dairy industry

**The National Association of Counties, National Farmers Union and 13 other organizations are asking Congress to block the Trump administration’s plan to eliminate USDA’s undersecretary for rural development. In a letter to leaders of the House and Senate Ag committees, the groups say the plan will downgrade rural development programs within USDA, not elevate their importance as the administration

**ChemChina’s $43 billion acquisition of Syngenta has been approved by the Federal Trade Commission, on the condition that ChemChina divest three of its generic pesticides. The European Commission, the EU’s governing body, approved the deal last Wednesday...

The dairy industry reportedly lost nearly $420 million from one single foundation bull with a lethal gene mutation that causes calves to die in the womb. This is a peril in selective breeding. On the positive side, that same foundation bull with nearly 2 million great-grandaughters accounts for 14 percent of all DNA in Holstein cows, the most popular breed in the dairy industry and contributed to

Tough conditions in the dairy industry are prompting U.S. dairy farmers to rely increasingly on genetics to improve their profit margins, according to a new research report from CoBank. Farmers have a number of genetic tools at their disposal including sexed semen, genomic testing, in vitro fertilization, and management software technology...

Summer could prove tough for the dairy industry according to Mike North of Commodity Management Group. North says that as of March “more milk equals more product more product equals bigger inventories bigger inventories equals smaller prices” and he believes this will be the cycle into summer...