Sherry Bunting

At the IPDP Annual Meeting Dairy Breakout, there was a special dairy session focusing on Somatic Cell Counts (SCC) on dairy operations. During the session, Dr. Mike Schutz an Extension Dairy Specialist from Purdue University provided an overview of the SCC issue.  The overview presentation was followed up by a talk by Dr. Jonathan Townsend from Purdue University. Dr. Townsend used his expertise as a veterinarian and Extension Specialist in Dairy Production Medicine to highlight important issues related to detecting and managing mastitis. Dr. Townsend discussed subclinical and clinical mastitis and doing on-farm culturing of bacteria from cows with mastitis. He finished his talk by encouraging producers to be cautious about drug residues and withdrawal times when cows are treated. The session concluded with an excellent producer panel comprised of dairy producers that are all currently successful at keeping their SCC below 200,000. The dairy farmers on the producer panel were Kevin Ariens from Traders Point Farm, Alan Kuehnert from Kuehnert Dairy, Dr. Tom Troxel from Troxel Dairy, and Leontien VanDeLaar from Four Leaf Clover Dairy. Some of the key management points that were brought up by the producers on the panel were the use of sand bedding, effort keeping free stalls and housing areas clean, closely monitoring cows, and proper milking procedures that included pre-dipping and stripping before attaching milking units, as well as post-dipping after the cows were finished milking.  

Indiana youth involved in the dairy industry have the opportunity to learn more about the animals and their products and to brush up on their showmanship skills at Purdue Extension's 2011 Indiana Dairy Youth Conference. "The youth should be ready for a conference filled with activities related to dairy foods, marketing, flip video, showmanship, fitting and more," said Kelly Heckaman, Purdue Extension educator in Kosciusko County. "Everyone will get to practice with live heifers for showmanship, too." The conference will take place on Saturday, April 9, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Boone County 4-H Fairgrounds, 1300 E. 100 S., Lebanon. Full conference details, registration information, and an application for Dairy Ambassador can be found here.

You've often heard the phrase "food-chain." But what does it mean?

'Agriculture today is losing the battle for public perception, even as it wastes valuable resources convincing consumers farmers can be trusted to feed them'

Visualize this food-chain, and suddenly you see groups of people working together in order to respond to consumer demand. Farmers, input suppliers, veterinarians, packers, processors, wholesalers, retailers, restaurateurs are all links within the modern food production system. All share the same goal of serving the all-powerful consumer.

Over the last 50 years, that food-chain has grown. It contains more links than ever before. The distance between the farmer who grows our food and the one who consumes it ever widens, creating a "separation anxiety," in which consumers, three to four generations removed from ties to a farm, are unfamiliar with farmers. But remember there's a flip side to that separation, as well: The farmer, too, has become removed from the consumer. He now relies on a host of food-chain players to serve as his proxy to the consumer, explaining what he does, and why.

Read more 

No end to critics of agriculture

IPDP is a size-neutral organization. Honestly, it's not about size. It's about management and responsibility, on which most farmers are working diligently. NYT writer Mark Bittman certainly has a different view. Here's a recent recommendation he makes, "Outlaw concentrated animal feeding operations and encourage the development of sustainable animal husbandry. The concentrated system degrades the environment, directly and indirectly, while torturing animals and producing tainted meat, poultry, eggs, and, more recently, fish." Such sweeping statements are an insult to those of us directly involved in agriculture, because we know firsthand how untrue these charges are. There's no way to feed 313 million people in the US with such opinions, let alone the rest of the world. Read the full Bittman article here and read an interesting counter article by Center for Consumer Freedom here.

Nat'l Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments Certain to Discuss More Stringent SCC Standards

From Dairy Talk, Jim Dickrell: At the end of April, the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments will meet in Baltimore to lower the U.S. standard for somatic cell counts to 400,000 cells/ml. There are currently two proposals-one by the National Milk Producers Federation (NPMF) and the other by NMC, formerly known as the National Mastitis Council. Both get to the same level of 400,000 by Jan. 1, 2014. But the path to that end point is slightly different-and how quickly violation levels are triggered also differs. Read more.

TB Found in Indiana Beef Herd

State animal health officials say bovine tuberculosis has been found in a beef cattle herd in Indiana's southeastern corner, the state's first such case in cattle since the 1970's. The State Board of Animal Health said Monday the disease was found in a cow tested during slaughter at a Michigan meat processing plant. The agency is now testing the rest of the Indiana herd. That herd's location has not been disclosed. Read the Indiana Beef Council Association's Press Release here.