The USDA has clarified that acreage seeded to alfalfa-and-grass-mixture forage crops is not eligible for federal payments under the Market Facilitation Program (MFP).

Digest Highlights

• From deficit to surplus: USDA August trade numbers corrected
• Darigold launches digital outreach tool to share dairy’s environmental progress
• Private-public partnership adds dairy conservation incentives in Pennsylvania
• Water quality study launched in Lake Champlain Basin watersheds
• West Virginia ag department taking oversight of Grade A milk
• CMAB names fluid milk innovation finalists
• Brightmark Energy invests in New York dairy biogas project
• Rowell inducted into Vermont Ag Hall of Fame

The USDA’s latest outlook report raised milk production forecasts for both 2019 and 2020 but also projects slightly higher prices for most categories of milk. Higher corn and soybean prices are also forecast.

Compost bedded pack (CBP) barns are an increasingly popular open barn design for housing dairy cattle, particularly with funding opportunities available through the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Alternative Manure Management Program. These barns allow natural resting positions and offer shelter with a reduced infrastructure cost compared to traditional freestall barns.

How to raise healthy calves. It’s a subject that gets beat to death – I know that. But what if we are making it harder than it needs to be? What we often fail to focus on are the foundational pieces of healthy animals.

“People haven’t seen things this bad since 1964.”

That is what University of Wisconsin – Madison Extension Crops and Soils Agent Kevin Jarek said, Sept. 25, at the “Meeting Tomorrow’s Feeding Challenges Today” seminar held in Kimberly, Wisconsin.