Three years ago, Tillamook Cooperative Creamery switched to using the Foss Bactoscan for determining bacterial counts of milk samples. We also decided to test every load of milk received rather than testing weekly.

From June 2005 through November 2009, Osterkamp Dairy achieved a milk quality bonus for 52 out of 53 months—a 98% success rate. Those results, says owner Mark Osterkamp, don’t happen without teamwork. In fact, getting milkers to buy in to the team concept is key to making everything work, he says.

As dairy price support levels become less and less relevant to cost-of-production levels, milk price volatility has brought cash flows from booming highs to crushing lows.

In late 2010 or early 2011, any dairy processor exporting to the European Union will need to certify that each farm that supplies milk for those exports is below 400,000 somatic cell count.

A growing number of U.S. dairy processors are expanding their exporting efforts to capture emerging opportunities abroad.

Once upon a time, all the world’s dairy suppliers wanted to sell to the U.S.