Latest News From Jim Dickrell

2020 will go down as one of the craziest years in the annals of dairy history.

Losses totaled $400 million thus far, and are expected to continue the rest of the year.

India’s farmers “will never allow” a U.S./India trade agreement, no matter how limited, if it opens the Indian dairy market to U.S. imports, reports the Al Jazeera news service.

Per capita cheese consumption reached almost 39 pounds in 2019, up 30% since 2000 and up 170% since 1975.

The new, 100,000 square foot facility will house manufacturing and professional space along with a state-of-the-art training facility.

Wisconsin dairy farmers received more than 20% of the dairy assistance, coming in at $176 million.

This round will fund an additional $500 million for combination food boxes to be delivered through the end of the year.

While milk prices appear strong for the rest of this year, the first half of 2021 looks perilous with growing milk production both here and abroad and the COVID-19 pandemic still raging. 

Successfully preserving stalklage is not that different from making good corn silage or haylage.

Re-surging COVID-19 cases across the country could impact dairy markets this winter, with little potential relief until March if a vaccine is approved and becomes widely used.

The study suggests removing all dairy cattle from the country would reduce U.S. GHGs by 0.7%. But there would be other downstream effects.

The Innovation Center also announced a multi-year partnership with Nestle, including a $10 million commitment, to support the Net Zero Initiative.

Genomic transmitting abilities (GPTA) for heifer livability in Holsteins range from -1.6% to +1.6%.

It might not be intuitive at first, but corn silage digestibility improves with soil conservation practices that involve no-till farming and cover crops.

Online resource provides assessment of various teat health scenarios

Dennis Funk elected new President.

​​​​​​​The World Forage Analysis Superbowl evaluated 266 entries from 16 states and presented awards to top five finishers in eight divisions.

'Competitors are so far ahead of us that the best we can do is get back to a level playing field.' --Peter Vitaliano, National Milk Producers Federation

"The risk of having a refrigerator failure is not just the cost to replace the products inside, but also in the increase in disease cost if there are unidentified issues associated with storage.' --Emmanuel Rollin, DVM

Knowing your cost of production is essential to knowing when you are locking in a profit.

The NMPF page includes topics ranging from fire safety for livestock to on-farm hurricane preparation and the USDA’s Disaster Assistance Discovery Tool.

Providing safety equipment and training will prevent accidents and deaths.

Producer Price Differentials (PPD) are again in negative territory in August—but not as severely negative as June or July.

Constant light pollution, particularly in large dairies operating around the clock, can be a problem.

The United States Department of Agriculture just released its estimate of dairy product consumption on a per capita basis, showing dairy product use climbed 7 pounds in 2019. That’s just over a 1% increase from 2018.

Despite the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting roller coaster of milk prices this year, dairy farm exits in Wisconsin appears to have slowed markedly.

Dairy calves can transmit any number of diseases to their human handlers or those who pet them.

Rapid growth of corn plants can lead to higher levels of lignification.

The good news is that the Producer Price Differentials in Federal Orders that base prices on components will be less negative moving into the fall months.

USDA will accept CFAP applications until September 11.

Amino acids play a role in more than 20 biological functions, ranging from protein synthesis to stress response and behavior.

Making sure there are no amino acid deficiencies—particularly lysine and methionine--is the surest way to encourage milk protein production.

Dairy economists warned that the Producer Price Differential (PPD) for July could be even more negative than June. The Central Federal Milk Market Order confirmed that fear.

WDE is pledging 10% of all profits from the online store in 2020 to the National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety.

On a total milk solids basis, exports were the equivalent of 17.7% of milk production in June.

There will be no Dairy Margin Coverage indemnity for June.

As bleak as things were this spring, it now looks as though a $20 all-milk price average for 2020 is possible.

Changes in body condition score during the transition period can dramatically affect reproductive outcomes.

To date, $1.286 billion have been paid to dairy farmers.

While not totally surprising, a new study shows almost a two-fold difference in the total economic cost of producing milk between the nation’s smallest and largest dairy farms.

The COVID-19 pandemic created a return to the dairy aisle in grocery stores unlike anything seen in recent times.

Judging will be done August 10 - 12.

Opperman replaces David Selner, who is retiring.

Transplants could create unique, year-round beef marketing opportunity for dairy herds

Animal agriculture could actually become climate neutral, says Frank Mitloehner, an air quality specialist with the University of California-Davis

Using the right data to find and fix the problem is critical.

Candidates for extended dry periods are younger, lower risk, healthy cattle.

To avoid the problem in the future, both the genetic and phenotypic bases for calving ease traits will be updated at the same time.

The average payment per dairy farm is just under $60,000.