Sometimes there’s just not enough room on the cover of the magazine to specifically highlight all the things I’d recommend our readers to take a look at in an issue. This is one such issue. If you don’t have much reading time, start with the cover articles. But you may also want to read these articles:

Cooley walt polo
Walt Cooley
Editor and Podcast Host / Progressive Dairy

This time, please share your opinion with me too. Even if you need to call it in. I’ve listed my office number in my contact info box to the right. The question requires a simple yes or no answer. If you have an opinion at all, we want to count it. No explanation needed – just a yes or no.

So do you support FFTF? As draft legislative language is now available for review, all of the program’s cards should be on the table. However, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t change.

Pay attention to the draft document. Some of those cards look different now than when NMPF was talking about them being in their hand, even just a few months ago. Specifically, one element that has changed is where revenue collected from overbase milk production would be deposited.

Not all of it is going to purchase cheese for food banks any more. Now those revenues will help offset the cost of the new government program.

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NMPF is also now claiming that a change in the corn price reporting factor in the milk-feed margin equation, as published in the draft legislation, shows its temporary supply management program, called the Dairy Market Stabilization Program, wouldn’t have been activated this year.

If that factor has changed, then the economic analyses published earlier this year touting how quickly DMSP would have helped the industry recover in 2009 will need to be re-evaluated and republished. The previously published factor (the CME corn price) would have indicated DMSP kicking in for several months in 2011.

  • This issue Ben Yale explains how legislative proposals are scored by the Congressional Budget Office under “cutgo” and “paygo.” ( Click here .) The article helps explain why some of the FFTF changes indicated in the paragraph above were required to be included in legislative language.
  • If you’re into crossbreeding, two articles in this issue will be of interest to you. One of them ( click here ) highlights data from the most recent August proofs on fertility differences between breeds used for crossbreeding. The other ( click here ) is original research from Canada about the strengths and weaknesses of a number of different eligible breeds for crossbreeding with Holsteins.
  • I recently heard from a producer in New York who said he likes to read “the details.” In this issue, we deliver one such “detailed” article on a large-herd dairy’s A.I. synchronization protocol. ( Click here. ). We also introduce a how-it-works article on activity monitoring systems used for heat detection. ( Click here .)

In upcoming issues, we’ll review more of these systems just now emerging commercially into the market.

  • Several of this issue’s articles deal with nutrient management. The article about how to make the most of the investment you’ve already made in a nutrient management plan should be helpful. Click here to read it.
  • Pay attention to the back pages of your magazine. Each region’s edition highlights some new faces taking on new jobs or positions. Since it’s back-to-school time, we also highlight a college dairy club and its 2011-2012 president. Were you an alum from one of the dairy clubs we featured? Click here to check out those featured in our Students section , and watch for more dairy club features next issue too. PD