💉 H5N1 vaccine field trials 🥛 Whole-milk in TN schools 🐄 Dairy culling remains low

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Poor fermentation may degrade silage amino acids (1 minute read)

Dairyland Laboratories began including amino acids (AA) in their NIR packages for silages about a year ago. In that time they have noticed that silages with high ammonia levels consistently have lower AA levels, with some AAs being more affected than others. They postulate that poor, or extended, fermentation is allowing microorganisms to remove amino groups (deamination) from the AA, producing ammonia; Clostridium species are known for this behavior. The structure of some AA makes them more susceptible to deamination (e.g., lysine, methionine, and cystine). These changes can have real-world effects: when modeling the outcomes in CNCPS, replacing silages with amino acid levels one standard deviation above the mean with those one standard deviation below the mean reduced MP-allowable milk by 2 lbs, and the supply of total MP, lysine and methonine by 44, 5, and 1 gram, respectively.

Tennessee attempts to bring while milk to schools (2 minute read)

Since a 2010 federal law tied school milk options to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, schools participating in the National School Lunch Program have been limited to serving only skim and 1% milk. Tennessee has released guidance for its schools to offer whole milk as a free, non-official component of the meal. The schools cannot charge for the milk, nor can it appear to interfere with or substitute for the low-fat options. New York and Pennsylvania have also introduced bills that would allow schools to serve whole milk produced within the state, saying such milk falls outside the federal government’s oversight of interstate commerce.

Dairy cow culling remains low through July (2 minute read)

The latest USDA data, released August 22, reports that 225,900 cull dairy cows were sent to slaughter. This is an increase of nearly 40,000 cows from June, but 18,300 lower than a year ago and the lowest July total since 2017. The decreased marketing of cull dairy cows is being attributed to a smaller national herd, limited availability of replacements, and the recent, slight increase in margins.

USDA greenlights H5N1 vaccine field trials (4 minute read)

On Wednesday evening, the USDA Center for Veterinary Biologics (CVB) posted a notice stating it is now accepting submissions “for field studies to support conditional or full licensure of nonviable, non-replicating vaccines.” This is a change from the previous requirement that all studies be conducted in containment facilities. These field studies may be used to provide efficacy and/or safety data to support the conditional licensure of an H5N1 vaccine.

USDA plots the cost of production for various farm sizes over the past 20 years (1 minute read)

The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) has published an infographic on the cost of production, by farm size, over the past five Agricultural Resource Management Surveys. In the most recent survey (2021), the cost of production for a dairy with 50 cows or fewer was $42.70 per hundredweight, compared to $19.14 for farms with 2,000 cows or more. A steady increase in the cost of production is also evident for all farms over the past two decades. The chart can be viewed and downloaded at the link to the ERS website.

Reduced regulations raise raw milk risks (4 minute read)

As some states reduce regulations around the sale of raw milk, interest in and consumption of unpasteurized dairy products continues to grow. Many would-be consumers are ill-informed or misinformed of the risks and benefits, and relying only on warning labels, in an “over-warned” world, is insufficient. Certain dangerous or high-risk goods, including raw milk, should require barriers to purchase, with the understanding that these obstacles require consumers to gain some degree of information before consuming the dangerous product.

First case of HPAI in nearly two weeks confirmed in Michigan (1 minute read)

Michigan has ended a 13-day run without any USDA-confirmed cases of HPAI in dairy cows, nationally; it has been nearly a month since the last confirmed case in MI. State rules will now prohibit all lactating dairy cows and those in the last two months of pregnancy from being exhibited (i.e., at state and county fairs) for at least the next 60 days.

Why do dairy showmen wear white? (3 minute read)

If you’ve ever participated in or watched a dairy show, you may have wondered why everyone is wearing white. Although the author does not claim her research on the subject to be definitive, her takeaway is that the practice is rooted in tradition. In the early 1900s, when the concept of 4-H was first being developed, the exhibitor would wear white to show cleanliness and not draw attention away from the animal being shown; the animal is meant to be the center of attention and anything that can distract from the animal itself is discouraged. Milkmen of the 1800s also wore white; perhaps this also influenced the later selection of show ring attire.