Go Pro for a Day!

News EditorEducation, Media, Milk

Body By Milk is offering teenagers the chance for an exclusive VIP experience of a lifetime with their Go Pro For A Day sweepstakes. Three lucky winners win receive a trip for two for a once-in-a-lifetime sports experience where they can live a day in the life of sports superstars Dwight Howard, Jozy Altidore or Ana Ivanovic.

While your online to enter the contest, be sure to check out the Milk MVPs (Milk’s Valued Players), the athletes who have been nominated to be part of the first-ever nationwide Refuel Your School contest which rewards high school athletic teams that choose chocolate milk to refuel and rehydrate after that big game, practice or workout.

Milk MVP winners could receive a celebratory Refuel Rally, along with $1000 grant, plus $1,000 from adidas(R) for new equipment and more.

Looking for Applicants for Jersey Queen

News EditorJersey Association

Speaking of sparkly crowns, the Jersey Association is looking for candidates for their 54th National Jersey Queen. Applications must be received in the AJCA office on or before October 15. Judging begins on Friday, November 7.

The new Queen will be selected Saturday, November 8, 2008 at the conclusion of Junior Day activities at The All American Jersey Shows and Sale, held annually in conjunction with the North American International Livestock Exposition, Louisville, Ky. She will succeed the reigning Queen, Rachel White, of New Castle, Indiana.

Financial support is provided by the National Jersey Queen Development Fund. Major funding for this effort comes from proceeds of a donation heifer sold each year at a national Jersey sale. This year’s heifer, TC Militia 1244 Jayne, was donated by Kevin Lutz, Treasure Chest Jerseys of Lincolnton, N.C. She sold in the National Heifer Sale on June 28 for $4,400 to Maisey Wells, Leicester, N.C.

There are three eligibility requirements to compete for honor of National Jersey Queen. Contestants must be at least 16 years of age but not older than 20 on January 1, 2008. They must be either a current state or regional Jersey queen, or be an exhibitor at the 2008 Western National Jersey Show or The All American Junior Jersey Show. All contestants must be a Junior Member in good standing or Lifetime Member of the American Jersey Cattle Association.

Candidates for National Jersey Queen are evaluated on the quality of their application, interview, general dairy and Jersey breed knowledge, and public speaking, both prepared and extemporaneous.

Kapanick Crowned 2008 Pa. State Dairy Princess

News EditorDairy Checkoff, Education, Industry News

The Keystone state has new royalty – the 52nd Pennsylvania State Dairy Princess was chosen this weekend. The dairy crown was awarded to LeeAnn Kapanick of Meadville, Pa. Two alternates were chosen to support the Pennsylvania dairy princess. The first alternate is 16-year-old Nicole Wasson of Centre County and the second alternate is Lawrence County Dairy Princess Abigail Trotter.

Princesses from 26 counties competed for the title. The contestants were judged on their public speaking skills, knowledge of the dairy industry, poise and personality. Each contestant prepared a speech and skit promoting milk and dairy products, and participated in a personal interview with a panel of four judges.

A senior at Sagertown High School, LeeAnn works at Schmidt Farms, a local dairy, owns three Holsteins and is active in 4-H. LeeAnn’s parents John and Stephanie Kapanick operate a 400-acre crop farm and raise beef cattle. In school, LeeAnn is involved in the key, history and Spanish clubs; student council; and plays on the varsity basketball team. She also coaches third and fourth grade girls’ basketball.

An honorable mention speech winner, Nicole has been active in dairy promotion for 10 years. Nicole is the daughter of Ronald and Candace Wasson of State College, and they farm 800 acres and milk 45 cows, five of which Nicole owns. She is a 4-H member and a state and national Junior Holstein member. A junior at State College Area High School, Nicole is a majorette, FFA member, wrestling manager and a Little Lion ambassador.

Abby’s parents are Dave and Jill Trotter of Enon Valley where they operate Trotacre Farm and Cowlicks Ice Cream Store. The Trotters milk 150 Holsteins and Guernseys and farm 400 acres. Abby is active in 4-H and holds offices for Pennsylvania’s Junior Holstein and Guernsey associations.
A senior at Mohawk High School, Abby is member of the National Honor Society, a varsity cheerleader and involved in student council.

Bedford County’s Kim Ritchey was the skit and scrapbook winner. Butler County’s Anna Flick was voted “Miss Congeniality” by the other county princesses and was the runner-up scrapbook winner. Amber Curtis of Wayne County was the runner-up speech winner and Lancaster County’s Laken Hoffer was an honorable mention winner with her skit and scrapbook. Heidi Musshafen of Tioga County rounded out the scrapbook honorable mention winners.

Abby Flick, the 2007-2008 Butler County dairy princess was named the Tina M. Shultz Memorial Award winner. Abby completed 471 promotions, reaching more than 187,527 consumers and traveling nearly 6,422 miles within Butler County. Abby is the 19-year-old daughter of Randall and Elizabeth Flick of Fenelton, and is a sophomore at Butler County Community College.

Cheese Waste Turned Into Energy

News EditorCheese, Industry News

Kraft Foods has debuted a new system at their Lowville, N.Y. cheese plant that turns waste into energy. The system will save the plant between 30 and 35 percent of their current natural gas purchases per year.

The bio-methane system takes the waste product from the cheese plant and lets the bacterial breakdown of the waste create methane gas, which is then sent back to power the plant. The system was designed, built and operated for Kraft by Ecovation.

“We look at ways that can help us become stronger in our facility and anytime we can take the waste and convert it into something that actually is displacing something like natural gas in this case, that certainly is a good business thing and it’s great for the environment and it certainly has made a difference in our facility,” said plant manager Darin Zehr.

Kraft is implementing a new green initiative and the Lowville plant is one of two in New York State currently using the bio-methane system.

Free Placemats Offered

News EditorDairy Checkoff, Industry News, Media

The folks at the Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion Program (PDPP) are offering free paper placemats to dairy producers that celebrate the dairy farmers of the Keystone state. Be sure to get yours today for your next community banquet, meeting or farm tour!

Developed by PDPP, the full-color, two-sided placemats share the story of Pennsylvania’s dairy farmers on one side and offer dairy activities for children on the flip side.

“People waiting to eat are a captive audience. We have a chance to share that dairy farmers provide the best care for our animals, our land and our families,” said Tom Croner, a Somerset County dairy farmer and chairman of PDPP. “By the time they finish their meals, people will know that each dairy cow contributes $13,737 to the local economy and 3-A-Day™ of Dairy is recommended as part of a healthy lifestyle.”

Measuring 14 inches long by 10 1/2 inches wide, the placemats are shrink-wrapped in packs of 600. The placemats are available on a first-come, first-served basis; please allow two to three weeks for delivery.

More than 35 Hoss’s Steak and Sea House restaurants throughout Pennsylvania used similar placemats during June Dairy Month and in August to increase appreciation of Pennsylvania’s dairy farmers and the healthy products they produce.

Dairyline Markets In Review

News EditorDairyline, Markets

Cash cheese prices strengthened the third week in a row and block closed Friday September 19 at $1.9550 per pound, up 5 1/4-cents on the week and 14 cents above a year ago when they tumbled 17 1/2 cents, to $1.8150. Barrel closed at $1.9325, up a nickel on the week and 3 1/4 above a year ago. Only one car of block traded hands and none of barrel. The NASS U.S. average block price lost another 1.8 cents, hitting $1.7176, while barrel averaged $1.7092, up 1.9 cents.

Butter closed Friday at $1.7250, up 6 1/2-cents on the week, 35 1/2-cents above a year ago, and the highest price since September 2005. Nothing was sold. NASS butter averaged $1.6142, up 0.5 cent. NASS nonfat dry milk plunged 11.4 cents, averaging $1.2130, and dry whey averaged 22.15 cents, down 0.6 cent.

Cash Grade A and Extra Grade nonfat dry milk closed at $1.13, each, down 17 cents on the week.

Provided courtesy of Dairyline.

Renner Named Area Rep

News EditorIndustry News, Jersey Association

Congratulations to Blake Renner, Fortuna, Calif., who has been named Area Representative for the American Jersey Cattle Association and National All-Jersey Inc.

Renner will provide on-farm service to Jersey owners located in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. He will also travel nationwide as an evaluator for the AJCA Linear Type Traits Appraisal program.

The recipient of the 2003 William A. Russell Memorial Scholarship, Renner graduated this past June from California Polytechnic State University with a B.S. degree in dairy science, with a minor in agribusiness.

He was an assistant herdsman at Renner Ranches, Inc., working in all departments of the operation with additional responsibility for sire selection and matings for the herd’s Jersey cattle.

As a member of the Cal Poly dairy cattle judging team, Blake earned high individual honors at the 2006 Western National spring contest and ranking in the top 10 for reasons at the NAILE contest in Louisville, Ky. He served as associate chair for the FFA state finals contest, and was an official judge for the finals held this past May.

For four summers (2003 to 2006) he was a counselor at the Barry Mendenhall Basketball Camps in Scotia, Calif., working on developing basketball skills with youth from the ages of five to 15.

New WMMB Site for Media

News EditorIndustry News, Media

The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB) has created a new website for the media. The site is a great resource for all things dairy in Wisconsin!

This news media resource website connects you to:

* Story ideas and leads – searchable by topic or location

* The latest facts and statistics on all things dairy

* Downloadable high-resolution graphics, charts and photos

* RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed subscription

* COMING SOON – interactive video and audio Multi-Media Center

Hubbard Launches Distillers Grains Webinar

Cindy ZimmermanGeneral

Hubbard FeedsHubbard Feeds recently launched a webinar to educate dairy producers on feeding distillers grains to replacement heifers. The webinar is presented by Alvaro Garcia, DVM, MS, PhD, and dairy specialist for South Dakota State University Extension.

Topics covered include heifer feeding program objectives, nutritional benchmarks, climate and heifer performance, and using alternative feeds and crop residues in heifer rations.

To view the webinar program, visit www.hubbarddairy.com.

Chinese Producers Arrested

News EditorIndustry News, International

The two Chinese producers who tainted their fresh milk that was then used in the production of infant milk formula have been arrested and could face death if convicted, according to China Daily, the state-run newspaper.

China’s Health Ministry said that two infants have died and 1,253 babies were sickened by the tainted formula, including 340 who are hospitalized and 53 are considered to be in serious condition. The illnesses include malnutrition and kidney stones.

While 19 people were detained for questioning, the only ones arrested so far are two brothers who supplied about three tons of milk each day to the Sanlu Group, which manufactured the baby formula, the paper said.

Investigators said the brothers — surnamed Geng and residents of the city of Shijiazhuang — confessed to watering down the raw milk and mixing in tripolycyanamide, also known as melamine. They said they did it to recover losses suffered when the factory rejected earlier milk shipments, the paper reported.

Sanlu Group has recalled more than 8,200 tons of the tainted formula following reports of babies developing kidney stones, Xinhua said. Sanlu, one of China’s leading dairy producers, has also sealed off more than 2,100 tons of contaminated product, and another 700 tons still need to be recalled, the news agency said.

Chinese officials said none of the tainted formula was exported, except for “a fraction of the milk powder sold to Taiwan for food processing.”