The American Dairy Coalition has announced policy goals designed to increase milk prices and strengthen farmers’ voice.

The “emerging priorities” were announced May 2 after two virtual forums about the federal milk marketing orders.

The group supports changing the Class I (fluid milk) price calculation back to a method using the higher of the Class III or IV price.

To improve buyers’ ability to hedge, the 2018 Farm Bill changed the formula to an average of the two class prices plus a fixed adjuster.

But unusual market conditions early in the pandemic caused this pricing mechanism to go negative for several months and reduce many farmers’ income.

The coalition also wants milk checks to be simplified and provide added clarity about how farmers are paid. This policy stems from the concern that cooperatives’ interests may conflict with farmers’ because some co-ops have developed large processing businesses.

Many farmers also want to remove bloc voting, in which a cooperative votes on behalf of its members in federal order referendums. Farmers would like to vote confidentially and individually, coalition CEO Laurie Fischer said.

Despite simmering frustration, the coalition said farmers have faced obstacles in their efforts to change the system. The federal milk pricing system is notoriously complex, and some farmers fear losing their markets if they voice their opinions.

Source: lancasterfarming.com

A year ago we wrote in these lines that China was stockpiling foodstuffs as if preparing for war. Nobody imagined the current context. Today we could observe that the US is following the same strategy.

In April 2021 we talked about the speculations in the market due to the growth of Chinese food imports. At that time, everyone was looking at a possible invasion of Taiwan by the Asian giant, it seemed to be the only possible conflict on the horizon. Perhaps the Chinese already knew something of what was to come.

It became clear that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not in the papers of any Western leader. But, it seems, today everyone is speculating that the conflict may be extended in time and even widened.

eDairyNews was present at the Annual Conference of the American Dairy Products Institute and the American Butter Institute (ADPI/ABI 2022) in Chicago, and there we were able to learn about the current situation of the world dairy market.

In the USA there is a very important shift in production towards cheese, which is causing a decrease in the volume of local milk powder. This is largely due to the large investment that DFA has made with Glambia in Indiana. This new, modern, fully robotized plant demands a lot of milk, which has weakened the milk powder and buttermilk chains.

The local U.S. market is now about 1% short of milk, in the face of strong demand. The biggest problem observed by farmers is that of generational turnover. In view of this problem, DFA is promoting the investment of its producer partners to bring young people to the farm with the incorporation of state-of-the-art technology.

The demand continues and will continue to be strong in the coming months, even with the decrease in Chinese purchases due to its particular Covid enclosure. Today, the biggest problem that China imposes on the world is the great logistical bottleneck. It is estimated that the inconveniences may last until the end of the year.

In the meantime, and in silence, North America is trying to promote food stockpiling, the drums of war continue to beat.

Source: eDairyNews

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said food prices have risen 9.4% over the past year. But the Bureau said in April, the rate of inflation fell for the first time since August 2021. But prices haven’t slowed on dairy products.

The cost of butter and margarine has gone up more than 19% over the past year. Milk prices are up nearly 15%.

“We have to get more for our product because everything we buy to make milk costs us more money,” Dustin Bliss, the owner of Bliss Dairy Company, said.

Bliss said right now, dairy farmers are facing two options.

“The option is to either stay in business, and pay the extra money for fertilizer, for seed, for fuel, or go out of business and do something else with your land,” Bliss said.

He said over the past year, his labor costs have increased 50-100% because there are fewer workers.

“My decisions throughout the labor shortages has just been to pay more money. There wasn’t an option between getting the chores done adequately or cutting corners in my mind or just staying in business. We chose to stay in business,” Bliss said.

It’s also become more expensive to feed the animals because the cost of feed and fertilizer has risen.

“The average cost of fertilizer has more than doubled for everything. Some products have increased 250%. You don’t have an option again. I have 1200 animals here I have to feed. I can’t just use less fertilizer,” Bliss said.

Combine these expenses with the rising cost of fuel, a truck driver shortage, and farms on track to spend the most they have in a long time.

“I would say an average year, over the past ten years, the month of May and summer has run between $10,000 and $15,000. I expect that cost to eclipse $30,000 just for the month of May,” Bliss said.

Source: wkbw.com

34% of 18-35-year olds are consuming more dairy

According to a consumer survey by Tate & Lyle, the purchase of dairy products has been on the decline for several years with many turning to dairy alternatives. However, a third (34%) of 18-35-year-olds in Europe are consuming more dairy than they were three years ago.

Tate & Lyle PLC, a global provider of food and beverage ingredients and solutions, commissioned new research amongst consumers in the UK, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, and Sweden, to investigate attitudes towards dairy consumption.

The survey found that the frequency in which young consumers eat dairy products is high, with 71% eating cheese, 81% drinking milk and 69% eating yoghurt at least once a week.

Furthermore, 77% of 18-35-year-olds said they are happy to consider eating more dairy products if they could try products with less fat, sugar, and allergens.

“Our research has uncovered some interesting emerging trends when it comes to how and why consumers are purchasing dairy,” said Beth Nieman Hacker, market research director at Tate & Lyle “It is so important to understand how behaviours, values and appetites are changing and the drivers behind these shifts, so food and drink brands can launch products that meet the needs of consumers today.”

The research uncovered opportunities for food and drink manufacturers to do more to encourage young people to eat dairy products.

Health is a key priority for the younger generation, with 1 in 4 (39%) of 18-35-year-olds stating they felt dairy products contained too much fat and 34% claiming that dairy products contain too much sugar.

Younger consumers are much more likely to eat dairy alternatives – with 35% eating non-dairy cheese, 33% eating non-dairy ice cream and 46% non-dairy milk, at least once a week.

A flexitarian diet seems to be on the rise amongst consumers of all ages, who switch between dairy and dairy alternatives depending on the meal type. 39% said they eat dairy cheese at dinner, compared to 26% who chose a dairy alternative. 32% preferred dairy yoghurt at breakfast, while 26% liked a dairy alternative yoghurt as a mid-morning snack.

Consumers are also looking to make more sustainable choices – with a fifth (18%) of older consumers saying products with environmental certifications would be a big factor in them increasing their dairy intake, while younger consumers were looking for more environmentally-friendly packaging (19%) and a longer shelf life (20%).

“Our research found that nearly three quarters of 18-35-year-olds who are eating less of dairy are happy to consider eating more dairy products if they could try products with less fat and sugars,” said Delphine Forejt, dairy category development manager at Tate & Lyle. “Whilst dairy products have long been associated with goodness, in today’s world, the dairy industry must adapt to modern consumer tastes, convenience and healthier lifestyles.”

Source: thedairysite.com

Source: dairyglobal.net

America’s Dairyland had become world famous for its cow and goat milk and cheese long ago, but there’s a little-known segment of the dairy industry that hopes to grow in the years to follow.

Persephone Allen milked her livestock twice a day for three hours at a time since she decided which animal she’d manage.

She runs a dairy in Waterloo where she milks not cows nor goats, but sheep.

“I tell [people] I milk sheep and they’re like, ‘You mean goats, right?’ and I’m like, ‘No, sheep,’” Allen said.

She said her dairy, Forever Young Sheep Dairy, is one of 20 members of the Sheep Dairy Association of Wisconsin.

The group says there are only 13 sheep dairy producers in the state. While the number seems small, that’s still more sheep dairies than any other single state in the union.

Allen said she wants to see more people get into milking sheep.

She’s learned how hard it can be to get started.

“You don’t want people to get into it and fail, so it’s really important right now before anyone starts a sheep dairy to make sure they have a market for their milk,” she said.

Allen said she milks 160 sheep and will soon expand to 200. She said she feels like she’s in a good spot after carving out her place in the industry.

“Some days are rough but other days it’s like, ‘Yeah, this is perfect,’” Allen said.​

Source: spectrumnews1.com

The pasteurization of milk has been one of the most successful public health measures of all time, and a big improvement over boracic acid.

The events were organized by local dairy farmers, with support from 31 chapters of the Wisconsin Farmers Union (WFU) and Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation (WFBF). The groups presented a farmer-led, research-backed growth management plan for the U.S. dairy industry.

“We’ve lost an average of one to two dairy herds a day in Wisconsin in recent years,” said Dairy Together Organizer Bobbi Wilson. “This program does not seek to pit small farms against large farms; instead, we’re looking at how we can pull together to create meaningful dairy policy reform in the next farm bill.”

Buffalo County Farm Bureau leader Joe Bragger noted that only 30,000 dairy farms remain in the United States — roughly as many dairy farms as Wisconsin alone boasted in the 1990s.

“I’m proud of the grassroots of Farm Bureau and Farmers Union and the fact that we’re in the room here together,” Bragger said. “As we move into this next farm bill cycle, someone will be making decisions on dairy policy. We need to be at the table.”

Dairy economists Chuck Nicholson and Mark Stephenson provided an overview of what could have been accomplished if growth management was implemented in the 2014 Farm Bill. The presentation was based on their “Analyses of Proposed Alternative Growth Management Programs for US Dairy,” which was funded by the University of Wisconsin (UW) “Baldwin Wisconsin Idea” program, the Grassland 2.0 project, the Wisconsin Cover Crops Research and Outreach Program, and UW Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems.

The pair studied a growth management program in which each dairy farm would start with a base level of milk production, determined by historic production. A rate of allowable milk production growth would be set based on demand; those choosing to expand beyond allowable growth would pay a market access fee.

“Farms that stay within their allowable growth wouldn’t pay a market access fee and would receive money from a pool of expanding farms,” Nicholson explained. That payment acts as an incentive for farmers to coordinate production to match growth in demand.

Stephenson pointed out that the idea of growth management is becoming less radical, as cooperatives have seen the benefits of managing their intakes. “We’ve gotten some real-life experience with these programs as co-ops implemented them over the past few years, and we realized no one died, and they did have an impact on the price,” he said.

During the winter of 2020-2021, a group of WFU and WFBF members collaborated on possible growth management scenarios. The groups established core tenets for a growth management plan they could support, including allowing for beginning farmer entry, complying with existing trade agreements, and not causing a significant increase in retail prices. Those parameters guided Nicholson and Stephenson’s research.

The study showed that growth management would reduce variation in milk prices, enhance average milk prices, and increase average net farm operating income for operations staying within allowable growth rates.

“If we would have had such a program implemented, the average increase in price from 2014 to 2021 would have been $1.41 per hundredweight,” Nicholson noted, stressing the research shows farmers would have seen less price variation on their milk checks.

The impact on consumer prices would be minor, with costs rising 15 cents for fluid milk prices and 11 cents per pound for wholesale American cheese. In turn, U.S. dairy exports would continue to grow, albeit at a slightly reduced rate.

“Exports continue to grow; they do grow more slowly, but also more steadily, with stabilized prices in the U.S. market,” Nicholson noted. “Our present price cycles in the U.S. dairy industry make us less consistent in pricing, which makes us a less consistent supplier.”

The plan would also reduce the need for government safety nets for dairy farmers, cutting expenditures nearly in half. Domestic dairy product sales were projected to continue to grow, with a drop of only a few percentage points compared to the baseline comparison of no implementation of growth management.

Time for Change

Nicholson stressed that he was not there to tell farmers which path to take. “What I’m trying to do is help folks have a conversation, he said. “The question becomes, do we want to live in this world, or do we want to live in this world over here?”

The answer for many of those in attendance is that it is time for change.

Clark County Farm Bureau President Clark Turner milks 120 cows on his Withee dairy farm. He wonders about the future for the next generation of dairy farmers, including his sons.

“Right now we’re in an uptick for prices, and you think ‘oh boy, this is gonna help us,’ but then we see the cost of inputs skyrocketing,” he said. “It’s bleak. We just never seem to be able to dig out of the hole.”

“It does look like this plan could provide that stability that we all long for,” Turner said. “We all want to know that we’re going to be okay and the bills are going to be paid going forward. This is a step in the right direction to get there.”

WFU District 6 Director Sarah Lloyd has been involved in the conversation around growth management in her roles as a rural advocate and researcher. She farms near Wisconsin Dells with her husband and his family on a 400-cow dairy farm and, in her role with the UW Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS), helped convene a stakeholder group to provide input around growth management research.

“We were that farm that was at 125 cows in 2002 and doubled the herd in order to have all 3 families draw a salary from the farm,” Lloyd said. “We’ve been running on the treadmill ever since.”

She views working on a policy to stabilize prices as a benefit for Wisconsin’s rural communities, which have been hit hard by the decline of dairying.

“We all know those neighborhoods where there used to be dairy farms all down the road, but they’re gone now,” she said. “When you lose those farms, they stop buying from suppliers. I see the benefit of growth management not only as the potential for my farm business but also for the web of economic interactions between the businesses we work with and for the social vitality of our communities.”

“We’re seeing processors owning farms,” added Bruce Gumz of Tri-G Farms in Dorchester. “We’ve got a clear picture, looking at what happened with chickens and hogs, of what could happen. We’re following that pattern of consolidation, pedal to the metal.”

WFU Vice President and Westby dairy farmer Darin Von Ruden said he takes the growing support for growth management as a hopeful sign. “It’s exciting to see different groups coming together around this plan,” he said. “I’ve been involved in dairy issues for 20 years and have seen crowds gather around an idea and then die down, but there’s a lot of hope and momentum behind this movement.”

As he nestled his young grandson in his arms, he stressed, “My work today is really about looking ahead to 20 or 25 years. What future is there for our kids and grandkids if we continue down this path we’re on?”

Monroe County dairy farmer Jack Herricks agreed. “This discussion has had a longer lifespan than any other effort made in the past,” said Herricks, a Farm Bureau member who farms on his family’s century farm near Cashton. “The fact that it continues to gain support and more discussion and consideration speaks to the fact that there is interest and there’s a lot of work being done to flesh it out and make it work for the majority.

Von Ruden added that implementing a plan that keeps more farms on the land rather than fewer is valuable from a food security perspective.

”As chaotic and painful as the COVID crisis was over the past few years, it was an important lesson in the need for resilience so we can better withstand future shocks to our food system,” Wilson agreed. “I hope this can be the turning point to not only think about economic efficiency but also economic resilience. Growth management has the potential to do that.”

Since launching in 2018, Dairy Together has built a strong coalition of dairy farmers and industry stakeholders, secured research on growth management, and empowered farmer-led solutions to the dairy crisis — but the work is far from over.

“The opportunity we have is the 2023 Farm Bill, and those conversations are happening right now,” Wilson said. “The strength we can bring as a community of dairy farmers and allies is a demonstration of what can be done. Now we have the benefit of hindsight, of knowing what would have happened if we had implemented growth management in 2014, and we can see clear benefits.”

She called on farmers to lift up growth management, and particularly the Dairy Revitalization Plan, in their cooperatives and help educate fellow farmers, consumers, and policymakers. Those who are interested can sign up for updates and find action steps at www.dairytogether.com.

“Changing federal dairy policy is a huge task, but if we don’t get this done in the next farm bill, there are not going to be enough dairy farms left to support a sustainable industry,” Wilson said. “We need diversity in herd sizes – we need large farms to supply a bulk of milk but also small farms to provide resilience – and growth management is the path toward striking that balance.”

Governor Brian P. Kemp made a special occasion earlier this month for signage of his administration’s Georgia Grown Farm to Food Bank legislation (SB 396), the Freedom to Farm Act (HB 1150), and a bill to expand the elementary agriculture education program (HB 1303).

Gov. Kemp did not, at that time, sign House Bill 1175, the Georgia Raw Dairy Act, which has also reached his desk. 

Any significance to Kemp not including the Raw Milk Dairy Act as one of his celebratory food bills isn’t known,

The Georgia Legislature passed the Raw Milk Dairy Act by large margins, making the Peach State the 31st state to allow raw milk sales with an effective date of July 1, 2023.

Georgians can purchase raw milk under existing law. But, its labeled as “pet milk” and sold by farms with animal feed licenses, which are available for a small fee.

Rep. Clay Pirkle, R-Ashburn, said that “pet milk” is never tested or checked for bacteria or somatic cell counts under the current system. 

 “We have no idea what’s in it,” said Pirkle, (HB) 1175’s sponsor.

In support of the bill, he said it would allow for raw milk regulation for the safety of consumers. 

But in passing the Georgia Raw Dairy Act, the Legislature is betting regulated raw milk sales will top “pet milk” sales.  

Measurements for raw milk and raw milk products are not readily available because they are relatively small and stagnant. Georgia, however, is counting on consumers clamoring for more raw milk products for their alleged benefits.

Martin Yoder, owner of the White House Dairy Farm at Montezuma, GA, told the Georgia Legislature that (HB) 1175 opens a new market that potentially will triple his income.

Yoder predicted that without change, family-owned dairy farms would be gone within 10 years, leaving Georgia with only about 40 large dairies. A switch to Grade A raw milk is an option that could save some family-owned dairies, he says.

The Raw Dairy Act requires licenses and requirements for raw milk products for human consumption following food safety regulations under the authority of the Commissioner of Agriculture.

One of those requirements is a warning label on the raw milk packaging. It must say: “Warning: This is a raw milk product that is not pasteurized and may increase the risk of foodborne illness.”

Iowa’s Senate File (SF) 2309 was another raw bill not unlike Georgia’s, but it did not get as far.

The Iowa Senate voted 32-15 on March 10 in favor of (SF)2309, which sought to allow dairy farmers to sell raw milk directly to consumers, either on the farm through direct deliveries. 

But nothing much has happened after the Senate vote. Since it passed the Senate, opposition to SF2309 dominated.

Wanting the bill killed are the Iowa Public Health Association, Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship; Iowa Institute for Cooperatives, Iowa Environmental Health Association, Iowa State Dairy Association, Iowa Veterinary Medical Association; Iowa Grocery Industry Associaton; Iowa Farm Bureau, and the Iowa Dairy Foods Association.

Coalitions representing pasteurized foods and public health have stopped many raw milk bills in the past, and, in Iowa, such joint efforts worked again.

The Iowa Legislature adjourned on April 19, not allowing (SF)2309 to gain any traction in the House.

However, Missouri’s House Bill 1977 remains alive, with adjournment not scheduled until May 20.

On April 25, Missouri’s House voted 124-to-11 to pass HB1977. Another 11 members voted “present.” The Senate placed it on the First Reading calendar.

HB1977 bill would legalize selling “Grade A” retail raw milk and raw cream products made in Missouri at grocery stores, restaurants, soda fountains, and similar establishments.

The raw milk products would also be required to post and carry warning labels saying: “WARNING: This product has not been pasteurized and, therefore, may contain harmful bacteria that can cause serious illness in children, the elderly, and persons with weakened immune systems.”

 Raw milk does not go through pasteurization, which is the process of quickly heating milk to a high enough temperature for a short time to kill illness-causing germs. Pasteurized milk is milk that has gone through this process

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), raw milk and raw milk products are health risks for consumers.

From 1993 through 2012, 127 outbreaks reported to CDC were linked to raw milk. These outbreaks included 1,909 illnesses and 144 hospitalizations. Most of the outbreaks were caused by Campylobacter, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, or Salmonella. 

A large number of raw milk outbreaks involve children. At least one child younger than five was involved in 59 percent of the raw milk outbreaks reported to the CDC from 2007 through 2012. Children aged 1 to 4 years accounted for 38 percent of Salmonella illnesses in these outbreaks and 28 percent of illnesses caused by Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, which can cause kidney failure and death.

The CDC finds that reported outbreaks represent the tip of the iceberg. Most illnesses are not a part of a recognized outbreak, and many others occur for every outbreak and every illness reported.

For the past 100 years, almost all milk in the United States has been subject to pasteurization. The process ended the era when millions of people became sick and died of tuberculosis, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, and other diseases that were transmitted through raw milk.

Pasteurization has prevented millions of people from becoming ill. Most public health professionals and health care providers consider pasteurization one of public health’s most effective food safety interventions ever.

Source: foodsafetynews.com

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) today sent a letter to the Biden administration recommending specific steps to provide relief and support to dairy farmers and exporters facing supply chain constraints.

The letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called for interagency collaboration to enhance capacity at ports, incentivize carriers to load export cargo, and improve transparency throughout the supply chain. The lead recommendation called for USDA’s Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) to restart its Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report (OSCAR).

“Supply chain challenges have cost U.S. dairy exporters over $1.5 billion last year alone. We thank Secretaries Vilsack and Buttigieg for their advocacy for America’s agriculture exporters in the face of significant supply chain constraints. We are incredibly grateful for the administration’s ongoing efforts and creative solutions, particularly for the development of ‘pop-up’ sites for agricultural exporters to source empty containers,” said Krysta Harden, president and CEO of USDEC. “The additional recommendations submitted today would provide agricultural exporters much needed insight into container availability and provide avenues to incentivize carriers to load outbound shipments to key dairy markets around the world.”

“Shipping containers for U.S. dairy exports continue to be in short supply at coastal ports, and even more scarce at inland locations. These essential links in the global supply chain must be available to American dairy exporters throughout the country in order to ship their products to overseas buyers,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. “We thank USDA and DOT for their strong focus on this issue. As congestion continues, so too must the spectrum of tools deployed to address these challenges. Today’s letter highlights the additional steps necessary to take to ensure American dairy farmers are not losing long-term international market share due to these persistent supply chain challenges.”

The specified programmatic elements to provide supply chain relief include:

• Restarting USDA AMS’ OSCAR, which would detail the availability of ocean shipping containers at locations throughout the United States.
• Establishing inland pop-up terminal yards, similar to those in Oakland and Seattle, in Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit, Salt Lake City and Kansas City. This would enable greater access inland to containers and improve the ability to secure vessel accommodations with short earliest-return-date windows at those locations.
• Developing the ‘fast lane’ concept to incentivize the flow of agriculture exports into and from ports. This would include trucking lanes at port terminals that are dedicated to the expeditious delivery of perishable agriculture goods to ports.
• Incentivizing ocean carriers to load more export containers, instead of empty containers, through preferred or prioritized berthing access.
• Including real-time tracking of containers as part of the Administration’s Freight Logistics Optimization Works initiative.
• Piloting projects with carriers for ‘dual turns’ of containers, wherein containers delivering imports to an in-land location may be provided directly to an export-focused shipper, rather than being sent back empty to the port. This could be supported through the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation resources

The Weiss Centennial Farm has been in existence since 1853. Throughout its time, the farm has seen its fair share of neighboring farms.

But according to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Michigan has lost 700 dairy operations in the last five years.

Roger and Joan Marie Weiss are fifth-generation owners of the Frankenmuth dairy farm. Roger says when he was growing up there were many dairy farms within a three-mile radius. Currently, he’s the only farmer in the area.

The Weiss’ tells Mid-Michigan NOW that they’ve seen a rapid decrease of dairy farms over the last decade due to the strenuous workload.

Roger says operating a dairy farm is an around-the-clock job and can be very expensive. He says with costs of products increasing, it doesn’t make working any easier.

But although the cost of running the farm may have risen, Roger’s wife, Joan Marie tells us they are finding creative ways to stay afloat like offering agricultural tourism.

Phil Durst is a senior extension educator with Michigan State University and specializes in dairy and beef cattle production. He says this decrease in dairy farms are due to several things, one specifically being generational transfer, advising that kids don’t want to farm and may want to pursue other careers.

But Durst offers a little solace for dairy farmers advising that although Michigan is losing dairy farms, the cow population continues to grow. He says that buyers have nothing to worry about when it comes to the supply of milk.

Source: nbc25news.com

Regenerative dairy can help rebalance Earth’s ecosystems, while producing high quality nutrition, and making farming and food businesses more resilient. Recently, a group of experts introduced a new project ‘Regen Dairy’, outlining the challenges and opportunities of regenerative dairy and discussing how the project will work to co-develop a roadmap.

The Regen Dairy project will define what regenerative dairy looks like – from the bottom up, and throughout dairy supply chains.

The project’s goal is to engage dairy farmers and food businesses around a practical vision for a productive and profitable global dairy sector that also restores its relationship with nature. The vision is intended to be global, but the solutions it aims to provide will be local, reflecting the difference between farm systems and national climates.

The Regen Dairy project has been set up by FAI Farms and Farmwel in collaboration with a number of global food companies, including Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Arla Foods, Woolworth South Africa and Ben & Jerry’s.

Ffinlo Costain, CEO of Farmwel based in the UK and moderator for the event, noted that regenerative agriculture can help to reestablish natural balance by mitigating global warming and creating resilience in the landscape by restoring biodiversity, soil health and the water cycle. It can do this while producing high quality food and ensuring that farming and food businesses become less vulnerable to economic, social and environmental risks, he added.

Reconnecting dairy to the soil

Klass Jans van-Calker, Global Sustainable Sourcing Manager at Unilever, noted that dairy production has become disconnected from how it can contribute to develop a sustainable food system. The cow is an amazing animal that can digest grass and contribute to making arable and vegetable farming systems more sustainable. But somewhere along the line the sector got disconnected from other crops, other farming systems and cost issues. That’s where solutions need to be found, he said.

In the last 20 years, dairy production has focused on sustainability, as well as doing no harm. But the focus of regenerative agriculture is trying to do good, to contribute to biodiversity and save land use by using marginal land, using food waste as regenerative feed, and by adding manure to arable farming systems, van-Calker said. This leads to biodiversity growth, producing clean water, creating carbon sequestration and reducing methane emissions, he added.

This demonstrates that the dairy industry is moving from doing no harm to genuinely doing good, which is a very important change.

Van-Calker said there’s a circularity to regen agriculture, where livestock production — eggs, dairy, meat — is not competing for feed with human food production. By using marginal grasslands for grazing and food waste, regen agriculture becomes complimentary to arable and vegetable systems.

Regen dairy is not something that can be achieved overnight and there is no one size fits all. The solution will be different from farm to farm. However, the goal is to build farming systems that are less dependent on inputs and less dependent on market volatilities by becoming resilient.

Finding what works

Oistein Thorsen, CEO at FAI Farms, spoke about the project that FAI and Farmwel are heading in collaboration with major companies and dairy producers. The goal of the Regen Dairy project is to engage directly with dairy farmers and food businesses around a practical vision for a productive and profitable global dairy sector that also restores its relationship with nature, he said.

“That starts with trying to understand what regen dairying looks like right now,” he said. “What are farmers doing now that is having a regenerative impact on their land and on their farm? We’re documenting those stories.”

One of the key aspects of the Regen Dairy project is it’s “user centered design” approach. Thorson explained that this methodology has been developed in the service design sector but is not commonly used in agriculture. The methodology that will be applied will include creating personas and user journeys to really understand the key challenges and opportunities and the support requirements.

“For the dairy farmers embarking on their journey, what do they really need as opposed to what do we think they might need? That’s the bottom-up approach being taken,” he said.

The project aims to facilitate more conversation between farmers in regen dairy. The goal is to facilitate discussion and sharing of practices between people who are doing it every day, he said.

“Farmers start from different places, and contexts, and the pressures and opportunities are different because practices vary in different parts of the world,” he said.

Thorsen mentioned that there is a lot of discussion about defining what exactly regen is. Should it be a focus on practices, principles, or outcomes?

The idea is to understand how regen dairy is currently being measured. Through interviews and case studies, the goal is to highlight the measures and metrics that farmers are already using, Thorson said.

We recognise that there are already a range of initiatives that are focusing on measuring regenerative agriculture, but that won’t be the priority of this project, in fact we are more interested in finding out the challenges associated with these metrics and measures, he added.

“This is about taking stock of where you are, from a whole farm perspective, thinking about which direction you want to be going in. The metrics might help guide you along the way and make sure that you’re moving in the right direction, but ultimately this is about a mindset shift,” Thorson said.

The Regen Dairy project information and details can be found at regendairy.org.

Regen dairy farmers

Tom and Sophie Gregory are dairy farmers in southwest England. They are first generation, organic dairy farmers that supply Arla. They’ve been dairy farmers for eight years, seven of those in organic production. They are now part of the Arla regen pilot program, a four-year project, with 24 farmers across their global network. The aim of the project is to give feedback to other farmers.

Sophie Gregory said they are share farming with another organic dairy farmer who’s also an Arla member. They raise 360 cows on 900 acres.

“It’s a real mixed bag, in terms of soil type. It can be quite a challenge, depending on the climate. We aim to be out nine months of the year, depending on the season. But the biggest aim for us is to turn grass to milk,” she said.

Tom Gregory said, “one of the first lightbulb moments was when we started doing a second round of soil sampling. And it was only basic chemical and organic matter samples, but we were starting to see that even though we were organic…some of the indices weren’t improving. Maybe we needed to change some of the methods we were using to improve grass growth and soil health,” he said.

That’s what started their search for different approaches and led them to regen dairy principles.

The Gregory’s are moving away from heavy cultivations and are making changes in hedgerow management to improve the farming-to-environment balance. But at the same time, the business must be profitable, Tom emphasized.

“If you’ve got the field that looks slightly compact or hungry, why is this field looking this way? We’re not going to implement machinery passes, aerating. Let’s try and solve that problem by looking at the soil and working out if this is a chemical issue, a biological issue or a fungal/bacterial ratio issue?” Tom queried.

Sophie noted, “my biggest thing would be to emphasize that small changes really add up.”

Start doing things like changing hedgerow management. There’s a different sized hedge for different wildlife and you can change your grassland species to help increase infiltration. Even a very small tweak can help along the journey to being regenerative, she said.

“My vision would be to encourage others to get on board by implementing small changes,” she said. “I think it’s definitely a mindset. We have a flexible view. We’re constantly having to adapt how we do things when the climate changes or when things alter. It’s just trying to get people to take that first step into it. And then once you do, it’s kind of a rabbit hole, you start one thing and it works or it doesn’t work, you try another thing, and it sort of leads on to another change, that is how we’ve found it,” Sophie emphasized.

Tom said, “as tenant farmers, we have a particular amount of fixed costs, we’ve got bills we need to pay every month, so it has to work.”

“If we were to decide to move away from rye grass-clover leys,” — which represent 80% of their fields — “we couldn’t just suddenly decide to reseed the whole farm in one year, that’s not going to work. We’re not paid on nutrient density, we’re paid on volume and fat and protein content,” he concluded.

Commercial perspective

Jo Lawrence, who provides agri-commercial support at Arla Foods, also joined the webinar discussion.

“At Arla, we talk about stronger people and stronger planet. We really feel that dairy has a key role to play in delivering on that mission. And obviously, we talk a lot about the health benefits of milk,” she said. “I think where we really need to use this movement and momentum with farmers around regenerative is to start collecting the data from the practices to be able to deliver those proof points back to our customers and consumers to really demonstrate that dairy farming with our cows is delivering this positive impact on nature and climate. Because we feel it’s when you can have that data, we can tell a bigger story.”

Arla is a farmer-owned cooperative with 10,000 farmer owners. She said Arla talks a lot about needing to transform, which is why it’s so important to have farmers right at the heart of leading this. However, these are businesses as well, and they need to make money. The way Arla approaches regen dairy has to be aligned with supporting them to continue to be a sustainable business themselves, she said.

“This is a journey, and all farmers are starting from different places and having different contexts. And it’s not an overnight thing. We’re not going to wake up tomorrow and be regenerative. How can we use the data to demonstrate that we’re making that continual improvement, and through that sharing and commercializing with customers, to give the farmers the incentive to take that first step and to start their own journey?” Lawrence asked.

“I think the first challenge is the fact there is no blueprint. There’s no tried and tested way of doing this…because of the complexity of regen and the fact it’s a systems approach,” she said. “We’re going to try and pull together what’s already out there, what’s already working and start to share that knowledge and what measures are meaningful for farmers.”

She also noted that these collaborative approaches across the supply chain are important because ultimately, the industry is trying to align on what we’re trying to achieve together. It wouldn’t make sense for Arla to come up with our own approach of what is regenerative, and then other companies come up with their approaches, because from a farmer’s point of view, they want clarity, said Lawrence.

The industry should align to make long term decisions and give dairy farmers the direction of travel and not have them worried that, if they’re going down a path, that it is suddenly going to change, she concluded.

Source: thedairysite.com

A fourth-generation dairy farmer told Fox News on Monday that climate change-related policies and heightened economic woes could signal bad news for her family’s farm and the larger agricultural community.

“We’ve seen 45,000 dairy farms go out since 2003. I’m worried for my beef farmers, the processing plants… I’m worried about pretty much all of agriculture. What is our future looking like and how are Americans going to rally around our agriculture community? We must support our local agriculture. We cannot let regulations kill off our food supply,” Stephanie Nash said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

Rising costs, labor and supply shortages and little federal support – in addition to climate change and conservation regulations – are all major obstacles threatening the Nash family, and others like them. 

Chris Pollack, co-owner of Pollack-Vu dairy farm tells Fox News fuel costs have more that doubled (Megan Myers/Fox Digital) (Fox News)

“We are facing higher farm inputs, were facing opinions from the public, were facing regulations, were facing drought,” Nash said. “[In] California, [Gov. Gavin] Newsom passed a law that we can’t drill any water right now, and California has the largest agriculture county in the United States,” she told Carlson.

Nash said the Biden administration has not only been little help to farmers and ranchers, but they’ve “made it very clear that the Green New Deal and climate change and billions of dollars going to Washington, D.C., is their agenda and they couldn’t care less about the American people, our food supply and our food security.”

The cost of fertilizer alone has risen more than 300% in some areas, according to the American Farm Bureau.

Rising costs, labor and supply shortages are all major obstacles threatening farms across the U.S.  (Matt Leach/Fox Digital) (Fox News)

The rise in price is due to a number of factors, including increased demand, supply chain disruptions, increase in energy costs, according to the American Farm Bureau. Even the war in Ukraine plays a role.

Nash said she hopes people will start to realize that “no farm,” means “no fuel,” and “no future.”

Source: foxnews.com

America’s small dairy farms are disappearing as larger agricultural operations are producing more milk, cheese, ice cream and butter at lower costs. 

Some small family farmers can’t compete.   

There seems to be a red barn on every corner in Waterloo, Wisconsin. But you likely won’t find any cattle inside many of them.

George Crave is the head cheese maker and president at Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese. He drove around the town of Waterloo pointing out where cattle farms have closed. 

George Crave with Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese says people are consuming two to three times more cheese than they were 15, 30 years ago, which has driven dairy sales. (Fox News / Fox News)

“There’s a barn over there. See that? No cows,” Crave said. “Dairy farming, you have to understand, is a 24/7 operation.”

He’s seen small dairy farms in Waterloo vanish over the past 40 years.    

“There are about 15 farms in the township here. They used to milk cows, (but) don’t milk cows anymore. However, we produce more milk on this farm than what all those other 15 farms produced in a day,” Crave said. 

Data from the 2017 census on farming in the U.S. shows that Wisconsin and California accounted for about a third of U.S. sales.  (Fox News)

Last year, Wisconsin lost 360 dairy farms, about 5% of the state’s total. It’s a similar story across the country. Nationally, 5.7% of dairy farms closed in 2021. 

“The number of farms has been declining. And their average size has been growing,” said Peter Vitaliano, an economist with the National Milk Producers Federation.   

In 2000, there were 83,000 licensed dairy farms in the country. Today, there are fewer than 30,000.    

The Feltz Family Farm and Dairy Store started in the 1990s with just 50 cows.   

“We’ve grown to be about 600 cows now,” Jake Feltz said. “I have noticed, especially in the last 5-10 years, some of those smaller farmers in our area have closed down.” 

Vitaliano says consolidating into bigger farms usually means lower prices at the grocery store. 

“We’re seeing prices that in previous normal times would lead to an explosive increase in milk production. We’re not seeing that because it’s getting very, very difficult and expensive to expand production,” Vitaliano said. 

But inflation is increasing prices, and supply issues are helping drive that. 

George Crave of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese says dairy farming is hard work, and many farmers have retired from the industry or chose to move on to jobs that don’t require work on weekends and holidays.  (Fox News / Fox News)

“Construction materials are hard to get and (there are) huge delays in getting lumber, any construction materials,” Vitaliano said. “Farm machinery is almost impossible to get. There are huge delays in availability, and there’s a lot of partly finished farm equipment sitting on lots just like there are buyers waiting to get computer chips, which are in short supply.

“We’re looking at historically high milk prices this year. But costs are going to be also historically high because replacement cows are getting hard to find. Labor is very hard.”   

Vitaliano says the growth of commercial farms has a bit of a social cost because rural communities are losing population, which means they lose schools, hospitals and medical care. But many of these farms give back to the communities in other ways. 

Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese says it has donated to local schools, and Feltz Family Farm is booked with school field trips all next month.  

Even though larger farms are more cost effective, supply shortages and inflation have made it harder than ever for farmers to buy materials and expand.  

Source: FOX

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) today sent a letter to the Biden administration recommending specific steps to provide relief and support to dairy farmers and exporters facing supply chain constraints.

The letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called for interagency collaboration to enhance capacity at ports, incentivize carriers to load export cargo, and improve transparency throughout the supply chain. The lead recommendation called for USDA’s Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) to restart its Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report (OSCAR).

“Supply chain challenges have cost U.S. dairy exporters over $1.5 billion last year alone. We thank Secretaries Vilsack and Buttigieg for their advocacy for America’s agriculture exporters in the face of significant supply chain constraints. We are incredibly grateful for the administration’s ongoing efforts and creative solutions, particularly for the development of ‘pop-up’ sites for agricultural exporters to source empty containers,” said Krysta Harden, president and CEO of USDEC. “The additional recommendations submitted today would provide agricultural exporters much needed insight into container availability and provide avenues to incentivize carriers to load outbound shipments to key dairy markets around the world.”

“Shipping containers for U.S. dairy exports continue to be in short supply at coastal ports, and even more scarce at inland locations. These essential links in the global supply chain must be available to American dairy exporters throughout the country in order to ship their products to overseas buyers,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. “We thank USDA and DOT for their strong focus on this issue. As congestion continues, so too must the spectrum of tools deployed to address these challenges. Today’s letter highlights the additional steps necessary to take to ensure American dairy farmers are not losing long-term international market share due to these persistent supply chain challenges.”

The specified programmatic elements to provide supply chain relief include:

• Restarting USDA AMS’ OSCAR, which would detail the availability of ocean shipping containers at locations throughout the United States.
• Establishing inland pop-up terminal yards, similar to those in Oakland and Seattle, in Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit, Salt Lake City and Kansas City. This would enable greater access inland to containers and improve the ability to secure vessel accommodations with short earliest-return-date windows at those locations.
• Developing the ‘fast lane’ concept to incentivize the flow of agriculture exports into and from ports. This would include trucking lanes at port terminals that are dedicated to the expeditious delivery of perishable agriculture goods to ports.
• Incentivizing ocean carriers to load more export containers, instead of empty containers, through preferred or prioritized berthing access.
• Including real-time tracking of containers as part of the Administration’s Freight Logistics Optimization Works initiative.
• Piloting projects with carriers for ‘dual turns’ of containers, wherein containers delivering imports to an in-land location may be provided directly to an export-focused shipper, rather than being sent back empty to the port. This could be supported through the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation resources.

Dan Venteicher is no stranger to technology.

On his Iowa dairy farm, robots milk and feed his cows every day.

“So this [robot] is one thing people really enjoy seeing and watching is the robot itself,” he explains as a cow wanders in for a milking, which is done by laser-guided robots.

“There we go, perfect connection,” Venteicher says as the milker latches on to each of the cow’s udders after wiping them clean.

Over the last year, though, he’s made connections through another tool – his smartphone.

“It completely blows my mind that every month, 35 million people have seen our page and it’s just a dairy farm,” he says.

Last March, Venteicher started using TikTok to share his daily experiences on the farm. He added Facebook in July to reach another audience.

“Another reason we went to Facebook was because I kept getting banned from TikTok,” he explains, saying the algorithm often mistakenly flagged his videos as graphic content. “Between the two, we’re over 1.1 million followers.”

Now Venteicher says he’s always carrying his phone, ready to film even the most mundane chore. A video about power washing his barn floors often nets more than two million views.

The idea to get on social media came after Venteicher stumbled across a TikTok video a college student took of his robots during a tour.

“I saw that and I saw the comments were kind of making fun of the equipment, saying how crazy it was, we were crazy, why do we need robots?” he says. “And that, honestly, just really annoyed me.”

Now he works to explain and entertain as he battles myths and misinformation about the industry, especially claims of animal abuse and adverse impacts on the climate from farming.

“People really liked what I was showing and it kind of took off from there,” he says.

He’s introducing the next generation to an industry that’s losing small farms every year. Venteicher says younger people are shifting away from the long hours and hard work they saw their parents and grandparents put into family farms. Before his operation went automatic, he was putting in 16-hour days and missing out on time with his kids.

Now his hard work goes into his content.

“There’s less than 30,000 dairy farmers in the whole country, so there’s a massive story to tell and not a lot of people to tell it,” he says.

His tools have helped free him up for his family, but also allowed him to share his story across the globe. While most of his followers are in the U.S., he also gets views from the U.K., Australia and Ireland.

He does get trolls who have beef with what he does; some have even threatened him.

“Those comments are offset ten-fold from comments from people who tell me we completely changed their mind on the dairy industry,” he says.

So he’s just going to keep milking it.

“I screenshot every one of those comments, ‘I started drinking milk again because of your page,’” he smiles. “Those are what make it worthwhile.”

Source: nbc24.com

When the Stobbe family moved their farm from Abbotsford to Mara, BC, in 2003 they immediately had a problem to solve. Thank goodness farmers are problem-solvers and see every challenge as an opportunity to improve efficiency.

“It’s important to cool raw milk as quickly as possible,” explains AJ Stobbe. “Milk grows bacteria when it’s warm. The longer it’s warm, the more bacteria it grows.”

In Abbotsford the Stobbe family used electricity to rapidly cool their raw milk from 38 degrees Celsius to 2.5 degrees Celsius and natural gas to heat their barn and other buildings. However, their new farm in Mara didn’t have access to natural gas, and they didn’t want to use propane to heat buildings. So they followed the lead of cutting-edge farmers in Europe and installed a geothermal system – not only does it draw heat from the milk, it also repurposes that heat to warm the barn, offices and their family home.

“Our primary goal was to invest in our cows, keeping them healthy and productive. But it’s a real source of pride that we’ve found a way to use this technology to heat the floor in the barn and other buildings as well,” Stobbe says.

Today, the farm doesn’t use any fossil fuels other than diesel in its tractors. They’ve also recently started a blueberry farm, and are committed to keeping it insecticide-free so it’s a safe place for pollinators.

“Sustainability is a balance. We’re still running a business, so if we don’t make a profit we’re not sustainable long-term. If creation around us dies or our cows are unhealthy, that’s not sustainable either,” Stobbe says. “Anyone who comes to our farm for a tour immediately sees how much we care. We love showing people everything we’re doing.”

Sustainable farming for future generations

On the Saanich Peninsula on Vancouver Island, Mickey Aylard of Brackenhurst Farm is also focused on longevity through sustainability.

“We still have cows in barns my great-grandfather built. Preserving that family heritage is pretty big for us,” she says. “My family’s been farming for four generations, and I would love for the family to continue farming here for another four generations. We can’t do that if we don’t take care of the land and the animals.”

They’ve dug ditches to capture rainfall reducing erosion and preventing flooding while also providing a source for irrigation. They have plans to add solar panels, and plant fast-growing Empire apple trees that will sequester carbon dioxide and support pollinator populations.

“We won’t have any food if we don’t have any bees,” Mickey says. “There are a lot of really cool sustainable practices I would love to do, but it takes time to fulfil them all.”

Caring for the environment, the people and the cows

Back on the mainland in Agassiz, Holger Schwichtenberg is also a careful steward of the land. When his parents started in 1960 their dairy farm was rural, but now houses have sprouted nearby. So he’s worked with the community to plant hundreds of native trees and shrubs and install a walking trail on the farm’s perimeter that’s free for his neighbours to use.

“This is a beautiful place to live, a great place to raise kids,” he says. “Your farm environment should be about contented animals and contented employees, who are fairly compensated, well treated, and where educational opportunities are encouraged. You take care of the environment, you take care of people, and you take care of the cows.”

Learn more about sustainable farming practices at bcdairy.ca and on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Two statewide Wisconsin dairy lobbying groups, joined by a pair of farmers from Polk and Burnett County, have asked the state Department of Agriculture and Trade Policy to review new ordinances recently passed in northwestern Wisconsin. As previously reported on St. Croix 360, in recent months a coalition of rural towns has worked to pass similar ordinances to prevent pollution from proposed Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).

This week, the Dairy Business Association and Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative wrote to state regulators asking for an assessment of whether the ordinances are consistent with state law. Their argument is essentially that the towns don’t have legal authority to say how large-scale livestock facilities can operate.

“The towns assert to rely on a town’s general police power, a town’s ability to regulate nuisances and a local municipality’s jurisdiction to prescribe livestock regulations, even though no evidence has been provided that either the Department of Natural Resources or DATCP have reviewed and approved any ordinance as mandated in the statute,” wrote Chad Zuleger, a lobbyist for the industry groups.

The letter (PDF) urges the agency to act, noting that three of the towns have already passed their version of a model ordinance developed in partnership, and the other three may soon join them.

Readers make St. Croix 360 possible.

Local advocates who have supported the town efforts said the ordinances were carefully crafted and within their authority. Complicated legal questions abound, but simply put, the Wisconsin legislature has given state agencies a lot of power over CAFOs, but still allows local governments to regulate operations as long as their policies are based in fact and science.

Andy Marshall, an attorney and local property-owner who has been deeply involved in the ordinance effort, said he is confident the ordinances will stand up to challenges.

“Trade Lake has done a ton of work researching and drafting not only its CAFO Operations Ordinance but also the CAFO Study Committee Report — which is about 130 pages long and includes over 200 citations to scientific and industry research articles,” Marshall said. “The report is incorporated into the ordinance by reference and provides scientifically based findings that support the ordinance.”

He also questioned how a private organization could request the government spend taxpayer dollars and resources to conduct such a review. One of the towns referenced, Trade Lake, hasn’t even implemented the policy yet as it works to finish the application forms that will be required.

“[The] request is, at the very least, premature,” he said.

No matter what, Marshall says the ordinances are necessary to ensure new CAFOs don’t harm health, pollute lakes, rivers, and groundwater, or destroy property values.

“Wisconsin regulations partially address the millions of gallons of feces, urine and process water these factories produce but are poorly enforced,” Marshall said. “Health issues, air pollution, carcass disposal, biosecurity, fire safety and road damage are just some of the other issues our local ordinances address.”

Polk County farmer and CAFO opponent Lisa Doerr said the operations ordinances are intended to prevent the kinds of problems recently seen around Wisconsin. For example, it regulates the disposal of dead animals.

“Our town ordinances only apply to giant animal factories like the one in Jefferson [County] that had to kill 2.7 million chickens,” Doerr said. “Town people there had no idea the factory would be composting birds infected with highly infectious avian [flu] at the end of a residential driveway. A Barron County Jennie-O turkey plant just announced having to kill nearly 50,000 birds. We don’t know where those carcasses will go. Under our ordinances the factories are required to submit biosecurity, depopulation and disposal plans.”

The only formal CAFO proposal in the region currently is the Cumberland LLC plan for a facility in Trade Lake that would house up to 26,000 hogs and produce 9 million gallons of waste each year. The facility would be used for breeding swine, and would almost certainly require nearby facilities to finish the hogs to market weight, and it’s likely other related operations would follow.

Residents of the area report that interest from companies like Cumberland, which is owned by Iowans, is high.

“We know that the large livestock industry wants in to northwestern Wisconsin,” Doerr said. “They have approached many land owners to buy land. They have spent thousands on Madison lawyers and lobbyists. They want our land, air and water.”

For the past several years, local governments aware of this possibility have instituted moratoriums and worked to pass new protections. The goal has been to clearly communicate to companies behind any new CAFO proposal what the community expects.

“If corporate farming interests want to do business in our back yards and take advantage of our local resources, then it is entirely appropriate that our local ordinances require these industrial agricultural operations show how they will protect our lakes, wells and farms from contaminants and pathogens,” said Marshall.

The letter from the agriculture groups say the new ordinances would add fees and require additional reporting, as well as reducing the number of animal allowed and limiting the hours of operation. The groups also say the ordinances were developed and passed without state review and approval.

CAFO critics say state review of the new ordinances is not required because the policies were developed under a separate law from the state’s livestock facility siting law.

“[O]ur towns have developed Operations ordinances that are built on Wis. Statute 92.15,” Doerr said. “Under that law, towns are not required to have an ordinance reviewed or authorized. We’ve written the strongest legal protection possible.”

Under the model ordinance developed by the town consortium, large livestock facilities could need to apply for a permit, which might include conditions to protect human and animal health, “safety, and general welfare, prevent pollution and the creation of private nuisances and public nuisances, and preserve the quality of life, environment, and existing small-scale livestock and other agricultural operations.”

There are only a few CAFOs currently in the St. Croix River watershed. A dairy operation in the Willow River watershed, owned by out-of-state individuals, has caused manure runoff that killed fish in a nearby trout stream, and was possibly linked to extremely elevated levels of harmful nitrates in a nearby well. Another large dairy near Shell Lake has had problems in the past, although the family who owns it has taken significant steps to prevent pollution recently.

Marshall pointed out that the lobbying groups’ objections to the new ordinances don’t concern the many existing small- and medium-sized farms in the region. The new requirements would only apply to new proposals and expansions that surpass the CAFO cutoff.

“So it is interests outside of Trade Lake, who want to take advantage of our resources and risk damage to our health, air, and water, who now seem desperate to challenge the work being done by Trade Lake and other local communities,” Marshall said.

Source: stcroix360.com

Inflation is hitting the farms behind that gallon of milk in your fridge.

Jeff King of King Brothers Dairy in Schuylerville says costs are rising in every aspect of the business. He’s seeing higher prices for the diesel for the delivery trucks and tractors, for the fertilizer, and the feed for the nearly 2,000 cows on his farm.

We spend a fair bit of money to purchase corn and soybean and grains and so forth. Our costs are up at least 30% over 4-5 months ago.” King said.

He says inflation is even impacting the packaging for their products.

“We’ve had some of our suppliers talk to us and say you should really think about ordering enough packaging for 8 to 12 months because they’re not even sure that we’re going to be able to get some of that!” He said.

King says as much as they’ve fought it, they have raised their prices – including the delivery fee for home milk delivery. He says prices are up about 20% in some instances.

King says he’s very thankful for loyal customers, but the uncertainty of the future is a big cause for concern for his small business.

I’m worried about the future and I hope that our economy can level out we can slow this inflation train down a little bit.” King said.

Right now, a gallon of milk at Kings Brothers is $3.89. The Regional Dairy Management Specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension tells me, the average cost of milk nationwide is the highest it’s been in years.

CBS6 looked at the USDA’s Retail Milk Price Report, which shows the average cost of a gallon of whole milk. Milk in the Syracuse area costs about $3.92 this month. The data shows it has increased more than 30 cents since the start of the year. The report did not list data for the Capital Region, Syracuse was the closest city listed.

Source: cbs6albany.com

A new report claims the capital restructure of Fonterra, New Zealand’s biggest business, will cause its farmers a short-term loss of $4 billion, strengthen the dairy company’s market dominance and push up the price of chilled milk at the shops

Uncertainty, rising costs cited as key drivers

Great Britain’s milk production could fall by up to 605,000 litres (5.3%) over the 2022/23 season according to new analysis by AHDB.

With uncertainty about how prices and availability of key inputs will develop through the year, and the impact on cash flows, AHDB have looked at the potential impact on milk production.

Five alternative scenarios show that production could fall between 0.8% and 5.3% depending on how changes impact decisions on farm.

“Access to key agricultural inputs and feed ingredients have been severely affected by the war in Ukraine, which is forcing decisions to limit production,” said Patty Clayton, AHDB lead dairy analyst.

In March, AHDB published a baseline forecast based on discussions from the Milk Forecasting Forum, which set production for 2022/23 at 12,250 million litres, an 0.8% fall on the previous season.

AHDB have updated this forecast to reflect a range of scenarios from mild to very high impact based on changes to feed, cull cow and farmgate prices as well as retention rates.

“The current uncertainty makes forecasting milk production for the upcoming season an even trickier task than normal, but we know it’s going to be a tough year for farmers,” said Clayton.

“Reviewing input costs, feed strategies and making the most of home-grown forage can all help. Farmers could also use the cost benefit calculator on our website to understand whether it makes sense to apply fertiliser to grassland,” said Clayton.

Source: thedairysite.com

By Rick Adamski
Wisconsin Farmers Union President

In the game of Monopoly there is only one winner. If current dairy ‘market forces’ prevail, we are steadily moving in that direction.

Losing one to two dairy herds per day, as we have in recent years, is not progress. It is a sign that our antiquated dairy policy and ongoing price volatility need to be addressed.

In late March, dairy farmers from local chapters of the Wisconsin Farmers Union and Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation teamed up to host a series of Dairy Revitalization meetings in western Wisconsin. The success of the events indicates interest and the potential for bringing about the kind of change we hope for in the future.

I use quotation marks around the phrase ‘market forces’ because the fiscal and public policy of past decades has been intended to continue a trajectory pre-determined for us. It is time that we reevaluate these assumptions of ‘progress’ and evaluate the effects of past policies.

We almost had a more farmer-friendly dairy policy in the 2014 Farm Bill, but it was taken out in the eleventh hour due to powerful lobbying forces at play. The outcome is that we have spent around $1.2 billion more on government-funded dairy subsidy programs than what would have happened had we adopted growth management in 2014. We have lost countless dairy herds that might still be in business today, if we would have had a mechanism in place to better balance milk supply with demand. We have witnessed the erosion of farms from the landscape throughout the Midwest.

Thousands of farms have been forced out of dairy production in recent years because of these bad policies and broken markets. Opportunity seems to be reserved for only a handful of farmers and thus exposes how policy creates a history of American agriculture where the big get bigger and the small get out.

It is imperative that we diligently monitor our deliberations leading up to the next Farm Bill in 2023. Those in power want to continue the trends of the past. They want to conserve power with those who have power. It will be easier for politicians to support subsidy programs over meaningful reform, because there is little accountability for those subsidies. Projections will be created upon false hopes to justify more of the same types of policies.

If we look at these policy options as opportunities to learn from our past, we may create a better future.

A new set of data needs to be considered in these discussions. The lessons learned from a concentrated food system during the distress of the COVID-19 pandemic teach us that a diversified agriculture is a more resilient agriculture. This lesson has been learned by countries experiencing the turmoil of war or the losses caused by catastrophic natural disasters. Depending upon a very consolidated supply chain is not as durable as a distributed, diverse production system. We need farms of all sizes that will be able to supply our basic needs in a very uncertain future.

I believe that if you find yourself in a hole, the first thing needed to be done is to quit digging. The hole that the US dairy industry is in is a trend towards fewer and larger farms, which concentrates our food security into the hands of a few.

We can create a better, more diverse future with the plan presented at the Dairy Revitalization meetings. We can restore a more vibrant rural economy based upon more diverse farms. We can start breaking the addiction to government subsidies to prop up only the farms and agribusinesses that are ‘too big to fail.’

If you weren’t able to attend the meetings, I encourage you to visit www.DairyTogether.com to learn about this plan that could increase farm net income, decrease our reliance on subsidies, stabilize the markets, and create a future for the next generation of US dairy farmers.

Rick Adamski is the president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union. He and his family run Full Circle Farm near Seymour, WI. 

Full details were not provided in the budget announcement

Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFA) issued a statement following the Canadian government’s 2022 federal budget announcement last week. 

DFC said it is content with the clarity provided by the government in the 2022 budget on the timetable for an announcement for full and fair compensation for the impacts of the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). However, the statement did express worries over the absence of full details on the compensation. Dairy farming requires predictability, namely for investing in innovation initiatives and sustainability, said the statement.

“Recall that during the 2021 federal election campaign, the Prime Minister committed that full and fair compensation for the impacts of CUSMA would be announced during the first year of the Liberal government’s new mandate,” the statement said. “In tabling Budget 2022 without details, the government missed an opportunity to provide predictability to the industry.”

DFC recently aligned with the government’s climate change objectives by setting a goal of net-zero emissions from farm-level dairy production by 2050. The organisation welcomed the announcement of funding to support the energy transition and sustainability at the farm level in the budget. However, it did say that compensation for the impacts of CUSMA is equally vital, as farmers will need to dedicate additional resources to support innovation and sustainability initiatives.

“We strongly urge the government to continue to engage with us on the details of full and fair compensation for CUSMA,” the statement concluded.

Source: thedairysite.com

Many who grew up before the 1990s will remember opening the front door on a fresh blustery morning to find six glass bottles filled to the brim with fresh milk, dropped off by a milkman who you likely knew on a first-name basis.

Fast-forward to 2022 and the purchase of milk is a far less glamorous affair. Through the noughties, milkmen slowly fell out of fashion as supermarket giants gained a stronghold over the dairy industry, selling off cheap milk in plastic bottles – no strings attached.

In some parts of Wales, though, the milkman seems to be making something of a grand come-back. In Swansea and Cardiff in particular, demand for traditional doorstep milk is surging, and it has something to do with sustainability, as well as nostalgia.

One person who has discovered the joys of having their milk dropped off on their doorstep is Sheila Pryce, a 56-year-old woman from Cockett.

Sheila said: “I’ve been using the milkman for about eight years now. I saw him out there one night when I was putting the bins out, and I realised I had no milk in the house. It was a double whammy – I got myself two pints for the morning, and I now get to support a local business.

“It’s fab knowing that I don’t have to worry about remembering to get milk from the shop, and knowing my pint will be there for my morning cuppa.”

Sheila grew up in Dunvant in the 1970s, a time where having milk delivered was the norm. She said: “I grew up in Dunvant in the 70s, so it was the norm to have it delivered. The only difference is that I pay by direct debit now. It’s not as personal as it was back then, but my milkman does leave daffodils for St David’s Day, and occasional other bits through the year.”

The doorstep milk business is also booming in Cardiff with customers old and new.

Jay Jordan, a self-described “trendy fifty-something-year-old” living in Cardiff, said that the milkman was a life-line for her and her husband through the pandemic, particularly with her husband in the extremely vulnerable category.

She said: “Our milkman has been delivering to us for 23 years now. His name is Steve and he is superb, he’s like twinkle toes in the middle of the night. He’s been doing this for a very long time and it will be really hard to ever replace him.

“The milkman service was incredibly important to us throughout the pandemic because my husband has always been in the most vulnerable category. We don’t just order milk from them (Totally Welsh) either, we order vegetables, welsh cakes, garden products and even cleaning products. I will only use their butter.”

Jay also orders doorstep milk for her 90-year-old mother who lives in Swansea. He said: “Another thing I like about using the service is that I can order milk for my 90-year-old mother who lives a while away in Swansea. I think everyone should support their local milkman. When it comes to this sort of thing, you get out what you put in. You have to appreciate the service for it to work efficiently and effectively. You have to nurture it and cherish and and love it.”

One milk company that’s noticed the surge in demand for doorstep milk is Totally Welsh, a local dairy that’s based in Haverfordwest.

Totally Welsh now deliver fresh milk and other goods to the doorsteps of 8000 homes in Cardiff and Swansea – roughly 80,000-100,000 glass bottles a week.

A spokesman for Totally Welsh said: “The numbers have grown a fair amount over the past few years from around 5000 to 8000, and that’s still growing. We were heavily relied upon through the pandemic, and I think people really came to appreciate being on a first name basis with their milkman. We were initially concerned there’d be a fall back after the pandemic as everyone went back to work, but there really was hardly any change.

“There has been a shift toward local businesses within communities – people like to know who their local butcher is, who their local fruit and veg suppliers are. Having a local milk man who you know on a first name basis, and who you can rely upon, is a great experience.

“We are still that traditional milkman – nothing has really changed. We deliver the milk in glass bottles and then sterilise them to use again. A big focus for us is on the sustainability of the glass bottle.”

The spokesman acknowledged that doorstep milk isn’t as cheap as supermarket milk, but customers are paying for a better service, and more often than not, better produce.

He also added that there is no pattern or ‘type’ of household that uses the milkman service, either.

“There’s no real difference in demographics when it comes to who orders doorstep milk. In Swansea, we deliver across the board and there’s no real difference in areas of affluence. Gorseinon, Llanelli and Port Talbot are fairly popular spots, but there’s really no pattern. Townhill is also a popular one.”

Source: walesonline.co.uk

The domestic rail transportation network is vital to the movement of products and goods supplied by America’s farmers and ranchers. U.S. railways account for nearly 28% of freight movement, second only to trucks within the domestic transportation system. Over the past two years, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated by global geopolitical rifts, supply chain efficiency has plummeted, with heavy disruptions across freight delivery. In a previous Market Intel, Increasing Freight Rail Rates Put Additional Pressure on Farm and Ranch Income, we outlined some of the factors complicating farmers’ and ranchers’ ability to cost-effectively utilize rail systems to move their products. Today, with growing reports of reduced delivery service, we provide an agriculture-focused status update on U.S. rail networks.

Some quick background: U.S. freight railroads are privately owned. As independent businesses they are responsible for the maintenance and efficiency of their railways, as well as for setting competitive rates (generally called “tariffs” by the rail industry) and formulating contracts. Approximately 94% of the revenue generated by the rail system belongs to seven Class I railroad-operating firms. Class I rail firms are defined as having inflation-adjusted annual carrier operating revenue of $900 million or more and include Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (BNSF), Canadian National Railway (CN), Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS), Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) and Union Pacific Railroad (UP).

Looking at how frequently grain rail cars are loaded and billed, as of the first quarter of 2022 there is still no obvious upward trend that would signify an abnormal increase in demand pressuring rail systems. The number of grain cars loaded and billed by Class I railways in the first three months of the year was about 25,000 units below the first quarter of 2021 and 75,000 and 50,000 units above the first quarters of 2020 and 2019, respectively. This range is well within the average variation between quarters and suggests grain car movements are not unusually high or low, so far, in 2022. Figure 1 displays these quarterly frequencies by railway. You will notice the proportion of cars loaded and billed by each railway firm remained relatively stable over the period analyzed, with BNSF and UP claiming approximately 70% of the total. Given railways exist in specific, generally immovable locations, if railroads that control a large portion of grain movements experience service disruptions, a correspondingly large portion of shippers and product delivery will be impacted since those routes cannot be easily shifted. 

One metric that can better reveal rail service disruptions and how fluidly grain cars are moving through the rail network is the number of unfilled grain car orders. Each railroad reports their definition of “unfilled order” slightly differently but generally it is the number of cars a shipper (such as a grain elevator) ordered but did not receive. For example, if a grain elevator ordered 10 cars from a railroad and received seven, that would leave three unfilled orders. Figure 2 displays the number of grain car orders in the first quarter from 2018 to 2022 that were one or more days overdue. Between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, the number of these unfilled orders jumped from 93,000 to 137,000, a 47% increase. By percentage increase, NS saw the largest jump (1,614%) followed by CP (171%) and BNSF (134%). By numerical increase, BNSF reported the largest jump – nearly 50,000 unfilled orders – followed by CP with an additional 14,500 unfilled orders. Figure 3 displays orders that are 11 or more days overdue. You will notice more than half of the orders one or more days overdue were also 11 or more days overdue, revealing the severity of disruption for some shippers. Between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, the number of 11+ overdue orders jumped 39,000, or 107%. By percentage and numerical increase, BNSF saw the largest jump — 606% or 42,000 unfilled orders — followed by CP with 394% and 11,000 unfilled orders.

This unfilled order metric could explain why increased demand is not discernable in the grain carload frequency (Figure 1) measurement. Since reported frequency includes only cars loaded and billed, orders that lay outside the railroads’ ability to effectively deliver will be reflected in the unfilled metric. Even still, grain cars loaded and billed for the first quarter of 2022 were lower than the same period last year. When grain shippers are unable to receive orders from railroads it disrupts agriculture markets throughout the broader supply chain. Flour and feed mills waiting on deliveries of grain that never arrive could be forced to temporarily cease operating and cut off sales to customers until deliveries return. This means livestock operations that are reliant on the feed shipped from these mills may be forced to ration or stop feeding until deliveries return, or find alterative feed options, stunting the production cycle and putting the health and wellbeing of livestock at risk. At a minimum, increases in unfilled orders would shift some shippers from the primary railcar market for service contracts into the secondary rail market to attempt to make up for delayed orders.

The primary rail market refers to when service contracts are first auctioned directly from railroads to shippers. Bids may be higher or lower depending on the demand for railcars but generally remain more in line with tariff rates published by the railway, which tend to reflect the most likely market conditions. For reference, average published per-car grain tariffs (including fuel surcharges) were $5,195 in the first quarter of 2021 and $5,378 in the first quarter of 2022, a 4% increase. This corresponds to an average $1.37 per bushel and $1.41 per bushel for the same periods, respectively. Railroads typically only change published rates once or twice per year and are required by law to give a 20-day notice prior to changing tariffs. This insulates buyers from short-term market changes resulting from unexpected events, like weather, or service disruptions. It does not, however, guarantee orders will be received because of these disruptions. In these cases, or in general cases when shippers who are looking to buy or sell a contract go directly to another shipper to receive or place bids, they are participating in the secondary rail market. Sales that occur in this secondary stage may either represent a premium or a discount to the underlying original tariff rate and are reported as a positive or negative value, respectively. When disruptions in rail service increase, shippers will likely look to the secondary market for another chance to get orders filled. Thus, high demand for cars in this market pushes rates up far above the original underlying tariff.

Figure 4 shows the average dollar amount per bid above or below the original primary market service contract value for the first quarter between 2018 and 2022. Comparing the weighted average data point (between BNSF and UP) for the first quarters of 2018-2021 to the first quarter of 2022 shows a near 500% increase in secondary railcar grain auction bids (from $102 to $602). The premium cost shippers are willing to pay in the secondary market helps illustrate the severe magnitude of demand for grain rail contracts so far in 2022.

Similarly, bids in the secondary market for shuttle service have escalated significantly in the past several weeks. USDA defines a shuttle train as having more than 75 cars that originate at a single origin and go to a single destination (for instance a grain elevator to rail yard). As shown in Figure 5, for the week ending March 24, bids/offers were over $2,500 higher than the prior three-year average for shuttle railcars to be delivered in April, an 11-fold increase. Both secondary market metrics signify how service disruptions in existing contracts force shippers to enter the secondary market and attempt to obtain different contracts to get orders delivered, albeit at a super-inflated rate.

Other metrics are also available to measure service quality on railways. Rail speeds, or the average speed of trains (in miles per hour), can shed light on the fluidity of a rail network. Overall, compared to the first quarter of 2021, train speeds in the first quarter of 2022 were down 5%. Considering train speeds of grain cars by railroad during the same timeframe, NS had a 20% drop in average train speed (over 3.5 mph), followed by KCS and CN, which both dropped 8%. Rail origin dwell times, the number of hours trains spend waiting after initial release at origin, have increased by 9% across railroads between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. They are the highest for CSX (+73%), BNSF (+28%), UP (+26%) and NS (+20%). On the terminal dwell time side, increases at some of the busiest rail yards in the country are common. Figure 6 shows the top six rail yards in terms of average terminal dwell time and the total number of dwell hours in the first quarter of 2021 versus the first quarter of 2022, with their corresponding railroad carrier(s) listed in parenthesis.

Reasons for service and quality disruptions on railways can vary widely. Labor and crew availability remains a major hurdle across all segments of the transportation system and worker shortages within railways can lead to delays, held trains and general service disruptions. Weather and mechanical issues can slow or stop operations. Delays make it more difficult for orders to be filled down the line. Cars bound for future orders get tied up in the delay, forcing the railway to either figure out how to reduce congestion or add more railcars into service. Car inventory is an additional hurdle. If there are not enough cars to cover additional orders, delays will compound. Railroads may have made COVID-19-related decisions to liquidate assets, such as railcars, and are now left with gaps in their ability to fill orders. Intermodal containers, or shipping containers used across multiple modes of transportation like ocean barge to railway or truck, have been impacted by global market issues. A new round of COVID-related shutdowns across China has halted movement of around 10% of the global container-ship fleet and with it, a significant portion of containers. Containers held up oversees can limit order movement domestically and put pressure on other car and container types used by agricultural buyers. Manufacturing disruptions and delays for new locomotives and containers also shorten capacity to pick up additional orders. All of these factors heighten obstacles railway customers, like farmers and ranchers, face in marketing their products.

Conclusion

Railways are a vital piece of the supply chain and are usually a cost-effective and reliable way to get agricultural goods to their destination. Current rail service disruptions associated with labor shortages, railcar inventory and capacity, weather and shortfalls in other global transportation networks have contributed to a large increase in the number of unfilled orders faced by shippers. Unfilled and delayed orders mean a disruption in the general delivery of agricultural and other goods to buyers. For example, milling operations reliant on just-in-time delivery of grain from elevators are forced to halt operation, putting the essential flow of feed to livestock operations at risk. Shippers scrambling to find alternative methods to deliver their goods are seeing steep, multifold increases in the price to acquire service contracts in the secondary railcar market. Competing transportation options, like trucking, have their own slew of service shocks and remain a far costlier, often less efficient option.

Speaking of costs, farmers paying for storage in grain elevators that cannot move product may face added holding fees, contributing to even higher marketing expenses. In addition, service disruptions impact local basis for cash commodities that influence the price farmers receive for their crops. News of possible rail-related mergers or line closures also reveal concerns about the impacts of consolidation in the railway market and amplify questions of how competitive forces will be maintained. Altogether, a handicapped railway system puts the profitability of many farms, ranches and agribusinesses at risk and contributes to uncertainty in already unsettled commodity markets. Beyond creative solutions to immediately improve railway efficiency, long-term investments in on-farm and on-operation storage facilities may help hedge against transportation disruptions. In any case, improvements will need to be in place soon to prevent further disruptions in across the farm economy.

BNSF recently acknowledged that service is not where it needs to be and sharedspecific details of a service restoration plan already in process focused on crew and locomotive availability as well as car inventory management.

Source: FB