Video

Pennsylvania Farmer Spreads Joy with Hay Bale Art

Mon, 05 May 2025 15:41:39 GMT

Running a dairy farm is tough work. But for Lorraine Thiele of Cabot, Pennsylvania, it’s also a canvas for creativity.

Between milking cows and working in the fields, Thiele has found time for a unique tradition that’s been turning heads along a busy highway near her family’s sixth-generation dairy farm. What began as a seasonal decoration has grown into a local spectacle: intricately painted hay bales that bring both agricultural pride and joy to passing drivers.

“It started all about 10 years ago,” Thiele said. “I had just one round bale, and I screwed together some wood and painted turkey feathers and put a wooden head on it. People seemed to really enjoy it.”

Since then, the art—and the following—has grown. Thiele now paints bales for nearly every holiday and season, often choosing themes that are both farm-related and patriotic. From tractors to Santa Claus to thank-you tributes for local fire departments, her hay bale creations are as varied as they are heartfelt.

“I’ve done tractors, fire trucks, Santa in his chair… I just enjoy making people happy, putting a smile on their face,” she said. “People were stopping and taking pictures of their kids sitting on the Santa chair. It’s just fun to watch people have fun.”

Her most memorable creation? A tribute to local firefighters following a devastating fire on their farm.

“A couple years ago, this hoop [barn] behind us caught fire, and all the round bales burned down,” she recalled. “I actually painted two fire trucks—six round bales, stacked in two rows—and labeled them for the Herman and Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Companies as a thank you. They’re public servants, and they deserve recognition.”

Thiele’s medium of choice is simple - spray paint.

“When I first started, paint was $2.99 a can. Now it’s $6.99-$7.99, just for one,” she said, laughing. “I’ve never figured out how many hours it takes me to paint one. We do it in-between milking cows and field work. Sometimes we run out of paint and have to quit and go to town.”

Over the years, she’s painted replicas of their family’s tractors, including a Farmall 230 and a John Deere 630. She even documents all of her creations.

“I did try making a little book just to try to keep track. I try not to do the same one twice,” she said.

Though she doesn’t do it for recognition, Thiele said her goal is to celebrate agriculture and make people smile.

“I do it because I can,” she said. “Because I just like to promote agriculture, and people like driving down the road just to see something out of the ordinary.”

And thanks to Thiele’s creativity and community spirit, that stretch of highway in Cabot, Pennsylvania, has become a little brighter for everyone.

Your Next Read: Economists Fear Trade War Will Push Agriculture Deeper Into a Recession

AgDay Minute: Will SNAP Actually See a Reduction in 2025?

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:40:49 GMT

Will We See a SNAP Reduction?
Millions of Americans could see a reduction in food assistance. House Republicans are proposing major budget cuts including possible cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

While details on SNAP specific cuts remain uncertain a previous GOP report suggested a 22% cut. The impact would not only be felt by recipients but also major retailers like Walmart and Kroger, which receive the largest share of SNAP spending.

USDA is reviewing alleged financial mismanagement of SNAP funds under the Biden administration.

Food Chief Steps Down
The food chief at the Food and Drug Administration has resigned. An official claims Jim Jones left because he did not agree with the Trump Administration’s agenda. As food chief, Jones oversaw food safety and nutrition, including policy changes for labeling food as “healthy” and banning the use of red dye number three.

He joined the FDA in September 2023 as the agency’s first deputy commissioner for human foods.

A New Easter Tradition?
And they’re a big part of the Easter season whether you love them or hate them
we’re talking about Peeps. And for a limited time you can try Peeps milk!

The makers of the sweet marshmallow treat are teaming with Promised Land Dairy for Peeps Sweet Marshmallow Milk. It’s available now at select grocers across the country through April 20th

Dairy Report: Margin Pressure Continues to Mount for Dairy Producers

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 15:52:29 GMT

Dairy producers are starting the year off with margin pressure following the latest round of USDA reports. A rally in grain prices following a cut to corn yields helped push feed costs higher.

Milk prices were also under pressure. Class III February price futures fell to near $20.27 per cwt., down 65 cents, but did gain back some of those losses later in the week. Block cheese started last week at a two-month high at $1.94 but closed lower as some support melted in the wake of the WASDE report.

USDA is forecasting lower production in 2025 due to slower growth in output per cow.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease Found in Germany

First time in nearly 40 years Germany is dealing with an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. It was confirmed in a herd of water buffalo on the outskirts of Berlin. The disease causes fever along with mouth blisters in animals including cattle, swine, sheep and goats. German officials say they are taking steps to contain the disease.

The illness doesn’t pose a danger to humans, but they can transmit it. Officials say affected animals have already been euthanized and the country has already set up an exclusion and monitoring zone. The last case of foot-and-mouth disease occurred back in Germany in 1988.

Your Next Read: Heifer Prices Start the New Year Strong

Fluid Milk Consumption Trends Higher

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 14:57:46 GMT

After battling recent declines, fluid milk consumption is back on the rise. According to a report from the National Milk Producers Federation, total fluid milk consumption in August was up 1.6% year-over-year. It’s also higher for the entire year with year-to-date consumption up 0.7%.

This rise is consumption is part of a strong demand story for dairy. Domestic consumption of yogurt, butter, fluid milk and cheese all increased more rapidly than U.S. population. This as milk production is slightly lower than a year ago, which is helping to shore-up prices.

Your Next Read: Navigating the Climatic and Competitive Landscape of Global Dairy Farming

State of the Dairy Industry: Study Indicates Continued Growth Presents Challenges and Opportunities

Sun, 26 May 2024 16:57:11 GMT

Editor’s Note: This is one article in a series that is included in the 2024 Farm Journal’s State of the Dairy Industry report. The full 16-page report will appear in the May/June issues of Dairy Herd Management and Milk Business Quarterly and will be published in this space over the next several weeks. To download the full report for free click here.

Farm Journal has released its State of the Dairy Industry 2024 Report. It surveyed 210 dairy producers throughout the U.S. More than two-thirds reported five years of profitability, and more than half have a growth mindset with plans to expand in the next five years.

The study shows the business of dairy farming won’t get any easier in the next three to five years due to a host of variables. That is why consolidation has continued at a breathtaking pace and dairy farmers need to be proactive.

The latest USDA Census of Ag showed around 24,000 dairy operations in 2022, down 39% from 2017 and 50% from 2012. And Ever.Ag Insights president Phil Plourd, says extrapolating that trend to 2027 takes operations down another 20 to 25-percent.

Dairies with 2,500 plus cows now account for more than 50% of operations. And over 60% of the milk comes from dairies 1000 head or more.

“What it says is that for the dairy producers that are still here, you know, it’s a dogfight, it is a street fight, in terms of figuring out ways to stay relevant, to get more productive to stay ahead of the curve to manage risk better, because it’s never been an easy business. It’s not going to be an easy business anytime soon.”

Dairy producers surveyed indicate the biggest challenges for the future are the pay price for milk, ag labor and the cost of inputs.

Plourd adds, “We’ve had a couple of years here of relatively elevated feed prices. We certainly know that labor is more expensive. Just to general inflation, right around operations.”

To overcome those challenges, Plourd says maximizing productivity presents a better chance of profitability.

“The investment needs to continue genomics, genetics, making the best productivity, this is we can around breeding, and then feeding and then housing and just you know, it’s sort of the investment in productivity has to be there, because productivity is profit at the end of the day, right??

He says dairy producers also need to proactively deploy risk management tools. Producers maximizing Dairy Margin Coverage received close to $150,000 in 2023.

“DMC can go a long way to providing real meaningful protection to a farms profitability.” says Plourd. “And the cost of it is you know, it’s sort of a no brainer in terms of what it takes to get involved with DMC. So, at a minimum, that’s a nice safety net for up to 200 cow producers.

For 200 plus cow operations, Plourd says Dairy Revenue Protection paid out more than $500 million in net indemnities in 2023 and it’s the key for staying in business.

“It’s a great product because you’re basically at subsidized put options, you know, at a very, very high level. That’s what we’re dealing with. And so, you’re able to protect downside and keep the upside net of what it costs you for the insurance.”

Beyond that, he says the dairy industry is becoming increasingly dependent on exports and farmers are losing out with the lack of a robust trade agenda.

“I just think from a political perspective, I think that that farmers generally need to keep beating the drum with their legislators and representatives that you know, ag trade is really, really important to the American farmer. And there’s a whole world of opportunity out there.”

He also recommends cashing in on climate opportunities, leveraging data and technology and investing in protein innovation.

Ring of Glory: Pennsylvania Teen Chases Dairy Dreams After Surviving House Fire

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 21:48:03 GMT

It takes a lot of days in the barn to be ready for the ring at places such as the 2022 All-American Dairy Show in Harrisburg, Pa.

For Reese Burdette and her family, each precious step along the way is quite literally a miracle.

“Showing and going to shows are some of my favorite memories,” Reese says.

The Burdette family lives and farms just outside of Mercersburg, Pa., at a dairy that’s just the right size to keep two teenagers busy.

“Reese will water and I’ll feed grain and then she’ll get milk and I’ll feed milk and then she’ll do bottles,” explains sister Brinkley Burdette. “We’ll usually get done fast, and then we walk our show calves.”

It is a step-by-step process their parents, Justin and Claire, are only too happy to watch.

“Oftentimes, it can bring tears to your eyes, when you look back to where we were,” Claire says. “I just know how hard it has been and still how hard it is for Reese.”

“She has some grit and determination,” echoes Justin. “She likes to prove to people that that she’s capable of doing it.”

What Reese is doing in the showring is nothing special in her eyes.

“I mean, it’s difficult but everybody has difficulties in the ring,” she says.

The challenges for Reese started Memorial Day weekend in 2014 during a visit to her grandparents’ house.

“It was a Sunday evening and what we now know is an electrical fire started in the room Reese was in,” Claire recalls.

Her mother quickly rushed into the room among the flames to pull Reese to safety while Claire’s stepdad went after sister Brinkley.

“I do remember getting out, sitting on the porch and waiting,” Reese remembers.

Badly burned, Reese was flown to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland.

“I was in a lot of pain, I was scared, and they were telling me all these different things I didn’t know,” Reese says.

Justin and Claire arrived at this hospital as quickly as they could.

“First, they told us we’d be there one to two weeks and then it turned to one to two months,” Claire says. “We thought: How are we going to do this? How are we going to continue to farm both of us being away? Then it turned into 662 days.”

Reese was in the hospital for 662 days of recovery, of setbacks and unknowns.

“Through this journey Reese has had five cardiac arrests and she lost her leg in the hospital in that first couple of weeks due to blood flow issues,” Claire says.

Reese’s lungs needed rest, so doctors used an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine to pump blood outside of her body, remove carbon dioxide and send oxygen-filled blood back. However, there were complications and Reese’s parents were forced to make a call about amputation.

“Our surgeon looked us right in the face and said if it was my child, I’d do it,” Justin says. “You now have to be willing to have bad days to make good days.”

The good days were often overshadowed by the difficult ones. From the amputation, to learning to stand and eventually walk again, the days were long. Reese’s parents recognized she needed a goal.

That’s when a favorite dairy cow Pantene -- named after the haircare products -- came back into the picture.

“She was actually the first calf I showed at our county fair,” Reese says.

That’s why Pantene has a little extra hold on Reese’s heart. After weeks in the hospital her friend from home was the right incentive to keep stepping forward.

“One of her doctors was an off-the-wall thinker,” Justin says. “He said, ‘Well, bring Pantene down here.’”

So, through the streets of Baltimore they went with a trailer, right to the main entrance of John Hopkins. Reese remembers that day clearly.

“She came to visit me in the hospital when I first learned to stand up,” Reese says. “That really made me want to get home.”

“It was definitely a moment,” Claire says. “It also gave the nurses and doctors who were fighting along with us perspective on where Reese came from and what she loved.”

Just about two months shy of two years, Reese came home to a hero’s welcome.

“There were a lot of people and one of the first things we did was come down here to the barn to see Pantene,” remembers Reese.

For Claire, the return home reunited her family of four.

“I felt like it was okay to laugh again,” she says. “It was OK to go out to dinner again. It was OK to go to the movies because we weren’t slighting her in any way. We were all included as one.”

A family and a farm were together again, and they were ready to restart the life they’d put on pause.

“We know she has something in store for her and she’s meant to be here,” Claire says. “We don’t know how her story is going to unfold, but it will.”

Reese returned to the showring. The first year she needed a wheelchair to back her up. This year she will be stepping through the sawdust on her own.

“I was actually just telling my friend that most of my favorite memories have been made at the Harrisburg show,” Reese says.

Now she’s setting her sights on Madison and World Dairy Expo, if she can get her parents on board.

“I’m working on it,” Reese laughs.

Along with showing, she’s taken up dance and recently joined FFA. Those extracurriculars happen between follow-up trips to the hospital.

“She had a tracheotomy in 2014 and that was taken out this last year,” Claire says. “The progress she’s made from that has been amazing.”

She also had a leg revision in 2022, which has helped improve her mobility and reduce pain when walking.

“It’s easier for her to feed hay and stuff,” Brinkley says. “It’s easier for her to water, although I still have to hook up the water for her sometimes.”

It’s all helping Reese find a future without limits.

“She has visions of going to college and I’ve given her a three-hour radius,” Claire says.

“Our reality for Reese is that Reese is normal,” Justin says. “She needs to get the childhood she missed back.”

These steps along life’s path, may seem so small for most but for Reese they’re the road back to a future nearly lost. Her future now is stacked high with possibilities.

“You can get so caught up in the little things and at the end of the day, the little things don’t matter,” Claire says. “It’s the big picture and as long as you have your health and your family that’s all that matters.”

Last month at the Harrisburg All-American show, Reese stood fifth in showmanship out of 140 kids.

Enjoy Other Grit with Grace Stories:

The Power of Love and Faith: How a Journey to Help Foster Kids Heal On the Farm Led One to Their Forever Home

Couple Takes Off On Trip From Nebraska To Alaska In A 1977 IH Tractor To Raise Money For Kids

How Social Media Sensation NY Farm Girls Defied Odds to Expose the Truth About Farming

Could Milk Go to $30, Dairy Economist Weigh in about the Dynamic Market

Fri, 06 May 2022 19:24:19 GMT

There are a lot of dynamics going beyond just the higher prices we have seen lately in the dairy market. Closely monitoring dairy culling rates, economists look at what the drivers are and where milk prices could go in the second half of 2022.

USDA reported that more than 297,000 dairy cows were culled in March, a decline of 5,000 year-over-year, but also an increase of more than 30,000 from February.

Ag economist Dan Basse, president of Ag Resource Co., says while the milk price is going towards a record high on a Class III basis, the feed cost and labor side of the equation is a rising challenge.

“I think the big question for the dairy markets going forward is will there be a continued reduction in the herd or liquidation,” Basse says. “If that happens, then milk prices need to be higher in the third and fourth quarter, but we’re still waiting for that data to come forward.”

(Watch more on this topic from Clinton Griffiths and AgDay TV)

He shares that the biggest current concerns facing producers is forage and feed inventories. Basse says cull rates decline seasonally with grass availability and bottoms out around the fourth of July. However, with hay seedings at their lowest level since 1907, the economist says the drought in the western U.S. will also be closely monitored.

Bryan Doherty of Total Farm Marketing says the takeaway on higher culling numbers is that producers are understanding both high feed costs, as well as elevated cull cow prices.

“The dairy producer, like any other business right now, is facing significant uncertainties. Supply uncertainties, demand uncertainties, and you’ve got record-high dairy prices that are probably going to stick around and last longer than usual,” he says. “The dairy industry has a strong tendency to cure high prices through overproduction.”

Record High Milk Price?

Basse says that the dairy dynamics are not only domiciled in the U.S. but also felt globally.

“When I look at Oceania, which includes New Zealand and Australia, and when I look at Europe, dairy farmers are reacting the same way in both of those countries,” Basse says. “This provides the opportunity for the U.S. to service more world demand going forward.”

If milk production per cow output remains relatively steady, the milk market follows suit. Basse says if it increases, then we’re looking at the market around $22-$26/cwt. However, if it goes lower, then we could see all-time highs.

“Maybe as high as $29 or $30,” Basse adds.

All eyes will be watching what the dairy cow herd does, if there are continued liquidations due to grain prices moving higher, then the milk market could again follow suit.

“I think there’s some uncertainty with how we get the crop in the ground and where we all sit come July and August,” Basse says.

Doherty agrees, sharing the equation has many variables, such as the value of the rising dollar and consumer demand to name a few.

“The biggest problem that we might see with the dairy industry is a dairy producer is uncertain about their inputs because of tight supplies and where they’re going to get these inputs if there’s a weather market. And there’s a cost to expanding the herd,” he says.

Producers are cautious about expansion, questioning how they can expand their business without the needed labor to do so.

“Finding enough labor that’s consistent and helpful is a big concern,” Doherty says.

Wisconsin Loses 818 Dairies in 2019, Largest Decline in State History

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 19:23:16 GMT

Wisconsin, known nationally as the nation’s dairy state, lost 818 dairy farms in 2019, a full 10% of its dairy herds, according to the latest numbers from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

As of Jan. 1, 2020, Wisconsin had 7,292 licensed dairy farms. On Jan. 1, 2019, the number stood at 8,110. In the last decade, the state lost 5,637 dairy farms, a decrease of 44%. That also suggests the rate of dairy famer loss has more than doubled the last few years.

The number of Grade A dairies in Wisconsin is now 6,574; the number of Grade B dairies is 718 which includes 470 farms still shipping milk in cans.

Cow numbers have also declined slightly. In November of this year (the latest numbers available), the estimated number of dairy cows stood at 1,265,000, or 7,000 head less than a year ago. Cow numbers, however, had been fairly stable over the past decade. Ten years ago, Wisconsin reported cow numbers at 1,258,000.

In other words, Wisconsin farms have grown fewer but larger. Using these numbers, the average herd size in Wisconsin is about 170 cows per herd today. In 2009, it was roughly 100 cows per herd.

Total milk production has also soared some 20%. Numbers have not yet been totaled for 2019. In 2018, Wisconsin produced 30.6 billion pounds of milk. Ten years ago, the state produced just over 25 billion pounds of milk.

You can see the county-by-county breakdown of herd numbers here .

John Phipps: Farmland Isn't Vanishing as Quickly as Some Think

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 03:05:30 GMT

Ag media have a few topics that seem to never go out of fashion. One is “we’re paving over farmland”. While it is true, I think it is way overblown. Consider this headline, “31 million acres lost: development cuts into U.S. farmland”. Like many farmers one number I have vaguely memorized is the corn and soybean planted acres which is around 90 million each year, so the number 31 looks huge. However, it’s over 20 years, 1992-2012. Second, it seems only 11 million was prime farmland. So we are really talking about a half-million acres per year lost. Even with this clarification, these perennial scare-pieces border on unhelpful for several reasons.

Much of the land being developed is high value simply because it’s next door to a suburb – you really can’t tell much about the agricultural quality from the price because it’s determined by its location, not production. Second, here is a chart of planted acres over the last 90 years, courtesy of Purdue economist Jayson Lusk. Not only is it roughly constant, it’s hard to pick up any decrease in the last few decades.

Crop acres can be converted from pasture and range land of course, but there is no evidence we’re running out of places to plant major crops. In fact, I think we’re one good growing season away from the real possibility of land-idling farm programs. Keep in mind that all the developed land in the United States would fit inside Wisconsin. It totals about 70 million acres out of our land area of 2.25 billion acres, about 3%. Besides, if we should ever need more land for food, all we have to do is end the ethanol mandate.

These sensationalist headlines ignore two crucial problems: the affordable housing crisis in the U.S. and rights of landowners. While I agree that better economic and social policy would be to reform housing regulations to densify urban areas, that battle should be addressed directly, not by land control that threatens the rights of landowners to sell at their discretion. Such efforts have proven ineffective anyway. The US has a significant farmland loss problem from erosion, but America does not and never has had a farmland loss problem from development. This issue is really about ineffective housing and transportation policy.

MFP Details to Be Released This Week, Likely Thursday

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 03:02:23 GMT

Several months ago the Trump Administration announced the Market Facilitation Program for 2019 in response to the ongoing trade war with China. Just last week the Office of Management and budget approved the aid package. So when will farmers finally learn the details of the program? According to Pro Farmer’s Jim Wiesemeyer, additional details will be released this week.

“It kind of makes logical sense, even though it’s from Washington, because you’ve got the final of those extended acreage certification dates on the 22^nd,” he said on the Signal to Noise podcast on Friday. “So that, that will give them a couple of days for any, you know, loose ends on there. But again, we were told to gear up for a Thursday announcement.”

While it’s unclear what kind of details will be included in the announcement, Wiesemeyer says the agency will probably give the payment formulas and some of the county information.

“Let’s hope it’s more details rather than less,” he said

It’s unlikely, given these payments will be calculated on a county by county basis, that farmers will know exactly how much their payments will be, but at this point, they want all the information about the program that they can get.

The payments will provide much-needed cash flow to many farmers. Wiesemeyer hopes Thursday’s announcement will include a timeline of when payments will begin.

“They’re also going to know a certain date of which they’ll get some much-needed cash flow, they’ll probably say, early to mid-August,” he said. “That’s critical because of the dramatic decline and working capital throughout the country.”

John Phipps: Why The Current Grade Card on Trade Policy is "F"

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 03:02:23 GMT

A few months ago I got a request for a tariff follow-up:

“As a supplier to the steel industry in my real job and a part time farmer outside of work, I find myself on both sides of the issue although the one that hits my pocket book the hardest is the farm side. It would be nice to see a follow up to your previous multiple show series about tariffs and correlate the current US steel production changes if any since the previous reports.”

That’s from Richard Petersen, Jr., in Woodville, OH. And he’s right. It’s been a little over a year, so let’s grade the trade war for results. Here are the key goals I remember prompting our tariff actions.

First, to change the perceived imbalance of trade in goods with China primarily, but also Mexico and Canada.

Second, to reclaim jobs and production lost to overseas manufacturers. Most attention centered on the steel industry.

Third, to halt the Chinese practice of ignoring our intellectual property laws and forcing technology transfers.

We’ll start this week with the trade balance. Since the administration looks at trade with each country separately, we’ll do the same. For China the results have been clearly ineffective. The balance of trade for goods just reached a record 12-month peak. While imports of products from China have slowed, our exports to China have been dropped much faster. More importantly new trade flows from Chinese manufacturers through Southeast Asia are making it even harder to track this, so the surplus is likely higher.

As far as our overall trade balance, the trend had been downward, and the tariffs do not appear to have affected that path. This is monthly data, which is a little noisy, but there is no sign of reversing direction.

As I have said before, the balance of trade, especially with single countries is a poor indicator of economic performance. A negative balance of trade in goods often occurs during a healthy economy, as we spend more than we save. But for those who think it should be zero-sum, I would have to give our trade policy an F on the results.

We’ll finish grading tariffs next week.

ARM Targets Texas Organic Dairy In Most Recent Activist Video

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 03:02:23 GMT

Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) is gearing up to release another video alleging animal abuse at an organic dairy in Texas.

The video, which is expected to be released in full sometime in the next week, shows some rough handling of down cows, singing of udders, a cannulated cow, newborn calf care and the dead pile (two animals) at Natural Prairie Farms. The group is relying on its ability to misinform and scare consumers out of purchasing milk.

Richard ‘Kudo’ Couto, founder of ARM, said their “undercover investigation” went from March 2019 until July 2019.

According to ARM, some of the violations observed in the video they plan to release are:

Maltreatment and Excessive Abuse of Dairy Cows: Cows tormented, kicked, hit with shovels, and stabbed with screwdrivers by vet tech crews and animal caregivers. (There is video footage of rough handling of down cows.)
Neglect of Sick and Injured Dairy Cows: Flesh wounds, eye gashes and/or leg injuries not treated. Cows w/ infected eyes, infected udders, cuts and scrapes, limping and too weak to walk seen untreated and in declining health.
Squalid, Overcrowded, Unsanitary Housing: Cows live in squalid, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Cows spend the majority of their lives in illegally overcrowded feces-ridden barns and insufficient stalls force cows to lay in feces-ridden cement, causing foot rot and infections to untreated open wounds and scars. (To be clear, these cows live in what appear to be sand-bedded freestall barns with fans. The video shot of the lanes with manure in them was clearly just before they were either flushed or scraped.)
Force Feeding & Scientific Research Performed on Cows: Portholes to allows access to the rumen of a cow, to perform scientific research and analysis of the cow’s digestive system. Cows being force-fed with metal tubes by untrained employees. (There is footage of an employee giving a cow in a chute some kind of electrolytes with a tube. The “portholes” they mention are cannulas.)

Related articles

A Timeline of the Fair Oaks Investigation

Fair Oaks Targeted: Could It Happen to You?

Witness Confirms ARM Employee Coerced Fair Oaks Farms Abuse

Overhe(a)rd: Fair Oaks Farms, Meat the Millennial and Shrinking Farms

John Phipps: Why Now Is the Time to Sit Down With Your Ag Lender

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 03:02:19 GMT

One of our most difficult tasks in the ag media is to show how farmers are doing. The idea that one chart or table of numbers will describe how any given farmer is doing has become less likely. We are an industry full of individual economic situations and averaging them out or even totaling them up can conceal more than it illuminates.

The financial industry we work with struggles with this variability as well. When you throw in outside influences like weather, it is impossible to predict how any farmer is doing financially without knowing several specifics.

For example, even in the hard-pressed dairy industry, some are doing relatively well. There are corn and soy growers who are quietly raising their income projections as prices have come off their lows. No matter how much we argue about the precise number, there are millions of acres of “good-to-excellent” crops out there. And no matter how much we complain about how prices should be higher, it is rare we don’t gripe about that, and for growers in lucky locations current and future prices are a heck of a lot better than we expected.

Our farms vary in size which has a significant effect on breakeven prices. Our farm households are quite unique as well. Depending on outside income, even farmers with miserable crops may be able to forecast a small positive outcome this year. This range of situations makes working with farmers a series of separate adventures for lenders especially. It also means farmers won’t all get the same deal from the same lender.

This is hardly news, but it reminds me of one of the most valuable lessons I learned about my relationship with my bank. Even during some really tough years, I discovered lenders were serious about wanting to help my farm survive and prosper. To be sure, they wanted to make sound lending decisions, but banks don’t make any income unless they push money out the door. What finally dawned on me, after some difficult but informative meetings with my lender during the 80s was that a big part of my job was to make her job as easy as possible. Good records, updated projections, clear goals, and detailed plans were essential to that objective. It was amazing to me how many times we found ways together to endure that neither of us thought about before we met. Right now, it may be hard to sit down at the computer and enter yields and prices and costs to get a peek at a possible future. It may be even harder to sit down with your lender. The longer we put those taskes off, the less likely good solutions will be found.

Fair Oaks Farms Confronts Undercover Activists with Transparency

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 02:07:36 GMT

One of the best-known dairies in the country, Fair Oaks Farms near Chicago, says animal activists infiltrated their workforce and spent six months recording operations.

Fair Oaks Farms is known for creating an identity around agritourism. Now, the business built on transparency is already preparing to react. It has also released its own YouTube video about it .

“It’s why we opened up our farm 15 years ago to the public,” says Sue McCloskey, a co-founder of Fair Oaks Farm. “We did that in order to have the conversation about what modern agriculture is all about and to answer any and all questions the consumer and families have about where their food comes from.”

Which is why when an anonymous caller told them a group of recent employees was actually animal activists sent to record the operation undercover, Fair Oaks immediately began a new conversation.

“It’s very unfortunate because what happens in videos like this is the thousands and thousands of compassionate moments that our employees have interacting and taking care of our animals never get to these videos,” says Mike McCloskey, a veterinarian and co-founder at Fair Oaks Farms.

While no videos have been released yet, Mike says it’s not impossible that over six months the activists didn’t capture moments of frustration or a break down in processes.

“What they get is the one-off moment or they’re showing a practice, misrepresenting it or explaining it wrong or a malfunction of some sort that’s a one-off malfunction that does cause some stress with the animals until that’s corrected,” says Mike in the video.

It’s also why they immediately hired a third party to audit the farm.

“We even encourage our employees to come to us if they see anyone else doing anything that considers an animal welfare abuse to come and share that with us,” says Mike.

Along with having transparency through hosting daily farm tours, Fair Oaks also participates and is certified through the National Dairy FARM (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management) program for its animal welfare practices.

They’re watching for what may come out, but Fair Oaks wishes more conversations would start at the front door.

“We really wish that groups like this understood that they are welcome to come and share with us their thoughts of our practices and our management and allow us to have a dialog with them where we could interchange our thoughts with theirs and I’m sure they’ll teach us stuff and help us become better at what we do,” says Mike .

For now, its a waiting game for one of the nation’s largest dairies built on an open door policy.

The McCloskey’s say all employees sign a document pledging to report abuse when they see it. They say there may be legal ramifications for both current and former workers depending on what any released footage shows.

For more on this story listen Mike McCloskey in an audio interview with with Clinton Griffiths, editorial director with Farm Journal Broadcast and AgDay anchor:

The Spring Flush and Then Better Dairy Prices

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 01:40:59 GMT

The dairy industry is hoping for improved prices in 2019 driven by less growth. As Mike North with Commodity Risk Management Group told AgDay’s Clinton Griffiths during an interview, optimism is at least possible this year.

“The reality is there is contraction that has been taking place and the numbers bear it out,” says North. “We saw a 94,000 cow decline from last January’s peak to present.”

North says while that made itself known in last month’s lower production numbers, cow efficiency is still growing.

“Cow efficiency grows as you cull the herd of the worst animals because the best animals then are allowed to express themselves more,” says North. "[It] generally shows up in more milk per cow and so that showed up again.”

North says we’re just now starting the spring flush.

“Milk is flowing through the country and it’s not to say that we are flooded with milk, like we were last year, because we’re not but there’s more present than there was as we came into the start of the year,” says North. “So, we’ve seen some of the premium on milk erode a little bit.”

He says cheese vats have been very active but the country is through the big consumption window and headed for summer.

“Cheese inventories are still very bulky and when we look specifically at Italian type cheeses there’s a growing sense that’s becoming a little bit burdensome,” says North. “So we can see some pressure on the block cheese price and [that may] drag that block barrel average lower through the month of May.”

North says that typically plays out in a lower milk price as we come through the spring.

“However, as we clear some of that inventory and move into what would be presumably summer heat, we see milk production recede a little bit, which is seasonal and normal, against that smaller cow herd, we could very well start to see a little bit of tightness,” says North. "[Right] when buyers are wanting to build up their inventories going into the big fall consumption period.”

North says if all those factors fall into place, it could really start to show up as better milk prices.

“We’re telling guys to be realistic about that and look back at history,” says North. “We generally trade milk between a $13 and $18 range and [so if] we start moving towards those prices they should be doing something about it.”