Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. (DFA) joined six other milk marketing cooperatives – Dairylea Cooperative Inc.; Southeast Milk, Inc.; St. Albans Cooperative Creamery, Inc.; Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers, Inc.; Michigan Milk Producers Association; and Lone Star Milk Producers, Inc. – to request that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) hold an emergency hearing that will minimize any affect on dairy farmer income that might result from changes in federal order make allowances.

Specifically, their request is to insure that Class I (fluid milk) and Class II (cultured) prices not be affected by increases in the make allowances that were proposed at a January 24 – 27 hearing in Alexandria, Va., where makers of Class III (cheese) and IV (butter and dried ingredient) products asked for increases in the federal order make allowance formulas to offset rising energy, labor and other production costs.

Source: Dairy Farmers of America/ News Release, Feb. 13, 2006
Source URL: http://www.dfamilk.com/newsroom/pr/060213_hearing.htm

Labels for Micotil will now carry more safety information to assist in responding to a human accidentally being injected with the drug. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the addition to the brand of tilmicosin injection after the accidental death of a rancher.

The new label carries information regarding recent research on the mechanism of toxicity.

Source: American Veterinary Medical Association/ JAVMA News, Feb. 15, 2006
Source URL: http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/feb06/060215c.asp

Every year, East Coast fever destroys the small farmer's dream of escaping poverty in Africa. Killing more than a million cattle and costing some $200 million annually, this tick-borne disease rages across a dozen countries in eastern and central Africa. Now, an international team of scientists has taken the first major step toward a vaccine to prevent East Coast fever. Their work, published in the February 13-17 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how genomics can generate pivotal new vaccines.

Source: The Institute for Genomic Research/ News Release, Feb. 13, 2006
Source URL: http://www.tigr.org/news/pr_02_13_06.shtml

U.S. agricultural exports fell by about 9 percent from November to December, while imports rose by about 3 percent. Calendar year 2005 exports, at $63 billion, are $1.6 billion higher than 2004. Imports are $5.3 billion higher at $59.3 billion. While still maintaining a trade surplus, that surplus has shrunk from $7.4 billion in 2004 to $3.7 billion for 2005.

Source: USDA/ ERS, Feb. 13, 2006
Source URL: http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/so/view.asp?f=trade/fau-bb/

After reading this paragraph a couple of times to let it sink in, I began to ask myself the following questions: What is a 'speculative fund'? and Why does it have an interest in buying in the dairy futures market?; who are commercial buyers and why would they wish to tag along with the speculative fund?; ditto for on-floor speculators and floor traders (see Figure 1 for the Class III price over its contract life.

Source: Ohio State University/ Buckeye Dairy News/ Cameron Thraen, January 2006
Source URL: http://dairy.osu.edu/bdnews/v008iss01.htm#policy

After rallying through late January, Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soybean futures have drifted lower in rather volatile trading over the last couple of weeks. Conditions in the soybean market remain fundamentally bearish. The latest USDA World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report (released on Thursday of last week) did not indicate much improvement in the challenging supply situation.

Source: Mississippi State University/ Steve Martin and John Anderson, Feb. 13, 2006
Source URL: http://www.agecon.msstate.edu/extension/CommodityMarketUpdate/
newsletters/CommodityMarketUpdate021306.pdf

The DEFRA provisional 2005 average farmgate milk price has been given as 18.46ppl - similar to 2004 and the highest average price since 2001. Possible reasons for the slight increase could be higher than average butterfat levels seen in 2005. In addition, volume bonus payments on level supply contracts may have had an effect on prices. Also, despite fluctuations in individual milk contract prices over the year, the average change between 2004 and 2005 has been relatively minor.

Source: MDC Datum, Feb. 10, 2006
Source URL: http://www.mdcdatum.org.uk/milkprices/farmgateprices.htm

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between various behavioral signs of estrous and time of ovulation and, determine which behavioral estrous sign(s) best predicted time of ovulation.

Onset of mounting was the best predictor for time of ovulation (occurring 28.7 +/- 5.3 h before ovulation), and it was displayed in 90% of the estrous periods. However, mounting cannot yet be assessed automatically, which limits its practical use as ovulation predictor.

Source: Various behavioral signs of estrous and their relationship with time of ovulation in dairy cattle. Theriogenology 63 (5): 1366-1377, 2005. Roelofs, J.B.; vanEerdenburg, F.J.C.M.; Soede, N.M.; Kemp, B.

As we always say "water is the most important nutrient", but all too often it is the most ignored nutrient when we are thinking of nutrition and animal performance. However, it is the first target when environmental risks are being addressed. Therefore, we must constantly monitor water quality and quantity on dairy farms for animal health and performance and for protecting the environment.

About 80% of the water intake by animals is from drinking and other 20% is consumed via the feed.

Source: Ohio State University/ Buckeye Dairy News/ Maurice Eastridge, January 2006
Source URL: http://dairy.osu.edu/bdnews/v008iss01.htm#teat

Simple modifications of current management practices can sometimes lead to dramatic improvements in odor emissions from dairy farms, a South Dakota State University specialist said.

“Dietary modifications that result in reduced ammonia emissions should be considered best management practices,” SDSU Extension Dairy Specialist Alvaro Garcia said. “Those practices include adequately balancing diets, feeding highly digestible feedstuffs, and preserving feeds adequately.”

Source: South Dakota State University/ News Release, Feb. 14, 2006
Source URL: http://agbionews.sdstate.edu/News/newsrelease.cfm?id=2386