DAIRY

FARMINGTON -- Navajo Agricultural Products Industry is running out of alfalfa hay, a spokeswoman said Monday."We are actually possibly going to run out of hay by Saturday,” said marketing assistant Rae DeGroat. “It could go on till next week, but we wanted the public to be aware of this information.”

This month’s announcement that Thiel Cheese & Ingredients of Hilbert was acquired by the Irish Dairy Board might have struck some people as a bit odd. Have the Irish run out of dairyfarmers or lost their historic knack for making cheese?Fear not. Cheese-making in Ireland is in tip-top shape, as they might say in Dublin. The purchase of a Wisconsin company by the Irish Dairy Board, a commercial cooperative, represents a strategic investment in a high-quality partner with strong research and innovation tools. For Thiel Cheese and its 66 employees, it means better access to markets in North America and abroad.

Executives shared how working through the dairy checkoff and its Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy helps drive dairy sales and protect dairy’s image.

Despite strong milk prices, soaring feed costs still threaten dairy producers’ profits.

Minnesota congressman also tells dairy groups to keep the pressure on EPA.

‘The U.S. is dead last by a lot on research and development. Suppliers in Oceania and Europe work with our teams to tailor products to our needs. If we need something difficult, we don’t go to the U.S.’

Argentina’s agriculture is wholly dependent on exports. And it’s abundantly clear that the U.S. dairy industry has entered this new era as well.

MONTREAL - Saputo Inc. says cross-border shopping and higher dairy prices at home have caused a continued reduction in its milk and cheese sales volumes in Canada.

South Dakota State Veterinarian Dr. Dustin Oedekoven announced Nov. 9 that a TB-infected herd had been found in the southeastern part of the state.

New Jersey’s raw milk lovers head to Pennsylvania and New York weekly or biweekly because, they say, pasteurization kills beneficial bacteria along with potentially dangerous bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella. And they cross borders because New Jersey is one of 11 states where the sale of raw milk is illegal.

Take time to plan ahead for feeding and housing calves during cold weather, a time when they are extremely vulnerable to cold stress.

California’s law banning the slaughter of animals that can’t walk, enacted in 2008 after a gruesome undercover video showed lame cows being waterboarded and jabbed with forklifts at a meat plant in San Bernardino County, will come before the Supreme Court today.

A 4,500-cow dairy proposed for Adams County has received the state water protection permit and high capacity well approvals necessary to operate, although it must meet additional requirements aimed at protecting area groundwater and lakes and streams.

On-farm milk culturing is beneficial because it allows farmers to determine which cows are having problems and to design treatment plans that improve milk quality.

“No one’s interests are well served when the debate surrounding efforts to reform federal dairy policy is subjected to selective or less than complete reporting of pertinent research,” said Jerry Kozak, NMPF CEO and president.

Times sure have changed since we started farming in 1981. We now spend more time and money dealing with manure, record-keeping and documentation of where every animal is and where every load of manure goes.

As states waver in face of pressure, national dairy group says feds need to hold fast in defense of food safety.

Sen. Bob Casey’s Dairy Advancement Act of 2011 limits costs by limiting the safety net to the first 150 cows in a herd.

Funding for the biodigesters is provided through the USDA Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).

Swiss Valley Farms has moved its Swiss cheese production operation from Platteville to Shullsburg, in nearby Lafayette County.

Lower farmgate milk price forecast reflects a continued softness in commodity prices and a stronger New Zealand dollar.

The reforms could lower the U.S. all-milk price by 92¢/cwt, trigger supply management programs 40% to 45% of the time and lower cumulative net farm operating income 32% to 48%.

With its milk production shifting to the northwest region, the Lone Star State’s dairy landscape continues to evolve.

September culling was up 4,000 head over a year ago (1.6%) and 2,000 head higher than August.

“These actions mean that dairy products on Mexico’s retaliation list will now be free of the 20-25% tariffs that were restricting access to our best foreign market,” said Tom Suber, president of USDEC.

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. - Opening the fifth annual Focus on Goats conference Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, speaker Bob Wills proclaimed, “we are no longer a kid industry.” It’s grown to an “adult” industry.

It seems a rare act of civic sacrifice. In the name of deficit reduction, lawmakers from both parties in the United States are calling for the end of a longstanding agricultural subsidy that puts about $5 billion a year in the pockets of their farmer constituents. Even major farm groups are accepting the proposal, saying that with farmers poised to reap bumper profits, they must do their part.But in the same breath, the lawmakers and their farm lobby allies are seeking to send most of that money - under a new name - straight back to the same farmers, with most of the benefits going to large farms that grow commodity crops like corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton. In essence, lawmakers would replace one subsidy with a new one.’'We are very much aware of the budgetary constraints of the federal government,’' said Garry Niemeyer, an Illinois farmer who is president of the National Corn Growers Association. ''We want to do our part as corn growers to help resolve those issues, but we only want to do our proportional part. We don’t want to have everything taken out on us.’'

EUROPEAN Commission proposals for reforming the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) include a plan to dedicate 30 per cent of direct farm payments to “green” measures. Controversially, it would only be paid to farmers who leave at least seven per cent of their land fallow - something the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) and National Farmers Union (NFU) pledged to fight.

US Agriculture Department officials have faced criticism over recent forecasts that have roiled the grains market, saying that the explosive growth of the ethanol sector had upended traditional patterns. The robust growth of the ethanol sector in the last few years has altered the structure of the US corn market and is complicating the government’s efforts to gauge feed use, the US Agriculture Department said.

China just ordered a massive volume of U.S. corn in spite of growing trade friction between Washington and Beijing.