Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has announced that she and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) will introduce a bill to consider new Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMO) proposals and require the USDA to conduct hearings on restructuring the current pricing formulas used in FMMO.

The dairy industry’s animal care program has achieved an important milestone, with 70 percent of the nation’s milk now participating in the program. With the recent addition of several major cooperatives in the National Dairy FARM Program (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management), more than two-thirds of the nation’s cows will be covered.

The USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service will provide an estimate of U.S. milk production each month through September 2013, which is the end of federal fiscal year 2013. The agency will use only various sources of administrative data to establish the monthly milk production estimates rather than incorporating information from the two remaining quarterly producer surveys, as is presently done.

Thought-provoking seminars and stimulating networking by dairy producers and industry leaders gave attendees the energy boost they needed to advance their dairy businesses in the year to come.

New Zealand is a fascinating country. It has about 4.6 million dairy cows, which is more cows than people.

New Zealand annual milk production of about 42 billion lbs is only 20 percent of the U.S. milk production, but the 42 billion lbs is produced in a country that is about the same size as the state of Colorado.

With 15 specialty sessions offered at the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW) Business Conference recently, there was something for everyone.

It is always a challenge to determine which session to attend. Progressive Dairyman selected four of them, and each are recapped below.