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HARRISBURG -- Northeast Extension Risk Management Education has announced the recipients of the new Risk Management Education for Meat and Poultry Processing grant. Across the country, 13 recipients were awarded a total of $1,740,980 to enhance capacity across the food supply chain by supporting meat and poultry research, education and training at the local level.
PA Farm Link was one of the recipients and has been awarded $90,432 to fund training opportunities on MeatSuite's Cornell MeatPricing Calculator for Pennsylvania farmers. Charlotte Smith, 3 Cow Marketing LLC, will coach farmers on improving their mindset, increasing farmer confidence to make necessary price increases as well as improve customer relationships.
The funding opportunity was part of a USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) effort to help workers and producers in the MPP sector across the farm, processing and distribution levels to manage risk and enhance their performance and viability. Projects propose education and training for meat and poultry producers, processors, and distributors, which in turn will enable small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to make sound risk management decisions.
More information on the training opportunity will be available later this year. For further inquiries, contact PA Farm Link at farmland@pafarmlink.org or call (717) 705-2121.
USDA to measure northeastern milk production
HARRISBURG -- Thousands of milk producers across the country will receive surveys from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) as the agency collects information for the 2023 Milk Production reports.
"The dairy industry is an important component of the Northeast's agriculture, and it is crucial for us to have accurate data about this key sector," King Whetstone, director of the NASS Northeastern Regional Field Office, said.
NASS conducts the Milk Production survey in the region every January, April, July, and October. The survey asks milk producers to provide the number of milk cows in the herd, number of cows milked, and total milk production for the first day of the month.
The dairy industry relies on monthly Milk Production reports to make decisions about the marketing of milk. By participating in the survey, milk producers can ensure that NASS provides timely, accurate and useful data that all sectors of the U.S. dairy industry use to make sound business decisions.
NASS mailed the questionnaires to all producers selected for the survey in late June. To ensure all survey participants have an opportunity to respond, NASS interviewers will contact producers who do not respond by mail or online to conduct interviews.
NASS safeguards the privacy of all respondents and publishes only aggregate data, ensuring that no individual operation or producer can be identified.
Survey results will be published in the Milk Production report to be released on July 20, 2023. These and all NASS reports are available online at nass.usda.gov/Publications. For more information, call the NASS Northeastern Regional Field Office at (800) 498-1518.