Senate Agriculture Committee members this week heard directly from dairy producers, industry groups and processors about what can be done to address the current economic crisis in the dairy industry. Proposed short and long term solutions ranged from the government buying more cheese to complete restructuring of U.S. dairy policy. Eric Ooms, a producer from New York, told the panel … Read More
Dairy Farmers, Task Force Grapple With Policy Reform
Dave Lefever with Lancaster Farming wrote an article titled, “Dairy Farmers, Task Force Grapple With Policy Reform,” and it highlights the efforts of dairy producers in dealing with dairy policy reform. Stay up-to-date on the issues and check out this informative article. Dean Jackson’s dad told him that a roomful of farmers would never agree on a solution to a … Read More
Milking Parlor Podcast on Dairy Issues
This edition of the Milking Parlor podcast focuses on what is being done on the national level to address the current dairy industry crisis. From congressional actions to USDA to the dairy industry itself, we hear from Congressman John Boccieri, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, University of Wisconsin Ag Economist Dr. Bruce Jones and National Milk Producers Federation … Read More
AP reports dairy plans to engineer “cow of the future”
The Associated Press released an article reporting the U.S. dairy industry plans to engineer the “cow of the future.” This “ideal” cow would pass less gas as part of its project aimed at cutting the industry’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25 percent by 2020. The article lists several other GHG emission projects that will be explored including turning digester-generated … Read More
WDD's "Bookmarkable Blog"
Our friend, Keith Good, is the founder and editor of our next “Bookmarkable Blog” – FarmPolicy.com. Keith’s site provides a daily summary of news relating to U.S. farm policy. FarmPolicy.com covers issues associated with the U.S. and global agricultural economy, including the Farm Bill, production agriculture, trade, biofuels and crop insurance. Keith has an extensive background in Midwest agriculture, having … Read More
McCain Campaign Visits World Dairy Expo
We had a kind of impromptu visit by the Wisconsin McCain-Palin Farm and Ranch Team at Expo. Heading up the group of mostly college students was James Harsdorf, a dairy farmer and former WI Sec. of Agriculture. He made an opening statement and then lets a couple of the students talk before answering some questions. One of the questions he … Read More
World Dairy Situation 2006
As we look forward to 2007 how about reviewing 2006? The International Dairy Federation has released it’s annual World Dairy Situation report.
Dairy Policy Paper
The IDFA is happy to point out a Cato Institute paper that calls for dairy policy changes. The paper was released just over a week ago and will be quoted a lot I’m sure as we lead up to a new farm bill.
New York Dairyman Named AFT Steward of the Land
The American Farmland Trust (AFT) today honored Tom Hutson, a dairy farmer from DeLancey, NY, with their annual Steward of the Land award. Hutson received a check for $10,000 at a presentation on the steps of City Hall.
FDA Thinks Restaurants Should Sell More Milk
Sounds like a fine idea to me. I sat at an Ohio State Ag Alumni awards banquet last year with an alum from the dairy biz. I was thrilled, being a multi-gallon per week milk drinker, when he ordered a pitcher of the milk for the whole table. His comment was that he was always amazed when he took his dairy clients to dinner that they rarely ordered milk, so he ordered it for them. Sounds like a good policy to me, like fueling your farm equipment with soy biodiesel or driving a flex-fuel car.