With FDA’s review complete, Elanco’s Bovaer is getting ready for the U.S. marketplace. But the methane-reducing feed additive’s success will be as much about economic as environmental sustainability, said Katie Cook, Elanco's Vice President of Livestock Sustainability and Farm Animal Marketing, in a Dairy Defined podcast released today.

“The biggest thing, and the thing that's most important, is not only are we making sure that we're providing an environmental sustainability practice to our producers, but most importantly we're providing them with additional profitability,” Cook said. “It's a key tool as we think about telling our dairy story and the value that our dairy products bring to consumers. But more importantly, as a producer, it's also giving you an additional revenue stream as we think about the economic viability of our farms' longer term.”

Dairy farmers are descending on Washington next week, as NMPF's Young Cooperators lead the organization’s annual fly-in. Hannah and Matthew Lansing, this year’s chairs for the YC Program, say policy engagement is critical to dairy’s future.

“There are so many things that affect us, but they don't affect us in a way that we see every day,” said Matthew Lansing, who along with his wife and her family milk 1,100 cows and farm more than 5,000 acres at Blue Hill Dairy in Clinton, Iowa. said. “Keeping involved and up-to-date as much as we can and pushing for things that we need on a farm on a day-to-day basis is really key for us to propel forward into the future and be what we need to be for consumers going forward.”

You can find and subscribe to the Dairy Defined podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music under the podcast name “Dairy Defined.” For more on the YC Program, click here.

Media outlets may use clips from the podcast on the condition of attribution to the National Milk Producers Federation.

Biosecurity – what it is, and how to achieve it – is at the top of every dairy farmer’s mind as cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) have been found in dairy cattle in several states. Every farmer can take simple, but meaningful, steps to ensure a well-protected industry, said Karen Jordan, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, chairwoman of the National Dairy FARM Program’s animal care task force, and a member of NMPF’s Board of Directors, in a Dairy Defined Podcast released today.

“When you start trying to protect against organisms that you can't see, that puts you in a whole different ballpark,” said Jordan, who also raises about 200 dairy cattle in Siler City, NC. “The bright side is, we've got a disease that we don't have dead animals. We do have an economic disruption, severely. But this gives us an opportunity to really take a hard look at our farms and see what that biosecurity really needs to look like and then how we really enhance it.”

Jordan is joined in the podcast by NMPF’s Chief Science Officer, Jamie Jonker, who is leading NMPF’s HPAI response.