GA Milk Weekly Enews | June 26, 2020

2020 | June 26 GMP E Newsletter

Georgia Milk Producers Weekly Enews

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DON'T FORGET! Mail your ballot for the GA ACC for Beef by Tuesday, June 30!

Georgia beef producers have until June 30th to cast their ballots to renew the assessment for the Georgia Agriculture Commodity Commission for Beef. The commission was established by the Georgia legislature at the request of Georgia cattlemen in 2014.

By law, beef producers must vote every three years to determine if they want to continue the market order. Georgia beef producers re-affirmed the market order in 2017.

Funds from the assessments are used to fund research, education, and promotion projects for the Georgia cattle producers. In the five years since the assessment began, more than $2.5 million has been committed to research projects with the University of Georgia that help producers with production issues and for state education and promotion programs which benefit Georgia beef producers.

Ballots and the back of the return envelope must be filled out for the ballot to be considered as eligible. Ballots must be postmarked by June 30.

Eye on markets as reined-in supply vs. strong demand drive dairy higher

From Agmoos Blog

Trade sentiment is mixed on how long the upward momentum in dairy markets can last as producers wait for these higher levels to land in their milk checks.

On one hand, USDA Dairy Market News reports strong pizza sales, stable to strong retail sales, and government purchases all stoking demand against reined-in supply. On the other hand, some analysts see weakness ahead as higher prices may prompt milk expansion by fall when demand may wane after CFAP food box purchases end and food-service pipelines are re-stocked. Much will depend on how the economic re-opening goes for families and food-service, as well as what happens with schools and sports. Experts suggest producers evaluate their risk management tools while markets present positive margins in a tumultuous time.

To-date, the USDA Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) Farmers to Families Food Box Program has delivered 18.5 million boxes. The first round of May 15-June 30 fresh food purchases totaled $1.2 billion, including $317 million for milk and dairy products. Now USDA is poised to announce a second round of $1.16 billion for July 15-Aug. 30, of which dairy’s share has not yet been specified. Read more here>>>

UGA's John Bernard honored by American Dairy Science Association

By Maria M. Lameiras for CAES News

University of Georgia animal and dairy science Professor John Bernard has been named the winner of the 2020 Nutrition Professionals Inc. Applied Dairy Nutrition Award from the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA).

Bernard, who joined the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Department of Animal and Dairy Science on the UGA Tifton campus in 1998, is an expert in the nutrition and management of dairy cattle. His work focuses on improving nutritive efficiency, profitability and cow comfort.

“It is an honor to be selected as the recipient of the Nutrition Professionals Inc. Applied Dairy Nutrition Award, especially when I look at the list of previous recipients. During my 32-plus-year career, I have been fortunate to be able to conduct applied research and contribute to our understanding of dairy nutrition,” Bernard said.

Bernard’s research program involves improving the utilization of nutrients provided by forages and by-product feeds in dairy rations. Current research projects involve effectively using winter annual and perennial grass for lactating dairy cows, enhancing the use and digestibility of whole cottonseed and other by-product feeds, studying protein and amino acid metabolism by lactating dairy cows, and reducing heat stress through environmental and nutritional modification. Read more>>>

CDC And Labor Department Issue Interim COVID-19 Guidance For Agriculture Employers

From JD Supra

The CDC and the U.S. Department of Labor just released interim guidance for all agriculture employers to provide an action template to protect agriculture workers from COVID-19. Primarily, the guidance addresses exposure risk to agriculture workers, and encourages employers to develop a COVID-19 assessment and control plan to protect themselves and farmworkers, in accordance with the CDC Interim Business Guidance for Businesses and Employees and General Business Frequently Asked Questions . Read more here>>>

CFAP dairy payments top $895 million through June 22

By Dave Natzke, Progressive Dairyman

U.S. dairy producers received more than $895 million in direct payments through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) as of June 22. Dairy applications processed by USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices stood at 15,222.

The FSA began taking applications May 26. In the first four weeks of the application period, the top states for CFAP dairy payments were:

1. Wisconsin: $202 million – 3,804 applicants

2. California: $108.4 million – 673 applicants

3. New York: $101 million – 1,843 applicants

4. Pennsylvania: $$49.8 million – 1,525 applicants

5. Minnesota: $46.5 million – 1,349 applicants

6. Michigan: $45.1 million – 618 applicants

7. Idaho: $39.5 million – 244 applicants

8. Washington: $28.5 million – 215 applicants

9. Iowa: $26.9 million – 604 applicants

10. Ohio: $25.4 million – 590 applicants

11. Texas: $23.1 million – 183 applicants

Find the complete list here .

Overall, the USDA FSA had approved about $4 billion in payments to more than 252,489 agricultural producers who applied for assistance through the CFAP as of June 22.

Read more here>>>

ICYMI: GA Milk Review June 2020 Edition

In this issue:

USDA Approves $667 Million in Dairy CFAP Payments
DMC Signup Opens Oct. 12
Right to Farm Legislation Passes Senate
Dr. Bernard Retires July 1
PPP EZ Loan Forgiveness Application
GA Beef Referendum
Dixie Dairy Report

Click here to download newsletter>>>

Many Latinos Couldn’t Stay Home. Now Virus Cases Are Soaring in the Community

By Shawn Hubler , Thomas Fuller , Anjali Singhvi and Juliette Love with The New York Times

When the coronavirus first spread to the fields and food processing factories of California’s Central Valley, Graciela Ramirez’s boss announced that line workers afraid of infection could stay home without pay.

A machine operator at Ruiz Foods, the nation’s largest manufacturer of frozen burritos, Ms. Ramirez stayed on the job to make sure she didn’t lose her $750-a-week wages.

“I have necessities,” Ms. Ramirez, a 40-year-old mother of four, said in Spanish. “My food, my rent, my bills.”

Soon her co-workers started to get sick, and when Ms. Ramirez became congested and fatigued and could not smell the difference between the rice on her stove and the sopa de fideo in her soup bowl, her test, too, came back positive.

It was a variation on what has become a grim demographic theme, and not just in California. Infections among Latinos have far outpaced the rest of the nation, a testament to the makeup of the nation’s essential work force as the American epidemic has surged yet again in the last couple of weeks.

Latinos in the United States are hardly a cultural monolith, and there is no evidence yet that any ethnic group is inherently more vulnerable to the virus than others. But in the last two weeks, counties across the country where at least a quarter of the population is Latino have recorded an increase of 32 percent in new cases, compared to a 15 percent increase for all other counties, a Times analysis shows. Read more here>>>

Be a leader that inspires your staff

By Caitlin Rodgers, Georgia dairy farmer, Hoard's Dairyman

There are plenty of “How to” books available on just about anything . . . how to succeed, how to wire a building, how to be a better person, how to be inspiring, and the list goes on and on.

But in all reality, as a business owner, have you truly been taught how to be the best you can be and how you can get the best from your staff?

All employees are different. They come from different backgrounds, have different ideas and opinions, and different quirks. I honestly don’t believe there is a true book on how to get your employees to be the best that they can be.

It takes work. It takes boundaries as well as getting to truly know them. It takes seeing obstacles and the work at hand as they see it, while at the same time viewing them as a business owner, too. Read more here>>>

Farmer to Farmer Support Program Available for SE dairy farmers

Farmers across the Southeast are experiencing uncertain times like never before. All aspects of agriculture have been hit by market losses due to COVID-19, but dairy has reached a level of uncertainty that many have never experienced.

As we navigate through these next few months, dairy producers across the Southeast have come together to introduce the "Farmer to Farmer Support Program." If you find that you need support or would like to talk to a fellow farmer or industry friend, they have several volunteers that are willing and able to help. Georgia Milk Producers has also put together a packet on the program that you can access by clicking here .

For more information on the program, please reach out to Farrah Newberry at gamilkproducers@gmail.com .

Educational video for dairy employees on Animal Activism

Alltech, Elanco, The National Milk Producer Federation (FARM) and the Animal Agriculture Alliance have joined forces to create an educational video for Dairy Workers about animal activism. The video, which connects the Dairy Worker with the dairy industry, contains information about:

What animal activism is
Mode of operation of animal activists on dairies
Preventive measures about animal activists
Importance of the Dairy Worker in the industry
Other topics about animal caring and regulations

This is not an advertisement or contains product information, the intention of this video is to educate Dairy Workers about radical animal activists and their role to defend this industry as they are our FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE. The campaign is called “ A MI SI ME IMPORTA/I CARE” . After watching this video, workers can receive a nice certificate making this resource a big part of their commitment and their pride with the Dairy industry.

To access the video, please visit and use passcode " icare2020" :

https://nationaldairyfarm.com/icare-video/

Protocols: Turning the “Why Should We Do It?” to “Why We Do It”

By, Taylor Leach, Milk Business

A necessity in today’s dairy industry, protocols are used as a way to help achieve consistent compliance on the farm and to reduce performance variation between employee shifts. While the idea of writing protocols may sound simple, having them executed correctly can prove to be more of a challenge.

For Heidi Fisher, co-owner of Fisher-Clark dairy, located in Hatley, Wisc., writing straightforward protocols that can easily be carried out has become second nature. Managing a team of 18 employees at a 900-cow operation is no easy feat, but with the implementation of candid protocols, Fischer has noticed that her employees have gained a better understanding for the job at hand.

“Protocols for us have been a way to kind of get everybody on the same page,” Fischer says. “Efficiency is always a goal of ours. We want to make sure that we’re only doing what needs to be done and that we are doing it as efficiently as possible.”