World Dairy Diary

“In June 2007, a gallon of milk was 43 cents higher in price than in June 2006 and butter was up 18 cents per pound over the same period, according to the USDA,” said Michael Hutjens. “However, prices can vary greatly among regions and within states.”

Several factors will impact consumer prices for milk and dairy products in the future, he added.

“With school starting, milk consumption can increase along with more emphasis on low-fat milk and nutritionally desirable beverages,” he said. “A weak U.S. dollar makes exporting U.S. dairy products cheaper and milk production quotas in Canada and the European Union limit additional production in those areas.

“Finally, Chinese demand for dairy products continues to expand.”

For the dairy farmer, milk prices have increased from $14.50 per 100 pounds in January 2007 to $21.70 in July.

“While the farm-gate milk prices are expected to drop, fall prices may reach $18 per hundredweight — higher than earlier estimates,” he said.

Among the factors impacting milk production this fall are:

Heat stress in the late summer which can reduce milk and crop yields; n The availability of more replacement heifers to begin milking (42.6 heifers per 100 cows in July 2007 compared to 41.5 heifers per 100 cows in July 2006); Replacement heifer prices have increased $200 per head in one month, reaching $1,950 per animal, which can reduce the sale of heifers; A milk-to-feed ratio of 3.19. When the ratio is over 3, it signals dairy managers to increase milk production as feed is relatively less expensive compared to milk prices.

Consumers have been choosing more milk and dairy products. Dairy product consumption in 2006 averaged 606 pounds of milk equivalent, the highest figure since 1987. Cheese led the way with an average of 31.2 pounds per person and fluid milk consumption was up three pounds, reversing a downward historical trend.

The rising milk price has put pressure on other segments of the dairy industry.

“Pizza prices are increasing,” said Hutjens. “Hershey and Dean’s milk report lower profits, and Starbucks has increased their milk/coffee beverage price by nine cents.

The Court ruled there were enough safeguards in place and the U.S. Department of Agriculture was correct in designating Canada “a minimal risk country.” The R.C.A.L.F. group has yet to decide if it will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Added Engles, “We are very grateful to Alan for his many contributions and his commitment and dedication to our Company over the past ten years, both as a member of our management team and as a member of our Board of Directors.”

Going forward, Mr. Engles will assume direct responsibility for leadership of the Dairy Group. “This structure will allow me to be closer to our operations and to the initiatives that are crucial to the future success of the organization. I look forward to working closely with our Dairy Group leadership team as we continue to drive these important strategic initiatives,” said Engles.

St. Louis based-Monsanto, which markets the hormone under the brand name Posilac, had asked the FTC to investigate more than a half dozen companies that advertise milk products. The company claims the ads mislead consumers into thinking that milk from cows not treated with rBST are healthier or safer than dairy products from cows treated with the hormone.

Many dairy farmers concerned about possible safety risks refuse to use the product and a growing number of retailers, including grocery chains Safeway and Kroger Co., have switched to milk free of synthetic hormones.

The national milk brand Borden, for example, advertises that “we work exclusively with farmers that supply 100 percent of our milk from cows that haven’t been treated with artificial hormones. So, who do you trust when it comes to your family’s milk?”

The FTC declined to launch a formal investigation or take enforcement action against any company. But FTC associate director Mary Engle said a few small businesses were warned about making unfounded claims about rBST on their Web sites and told to revise those claims. The Center for Food Safety, a Washington-based nonprofit that opposes use of Posilac, applauded the FTC decision.

Monsanto alleges that misleading advertising has created an artificial demand and higher consumer prices for milk from cows that have not been injected with the growth hormone. Mike Lormore, dairy industry affairs director for Monsanto in St. Louis, said the issue is “accuracy in labeling” He said moves by retailers could limit long term demand for the hormone, but has not had a “significant impact” on current sales.

Margaret Huessy-Laggis of Hardwick, a member of the Vermont-based Dairy Farmers Working Together organization, said representatives for the California-based Milk Producers Council and Western United Dairymen agreed to support the plan during a meeting last week in Chicago of dairy farmers from around the country.

The two California cooperatives represent 1,100 of California’s estimated 1,800 dairy farmers.

“It’s astounding,” Huessy-Laggis said. “We have farmers in Florida, Vermont, Wisconsin and California who all agree on one plan. I don’t think that has ever happened before.”

The plan being pushed by the Vermont group would require all dairy farmers to pay 15 cents for every 100 pounds of milk they produce into a fund that would be used to stabilize the price paid to farmers and help leverage international deals for milk products.

The group has been traveling the country and meeting with farmers to gain support for the plan, hoping the effort will lead to the plan’s inclusion in this year’s congressional rewrite of the Farm Bill. Under the plan, federal subsidies paid to dairy farmers would end.

Geoffrey Vanden Huevel of the Milk Producers Council of Chino, Calif., said Monday in an interview that his group is ready to support the plan if a Cornell University dairy economist’s report on the Vermont plan mirrors what the economist told the farmers meeting in Chicago last week. He said he dropped an alternative plan he was promoting in favor of the Vermont plan because the Vermont plan is more acceptable to the owners of large and small dairy farms. Farmers from 10 states participated in the meeting Thursday in Chicago, in person or by telephone.

Back in May, President Bush signed a war and hurricane appropriations bill which included the MILC payment extension clause. Under previous legislation, the MILC payment period and 34-percent rate expired at the end of August 2007.

MILC is a countercyclical program that serves as a safety net to small and mid-size dairy farmers when milk prices plummet. The program has provided over $517 million to Wisconsin dairy farmers since its inception in 2002.

“The kids swear that it tastes different, that it’s colder,” said Rae Hollenbeck, the district’s director of food and nutritional services. Last year, when the district introduced the chugs to middle schools, milk consumption jumped 10 percent to 15 percent, Hollenbeck said.

Even in elementary schools, where younger students drink considerably more milk than older students, consumption picks up with plastic, research shows. Last year at Bessey Creek Elementary in Palm City, for instance, consumption jumped 5 percent after plastic bottles were offered, Hollenbeck said.

High schools also have milk vending machines, which school officials bought with a $20,000 grant from the Dairy Council of Florida. An additional $36,000 grant paid for recycling bins for the plastic bottles and refrigerated cases to keep the milk chilled in the lunch lines at middle schools.

The cases, also called “merchandisers,” are plastered with white-and-black cow logos and the catchphrase “Got Milk?” They look a lot like the soda cases found at convenience stores and supermarket checkout lines.

“Making milk appealing in these merchandisers and at eye level entices students to remember to want to take the milk,” said Jennifer Whittaker, the council’s director of school marketing.

Seven other Florida school districts have joined the dairy council’s New Look of Milk program, offering plastic milk bottles in the new refrigerated cases. The trend is taking off nationwide, too. Of about 1,200 school districts the School Nutrition Association surveyed, 36 percent said their high schools offer milk in plastic bottles. About 28.4 percent of middle schools offer the bottles, and about 14.2 percent of elementary schools do, association spokesman Erik Peterson said.

Besides regular and chocolate milk, schools now offer vanilla- and strawberry-flavored milk. Hollenbeck, the district’s food director, said the offerings could grow even more. At a conference this summer in Chicago, she tried bubble gum-, orange- and cinnamon-flavored milk.

Jay Montgomery, USAco-manufacturing engineer for the Edys Ice Cream division of Nestle and a partner in Calkins Creamery, a new cheese-making venture of his wife’s family dairy farm in Wayne County. Montgomery has worked in the food processing industry for eight years and, prior to joining Nestle, worked for Boeing.

Suzanne Deemester, senior sales representative for Elanco Animal Health in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. A 1985 Penn State graduate, Deemester has worked in dairy promotion and for Holstein World, Ralston Products and, most recently, Elanco Animal Health Canada before returning to the United States.

Dr. Corey Meyers, a partner at Mid-Maryland Dairy Veterinarians, a seven-veterinarian practice specializing in dairy cattle production medicine and management in Hagerstown, Md., serving Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. Meyers was raised on a dairy farm in Franklin County and works with more than 60 herds ranging in size from 20-1,500 cows. And

And, as of this week, the Big Mac has a museum to chronicle its history. Set in North Huntingdon, PA, 40 miles north of Uniontown, it’s not easy to miss as it touts the world’s largest (14-ft. x 12-ft.) replica Big Mac, in addition to plenty of Big Mac memorabilia.

The man behind the Big Mac, Jim Delligatti, officially opened the museum on Wednesday where the first 100 visitors received a coupon entitling them to one Big Mac each week for a year. Delligatti was 49 years old when he introduced the double-decker burger after two years of finagling to get it on the menu. After a trial run at several Pennsylvania locations, the Big Mac went national in 1968.

“You don’t have to be a hero to feel invincible. That’s why I drink milk,” she says in the ads, part of a campaign to get teens to drink three glasses of low-fat or fat-free milk a day.

1. 445 copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
2. 2664 iPhones
3. 110 Nintendo Wii systems
4. 2.6 Sumo Wrestlers

It’s also enough for:

1. 25,600 servings of Fettuccini Alfredo (mixed with 4,267 pounds of pasta).
2. 4,800 loaves of Garlic Bread.
3. Enough to dip 8,533 lobsters
4. Enough to spread on 38,400 ears of sweet corn.

“Without a national identification system, a similar outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the U.S. could be catastrophic to our nation’s livestock industry,” Meyer said.

Two years ago, Holstein Association USA joined with five other organizations to form the IDairy coalition, the purpose of which is to promote the need for dairy producers to register their premises with state agencies.

I care deeply about food being plentiful, affordable and safe. I grew up on a dairy farm, where my chores included caring for the calves and scrubbing the milking facilities. As a teenager, I was active in Future Farmers of America, and after college I took a job in Washington, D.C., on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee staff.

But America no longer has an agrarian economy, and now it is rare for people to have firsthand experience with agricultural production and regulation. This makes the general public highly susceptible to rumors and myths about food, and vulnerable to misleading marketing tactics designed not to improve the safety of the food supply, but to increase retail profits. Companies marketing organic products, and your local grocery chain, want you to think organic food is safer and healthier, because their profit margins are vastly higher on organic foods.

The USDA Organic label does not mean that there is any difference between organic and regular food products. Organic farms simply employ different methods of food production. For example, organic dairy farms are not permitted to administer antibiotics to their sick or injured cows, and do not give them milk-stimulating hormone supplements (also known as rbGH or rBST). The end product is exactly the same - all milk, regular and organic, is completely antibiotic-free, and all milk, regular and organic, has the same trace amounts of rbGH (since rbGH is a protein naturally present in all cows, including organic herds). Try as they may, proponents of organic foods have not been able to produce evidence that the food produced by conventional farms is anything but safe.

In the afternoon, participants will hear informative presentations of issues that impact the dairy industry. The session begins with Tom Leitzke, DATCP and Dave Robbins, Dean Foods discussing the latest changes to state and federal dairy processing rules. Leitzke will highlight the recent revisions to Wisconsin’s processing rules (ATCP 80) and will join with Robbins to focus on amendments to the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance as a result of the 2007 National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments.

Following that discussion, there will be a presentation by Dr. Scott Rankin, UW-Madison, which pertains to a number of cheese issues, such as probiotics, Omega 3 and black spots in Aged Cheddar. The final presentation will be by K.J. Burrington, Center for Dairy Research, on the many unique ways in which whey is being utilized as a food ingredient.

The percentage of overweight American children and teens has tripled in the last two decades and a recent report called What America Drinks suggests that beverage choice may impact weight and the overall quality of the diet. Because of these findings, health experts like registered dietitian Jodie Shield are joining the nationwide Think About Your Drink campaign to urge parents to think about what’s filling their children’s glasses and make milk the “official drink of the family.”

“As parents, it’s important for us to realize that beverage choice may play a part in the fight against raising overweight, yet undernourished kids,” said Shield. “And, family dinner is a great place to start. By swapping your child’s soft drink for milk, you boost vital nutrients many kids are missing.”

Choosing milk at your next family dinner can have a real nutrition impact. Choosing lowfat or fat free milk may help keep your family at a healthy weight. Research shows drinking the recommended three servings of lowfat or fat free milk everyday is an important part of a healthy diet for parents and their kids, and may also contribute toward maintaining a healthy weight.

With Americans currently consuming two to three times the amount of sweetened beverages as they do milk, dinner is an important meal for parents to help control what their kids are drinking. Research shows that the more often a family eats together, the more likely their kids will choose calcium-rich drinks such as milk and shy away from nutrient-void sodas.