World Dairy Expo kicked off in Madison, Wisc. earlier this week, celebrating it’s 50th anniversary. With a lot happening in the dairy industry from new regulations in California to prices turning the corner, Chris Galen, senior vice president of communications for the National Milk Producers Federation said it’s hard to hard to gauge the industry mood.

“I think whether you’ve had a good year or a bad year…it’s hard to assess that just by walking around because everyone wants to put the best face on things,” said Galen.

On AgriTalk Thursday, Galen discussed the NMPF and other national dairy organizations releasing an economic analysis report. That report will be looking at potential consequences to the U.S. dairy industry if Europe is able to “claw back” cheese names like Parmesan, Havarti, feta, and gorgonzola that are made in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

This would be Europe’s trade strategy in both TTIP and another trade agreement to restrict those names for only European food products. For instance, Havarti, the cheese with Danish roots, could only be made and distributed by Denmark.

This is an effort to make the European cheese industry more competitive.

Another topic discussed at WDE is the increase of dairy production numbers. Galen credits that to the beef market. He said because of the beef market, farmers are holding onto their cows longer, producing more milk.

By: Ashley Davenport
Source: Agweb.com