Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[murphysranch]

I've been to several beef processing plants. IBP was one. Also a lamb plant and of course chickens and turkeys. I love seeing their operations.

I thought of you last week. There was a headline about the elimination of Milk Quality testing at the USDA. Will this impact your biz with the dairy barns? Will there be a trickle down effect?

 

[Baymule]

Well darn! Jess’s calf is a bull calf. But as you said, it’s a live calf.

The truck sounds great, that was a good buy. Now you have your own truck. I do like the power windows and mirrors, but we lived a major part of our lives without them!

 

[farmerjan]

@murphysranch ...... The milk testing I do is private company(ies)... it is for farmers as a management tool...They do this testing nationwide... other companies... but it is a combined effect as for records and such being accessed by the purebred breeders and such... all integrated... But we do have to meet certain National Milk Quality standards. I had not heard about anything relating to doing away with Milk quality testing... Nothing said at that "meeting" on the computer the other day. Do you have a reference? I would like to look into it...
Not that I am worried about my job, If it ends, so be it... but it will hurt the farmers that have to meet certain standards to be able to ship milk to the milk companies buying their milk and sending it to processing plants.

 

[murphysranch]

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-fda-suspends-milk-quality-tests-amid-workforce-cuts-2025-04-21/

FDA Pulls Plug on Milk Testing: What You Need to Know Now

FDA halts milk safety checks amid staff cuts—dairy farmers face testing uncertainty. Critical lab oversight gap threatens industry standards. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The FDA suspended its Grade A milk proficiency testing program on April 21, 2025, citing staffing shortages from HHS workforce cuts...

www.thebullvine.com

 

[SageHill]

Huge congrats on the truck deal!! Sounds like you scored on that one.
The kill plant sounds good. I have no problem with that - where the heck would the masses get their beef otherwise? It's not like they have a neighbor down the road that raises cattle (yeah I know a lot of us do, myself included). Everything makes perfect sense as they want the best possible product and the only way to get it is to do the job right.

 

[Mini Horses]

So they're not stopping milk testing, just fired all the fed QCs for the testing labs.