This week every year is one of my favorites every year as the World Dairy Expo takes place in my backyard. The show is always an exhilarating week for the dairy industry, with a chance to connect with many friends and acquaintances I have gotten to know over the years. Dairy leaders from all over the world come to speak the common language of agriculture. The week always leaves me recharged and enthused for the dairy industry.

The buzz around the show this week was about a story that was run in the New York Times on sexed semen (from "Science, Plenty of Cows but Little Profit"). The story alleges that the milk price crisis that the industry is currently facing is caused and will continue to be plagued by dairy farmers’ adaption of sexed semen. Sexed semen seems like an easy target; however it is one small factor in the whole complex market of the dairy industry. Gloom and doom has plagued sex semen before it even hit the market, and the price collapse happened before first heifers from sexed semen where even milking. The story is yet another example of how the media has taken a beneficial technology available to farms and spun it into one of the many perceived evils of agriculture.

Don’t get me wrong. The dairy industry has some serious problems right now. Dairy farmers and their families are making some of the most difficult decisions they have ever had to make in their careers, just to keep milking their cows. The stress is intense and it is easy to point fingers. But attacking the tools and technology available to farmers hurts all farmers. While not every technological breakthrough will benefit every farmer, farmers should have the ability to choose which technologies and methods they use on their farm. Unfortunately, we are already seeing farmers in a fight for their rights as practices like farrowing crates, antibiotic use, and genetically modified organisms have come under assault.

As I left the show this week, I couldn’t help but reflect how much many dairy farmers have already lost financial, yet how much more all farmers have to lose. The silver lining is that each and everyone involved in agriculture can make a difference. We need to share with our friends, neighbors, and anyone who will listen how we use technology and how it helps farmers. By sharing this message everyone wins.