we are sure that much negative feedback has made it back to those of you involved in upper management of our marketing co-op.

As promised in our last issue, this magazine contains a review of the most prominent plans for dairy reform being promoted today. A review of more plans will follow in upcoming issues. Also, don’t forget to send us your vote online, by fax or by mail for which plan you support for dairy industry reform.

Since my last writing, the USDA Dairy Advisory Board has held its first meeting in Washington, D.C. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack gave the 17-memember committee an opening charge to evaluate the most difficult challenges in the industry and present some solutions by the end of the year. Other meetings are scheduled in June and September. Now is the time to review all of the industry’s proposals for change.