From The Fields

Featured Recipe from “Recipes from ”

CRUNCHY DILL PICKLES

1 gal. cucumbers 1⁄3 c. dried minced onion 6 garlic cloves, diced 1½ tsp. mustard seed 6 fresh heads of dill 1½ qts. water 2 c. apple cider vinegar 1⁄3 c. canning salt

Joyce Halverson New Ulm, MN

Wash and slice cucumbers lengthwise into spears. Place dill in bottom of quart jars and then put in cucumber slices. Boil liquids and all seasonings to dissolve salt. Cool. Pour over cucumbers and dill in the jars; cover. Let sit on counter for 3 days, turning upside down occasionally. After 3 days, refrigerate and enjoy the crunch! Keep refrigerated

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Total milk sales up since May

MIELKE, from pg. 15

on the week but 4 cents below a year ago on 16 sales.

Dry whey crept up to 34.25 cents per pound on Aug. 17 but closed at 33.50, up a penny on the week but 6 cents below a year ago, with 11 sales reported.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the September Federal order Class I base milk price at $18.44 per hundredweight. This is down $1.34 from August, 59 cents above September 2019, and the highest September Class I since 2014. It equates to $1.59 per gallon and put the 2020 Class I average at $16.65 — up from $16.51 at this time a year ago and compares to $14.58 in 2018.

Speaking of Class I milk, the USDA (in catch-up mode likely due to the bankruptcy situation of Dean Foods and Borden’s) delivered five month’s worth of backlogged fluid milk sales data.

The reports showed January fluid sales were down 3.7 percent from January 2019, with organic sales up 1.2 percent. February sales were up 1 percent with organic up 6.9 percent. March sales soared 7.9 percent (a likely Covid-inspired gain) with organic up 21.1 percent . But April sales were down 0.5 percent, while organic sales were up 23.7 percent.

May fluid sales, the latest data available, totaled 3.79 billion pounds of packaged product, down 3.2 percent from May 2019. Conventional product sales totaled 3.5 billion pounds, down 4.2 percent from a year ago. Organic products, at 252 million pounds, were up 14 percent and represented 6.7 percent of total sales for the month.

Whole milk sales totaled 1.3 billion pounds, up 3.4 percent from a year ago. Sales for the five month period totaled 6.7 billion pounds, up 6.5 percent from 2019, and made up 34.7 percent of total milk sales for May and 34 percent thus far for the year.

Skim milk sales, at 243 million pounds, were down 16.3 percent from a year ago and were down 12.9 percent year-to-date.

Total packaged fluid milk sales, January through May, hit 19.6 billion pounds, up 0.2 percent from 2019. Conventional product sales so far totaled 18.4 billion pounds, down 0.5 percent. Organic products, at 1.2 billion pounds, were up 13.1 percent and represented an impressive 6.1 percent of total fluid milk sales so far for the year. n

In politics, a bipartisan coalition of House lawmakers sent a letter last week urging the government to proactively enforce the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s dairy-related provisions. The letter was applauded by the U.S. dairy industry, according to the National Milk Producers Federation and the U.S. Dairy Export Council.

The Export Council’s Tom Vilsack stated, “A strong demand for U.S. dairy exports abroad drives economic growth and creates jobs here at home. USMCA is designed to allow the U.S. industry to fulfill this demand from two of our largest dairy customers and we cannot allow Canada or Mexico to undermine the important gains secured in this trade deal. We are working alongside Congress, the U.S. Trade Representative, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ensure Canada and Mexico are held accountable to their trade commitments.”

NMPF also called on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Committee to “take into account evolving science that shows the benefits of dairy fats when it releases its final report.”

Miquela Hanselman, NMPF’s manager for regulatory affairs, testified during a virtual meeting of the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services discussing the report.

“The committee, correctly in our view, maintained dairy as its own group and did not allow the inclusion of any plant-based beverages or foods other than fortified soy beverage,” Hanselman said. “Furthermore, the committee gave a nod to dairy’s nutrient density, and included it in food recommendations developed for 6-24 months. But still, there’s work to do,” she added.

Lee Mielke is a syndicated columnist who resides in Everson, Wash. His weekly column is featured in newspapers across the country and he may be reached at lkmielke@juno.com. v