Podcast on Dairy Science Meeting and Novus

Cindy ZimmermanAudio, Milking Parlor, Novus International, Podcast

2010 JAM, the joint meeting of the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA), Poultry Science Association (PSA), Asociación Mexicana de Producción Animal (AMPA), Canadian Society of Animal Science (CSAS), American Society of Animal Science (ASAS), and ASAS Western Section (WSASAS) was held earlier this month in Denver, Colorado.

This month’s “Milking Parlor” podcast features Gary Winter with Novus International talking about some of the research presented at the meeting and what it means for dairy producers. Gary also provides some information about Novus – the research and field trials that they do, recent acquisitions and their commitment to the dairy industry. Dairy professionals will be interested to know that while Novus is a fairly new name in the animal health field, they actually have a five decade history behind them.

Listen to or download the podcast here:
Milking Parlor Podcast with Gary Winter

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The Milking Parlor podcast is sponsored by:
Novus

Earn Education Credits at WDE

News EditorWorld Dairy Expo

Dairy producers and industry representatives from around the globe will gather in Madison, Wisconsin, when World Dairy Expo takes place September 28 – October 1. This year, continuing education credits for dairy professionals, nutritionists, veterinarians and veterinary technicians can be earned by attending the World Dairy Expo Seminars. Members of American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists (ARPAS) and the American Association of State Veterinary Boards – RACE Program (RACE) can earn one credit for each seminar they attend.

“Veterinarians and dairy professionals will see the latest technology displayed at World Dairy Expo’s trade show and the finest in dairy genetics on parade at the dairy cattle shows held during the week. Now, in addition, they can earn continuing education credits. This is a great added feature for a trip they are already making,” says Liz Matzke, seminar coordinator.

There will be eight seminars held during the week, Tuesday through Saturday, in Mendota 2 meeting room located in the Exhibition Hall. Seminars are structured with a 45-minute presentation, plus time for questions and discussion.

ABS Global, Advanced Comfort Technology, Alltech, APC, Inc., Badgerland Financial, BASF Plant Science, Jamesway Farm Equipment and Micro Dairy Logic are sponsors of this year’s seminars.

Tuesday, September 28, 1:00 p.m.
“Opportunities to Advance Manure Digesters in the US”
Christopher Voell, Program Manager-AgSTAR, EPA Climate Change Division
Sponsored by: Jamesway Farm Equipment
Continuing Education Credits: ARPAS (1), RACE (1)

Wednesday, September 29, 11:00 a.m.
“Recent Developments in Genetic Testing and Predicting Genetic Values”
Dr. Curt Van Tassell, Research Geneticist, USDA – ARS
Sponsored by: ABS Global
Continuing Education Credits: ARPAS (1), RACE (1)

Wednesday, September 29, 1:00 p.m.
“Improving Feed Efficiency in Dairy Heifers”
Dr. Jud Heinrichs, Professor, Penn State University
Sponsored by: APC, Inc.
Continuing Education Credits: ARPAS (1), RACE (1)

Thursday, September 30, 11:00 a.m.
“Will Precision Dairy Farming Change Dairy Farm Management?”
Dr. Jeffrey Bewley, Assistant Extension Professor, University of Kentucky
Sponsored by: Advanced Comfort Technology, Inc.
Continuing Education Credits: ARPAS (1), RACE (1)

Thursday, September 30, 1:00 p.m.
“Managing Feed Costs in 2010”
Dr. Mike Hutjens, Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign
Sponsored by: BASF Plant Science
Continuing Education Credits: ARPAS (1), RACE (1)

Friday, October 1, 11:00 a.m.
“Global Dairy Trends and Their Affect on Milk Price Volatility”
Torsten Hemme, Chairman of the IFCN Network, IFCN Dairy Research Center at the University of Kiel, Germany
Sponsored by: Badgerland Financial
Continuing Education Credits: ARPAS (1), RACE (1)

Friday, October 1, 1:00 p.m.
“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Reproductive Management Programs”
Dr. Paul Fricke, Professor, University of Wisconsin – Madison
Sponsored by: Micro Dairy Logic
Continuing Education Credits: ARPAS (1), RACE (1)

Saturday, October 2, 11:00 a.m.
“Mycotoxins in Dairy Feeds: The Threat to Herd Health”
Dr. Trevor K. Smith, Professor, University of Guelph
Sponsored by: Alltech
Continuing Education Credits: ARPAS (1), RACE (1)

Source: World Dairy Expo

General Mills Commits to Breakfast Programs

News EditorGeneral

Great news for dairy in schools!

General Mills Foodservice has committed $100,000 to help schools build their breakfast programs through National Dairy Council’s Child Nutrition and Fitness Initiative Breakfast Grant program. Schools participating in Fuel Up to Play 60 that are looking to expand their breakfast programs can apply to receive up to $3,000 in funding.

National Dairy Council (NDC) is the nutrition research and education arm of the national dairy checkoff program. NDC’s Child Nutrition and Fitness Initiative (CNFI) encourages fitness and good nutrition, including dairy consumption, among our nation’s school children.

“America’s dairy producers applaud the commitment from General Mills to address a very important issue such as school breakfast,” said Paul Rovey, Arizona dairy producer and chair of Dairy Management Inc.™, which manages the national dairy checkoff. “These efforts help create lifelong dairy consumers and healthier future generations.”

About 10 million children eat breakfast on any given day in U.S. schools – nearly a third of the 30 million students who eat school lunch regularly. School foodservice administrators understand that a breakfast program provides significant benefits regarding healthy diets and increased learning capabilities. A review of data from the Bogalusa Heart Study suggests that kids who skip breakfast rarely make up for missed nutrients later in the day. Furthermore, a study in Philadelphia and Baltimore public schools found that children who regularly participated in breakfast programs scored higher on math tests, were less likely to be tardy or absent, and had fewer reported discipline problems when compared with children who skipped breakfast.

“The Child Nutrition and Fitness Initiative Breakfast Grant program can help provide resources to schools serving breakfast and grant funds to help them offer breakfast at school via nontraditional methods,” said Kim Main, K-12 marketing manager, General Mills Foodservice.

Source: Dairy Management Inc.

Say "Butter" with New Facebook App

News EditorButter

Feeling buttery? Then “butter-fy” yourself with a new Facebook application brought to you by the Midwest Dairy Association!

This app brings a popular state fair tradition – butter sculpting – to life. Across the Midwest, state fairs are a time-honored event combining competition, great food, live music and an overall good time. Even if you can’t attend this ceremonious closure to summer fun, create your own virtual experience through the Butter-Fy Yourself application.

Butter-fy Yourself allows you to turn your profile picture into a butter personality and even add your buttery self to a virtual sharable postcard. Select from one of six butter personalities, including Dairy Princess, Butter Hippie, Butter Cow, Butter Liberty, Butter Bouffant and Butter Up and begin to sculpt yourself.

Customize your sculpture on a postcard from one of nine Midwest states, including Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota. Share your beautiful buttery self with the world by posting your butter personality to your wall, saving to your album and inviting your friends to do the same.

One of the most popular attractions at many state fairs are the famous butter sculptures. From Minnesota to Missouri, fair-goers line up to see the unique sculptures. Some fairs stick with a traditional dairy cow, while others introduce a new sculpture every year. In fact, even Elvis has made an appearance in butter.

Source: Midwest Dairy Association

Say Thanks with Random Cheddar

News EditorCheese

Is there a better way to say thank you to someone, than with tasty Cabot cheddar cheese? We don’t think so, and Cabot Creamery agrees. That’s why you can now nominate anyone who is in need of a thank you for a “Random Act of Cheddar.”

Cabot created Random Acts of Cheddar, as an initiative to share their cheddar and celebrate the cooperative spirit that Cabot is founded upon. By participating in Random Acts of Cheddar, you are helping Cabot help a deserving local hero, friend or family member who makes your world (and the world around you) a better place to live in. All of us know someone who consistently goes the extra mile for others and adds value to our lives and the lives of people around us. Why not give that person something to smile about…randomly and virtually? Why not say thank you with one or two Random Acts today? Cabot will randomly select and highlight one nominee per week to receive a coupon for $3.00 off the purchase of Cabot Cheddar.

Source: Cabot Creamery

Winners of the Web Moo.0 Contest

News EditorSocial Media

BASF Plant Science has announced the winners to their NutriDense® Silage Web Moo.0 contest. Congratulations to Ashley Messing for winning the grand prize, registration and travel expenses to the first AgChat Foundation Agvocacy 2.0 Conference. Runners-up include Marianne Friers of New York and Nancy Grossi of California. Both will receive Flip Mino Cameras to help them put sights and sounds to their slices of the dairy industry.

The grand prize winner Ashley Messing, is a fifth-generation dairy producer in Michigan who agvocates on her personal blog, Facebook and @armessing Twitter account. With her blog post “Agvocating at its Best,” Ashley didn’t just tell us how she uses social media, she showed us. Here is an excerpt from Ashley’s entry:

“By the end of our conversation the daughter asked to get a photo with me because she said I wasn’t anything like she thought a farmer would be. She was going to show all of her friends and tell them all about her experience at Breakfast on the Farm. Honestly, these experiences make me thankful for all of the work I do. In these moments I see what we do pays off, all of the agvocating and communicating. It made my 6 hours of driving, both ways, worth the time and effort.”

Be sure to check out Marianne’s Northview Diary blog, which she created after writing a weekly farm column for her local newspaper. We thought her combination of old and new media shows how the dairy industry can use both outlets to spread its messages.

Nancy impressed us with her obvious passion for agvocacy, which she demonstrates daily on her Wife of a Dairyman blog, @wifeofadairyman Twitter account and Facebook page.

Source: NutriDense: Twitter @NutriDense; Facebook

China Dairy Invests in New Zealand

News EditorInternational

Bright Dairy, a China-based dairy company, will be investing in New Zealand dairy company Synlait Milk.

Bright Dairy will own 51 percent of a new company, which will specialize in making infant and whole milk powder for Chinese consumers. Synlait will continue to own and operate its Synlait farms in Canterbury through a separate company.

Bright Dairy is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and says it “holds the leading position in value-added consumer dairy products in China and is China’s third largest dairy company by volume.”

The company, a subsidiary of Bright Food Ltd, has a market capitalisation of approximately NZ$1.7 billion and reported revenues of approximately NZ$1.63 billion for the 2009 calendar year.

Synlait Milk’s chief executive John Penno said work had already begun building a second large scale milk powder processing plant capable of producing high specification milk powders alongside the company’s existing facility at Dunsandel near Christchurch. This plant will be commissioned in time for the 2011/12 season, more than doubling the capacity of the site.

Source: NZ HERALD

CWT Export Update

News Editorcwt, Export

Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) accepted one bid from Dairy Farmers of America and three bids from Darigold for a total of 176 metric tons (388,014 pounds) of Cheddar cheese and Monterey Jack to Africa and Asia. The product will be delivered in July and August 2010.

Since CWT reactivated the Export Assistance program on March 18, 2010, it has assisted members in making export sales of Cheddar, Monterey Jack, and Gouda cheese totaling 17,271 metric tons (38.1 million pounds) to 22 countries on four continents.

Assisting CWT members in exporting American-type cheeses positively impacts producer milk prices in the long-term by helping members to gain world market share and expanding demand for U.S. cheese.

CWT pays export bonuses to the bidders only when delivery of the product is verified by the submission of the required documentation.

Source: Cooperatives Working Together (CWT)

Mercer Named Executive Director

News EditorCompany Announcement

Congratulations to Butch Mercer for being named the first executive director of the Indiana Professional Dairy Producers (IPDP).

Raised on a dairy farm, Butch has 30 years of executive experience in management and life sciences industries, and IPDP is confident that having Butch on the IPDP executive team will be a very positive move for the organization.

Source: Indiana Professional Dairy Producers (IPDP)

Dairyline Markets In Review

Chuck ZimmermanDairyline, Markets

Cheese prices keep climbing, up the fifth week in a row, driven primarily by climbing temperatures around the nation. The blocks closed July 16 at $1.5750 per pound, up 4 3/4-cents on the week, 43 cents above that week a year ago, and the highest they’ve been since December. Barrel closed Friday at $1.5250, up 2 1/2-cents on the week, 38 1/2-cents above a year ago, and a nickel below the blocks. Only one car of block traded hands on the week and none of barrel. The NASS-surveyed U.S. average price of block hit $1.4112, up 0.9 cents, while the barrels averaged $1.4201, up 1.9 cents.

Butter inched higher in an effort to bring sellers to the market closing Friday at $1.7750, up 1 1/4-cents on the week, 52 1/2-cents above a year ago, and the highest since December 2004. Only two cars were sold all week. NASS butter averaged $1.7201, up 1.7 cents. The Daily Dairy Report says cream is very tight due to strong Class II production and decreasing component levels in milk.

Cash Grade A nonfat dry milk closed the week at $1.2175, up three quarters of a cent. Extra Grade closed at $1.2250, down a half-cent. NASS powder averaged $1.2336, down 4.8 cents. Dry whey averaged 36.21 cents, down a penny.

Provided courtesy of Dairyline.