Industry News

In this column, Progressive Dairy summarizes issues in the news and attempts to describe how they might affect dairy farmers. Look for more extensive background and details at Progressive Dairy.

The farmer-funded National Dairy Council participates in every public process around the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), providing science-based evidence on dairy’s role in healthy dietary patterns.

Almost immediately after Progressive Dairy put together its State of Dairy editorial package in February 2020 (and probably even before the magazine made it to your mailbox in March of last year), the COVID-19 pandemic rendered much of that report outdated.

Driven by the change in at-home versus away-from-home eating habits, dairy sales through grocery stores and other retail outlets showed significant volume and value growth in 2020.

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) cites three noteworthy achievements in 2020:

• Export volume (on a milk solids equivalent basis) hit a record high of 2.1 million metric tons (MT).

Numbers contained in several USDA reports reflect some changing on-farm management practices and decisions.