Dan Glickman hasn’t left Washington, even though his last public service office as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture during the Clinton administration (1995-2001) ended in 2001.

Glickman has since served as CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America and at several Washington think tanks. He is co-chair of AGree, a recently formed initiative backed by nine of the world’s leading non-profit foundations.

Progressive Dairyman Editor Walt Cooley asked him about the initiative’s goal and his perspective on current ag issues.

In John Frey’s latest column, he talks about the necessity of self-improvement and how the 2012 Pennsylvania Dairy Summit is just one of many opportunities dairy producers and others have to focus on “Being Better.”

Click here to read the full column on the Pennsylvania Center for Dairy Excellence website.  PD

Are you planning to attend the Pennsylvania Dairy Summit? Registrations are due by Jan. 30. Click here for more information.

Editor's note: We asked author Jim Quigley to provide an update to his April 2011 article, "What's new in colostrum research." Click here to read that article. The article that follows is his updated article.

Every dairy farmer understands the importance of feeding enough high quality colostrum to newborn dairy calves. Researchers from all over the world continue to improve our understanding of the critical topic and are providing producers with new tools and information that will improve our ability to manage colostrum on the farm.

Identifying and working to resolve bottlenecks is key to a dairy’s reproductive program. The Reproductive Drill-Down Tool, created by Penn State Extension educators, was recently released to address this concern.

Rebecca White of the Penn State Extension Dairy Team explains how this tool works and what it can do for dairy producers.