The cycling of the seasons constantly brings on variations in the weather and activities on and off the farm. Along with this cycling of weather and activities come health and safety risks to keep in mind. In this article, I share practical information to keep everyone healthy and safe on the farm this summer.
If there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that milk prices are volatile. And in recent years, that volatility has picked up steam. Though we are now several years removed from the COVID-19 pandemic, the extreme price movements that were a hallmark of 2020 and 2021 are still present in today’s markets. While the first half…
Anyone who grew up on a dairy farm knows the value of developing a strong work ethic at an early age. When I was younger, I remember complaining because we had to get up before school to milk the cows or because we had to milk right after we got home. Looking back now, though,…
May’s Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) margin closed out at $10.52 per hundredweight (cwt), $1.02 over the $9.50 maximum coverage level and did not trigger indemnities at any coverage level. May’s margin jumped 92 cents per cwt from April’s margin at $9.60. Year-over-year, May’s margin shot up from 2023, when it was at $4.83 per cwt…
A young girl had her mouth and throat burned when she drank pipeline cleaner in the milkhouse. She thought it was Kool-Aid. A man was badly injured when his ragged coat sleeve was caught in a power take-off shaft. Another man was killed when his tractor rolled and trapped him beneath it. One more man…
It’s been a long time since there’s been consistently positive news to talk about in the dairy markets. Class III prices are heading into the second half of 2024 with prices above $19 per hundredweight.
As the dairy industry navigates HPAI cases now on more than 80 dairy farms in 11 states, one issue to come increasingly more in focus is workplace safety. Three cases of HPAI in workers have now been documented, with the most recent leading to respiratory illness and not just infection in the eyes. USDA and…
USDA posted its April margin through the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) Program earlier this week at $9.60 per hundredweight, down 5 cents from March but $3.76 above year ago levels. The margin was 10 cents above the $9.50 maximum threshold for coverage, so the program did not trigger an indemnity payment this month. From March…
After a couple of weeks of rain, last week’s drier weather allowed some folks to catch up on spring planting across Pennsylvania. Others are still waiting for fields to dry out. Nationally, corn planting remains a little behind where we were a year ago, according to the latest USDA Crop Progress Report. The report released…
Total milk production in the US was down again in April, falling 0.4% from a year ago to 19.135 billion pounds, the lowest U.S. production level in April since 2020. On the positive side, production per cow was up 9 pounds to 2,049 pounds per cow. The number of milk cows in the U.S. fell…
