In southern Italy, there are narratives under the surface that most citizens try to be ignorant of. While it makes for good television in other countries, the existence of the mafia is still an everyday part of life for people in certain Italian regions.

Service enrollment for the 2024 Dairy Margin Coverage program will begin Wednesday, Feb. 28. Dairy producers will have until April 29 to complete their enrollment in the voluntary dairy safety net program.

A smaller milking herd, tight replacement heifer supplies to keep barns full and slight improvements in milk income margins contributed to a slowdown in dairy culls marketed for beef to end 2023. That trend has continued to start 2024.

Here’s a summary of news impacting your dairy in this third week of February 2024.

Improved working capital and equity positions in 2022 helped reduce the number of U.S. farms filing for Chapter 12 bankruptcy in 2023. There will likely be additional financial stressors in 2024.

2023 annual milk production was down 98 million pounds compared to the 2022 total. However, annual total milk production has increased 9.9% from 2014.