Dairy News & Insights for Progressive Farmers

$2.4 Million on a Welfare Label Alexandre’s Own Buyers Held Since 2020 and 2021
Check the roster. Alexandre took up American Humane Certified in January. Rumiano's had it since 2020. Organic dairy certification plus welfare and re […]
Federal Order 30’s Hauling Number Is 16 Months Old. Midwest Diesel Is Up 81.7%.
Diesel set a record twice in two weeks. The only federal file measuring what you pay to haul milk was built on $3.44 diesel in May 2025 — and nothing […]
Frazz Lionel Reads -3.1 DPR and +0.4 CCR. Both Are Right.
Every bull struck off a fertility shortlist before August 11 was judged on a model CDCB has now retired — and on a heritability half its current value […]
The National Heifer Number Fits Wisconsin and California. Almost Nobody Else.
Wisconsin sits at 40.3 replacements per 100 cows. California at 40.4. National is 41.9 — so a third of the herd is fine using it, and everyone else ha […]
Treasury Moved the 45Z Manure Math. One Undefined Word Decides US$105,100 on 2,000 Cows
Treasury moved the 45Z manure math on September 8. On 2,000 cows, "25% of the credit" pays US$187,800 or US$82,700 depending on one undefined word. Wh […]

37 Sales, 38 Years, One Last Tanbark: Tom and Sandy Morris Close the World Classic At 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 30, the gavel falls in The Tanbark for the 37th and final time under the management of Tom and Sandy Morris. Seventy-two years earlier,…
Robert Chicoine, 1943–2026: The Man Who Taught the Industry to Trust the Number Semex Alliance's architect and first general manager died Tuesday, fourteen days before World Dairy Expo was to hand him its International Person of the Year award in Madison. Every index…
Frazz Lionel Reads -3.1 DPR and +0.4 CCR. Both Are Right. Every bull struck off a fertility shortlist before August 11 was judged on a model CDCB has now retired — and on a heritability half its current value. Executive Summary: MR…
Ontario’s One Open 2028 Dairy Position Starts at C$480,000 in Quota One 2028 organic position is open in Ontario, closing September 30. Minimum buy-in: 20 kg of quota at C$480,000, plus roughly C$168,000 of your own equity at 65% LTV. The…
The National Heifer Number Fits Wisconsin and California. Almost Nobody Else. Wisconsin sits at 40.3 replacements per 100 cows. California at 40.4. National is 41.9 — so a third of the herd is fine using it, and everyone else has been…

They Mortgaged Three Wisconsin Farms to Build World Dairy Expo. Four Years Later It Was Nearly Bankrupt.
In 1967, three dairymen put their farms up as collateral on a $100,000 note so North America's best cattle would have a ring […]
Three Feed Inputs Set the DMC Margin. Diesel Isn’t One, and It Rose 65%.
Eight primary documents, one modeled 500-cow herd, and a correction to our own March numbers. E655 Three Feed Inputs Set the […]
Iowa’s Manure Penalty Never Left $5,000. The Restitution Ran 6.7 Times Higher.
Four Iowa consent orders held the penalty between $5,000 and $8,000, whether the kill was zero fish or 126,469, on herds from […]
Waterloo Warned Us: How the World’s Greatest Dairy Show Died – and What Twelve Years of Expo’s Own Numbers Say Before the Gates Open
The National Dairy Cattle Congress owned October from 1910 to 1965. Then it dropped "Dairy" from its own name and bet the bui […]
USDA Raised Make Allowances Up to 42.6% on Self-Reported Processor Costs
7.15 cents a pound. That's what USDA added to the nonfat dry milk make allowance on cost data processors volunteered. On 500 […]

Waterloo Warned Us: How the World’s Greatest Dairy Show Died – and What Twelve Years of Expo’s Own Numbers Say Before the Gates Open The National Dairy Cattle Congress owned October from 1910 to 1965. Then it dropped "Dairy" from its own name and bet the building on a greyhound track. This month its…
The Real Price of World Dairy Expo: $3,800 a Cow, Ten Days, and What Nobody Writes Down It's August. Entry deadline's next week, the good heifer's coming along nice — and you're doing the math you never write down. $3,800 a cow. Ten days gone. Only $280…
One Ring, Three Dynasties: The 1989 World Dairy Expo Class That Rewrote Holstein History At the 1989 World Dairy Expo, three Senior Two-Year-Olds came back into the Madison ring after milking. The ribbons settled one afternoon. The consequences are still turning up in pedigrees…
24 Cows Built Half the Holstein Breed. The Other Half Came from One Ontario Barn. Twenty-four cows nobody else wanted from Kansas. One stubborn Ontario dairyman who used an outcross bull exactly once. Between them: 99.84% of every A.I. sire in your barn tonight. E645…
“I Was Wrong. They Were Better.” – The Glengarry Ayrshires That Beat the World A 180-acre farm near Lancaster, Ontario. A Scottish cow bought with her best calf already inside her. And the bull who turned a half-dozen villages by the Quebec line into…