The Holstein Foundation has just announced three new trustees and of course, three retiring ones. The new ones are Joel Hastings, Rob Kolb and David Pelzer.
Elected at the Foundation’s latest meeting, the Trustees will help set the future direction of the organization. The Foundation also honored retiring Trustees: Henry Beneke, Millerton, N.Y., Richard Cotta, Hughson, Calif. and Donald Seipt, Easton, Penn. “The Trustees are a key part of the Foundation’s team,” said Jodi Hoynoski, Holstein Foundation’s Programs Manager. “They help to set the short-term and long-term objectives for the Foundation’s programs and fundraising, and ultimately contribute to the success of the organization. We are pleased to have three highly-qualified Trustees with vast and varied industry experience joining our board.”
Australians Need To Consume More Calcium
There’s some new calcium dietary recommendations out in Australia. They’ve increased the recommended daily intake but unfortunately most people aren’t getting enough under the old guideline.
Of course Dairy Australia has the perfect solution, eat more cheese and drink more milk. Sounds simple doesn’t it?
Dairy Australia dietitian Maree Garside said: “A glass of milk, a tub of yogurt or two slices of cheese all provide around 300mg of calcium. An easy way to follow the new advice is for adults and teens to enjoy an extra serve of dairy each day.” Ms Garside said milk, cheese and yogurt typically provide around 50 to 65 per cent of the calcium in the Australian diet and that dairy foods contain substantial amounts of well-absorbed calcium compared with most other foods .
According to the last National Nutrition Survey, more than one in two Australian children and women fell short of the old recommendation for calcium2. Older women in particular need to be careful to consume enough calcium as almost four in five over 65 years failed to meet their calcium requirement at the lower, previously recommended level2.
CowParade Lisbon
There’s so much CowParading going on all over the world it’s hard to keep up with it all. Thanks to Adrants I got a heads up on the Lisbon, Portugal event.
I did not see the movie Brokeback Mountain but apparently the agency for the event has created a little video promo for CowParade Lisbon. You can watch it here.
If your Portugese is good you can visit the official CowParade Lisbon site or learn more about it on the official CowParade website.
There's a New Cheddar In Town
Cheese choices just got harder now that there’s a new cheddar on the market.
Consumers across the nation can now savor the taste of Wisconsin’s best-kept flavor secret, Black CreekTM Classic Cheddar. Alto Dairy Cooperative has partnered with Winona Foods, Inc. to market their newly branded Black Creek Classic Cheddar nationwide. To ensure that full-flavor is in every bite of Black Creek Cheddar, licensed graders critique the cheese from finish and appearance to body and texture. There are seventeen flavor profiles alone that are approved before the cheese receives the Black Creek name.
Full Release
Post Update: The unique wedge shape, black wrapping and attractive label took Black Creek Classic Cheddar to the top spot in the Best Package Redesign for Cheese category, earning one of IDFA’s 2006 Achieving Excellence Awards.
Got Milk Is Super
It’s not often you get a news release that just shows you a picture but as they say, “A picture is worth . . .”
The new Superman ‘got milk?’/Milk Mustache ad featuring Brandon Routh debuted in the May 2006 issue of Blender. The movie “Superman Returns” comes out in theaters June 30. The ad copy reads: “Super. That’s how milk makes you feel. The calcium helps bones grow strong, so even if you’re not from Krypton you can have bones of steel.”
Although I don’t see it on their website you can find out more about the Got Milk campaign.
Energy From "The Bull"
World Dairy Diary sponsor Accelerated Genetics recently sponsored a bus tour to Green Bay, WI to visit ‘El Toro’, a Biomass Conversion Unit that converts animal waste into valuable and renewable energy products. A select group of Wisconsin dairy customers, Cashton Area Development Corporation (CADC) members and Accelerated Genetics management were given a demonstration of a working prototype of ‘El Toro’ – pictured here. Renewable energy isn’t just about corn and soybean you know.
El Toro is, of course, Spanish for Bull – reason being, the project was started last year when Accelerated Genetics was approached by CADC about “managing the manure from our sire facilities in a different manner.” The corporation then embarked on a Biomass Conversion project through an Australian company Biomass Energy Service Technology (BEST). This project converts animal waste into valuable and renewable products. They recognized the raw product created by our bulls as desirable for use in this new energy recycling process. The opportunity would allow the manure from our bulls to be used in a process that would convert both the manure and bedding into a gas and a solid material, comprised mostly of charcoal.
After a successful test where Accelerated Genetics’ bull manure was converted into a gas that would be suitable for burning as a fuel and “char”, a dark charcoal based material that could have use as a fuel, filter or fertilizer, the Cashton group purchased a BEST biomass conversion plant in May.
Read more here. You can find stories like this one on our alternative energy blog, Domestic Fuel.
The Dairyline Dairy Markets In Review
A regular new feature we will be bringing you here on World Dairy Diary is a weekly price recap from our friends at Dairyline. Hopefully you’ve heard them on the air over your local radio station. You can also listen to their reports on their website. To give you a peek at what we’ll bring you each Friday, here’s last week’s report:
Dairy Markets Week in Review
Cash traded block cheese closed the month of April at $1.16 per pound, unchanged on the week, but 28 1/2-cents below a year ago. Barrel closed at $1.1325, also unchanged on the week, but 25 1/4 cents below a year ago. Four cars of block were traded and none of barrel. The NASS U.S. average block price slipped to $1.1477, down 2.1 cents. Barrel averaged $1.1366, down 0.9 cent.
Butter climbed to $1.20 on Tuesday but relapsed on Thursday and closed Friday at $1.18, up a penny on the week, but 21 3/4 cents below a year ago. Only one car was sold all week. NASS butter averaged $1.1394, up 0.1 cent.
Let The Kids Drink Whole Milk If They Want
I just don’t get why anyone would think that serving kids whole milk causes obesity. How about soda or a sedentary lifestyle in front of a tv set or video game console? The IDFA released a statement today in support of New York City Councilman Bill de Blasio who has introduced a resolution that asks the school board why they’ve limited the milk choices kids and schools have.
De Blasio’s resolution is in response to last fall’s decision by school officials to limit school milk choices to allow some schools to serve fat-free chocolate milk on occasion and all schools to only serve lowfat and fat-free white milk. Prior to the restrictions, a wide variety of milk, including lowfat chocolate and strawberry, were available. The decision’s unintended nutritional consequences for students have not been fully or publicly discussed. In fact, schools have recently reported a five percent decrease in milk consumption since the new milk restrictions were put in place.
“Numerous experts have reported time and time again that milk is critical to good health. We are very concerned that this decision to practically remove lowfat flavored milk will undermine children’s nutrition by not offering them a product they would choose,” says IDFA Senior Vice President Chip Kunde. “We believe the New York City Department of Education should have initiated a public discussion before making any changes in system-wide school milk policies.”
This is just another example of what a friend of mine calls, “ignorance gone to seed.” Let’s get some healthy whole milk back into the school system!
Total Milk Output Up in 2005
Final figures are in for 2005 and it was a whopper. Total milk production jumped 3.5% last year to 177 billion pounds. That translates into 19,576 pounds per cow, a gain of 609 pounds per cow on a total herd of 9.04 million head. Those cow numbers were 29,000 above 2004 as well.
Here’s the kicker – total cash receipts from milk marketing was $26.7 billion… 2.4% lower than 2004. That total is based on a an average return of $15.20/cwt, 5.8% off of 2004. 176 billion pounds marketed was a 3.6% gain, which led to the decline in price.
Cow Cam On Mootube
This is different. Cows with cameras. Or as it’s called, Mootube.
You can see cow cams and they even have a blog: From The Pasture
As they say, “Mootube was created to give the world an idea of what things look like from a cow’s point of view.”
Strange stuff.