USDA Announces Notice Regarding National Dairy Promotion And Research Board Domestic Reapportionment

Sep 14, 2016

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced a Notice that maintains the current distribution of domestic National Dairy Promotion and Research Board (Dairy Board) members in 12 regions.

The Dairy Promotion and Research Order (Dairy Order) provides that the Dairy Board shall review the geographic distribution of milk production throughout the United States and, if warranted, shall recommend to the Secretary a reapportionment of the regions and/or modification of the number of domestic members from the regions in order to better reflect the geographic distribution of milk production volumes in the United States. Based on a review of the 2014 geographic distribution of milk production, the Dairy Board concluded that the number of domestic Dairy Board members and regions represented should be maintained.

The Dairy Board was established under the Dairy Production Stabilization Act of 1983, as amended, to develop and administer a coordinated program of promotion, research, and nutrition education. The 37-member Dairy Board is authorized to design programs to strengthen the dairy industry’s position in domestic and foreign markets. The program is financed by a mandatory 15-cent per hundredweight assessment on all milk marketed commercially and a 7.5-cent per hundredweight assessment on milk, or equivalent thereof, on dairy products imported into the United States.

Source: usda.gov

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.