MAKE SURE YOUR DAIRY ADVAN CE ACCOUNT IS READY TO GO before the 2020 PDPW Business Conference so you can start tracking trainings during the event. The award-winning Dairy Advan CE program gives you the opportunity to find, track and report the training programs that will advance your personal knowledge and your career. Program subscriptions are free to dairy farmers and students. Learn more and watch a video at DairyAdvance.org .

CAPITALIZE ON HIGH MILK-PROTEIN COMPONENT PRICES by adjusting diets to increase protein production. An article from Ohio State University Extension discusses ration ingredients and the effects of increasing dietary starch to replace fiber. Based on a ration with adequate forage and fiber, increasing starch by approximately 5 percent and reducing neutral detergent fiber (NDF) by the same amount can increase the daily yield of milk protein of an average Holstein cow by about 0.075 pounds. Given the average of October and November 2019 component prices, this dietary change could increase daily milk income by about $0.15 per cow with little effect on feed costs. Click here to learn more. 

CAN YOU BE TOO ORGANIZED? The answer is “yes” if you spend more time trying to make a complicated organization system fit your work style than completing tasks. A time-management coach offers these five tips:

·        Focus on getting things done

·        There is no one right way to be organized

·        Saying “no” is your most powerful organizational tool

·        Organization is a lifestyle

·        Even if you’re organized, you’re not perfect

Instead of aiming for perfection or striving to copy someone else, commit to a lifestyle of discovering and using the strategies that help you to be your best, most organized self. 

Click here to read the full article and more tips to discover and commit to the organization strategies that will fit your lifestyle and work environment. 

IN-STORE FARMS BRING LOCAL FOOD PRODUCTION to a whole new level, with several grocery store chains installing equipment and lights to grow mushrooms and other produce on a miniature scale inside the store. The in-store farms are possible thanks to improving technology for growing plants indoors and can be placed in center-of-the-store space that had been occupied by nonperishable products that many consumers are increasingly ordering and purchasing online. Click here to learn more. 

DISCUSSIONS CONTINUE ON FEDERAL ANIMAL BIOTECH REGULATION, with US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue suggesting recently that a Memo of Understanding with the Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture could be a solution to finding a framework to regulate new technologies. To date, FDA has been regulating intentional genomic changes as animal drugs, but the biotech and agricultural industries have stated this will slow innovation and encourage new technologies to be introduced overseas. Click here to read more. 

BOOK REVIEW: THE POWER OF FOCUS: WHAT THE WORLD’S GREATEST ACHIEVERS KNOW ABOUT THE SECRET TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM AND SUCCESS.  As our lives are more hectic and fast-paced than ever before, it is even more critical to identify goals and build habits that will allow you to reach those targets in every aspect of personal and business lives. Coauthors Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Les Hewitt walk readers through ten focusing principles to find balance, build better relationships, build confidence and more. They also provide anecdotes and examples along with checklists to reinforce each principle and make it work for you. Read more here. 

“Your destiny is to fulfill those things upon which you focus most intently.

Choose to keep your focus on that which is truly magnificent, beautiful, uplifting and joyful.”

--- Ralph Marston