News

Digest Highlights

• Americans to purchase 88 million pounds of cheese for Super Bowl
• What was in your mailbox in October?
• CMPB launches ‘Moo Money‘ consumer loyalty program
• ‘Origin of livestock’ rule sought by organic dairy group
• Proposal modifies North Dakota farm ownership requirement
• Schools invited to participate in Northeast virtual farm tours
• EEX, GDT take steps toward creating a European dairy auction
• Wisconsin Farmers Union members support supply management, dairy price formula changes

It didn’t take long for USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) to get the Dairy Revenue Protection (Dairy-RP) program back up and running. RMA began posting quarterly premiums and endorsement cost estimates on Jan. 28, the first full day after the partial government shutdown ended. With that information, firms offering Dairy-RP policies can resume selling quarterly endorsements.

A move to temporarily reopen the federal government while budget negotiations and debate over “the wall” continues has dairy and agricultural organizations hopeful the 2018 Farm Bill can start to be implemented.

In a marketplace increasingly crowded by plant-based imitation dairy products, the results of two new surveys show that customers are confused about whether those products are indeed dairy foods and whether they carry the same nutritional value.

All USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices nationwide will soon reopen to provide additional administrative services to farmers during the lapse in federal funding and partial government shutdown, according to U.S. Secretary of Ag Sonny Perdue.