For nearly two decades, Abe Sandquist has used every marketing tool he can think of to sell the back end of a cow. Poop, after all, needs to go somewhere. The Midwestern entrepreneur has worked hard to woo farmers on its benefits for their crops.

Now, facing a global shortage of commercial fertilizers made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more U.S. growers are knocking on his door. Sandquist says they’re clamoring to get their hands on something Old MacDonald would swear by: old-fashioned animal manure.

“I wish we had more to sell,” said Sandquist, founder of Natural Fertilizer Services Inc, a nutrient management firm based in the U.S. state of Iowa. “But there’s not enough to meet the demand.”

Some livestock and dairy farmers, including those who previously paid to have their animals’ waste removed, have found a fertile side business selling it to grain growers. Equipment firms that make manure spreading equipment known as “honeywagons” are also benefiting.

Not only are more U.S. farmers hunting manure supplies for this spring planting season, some cattle feeders that sell waste are sold out through the end of the year, according to industry consultant Allen Kampschnieder.

“Manure is absolutely a hot commodity,” said Kampschnieder, who works for Nebraska-based Nutrient Advisors. “We’ve got waiting lists.”

Sky-high prices for industrial fertilizer are projected to reduce American farmers’ corn and wheat plantings this spring, according to U.S. government data. That further threatens global food supplies as domestic wheat inventories are the lowest in 14 years, and the Russia-Ukraine war is disrupting grain shipments from those key suppliers.

While manure can replace some of the nutrient shortfall, it’s no panacea, agriculture specialists say. There’s not enough supply to swap out all the commercial fertilizer used in the United States. Transporting it is expensive. And prices for animal waste, too, are rising on strong demand.

It’s also highly regulated by state and federal authorities, in part due to concerns about impacts on water systems.

Manure can cause serious problems if it contaminates nearby streams, lakes and groundwater, said Chris Jones, a research engineer and water quality expert at the University of Iowa.

Livestock farmers say it’s a heavy lift to meet all the government rules and track how manure is applied.

RACE FOR WASTE

Regardless of the drawbacks, demand is booming.

In Wisconsin, three dairy farmers told Reuters they turned down requests to buy their manure sent via text and Twitter messages.

North Carolina-based Phinite, which makes manure-drying systems, says it’s fielding solicitations from growers as far away as Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa and Indiana.

Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, has noticed the shift at the U.S. hog farms that supply its slaughterhouses.

“We’re definitely seeing farmers move toward manure with the increase in fertilizer prices,” said Jim Monroe, a spokesperson for the company, which is owned by Hong Kong-listed WH Group Ltd .

Industrial fertilizers such as nitrogen require a lot of energy to produce. Prices started to surge last year amid rising demand and lower supply as record natural gas and coal prices triggered output cuts by fertilizer manufacturers. Extreme weather and COVID-19 outbreaks also roiled global supply chains.

War in Ukraine has made the situation worse by reducing fertilizer exports from Russia and its ally Belarus due to Western sanctions and shipping snags. That threatens to shrink harvests around the world at a time of record food inflation. Combined, Russia and Belarus accounted for more than 40% of global exports of potash last year, one of three critical nutrients used to boost crop yields, according to Dutch lender Rabobank.

As of March, commercial fertilizer prices reached a record high, with nitrogen fertilizer jumping four-fold since 2020 and phosphate and potash up three-fold, said London-based consultancy CRU Group.

One person left bereft is Dale Cramer, who grows corn, soybeans and wheat on about 6,000 acres in Cambridge, Nebraska. Searching for alternatives, he has sniffed around feedlots for manure since last August with no luck.

“A lot of people have put their names in for the same thing,” Cramer said.

HONEYWAGON SCRAMBLE

With demand for manure surging, prices have followed, delivering an unexpected windfall to livestock producers and cattle feedlots.

Prices for good-quality solid manure in Nebraska alone have reached $11 to $14 per ton, up from a typical price of $5 to $8 per ton, consultant Kampschnieder said. A dry winter helped drive up prices by leaving manure with less water in it, making it more concentrated, and thus more valuable, he said.

Iowa farmer Pat Reisinger is relieved he has dung from the pigs and dairy cows he raises to fertilize the corn, soybeans and hay he grows to feed those animals. He sold a little manure to one neighbor and is getting phone calls from others in need.

“If I sold any more, I’d have to turn around and buy commercial fertilizer, which makes no sense,” Reisinger said.

The boom has also has lifted machinery companies that make spreading equipment for solid manure as well as so-called honeywagons: wheeled tanks hitched to trucks and tractors for transporting and applying liquefied waste.

In Canada, Husky Farm Equipment Ltd is sold out of honeywagons. The company built its first contraption back in 1960 as a way to make collecting and spreading manure more efficient, according to President Walter Grose. Today Grose sells directly to farmers and machinery dealerships, and he can’t keep up.

“We have people looking for equipment right away and we’re sold out for six months,” said Grose who sells honeywagons in several sizes. Bigger tanks come with a $70,000 average price tag.

CNH Industrial, the American-Italian farm and construction equipment giant, said it has seen strong demand for its New Holland brand box spreaders – essentially, a steel box that attaches to a tractor to haul and spread solid manure.

Kansas equipment dealership KanEquip Inc is sold out of New Holland spreaders, even though prices have jumped 10% from the normal list price of $30,000, said regional manager Bryndon Meinhardt. He said the dealership has ordered 10 more to meet demand.

NO POOP FOR YOU

Even in states where large livestock herds generate massive quantities of manure, there’s not enough to replace commercial fertilizer completely. Iowa, the top U.S. producer of pork and corn, already applies all of its manure on land covering about 25% of its corn acres each year, said Dan Andersen, an associate professor at Iowa State University who specializes in manure management.

On average, Iowa uses about 14 billion gallons of manure annually, said Andersen, known as @DrManure on Twitter. He expects Iowa growers may suck out an extra billion gallons this year from storage in tanks on farms to substitute pricey commercial fertilizer.

Part of the current supply problem is rooted in the evolution of the U.S. farm economy. As America’s livestock sector has consolidated, there are geographical hubs where animals are raised for eggs, milk or meat, and where the most manure is produced. As a result, some places have too little, while others have too much and have wrestled with ways to dispose of it.

Last October, Pennsylvania dairyman Brett Reinford thought he might be tight on manure storage space over the winter. So he made an offer to local farmers: You come and haul it away, you can have it for free. He got no takers.

Fast forward six months and Reinford is now sitting on liquid gold. “We’re keeping it all and I wish we had more,” he said.

Manure could become even more precious later this year, as U.S. livestock herds and poultry flocks shrink.

The number of hogs in the United States has dropped to its lowest level in about five years, as producers grapple with swine diseases and rising costs for feed and other inputs. Bird flu, meanwhile, has wiped out more than 22 million chickens and turkeys on commercial U.S. farms since February.

But even hard-hit poultry farmers could have something to use: Their dead birds can be composted and applied as fertilizer, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

Source: Reuters

Multiple crews responded to the scene of a workshop fire overnight that saw equipment catch fire and explode and the roof collapse.

The fire was called out around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning on Rattlesnake Pike (Route 504) in Union Township. The property owner discovered the fire and made the call to 911.

When the first crews arrived, the roof of the building had already collapsed, according to Milesburg Fire Chief Corey Bowmaster.

No injuries were reported and the Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshal is investigating.

Multiple tankers from Centre, Blair and Clinton counties helped shuttle water to the area from the Unionville ball fields.

Source: WTAJ

Holstein UK is delighted to announce the winners of the 2022 Master Breeder Awards. This prestigious award recognizes herds that have excelled in classification, production and longevity. Points are awarded to each female bred by the herd, which was recorded as having produced a lactation within the last two years. The top ten herds, based on highest average points scored per animal, are then selected as winners.

The Master Breeder Winners 2022:

• Bannwater – A J Magowan & Son, County Down
• Berryholme – H Wright & Son, Cumbria
• Castellhyfryd – S P & S R Davies, Carmarthenshire
• Gwili – M A & M R Williams, Dyfed
• Lisnacloon – William S Hunter, County Tyrone
• Matfield – Lewis McMurray & Sons, County Down
• Mythebridge – F K Robinson & Son, Gloucestershire
• Newry – S J, J R & C Stevenson, County Down
• Sanbay – D F Bailey, Devon
• Trasnafarm – H & A Maguire, County Fermanagh

Meurig James, Head of Breed Development for Holstein UK, commented “The Master Breeder Award is the pinnacle of success for all of the Holstein UK members who achieve this fantastic accolade. The award recognises herds that breed and develop outstanding cattle with renowned production, conformation, health and longevity. I would like to congratulate the 2022 Master Breeders and make a special mention to the Newry herd which is the first UK herd to win the award three times. I look forward to seeing the winners receive their awards at events around the UK later this year. Balmoral Show will be a particular highlight with five out of the ten award winners residing in Northern Ireland.”

Provided by Holstein UK

A comfortable cow means more milk, and BouMatic’s new lightweight composite shells provide dairy operations with the most stress-free process possible in a modern dairy.

BouMatic, the Madison, Wisc.-based world leader in technology for dairy parlors, unveiled its LWX00 Shell today. The nylon-composite shells are both lighter and stronger than traditional stainless steel.

“Our dealers and producers asked us for a composite shell option, and we’re delivering,” said Tony Spaeth, Director of Sales at BouMatic. “Our engineers have designed a lightweight, durable shell that improves comfort for both the cow and operator with the same performance as our traditional stainless steel models.”

The new LWX00 weighs in at only 2.8 ounces compared to 6.5 ounces for stainless steel. When used in the full BouMatic system, claw weight is reduced by a full 2 pounds.

Other benefits of the LWX00 include

• No twisting – With no restrictions or moving parts, the unit is cleaned easily and will take less chemicals to clean because it does not need to be filled and dumped.
• Universal – This shell will work on any BouMatic Magnum or Turbo liner.
• Finish – The right amount of texture is in the finish so that the shell is easy to handle.
• Cold-weather comfort for both cow and dairy staff. Nylon shells retain heat better than their stainless steel counterparts.

“The LWX00 improves udder health and flow rates,” Spaeth said. “Less weight means fewer slips, which can lower the chance of mastitis. It also allows the vacuum to do its work more easily for improved milk-ability.”

To introduce the product to customers, the company has created a BouMatic Liner Agreement Program, which offers free shells with a 24-month liner agreement.

For more information, contact your local BouMatic dealer.

Please see this short (8 min.) press webinar for additional comments and information.

Dairy cows feed at Hillcrest Dairy in Merced County, Calif., on Thursday, March 17, 2022. Andrew Kuhn akuhn@mercedsun-star.com Read more at: https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article259472654.html#storylink=cpy

On a warm day in late March, longtime dairy farmer Eddie Hoekstra looked out at his farmland in eastern Merced County, pointing to an empty field where he hopes to build a corral for a new herd of cows. The new structure, which could hold up to 800 black and white Holstein cows, is part of a larger plan to expand the farm’s operations, he said.

“We have the infrastructure here, we have the team, so expanding, it just makes sense,” Hoekstra, 53, said, his eyes fixed on a row of cows as they grazed on a massive pile of feed. “If it doesn’t happen, we’ll look at other things. But I think we would be able to handle a 20% increase pretty easily.”

Hoekstra manages about 8,000 cows on his 2,290-acre farm, Hillcrest Dairy, located on a rural stretch of land just east of Merced. To the north, his farm overlooks the rugged foothills of the Sierra Nevada. But just two miles south lies the small, rural community of Planada, population 4,000, where some residents say the farm’s expansion would further degrade quality of life for a community already troubled by odor issues and poor air quality.

They fear the expansion could worsen the lingering stench caused by cow manure and increase the chances of finding elevated levels of nitrates in their groundwater supply.

“It gets not just in your nose, it gets into your lungs, and you just sit there, and it is foul,” longtime Planada resident Jerry Salcido said of the odors from the dairy.

But others say Hoekstra’s decades-long ties to the area and financial contributions to Planada make him a valuable member of the community. And while Hoekstra is seeking to install technology on his farm that could capture methane emissions and reduce the manure odor, environmental advocates say the technology itself could have a long-lasting adverse effect on nearby communities.

Vehicles drive past a sign identifying Hillcrest Dairy as a Hilmar Cheese Company supplier on Thursday, March 17, 2022. Andrew Kuhn akuhn@mercedsun-star.com

It’s an entrenched issue that showcases the tensions between industrial agriculture and the rural communities nearby.

California’s dairy industry is the nation’s largest, accounting for nearly 20% of the country’s dairy production and generating more than $7.47 billion a year in 2020 alone, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Merced County is the second-largest dairy-producing county in the state, with milk being the county’s top agricultural commodity. The county’s dairy industry produced $1.05 billion in profits in 2020, representing 33.6% of the county’s agricultural production.

In the community of Planada, in comparison, about 28% of residents live below the poverty line. The median household income in the 98% Hispanic community is about $46,800.

John Pedrozo, a former chairman of the Merced County Board of Supervisors who represented the district that includes Planada, is familiar with the friction between the dairy and some residents.

“There are times when the smell is going to be stronger and so a lot of people would say that it gets so bad,” Pedrozo said. “But the positive news is that Mr. Hoekstra has gone above and beyond and spent a lot of money to try to keep the neighbors at bay and continue to operate a state-of-the-art facility.”

Proposed expansion would make Merced County dairy more ‘efficient’

Hoekstra grew up on a dairy farm in Riverside County before venturing out to the Central Valley, where he opened Hillcrest Dairy in 2002.

The proposed expansion would allow him to increase his dairy operations by 1,700 cows and young stock, bringing his total herd to 9,750. The project includes constructing 195,678 square feet of new support buildings, which will be used to shelter the cattle, within the existing acreage of the farm. Both the existing dairy and the proposed expansion would be on approximately 200 acres of the 2,290-acre farm.

Hoekstra, who comes from a long line of dairy farmers, takes pride in continuing the family tradition that has spanned generations. Despite the challenges, he hopes growing his dairy operations will better prepare his three sons, two of whom have agricultural degrees, to carry on the business.

“Eventually I’d like to step away and this (expansion) allows the dairy to be more efficient,” he said.

Dairy cows are milked at Hillcrest Dairy in Merced County, Calif., on Thursday, March 17, 2022. Andrew Kuhn akuhn@mercedsun-star.com

Hoekstra said the expansion is motivated in part by the many challenges he’s weathered over the past few years due to the pandemic and drought. Many of his employees got sick with COVID-19 early on in the pandemic. The price of essential items such as feed also dramatically increased at a time when the market rate price for milk plummeted.

The drought led many local producers to stop growing some water-intensive crops like alfalfa and corn silage, which Hoekstra uses to feed his herd. This means he now pays a higher price if he buys them from an out-of-state producer.

“We have to weigh those costs of what we’re getting for our milk price with the cost that we have to pay for in feed,” he said. “So we’re actually very vulnerable.”

The market price of milk has increased substantially, but feed costs also continue to rise — which means profit margins still remain slim, Hoekstra said. Expanding would allow the farm to produce more milk and offset some of the rising costs, he added. He compared it to planting more crops in a field or squeezing more tables into a restaurant.

“Our goal is to be more efficient, and I think with more animals, then we can be more efficient,” he said. “I wouldn’t even have attempted to submit an expansion application if I knew that we couldn’t handle it.”

Planada residents concerned about pollution from cows

David and Rita Rodriguez live about two miles away from Hoeksta’s dairy. They’ve lived in their Planada home, located across the street from the local middle school, for about 25 years. While the dairy odor isn’t an around-the-clock problem, they say, it’s still a nuisance that affects their quality of life.

As he sat in a chair in his grassy backyard on a late March afternoon, David Rodriguez recalled the first time, about a decade ago, that he got a whiff of the dairy.

“I was out here in the back,” David Rodriguez, 66, said. “I could smell it and, excuse my Spanish, but it was cow manure.”

Recently, the couple recalled hosting a movie night in their backyard. Nearly 30 people — family, friends and neighbors — were sitting on chairs and blankets on the lawn, snacking on finger foods and popcorn while watching “Pete’s Dragon” and other movies. Then, the smell wafted in.

“Nobody wants to sit and enjoy a hot dog while there’s this smell in the air that is just putrid,” Rita Rodriguez, 67, said.

Salcido, 62, was born in a farm labor camp in Planada and has lived in the rural community for most of his life. Heinherited his parent’s home and now rents it to tenants. He said the odor has led several renters to leave after just a few months.

“Some of them have mentioned that they can’t stand the smell,” he said.

Salcido said the odor also causes him anxiety. Sometimes, he will be visiting with friends or family from out of town when the odor rolls in like a wave. He ushers everyone inside the house, he said, but he’s still left feeling embarrassed, angry and powerless to fix the problem.

“It’s awful,” he added.

Over the years many of Planada’s residents have grown disappointed, David Rodriguez said, because nothing has changed — and they fear the situation is going to get worse if the dairy expands. Along with concerns about the odor becoming more severe or frequent, he is also concerned that more cows could increase the likelihood of nitrate pollution in the town’s drinking water.

“The more cows they have, the more it can become a dangerous issue,” he said.

Nitrate-contaminated water is a widespread problem that affects residents throughout the state that could lead to serious health issues. Agricultural fertilizers and animal waste on farmland are “by far the largest regional sources of nitrate in groundwater,” according to a UC Davis report commissioned by the California Water Resources Control Board.

The Central Valley is more susceptible to nitrate contamination because groundwater serves as the primary source of drinking water for nearly 90% of residents. The Valley counties of Fresno, Madera, Merced, Kern, Kings, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tulare, have some of the highest rates of water contamination per person in the state, according to a separate report from the Community Water Center, an nonprofit organization that advocates for safe drinking water in vulnerable communities.

In response to concerns about water pollution, Hoekstra said cow manure is heavily regulated. The manure, soil and nearby wells are also regularly tested to measure nitrate levels.

Madeline Harris is a regional policy manager with Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, an advocacy organization based in the Central Valley. She said the dairy poses other significant public health and environmental concerns. The dairy’s water consumption poses a problem for the region’s depleting groundwater reserves, she said, and its operations emit methane.

“These are huge problems,” she said. “We’re really seeing this pattern of factory farm dairies becoming larger and larger, but we’re not seeing meaningful community engagement in Merced County with all these proposed dairy expansions.”

Merced County dairy farmer contributes to community

But some residents say occasional agricultural odors are expected in rural areas, and that Hoekstra mitigates the problem by playing an active role in the community and regularly donating to school and charity functions.

Alicia Rodriguez, 56, no relation to David and Rita Rodriguez, has lived in Planada for 37 years and has known Hoekstra for several years. She said he regularly makes an effort to provide farm jobs to locals and also donate funds to the local church and schools.

“A lot of people don’t realize that (Hoekstra) has done a lot for this community,” she said. “He gives to any program there is for kids and is constantly giving money to Planada. He gives back to the community and I think that’s very, very important.”

She said she is not bothered by the dairy farm and sees no problem with the expansion. She said the odor is just “part of what it means” to live in a rural area.

“When you live in the country, you take what comes with it,” she said. “I have no concerns or issues with the dairy farms because I live in a farming community.”

Ildefonso Nava was born in Planada and now lives on the outskirts of town. He is the principal at Cesar E. Chavez Middle School and said Hoekstra has “always been supportive” of Planada and its residents. Recently, Hoekstra donated labor and equipment to help the school construct the new soccer and track field, he said.

“It’s not just about him making money and keeping the money, he does contribute back into the community,” he said. “I cannot remember one single instance where he has not supported our ventures or endeavors when we have asked for it.”

Rita Rodriguez said she recognizes that Hoekstra contributes positively to the community, by providing turkeys during Thanksgiving and holiday baskets at Christmastime. But she said that shouldn’t justify them tolerating the odor and “having to live this way.”

“Planada isn’t for sale,” she said. “We don’t want to give them that edge, that he can buy us off with Christmas baskets and toys for kids.”

Farmer hopes digester will reduce manure odor

Hoekstra acknowledged that some residents are upset about the smell of the odor. To mitigate the smell, he uses a solids separator. Separating solids from the liquid manure makes the mixture easier to process and handle, and helps reduce the intensity of the odor.

He said he tries to be a helpful resource to the community and is “sensitive” to their concerns.

“I don’t want to make anybody’s life miserable, I live in this area too,” he said. “I don’t want to be a nuisance to our community. I want to be an asset.”

He said he’s been looking into investing in new sustainable technologies to help with manure management and odor control, including an anaerobic digester.

Dairy cows at Hillcrest Dairy in Merced County, Calif., on Thursday, March 17, 2022. Andrew Kuhn akuhn@mercedsun-star.com

Currently, most dairy farmers manage manure by storing it in lagoons. Farmers use the lagoons to remove fecal matter and urine from the cows’ living area to ensure it is sanitary for the animals. A digester works by trapping the methane formed in the lagoon with a large covering. Once trapped, the gas can be converted into a form of biofuel that can be pumped into natural gas pipelines or used for vehicle fuel.

Manure digester systems can provide other benefits, too. They can reduce odors from livestock manure. Digesters have also been shown to “help protect local water resources by reducing nutrient run-off and destroying pathogens,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,

The state is offering a financial incentive to farmers who want to implement the technology and for many, it’s an increasingly appealing option.

Hoekstra said he is “very serious” about investing in the digester. Hoekstra has a signed letter of intent with a digester company and is currently waiting on additional details on the design and cost. He’s hopeful that the technology will decrease the odor.

“The technology is really, really exciting,” he said. “You’re helping the environment and you’re greatly reducing your carbon footprint.”

Still, some advocates say digesters may do more harm than good for a community and the environment.

Harris, of the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, said dairy digesters “don’t actually address” the community’s concerns and still pose a threat to the environment.

She said covering a manure lagoon does not reduce the amount of groundwater that the dairy would have to use to sustain its operations or address water contamination concerns. She also said the biofuel produced by a digester “further ingrains our reliance on fossil fuels because dairy biomethane burns the same as natural gas.”

County officials are in the midst of drafting an environmental impact report for the proposed expansion.

Planada resident David Rodriguez, meanwhile, isn’t sure if the digesters will address the community’s concerns about odor. But if the project is eventually approved, he said the community won’t be left with many options.

“Suffer,” he said. “That’s what we’ll do — suffer.”

Source: fresnobee.com

The last dairy farm in San Diego County nourishes its underground livestock just as much as its happy cows and heifers above.

Where there were once more than 100 dairy operations in San Diego County, two remain on record, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

However, The Coast News confirmed that T D Dairy in Ramona is in the process of selling its herd — leaving the hundreds of cows at Frank Konyn Dairy as the last of their kind in the area.

T D will continue to survive, though in other ways, showcasing an ability to pivot and adapt that is naturally grown in the farmers of San Diego County.

In 1962, Holland-born Frank Konyn Sr. established a dairy in the San Pasqual Valley of Escondido on 250 acres leased in an agricultural preserve through the city of San Diego.

Now, decades later, the Frank Konyn Dairy is the last family-owned, self-sustaining dairy farm in the county. It is one branch, along with Konyn Dairy Farms, San Pasqual Valley Soils (SPVS), under the Frank Konyn Dairy Inc house.

Since 1962, the farm plus dairy operation now consists of 300 acres of irrigated and dry-farmed forage. Recently it leased an additional 290 acres for cut eucalyptus production, which brings its total acreage to about 700 acres. (This is in sharp contrast to the average farm size of 4 acres in San Diego County, nearly 350 for the state and 440 nationwide.)

“[We] continue to survive through innovation, diversity and a stubborn commitment to the principles of sustainability and hard work,” said Craig Kolodge, SPVS manager of business development and sustainability.

The Frank Konyn Dairy is approaching business and stewardship a little differently.

Typical soil in the area contains less than 1 percent organic matter. Organic matter is a major indicator of soil health.

This small percentage of microbial livestock is putting in work to loosen up the soil and retain what little water and nutrients it can in San Diego County. The Frank Konyn Dairy group practices regenerative agriculture, which builds soil health.

More than 15 years ago, a pile of manure sparked a unique composting business that would become an integral part of the survival of the Konyn Dairy, which is now owned and managed by Frank Konyn Jr.  By 2007, SPVS became a state-permitted composting facility, converting cow manure and recycled landscape trimmings into soil amendments for organic farming and landscapers in the county.

But the dairy doesn’t just supply this unique compost. In order to feed its massive herd, Foraging Manager Ernie Klemm and his team apply compost — some in part stemming from zoo waste — to the forage acreage at Konyn Dairy Farms.

Frank Konyn Dairy now leases about 700 acres, 300 of which are dedicated forage land to help sustain the cow’s diet.  Driving through its land, which is nearby several other farms, one may notice Klemm’s fields don’t buckle in the way his neighbors do.

Locally, when it rains, some may see rain puddle and run-off fields, gardens or lawns. When soil is compacted, water has nowhere to go but out. However, when soil is healthy, water can infiltrate the soil and soak into the ground.

A one-percent increase in organic matter has the ability to increase water storage potential by more than 20,000 gallons, according to the Natural Resource Defense Council.

For six years, Klemm has land-applied locally produced compost from SPVS to increase and sustain organic matter between 4 and 6 percent on both irrigated and dry-farmed fields of Konyn Dairy Farms.

This has resulted in a “tremendous increase in water holding capacity of the amended soils” Klemm said, “although not nearly enough to offset the reduced rainfall in the area.”

“Alfalfa takes 19 to 32 inches of water to grow a harvestable crop,” Klemm explained.

The jump in water retention on Konyn Dairy Farms’ compost-amended fields allows alfalfa to be cut up to 10 times per year. Typically, without compost-amended fields, farmers can average between four to six cuttings per year. Even despite reduced rain events this year, Klemm said the dry-farmed crops are maintaining steady production. 

At Konyn Dairy, forage crops are responsible for approximately 15 percent of the nearly 150 pounds of feed in the cows’ diet.  (A small — but growing — percentage of feedstock to support the dairy’s young developing cows comes from recycled grains from more than a dozen local breweries, as well as discarded bakery goods and fruit pulp from local juice businesses.)

“Feed to support the dairy is the largest cost for sustaining this livestock operation in San Diego County,” Kolodge said. “The amount and cost of food needed to support quality milk production is an ongoing challenge to all dairies, especially ones located outside large, rural agricultural communities.”

“[Konyn Dairy] functions on a sustainability model that depends on diversification and attention to not only the health of the dairy cows but also the health of the local land,” Kolodge added.

Like the Konyns and many others in North County, Klemm comes from a long line of farmers.

Even though Klemm joined Konyn Dairy Farms less than a decade ago,

Konyn Sr. predicted Klemm would one day join his operation when he was only a teenager.

In the 1930s, his grandfather immigrated from Zurich, Switzerland, to Imperial County and set up a dairy farm, which he would later move to Mission Valley in San Diego County.

Then, under the name Sweet Haven Dairy, the family was forced to relocate through the process of eminent domain in 1974, eventually landing in Fresno. Today, Klemm’s cousins still operate a successful milking farm with approximately 2,000 cows.

Urban sprawl has taken bites out of the county’s agricultural land for decades and is expected to continue.  While San Diego may be the eighth-largest city in the United States, its agricultural preserve remains a unique and vibrant part of the future of farming locally.

“The long-term goal of the dairy … the soils and farming operations is to continue to be a valuable resource for sustaining the values associated with the survival of local farms,” Kolodge said. 

Support from the urban communities within which the farm co-exists is an essential piece to that, he said, adding that the dairy would eventually like to start making products on site for those in the community.

“We can only accomplish that with strong support from the city and local citizens committed to the survival of local agriculture,” Kolodge said

Source: thecoastnews.com

The company doesn’t expect total failure

Swiss agrochemicals group Syngenta expects crops output in Ukraine to slump substantially this year, it said on Thursday, as it announced fourth-quarter results.

“We hope to be able to save around two-thirds of what would normally be possible,” a spokesperson said on Thursday, referring to the Ukrainian crops harvest. “We definitely don’t expect a total failure.”

The Chinese-owned group, which aims to raise around $10 billion from an initial public offering, sells both crop protection products and seeds, reported Reuters.

It said it was now selling these at the price of cost in Ukraine to ensure as high a harvest as possible.

“We are on the brink of a global food crisis,” CEO Erik Fyrwald said in a post LinkedIn, referring to the destruction of infrastructure, disruptions of transport and land and water contamination which he said were making it impossible for farmers to work.

Outside of conflict, the current growing season was also being affected by unprecedented floods, droughts and high levels of pest infestation, he said.

Ukraine is a major global agriculture producer and exporter, and Russia’s invasion of the country is expected to sharply reduce the 2022 harvest, with Agriculture Minister Roman Leshchenko telling Reuters its spring crop sowing area may more than halve this year.

Syngenta employs around 730 people in Ukraine and about 800 in Russia. It said it has no plans to withdraw from Russia. Crop production is not subject to various sanctions imposed on Moscow.

On a revenue basis, it said Ukraine and Russia each accounted for less than 2% of group sales.

Across the group, it said fourth quarter sales increased by 17% to $7.2 billion as it benefitted from farmers investing in seeds and sprays to boost production.

It said it had increased revenue generated from its training centres in China, where it added 167 new sites in 2021 to take its total to 492.

The sites train farmers in the latest agricultural techniques as well as supply equipment, seeds and pesticides.

Syngenta said it had continued to manage its supply chain in the face of procurement and other problems.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 4% to $1.1 billion during the fourth quarter.

Syngenta, which competes with Germany’s Bayer and US agrochemicals company Corteva, was bought by state-owned ChemChina for $43 billion in 2017, and is currently looking into a flotation.

Source: Reuters

Larry was a well-known Holstein breeder, long-time Extension agent and director, and past President of both the Minnesota Holstein Association and Holstein Association USA. In addition, he had a long career as a dairy cattle judge. He judged at most of the county fairs in Minnesota, countless state fairs, and twice at World Dairy Expo where he judged both the International Milking Shorthorn and International Brown Swiss shows.  He also officiated at several foreign dairy shows and other US National Shows.

Larry Tande of rural Medford, MN always referred to life as a journey. Now, at 83 years of age and 15 challenging years of multiple myeloma, his journey on earth has ended. Larry passed away Saturday morning, March 26, 2022, at his home.

Visitation will be Friday, April 8 2022, at the Medford Funeral Home from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Funeral service will be 10:30 am Saturday, April 9, 2022 at First English Lutheran Church in Faribault, MN, with the visitation continuing one hour prior to funeral service at the church.

Condolences and memories for the family can be left here.

Nonprofit regional dairy council Dairy MAX, which represents more than 900 dairy farmers in eight states, is pleased to announce that Marty McKinzie has been promoted to Chief Growth Officer of the organization, responsible for business development, industry image and relations, sustainability and organizational development. Dairy MAX has additionally hired Kay Johnson Smith as Chief Operating Officer, leading key areas of the business including consumer marketing, corporate communications, issues management, health and wellness and school marketing. McKinzie and Johnson Smith will report to Chief Executive Officer Mike Konkle, who has served in his role since 2007 and will continue to lead the growing organization.

McKinzie joined Dairy MAX in 2008 as Director of industry image and relations and currently is the Vice President of industry image and relations. He and his team are the conduit connecting Dairy MAX with the dairy farmers it serves, helping them build trust with communities through connections with farm tours, sharing checkoff program successes with youth inside and outside of schools and building relationships with business partners and health professionals. McKenzie has played a critical role in development of industry relationships, fostering growth and understanding through communication and annual one-on-one farm visits.

Johnson Smith joins Dairy MAX from the Animal AgricultureAlliance, based in Arlington, Virginia, where she served originally as Executive Director, then President and Chief Executive Officer for nearly 28 years. In that role, she was tasked with managing the organization’s operations, providing strategic guidance to the agriculture and food industry regarding farm animal issues and engaging stakeholders about the importance of modern animal agriculture.

“Dairy councils are an asset to farmers every day, supporting them in their efforts to provide and market dairy products to Americans,” said Mike Konkle, CEO of Dairy MAX. “The way we see it, dairy farmers have both tough and incredible jobs––and it is our responsibility to meet their expectations and serve them well. The addition of these two roles will help us to be positioned for continued success in the coming years. We look forward to Marty and Kay’s contributions.”

Dairy MAX is part of a nationwide effort to promote dairy, develop new dairy foods, provide educational information and increase consumption. It does so with a team of experts in dairy farming, business, education and health and wellness, working with organizations such as the National Dairy Council (NDC) and Milk Processor EducationProgram (MilkPEP). The organization is a longtime supporter of the Animal Ag Alliance, a nonprofit working to safeguard the future of animal agriculture, and looks forward to continued engagement with the organization into the future.

The Animal Agriculture Alliance board of directors has announced that Hannah Thompson-Weeman, currently serving as the Alliance’s vice president, strategic engagement, has been named the organization’s new president and CEO. Thompson-Weeman will assume the role on May 1 prior to the departure of longtime president and CEO Kay Johnson Smith later that month to join the staff of Alliance member organization Dairy MAX, one of the leading regional dairy councils in America representing more than 900 dairy farmers and serving communities in eight states.

Description automatically generatedThompson-Weeman joined the Alliance in 2014 as director of communications and since that time has been promoted to vice president of communications before assuming her current role leading strategic engagement. She has led the Alliance’s issues management, crisis communications, animal rights extremist monitoring and influencer engagement work, as well as played an integral role in connecting with supporters and developing Alliance programs such as the Stakeholders Summit, Animal Ag Allies and College Aggies Online. Thompson-Weeman’s expertise and passion in these areas has made her a sought-after columnist for various publications and speaker for national and even international events, helping to build the Alliance brand. She holds a B.S. in agricultural communication with a minor in agricultural business and an M.S. in agricultural and extension education, both from The Ohio State University.

“Hannah’s history with the Alliance and energy for taking its mission to new heights make her the ideal choice for both a seamless transition and a bright future for the organization,” said Christina Lood, senior director, sustainability and innovation communications, Zoetis, and current Alliance chairperson. “The board of directors offers Kay the deepest gratitude for her nearly 28 years of commitment to the Alliance. The organization would not be what it is today if it weren’t for her pouring limitless time and energy into growing the Alliance’s resources, team and programs. We wish her all the best in her new role and look forward to continuing to engage with her both personally and professionally.”

Johnson Smith is departing the Alliance to join longtime Alliance member Dairy MAX as chief operating officer. A nonprofit organization headquartered in Texas and with operations in Colorado, southwest Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, western Oklahoma, and Wyoming, Dairy MAX is part of a nationwide effort to promote dairy, develop new dairy foods, provide educational information and increase consumption.

“While it is certainly bittersweet to leave the Alliance after so many years, I am looking forward to remaining in the animal agriculture community and continuing to be the Alliance’s strongest advocate, now as part of a member organization,” said Johnson Smith. “The Alliance will be in exceptional hands with Hannah leading a strong team with deep roots at the organization. It has truly been an honor to have served the Alliance, our members and the broader animal agriculture community for all these years, and I’m thrilled to be able to continue to do so in a new role going forward.”

Thompson-Weeman will begin her new duties just prior to the Alliance’s 2022 Stakeholders Summit, set for May 11-12 in Kansas City. Both Johnson Smith and Thompson-Weeman’s time at the Alliance and new roles will be celebrated during the Chairperson’s Reception at the event. For more information on the Summit, themed “Come Together for Animal Ag: Be Informed, Be Ready, Be Here,” and how to register, visit bit.ly/AAA22Summit.

About the Alliance:

The Animal Agriculture Alliance safeguards the future of animal agriculture and its value to society by bridging the communication gap between the farm and food communities. We connect key food industry stakeholders to arm them with responses to emerging issues. We engage food chain influencers and promote consumer choice by helping them better understand modern animal agriculture. We protect by exposing those who threaten our nation’s food security with damaging misinformation.

Find the Alliance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

To kick off the May is Beef Month celebration, the PA Beef Council (PBC) is teaming up with the American Red Cross to host the Cattlemen Care Blood Drive on May 10, 2022 in the Cameron Street Lobby of the PA Farm Show Complex. Donation times are available from 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM.

Currently, the American Red Cross is facing a national blood shortage, the worst in over a decade. This causes delays in care and can impact vital medical treatment for those in most critical need around the country. Currently Red Cross supplies approximately 40% of the nation’s blood supply.

“Teaming up with the American Red Cross to support a blood drive is a unique way for the agriculture community in PA to show our support. As cattlemen and women, we care for the land and livestock every day. Hosting a Blood Drive is one way for us to show our compassion for our community as well”, said Nichole Hockenberry, Executive Director of the PBC. “As we celebrate Beef Month, we want to not only celebrate the protein and great taste that beef has to beef offer, but also the people who produce it and the communities we are a part of”.

The event is open to the public and walk-in donors are welcome. An online sign-up portal is available and will expedite the registration process making the day flow more smoothly for donors. Donors who register by May 1 will receive a complimentary burger to refuel after their donation!

To register for the blood drive visit, the Red Cross website.

To learn more about the PA Beef Council visit www.pabeef.org.

Media Contact: Courtney Gray, cgray@pabeef.org or 814-623-2698

The Ohio Guernsey Breeders Association is to host the 2022 National Guernsey Convention in Wooster, Ohio with event headquarters at the Best Western Hotel, Tuesday, June 21 – Friday, June 24.

Tuesday, June 21 is optional pre convention tours at the Pro Football Hall of Fame and McKinley Library, Museum and Science Center in Canton, OH. Convention commences Tuesday evening at the Best Western with a welcome dinner and youth pizza party.

Wednesday, June 22 youth contest and adult committee meetings and seminars will be held, and Adult Awards dinner in the evening at the Best Western.

Thursday, June 23 join us for farm tours at Edward Keim, Pine Grove and Springhill, lunch at Der Dutchman in Walnut Creek, Oh. With a youth banquet and youth auction in the evening, at the Wayne County Fairgrounds.

Friday, June 24 attend the Annual Meeting of the American Guernsey Association and 2022 National Convention sale, at the Wayne County Fairgrounds.

To book a hotel room call 330-264-7750. Convention ticket prices will be announced after April 10, 2022, with a reservation deadline of May 16, 2022.

For up to date information follow the 2022 National Guernsey Convention on Facebook and instagram (2022nat.guernseyconvention)

Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture published the highly anticipated Origin of Livestock (OOL) final rule for organic dairy. This change to the USDA organic regulations will promote a fairer and more competitive market for all organic dairy producers, by making sure that certified USDA organic dairy products are produced to the same consistent standard.

“This action demonstrates the USDA’s strong commitment to America’s organic dairy farmers,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. “The Origin of Livestock final rule provides clear and uniform standards about how and when livestock may be transitioned to organic dairy production, and how transitioned animals are managed within the organic dairy system. Now, all organic dairy livestock producers will have the confidence and certainty they are operating in a fair and competitive market.”

“Consumers of dairy that carry the USDA Certified Organic Seal can trust that those products meet their expectations for how organic dairy products are produced,” said Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt. “At the same time, the rule announced today also ensures new organic producers have a fair way to enter the market.”

USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) will oversee the new rule, which in general:

• Allows a dairy livestock operation transitioning to organic, or starting a new organic farm, to transition non-organic animals one time.
• Prohibits organic dairies from sourcing any transitioned animals. Once a dairy is certified organic, animals must be managed as organic from the last third of gestation. Variances may be requested by small businesses for specific scenarios.

More information about the Origin of Livestock rule is available at: www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/national-organic-program-origin-livestock

A large Panton dairy farm must make changes to stop turbid runoff and foul odors from contaminating a downslope neighbor, a state judge ruled Monday.

The decision by Superior Court Judge Mary Miles Teachout, following a civil trial held in December and January, does not specify how the three Vorsteveld brothers, who operate one of the 38 largest dairy farms in Vermont, must halt the pollutants. As Seven Days previously reported, the case also touched on broader issues in the dairy industry and how Vermont regulates farms.

Neighboring landowners Vicki and Dennis Hopper sued Vorsteveld Farm in 2020, alleging that runoff was interfering with life at their lakefront home and the operations of their daughter’s grass-fed livestock farm, known as Aerie Point.

The problems began when the Vorstevelds installed a tile drainage system in 2017 as part of a farm expansion project, Teachout concluded in a 32-page decision. The drainage system turned periodic streambeds into constant flows of brown water and “black sludge” that had high levels of E. coli and phosphorus. One of the Hopper’s grazing fields was eventually covered with water, preventing their livestock from using it. Aerial photos displayed at trial showed the dairy farm runoff flowing into Lake Champlain.

The pollution amounts to a nuisance and trespass of the Hoppers’ land, Teachout ruled.

Vorsteveld Farm “shifted to the Aerie Point owners the consequential costs of its changed agricultural practices, thereby damaging Aerie Point land through erosion and contamination and flooding,” she wrote. “It essentially discharged its waste onto Aerie Point land and let the consequences fall on Aerie Point as owner in a manner not done prior to 2017.”

At trial, the Vorstevelds contended that the increased discharges were a symptom of climate change. Teachout was unpersuaded. While climate change may exacerbate the situation, she wrote, the Hoppers had proven by a preponderance of the evidence that the environmental changes were primarily caused by changes in the Vorstevelds’ farming practices.

The Hoppers had asked the court to impose a remedial plan suggested by their expert witnesses that involved changes to the Vorstevelds’ crop patterns, installation of vegetative buffers and more. Teachout said the court does not have the authority to impose specific fixes, only to require the Vorstevelds to stop the nuisance and trespass.

“The Farm should meet the obligation of every business or property owner to dispose of its own waste products responsibly rather than discharge them onto their neighbor’s land,” she wrote. “To prevent future trespasses and damage from nuisance, it is not necessary for Vorsteveld Farm to change its farming practices; it is only necessary that it manage its own waste.”

The Vorstevelds have previously faced state and local enforcement action over their land management practices, including a $21,750 fine by the Agency of Natural Resources in 2020 for improperly dredging and filling wetlands. The state environmental agency has received more than two dozen complaints about the farm over the last five years, but it did not intervene in the runoff issue, saying drainage disputes between adjoining property owners don’t fall within its jurisdiction, Seven Days previously reported. The Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets didn’t get involved, either.

“The Agency of Agriculture utterly failed to address the environmental problems here,” the Hoppers’ attorney, Rob Woolmington, said in an interview following the decision. “It required the court to do the job the agency should have done.”

The Vorstevelds’ attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Source: sevendaysvt.com

2022 Southland-Otago Dairy Industry award winners, from left, Aidan Roe, Hamish Day, Emma Day, and Laura Murdoch.

Emma and Hamish Day were named 2022 Share Farmer of the Year at the Southland-Otago Dairy Industry Awards in Invercargill on Saturday night.

The Days, who contract milk 700 cows for Peter and Maria Clinton on their 220ha property at Mabel Bush just out of Invercargill, picked up the honour at the event held at Bill Richardson’s Transport World.

They claimed $13,176 in prizes plus four merit awards on Saturday night.

The couple, both 36, left Wellington in 2011 to enter the dairy industry. Hamish was a builder and Emma worked at AMP Financial Services before making the move.

“Hamish was a city boy all his life but had a taste of farming through my family who are dairy farmers and he really enjoyed the diversity,” Emma said.

The couple would like to see stronger promotion of the dairy industry in schools.

“Coming from an urban school in Wellington, Hamish never knew of the dairy industry as a career choice and was only offered information about trades.”

“It’s such an amazing career path as it provides so much diversity, it’s not just cows and grass.”

Although there have been some tough times.

“We faced financial pressure in 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons with the low pay-out when we were LOSM [lower order sharemilkers], however, we came out of it in good financial shape after watching our budgets.”

“We try to use everything as a lesson, and it’s never a negative. It’s the only way to grow when you’re uncomfortable.”

Their future goals include another contract milking position with the ultimate goal of farm ownership.

The other big winners on Saturday night were Laura Murdoch who was named the 2022 Southland/Otago Dairy Manager of the Year, and Aidan Roe the 2022 Southland/Otago Dairy Trainee of the Year.

Murdoch, is 2IC for Chris Reilly on his 83ha, 230-cow Mokotua property, and was delighted to be named winner of the 2022 Southland/Otago Dairy Manager of the Year on Saturday night.

The former accountant aims to be a leader in the industry and inspire others with her journey.

“I’d love to showcase the joys and highlights of dairy farming, it’s a very rewarding industry to be a part of.”

“I’d love to help remove some of the wrongly-assumed stigma that’s often associated with dairying.”

Aidan Roe, Dairy Trainee of the Year, believed it was awesome to be a young person in the dairy industry.

He is farm assistant on Peter Sanford’s 200ha Winton property, milking 560 cows.

Roe has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science from Lincoln University and felt the pandemic had shown the world how important the food and fibre sectors are.

“I will be part of the generation of farmers that will have to make some pretty big changes to the industry to suit consumers’ demands,” he said.

Source: stuff.co.nz

Data from sensors, showing the position of the cows, in combination with a video stream taken by cameras installed in the barn, are used to study the behavior of dairy cattle.

In a pilot study, at one of Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences´s research barns, Keni Ren and her colleagues show that a combination of sensors and cameras gives a really good picture of what is going on among the cows in the barn.

“Data from cameras add a whole new dimension to social behavioral studies,” says Keni Ren who recently defended her doctoral thesis at Umeå University.

The method of using cameras as a complement to real-time locating sensors was investigating with a focus on the social interactions between cows gathering around the feeding table, for example when younger individuals are introduced to an existing herd.

“When examining the competition and interactions between cows of different social rank, various sorts of information, like who, where, and what happened need to be taken into the measurement,” says Ren who is now a research assistant at the Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics.

All the cows want a place at the feeding table. They can be pushed away by other cows, or voluntarily leave room for someone else. This can be captured by the sensors installed in the barn and then analyzed by computers.

Through machine learning it is possible to analyze a large amount of videos and this gives many clues about the social interactions in the context of the time-series information.

The study was conducted on a smaller scale, with positioning data and visual data from only ten cows. But it shows that the technology works and it can be scaled up for monitoring a larger herd. In practice, it could be used as a tool for early detection of situations of stress among the cows.

The large amount of data that is generated is especially interesting for researchers who want to know more about behavior. The limitations are partly the design of the barn, and partly how many cameras you can set up. Another technical limitation is the battery capacity of the sensors, which currently lasts about two months.

“This study is quite technical but it shows that the method works. It is fun to apply technological development on this type of behavioral study, which can give us valuable information about the dairy cows,” says Ren.

This pilot study was conducted by researchers at Umeå University together with researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Source: thedairysite.com

Five dairy farmers and allied industry professionals received recognition for completing all three pillars of leadership training in the Professional Dairy Producers Wisconsin’s Cornerstone Dairy Academy. The application-based professional-development program is designed to build the skills of dairy producers and industry professionals who want to expand their skills to lead with purpose, character and integrity.

The two-day program focuses on enhancing the skills of communication, visionary thinking, ethical leadership, servant-oriented leadership and professional etiquette. The presenters also equip attendees with tools to work through workplace challenges caused by generational differences and varying types of emotional intelligence.

The Cornerstone Dairy Academy graduates who have completed all three pillars include Sara Griswold, Beaver Dam; Kalista Hodorff, Eden; Michael Kortuem, Marshfield; Brooke Trustem, Evansville; and Danielle Warmka, Fox Lake.

The PDPW Cornerstone Dairy Academy is funded in part by a grant from the Professional Dairy Producers Foundation.

Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that beef from two gene-edited cattle and their offspring is safe to eat and said gene-edited beef could be on the market in as little as two years. The cattle were designed using the gene-editing tool CRISPR to grow shorter hair to better tolerate heat, which makes them more efficient for meat producers in hotter climates. An FDA spokesperson said the agency expects the announcement will encourage more companies to bring forward gene-edited farm animals for marketplace approval in the near future.

Products from such animals aren’t going to appear on grocery shelves or restaurant menus overnight; the FDA has generally moved slowly on approving new gene-edited or engineered animals. But in the coming decades, gene editing could usher in a new era for meat production, and one that, depending on the paths taken by genetics companies and the meat producers to whom they’ll aim to sell these new animals, could have lasting consequences for animal suffering on factory farms.

Down one path lies a future where industrial agriculture uses the technology of gene editing to push chickens, pigs, fish, and cows to grow bigger and faster. It would be a future of factory farming on overdrive, and a future almost certainly to the detriment of animal welfare.

Down the other path lies a more positive possibility: the use of genetic tools to alleviate some animal suffering. Editing for disease resistance, for instance, could reduce sickness as well as the need to breed more animals as replacements for those who die, while the creation of hornless calves would eliminate the need for a painful yet common farm procedure known as dehorning.

Based on what some animal genetics companies and researchers have told us — and on the hundreds of such projects underway — it’ll likely be a mix of both approaches.

“Gene editing in relation to current farming systems is interesting because there are ways in which it might alleviate suffering, but there are also ways in which it might exacerbate different aspects of the current system,” Adam Shriver, a bioethicist at the University of British Columbia, told me. “It’s something that has the potential to really profoundly affect” farm animal welfare.

The potential of gene editing has led the animal agriculture sector to largely embrace the possibilities of the technology and for some in the industry to callfor a faster regulatory approval process, which could be achieved in part by granting oversight to the more agribusiness-friendly USDA.

Animal welfare advocacy groups, on the other hand, view the technology more warily. The Humane Society of the United States supports gene editing farmed animals when it’s specifically used to reduce animal suffering, while Dena Jones of the Animal Welfare Institute worries that it “allows the industry to mitigate some of the criticisms of animal farming and keep costs low in the process,” as she told me in an email.

It’ll likely be decades — if ever — until gene-edited animals become a significant part of industrial agriculture, given the current slow pace of regulation and potential scientific hurdles. But it could be speeding up. The FDA and Recombinetics, the company that made the short-haired, heat-tolerant cattle, declined to comment for this story when questioned about how many years it took for the FDA’s “safe to eat” determination. But in January 2021, Recombinetics published research on the short-hair cattle and wrote it is “currently being prepared for regulatory review in multiple countries and commercialization.”

If it only took Recombinetics around one year to earn the FDA’s “safe to eat” determination, it would stand in stark contrast to the odyssey of the AquAdvantage salmon. Genetically engineered to grow twice as fast and year-round — unlike a natural Atlantic salmon, which primarily grows in the spring and summer while out at sea — it took some two decades before AquAdvantage was finally approved in 2015.

After several more years of deliberation on how to properly label it and FDA environmental review, it’s now sold through one seafood distributor, while 85 companies, including Walmart and Kroger, have pledged never to sell it after pressure from environmental and anti-GMO activists, though the company saysit has relationships with some large-scale retailers.

Public opinion, meanwhile, remains mixed on gene editing animals, with more support for approaches that promote heat tolerance or reduce pain than for interventions that can make animals grow faster.

The uncertain approval process and lingering consumer skepticism means there’s still time to shape how gene editing will be used on the farm. No one doubts the power of gene editing, nor its potential to help determine the quality of life of billions of animals in the future. But whether gene editing is predominantly employed to maximize production at all costs or as a scientific corrective to ethical woes is up to the editors — meaning us.

How gene editing could be used to reduce — or increase — animal suffering on the farm

Factory farms are often characterized as inhumane because of the conditions in which animals are forced to live: in a tiny cage or a crate, overcrowded in a dark warehouse, and often fed a steady diet of antibiotics as a way to increase growth rates and prevent disease in unsanitary conditions, not because the animals are sick.

But a significant portion of farm animal suffering is set before they’re ever born, thanks to the way that they have been bred.

For centuries before scientists even understood the existence and function of genes, farmers selectively bred animals to produce certain traits, such as faster growth rates or resistance to disease, that would yield more meat at a lower cost. Starting in the late 1940s, animal breeders became more sophisticated and eventually figured out how to push animals to their biological limits, a project that has led to a hellish existence for most of America’s 9 billion farmed land animals (and, increasingly, for the farmed species that provide more than half the world’s seafood).

Chickens raised for meat today grow to be much larger and grow at a much faster pace than chickens did in the 1950s, causing a laundry list of welfare issues, such as leg and foot injuries, lesions, and heart and lung problems. As chickens get closer to “market weight,” many of them have difficulty even walking since their legs can’t support their unnaturally large bodies.

Zuidhof, MJ, et al. 2014 Poultry Science 93 :1–13/Numbers added by Vox

Creating rapid-growth chickens took breeding companies decades since they mostly relied on old-fashioned selective breeding. Genetic engineering came next in the 1970s as scientists figured out how to transfer genes from one organism into another, which led to the creation of the fast-growing AquAdvantage salmon in 1989. But newer biotechnology tools, like CRISPR, are faster and more precise because scientists can edit an animals’ genes rather than move a gene from one animal into another.

“The beauty of the newer techniques is the ability to precisely introduce a particular characteristic into already elite germplasm” or heritable genetic material, says Alison Van Eenennaam, an animal geneticist at University California Davis.

Juliette Michel/AFP via Getty Images

The promise of the technology is obvious for agribusiness, which naturally wants to use these new tools to boost profits by designing bigger, faster-growing animals with higher fertility rates.

But that’s not the only use of the technology. It could also be deployed to eliminate many sources of animal suffering on today’s factory farms by editing genes in ways that would make painful procedures unnecessary.

Hornless calves are just the start. For instance, male piglets are castrated, usually without pain relief, shortly after birth. If they aren’t, their meat will emit a terrible odor when cooked, leading to what the pork industry calls “boar taint.” So scientists are working on a male pig that never reaches puberty, eliminating the need for castration.

A similar advance could be made with poultry. Each year at America’s egg hatcheries, as many as 300 million male chicks are gruesomely killed — usually by being ground up alive or gassed — since they can’t lay eggs and have been bred to be too small to be worth the effort of raising for meat. Researchers around the world are using transgenic engineering and gene-editing tools in an attempt to solve this chicken and egg dilemma.

Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A team in Australia is using CRISPR to insert a gene from a sea anemone into a chicken that expresses a particular protein; if it’s a male, the inside of the egg will glow red when a laser is shined on it, enabling egg producers to destroy the eggs before the chicks are hatched. A team in the UK is working to stop the development of male embryos.

Straight out of a Black Mirror episode, the bioethicist Shriver has argued — in a paper that asks if “technology can succeed where morality has stalled” — for creating genetically engineered farmed animals that can’t feel pain. It’s a still-theoretical intervention that shows that the extreme environment of factory farming might demand equally extreme technological solutions.

Using gene editing to eradicate animal diseases

Breeding disease-resistant animals could also reduce animal suffering in the short term and lead agribusiness to breed fewer animals overall.

In 2014 and 2015, outbreaks of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) virus across the US resulted in more than 50 million chickens and turkeys killed or culled, using cruel methods like suffocating foam and “ventilation shutdown” — industry jargon for essentially cooking the animals alive.

Seven years later, the disease is wreaking havoc on the US poultry industry yet again; since February of this year, 4 million chickens and turkeys in the US have been destroyed due to a new HPAI outbreak. Epidemiologists worry the growing outbreak increases the chance of the virus mutating and infecting humans. A different strain of the virus, Asian H5N1, has only infected around 700 people since 2003, but it has a disturbingly high mortality rate of 60 percent.

Elizabeth W. Kearley/Moment Editorial via Getty Images

The global spread of African swine fever has caused the death or culling of millions of pigs in recent years, while other diseases are routine problems in the industry, such as tuberculosis and mastitis for dairy cows, and PRRS, a respiratory disease that affects pigs. Researchers have created gene-edited animals immune to all of these diseases as pilot projects, but none have been approved to be raised commercially.

“Disease resistance is the big target that everyone’s after because we lose about 20 percent of animal production to disease,” Van Eenennaam told me.

While creating disease-resistant animals would certainly fatten agribusiness’s bottom line, as meat, dairy, and egg producers lose billions of dollars each year to disease, it could also reduce animal suffering in two ways.

The first is obvious: Disease and culling are painful, and eliminating them would be good. The second is that it could result in fewer animals needing to be bred in the first place because when animals die from disease, the industry has to replace them.

But the fact that such innovation could improve animal welfare and the bottom line of agribusiness is one reason why many animal advocates hesitate to buy into it as a viable solution to factory farming.

“Through genetic engineering, the animal agriculture industry can increase efficiency, all the while claiming their motivation is to improve animal welfare,” says Jones of the Animal Welfare Institute. “GE allows the industry to mitigate some of the criticisms of animal farming and keep costs low in the process. Because of this, it absolutely poses a threat to making a transition to alternative protein sources.”

There’s good reason to worry gene editing could result in further harm to animals just as much as it could be used to ease some of the pain that comes from being a cog in the industrial agriculture system. The first genetically engineered animal to be approved by the FDA for human consumption, the AquAdvantage salmon, was created to grow twice as fast as conventional salmon, and animal advocates argue the engineered fish are prone to a number of welfare issues, like jaw deformities, lesions, and higher mortality rates.

Environmentalists worry the engineered salmon could escape into waterways and disrupt wild salmon populations by outcompeting them for resources and pollute wild salmon’s gene pool, affecting their survivability, though an FDA spokesperson told me that the abnormalities “do not differ appreciably from those in comparable farm-raised Atlantic salmon.”

The former CEO of Recombinetics, the company that created the recently approved heat-tolerant cattle and is working on a hornless calf, told the Associated Press in 2018 that the firm was focused on easing animal suffering because “it’s a better story to tell.” But she added that once gene-edited farm animals are more accepted by the public, farmers will be more interested in traits that increase “productivity” — often a euphemism for animals that either grow faster or bigger, produce more milk, or have higher fertility rates.

“I don’t want to assume that I can peer into [Recombinetic’s] mind,” says Shriver. “I definitely am extremely worried about the idea that the initial genetic modifications that are approved are ones that are either welfare neutral or welfare positive, but they’re going to open up the floodgates for a lot of gene interventions that have very negative impacts on animal welfare.”

Recombinetics declined to comment for this story.

Despite Shriver’s fear over how the technology could be used in the future, he notes that public support for the technology is higher when it’s being used to improve animal welfare. But public support isn’t enough. The future of farmed animal gene editing will be largely shaped by the FDA and genetics companies, two bodies that animal welfare advocates have largely neglected to lobby on the matter.

Regulating animal welfare into gene-edited meat

One thing to keep an eye on is how the regulatory landscape for gene editing animals shakes out. In 2017, the FDA announced plans to treat gene-edited animals designed with newer technology, like CRISPR, the same way they treat new veterinary drugs, which means the approval process is slow. According to the Animal Health Institute, an organization that represents veterinary drug companies, it takes around 8.5 years for a livestock drug with a new active ingredient to come to market.

Animal geneticists like Van Eenennaam argue that this classification doesn’t make sense. “They’re regulating all alterations in DNA as a drug, and DNA is not a drug,” she says. “If that’s the only way [the FDA] can regulate it, then everything that’s genetically altered is a drug because then” the agency can maintain oversight.

The seemingly quick “safe to eat” determination of the short-haired cattle could portend a faster process moving forward, but it’s “a bit wobbly,” Van Eenennaam says. That’s because the FDA didn’t say all heat-tolerant cattle designed in the way Recombinetics did are safe to eat — just the two cattle and their offspring that Recombinetics brought forward before the agency. If the FDA handles other projects the way it did Recombinetics’ cattle, the process will be “one by one by one. … It’s not sustainable.”

Instead of regulating gene-edited animals as drugs, she says products should be regulated on the basis of safety to animals, consumers, and the environment — not on the type of technology being used. “Regulations should be risk-proportionate. They shouldn’t be triggered by the use of a [specific] technology.”

The slowness cuts both ways. “This protracted process is a good thing if you want to delay or stop potentially harmful uses of GE,” says Jones of the Animal Welfare Institute. “But it also means a very lengthy process for beneficial applications, such as hornless cattle or eliminating males from [egg] layer breeding.”

In the final weeks of the Trump presidency, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue proposed a rule change that would give the agriculture agency primary oversightof gene-edited farmed animals.

That hasn’t happened, but if it does, it would likely speed up the approval process, potentially in ways that bode poorly for animal welfare. The USDA is notoriously industry-friendly, which explains why groups like the National Pork Producers Council ardently support the USDA taking over the regulation of gene-edited animals raised for food, and why groups like the Animal Welfare Institute just as ardently oppose such a move.

Van Eenennaam is cautiously optimistic that handing over the regulatory job to the USDA would lead to a more streamlined process, mostly because the USDA wouldn’t regulate genetic alterations in farmed animals as drugs. Rather, according to Van Eenennaam, it would look more like its process for approving genetically altered crops: conducting a safety assessment with a focus on whether the genetic alteration could increase the animal’s susceptibility to pests or diseases, and then a pre-slaughter food safety assessment to ensure slaughter and processing doesn’t result in unsafe food products.

But animal welfare advocates worry the treatment of animals isn’t likely to be a top priority in the review process no matter which agency oversees it. “I have little to no confidence that a case-by-case review of the impacts of proposed GE applications on animal health and welfare will occur under either the FDA or the USDA,” says Jones.

When questioned about how the FDA factors animal welfare into its review process for genetic alterations to farmed animals, a spokesperson told me, “Our review includes an evaluation of animal safety in which we take into account physical health and, to the degree that it can be measured in a species, behavioral health. To the extent that animal health encompasses animal welfare, our approval process does include it.”

Shriver hopes that, at the very least, there’s more public discussion about gene editing farmed animals.

“There are a lot of these technological solutions on the horizon: Plant-based alternatives are getting better every year, and cultured meat is something that’s being worked on and gets a lot of discussion in the press. But I feel like gene editing is not debated as much in public, yet it also could have really dramatic implications,” he says. “There needs to be a robust debate about what the future could look like.”

The present is untenable; the global factory farming of tens of billions of animals each year accelerates climate change, endangers public health, and has reduced feeling beings into little more than mere machines.

Despite more awareness than ever of the ills of industrialized farming, and increasingly stronger moral pleas to end it, it pushes forward unabated: US meat consumption is at an all-time high, and the United Nations anticipates the global appetite for meat is expected to rise 73 percent by 2050. Gene editing animals to reduce their suffering may appear to be an extreme response to an extreme situation, but it’s one that should at least be on the metaphorical table — and perhaps, the dinner table too.

Source: VOX

Taco Bell restaurants nationwide have rolled out a dairy-based coffee creamer and a new coffee drink with support from dairy checkoff food scientists.

The vanilla creamer replaces a non-dairy product and will become a permanent offering at more than 7,500 Taco Bell locations in the United States. The shelf-stable creamer also was used in the checkoff-created Pineapple Whip Freeze and Island Berry Freeze beverages that previously appeared on Taco Bell’s menu.

Taco Bell consumers who order 12-ounce hot or 20-ounce iced coffee drinks have the option of adding the creamer. The Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) product research team worked with the checkoff-funded Midwest Dairy Center at the University of Minnesota to create the creamer in 2020.

The creamer also is featured in the Cinnabon Delights® Coffee, which is available at participating U.S. locations for a limited time. DMI dairy scientist Kimber Lew led the creation workstream and said it demonstrates the chain’s desire to grow its breakfast business.

“We’re really excited for this because we are putting a lot of emphasis into getting consumers to think more about starting their mornings at Taco Bell,” Lew said. “Creating a coffee that has dairy and the iconic, crave-able Cinnabon Delights® flavor was a no-brainer.”

Lew said the creamer and Cinnabon Delights® Coffee are further proof of Taco Bell’s openness to menu innovations featuring dairy.

“This demonstrates how Taco Bell is leaning in on dairy in multiple avenues,” Lew said. “It’s not just about cheese and reduced-fat sour cream use; it’s about exploring other ways to elevate the consumer experience with the deliciousness of dairy. This shows the strength of our partnership.”

Heather Mottershaw, vice president of pipeline innovation and product development for Taco Bell, said these additions greatly enhance the chain’s breakfast menu.

“These fit very well with our strategy of growing our breakfast business and offering a premium coffee drink and creamer made from dairy,” Mottershaw said. “We are very grateful for the checkoff’s continued support to lead the way with dairy innovation that resonates very well with our consumers.”

For information about the dairy checkoff, visit www.usdairy.com.

New York is ending its Dairy Princess program to focus on bringing gender inclusivity to representing the dairy industry.

American Dairy Association North East has officially launched its Dairy Ambassador Program, moving away from Dairy Princesses to include youth across different genders.

According to ADANE, it was asked in the Fall of 2021 to expand the Dairy Princess Program to include both young men and women, which eventually formed the Ambassador Program.

ADANE said that the New York State Dairy Ambassador Program will aim to build critical professional skills and confidence of young individuals who show passion for the dairy industry.

Similar to the previous Dairy Princess Program, Ambassadors will be involved in statewide promotions and events. The program changes will continue to roll out this spring when young men will be able to compete for county Dairy Ambassador positions and ultimately for the state title next winter.

New York’s first Dairy Ambassadors were named in late February during a live-streamed ceremony in Syracuse, New York.

Wayne County’s Gabriella Taylor was given the title of New York State Dairy Ambassador, and Katie Jasmin from Madison County and Annika Donlick from Cortland County were named the first and second Associate Ambassador respectively.

Contestants in the February 2022 competitions were judged on a personal interview, impromptu questions, a prepared speech, a product knowledge exam, writing skills and information interactions with others.

New York Dairy Ambassador program changes will continue to roll out this spring when young men will be able to compete for county Dairy Ambassador positions and ultimately for the state title next winter.

Source: informnny.com

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The Dairy Business Association (DBA), Wisconsin’s leading dairy advocacy group, applauded the signing into law two bills that will help preserve Wisconsin’s farming legacy.

Last week, Gov. Tony Evers signed into law a bill that makes it simpler for farm families to transfer costly farm equipment outside the probate process. Rep. John Macco, R-Ledgeview, drafted the bill with Sen. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan.

This week, Gov. Evers signed into law a bill that provides additional funding to boost Wisconsin’s dairy exports. The bill was co-authored by Sen. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, and Rep. Tony Kurtz, R-Wonewoc. Both bills enjoyed strong bi-partisan support.

“These efforts by our lawmakers are important steps to preserving Wisconsin’s place as America’s Dairyland,” DBA President Amy Penterman said. “The lawmakers leading these efforts understand the significance dairy plays for our state’s farmers, food processors and rural communities.”

The probate issue was initially brought forward by a DBA member, marking the second consecutive session where DBA has shepherded an idea brought forward from membership into law.

“The farm estate transfer bill serves as a shining example of how our farmers can drive legislative solutions in Madison,” Penterman said. “I challenge our members to get engaged with DBA and continue leading common-sense change.”

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) lauded today’s passage by the Senate Commerce Committee of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA). The approval establishes Senate committee support for action to address shipping supply chain challenges as Congress prepares to commence conference procedures on the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation & Competition Act (USICA) and the House-passed America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Act in the coming weeks. The House COMPETES Act includes the House-passed version of OSRA.

“Today’s action by the Senate Commerce Committee brings the Ocean Shipping Reform Act one step closer to passage,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. “Export supply chain issues continue to pose immense challenges to dairy exporters, which is why this legislation remains so critical as part of a broad-based approach to tackling those problems. Dairy farmers appreciate the leadership of OSRA sponsors Senators Klobuchar and Thune as well as Commerce Chair Cantwell and Ranking Member Wicker on this issue. We urge the Senate and House to expeditiously advance the conference process and ensure that the final text includes a strong focus on the needs of American agricultural exporters.”

“America’s dairy farmers and manufacturers are delighted to see the Ocean Shipping Reform Act continue to move forward and thank the many Senate Commerce Committee members who supported its approval today,” said Krysta Harden, president and CEO of USDEC. “Dairy exporters need the changes OSRA would deliver. As such, we encourage Congress to swiftly move the COMPETES/USICA conference work forward and send a bill that prioritizes the export shipping needs of U.S. agricultural exporters to the President’s desk.”

Some oppose the plan, calling it counter-productive

The European Commission is set to delay the publication of proposals on sustainable farming and nature that were expected this week, with the impact of the war in Ukraine on food supply leading some countries to question the European Union’s environmental push, reported Reuters.

The EU’s “Green Deal” is overhauling all sectors, including agriculture, which produces roughly 10% of EU greenhouse gas emissions. Brussels has targets that include halving chemical pesticide use by 2030, and is drafting laws to make them a reality.

The European Commission (EC) was due to have made public on Wednesday two new proposals – binding targets to restore nature and a more sustainable pesticides law.

However, EU agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski on Monday said that the EU would not discuss pesticides at its meeting this week, meaning that the proposal’s publication would be pushed back. He did not comment on the nature restoration plan.

Earlier, EU food safety commissioner Stella Kyriakides told national agriculture ministers in Brussels that the bloc had to shift to sustainable pesticide use but that the Ukraine crisis did not give the “political space” for a proper discussion now.

The EC will put forward measures to deal with the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has driven up prices of wheat and barley, and raised fears of shortages.

Russia and Ukraine make up more than 30% of global trade in wheat and more than 50% for sunflower oils, seeds and meals.

One proposal will be to allow cultivation on land lying fallow, a practice that allows the environment to recover between farming cycles.

The measures are also set to include help for pig farmers, given pork exports to Ukraine are now cut off, and greater freedom to provide state aid.

A group of 400 scientists and food sector experts on Friday said abandoning sustainable farming practices would be counter-productive.

“These measures would not move us toward but further away from a reliable food system that is resilient to future shocks, and delivers healthy and sustainable diets,” their statement said.

They called instead for a shift to crops less reliant on fertilisers produced using Russian gas, and more plant-based diets to cut the amount of grain needed for animal feed.

Source: Reuters

A milk truck looks like a big silver tube on wheels. And on an early winter day, one backed up into the dirt driveway of Gervais Farm in Enosburgh.

The truck’s driver was Ben Kane, who hopped out to be greeted by Tala the farm dog. Kane was there to pick up a load of milk.

The first thing he did was walk into the milk parlor to check the tank.

“Pretty full today,” he said. “I’ll be here for awhile.”

Kane walked out to the back of his truck and opened the doors of the metal tube, aka the trailer. He uncoiled a long blue hose, which he passed through a round hole in the milk parlor wall and hooked up to the milk tank. Then he started pumping the milk into the trailer.

On this particular day, Kane said he would stop by 11 farms total. Once the trailer was full, he’d pass it along to another driver, who’d take it down to a processing plant in Agawam, Mass.

Elodie Reed

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VPR

Kane says he hauls milk about six days a week. And according to Gervais Farm co-owner Kati Lawyer-Hale, Kane’s role is absolutely vital to the farm’s operations, where they milk about 1,000 cows a day.

“Farming is a business,” Lawyer-Hale said. “We make a product — a product with a very, very short life — we have to trust our drivers to be here. They come here twice a day to pick up our milk. And so when it’s icy roads, it’s Christmas, they’re here. They’re picking up the milk, and we are trusting them with our livelihood, basically.”

Ben Kane is among the 4,000 or so heavy truck drivers in the state of Vermont. The state doesn’t keep data for how many of those drivers are specifically hauling milk, but according to Vermont’s Labor Department, not only will the industry lose about 60 jobs between 2018 and 2028, but more than 400 positions will also open up each year.

In other words, there will be fewer jobs overall, and a lot of turnover.

Elodie Reed

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VPR

Challenges with transportation — and a lack of nearby processing plants — were the main reasons why Danone North America, parent company of Horizon Organic, decided to pull out of the Northeast.

The move left nearly 90 farmers in the region without a home for their milk. This month, Organic Valley said it has offered a “letter of intent” to many of them.

People in the dairy industry say the pandemic exacerbated transportation issues, but not having enough milk haulers is a longstanding problem.

Barney McConnell is the director of transportation for Dairy Farmers of America, a dairy cooperative that coordinates milk hauling for nearly 300 Vermont farmers. He says DFA’s Vermont trucking company, Northeast Logistics, has about 80 trucks in its fleet, and he could easily hire eight or 10 more drivers.

“It’s not just the dairy industry, obviously, but here we are trying to compete with nondairy industries for these drivers,” McConnell said.

Online job listings show a DFA job averages about $67,000 per year. Walmart pays about $84,000.

More from VPR: Poll shows Vermonters willing to pay more for dairy, but getting that money to farmers is complicated

McConnell says while DFA does what it can to bring on more people — including offering good benefits, emphasizing work-life balance and partnering with driving schools to bring on more people — there’s only so much a dairy cooperative, which is made up of farmer members, can do.

“With, you know, high sign-on bonuses and wages, it’s just — I think we all understand that all this money comes from our members, and you know, you can only go to the well so many times,” he said.

Elodie Reed

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VPR

Along Route 105 just north of St. Albans, milk trucks barrel down the road every day. If you sit and watch for 10 minutes, you’ll likely see four or five trucks pass. It’s the route Mike Weld was driving when he gave me a call — which, he assured me, was hands-free.

“Well I’m headed back, I just left the plant — I’m heading back to the yard,” he said.

Weld owns Vaillancourt Transport, based in Enosburg Falls. The company is sub-contracted by Agrimark dairy cooperative as well as DFA to haul milk in Vermont. And at the moment, Weld told me he has at least a couple open positions.

“Oh I don’t know, ever since I think COVID start, I’ve been pretty much seven days a week, myself,” he said. “I do a lot of my spare work setting behind the wheel.”

Elodie Reed

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VPR

Weld said he was making calls from the cab of a truck — and not his office — for several reasons.

Reason number one: Weld says there are too many regulations for drivers. Young drivers need to have experience before insurance will cover them. Older drivers need to stay healthy enough to meet federal standards. 

Reason number two: Weld thinks unemployment benefits are keeping people from applying for jobs. Economists are split on whether that’s true nationally — but Weld says he’s heard at least one anecdotal instance locally.

Reason number three: According to Weld, the lifestyle that milk hauling in particular requires — the seven days a week, weekends and holidays part — is not attractive to the newest generation of would-be truck drivers.

“It’s an industry, you almost got to have been brought up into,” Weld said. “Like ex-farmers, that knows what it’s like to work seven days a week and think nothing of it, and you just do it, you know?”

Elodie Reed

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VPR

Solutions for dairy industry transportation problems are tough to come by, partly because they’re systemic in nature. A good portion of Vermont’s milk needs to go over state lines to be processed. And even for the milk processed in-state, drivers can end up sitting in the driveway, waiting, due to labor shortages at the plant.

In the short-term, dairy cooperatives are trying to meet hauling demand with more efficiency: updating equipment, sharing milk truck loads and making work schedules more predictable.

In the long-term, they’re part of working groups with state and federal officials to increase processing capacity in the Northeast. The USDA, for instance, recently granted the Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center an extra $20 millionto help with those efforts.

Organic Valley’s Shawna Nelson, who oversees milk hauling for that dairy cooperative, says it comes down to ensuring infrastructure exists to support the dairy industry overall — transportation and processing included.

“To have the infrastructure from a processing standpoint, so that we can have local options to deliver local Vermont milk,” she said.

Source: vpr.org

“We then suspended shipment of product to Russia while we assessed the impact of economic sanctions and discussed our long-term plans with our customers and joint venture partner.

“Following careful consideration of the impact on our people and our long-term plans for the Russian market, we will now close our office in Moscow, re-deploying staff where possible, and withdraw from our joint venture Unifood.”

Fonterra exports a small amount of product to Russia, primarily butter, totalling about 1% of our annual exports.

“Given the current strong demand for New Zealand dairy, we are confident in our ability to re-allocate this product to other markets,” says Mr Hurrell.

The Holstein Foundation will host its first ever virtual Spring into Action Seminar on April 12, 2022, at 7 p.m. EST. The hour-long session titled, Think Outside the Milk Bottle – Bringing Dairy Innovation to Life, is sponsored by Dairy Management Inc. (DMI).

“We are excited to be partnering with the Holstein Foundation on the Spring into Action Seminar to share consumer trends and show how dairy product innovation comes to life,” says Nate Janssen, Vice President of Farmer Relations at DMI.

The session will focus on understanding today’s consumers, dairy innovation, and career opportunities within the food science field. Experts from DMI will lead participants through an interactive case study on a dairy product innovation during the seminar.

“The virtual format of the seminar will allow youth from across the country to come together and learn about a unique aspect of the dairy industry in a fun and engaging way,” says Kelli Dunklee, Holstein Foundation Youth Programs Specialist.

Key information from the Spring into Action Seminar will also be incorporated into the Holstein Foundation’s Dairy Bowl and Dairy Jeopardy contests in 2022. All youth with an interest in the dairy industry, Junior Holstein members, coaches, parents, and advisors are encouraged to attend the seminar.

Youth interested in attending the seminar can register using this link. Participants who register for the seminar by the April 8, 2022, deadline, attend the session, and complete the follow-up survey after the seminar will be eligible for fun prizes.

Contact Kelli Dunklee at 800.952.5200 ext. 4124 or by email with questions about the Spring into Action Seminar. For more information about the Holstein Foundation visit www.holsteinfoundation.org.

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The Holstein Foundation’s education, leadership development and outreach programs serve both youth and young adults across the country who are involved with all breeds of dairy cattle.

The Holstein Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization founded in 1989. It is headquartered in Brattleboro, Vermont, and shares office space with its parent organization, Holstein Association USA, Inc.

The Dairy Girl Network (DGN), an organization supporting all women in dairy by enhancing lives and creating opportunities, is excited to announce a DGN Connect Networking Event taking place at the Central Plains Dairy Expo.

The Connect Event during Central Plains Dairy Expo will be held in Ballroom A of the Sheraton Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. A short program will be held at 12 p.m. Join other dairywomen for a quick recharge to talk about your lives involving dairy farming. The event is for all women involved with any part of dairy – whether as a calf feeder, dairy owner, marketing or sale consultant servicing dairy farms or cheese producers, veterinarian, researchers, etc. If there is a dairy cow involved in what you do, you’re invited. The DGN Connect event price for Central Plains Dairy Expo is $20.00. Attendees will enjoy lunch and receive a DGN special gift.

Registration for the Central Plains Dairy Expo DGN Connect Event is open. Those interested can visit DairyGirlNetwork.com/connect to learn more and to register. DGN asks that those who plan to attend pre-register for the event.

The Dairy Girl Network is supported by Sustaining sponsor: Dairy Management, Inc. Catalyst sponsors: Cargill, Diamond V, The National FARM Program, Farm Credit Systems, Land O’ Lakes, Merck Animal Health, and Michael Best, in addition to contributions by event sponsors. Event sponsors for the Central Plains Dairy Expo Connect event: Farm Credit Services, NovaMeal, and Sioux Nation Ag. Learn more about the organization and sponsorship opportunities at DairyGirlNetwork.com.

Hosted by the Agriculture Council of America and sponsored by dozens of other agricultural groups, Ag Day this year will focus on “Growing a Climate for Tomorrow,” highlighting farmers’ efforts to protect the environment. Because of COVID restrictions, most of the Ag Day events in Washington, DC, will be virtual.

The Celebration of Modern Agriculture on the National Mall, which runs March 21-22, will be live.