The U.S. Department of Agriculture has established a goal of eradicating the H5N1 virus from the U.S. dairy herd. Lucas Sjostrom, a member of the government affairs team for Edge Cooperative, admits this is a new endeavor. “Dairy farmers (and) our poultry industry would all love this disease not to be affecting us, but what’s the best and most effective way to do that?” That’s where we’re trying to help our processors and our farmers figure out what is the most effective way to get to that goal.” Ultimately, Sjostrom said it is important to preserve the dairy industry’s export markets. “I hope dairy farmers realize whether you ship to the cheese plant down the road or one that’s shipping to Mexico every single day, this affects our milk price no matter who you are and where you are.”
Additional states added for milk testing
USDA has announced the second round of states participating in its National Milk Testing Strategy. Seven states were added to the 13 original states being tested. The agriculture department requires raw unpasteurized milk samples to be tested for the H5N1 virus. At this point, Minnesota is not part of the surveillance effort.
High beef cattle prices influencing dairy markets
The rebuilding of the U.S. beef herd remains nonexistent. USDA Chief Economist Seth Meyer said that is also being felt in the dairy market. “On the dairy side, profitability has been good over the last year, but the ability to expand and respond to any profitability has been hampered by that same contraction in the beef herd. It has made beef-dairy crosses for dairy heifers profitable as well, so we may be a little short on the purebred dairy heifers needed to expand the herd.”
Farm bill future
The new Congress is in place and a new farm bill will be on the radar. “We’ve been kicking the can down the road for quite some time,” said Sam Kieffer, vice president of public policy, American Farm Bureau. “The 2018 farm bill technically expired two years ago and here we are still operating under short-term extensions.” Kieffer believes Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and Minnesota Representative Angie Craig will help move a modernized farm bill forward. Klobuchar is the new ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and Craig is the new ranking member on the House Ag Committee.
Disaster relief payment rates updated
Ahead of the Christmas holiday, Congress passed a funding bill to avert a government shutdown, extended the farm bill for another year and provided farmers with economic assistance. Green Solutions Group farm management analyst Kent Thiesse said the 2025 economic outlook pushed Congress to action. “There was a survey about a month ago of ag lenders and 80% of them either said we were in a recession or headed toward a recession in 2025.” Disaster relief payment rates also received an update. “This will be based on actual planted acres in 2024 as reported to FSA offices and for farmers that maybe have preventive planted acres, half of those acres would also count.”
Milk production tightens slightly
U.S. milk production totaled 17.9 billion pounds in November. That’s down 1% from a year ago. Minnesota’s milk production was unchanged, but cow numbers declined by 7,000 head. In South Dakota, milk production increased 1% while the size of the dairy herd declined by 1%.
USDA boosts support for organic dairy producers
USDA is allocating an extra $8.7 million to help organic dairy farmers offset rising costs and market instability. The money is part of the Organic Dairy Marketing Assistance program for 2024. This brings the total funding for the program to over $31 million. Payments will be based on 2023 or projected 2024 marketing costs.
The only three-term agriculture secretary
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has served 12 years in that role, longer than any other person. Vilsack led USDA during the Obama and Biden administrations. “I’m just extraordinarily proud of the work that we did, a consistency of commitment to very critically important responsibilities and missions of USDA.” Vilsack’s legacy has been the focus on small and medium-sized farms.
Olson retires
AgCountry Farm Credit Services Senior Vice President of Government and Public Affairs Howard Olson retired at the end of the year. Olson had been with AgCountry for 27 years.
Farm Credit Council selects Seyfert
The Farm Credit Council has named Christy Seyfert as its president and chief executive officer. Seyfert is now the executive director of government affairs for the American Soybean Association. She will begin her new role in mid-January.
Farm Credit Administration names Mosely for Office of Congressional and Public Affairs
Ben Mosely is the Farm Credit Administration’s Office of Congressional and Public Affairs director. Most recently, Mosely was a principal at a government affairs group known as the Majority Group. Previously, Mosely worked for the USA Rice Federation and on the Senate Agriculture Committee staff.
New leadership for Holstein USA
Lindsey Worden is the new CEO for Holstein Association USA. Worden has been with Holstein USA for 17 years, starting as a college intern. After college, Worden joined the organization as its public relations specialist. She later served as the communications manager, the executive director of the Holstein genetic services department and chief operating officer. Worden succeeds John Meyer, who was with Holstein USA for 23 years.
Dziedzic passes
Former Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic, 62, passed away on Friday. Dziedzic stepped down as the caucus leader in 2022 after receiving her cancer diagnosis. Dziedzic represented Minneapolis in the legislature. Previously, she was the executive assistant to Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone.
Acker passes
Duane Acker, who was part of USDA during the presidency of George H.W. Bush, has died. Acker served as USDA’s assistant secretary for science and education and was the head of the Foreign Agricultural Service. Earlier in his career, Acker was the dean of agriculture and director of extension for South Dakota State University, associate dean of agriculture and later president of Kansas State University.
Trivia challenge
The tradition of leaving milk and cookies for Santa Claus began during the Great Depression in the 1930s. That answers our last trivia question. For this week’s trivia, who served as Jimmy Carter’s agriculture secretary? We’ll have the answer in our next edition of the Dairy Star.
Don Wick is owner/broadcaster for the Red River Farm Network of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Wick has been recognized as the National Farm Broadcaster of the Year and served as president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. Don and his wife, Kolleen, have two sons, Tony and Sam, and five grandchildren, Aiden, Piper, Adrienne, Aurora and Sterling.
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