Reynoldsburg, Ohio, August 25, 2011—St. Brigid’s Farm, a Registered Jersey™ dairy located near Kennedyville, Md., will be one of eight U.S. operations featured as a Virtual Farm Tour at the 2011 World Dairy Expo. 

The program, which will be presented by owners Robert Fry, D.V.M., and Judy Gifford, will start at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 5 in Mendota 1 meeting room in the Exhibition Hall at the Alliant Energy Center, Madison, Wis. The American Jersey Cattle Association is the program sponsor. 

“The three cornerstones of St. Brigid’s Farm,” Judy explains, “are ecological soundness, economic viability and positive community influence with the Jersey cow the center of all three.” 

The 55-acre farm is located on the scenic eastern shore of Maryland near the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay and planted in permanent pasture. It was named after St. Brigid, the patron saint of dairymaids and scholars who was renowned for her compassion and often featured with cows at her feet. She perfectly represents the pairing of Judy, the dairymaid, and Bob, the scholar.

 Established in 1996 with the purchase of 69 heifers, the St. Brigid’s Jersey herd today includes160 head consisting of milking cows, replacement heifers, steers and veal calves. It currently ranks third in the nation based on its herd average Jersey Performance Index™, with the 86 cows averaging $222 for USDA’s Cheese Merit index. The 2010 lactation average was 19,867 lbs. milk, 936 lbs. fat and 754 lbs. protein.

The cows graze on perennial grasses, such as ryegrass, orchardgrass or endophyte-free fescue mixed with white clover, from April to mid-December. Pastures are irrigated in the summer. During the grazing season, the ration is supplemented with a fortified grain mix and a modest amount of corn silage. In winter, corn silage and baled hay take the place of grazed forages. 

Grass-fed Jersey beef and meadow-raised veal is sold directly to individuals and restaurants to offer consumers a delicious and healthy alternative to the options at the supermarket. St. Brigid’s Farm beef and veal is offered regularly on the menu of the popular Chestertown restaurant, Brooks Tavern, Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore and several others in the area as seasonal specials. 

Since 2008, St. Brigid’s Farm has hosted an annual Field to Fork Dinner featuring food sourced from the farm and other local producers. The menu is different each year depending on the availability of local ingredients and the creative flair of the chef. Much of the dinner is cooked on site. Net proceeds are donated to charity with beneficiaries including Heifer International and the Kent County High School Culinary Arts Program.

 Judy served as co-chair of the National Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) Outreach Committee from 2005 to 2010, and was keynote speaker for the SARE New American Farm Conference in 2008. Bob received the Award for Excellence in Preventive Veterinary Medicine in 2005 from the American Association of Bovine Practitioners. 

Other Virtual Farm Tours feature dairy businesses located in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and North Carolina. They are being sponsored by AgSource Cooperatives Services, Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, Lely USA, North Carolina Dairy Advantage, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Quality Liquid Feeds, and Structures Unlimited LLC. There is no charge for these programs. 

World Dairy Expo opens Tuesday, October 4 with the Central National Jersey Show starting at 1:00 p.m. in the Coliseum. The cow show continues on Wednesday morning and concludes with selection of the Grand Champion by judge Hank Van Exel, Lodi, Calif.

 The Top of the World Jersey Sale kicks off at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday evening in the sale pavilion. Jersey Marketing Service, Reynoldsburg, Ohio, is the sale manager. 

The American Jersey Cattle Association and National All-Jersey Inc. will have an exhibit throughout Expo. It will be located in the Coliseum at Arena Level 101 and 102. 

For the complete schedule of events at the 2011 World Dairy Expo, visit its web site at www.worlddairyexpo.com. 

The American Jersey Cattle Association, organized in 1868, compiles and maintains animal identification and performance data on Jersey cattle and provides services that support genetic improvement and greater profitability through increasing the value of and demand for Registered Jersey™ cattle and genetics, and Jersey milk and milk products. For more information on the association’s complete line of services for dairy business owners, visit the website at www.USJersey.com or follow the news feed at facebook.com/USJersey.

Cow Management Workshops are scheduled for Sept. 13 in Marshfield, WI and  Sept. 14 in Arlington, WI.    View Informational flyer here

PDPW’s Executive Director Shelly Mayer previews the workshops in this podcast:

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If you manage cows then the PDPW-developed “Cow Management Workshop” is for you. This workshop will zero in on cow facilities that work, help you be on top of the game regarding mastitis treatment decisions and increase your farm safety hazard awareness.

Plus you’ll hear a valuable drug residue update. The six-hour workshop will be offered in two locations: Sept. 13, Marshfield, and Sept. 14, Arlington. Speakers include Dr. Nigel Cook, Dr. Pam Ruegg and Tom Drendel plus Dr. David Rhoda and/or Kim Brown-Pokorny.

Shelly Mayer, PDPW’s Executive Director, updates DairyLine listeners on three world class webinars that are fast approaching.

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Don’t miss this dairy series focused on business transitions, compensation and more with the PEOPLE side of dairying. See the flyer for more details.

• Ideal for the busy dairy farm family and other industry leaders as you can participate in PDPW World-Class Webinars in the comfort of your home, office or wherever you have internet access. Maximize your time…eliminating travel and down time.

You can participate in one, two or all three World-Class Webinars. Each is a stand-alone session.

• Designed to challenge your business mind and keep you up to speed on timely issues so you can manage ahead in today’s fast-changing dairy world. Learn, connect and share information with other producers and industry experts across the country.

• Offered one Monday a month, always at noon Central Standard Time. Always 60 minutes long.

• All you need is a hunger to learn, a computer, speakers, and internet access. (High-speed connection recommended)

* We designed these learning sessions so that you can gather information without leaving your office!

* Let us know what you think…feedback from dairy producers and other industry professionals is valuable to PDPW! That’s how we improve our service and continue to develop as professionals too!

Christie Brown with the Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative, had a chance to share with DairyLine listeners the large fall beef tailgating promotion that kicks off the week following Labor Day.

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While we can’t predict the weather for next year, we can plan for spoiled silage. Dr. Bob Charley, Forage Products Manager with Lallemand Animal Nutrition, comments in this weekly “Ask the Silage Doctor” segment.

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July butter stocks totaled 187.7 million pounds, down 2.6 million pounds or 1 percent from June, and 5.8 million pounds or 3 percent below July 2010, according to preliminary data in the Agriculture Department’s latest Cold Storage report issued Monday afternoon. 

The July American cheese inventory, at 648.6 million pounds, was up 30.9 million pounds or 5 percent from June, and 9.1 million pounds or 1 percent above a year ago. 

Total natural cheese stocks amounted to 1.085 billion pounds, up 3 percent from July and 1 percent above a year ago.

The innovation Center for U.S. Dairy looked at findings from a study developed at the beginning of the global recession in 2008 to see if anything changed.  The study looked at implications of globalization on the U.S. Dairy Industry.

Margaret Speich of the U.S. Dairy Export Council told DairyLine that the new study confirmed the findings of the first study.

“For example it reaffirmed that growth prospects remain in tact and that long term demand for dairy products will still remain strong and that growth will primarily be driven by emerging markets such as China, India, Southeast Asia  and the Middle East,” she said. More than 75 percent of the projected demand increase in non fluid dairy consumption will come from those regions, according to the study.

Also, traditional supply sources will be constrained and will fall short of what is anticipated of what will be needed in the future. New Zealand and the European Union, for example, will experience some modest production increases, but won’t be able to keep up with emerging markets, according the study.  

The study also noted that other sources for supply, such as Brazil, the Ukraine, Belarus are struggling to develop their supply

Findings of the first study, which looked at implications of globalization on the U.S. dairy industry, were released in August of 2009. However it was developed jsut at the beginning of the global recession and financial crisis. At the time it was a groundbreaking report

Milk production in the 23 major States during July totaled 15.4 billion pounds, up 0.8 percent from July 2010. June revised production at 15.4 billion pounds, was up 1.3 percent from June 2010. The June revision represented a decrease of 5 million pounds or 0.1 percent from last month’s preliminary production estimate.

Production per cow in the 23 major States averaged 1,824 pounds for July, 5 pounds below July 2010.

The number of milk cows on farms in the 23 major States was 8.47 million head, 93,000 head more than July 2010, and 8,000 head more than June 2011.

The September Federal order Class I base price was announced by USDA this morning at $21.78 per hundredweight, up 35 cents from August, $6.28 above September 2010, the highest since September 2007, and equates to about $1.87 per gallon. The 2011 average now stands at $19.23, up from $14.83 a year ago and $10.95 in 2009. 

The NASS-surveyed butter price averaged $2.0852 per pound, up 5.6 cents from August. Nonfat dry milk averaged $1.5804, down 7.7 cents. Cheese averaged $2.1529, up 2.2 cents, and dry whey averaged 56.39 cents, up 1.7 cents.

This week, House Representative Collin Peterson, D-MN, updated DairyLine listeners on proposed dairy policy legislation that he hopes to introduce next month. Click play to listen to the podcast, or read the transcript below.

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Baker: When do you anticipate your dairy policy reform bill will be introduced?

Peterson: I think we will do it when we get back from the August recess, so sometime around the middle of September, probably.

Mike Simpson, Republican senior member from Idaho, has agreed to co-sponsor it. We are in the process of adding additional sponsors. We want to keep it bipartisan, so it’s one of the things slowing it down, as we are trying to keep an even number of Democrats and Republicans so that it’s bipartisan, and also trying to get people who represent all parts of the country.

So it will hopefully get introduced in September, and there’s a lot of work that has to be done yet.

This is kind of a starting point, and National Milk (Producers Federation) has done a lot of good work getting to this point. We still don’t have the producers 100% united and, of course, we never will. But we want to get as much consensus among the producers as possible, because we will have opposition from the processors and maybe some other folks. So, it’s important that we have the producer side of things as much together as we can.

Baker: Are your counterparts in the Senate ready to move on dairy policy?

Peterson: Yes, I met with Senator (Debbie) Stabenow (D-Mich., chair of the Senate Ag Committee) and Senator (Patrick) Leahy (D-Vt.) in the Senate. They were initially skeptical about moving early, but after I explained to them what we were trying to do, and went through the bill and the work we have done to this point, their answer to me is “you guys get this moving in the House. If you can get some movement this fall, we will then move in the Senate.”

Then, I talked with Sen. Leahy about the potential of him sponsoring this bill in the Senate, with the concurrence of the chairwoman Stabenow. So that process is ready, but the first challenge is getting this moving in the House.

One of the things complicating this now is all this budget stuff going on, and this “Super Committee” and so forth. It’s throwing the Farm Bill process kind of in question, because nobody exactly knows how this is going to work. But I’m going to continue to press. I think we need to move these dairy changes sooner rather than later. A lot of the fundamentals in the market that were there in 2008, prior to the collapse in 2009, we’re seeing those same kind of things going on here in 2011, and I’m concerned that the prices are relatively good now, but we could have a another downturn, and the existing system just does not provide the safety net that we need if we have another collapse in prices like we did in 2009.

Baker: How about the organization in your own district that is questioning the supply/growth management provision. Have you had a chance to have dialogue with them?

Peterson: Yes, it’s kind of interesting because the folks that are questioning it are the people who were actually in favor of supply management 10 years ago, and the people that were against it in California are now in favor of it, so it’s flipped around.

Part of the reason is that when feed prices were cheap and we were subsidizing corn to keep feed prices cheap, California and the western producers that have to buy feed actually had an advantage over the Midwest.

Now, if the feed price is high and the Midwest is growing a lot of their feed, they feel like they have the advantage. So, in a sense, this is kind of a battle between different regions in terms of trying to maintain or increase their share of the dairy market. I don’t think people should look at it that way. I think they have to look at the big picture.

The supply management part of this is not written in stone. I even have questions about how it is structured, and it’s possible that if we have a vote in the committee, it’s possible that the supply management may not survive in the committee. I haven’t been able to actually nail that down.

So there’s a lot of work that has to be done and this is a small part of things. The way it’s set up, it’s kind of a blink on and off. So I don’t think it’s going to be that huge of a factor in the whole scheme of things. What’s more important is that we get this margin insurance established, and we get some descent (federal) order reform to try to come up with a better order system in the country.

Baker: With this deficit reduction “super committee” and all that’s been going on in Washington, what do you think the chances of seeing some actions on this dairy reform before the 2012 Farm Bill? Is there any chance on that?

Peterson: I think there is, and that’s been my intent. I intended to initially introduce this bill in May, but it’s been just been one thing after another. CBO (the Congressional Budget Office) is so bogged down with all of this stuff that was going on with deficit ceiling and so forth, that we could not get them to “score” the legislation. We had to make sure that this legislation was not only budget neutral, but actually reduce the deficient, which it does now in its current form.

So it’s been delayed; I was hoping we would have been into it by now. I think the sooner this gets done the better, because I am concerned about what potentially could happen next year, and I don’t think the current safety net is adequate.

Baker: Do you have any other messages for our dairy farmers?

Peterson: Well, we have the best dairy producers in the world. I think and they do a great job, and we just have to make sure that we give them the backing and the safety net that they need so that they can continue to do that. That’s what we are trying to do.

I guess the one message I have to them is that they have got to come together. We have to keep the producers together, and they must set aside regionalism and maybe even some their ideology to come up with something probably everybody dislikes an equal amount, and have a compromise that everybody can live with. That’s what I’m hoping we can do in the next month or two and get something done this fall.