The state’s dairy farms are leaving the industry at an alarming rate.

American cheese stocks totaled 1.35 billion pounds at the end of April, the second-highest total since 1917 and the highest April total ever, reported the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Jennifer Leech, a Rockbridge County dairy farmer, said she and her family recently were calculating how much milk it would take to make cheese for every pizza in Lexington.

Virginia is home to more than 1.5 million head of beef cattle, and those animals are in danger of ingesting grass infected with a harmful toxin.

Consumer trends and federal regulation of milk in school meal programs have dried up some demand for beverage milk.

An increased U.S. consumer demand for high-fat dairy products is boosting the value of milk fat to the extent that dairy processors are holding back milk fat that previously might have been exported.

In an effort to support ongoing market research efforts, American Farm Bureau Insurance Services is hosting a new online survey for dairy farmers at farmbureausellscropinsurance.com/dairy-risk-survey.

Upsetting news for chocolate lovers—vanilla outranks chocolate as the top-selling ice cream flavor, according to an International Dairy Foods Association’s survey.

The number of dairy farmers using the 2014 Farm Bill’s Dairy Margin Protection Program is the lowest it’s been since the program was introduced, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is working to bring back 1 percent flavored milk to the National School Lunch and School Breakfast program. It was eliminated from the plan in 2012.