Search - Dairy Herd

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will continue to defend the supply management system that protects the Canadian dairy industry in talks about revamping the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is easing its policy on some domestic milk products. It’s a change the dairy industry has been pushing for 20 years, but trade tension with Canada brought it to the forefront. Earlier this year, Canada changed its policy and stopped importing ultra-filtered (UF) milk products from the United States. Many processors, like Grassland Dairy Products, a processor in Wisconsin, were forced to drop all of its producers and those farmers scrambled to find a home.

Dairy farmers in various parts of Wisconsin experienced severe alfalfa winterkill and injury this past winter. Losses were the greatest on heavy soil types with poorer drainage.

More than two dozen protesters on Monday showed support for two immigrant dairy farmers arrested after marching to a Ben & Jerry’s factory to call for better pay and living conditions on farms that provide milk to the ice cream maker.

Growers and dairies lobby for a path to legalization for the undocumented workers who power their businesses.

When the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was ratified back on Jan. 1, 1994, President Clinton was in the White House, Forrest Gump was talking about boxes of chocolates and World Dairy Expo had just celebrated its 25th year. Dairy exports were at roughly 3 percent of production and there was a groundswell of support for a formal supply management program to do something with the oversupply of milk.

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) is pushing back hard against a statement by the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister on up-coming talks to re-negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

All eyes are on Washington D.C. this week as negotiations begin to “modernize” NAFTA, but getting on the same page will be step one.

Back in April, Grassland Dairy Products, a processor in Wisconsin, gave notice to dozens of dairies their contract would be terminated by the end of the month. The ax was all due to a change in Canada’s milk market, which would no longer take some U.S. products called ultra-filtered milk. The Wisconsin Department of Agricultural Trade and Consumer Protection says 58 dairies in the state were dropped, and all but two found new processors.

Soil seems like a long way from the milk aisle but one Wisconsin dairyman is making caring for the land a top priority for producing a top product and turning into a partnership between rural and urban. For Jeff Endres of Endres BerryRidge Farms, the responsibility of a good producer goes further than just working with cattle -it starts in the soil.