Dairy

Dairy Report: Higher Production, Farm Bill Action and Labor

The latest milk production data from USDA shows farmers are still generating a lot of milk despite low prices. Colorado surged ahead, increasing production by 11% from last year. Kansas followed with a 7.5% increase and Texas jumped up in production by 6.6%. Overall milk production in the top 23 milk producing states last month was 17.2 billion lbs., up 1.3% from a year ago. Individual cow production climbed higher, now at 19,064 lbs. for the month of June. USDA reports...

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Senate Passes Farm Bill, Setting Up Food-Stamp Fight with House

The Senate passed bipartisan farm legislation that sets up a clash with the House and President Donald Trump over imposing broad new work requirements for food stamp recipients. The Senate bill, passed 86-11 Thursday afternoon, would renew subsidies for farmers and crop-insurance companies, along with food aid for low-income families. The Senate bill doesn’t include the work rules. The House version would make work requirements stricter and would shift some food-stamp benefits to job-training programs -- changes critics say are designed...

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White House Plans To Shelter Farmers From Tariff Impacts

Amid announcements of new tariffs from our largest trading partners, USDA undersecretary for marketing and regulation Greg Ibach wants to reassure farmers that the Trump administration is monitoring the situation and plans to take necessary action to shelter farmers from taking the brunt of trade negotiation fallout. According to Ibach, farmers he's talked to at the 2018 World Pork Expo and throughout farm country understand the need to take another look at our trade policies and agreements. "They see the opportunity to...

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Board Resigns at Chinese Firm, Owners of Largest Dairy in Australia

The largest dairy farm in Australia is owned by an investment firm in China, but the firm is going through instability after a mass resignation on the company's board. Moon Lake Investments purchased the Van Diemen's Land Company (VDL) in 2015 for approximately $210 million (AUD$280 million). The purchase by Moon Lake's owner Xianfeng Lu was scrutinized at the time and had to win approval from government officials. VDL milks 17,900 cows on the island of Tasmania and has 17,450 acres...

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House Speaker Ryan Joins Sen. Schumer in Protecting Dairy Trade

Dairy trade continues to be a focus for Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) who just announced that he is working with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in an effort to fix dairy trade problems in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Schumer made the announcement on April 27, saying that Ryan and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) are all urging U.S. trade officials to resolve unfair dairy trade tactics implemented by Canada. "With Speaker Ryan's and Senator Baldwin's help,...

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