The “three a day” nutrition recommendation and eight-ounce plastic containers of milk in schools and fast-food restaurants are two high-profile results of the 15-cent per hundredweight dairy checkoff.

Since the national dairy checkoff began, annual per capita consumption of milk in the U.S. has increased to more than 590 pounds, compared to 522 pounds in 1983, when the program was created. From 1970 until enactment of the mandatory checkoff, consumption was flat, according to Agriculture Department data.

Source: American Farm Bureau/ News Release, Jan. 9, 2006
Source URL: http://www.fb.org/news/nr/nr2006/nr0109e.html

Two hearings today will determine the fate of a pair of Wisconsin brothers who watered down the milk they sold to a dairy cooperative and then swapped out sample bottle to try to avoid detection.

A sentencing hearing and a hearing in a civil case will be held to try to determine restitution, to decide if the brothers will go to jail, and if they have any money to repay farmers. James and Richard Klenz admit they added water to their daily milk haul, according to a complaint.

Source: Wisconsin State Journal/ George Hesselberg, Jan. 9, 2006
Source URL: http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=68185&ntpid=3

A conditional use permit for what would be the largest dairy in Minnesota was approved Jan. 9 by Swift County planning officials. The planning commission also decided to put off adding conditions to the permit for two weeks.

East Dublin Dairy would milk 5,280 cows, plus house 820 dry cows and 500 heifers.

Source: West Central Tribune/ Cari Quam, Jan. 10, 2006
Source URL: http://www.wctrib.com/articles/index.cfm?
id=3504&section=homepage

While the days of glass-bottled milk and home delivery may have disappeared from most neighborhoods, the tradition is making a resurgence in Wisconsin, where more dairy farmsteads are bottling their own milk and adding value to family farms and communities.

Farmstead milk-bottling plants are found in nearly every corner of the state, with many selling pasteurized glass-bottled milk and farmstead dairy products in on-farm stores and offering home delivery.

Source: Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection/ News Release, Jan. 10, 2006
Source URL: http://www.datcp.state.wi.us/press_release/result.jsp?prid=1741

After years of near balance between the total quantity of U.S. dairy imports and exports, exports of U.S. dairy products in 2004 and 2005 surged ahead of imports during the same time period. Using data for January through October for each year (October 2005 is the latest data available), the total quantity of U.S. exports grew by 35% in 2004, and are up another 15% in 2005. Importantly, since early 2004, these exports have been prompted without U.S. government subsidies through the Dairy Export Incentive Program.

Source: International Dairy Foods Association/ News Release, Jan. 9, 2006
Source URL: http://www.idfa.org/news/stories/2006/01/trade.cfm

Strong corn and soybean contract prices on the Chicago Board of Trade present farmers with "unusual selling opportunities," said a University of Missouri grain analyst.

Recent futures market prices for March grain contracts are well above U.S. Department of Agriculture cash-price projections for 2006, said Melvin Brees, with MU Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI).

"The increases in futures contracts are surprisingly high this year," Brees said. He attributes those increases to technical trading and speculative buying.

Source: University of Missouri/ News Release/ Duane Dailey, Jan. 10, 2006
Source URL: http://agebb.missouri.edu/news/queries/showcur.idc?story_num=3592&iln=833

SOYBEANS, What a difference two weeks can make!  By noon, the JAN’06 bean futures were down 17¢/bu at $5.834/bu chasing the MAR’06 slide of 16.4¢/bu at $5.944/bu. The JAN’06 closed down 16.4¢/bu at $5.84/bu and the MAR’06 down 17¢/bu at $5.94/bu. After opening sharply off Friday’s close of $6.334/bu, the NOV settled even lower 14¢/bu cents at $6.194/bu at the end of the day. World market fundamentals with that large “downside opportunity” talked about in the last report finally made an appearance. After gapping up 3 weeks ago, the market wiped out any gains in the market on carry-over technical selling from last Friday’s close generally viewed as weak. Moisture for the South American crops weighed heavily on price amid lower than expected exports. Cash bids for soybeans in the Midwest were steady to firm with producers slow to liquidate stocks. While Brazil’s 05/06 crop were reduced 43 million bushels to 3.057 BILLION bushels all that grain was still a millstone on the neck of the market. The CFTC said last Friday that the funds lengthened their net long positions. Both the 4-day moving average and the RSI for the NOV’06 contract indicate a bearish move. Cash sales on the entire ’05 crop should have been completed by now with 20% – 25% of the ’06 crop forward priced. Hedgers should be aggressively short on up to 35% of next year’s crop in the NOV’06 bean contract.

Source: Virginia Cooperative Extension/ Mike Roberts, Jan. 10, 2006
Source URL: http://www.ext.vt.edu/news/periodicals/purcell/2006wp/01.html

Objective: To assess the degree of compliance with recommended management procedures for the control of bovine Johne's disease and study the relationship between aspects of calf management and testing/disease outcomes in the herds.

These associations were still found after analysis that included herd size, the number of clinical cases that had occurred in the herds before the start of testing, the number of animals with positive ELISA tests that were detected at the first test and the number of years of participation in the test and cull program. Early separation of newborn calves from cows and grazing calves under 12 months of age in areas free of adult cattle were not found to be protective against Johne's disease.

Source: Effect of compliance with recommended calf-rearing practices on control of bovine Johne's disease. Australian Veterinary Journal 83 (2-Jan): 85-90, 2005. Ridge, S.E.; Baker, I.M.; Hannah, M.

In this study, bovine pregnancy-associated glycoprotein (bPAG) was used as a marker to test whether placental function is influenced by the route of embryo production. Therefore, from day 7 until day 119 of ongoing gestations, resulting from transfer of MOET (n = 53), IVP-co-culture (n = 21) and IVP-SOF (n = 38) embryos, bPAG levels were compared in peripheral plasma of recipients.

Although IVP calves were significantly heavier than the in vivo produced calves, this difference was not reflected in the bPAG profiles of the embryo production groups. Yet, the mean bPAG level of the three last sampling moments (days 105-119) tended to be positively related to the birth weight of the calves, irrespective of the embryo production technique.

Source: Plasma concentrations of bovine pregnancy-associated glycoprotein (BPAG) do not differ during the first 119 days between ongoing pregnancies derived by transfer of in vivo and in vitro produced embryos. Theriogenology 63 (5): 1378-1389, 2005. Breukelman, S.P.; Perenyi, Z.; deRuigh, L.; vanWagtendonkdeLeeuw, A.M.; et al.

American Dairy, Inc., one of the leading producers and distributors of milk powder and soybean products in China, today announced that it has signed a contract with the Government of Gannan County, in the Heilongjiang Province of China, to build a new milk processing plant. Through this agreement, the Company will receive land, tax incentives and subsidies for building, as well as exclusive processing and distribution rights to local, subsidized liquid milk.

Source: Business Wire/ American Dairy/ News Release, Jan. 9, 2006
Source URL: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?
ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060109005531&newsLang=en