Virginia dairy farmers have always endured price fluctuation in milk prices. But the latest downswing has seen milk checks shrink by 35 percent the past two years, with little improvement in sight. That’s why some dairy farmers welcomed news that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is purchasing 11 million pounds of excess cheese from private sources for use in food banks across the nation. [node:read-more:link]
California Democrats are taking further steps to advance the state’s ambitious climate-change agenda, agreeing to regulate methane emissions from landfills and dairy farms for the first time and approving $900 million in spending on environmental programs. The approval came in the final hours of the two-year legislative session Wednesday following a flurry of negotiations involving Gov. Jerry Brown, Democratic legislative leaders and the affected industries. [node:read-more:link]
EPSOM, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire dairy farmers say low milk prices and ongoing drought have contributed to the state losing 16 percent of those farms over the past eight months.
The state’s agriculture commissioner says 19 of the state’s 120 dairies have closed this year. The state had lost 10 dairies over the previous four years combined.
Federal agricultural prices list 100 pounds of milk as selling for $14.80 last month. That’s down from $23.40 in June 2014 and $16.90 in June 2015. [node:read-more:link]
The International Dairy Foods Association has selected Michael Dykes to replace Connie Tipton as its president and CEO. For the past 19 years, Dykes was vice president of government affairs for Monsanto. He has spent his career involved in developing agricultural government affairs policies and strategies, according to an IDFA press release. At Monsanto, he was responsible for a portfolio of programs that included agricultural biotechnology policy. [node:read-more:link]
State officials say another case of bovine tuberculosis has been detected on a northern Michigan cattle farm. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development says the potentially fatal illness was confirmed in an Alcona County beef herd when one of the animals was tested before being moved to another place. Sixty-six cattle herds in Michigan have been found to be infected with bovine TB since 1998. Alcona County is one of four counties where cattle producers must test their herds for the disease annually and before they’re moved. [node:read-more:link]
Senator Tammy Baldwin says millions are being lost in milk export sales to Canada due to dairy pricing changes this spring. Baldwin is asking USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Michael to investigate the new Canadian dairy pricing policies to see whether they're fair and to make sure trade agreements are being upheld. “You need to investigate whether trade deals are being broken though this policy and you especially need to talk with your Canadian counterparts now that they're looking at expanding this Ontario based policy nationwide,” said Baldwin. [node:read-more:link]
The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association (USPOULTRY) has launched materials to help poultry producers organize and implement an incident response plan. [node:read-more:link]
Maplevale Farms, one of the country’s leading food service providers, has brought a federal class action antitrust lawsuit against the country’s top poultry producers, alleging they conspired to hatch a plan to manipulate the supply of chicken to keep the price of the birds artificially high, harvesting bumper profits. According the complaint, at a time their input costs were falling – in particular, the prices of the corn and soybeans used to feed their chickens – the prices of broilers remained stubbornly high, relative to past “boom and bust” cycles. [node:read-more:link]
Louisiana Agricultural commissioner Mike Strain presented the Cuban government with a memorandum of understanding. "It's a pledge of mutual support, working together to grow agricultural trade, industrial trade." In upcoming months, Cuban officials will revise the memorandum, and on a state visit in October, Governor Edwards is scheduled to sign it. But for Guillory, there's no deeper understanding than talking rice farmer to rice farmer... "Farmers everywhere have a fraternity that no one else understands." ...and there's no substitute for a shared cigar-and a handshake. [node:read-more:link]
Fifty years after Canada began flying in seasonal workers to help out on the farm, a group is rallying to have the program’s participants granted permanent immigration status. “These are the workers putting food on our tables, but they’re not being treated the same as other workers,” said Elizabeth Ha, a member of Harvesting Freedom, a migrant farmworker caravan travelling over the next several weeks from Windsor to Ottawa to highlight issues facing those seasonal visitors. Facing unemployment at home on the Caribbean island of St. [node:read-more:link]
