Dairy checkoff initiatives of 2024 successfully increased dairy access in schools, expanded market share for U.S. dairy products domestically and internationally and supported the industry’s longstanding commitment to sustainability on behalf of U.S. dairy farmers and importers.
The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) is pleased to receive $1 million in federal funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP). In October 2023, the USDA initiated the $1.4 billion RAPP program aimed at developing new export markets for U.S. food and agricultural products.
A record-breaking crowd of nearly 500 leading dairy producers and industry professionals from across the U.S. and Canada gathered at the 2024 MILK Business Conference to honor industry peers, learn strategies to improve their operations and network with stakeholders across dairy production systems.
Alltech Wisconsin is pleased to present the 2024 Most Valuable Employee (MVE) Award to Hector Lobato of Schilling Farms in Darlington, Wisconsin. This award recognizes one outstanding dairy farm employee in Wisconsin, Minnesota or northern Illinois each year. Nominations are made by a farm manager, dairy owner, farm consultant or nutritionist based on qualities such as work ethic, perseverance, honesty and integrity. The finalists were honored during the annual Alltech Dairy Summit on Thursday, Dec. 12, in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is announcing the second round of states coming on board as part of its National Milk Testing Strategy (NMTS) that was launched Dec. 6., and which requires that raw (unpasteurized) milk samples nationwide be collected and shared with USDA for testing. The announcement represents the next step toward conducting complete nationwide surveillance under the NMTS and continues to build on measures taken by USDA and its federal and state partners since the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in dairy cattle was first detected in March 2024.
The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association’s Harold E. Ford Foundation (USPOULTRY Foundation) was pleased to once again sponsor the National 4-H Poultry and Egg Conference at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville. The Conference recognizes 4-H members who have excelled in their states in poultry learning experience activities. The activities and contests are designed to introduce participants to poultry and the poultry industry. Life skills are learned through preparation for the various contests. Participants are also made aware of careers in poultry and allied industries.
The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) recognized 23 dairy business operations for their outstanding achievements and improvements in worker safety in 2023 with the IDFA Dairy Industry Safety Recognition Award. This is the 21st year that IDFA has sponsored this program, highlighting the outstanding workplace safety achievements of U.S. dairy companies.
Thanks to a landmark climate-smart agriculture project, a new soybean processing facility will soon open its doors in western Kansas to process climate-smart soybeans. It is ultimately expected to help provide more climate-smart dairy products to consumers nationwide, according to project partners. The new facility is the result of a partnership between McCarty Family Farms and the Transforming the Farmer to Consumer Supply Chain (Transform F2C) initiative. Transform F2C is a $70 million project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Program.
