World Dairy Diary

The speedy reaction from the executive branch put the spotlight on congressional Republicans, many of whom support the legislation and might be hard-pressed to vote to uphold a veto in an election year.

Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (Va.), ranking Republican on the House Agriculture Committee, said that he is “favorably disposed” toward the bipartisan compromise bill, but that lawmakers must decide for themselves whether to vote to override a veto. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated that he will vote against the bill, saying, “I don’t think [it] represents our best effort.”

The package, the product of weeks of closed-door bargaining, is stuffed with plums for key constituencies. Dairy farmers will get as much as $410 million more over 10 years to cover higher feed costs, and negotiators tucked in an annual authorization of $15 million to help “geographically disadvantaged farmers” in Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa and Puerto Rico.

The bill assures growers of basic crops such as wheat, cotton, corn and soybeans $5 billion a year in automatic payments, even if farm and food prices stay at record levels.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn.) acknowledged that the payments are “very hard to explain to our urban colleagues.” But negotiators, under pressure from farm groups, made a token cut of $30 million a year in the current program.

Advocates of the bill stressed that eligibility will be tightened by prohibiting anyone earning more than $500,000 from off-farm sources to participate in the farm programs. Those earning more than $750,000 from farming would also be ineligible for the automatic payments. Currently, only those with more than $2.5 million in income from all sources are ineligible.

The impact of the new eligibility limits would be modest, according to data provided by the Internal Revenue Service. In 2005, it showed 2,025 taxpayers collecting subsidies had farm income above $750,000. The tighter limits will save an estimated $620 million over 10 years, budget officials said.

For Häagen-Dazs ice cream, the reality of this threat has spurred the superpremium ice cream maker to launch a national campaign to protect these tiny unsung heroes. Everything from poor nutrition to invasive mites to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) – a phenomenon where bees from a colony abruptly desert the hive and die – is affecting the bees. This disappearance has scientists stumped and has the potential to affect many of our favorite nuts, fruits and berries – key ingredients in some of the most popular Häagen-Dazs flavors. In fact, more than 40 percent of Häagen-Dazs all-natural ice cream flavors include ingredients dependent on honey bees for pollination.

The Häagen-Dazs brand is launching a new honey bee-dedicated flavor in February 2008 – Vanilla Honey Bee. The brand is also tagging all of its honey bee-dependent flavors – from Häagen-Dazs Wild Berry frozen yogurt to Caramelized Pear and Toasted Pecan ice cream - with a HD loves HB™ icon. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the new flavor and all HD loves HB tagged flavors will be used to fund the $250,000 donation to UC Davis and Penn State.

District 4 Barron and Polk Counties
Director: Lyle K. Jensen, Amery (incumbent)

District 7 Clark County
Director: Bill Herr, Greenwood (incumbent)

District 10 Brown, Door and Kewaunee Counties
Director: Roger Buresh, Luxemburg (incumbent)

District 13 Buffalo, Pierce and Pepin Counties
Director: Lanette Harsdorf, Beldenville (incumbent)

District 16 Fond du Lac, Green Lake and Marquette Counties
Director: Romona Averbeck, Fond du Lac (incumbent)

District 19 Columbia and Dodge Counties
Director: Sarah E. Lloyd, Wisconsin Dells

District 22 Grant County
Director: Mary Wackerschauser, Lancaster (incumbent)

That’s because Robbins also created Pralines ‘n Cream, Daiquiri Ice and Pink Bubblegum among dozens of other flavors.

Robbins, who rode streetcars to Garfield High School and graduated from the University of Washington, moved from his native Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Seattle with his family after his uncle bought the Velvet Ice Cream Co. on Capitol Hill. The uncle persuaded Robbins’ father to buy a dairy.

Irvine Robbins’ career started in the late 1920s, working at his dad’s store in the alley behind what was Rhodes Brothers Department Store in Tacoma.

“Sticking a scoop into the ice cream was the greatest thrill of my life,” he once told USA Today, recalling how he stood on a dairy chair to dig into a 10-gallon bucket of ice cream.

After his discharge from the Army in 1945, Robbins used $2,000 he saved and cashed a $4,000 insurance policy his father had given him at his bar mitzvah at Seattle’s Temple DeHirsch Sinai. His family said that while driving in California looking for used ice cream equipment, Robbins found a store to rent in Glendale.

His first ice cream store — called Snowbird because he couldn’t think of anything else — was opened there the day after his birthday, Dec. 7, 1945. Family said Robbins had 21 flavors then, and his cousin bought $39 of the first day’s $53 total ice cream sales.

A year later, his brother-in-law, Burton Baskin, opened an ice cream store and the pair later merged. Robbins’ daughter, Marsha Veit, said that in 1948, the men flipped a coin to see whose name would appear first. They had 31 flavors — one for each day of the month.

Robbins, who was inducted into the International Franchise Association Hall of Fame, told his family that Ray Kroc sold many of his early milkshake machines.

“He saw I was starting to franchise and said, ‘Hey, that’s a good idea,” Robbins said in the 1996 family history project. Kroc, who took Robbins to see his early burger restaurants, used franchising to build McDonald’s into the world’s most successful fast-food operation.

Family members said Baskin-Robbins is the nation’s oldest food franchise. Part of Dunkin’ Brands Inc., it has more than 5,800 stores worldwide, according to The Associated Press. Robbins sold the company to United Fruit Co. in 1967 — the same year Baskin died of heart disease — but remained as president until 1978.

Producers and veterinarians know there is no time to wait when a calf has BRD, especially valuable dairy replacement heifers. With the value of these heifers at an all-time high, Baytril 100 provides a new, fast-acting, broad-spectrum BRD therapy option. Now, for the first time, dairy producers have access to the premier fluoroquinolone class of antimicrobials.

It is such exuberance that characterizes what at first glance seems an unlikely CEO (or, as his card reads, CE-Yo as in yogurt) heading an unlikely company. Both are committed to aggressively forging the way toward a carbon neutral supply chain strategy—one, most emphatically, which enhances profit rather than hampers it.

At first glance, Stonyfield Farm hardly belongs in this league. It obviously operates on a much smaller, predominately domestic scale (although since being 80 percent bought by Group Danone in 2001, the product line is beginning to enter Europe on a small scale). Nor is its inbound supply chain, with the exception mostly of berries and sugar, international. “At the beginning,” recalls Steve Inamorati, VP/Supply Chain and Logistics, “we had to source everything ourselves because there weren’t a lot of organic sources. Ideally, now we’d like to be out of sourcing, but we still need to verify the ethics and organic practices of our vendors.”

“If production growth continues to exceed that of domestic consumption, as is forecast for 2008, exports are going to become increasingly important to the ongoing profitability of the U.S. dairy sector,” said Rabobank Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory Managing Director Deborah Perkins. “The share of production being exported has increased from 5 percent in 2002 to approximately 11 percent in 2007. Historically, exports have been assisted by government support, but the recent growth has been based on commercial merits.”

Since 2002, global demand for dairy products has been increasing nearly 3 percent annually compared to a production increase of less than 2 percent. This imbalance of supply and demand resulted in a drawdown of stocks. However, it wasn’t until early 2007 that stocks were depleted, and by later that year, prices had increased by up to 150 percent year-over-year depending on the product.

“The prices of all products were trading at record levels, some by a considerable margin, enabling the United States to be competitive on the world market in products such as butter, skim milk powder and whey,” said Perkins.

One of the reasons that the U.S. dairy sector has looked at increasing its dairy exports, is a surplus of milk. For the last three years, milk production has grown more than 2 percent annually, but demand has grown less than 1.5 percent. In the coming year, production is forecast to increase by at least 2 percent again — due, in part, to additional cows and increased production per cow.

They must correctly figure out the answers to 20 questions on the crossword puzzle as they relate to got milk?, its advertising campaign, as well as its health and consumer efforts. All answers can be found on the Web site.

The interactive Web site features eye-catching flash animations graphics and better navigational tools to make it easier for visitors to surf the site. Besides its visually captivating appeal, the site delivers the positive message of milk as a super drink: strengthening bones, muscles, hair, nails and teeth and even reducing some of the symptoms of PMS.

A key senator said negotiators were considering tighter subsidy limits on wealthy farmers to address some of Bush administration’s sharp criticism of the bill.

“We are trying to be responsive to the president’s concerns,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

A deal reached among congressional negotiators earlier this week would increase by as much as 25 percent the amount of direct payments that millionaire grain and cotton farms could collect each year.

A married couple with as much as $1.9 million in annual net farm income could qualify for the maximum $100,000 in payments. The payments, a relic of the 1996 farm bill, are fixed according to the crops that farms have historically grown.

Bush has problems with a number of items in the bill lawmakers are writing, including a two-year extension of the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported fuel ethanol, according to lawmakers. But the administration has directed most of its rhetorical fire on the bill’s subsidy eligibility rules.

The three-day event that includes a workshop for the princesses concludes with the announcement of the 12 young women who will compete for Minnesota’s 55th Princess Kay title.

About 80 young women involved in dairy promotion typically participate in the workshops and contest, learning how to educate the public about the passion dairy farmers have for producing wholesome dairy products while caring for the land and animals. Dairy farmers sponsor the event and the dairy princess program through their promotion checkoff organization, Midwest Dairy Association.

“We are proud of the Keller’s team at Winnsboro and Harleysville, who deserve the credit for this recognition,” says Mark Korsmeyer, president of DFA’s Dairy Food Products division. “To be associated and recognized by such a reputable company, with such great-tasting products, is an honor.”

Keller’s Creamery was honored at an awards recognition dinner on April 16 in Lancaster, Pa. Auntie Anne’s President and CEO Sam Beiler made the presentation.

“Joe’s experience and understanding of the market will be invaluable to Vermeer as we continue to develop and market new and better solutions in the hay and forage marketplace,” said Bob Vermeer, president of Vermeer Corporation.

Michaels brings twenty-five years of agricultural equipment sales, service, marketing and product development experience.

Nestle also is offering fans a chance to receive a personalized set of Topps baseball cards with the purchase of two Nestle Drumstick Cones. Fans can visit their website to create their own trading cards featuring their favorite young ballplayers.

“We are excited to dish up a sweet part of Americana that families can slow down and enjoy together—Nestle Drumstick ice cream cones and baseball,” said John Harrison, official taster for Nestle Drumstick cones, in a statement.

Robert E. McDowell’s professional career as a researcher, teacher and consultant spanned six decades, starting in 1946 as a research scientist at USDA’s Beltsville laboratory, then serving 20 years on the faculty of Cornell University (1966-1986) rising to Professor Emeritus, and after retirement to his home state becoming a Visiting Professor at North Carolina State University for another 20 years.McDowell’s ground-breaking research on crossbreeding, evaluation of indigenous and European dairy breeds in the tropics, livestock production and dairy records continues to inform and be cited by the current generation of dairy scientists.

“Even 20 years later, Dr. McDowell’s review is regarded as one of the most valuable investments ever made by the AJCC Research Foundation,” commented AJCA’s Smith. “‘Some Indications about Jerseys’ is an essential part of the information packet that our organization distributes to students across the world and also dairy producers who are considering adding Jerseys to their herds.

From the late 1970s through the ’80s, John M. White of the Virginia Tech faculty was a key contributor to the development and implementation of breeding tools and programs that helped advance the Jersey breed.

In the area of applied dairy cattle genetics, Dr. White utilized extensive data from the American Jersey Cattle Association, among other sources, to help develop procedures for improving the accuracy of sire and female genetic evaluation procedures.

An innovative educator who received three different awards for teaching excellence in the late 1970s, White was one of the first to utilize computers in his teaching. Starting in 1969, he used computer simulations in a senior-level class to demonstrate the effectiveness of genetic selection methods. It contributed to the academic climate at Virginia Tech that fostered development of MAXBULL, a computer program written by Mike McGilliard and John Clay to optimize sire selection relative to herd goals.

With the benefit of hindsight, however, Dr. White’s longest-lasting contribution to the Jersey breed came through his leadership of the Jersey Research Panel, appointed in 1985 by then-president C. L. Collins Jr. to evaluate the state of Jersey research. The panel’s discussions led to the formulation of five priority areas for Jersey research and, more importantly, the declaration of a five-year campaign to raise $1 million for the AJCC Research Foundation endowment.

“Jersey youth are drawn to Virginia Tech because of the excellence of its programs,” noted the AJCA’s CEO Neal Smith. “Jersey producers in not only Virginia, but across the United States and the world, benefit directly from its extension services. Virginia Tech dairy scientists, working with one of the few university dairy herds that includes Registered Jerseys™, have answered questions of importance to all Jersey breeders through a vigorous research program.”

Previous Recipients

The largest award is the Russell–Malnati Scholarship for Advanced Studies of $5,000. Undergraduate students who have completed at least one-half of coursework credit hours required for a degree in dairy science, animal science (dairy emphasis), large animal veterinary practice, dairy production or manufacturing, or dairy product marketing, and graduate students in those program areas are eligible to apply. The William A. Russell Memorial Scholarship of $1,000 will be presented to a student who will begin a program of study at an accredited college or university in the fall of 2008 The Cedarcrest Scholarship of $1,000 will be awarded to an undergraduate or graduate student seeking a degree in large animal veterinary practice, dairy production, dairy manufacturing, or dairy product marketing. The V. L. Peterson Scholarship and Paul Jackson Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to students who have completed at least one year of college or university work. Also to be awarded is the Bob Toole Jersey Youth Award, which can be used for either college expenses or a well-defined practical experience related to breeding, developing and showing Registered Jerseys™.

One reason parents might be wary of chocolate or strawberry milk is that the added sugar might encourage excess weight gain. But in this study, milk drinkers and non-drinkers had a similar average body mass index (BMI), the researchers report in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

The findings suggest that flavored milk can be part of a sound diet for children, according to the research team, led by Mary M. Murphy, a nutrition science researcher with Arlington, Virginia-based ENVIRON International Corp.

The study, funded by the National Dairy Council, is based on results from a government health and nutrition survey. Murphy’s team found that among the 7,557 children and teens those who drank flavored milk tended to drink more milk per day than their peers who only consumed the plain variety.

Some flavored milks contain artificial sweeteners, but most do have extra sugar and calories. While low-fat plain milk contains about 100 calories per serving, a serving of low-fat chocolate milk has about 160 calories, Murphy and her colleagues point out.

Still, the researchers found no significant differences in the average BMI of milk drinkers and non-drinkers younger than 12. Among teenagers, those who drank milk had an average BMI that was comparable to or lower than that of their peers who shunned milk.

“I don’t think there’s any question now that we can get this done by the eighth of May,” said Rep. Collin C. Peterson, the Minnesota Democrat who heads the Agriculture Committee.

A key breakthrough came when senior lawmakers, after an hours-long huddle in an ornate room in the Capitol, agreed on a $1.7 billion package of tax breaks to be included in the bill, and on how to finance the overall package.

The outline includes an $861 million increase for nutrition programs, partially paid for by slashing crop subsidies by $400 million and cutting a program to pay farmers for ruined crops by $250 million.

It also reflected the political and economic realities surrounding this year’s tough farm bill talks. With crop prices high and the federal budget squeezed, there’s less appetite in Washington for big farm programs, especially among congressional leaders who hail from urban areas. The sharp economic slump has many lawmakers focused more on job losses and home foreclosures than farm policy.

To close stubborn funding gaps, negotiators agreed to cut an ethanol tax credit that has previously been seen as untouchable because of its popularity in politically potent Iowa. They sliced $1 billion in support for blending fuel with the corn-based additive, bringing the per-gallon credit from 51 cents to 45 cents. They boosted support for another form of the clean-burning fuel additive — cellulosic ethanol, which is made from plant matter — by $400 million.

The tentative deal includes a $3.8 billion disaster package, trimmed from the $4 billion farm-state lawmakers had initially sought.

The tax package includes several elements sought by powerful lawmakers, including a tax break for race horse owners important to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the minority leader, and one that benefits timber companies championed by Baucus. Also included were trade preferences for Caribbean countries, a priority for Rangel, whose district has a high concentration of people of Caribbean descent.