Podcasts about SMP

What happens to dairy markets when one of the world's busiest shipping lanes suddenly gets disrupted? With the Strait of Hormuz under pressure and trade routes across the Persian Gulf in question, exporters are scrambling to figure out how to move product. What does all this mean for global dairy demand? In this episode of The Milk Check, host Ted Jacoby III sits down with the Jacoby trading team to talk through what happens when geopolitics collides with global dairy trade. We dig into: How exporters may reroute product through alternate ports like Jeddah Why trade flows could shift between the U.S., Europe, Oceania and Southeast Asia How energy prices and freight disruptions could ripple through dairy markets Whether this disruption boosts demand in the short term or destroys it if it drags on Find out how one shipping lane could reshape the global dairy trade. Listen to The Milk Check episode 95: The Strait of Hormuz: What the Iran Conflict Means for Dairy Trade. Click below to listen or find us on Spotify, YouTube,  Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Got questions? We'd love to hear them. Submit below, and we might answer it on the show. Ask The Milk Check Ted Jacoby III: [00:00:00] Coming up on The Milk Check. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. The port of Dammam is closed. Joe Maixner: There’s definitely product that’s stuck, can’t get to its destination. Ted Jacoby III: Welcome to the Milk Check from T.C. Jacoby and Company, your complete guide to dairy markets, from the milking parlor to the supermarket shelf. I’m Ted Jacoby. Let’s dive in. Today we’re gonna talk about what’s going on in the dairy market, specifically global trade. We’re recording this on March 6th, 2026, and seven days ago the U.S. bombed Iran.  As we [00:00:30] speak, the Strait of Hormuz is closed. The port of Dammam is closed, and trade flows are getting rearranged as we speak. Today with me, we have Joe Maixner, head of our butter trading book. We have Josh White, we have Diego Carvallo, and we have Mike Brown. And we thought it would be appropriate to discuss what’s going on in the Middle East, specifically how it’s affecting the dairy industry, and what its short-term and long-term effects will be on dairy demand. We’re gonna start with Joe. Joe, what are you hearing out there right [00:01:00] now? Joe Maixner: There’s definitely product that’s stuck, can’t get to its destination. Both going into Port of Dammam and other Middle Eastern ports for that matter. With butter’s moves over the past year, the Middle East market had been probably the largest growth opportunity for us in global exports for butter. Fortunately, this all happened after the rush for Ramadan to get everything in. So, I would say that it’s not as bad as it could be right now, but there is certainly product that’s stuck on the water looking for [00:01:30] alternative options to get to land. And there’s quite a bit of product that still is waiting to leave the U.S. that we’re not quite sure if and when it will actually leave. A lot of it’s still up in the air. Nobody really knows, what to do yet. I think it’s still too early to tell. Nothing’s been canceled per se, but the longer that this drags on, we’re certainly going to have some effects from it. Ted Jacoby III: There’s a lot of talk that maybe this war is gonna be a five to six week war. If the Strait of Hormuz is closed for five to six weeks, as is the [00:02:00] Port of Dammam, is that enough to cancel orders? Is that too long? Joe Maixner: I would say it should probably cancel some orders. I wouldn’t say it would cancel everything, but they’re gonna have to get product at some point from somewhere, They can’t completely stop. People are gonna have to eat. Production will still have to continue, and they’re gonna have to source product from somebody. And if we can’t get it there, they’ll find it from somewhere else. Ted Jacoby III: I’m hearing that one of the things that they’re exploring is shipping into Jeddah, which if you look at a map of the Middle East, Dammam is in the Persian Gulf on [00:02:30] one side of the peninsula. Jeddah is basically on the exact opposite side of Peninsula on the Red Sea. So they’re talking about shipping into Jeddah and then shipping it across the land to where it might need to go. The first thing that occurs to me is Dammam, I believe, is a bigger port than Jeddah. And so if you take all those container ships going into Dammam and send them to Jeddah instead, there’s not gonna be enough room to unload ’em all. And so, at the very least, the traffic’s gonna be pretty horrific. Are you guys hearing people working on that too? Joe Maixner: Yes, they’re looking at alternate ports of [00:03:00] entry and moving the product around. Jeddah is one. Casablanca is one. Going into Egypt is one. There are options. All of ’em are more expensive and it’s just gonna depend on how desperate the end user is to get the product. Josh White: We’ve got some experience dealing with trade disruptions over the past decade, and we tend to see the playbook similarly each time. And then when we talk about what’s specifically happened in our markets now, I think We can watch for some warning signs. Number one is in these type of situations, we start worrying about trade [00:03:30] flows, energy, freight, congestion, those type of things, all impacting markets and trade. Additionally, when we think about this conflict, there’s maybe three different scenarios to talk about. It’s very intense right now. Does that intensity continue for a very long time? What does that mean for our trade? It’s very intense right now for, but after, four to six weeks, maybe it continues on, but it’s more stable or consistent and the world learns how to trade around it. And then the third one is the one you [00:04:00] outlined earlier, which I think is a bit optimistic, usually these things don’t just go away that quickly, is that it’s over in a short amount of time. That’s the easiest one for us to project. That just creates a short-term concentration pent-up demand, pent-up shipments, and we just gotta work our way through that bubble. I think the middle one’s more likely. Not because I’m an expert on these things, but we’ve seen what happened in different conflicts in different situations. The middle one being it’s intense for a bit, then it becomes more consistent and normalized, and we just learn how to work [00:04:30] around it. What does that mean? And to me, that redirects trade flows. For instance, the U.S. has been very competitive in the Middle East for butter and cheese. It’s not the first time we’ve been competitive. We were competitive 15 years ago or so at a pretty good rate where we were an net exporter of butterfat, cheese I think we’ve been fairly consistent throughout, but it takes time to get there. Our biggest obstacle in doing business with that market versus Europe as a competitor, is the transit time. We inflate the freight rates, we increase transit [00:05:00] time, there’s concern of access to supply because of turbulence or stability, our price could be fine, and we could still miss some business because you have to buy now or you’ve gotta get product in now, or you just don’t have time to wait the, what, six weeks from order at minimum, probably more like a quarter, oftentimes, to get the product. That’s maybe our biggest obstacle right now is redirected trade lanes, not price. Joe Maixner: All of these trade disruptions create opportunity elsewhere. If our price comes off, [00:05:30] as it has, butter shot up earlier this week, it’s come back off here at the end of the week. It’s created opportunity for trade into other export markets. Where one door closes, another opens. Ted Jacoby III: How do you think those trade flows change? What comes, what goes, what are the changes that you think will happen? Let’s assume that the Persian Gulf is off limits for two or three months. What does that mean for dairy? Josh White: Lost demand, if it’s that long.  That’s lost demand. Now if we assume that we’re able to redirect product to [00:06:00] maintain the same demand, you’re gonna have trade lanes shift, right? What are the options? Ted Jacoby III: Let’s articulate this a little bit more for our listeners. When we’re talking about trade lanes shifting, right now there’s product on the water trying to head there that can’t. What’s gonna happen to those ships? That’s one. Two, there’s product that was sitting in the port about ready to ship. I think there were a lot of calls this week. I think we know of quite a few calls this week where they basically said, “Let’s sit on it. Let’s wait for this all to calm down before we actually ship it.” And three, [00:06:30] there’s product that maybe was scheduled to ship in a month or two. I think it’s fair to say, people probably have to figure out immediately what are they gonna do with the product that’s on the water right now. And I think the other two, they may be able to give it a little bit of time, decide whether or not they’re gonna cancel any orders and redirect it. Diego, the product that’s on the water right now, what do you expect happens to it? Diego Carvallo: Ted, I’ve been internally debating this for a while and even with the team. I think a few things are happening, but I don’t know which one has a bigger magnitude. Supply chains used to be very thin [00:07:00] for skim milk powder for the past year or two years. They are gonna have to build more inventory for those supply chains because product might take 60 days instead of 30 days to ship it. Product is gonna get stuck at the port of entry, port of shipment, in transit, et cetera. So, I think that bumps up demand artificially. Yeah. But there’s more product that’s gonna be stuck in the supply chain. That’s the first thing that comes to mind short-term, if this doesn’t continue to escalate. But if things continue to [00:07:30] escalate, and three weeks from now or a month from now, we’re still not being able to ship product to those destinations, product is gonna start backing up at ports of loading, right? So we’re gonna start hearing from the California manufacturers that they have a 100, 200 loads at port, and that prospects are not great for shipping, and that we should find new homes for that, right? I think if this gets solved the short-term, it’s positive for demand. It’s bullish market, but if it goes more long-term, you start killing demand, and you start needing to [00:08:00] find homes for additional product. But I know that everybody, at least on our team, has different takes on the whole situation. Ted Jacoby III: I would agree with that. I tend to lean to the side that, politically, the Trump administration can’t afford for this to go on too long, and the longer the strait is closed, the more political pressure they’re gonna have to resolve things. It’s realistic to consider that there’s a possibility that this thing goes on for a really long time, and that strait is closed for a really long time. Diego Carvallo: The second topic that I think we should talk a little bit about is what is a [00:08:30] psychological implication that this has on buyers? For example, on Chinese buyers who depend on products that go through that canal. That’s why I lean towards supply chains are gonna have to increase the amount of product they have, and end users are gonna change a little bit their procurement practices to increase their stocks. Yeah. Josh White: That happened post COVID, right? And didn’t last very long. Ted Jacoby III: I’d say it lasted two years. Josh White: But my point wasn’t that two years wasn’t a long time. It [00:09:00] was more of: they reverted back to the just-in-time model once things stabilized. Ted Jacoby III: Yes. That is a good point. I do agree with that. But you know what, even though they reverted back to the just-in-time model, two and a half months ago, prices were low enough that I think there were people trying to rebuild their stocks because they felt that prices were low enough to do that. I don’t know if they actually succeeded. My gut, based on what we’re hearing from customers right now, is they didn’t, but there was certainly a willingness to build back inventory levels if the price was right. In the [00:09:30] meantime, we’re dealing with disrupted trade flows. And so my second question for you guys is, we talk about disrupted trade flows, but let’s put some examples under that so our listeners understand what we’re talking about. How will these trade lanes shift? Where will product flows change? Will we see maybe more U.S. product going into Southeast Asia, more European product going into the Middle East, because perhaps they can put it on a truck and ship it through Istanbul by rail or by truck all the way there? I don’t know. Josh White: Yeah, I [00:10:00] think that’s a super good point, and it goes into what Diego said, which I don’t think is limited to nonfat, by the way, or milk powders. I think customers need to buy, and are used to getting what they need quite easily, and they’ve run their structural days in inventory down quite a bit to where that’s going to require people to buy from where they can get it quickly. This disruption has served as a bit of a catalyst to something I think was already materializing or happening. And now if you inflate freight rates a little bit more, that’s only gonna make it that [00:10:30] much more pronounced: that you need to buy from who’s close. New Zealand’s having a good back shoulder of their season, too, and I believe that there’s quite a bit of New Zealand product that is on its way or destined to go to the Middle East and North Africa. So when we think about what happens, I think everyone goes back to their closest trade partner. That takes the Oceana product to Asia. It takes the U.S. product, obviously, to Mexico. There’s at least some risk that European product was gonna come to Mexico. This is making that more difficult, I imagine, as [00:11:00] well. And I guess they’re gonna have to problem solve if that demand holds under the scenario we talked about earlier: that Europe’s got a lot of product right now. There’s a lot of milk, and they’re making a lot of everything. And thus far, it’s been okay because exports have been reported to be good. Maybe we’re talking about how this impacts the Americans, but I imagine that the impact might be a little bit more extreme for the Europeans. There’s another impact in there that I think Diego touched on. When you have commitments for product [00:11:30] and that product takes longer to get to you, and you’re running your supply chain thin, you reach out then and buy other product at a higher price, often, to fill your immediate demand. And once everything stabilizes, you actually are structurally oversupplied. We experienced that within recent history. Ted Jacoby III: Oh, absolutely. Josh White: And so that creates that air pocket in demand that will eventually arrive. We just don’t know when. Ted Jacoby III: What I imagine is, those boats that are on the water that were heading to Dammam when all this [00:12:00] started, they’re either parked right now, waiting to see if everything clears up, or they’re getting themselves rescheduled into Jeddah to try and figure out how to get there another way.  I would assume the product that hadn’t been loaded onto a ship yet is backing up at the port for a little while. How long do you think it takes? How long do we need to be watching this conflict continue to go on, watching the Strait of Hormuz continue to be closed, how long will it take before do you think they’ll start selling that product elsewhere? Canceling contracts and selling it elsewhere? A [00:12:30] month, two months? Because my gut tells me that’s when you really start seeing the market shift around. Right now, everybody’s just in a waiting period. Right now everybody’s just wondering if this thing’s gonna last a long time or a short time, and they don’t wanna overreact just for everything to clear up in the next week or two, even if the possibility is low. Josh White: Nonfat futures are inverted, so I would imagine, not very long at all, but I don’t think nonfat is the most impacted product here.  The curve on the butter futures has really flattened out as well. There’s not a long time window there either if we don’t put [00:13:00] a decent carry back in the market. Ted Jacoby III: So the market is already pricing in the possibility of this going on a long time, but the cash markets haven’t really fallen yet because there’s still hope. Maybe that’s a good way to put it. Josh White: It’s only been a week, one business week. That’s a big conclusion that our team had, earlier today, is that we came in Monday, following the announcement, and we’re like, okay, what happened to dairy? And the reality is everyone’s trying to figure it out and it’s gonna take some time. So I don’t think we’ve seen the reaction or response to the [00:13:30] situation actually materialize yet. Ted Jacoby III: Do you think that the question everybody should be asking is how long is it gonna take for the Strait of Hormuz to open? Joe Maixner: That’s a big caveat in this whole situation, right? Once that opens and trade flows resume, that clears a lot of things up. Regardless, it’s gonna take time to clear up, right? Because you’re gonna have a backlog, but the sooner that reopens, the sooner things pseudo get back to normal. Mike Brown (2): So much energy flows out to that strait to the rest of the world, particularly to Asia that it could affect incomes effect ability to [00:14:00] purchase products as well. It isn’t just bringing things in, it’s how they get the oil out. Question for Diego, Iran certainly makes some SMP. Do you think that has any impact at all? Diego Carvallo: That’s a really good point you’re bringing up, Mike. Iran had for the past five years ramped up their SMP experts significantly, so I believe, if I’m not wrong, in 2025, they exported something like 120,000 metric tons of skim milk powder. It’s obviously not [00:14:30] one of the biggest exporters in the world, but it’s a significant exporter. The most important takeaway is that they would supply those markets that are being affected by these interruptions the most. It’s not only that region has fewer access to European and American and even New Zealand sources, but also one of their main providers has an active block on food exports as of right now. Both things tell me it’s gonna be harder for demand to [00:15:00] get access to the product. If it extends this issue in time, this is definitely gonna kill demand. Ted Jacoby III: Let’s talk this through. The longer this goes on, what are the countries that are really gonna start seeing drops in demand because their revenue is dropping. Obviously Iran, I think you gotta include Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE. Joe Maixner: Yep. Ted Jacoby III: I think China, too, because they don’t have the access to energy. And maybe some of the other major importers of Middle East oil. Now, some of it will switch, probably go [00:15:30] outta Jeddah, but I don’t think there’s a lot of oil exports leaving Jeddah. I think it’s all in the Gulf. Joe Maixner: What does it do for European product though, given the fact that this is going to cause a spike in natural gas pricing. This is gonna cause a spike in all energy pricing.  When the whole Ukraine situation escalated and Europe lost access to gas, it would cost something like $500 per metric ton just to dry the product because of [00:16:00] the increased cost of gas. That put a lot of pressure onto the skim milk concentrate, and it gave a lot of support to skim milk powder. Diego Carvallo: I think something similar is gonna happen in the coming weeks because we all heard the news about if I’m not wrong, it was Qatar that just shut down the world’s biggest LNG plant. And it takes, I believe it’s 40 days for it to be back online at full operations. It’s not a one or two day interruption. It’s a [00:16:30] substantial interruption in the energy supply at a worldwide level. Ted Jacoby III: The one big difference between when we’ve seen gas prices spike in the past, and this time is in the past, when energy prices spiked, demand in the Middle East would actually go up because they’d have more revenue and more income. They don’t this time around because it’s spiking because they can’t be the exporters and make those sales. I think that’s important to take into account. You’ve got a scenario where if this goes [00:17:00] on long enough, I think there’s some real negative effects on demand that we’ve gotta start coming to terms with, I don’t think that matters if everything opens up within the next two to four weeks. We’ll see if that happens. Mike Brown (2): Generally, this administration has responded to economic pressure. We see what’s happening in the stock market and we see what’s happening with energy costs, they’re gonna be rethinking hard on how long they want this thing to stretch out, regardless of what maybe some of our partners would like it to be. There’s gonna be some strong economic pressure internally. Even the Senate, who voted to support [00:17:30] continuing the fighting in Iran did say, we’re good for now, but we’ll revisit this if we need to.  That pressure by the day is gonna keep going up. Ted Jacoby III: I’m a hundred percent in agreement with you, Mike, and that’s why my hunch is you’re not gonna see the strait shutdown for an extended period of time. But we don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see. Hey, thanks guys. That was a great discussion today. It remains to be seen how this plays out. This is something that absolutely bears watching because it clearly is going to have some effect on dairy demand. We will see. [00:18:00]

Fonterra’s Managing Director of Co-op Affairs reviews another stunning GDT result overnight (up 5.7%) with SMP leading the charge at 9.1%. We also look at staff safety and operations in the Middle East.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

English Edition (ByteSized): In this first episode of the new ByteSized dRTP season, sponsored by the STEP-UP programme from the EPSRC (UK) you'll meet Richard Acton. Richard created a tool to help you keep track of all the steps you should take to make your software shareable and reproducible. With checklists, built right into your GitLab, GitHub repo. Linkshttps://rsspdc.org/ home page for the checklistshttps://rsspdc.gitlab.io/slides/bytesize-workshop_2026-02-26.html#/outline https://gitlab.com/rsspdc/checklists download the checklists MD files from herehttps://www.software.ac.uk/news/software-management-plans Software management plan (SMP) from the Software Sustainability Institutehttps://www.france-grilles.fr/presoft-software-management-plans-model/ another template of a SMP from Teresa Gomez-Diaz (Paris, France) - PRESOFThttps://hal.science/hal-01802565v1 I'd like to thank the STEP-UP project for their support of this podcast. STEP-UP is a collaboration between Imperial College London, King's College London, University College London and the University of Westminster. STEP-UP is funded by the Engineering and Science and Physical Research Council in the UK. Get in touchThank you for listening! Merci de votre écoute! Vielen Dank für´s Zuhören! Contact Details/ Coordonnées / Kontakt: Email mailto:peter@code4thought.org UK RSE Slack (ukrse.slack.com): @code4thought or @piddie Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/code4thought.bsky.social LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pweschmidt/ (personal Profile)LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/codeforthought/ (Code for Thought Profile) This podcast is licensed under the Creative Commons Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Flush season is here. Protein solids are up. Global milk production is up. So… Where's all the skim milk powder? In this episode of The Milk Check, host Ted Jacoby III and the Jacoby team sits down with Martijn Goedhart and Henk-Jan Bouwman of Cefetra Dairy for a European perspective on the volatility rippling through global dairy markets. We talk through how traders got caught short and why the spring flush might not loosen up the skim milk powder/nonfat dry milk market. Plus, are we pricing U.S. out of the export market? We'll get you up to speed on: Why skim solids are being pulled away from dryers and into protein streams How hand-to-mouth buying turned into a short squeeze What record-high butter stocks in Europe mean for upside potential Tune in to hear how Europe and the U.S. are navigating one of the most volatile stretches in recent memory. L If you're making sourcing or coverage decisions right now, don't miss The Milk Check episode 94: The Dryer's Getting Robbed. Got questions? We'd love to hear them. Submit below, and we might answer it on the show. Ask The Milk Check TMC-Intro-final Ted Jacoby III: [00:00:00] Coming up on The Milk Check. Martijn Goedhart: You have supply growing, and then you think, “Oh, we’re gonna build stocks.” But then, demand caught up. And quite viciously. Ted Jacoby III: Welcome to the Milk Check from T.C. Jacoby and Company, your complete guide to dairy markets, from the milking parlor to the supermarket shelf. I’m Ted Jacoby. Let’s dive in. This week we are excited to have two special guests, Martijnjn Goedhart and Henk-Jan Bouwman from Cefetra Dairy in the Netherlands. We’ve been working closely with these guys for some time and we thought it would be a great idea given all the craziness and dairy markets going on in the United States, to ask them to give us a little bit of perspective on what’s going on in Europe so we can get a feel for how the global markets are affecting our U.S. dairy markets. Martijn, Henk, thanks for joining us today. Martijn Goedhart: Thanks for having us, Ted. Henk-Jan Bouwman: Thank you, Ted. Ted Jacoby III: I feel like what’s going on in nonfat right now more has an origin in the U.S., but I also noticed that you guys started to feel that maybe this market was gonna be a little bit shorter than we expected over in Europe before we realized it in the U.S. [00:01:00] Tell us about the skim milk powder market in Europe and what’s been going on the last month. Martijn Goedhart: In Europe, we’ve been overwhelmed by milk production growth since the second half of 2025, due to bluetongue, late calving, second peak, as some of us call it. And that has resulted in good outputs, and that output needs to go to the commodities. So, we’ve seen butter stocks build up significantly, and everyone assumed that that would mean that the skimmed stocks were also building up because that’s basically the other product you’re gonna produce when you do butter, right? A few things we, I think, overlooked is like the general protein trend in the world and the demand for protein, both on the whey side as well as on the milk side nowadays. So a lot of protein has ended up in other products than your typical skimmed nonfat production bucket. Adding to that, Europe has been the most competitive source in the world market for a long time. Demand wasn’t great because buyers were buying hand-to-mouth because they would basically wait for that carry to come toward them and buy at the lowest price at the last moment. But [00:02:00] now we see that the exports out of Europe have been great. And that’s been keeping the market clean. I think some traders speculated on lower prices and got caught short, basically needed to cover. And that’s where we are at now. And I think more than ever, if you look at NZX (New Zealand Exchange), this all started with a firmer GDT (Global Dairy Trade), with China stocking up a bit. So, if you look at NZX, CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) and EEX (European Energy Exchange), those markets are starting to correlate better than they did before because everyone’s looking at the developments of the other exchanges and then draw their conclusions for their own home base. And yeah, that cocktail, together with some U.S. developments that we’re gonna dive into, has caused record-high volatility over the last few weeks. Ted Jacoby III: So, Martijn, you’re telling a story that sounds very familiar ‘ cause that’s exactly what we’ve seen here in the U.S. We’re not making anywhere near as much nonfat dry milk as we expected because the protein demand is forcing those skim solids into other places. What are those other places in Europe? Where is that protein being used and what is it being made into in Europe right now? Martijn Goedhart: I think there’s two main [00:03:00] streams. Bear in mind that the milk pressure in Europe was so high that you need to burn milk, and the way to do that is to produce casein. So, I think casein production has increased by like double-digit numbers, that’s not because it was such a nice valorization, you can just dry more milk per hour. And considering the liquid markets over the last few months, during our low season, liquid milk was trading way below the commodity equivalent, proving that there’s a surplus of liquid milk that can’t be processed by drying it or churning it. So, that’s one part. The other part is, it’s the same in the U.S. We’ve been around here for a few days now, but in Europe, you see the same: everything is protein fortified, extra protein, in basically everything you can buy. So, a lot of protein that is processed in line before it even reaches the other class. So, like the dryers basically. Ted Jacoby III: Martijn and Henk, do you guys think that the skim milk powder market in Europe has tightened up primarily because everybody who was living hand-to-mouth saw the market started going up, and they decided they wanted to buy more now because they wanted to get the product at a lower price before the price [00:04:00] went higher, and then they just started chasing the market? Or do you think demand has shifted and there’s a true increase in the demand for the product? Henk-Jan Bouwman: There’s two things to touch upon here, Ted. One is, you’re absolutely right: people were buying hand-to-mouth, and they were actually rewarded for doing that because everybody believed that the price of tomorrow was better than the price of today. And for a fairly long period of time, they got rewarded for that. That also led to traders being short, as Martijn touched upon. From a demand perspective, yes, there’s actually quite some demand, and people also realize that they have to turn to Europe to find their cheapest skim. That also creates a bit of a demand pull towards European skim, which makes the price go up. And we’ve seen that, in particular, in low heat in comparison to medium heat. But in general, export markets for us are pretty strong, and, I would say, pretty much all the demand ends in European skim milk powder of origins. Josh White: Is anybody extending days in inventory? Do we think that there’s a short squeeze driving international clients to buy a couple extra weeks, a month, more than that of product? The nature of your question, Ted, [00:05:00] is what’s caused us to tighten up on that product? Is it truly demand for nonfat dry milk, or is it just reduced production overall? And I think maybe it’s both in a way. On the one hand, Martijn mentioned that the catalyst of this was actually a GDT event where China stepped in and bought more. And I think that we’ve been talking about the disappearance of China as a structural buyer of milk powder for quite some time. But their stocks to use ratio has been reported to be fairly low, and maybe they felt it was time to extend some days of inventory. At the same time, you evidenced what’s happening in the U.S., And Martijn alluded to it a little bit in Europe as well, that the pull for dairy protein in general is actually vacuuming some solids away from the dryer, and particularly the SMP or the nonfat dryer. So, is it both? Are we seeing people look to build a little bit more safety stock at the same time that our production is down a bit because protein demand overall is robbing our supply. Henk-Jan Bouwman: There’s a, there’s a couple of things to touch upon, Josh. One is in this whole upward movement, there were quite some international buyers [00:06:00] who still had demand open, for instance, for Q2 and Q3, and decided to step in and said, “Hey, this is a moment to buy, to cover that demand, because I am anticipating an upward movement.” So, in that sense, I’m completely with you. Producers did the same, as well. For them it was also attractive to lock some forward sales. And that has led to lesser availability of skim in EU. And that basically also caused the rally to continue. Martijn Goedhart: I think the difference with the U.S., as I understand it, is we have never not been able to buy product during this whole volatility. So, producers were always offering, customers would like step in, step out. If they really need it, they would book. They were also cautious. And we went up, then we went down, then we went up again. But in that down movement, customers were like, “Yeah, you see, so it’ll come off again.” So, that didn’t prompt them to build any length. I think producers did fairly well in putting a fundament below their sales book for the flush that’s upcoming. Traders are holding a fair bit of cash product right now for the next three, four months. It’s not tight as [00:07:00] such, but you see that certain buyers need certain origins that are scarce. So, it’s very much about the origin, the spec, and the product that you have, whether you can monetize on those higher prices. Ted Jacoby III: It seems to me, just listening to you guys talk about Europe, that the U.S. and Europe are both experiencing a very similar phenomenon in our supply chain. Demand for protein is pulling skim solids away from the dryer, first and foremost, which means on a skim milk powder / nonfat dry milk supply-demand balance, you’re reducing the supply even though we are both experiencing pretty significant increases in milk production. The traditional math is: more milk means more skim milk powder. It didn’t happen this time around, and it caught people by surprise. The demand for protein in Europe, just like in the U.S., is exceptional right now. But then that makes me ask the question: if we have less skim solids, in the form of skim milk powder and nonfat, in the global supply chain, is this increase in price directly proportional [00:08:00] to reduced supply, so we got more people buying because they want to get in the front of it. So, you got this bubble. But you also have had this slow decrease in overall skim milk powder demand going on. Like a slow creep every year. I’m not sure if it’s about 1%, but we’ve all kind of felt it that the global demand for skim milk powder has been just slowly weakening, but this sudden supply crunch was a bigger issue than the slow decrease in demand, and it caused this price bubble that’s just gonna take some time to work itself out. And if the protein continues to take the skim solids away from the dryers, it may be a really long time before it works itself out. Martijn Goedhart: Q4 of global SMP export has been very strong, but Q3 and Q2 were relatively weak. I’d have to look at how the balance looks at the end of the year. Also, the export figures have been more volatile than Ted Jacoby III: Yeah. Martijn Goedhart: Before. So, I think everyone thought like, “Okay, demand is sluggish. We have so much milk in the U.S. We have so much milk in Europe. [00:09:00] New Zealand’s season is looking good.” So, in your mind, you extrapolate that demand. Then, you have supply growing, and then you think, “Oh, we’re gonna build stocks.” But then, demand caught up. And quite viciously. So, that’s the thing I think people underestimated. We’re in a situation where we don’t see any old stocks or inventories building up. Josh White: So I wanna throw three thoughts out. On the first hand, we know our global milk supply is year over year up significantly. Martijn Goedhart: Yeah. Josh White: On a solids basis, protein and fat are up significantly. We’re talking about the overflow valve, the powder stocks not being very robust, and that on the end-user level, globally, people didn’t have a lot of additional days of inventory. So, that would suggest on one hand, maybe we need all this milk. Maybe we need it. Demand for protein and other products is up enough that we need all this milk. But then on the other hand, I think there’s probably two things that we need to be careful that we don’t overreact to. There’s seasonality in our products. We know that the northern hemisphere heavy milk production season is upon us. We’ve [00:10:00] started in California. We’re gonna continue to see our daily milk volumes increase seasonally in the U.S. as we get into the second quarter. Another thing that I’m wondering being, you guys with more international trade experience coming out of Europe is: buying seasonality. So, Ramadan every year moves up a little bit; Chinese New Year, there’s usually a surge leading up to it. And it’s gotten to the point where that was almost a collision with the traditional holiday season of December. Is it possible that we just robbed demand from the first quarter, and everyone tried to get in front of some of that demand in the late third and early fourth quarter, and that we’re about to go into a unique seasonal period where customers have now gotten scared. They’ve extended a few days in inventory, the structural demand won’t be there at the same time that the northern hemisphere flush is upon us. I mean, is it possible that we were just short squeezed based on seasonal issues in the first quarter, and we’re gonna resolve that with plenty of product in the second quarter? One final note I think that we [00:11:00] shouldn’t forget is that our year over year comparables are against a disease-infested 2024. We had bird flu in the U.S.; we had bluetongue to in Europe. How much are we actually over 2023 going into 2024. Ted Jacoby III: On 2023 versus 2024, I think Europe, you guys were down like a half a percent to 1% in 24. Does that sound about right? Martijn Goedhart: 23, 24 was pretty much flat. Ted Jacoby III: Mm-hmm. Martijn Goedhart: And 24, 25 we added like a hundred thousand metric tons. So, like, 6%, 7%. 24, 25. Ted Jacoby III: So you guys had a couple of flat years, followed by a year where you added quite a bit. Martijn Goedhart: Yeah. Ted Jacoby III: Which actually is pretty similar to what happened in the U.S. Yes. We had some disease like avian flu , and bird flu hit California ,and we were down in some places and up in others, but overall we were flat. But the solids were up a little bit. Martijn Goedhart: Yeah. Yeah. Ted Jacoby III: While dairy prices were decent, I didn’t feel like we were facing a massive supply scarcity in those two flat years, which is one of the [00:12:00] things that has me very perplexed about what’s going on now. Because it’s one thing to say, Hey, there’s all this new demand for protein. All the skim solids are going to protein, and that’s why there isn’t any skim milk powder in nonfat. Okay, let me phrase this a different way. That means that we are suddenly being faced with massive increases in demand for protein. The price of protein today is a lot higher than it was a year and a half ago when we were dealing with flat supply.  So, why is protein demand so much higher now compared to a year ago? Is it completely and solely demand driven? As amateur economists , like all traders are, that math doesn’t seem right. Martijn Goedhart: Last year, we had significant competition among our export customers from Iran and Belarus, in terms of SMP. The Iran exports were surging. I think it was like 150,000 tons of skim, something like that, that suddenly shows up. Europe is doing about 700. So, that has an impact when you’re talking to [00:13:00] buyers. But that disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. Which yeah, that 150,000 tons, or whatever it was, it will turn back to the next cheapest origin, which was Europe. So, demand didn’t grow, but shifted towards another origin being EU. Henk-Jan Bouwman: Yeah, I think in general, overall competitiveness of EU skim milk powder is a lot better than last year, even in comparison to a bigger skim producing regions. As Martijnn touched upon, being based in the Middle East, I saw a lot of competition coming out of origins, which were a bit more nontraditional. Iran was one of them. What happened is their overall competitiveness finished really, really quickly due to a couple of things. One of them being disease. So, they had foot-and-mouth disease in Iran. Two, their overall ability to import a sufficient amount of feed, and three, their competitiveness due to a currency standpoint, which quickly changed. That, indeed, meant that the material that was supplied by Iran is now being supplied by Europe. Diego Carvallo: It’s a fascinating situation. Some of those [00:14:00] solids that are going into MPCs are definitely reducing the demand for skim, unless it’s coming from a different end-user application. If we’re seeing the MPCs going into sports nutrition, it’s definitely new demand that is finding a new end-user. It’s a combination of a lot of the things that we have discussed in this call: the whole market being short and getting super used to being hand-to-mouth for years, where you could buy product cheaper a month from now, so, why would you buy it? Especially if you have high interest rates, right? So, that’s part of it. The other factor is definitely the whole market was shocked by the impact of the UF pull of the additional MPC production and the amount of solids that we’re not going into a dryer that everybody expected would go right. Also a few additional manufacturing productions, a few key plants in the U.S., this is starting to look like more of a fundamental shift than a short squeeze. [00:15:00] And three weeks ago, everybody was saying, “Yeah, short squeeze, it’s an amazing short squeeze. It’s gonna come down.” Right? And now that same rhetoric has been changing to, “Actually, this is not that much of a short squeeze, but it is more of a there are not that many solids.” There’s a new big plant in Texas. There’s a new big plant in New York. There’s a lot of solids that are being pulled, and nobody was taking that into account. Everybody was expecting after the bird flu in California, we’re simply gonna go back to producing the same amount of nonfat that we were producing two years ago. And if you look at the data, it’s not correct, you know, Josh White: We also gotta give credit to substitution and other things. And what I mean by that is like calf milk replacer industry in the U.S. Historically, we’ll toggle for the cheapest protein between whey and milk powders. For sure, we’re seeing that appetite pick up for nonfat dry milk right now. Whereas two years ago there was a lot of WPC 34 on the market. All of that’s gone [00:16:00] because of the whey movement. I think the utilization is shifting quite a bit. We’ve talked about where it’s more difficult to track where milk solids are being consumed into a lot of protein enhanced beverages and things along those lines. That’s becoming more difficult. We’re saying demand’s not great globally, but if you pick up feed demand because they can’t buy the whey products they bought before, that is more demand for milk powder. And by far the cheapest dairy protein right now is nonfat dry milk. The big question I have is seasonally in the second quarter, are we going to catch up? Are we gonna be able to catch up globally or not? I think the whole market’s really struggling to try to form an opinion on that. Mostly because we can’t really measure and put a finger on just how much new protein-related demand there is in that difficult to measure space that I alluded to earlier. Diego Carvallo: Particularly in the U.S. right? In Europe doesn’t seem like that situation is as strong as it is the U.S. It seems like in the U.S., you have all of these new [00:17:00] cheese plants and UF plants, Class I plants, et cetera. It seems like, at least in the U.S. that inventory building is gonna be more difficult than in other regions. Josh White: And the European dryers are full right now, correct? Martijn Goedhart: Yes. Josh White: And the California dryers are full right now. Midwest dryers are nowhere near full. The answer to that might be a little bit easier than we’re making this discussion. We’ve added a whole lot of cheese capacity. There’s plenty of milk, but a lot of it’s being processed into cheese. Ted Jacoby III: Are there many new dairy plants of any kind in Europe right now? Martijn Goedhart: Not coming online this flush as far as I know. Not surprisingly, but most of the investment obviously is in WPC and WPI, I think Friesland has a big plant coming up, but it’s 2027, am I right, Henk-Jan? Henk-Jan Bouwman: Their latest expansion is 27. Yes. Ted Jacoby III: So we’re not really seeing any milk solids going to new places in Europe. It’s all still within the traditional milk sheds going to the usual suspects. Martijn Goedhart: Yeah. Yeah. Ted Jacoby III: Okay. Let’s switch topics to butter. The [00:18:00] U.S., a year ago, a year and a half ago, we were around $3 butter. It came down into the 2s, $2.50ish, and then the bottom dropped out, and it went all the way down to, I think, $1.28 at one point in the U.S. Now it’s back up in the $1.70s. But Europe dropped even more from an even higher precipice. Where have we been over the last year and where’s the butter market now in Europe, and what’s it doing? Martijn Goedhart: Yeah, well, butter was the main driver of the volatility that we see right now because €7 butter prices, the fed and the milk would already pay an above break-even price to farmers. And then your skim return is just bonus, right? Friesland just released their yearly report and they’ve been paying like, I think 56¢ on average, which is, well it’s a bit debatable, but I would say at least 16¢ above break-even. And then they get even a bit more profit share. That has like sparked that extra milk output, because every liter you produce is making you money as a farmer. You wanna get your components up, you wanna squeeze the maximum out of the milk. That’s how we ended up in this situation and the vicious correction at the other end of it that [00:19:00] we’ve seen. We’ve seen inventories build up and anecdotally we’ll also hear that all the chilled storage is full. That’s still the case. Those stocks haven’t disappeared. And also we’ve imported quite a bit when the spread with the U.S. and before New Zealand was significant enough to do so. That product is arriving now. And that adds to the supply pressure. However, that market has been stable for the last few months. I would say it’s been volatile, but we’re at the same levels than one and a half, two months ago. So that also shows that price correction ultimately also triggers extra demand. It’s an elastic product, especially on the consumer side. However, it’s also capped in terms of upside because those stocks are there. The liquid equivalent, cream, if you would buy cream today, you’d make it into butter. You’d be like at €3.30–€3. 40 cost price where the market is trading at €4.20–€4.30. So, there’s like a thousand euro. Ted Jacoby III: So the multiples in cream are low. Martijn Goedhart: It has been like this during our whole down season, which is very atypical. You could [00:20:00] argue that that multiple is only gonna weaken because milk starts flowing. Ted Jacoby III: Mm-hmm. Martijn Goedhart: The main discussion we have is like, is all that bearishness already priced in? And have we hit the bottom? Have we hit a level at which people are happy to buy? Or is there more to come? Ted Jacoby III: So you guys aren’t really seeing much upward-ness in the butter market in Europe right now? Martijn Goedhart: No. No. If you look from a, let’s say, traditional supply and demand theory, we have record-high stocks and record-high stocks, they basically kill any prolonged upside to a market, I would say, until you work through it. Ted Jacoby III: What about the cheese market in Europe? Is the cheese market high or low right now? And how’s it acting? Martijn Goedhart: It’s surprisingly tight. You would think that especially over the past few years, quite some capacity has been added to the European landscape. You would reckon that this extra milk would flow into the cheese plants, and you can’t find demand for it, so you’d have to move your cheese, and you’d see supply pressure from producers. But, the opposite is true actually. The cheese that’s supplied is very fresh. Within the range of what you can supply, it’s on the fresher side. That [00:21:00] indicates that there are no older stocks or backlog in terms of supply. I think producers have done a good job in capturing those moments when they were competitive on the world market by getting to make cheese disappear out of Europe. And then the last few weeks there were some production disruptions, some factory outages, and that even caused a bit more tightness in the cheese market. But it has stabilized ever since. It has been stable like butter. We’ve seen the bottom for now, and it went up a bit. The only thing is that in cheese there are no inventories. That makes you think that there’s more upside in cheese when milk growth starts to slow compared to butter because there’s no inventory holding it back. Ted Jacoby III: Why isn’t there any inventory? Was Europe doing some really good exporting for a while? Martijn Goedhart: Yeah, that’s the main reason. Big producers did big sales of gouda at some point or mozz when they were competitive, just to keep that supply chain clean. Butter, you can freeze, carry if the market pays for it. Ted Jacoby III: Mm-hmm. Martijn Goedhart: Cheese, you can only do it on paper, but not in reality. You need to get rid of it. Ted Jacoby III: Right. Josh White: How far out do we think the [00:22:00] international cheese buyer is covered right now? Because that was a big topic coming into the first quarter is how much of the cheese business, particularly in contestable markets, did Europe win away from the U.S. Ted correct me if I’m wrong, but our exports have been fine, haven’t they? Ted Jacoby III: Our exports have been fine. That’s actually a good way to put it. We experienced a real nice pop in exports last year. I would say this year, second half of Q4 into Q1, we’ve experienced exports that were relatively similar to last year. Maybe a hair behind. And I think we’ll start seeing those numbers soon, but I wouldn’t be surprised that when we finally see January export numbers, we’re down like 5% versus last year, when last year was a really, really, really good number. I’d almost say down 5% is unexpectedly good relative to how good it was last year. Martijn Goedhart: Josh, coming back to your coverage question, I think both our markets have seen massive carries right over the last few months. So, that’s not a very interesting structure for buyers to cover long. Our market was [00:23:00] trading like spot plus two months maximum. And producers would only make big sales if they have the product already, if they feel it already a little. So, I would suggest that cheese buyers in Europe, as well as around the world, are relatively shortly covered, just the same as with nonfat. Henk-Jan Bouwman: Yeah, I see the same in my export markets where basically all the inquiries we are getting for cheese, are relatively close to home, so maybe one maximum two months out from a shipment perspective. Ted Jacoby III: Mm-hmm. Josh White: So, Ted, are you interpreting this though, that the pressure’s gonna be on more so in the U.S. to win that business going into the second quarter? Based on what you just heard from our European friends? How are you digesting this discussion? Ted Jacoby III: That’s a great question. I would say yes, but price action makes me wonder if the U.S. is trying to price itself out of this market. Martijn Goedhart: Take cheddar for example. EU is about $300 per ton elevated over U.S. So, in certain applications, such as process cheese, I think, by default the U.S., will win that export business. Ted Jacoby III: Even [00:24:00] at current futures prices for April and May of a $1.80? Martijn Goedhart: Little bit of a different story. But that also depends on the outcome of European flush and the effect of that flush on cheddar pricing in Europe. Ted Jacoby III: I would agree with you that about three weeks ago, we were cheaper, but after this rally, I don’t know if that’s still true. Josh White: The point Ted’s driving home right now is the big carry in the Class III cheese markets in the U.S., you’re concern is pricing out the second quarter? Ted Jacoby III: That’s exactly right. I’m concerned we’re in the middle of pricing ourselves out of the market. Josh White: Are we putting ourselves in a spot where we’re the best priced cheese product. We know, out of the U.S., our daily milk volumes are gonna increase. We know that a lot of that milk’s gonna go into cheese. We know that we’re gonna have to compete for cheese business. But even despite the fact that Europe’s relatively balanced, it feels like on cheese, are we putting ourselves in the global market in a position where Europe may win? Martijn Goedhart: It’s gonna be a good fight, Josh.  None of the origins can afford to lose a lot of export business over the flush. We need to get those volumes [00:25:00] moving. So, the products where we compete, we will compete. Ted Jacoby III: Mm-hmm. And here’s what’s likely to happen. The U.S. having a little bit more mature and developed futures market means that as Europe goes out there and makes sure they get that business, the U.S. at some point will say, rather than going and exporting this cheese, I’m just gonna put it in a warehouse and hedge it out on the futures because there’s a carry in the futures market right now and I can make 10¢ just sitting on it for a month or two. If we are gonna have to go head to head with Europe, to get that export business, we might not get as much as we did last year in the second quarter, because in the second quarter we really did get a lot of that cheese export business. Martijn Goedhart: I agree. Only, to what extent can you actually carry it, physically, without refreshing, Ted? Because in Europe, that’s a bit of an issue. Ted Jacoby III: In the U.S., there’s a number of strategies, a lot of it being rolling your inventory. So, you take your working inventory and you just start rolling it because I don’t think there’s a huge difference between 30-day-old cheddar and 90-day-old cheddar to a lot of people. There are strategies to [00:26:00] manage through higher inventory levels. But at a certain point, even that working inventory carry, it starts to max out the warehouse, start to get full, and then they just gotta sell it. Martijn Goedhart: Right. Ted Jacoby III: What’s interesting is, I think that a lot of people went into 2026 thinking, “We’ve gotta make sure we’ve got a home for this cheese, because there’s a lot more cheese, and the U.S. market demand is not that great. It’s very flat. And so, if we’re gonna make 4% or 5% more cheese, we’re just gonna have to export it.” Martijn Goedhart: Yeah. Ted Jacoby III: And so, they weren’t even looking at that equation. But I think what’s happened in the last month with this volatility in the market, it’s gonna have the inverse effect of getting everybody to actually sit on that cheese and keep it at home, and you’d think it would be the opposite, but no, I think we’re gonna end up bringing more cheese home and letting you win some of those battles. Josh White: Ted, can we talk a minute about the milk production outlook in both regions and how that’s shifted a bit over the past month or two? I’ll start within the U.S. We generally believe that the margins have not been squeezed to a point where we’re gonna see a massive [00:27:00] supply response, a negative supply response in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. Ted Jacoby III: And the bounce off The bottom, if anything, we may be back into a place where we’re encouraging more production. Josh White: We’ve got some big comparables. There’s maybe some vulnerabilities in the market. We’ve obviously been surprised with disease and other things in the past, so it’s not imminent, of course, but the math says we should expect to continue to have a good amount of milk out of the U.S. going forward. How does that look out of Europe presently? Martijn Goedhart: I would say almost copy paste Josh. Skimmed has bounced back. Butter has stabilized. Cheese has stabilized up to a point where if I look at the valorization of gouda at €3,300/MT you’re well above the 40¢/kg mark, which is basically the pain point for European farmers. And then I’m taking into account sweet whey. Not even WPC, right? So, if you have your WPC return, that’ll add another few cents at least. So yeah, we didn’t go deep enough to encourage any decline in milk production. The big question is how that’s gonna turn out this year: if we see the same curve or more [00:28:00] corrected to normal seasonality. But from a margin perspective, I think, just like Ted said, we bounced off the bottom, and it didn’t hurt enough or long enough for anything structural to change in 2026. Josh White: Hey, Martijn, would you add a little bit of color to what you just mentioned a moment ago? The two flush situation coming from the bluetongue outbreak and issue. Martijn Goedhart: In early 2025 in Europe, there were cases of bluetongue and that spread quite quickly across Western Europe. Spring started, early temperatures went up, and mosquitoes that spread the virus sting cows and then they get infected. It has an effect on calving. A lot of calves are not born in the right way, and also the cows, the output goes down, and it’s harder to get them pregnant. So, some cows, they first have to get over the bluetongue disease before they would start to calve. Some cows would calve late and that means that the milk also starts flowing late. Where you’d typically see a peak, in March, April, and then in eastern Europe, it’s a bit later, but now you’ve seen a similar peak because margins were good, but a longer [00:29:00] plateau at that level as well. Those cows get dried off later as well. So, are they gonna calve later again or is it like maybe some like refreshing of cows in the system, and the new ones will be set up according to the normal season? It’s a big question mark. We don’t know. Even the co-ops are struggling with that. Ted Jacoby III: So, you could have a flush that does not hit the peak it usually does, but it’s just longer. Martijn Goedhart: Yeah. If it’s the same as last year, that’s what’s gonna happen. If we somehow move back to a normal seasonal pattern, then you’ll see a higher peak than last year, but a bigger decline in the second half of the year. Josh White: If we’re talking about demand being okay and large amounts of milk in both Europe and the U.S. likely to continue, is there anywhere in the world that is suffering on their milk production? Do any of us have an idea of what’s going on with milk production in China? Martijn Goedhart: I think margins there are low. It’s been flat until now, the output, but it’s hard to get consistent numbers from China. But margins are still very low. So, that would not incentivize [00:30:00] growth. Ted Jacoby III: Milk production in China popped over a two year period, about five, six years ago. Then held steady for a couple of years, then it pulled back. Now, after that pullback, it’s flatlining again. Josh White: What we’re basically concluding from this is that we’re gonna have a lot of milk still, but, with the exception of some risk maybe on the cheese side and maybe in the butter situation in Europe, the rest of the products don’t seem to have concerning inventory levels as of right now. Ted Jacoby III: I would agree. I think there’s enough supply, but there seems to be surprisingly good demand, especially for protein. All right guys, we’re wrapping up here. Lightning round question. Do you think what’s happening in the nonfat market is a result of increased demand or less supply? Josh, you go first. Josh White: I wanna say both. We’re experiencing more demand across the entire curve that is both pulling more nonfat supply and is also pulling away skim solids from the dryer. Ted Jacoby III: Martijn? Martijn Goedhart: I agree with Josh. Some of it is fundamental SMD but a big part of it is demand waiting too long and needing to deliver. Ted Jacoby III: Henk? Henk-Jan Bouwman: yeah, I’m with you [00:31:00] guys. Ted Jacoby III: I do not want a chicken out like you and say both, so I’m trying to decide which one. I think it’s very subtle, but this is actually demand driven more than supply driven. Martijn Goedhart: Yeah. Ted Jacoby III: Yeah. All right guys. Thanks for joining us again. We really appreciate all the time that you guys spent tuning in and listening to us.  Keep milking those cows, and we’ll keep showing up and telling you what we’re seeing out there. Ted Jacoby III: We’ll be back in two weeks for a market update with the Jacoby team. Looking forward to seeing you then. All right guys. Hey, Martijn. Henk, thank you so much for joining us today. Really appreciate the conversation. Martijn Goedhart: Thanks guys. Huge pleasure. Henk-Jan Bouwman: Thank you very much. Martijn Goedhart: Cheers.

Rookies Review at SMP The opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park gave us our first real look at the new wave of Supercars rookies, and in this episode Tony Whitlock brings them together for an honest, energetic debrief. Zach Bates, Jackson Walls, Jobe Stewart and Rylan Gray each sit down to unpack their first races of the year the nerves, the learning curve, the surprises, and the moments they'll be carrying into Round 2. From adapting to Main Game intensity to understanding the rhythm of SMP under pressure, Tony guides the four rising stars through what clicked, what didn't, and how they're shaping their rookie campaigns. It's a raw, insightful look at the next generation as they take their first real steps into the championship fight. From the race track to your device with Tony Whitlock on Inside Supercars Inside Supercars Podcast: Subscribe Apple Podcasts I Spotify I Google Podcasts Supported by: P1 Australia Link:P1 Australia MusicCreative Commons Music by Jason Shaw on Audionautix.com MusicComa-Media from Pixabay #RepcoSC #TCRAust #Supercars #Motorsport #ADL500

Rookies Review at SMP The opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park gave us our first real look at the new wave of Supercars rookies, and in this episode Tony Whitlock brings them together for an honest, energetic debrief. Zach Bates, Jackson Walls, Jobe Stewart and Rylan Gray each sit down to unpack their first races of the year the nerves, the learning curve, the surprises, and the moments they'll be carrying into Round 2. From adapting to Main Game intensity to understanding the rhythm of SMP under pressure, Tony guides the four rising stars through what clicked, what didn't, and how they're shaping their rookie campaigns. It's a raw, insightful look at the next generation as they take their first real steps into the championship fight. From the race track to your device with Tony Whitlock on Inside Supercars Inside Supercars Podcast: Subscribe Apple Podcasts I Spotify I Google Podcasts Supported by: P1 Australia Link:P1 Australia MusicCreative Commons Music by Jason Shaw on Audionautix.com MusicComa-Media from Pixabay #RepcoSC #TCRAust #Supercars #Motorsport #ADL500

Ajatus suomalaisesta sisusta kytkeytyy periksiantamattomuuteen, koviin aikoihin ja yksin pärjäämiseen. Eduskuntapuheissa sisua on viljelty etenkin lamavuosina ja vaikeina aikoina. Miksi vetoaminen resilienssiin näyttää korvanneen sisu-puheen? Johtaako mielikuva yksinpärjäävistä, sisukkaista suomalaisista politiikassa väärille laduille? Oliko ”sisulla ja sydämellä” vaaleissa esiintynyt SMP kaikkien aikojen sisu-puolue? Mikä on päivänpolitiikan sana? Suomen kielen dosentti Vesa Heikkinen ja Politiikkaradion toimittaja Tapio Pajunen analysoivat politiikan kielen ajankohtaisuuksia ja valitsevat päivänpolitiikan sanan. Voit ehdottaa päivänpolitiikan sanoja verkkolomakkeella, sähköpostitse, tai Bluesky:ssa ja X:ssä @tapiopajunen ja @tosentti. Puheet päreiksi -ohjelmaa esitetään Politiikkaradiossa perjantaisin.

Kia ora.Welcome to Wednesday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz.Today we lead with news financial markets are taking more notice of the lackluster US economic data today, with Wall Street equity markets hesitating, bond yields in a defensive twist, and the USD staying weaker.But first, the overnight dairy Pulse auction not only confirmed the prior week's sharp rises, it added to them. WMP was up a marginal +0.4% from a week ago to be up +14% from the start of 2026. Butter was up +6.8% from last week, up +18% year-to-date. And the SMP price was up +1.7% from last week, also up +14% so far this year. Everyone in the industry will welcome this confirmation of the recent rising trend, even if some of it is just USD weakness.Not so positive was the US retail sales report for December, which showed zero growth from November, to remain +2.3% higher than a year ago. Given CPI inflation is +2.7%, there is clear stagflation involved here.Meanwhile the weekly ADP employment report only showed private payrolls gaining +6,500 nationally, well within the margin of error. But at least it was better than the prior week's no-change.The January NFIB optimism index was also little-changed and still below the benchmark 100 level.US household debt as at the end of 2025 was recorded at US$18.8 tln, a +4.2% rise from the end of 2024. Non-housing debt rose only +2.6% in the same period, so Americans are taking on more housing debt at a faster pace. The same report shows delinquency rates on all loans rose to 4.8% of outstanding household debt, the highest level since 2017, driven by higher defaults among low-income and young borrowers.The overall soft US data probably helps make the case for another Fed rate cut at their next meeting on March 19, 2026 (NZT) but there is a lot to be revealed before then.In Australia, consumer sentiment slipped in February, and not insignificantly. Recall, the RBA has recently pushed through a rate rise. Analysts say the fall is a muted response compared to previous rate hikes. Over 80% of those surveyed expect interest rates to rise further in the next 12 months. Homebuyer sentiment has sunk as price expectations hit new 15 year high.Meanwhile, the NAB business sentiment survey results inched up in January, although revenues softened. That was offset by costs easing a bit faster.The UST 10yr yield is now just under 4.15%, and down a sharpish -5 bps from yesterday.The price of gold will start today down -US$55 from yesterday at US$5018/oz. Silver is down a sharp -US$3 at US$80.50/oz and continuing its extreme volatility.American oil prices are down -50 USc at just on US$64/bbl, while the international Brent price is now just under US$69/bbl.The Kiwi dollar is little-changed against the USD from yesterday, still just under 60.5 USc. Against the Aussie we are up +20 bps at 85.5 AUc. Against the euro we are holding at 50.8 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today unchanged at 63.9.The bitcoin price starts today at US$69,517 and down -0.7% from this time yesterday. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been moderate at just on +/- 2.3%.You can get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.Kia ora. I'm David Chaston and we'll do this again tomorrow.

Dr. W. Mart Thompson, Director of the SMP Program at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis joins Zach to explain how SMP works, who it's for, why it exists, and what outcomes the LCMS should actually expect—cutting through confusion in a convention year. To access the show notes, please visit www.redletterpodcast.com.

After the mystery surrounding the latest GDT Auction, Fonterra’s President, Global Ingredients, finally got us the real numbers. And they were worth waiting for – WMP + 5.3%, SMP + 10.6% and Butter + 8.8%.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Text me your feedback.The constant barrage of terrible news can be overwhelming and exhausting. While big feelings are normal responses to what we're seeing our feeds, we also need to metabolize those feelings so they don't take up residence in our hearts and minds and prevent us from finding pathways forward. In this guided practice, Jen takes you through an embodied and grounded practiced called Felt Sensing. Part of a broader therapeutic practice called Focusing, Felt Sensing helps you be with feelings with grounded presence so they don't overwhelm and take you out. If you want to skip the intro, jump to 2:53 or use the chapter marker if it's supported by your app.~ ~ ~SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

In November 2025, the Academic Ability Test (TKA) will be implemented in Indonesia, and it will be voluntary. However, it will still be implemented for high school students. It is planned to be implemented for elementary and junior high school students in April 2026. - Pada bulan November 2025, Tes Kemampuan Akademik (TKA) diberlakukan di Indonesia, yang bersifat sukarela. Namun masih untuk tingkat SMA. Untuk jenjang SD dan SMP direnacanakan akan dilakukan bulan April 2026.

Kia ora,Welcome to Wednesday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz.Today we lead with news the US dollar fell for a fourth consecutive session today, sliding to its lowest level since February 2022. It's a -3.5% devaluation in just one week. Some think the US Administration is engineering the fall to bolster its export competitiveness as the US factory sector misfires, tariffs aren't working other than raising costs, and to put pressure on the Fed ahead of its meeting next week.First up today however there was another dairy Pulse auction earlier this morning and that brought some interesting signals. The WMP price came in almost identical to last week's full auction and has been holding at this higher level since the start of 2026 when it made that 7%-plus jump. The SMP price rose a strong +5.9% today from last week, and is now +9% higher than what is was at the end of 2025.. Positive signs, but somewhat undermined by the fast-falling USD.In the US, the weekly ADP employment update recorded a weekly gain of under +8000, continuing the slow easing that they have been recording since the end of November. January non-farm payrolls which will be released at the end of next week, is currently expected to show a very tame +40,000 jobs gain which will continue the weak run that started in May 2025.And that may be optimistic, The Conference Board's consumer sentiment survey for January reported that confidence collapsed to lowest point since 2014, to levels even lower than the pandemic depths. It is now back to levels as it rose from the GFC.But the latest factory survey, this one by the Richmond Fed in the mid-Atlantic states, showed little-change from its already negative levels. New order levels rose marginally however, but because that is on a dollar basis it might just be because the same survey shows high price increase activity, required by even higher cost increase levels.More positive was the January Dallas Fed services survey, which moved up into positive territory in January after four months of consecutive retreat.Today's US Treasury 5yr Note auction brought the same median yield rise from the prior equivalent event a month ago. Higher risk premiums are getting embeddedIn China, industrial profits rose +5.3% in December from the same month a year ago. They will be pleased with that because for the whole of calendar 2025 they were up merely +0.6% (and would have declined but for the December rise).In India, we can confirm the signing of their big trade deal with the EU, removing both tariff and non-tariff barriers.. The US isn't happy.In Europe, we should note that Swedish officials are looking at what it would take to ditch the krona in favour of the euro. An independent review has already pointed out that the benefits would greatly outweigh the costs. The Swedes last voted on this issue in 2003.In Australia, business sentiment as measured by the NAB survey, was stable and mildly positive in December. Business conditions however improved more strongly on better sales and margins.Later today, Australia will publish its December CPI result, and after the strong labour market for January, will be closely followed and could very well move financial markets. They had 3.4% inflation in November and this December result is expected to be 3.6%. This will be very influential on the RBA's deliberations at next Tuesday's cash rate target review.The UST 10yr yield is now just on 4.23%, up +2 bps from this time yesterday.The price of gold will start today at US$5087/oz, unchanged from yesterday and holding at its record high. Silver is down to US$107/oz. Platinum has fallen more sharply and now at US$2522, down -US$335/oz from yesterday.American oil prices are up +US$1 at just under US$62/bbl, while the international Brent price is softish, now just under US$67/bbl and up a bit more. This is all USD devaluation-driven.The Kiwi dollar is up +50 bps from yesterday, now at 60.2 USc as the greenback goes into another devaluation stage. Against the Aussie we are down -10 bps at 86.3 AUc. Against the euro we are also down -20 bps at just on 50.2 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today just under 63.7, and up +20 bps from yesterday, its highest since late September.The bitcoin price starts today at US$88,576 and up +1.0% from this time yesterday. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been low at just under +/- 0.9%.You can get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.Kia ora. I'm David Chaston and we'll do this again tomorrow.

Jack Kalleberg joins Zach to discuss pastoral formation, leadership development, and the hidden costs shaping the future of the LCMS—exploring opportunity cost, SMP, online formation, and what the church needs next. To access the show notes, please visit www.redletterpodcast.com.

Milk production is up 4.5% — but somehow, milk is clearing. Something doesn't add up. In this episode of The Milk Check, the team uncovers the shifts reshaping dairy economics in 2026. Ted Jacoby III leads a classic market roundtable with the Jacoby team to unpack what they're seeing as dairy transitions out of the holiday demand season and into early-year reality. Despite 4.5% year-over-year milk production growth, milk is clearing in many regions. Cheese and butter markets are under pressure, but inventories aren't yet burdensome. Protein markets remain tight. And nonfat dry milk is showing surprising strength. So what's going on? In this episode, we cover: Why added processing capacity may be masking where supply is really long How cheese and butter are absorbing milk that would normally back up at the farm Why protein demand is tightening skim solids and whey markets Whether nonfat's recent rally is real or a phantom And which dairy market narratives the team thinks are wrong right now If you're trying to make sense of conflicting signals across milk, fat, protein and powder, this episode delivers the context behind the numbers. Listen now to The Milk Check episode 90: The Market is Lying to Us. Got questions? We'd love to hear them. Submit below, and we might answer it on the show. Ask The Milk Check Ted Jacoby III: [00:00:00] Am I just being a conspiracy theorist? Diego Carvallo: I would probably bet a little bit on that conspiracy theory. It could be. It could be possible, Ted. Who knows. Ted Jacoby III: Welcome to the Milk Check from TC Jacob and Company, your complete guide to dairy markets, from the milking parlor to the supermarket shelf. I’m Ted Jacoby. Let’s dive in. We’re on the new side of the New Year. It is January 12th. we’re gonna have a classic market discussion today. Things have started to settle down from the holidays and I thought it would be a great idea just to share with everybody what we’re seeing in the markets as we’re transitioning from the high-demand season into the low-demand season. We have our usual suspects today. We have my brother Gus who manages our fluid group. We’ve got Josh White, head of our dairy ingredients group. We have Joe Maixner, head of all of our butter sales. Mike Brown, our Vice President of Market Intelligence, and myself. So, we’ll start with milk, Gus. What’s it look like right now? Gus Jacoby: It certainly isn’t tight, but it isn’t really long either. I think the November milk production was up [00:01:00] 4.5% and that typically would be fairly significant in areas where there isn’t a lot of additional processing capacity. One would think it would be very, very long with that kind of growth, but we’re not seeing that. Areas like the upper Midwest, Mideast, those areas are not as long as we thought they would be. I don’t want to act as if it’s tight. That’s not the case. Through the holidays, there was still plenty of milk that was around. But I think here as we climbed out of the New Year holiday and into mid-January, things have gotten fairly what we would say in balance. And that’s a little bit alarming considering that type of milk production growth. Ted Jacoby III: Why do you think that is? Is it just all the new capacity from all the new plants that have been built, or what else is going on? Gus Jacoby: Well, certainly in that western, upper Midwest and Southwest region, upstate New York as well, there’s been a lot of processing capacity that’s been added. So, those areas have been able to soak up that extra milk. I think milks travling a bit but I also think folks have found a little bit more efficient avenues to place the milk after dealing with some length over the past year [00:02:00] or so. But there’s a little bit of a question mark I have in the back of my mind as to how efficient we’ve been able to do so. Typically, when we have this kind of large growth, anything north of 4% is large, and large enough to be concerned about. But nonetheless, the processing capacity is significant. We don’t wanna discount that. But one can certainly wonder why in areas like the Mideast, where you haven’t really added a lot of production capacity here recently, why we aren’t seeing a bit more milk floating around. Ted Jacoby III: You think it’s just domino effect type things? Where, as milk is tighter in New York, so none of that milk is going into the southeast or into Appalachia, therefore it’s gotta be pulled from the Mideast? Gus Jacoby: Ted, that might be a part of it. I think domino effect is certainly going on here. There’s some areas of the country that don’t have enough milk because of that additional capacity we discussed. But having said all that, I think there’s some question marks out there right now as to why it isn’t a bit longer in certain parts of the country. Ted Jacoby III: What about some, I’ll call it non-traditional demand growth, and what I mean by that is things [00:03:00] like ESL or some of the protein drinks? It looks like there have been new brands showing up on the supermarket shelf lately. Gus Jacoby: If you’re alluding to areas like UF milk or high-protein fluid products there is certainly a lot of demand in that Class I, Class II segment of our industry. Add in the fact that you have a lot of demand for fortification solids for cheese plants, skim can seem a little bit tight right now, and there’s some logic behind that, but I don’t think there’s enough ultra filtration capacity right now to satisfy demand. So, if milk is going in that direction, there isn’t enough UF units out there, I think, to fill that void. And I wouldn’t say that’s the reason why we’re tightening up milk supplies by no means. In some parts of the world, yes, that might be the case, but that’s pretty small in the grand scheme of things. Ted Jacoby III: On the fluid side, is skim solids slash dairy protein tighter than the butterfat side? Gus Jacoby: Absolutely it is. Yes. I don’t think there’s any question about that. You’ve got two things driving [00:04:00] that. Too much butterfat requires cheese plants to gather more fortification solids, and the demand for protein right now is through the roof. You’re gonna have it hit from both sides and they’re hitting pretty strong. Ted Jacoby III: Could that extra skim solid slash dairy protein demand be what’s tightening up the milk market? Are we seeing it, for example, in lower cream multiples? Gus Jacoby: There still is plenty of cream around, to answer that question directly. I just don’t think there’s enough UF processing capacity at this moment in time to say that it’s tightening milk by any means. Ted Jacoby III: Could it be cheese plants taking the milk directly off the farm but spinning off a lot more cream? Gus Jacoby: I would say some of that is gonna go on. Yeah. ’cause there’s not enough fortification solids to be had, or at least not at the price the cheese plants are gonna be happy with. Cheese plants, even though they might prefer UF at times, they’ll take different types of skim solids and that certainly will tighten up that skim side of the market. That, combined with the fact that the protein sector is short, certainly you’re gonna have that element in our [00:05:00] market right now. I just think there’s enough milk out there, Ted, and not enough protein, isolation capacity of any sort to be the main reason as to why you’re not as long on milk as you think you should be. Ted Jacoby III: You know, I’ve had a theory going for a little while that all this extra capacity we’ve added, a lot of it is cheese capacity, and I feel like this time around, we’ve just transferred where we’re feeling the length. We’re not necessarily feeling the length in milk like we usually do. Instead, there’s enough processing capacity to get all that milk and to make cheese out of it. And therefore, we’re seeing the length in cheese, and we’re seeing the length in butter. And that’s why those two markets have been under so much pressure lately, whereas the milk market seems to be in balance. We’ve just moved down the supply chain a little bit where the length is manifesting. Does that make sense? Gus Jacoby: A little bit? Yeah. Mike Brown: It Does Make sense. Where you have new plants, they wanna be full. They’re cheese plants. They’re gonna try to fill those plants with milk to the extent they can market product, which is becoming a [00:06:00] concern as we see the CME cheese price continuing to drop. We’re also reaching a point when fat is very high, you can’t afford to fortify cheese vats because your skim solids price is high relative to fat. Right now everything’s kind of low, but powder relative to cheese, is as high as it’s been in quite a while. If you have revenue from waste stream, fortifying with nonfat or skim solids makes a whole lot of sense. But if you’re paying that full price for the casein portion of that skim, it gets closer again now too. It’s a little different situation than it’s been in a while. I don’t think Gus could be any more right about the need for more ultra filtered capacity. I’m just curious where it’s gonna show. Because the demand certainly seems to be there. Ted Jacoby III: If there’s one place where I think maybe we’re underestimating demand, it’s in that ESL protein space. And I agree with Gus, there’s probably not enough capacity to really manifest all of that resting demand or untapped demand, but I bet we’re maximizing that supply chain everywhere we can, especially given what we’re seeing in the whey protein [00:07:00] market right now. And it doesn’t show up in the data really clearly. You’re up four and a half percent in milk. Some of that is, we’re still measuring against weakness and we’re measuring against the bird flu outbreak that was happening a year ago. I just think there’s also some demand there possibly in that space that isn’t really showing up in the data in a way that makes it clear to everybody we’ve got some good demand in a couple of places. Having said that, I also think we’ve got more than enough cheese right now. We’ve got more than enough butter right now. But in both cases, and I’m gonna throw this at Joe I don’t think the inventories, at least what’s showing up in the cold storage data is telling us the inventories are burdensome yet. And that might just be when we are in the calendar, but it could just be we’re finding new places for demand. Joe, what are your thoughts? Joe Maixner: Yeah, inventories are definitely not burdensome right now. We’re coming off of pretty good draw down over the holiday season. Obviously, we’re really early into the inventory build period. But demand overall, coming back from [00:08:00] the holidays here, has been pretty strong out of the gate for the New Year. Everybody’s coming back to the office. They’re seeing these very depressed prices. And there’s been a lot of interest in both spot volume, building up some inventory on some spot buys, as well as some additional contract volume for the remainder of the year. So, going back to your comment on inventories, the one thing we always have to keep in mind with looking at cold storage is that number is all types of butter sitting in warehouse inventories. When it comes to pricing, the only thing that matters is 80% CME eligible bulk. We still have a fair amount of salted bulk, especially the older production, in people’s hands, and that has been showing up in the marketplace. A lot of that’s because there was not a lot of micro fixing for the holiday season. Cream was plentiful. People were making plenty of product outta fresh cream as opposed to reformulating that older butter into the retail pack. I think that there’s not a lot of fresh production being made right now [00:09:00] in the salted variety. We could see a nice little price pop here in the coming months once that older product becomes ineligible on the CME. Ted Jacoby III: It’ll be interesting to watch. It’s funny, I think there’s some interesting similarities, not with the old crop, new crop issue, but just some similarities on the cheese side. There’s an old saying about an anticipatory bull market where people start driving up the price ’cause they’re afraid of not having product tomorrow. This just feels like an anticipatory bear market where the inventory levels in cheese aren’t saying that we’ve got a massive amount of length and oversupply of cheese. But you can’t help but wonder if the reason the price is so low is because there is no one out there, both because they’re looking at their forecasted demand for their product and they’re looking at the forecasted milk supply, there’s just no one out there who has any worry about being able to get the cheese they need tomorrow. And so there’s no reason for them to go out there and buy the cheese today and tie up their capital when they’re pretty confident they’re gonna be able to get it tomorrow, maybe even at a lower price. And I get the feeling that there’s some similarities [00:10:00] in the butter market, too. But let’s switch over to the powder side. We’ve been talking about the strength in the protein market for a while, but lately we’ve been seeing some strength in the nonfat market. Diego, is that real strength is that long-term strength? Have we found a bottom in nonfat, what’s going on there? Diego Carvallo: Ted, it’s a very, very interesting question. It’s something everybody’s discussing and commenting about, right? The nonfat market feels like it’s way tighter, the spot market, than what most people were expecting. Right. And the funny thing is everybody has a different theory on what could be happening. We’re not sure what’s gonna happen in the coming months, but there’s definitely a few theories on why this market could be tight and why we’re seeing this kind of short covering rally that we saw in the past two weeks. There’s theories about more UF capacity in areas like the Midwest, which is creating a premium for that product in that region. There’s also theories of some plants in California [00:11:00] mainly being down during the months of November and October, which could have also created a shortage of product that needed to be delivered. Some point also to Mexico or the domestic market stepping in when prices reach the $1.10 or $1.15s and buying decent volumes. But the fact of the matter is, market is a little bit tighter, way tighter than what most anticipated at this period. At the same time, most people are expecting because of ample availability of milk in regions like California, that the market is gonna have to start building inventories because we are, I don’t know, 15 cents or 20 cents higher per pound than Europe. So we’re definitely not gonna be able to export a lot of product to Asia, to the Middle East, or to even Latin America at these prices. So, yeah, the market is tight, but the medium-term outlook is still that we’re gonna [00:12:00] see plenty of pressure. Ted Jacoby III: Any difference in price right now between skim milk powder and nonfat dry milk? Diego Carvallo: That differential between the two has shrank has been smaller because if you talk to most plants in California, everybody’s running nonfat at full capacity. Their plants are almost all of them at full capacity and nobody’s making skim this time of the year. It’s a throughput matter. They try to make as much nonfat as possible when they have plenty of milk. Ted Jacoby III: Interesting. You’d think if prices were going up in the U.S. but not going up in Europe, it would widen, but it’s actually shrinking. That’s wild. Diego Carvallo: Exactly. Yep. And with the U.S. making a lot of nonfat, all of that is gonna go into NDPSR, there should be pressure. At the same time, this week we have the ONIL tender, which most of the market is expecting a result and following it closely because if Europe doesn’t sell that tender, they’re gonna have more product and more pressure on their product. Ted Jacoby III: Makes sense. [00:13:00] Well, Europe’s had some surplus milk as well. Is it possible this market in the U.S. is popping because some of the European traders want it to pop so they can make sure that they clear the excess European product? Or am I just being a conspiracy theorist? Diego Carvallo: I would probably bet a little bit on that conspiracy theory. It could be. It could be possible, Ted. Who knows. Ted Jacoby III: Got it. All right. Sounds good. Josh, what’s going on in the whey market? We just keep talking about tight. Has anything changed? Josh White: No. It remains pretty tight. I think the whey protein demand seems strong. I will say coming into the year I’ve seen more product trade on the spot market, which is interesting. But the tale or the storyline is that that spot trade is still met with good demand and those prices are all still higher than the first quarter negotiated prices to many of the large users, meaning that there’s still good demand at these high prices, and the consumer hasn’t even seen these high prices yet. So it seems like it’s the same in Europe. First quarter is pretty much locked. Second quarter maybe there’s more vulnerability, but at the moment, I think that the [00:14:00] majority of the market would bet that we remain firm through the second quarter maybe even see some higher prices. I think what’s interesting if you look at the market is on the sweet whey powder side, you’ll have Europeans even comment that the whey market is a little bit firm, but they’re quite a bit lower than our price right now. And if you look at the forward futures prices, we have a classic short market. It’s inverted. It’s significantly inverted. And it’ll be curious to see if we really have that much additional sweet whey powder to either move the prices lower or we get enough demand pushback and reformulation to result in some extra product being available. But at the moment, across most of the whey complex it’s fairly firm, which I think tells the story. I mean, we went through the northern hemisphere’s lower milk production months, albeit we’re reporting really high year-over-year numbers, as you commented, compared to bird flu of a year ago in the West. People have had every incentive to place milk in any utilization other than butter and powder over the last few [00:15:00] months, and the market seems to be doing that. In addition to all of the other little comments, it feels like consumers knew that and really ran their supply chains pretty thin. And coming out of the holiday period, there is some short covering happening. Whether that’s just a derivative, speculative position short covering, physical short covering, it’s happening. In addition to that, when we look at the U.S., you can’t paint with a broad brush. The west seems to be running a lot of powder. The Midwest is not. And so that’s created a little bit of a tight situation here. So when you add the demand in Mexico for nonfat you add Midwestern pipeline filling, it’s enough that our spot market is carrying a really big premium to the rest of the world. We’ll see if that can continue as our daily milk production increases seasonally, both here and in Europe. I think that as that continues, as milk goes up, does that directly translate to butter and powder production going up? I would argue at least on some of these products, we know that the [00:16:00] WPI dryers are full. We know the WPC 80 dryers are full. I suspect that the MPC dryers are full and all of the fluid products going into those Class II products are probably full. So we’ll see if the market can handle the seasonal ramp up in production or not. And arguably, I think that’s what most of us are expecting. We’re expecting that we’ve still got plenty of milk. Then that’s gonna have some price pressure. But I also would comment that if we look back over the past few months, demand has been quite good. Global demand has been quite good. The question is, will it continue to be quite good or did we do a lot of buying in the late third quarter and early fourth quarter to refill the global pipeline? Things like Chinese New Year buying things like Ramadan buying and others, and are we gonna be met with an air pocket in demand as we start this year? Don’t know yet. The protein demand isn’t just in dry proteins or in UF for fortified milk. Mike Brown: It’s in yogurts. It’s in cottage cheese. At the same time, ice cream’s lackluster, sour cream is no better. And so that demand for [00:17:00] protein goes beyond just ingredients. On the whey side, boy, we’re gonna have to see a real shift in whey protein prices, wouldn’t we, Josh? We all know those dynamics can shift, but we’re a long ways from that. Other thing in California has got so much milk, they’re running everything full. If you look at anyone you talked the point made earlier, they can’t make SMP right now.They can’t, they are that full to the tilt. In fact, some of them are putting in production control programs again because they’ve got so much milk. Will milk move around, particularly if you can’t find a home for cheese no matter what the price is? Ted Jacoby III: The fact that California’s already running full and it’s the middle of January, which means we probably have at least a month and a half until they hit the peak of their flush. Mike Brown: Absolutely. Ted Jacoby III: That’s a Little bit concerning to me. Mike Brown: Yep. It, it should be to everyone and their spot prices show it. Cream’s been bad, and even the Midwest Class III spots are weak, but part of that’s because the cheese market’s weak. And that lag in Class III, which isn’t picked up in that weekly CME price until next month at the earliest. There’s signs that we’re seeing some shifts in the three four spread. We keep this up, [00:18:00] Ted, it’s gonna go away. Yeah. That may change where milk ends up. Ted Jacoby III: Yep. Diego Carvallo: I have a quick question, Ted. Where do you expect this extra milk in California to end up, because it seems it’s very early. I’m already hearing a lot of milk dumping in California. It seems like we’re at capacity in California. What’s the natural spill over for that milk? Ted Jacoby III: I’ve got two thoughts, but I wanna ask Gus a question first. Gus, if there’s one place where there might be extra UF capacity, would it be in California? Gus Jacoby: Perhaps, but probably not. Relative to demand. It’s limited pretty much all over the country. Ted Jacoby III: Okay. So what I’m gonna answer, in Diego’s question, first and foremost, we’ve lost a lot of milk in the Northwest. Yes. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it heads north on Interstate 10 and ends up in one of those plants in the state of Washington. That would be my first guess. My second guess would be the reason that I asked that question of Gus is they keep the butterfat in California and make butter out of it. Then they ship the UF milk to a cheese plant in the [00:19:00] southwest to extend the cheese yields there. If I were to guess it would happen in one of those two ways. Mike Brown: Diego, what you’re describing is exactly why they’ve put some production quotas back in California because they know it’s gonna get worse. And it makes perfect sense . To me, it’s gonna end up wherever the landed price is the best. On fat capacity, if California has the room to process fat, it’s gonna be in their best interest to process it. ’cause the people that buy surplus fat, outta California, that’s some of the lowest multiples in the country. Even when markets are tight. They’re not gonna wanna send that fat to Utah, Nebraska, or Washington State, or anywhere else if they can process it locally and store it. ’cause it’ll be just moving less water, it’s gonna be mm-hmm. To their benefit. And to Joe’s point. Butter markets are reasonably sound. I mean, they’re lower, but it doesn’t sound like we’re over big supply yet. But one thing we haven’t talked about much is that I think a lot of this price is gonna depend on if we keep exports strong. And that’s one of the big questions we all have. Are they gonna stay? I mean, certainly I think, Joe, listening to you talk, that’s helped a lot in [00:20:00] butter because we’re moving more than 82 overseas and we’re making more of it. On the cheese side. I’m hearing from some of the big cheddar guys that they’re still exporting cheese and relieved to do that. Prices are of course lower, but to me that’s really key. Particularly for products that aren’t as storable as powder. What are those trade markets gonna be? That may impact, where milk goes. Because even if cheese is a buck 30, if you sell it for 30 under, ’cause you have an oversupply, you’ve lost money. So that’s not something you’re gonna wanna do. Ted Jacoby III: All right. Well if I were to summarize really quickly what we’re seeing out there, I would say on the milk side, milk is clearing, which feels a little bit surprising given that we’re up 4.5%, but it’s probably due to all the extra capacity we have out there. However, on the butterfat side cream is long. Butter is long. And while we may get a new crop, old crop pop, the length probably will never fully go away. It just may be how the butterfat’s being processed and maybe we’ll have a temporary tightness in salted 80%. On the cheese side, we’re making a lot of cheese and we’re building inventories. [00:21:00] Mozzarella is feeling longer than cheddar because you can’t store mozzarella, whereas you can park cheddar in a warehouse if you want to, and that’s probably exactly what’s going on in the beginning of this year. Yes, we’ve got some exports but exports are not greater than they were at this time last year, though they may be at comparable levels, at least right now. But there seems to be a concern that that’s not sustainable like it was last year. On the nonfat side, that’s where we have some surprising tightness and we’re watching that market and we are watching it closely because there seems to be conflicting supply and demand indicators regarding where that tightness is coming from. And so our real big question is how sustainable this current tightness is. And on the whey market, whey market is strong. It’s been strong, it continues to be strong, and we haven’t really seen anything yet to change that narrative. And that in general probably sums up our dairy markets. I’m gonna ask everybody one lightning round question. What is one widely repeated dairy market narrative that you [00:22:00] think is wrong right now? Mike, I’m gonna start with you. Mike Brown: I think if there’s anything that is wrong or uncertain is how quick the response is gonna be to really, really low prices on milk supply. I still think we’re gonna take a while to back down and the folks that have really invested in and figured out the beef market are gonna be strong, but people that haven’t done that are gonna really get pummeled. So I think that’s it. How quick will we respond to the lower milk prices? How quick will market respond? It could be quicker than we think. Ted Jacoby III: You think it’ll be quicker. Mike Brown: I think it could be quicker. And I’m a good economist. I’m not gonna say it will, I’m gonna say it could, but yes, I think it could be a little quicker. Particularly with beef, with cull prices so high, there’s incentive to liquidate herds if you don’t wanna milk cows anymore right now. I’m not talking the 10,000 cow herds. I’m talking the smaller Midwest herds. Ted Jacoby III: You got it. Gus, what about you, one widely repeated dairy market narrative that you think is wrong? Gus Jacoby: I always have contrary perspectives on things. I don’t know what to tell you except, back to what I said originally. [00:23:00] Milk is just simply even with high growth production numbers, it’s not as long as some people might think in areas of the country where we haven’t added too much pricing capacity. All right. Sounds good. Diego, how about you? Diego Carvallo: I would say a lot of people are expecting farmers to be losing money at this level, and I think that’s wrong. Ted Jacoby III: They’re still making money. Diego Carvallo: Or maybe breaking even. Ted Jacoby III: All right. I like that one. Joe, how about you? Joe Maixner: I’m gonna buck Diego’s thoughts. I’m gonna go off a nonfat trend. I think that the nonfat market’s gonna continue to trend higher this year as opposed to fall back off. Ted Jacoby III: That’s a good one. That’s a good one. I will struggle with that one, but more power to you. Josh, how about you? Josh White: “This time’s different.” I don’t think this time’s any different than the prior times. I think it’s all perspective. Prices are gonna do what prices do to demand eventually. I realize that we have nuance to our markets, particularly with whey proteins, GLP-1 inspired demand, things like that. But I don’t know that I’m a subscriber to “this time’s different.” Ted Jacoby III: All right. Well, I’ll go ahead and venture mine out there, and I’m gonna have fun with it because I’m gonna [00:24:00] take the exact opposite side of the aisle from Mike and Gus, and I’m gonna say, I actually think this particular drop in prices is gonna last longer than the traditional six months. Usually you see it takes about six months for a market to bottom out and some of dairy farmer habits to change and see the market going back up. But I’m actually on the side of Diego. I think dairy farmers at this price are even still making money because they’re getting so much money from breeding to beef and in some cases from selling their manure. And as a result, their balance sheets will remain healthy. And they’re not gonna be under pressure to exit and sell their cows. I also believe that high beef prices have the inverse effect of what you would expect. And they don’t mean people will sell more cows. It actually means they’ll sell less because dairy farming’s a way of life. And so they’re gonna sell fewer cows to stay cash flow positive rather than more. And so I actually think that this one’s gonna take a lot longer than six months to adjust, but I think what’s really healthy is the fact that we have a diversity of opinions here, which means nobody really knows what’s gonna happen next. Alright guys, I thought [00:25:00] this was a great discussion. And, as it always is in the dairy industry, may we live in interesting times and this one’s not gonna be any different, is it? So thanks everybody for listening in. Great discussion today. Guys, thanks for joining us. Mike Brown: Thank you. Josh White: Thank you guys.

In this episode of the Solar Maverick Podcast, host Benoy Thanjan is joined by returning guest and co-host Nate Jovanelly, CEO and Founder of Sunraise Capital, for a deep dive into the US Residential Solar Outlook for 2026. With major policy changes, the elimination of Section 25D for homeowners, and a rapid shift back to third-party ownership models, the residential solar market is undergoing one of the biggest transformations in its history. Benoy and Nate break down what changed in 2025, how the Big Beautiful Bill reshaped the market, and what installers, investors, and homeowners need to understand heading into 2026. They explore the return of leases and PPAs, the growing importance of energy storage, the impact of FEOC and domestic content requirements, rising equipment complexity, and how customer acquisition is evolving. Nate also shares candid insights from building Sunraise Capital over the past two and a half years and offers advice for clean energy entrepreneurs navigating turbulent times.   Notable Quotes * “The only constant in solar is change.” * “Leases are back, and they're back for a reason.” * “Complexity is becoming the moat in residential solar.” * “Solar is still sold, not bought, and that has to change.” * “The companies that survive this period are going to thrive.”   Why This Episode Matters The residential solar industry is entering a new era. With homeowner tax credits gone, equipment rules tightening, and storage becoming mainstream, 2026 will separate the adaptable companies from the rest. This conversation provides real-world perspective from the front lines and cuts through the noise to explain what is actually happening in the market. About the Solar Maverick Podcast The Solar Maverick Podcast is a leading clean energy podcast hosted by Benoy Thanjan, Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy. The show features in-depth conversations with industry leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers shaping the future of solar, storage, and the global energy transition. Biographies Benoy Thanjan Benoy Thanjan is the Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy, solar developer and consulting firm, and a strategic advisor to multiple cleantech startups. Over his career, Benoy has developed over 100 MWs of solar projects across the U.S., helped launch the first residential solar tax equity funds at Tesla, and brokered $45 million in Renewable Energy Credits (“REC”) transactions. Prior to founding Reneu Energy, Benoy was the Environmental Commodities Trader in Tesla's Project Finance Group, where he managed one of the largest environmental commodities portfolios. He originated REC trades and co-developed a monetization and hedging strategy with senior leadership to enter the East Coast market. As Vice President at Vanguard Energy Partners, Benoy crafted project finance solutions for commercial-scale solar portfolios. His role at Ridgewood Renewable Power, a private equity fund with 125 MWs of U.S. renewable assets, involved evaluating investment opportunities and maximizing returns. He also played a key role in the sale of the firm's renewable portfolio. Earlier in his career, Benoy worked in Energy Structured Finance at Deloitte & Touche and Financial Advisory Services at Ernst & Young, following an internship on the trading floor at D.E. Shaw & Co., a multi billion dollar hedge fund. Benoy holds an MBA in Finance from Rutgers University and a BS in Finance and Economics from NYU Stern, where he was an Alumni Scholar.   Nathan Jovanelly Nate is the CEO and Founder of SunRaise Capital's mission is to provide affordable and accessible renewable energy options to homeowners, while reducing carbon footprints and creating a sustainable future for generations to come. They achieve their mission by partnering with industry leading solar installers to provide our customers with the best possible solar experience at competitive rates. As the CEO of an innovative residential solar lease company, he spearheads strategic initiatives aimed at harmonizing the objectives of our funding partners, installation teams, and homeowners. With a relentless focus on alignment, he cultivates collaborative relationships to ensure mutual success and satisfaction across all stakeholders. Through innovative leadership and a commitment to transparency, he drives sustainable growth while delivering exceptional value to our investors, installers, and customers alike.   Stay Connected: Benoy Thanjan Email: info@reneuenergy.com  LinkedIn: Benoy Thanjan Website: https://www.reneuenergy.com Website: https://www.solarmaverickpodcast.com/       Nathan Jovanelly     SunRaise Capital Website:  https://www.sunraisecapital.com/     Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/natejov/     Email:  nate@sunraise.com   Nate's other interviews on the Solar Maverick Podcast SMP 228: After the Big Beautiful Bill: What's Next for US Residential Solar? https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-228-after-the-big-beautiful-bill-what-s-next-for-us-residential-solar/ SMP 205: Revolutionizing Solar Finance: How SunRaise Capital Attracts Investors to Residential Solar Projects? https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/smp-205-revolutionizing-solar-finance-how-sunraise/id1441876259?i=1000702871242   SMP 194:  2025 Solar Outlook https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-194-2025-solar-outlook/   SMP 176:  REplus takeaways https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-176-replus-takeaways/   SMP 166: Residential Solar Trends https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-166-residential-solar-trends/    SMP 150: How SunRaise Capital is innovating residential solar financing? https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-150-how-sunraise-capital-is-innovating-residential-solar-financing/    Solar Maverick Episode 147:  RE+ Takeaways https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-147-re-conference-takeaways/    Solar Maverick Episode 139: Opportunities and Challenges with the PJM Solar Market https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u14GHBkqcqo    Solar Maverick Episode 134: 2023 Solar Predictions https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-134-2023-solar-predictations/   SMP 131:  How Technology and Software are innovating the Solar Industry? https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-131-how-technology-and-software-is-innovating-the-solar-industry/    SMP 100: US Residential Solar, Storage, and Electric Vehicle Trends https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-100-us-residential-solar-storage-and-electric-vehicles-trends/    SMP 74: Impact on COVID-19 on Residential Solar https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/smp-74-impacts-of-covid-19-on-residential-solar/id1441876259?i=1000475840259      SMP 58:  Residential Solar Financing and Other Interesting Topics https://podcasts.apple.com/tc/podcast/smp-58-residential-solar-financing-other-interesting/id1441876259?i=1000459212910    SMP 20:  The Solar Intrapreneur Story:  How Nate helped IGS become one of the biggest solar asset owners in the US https://podcasts.apple.com/tc/podcast/smp-20-solar-intrapreneur-story-how-nate-helped-igs/id1441876259?i=1000432329129   Please provide 5 star reviews      If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and share the Solar Maverick Podcast so more people can learn how to accelerate the clean energy transition.    Reneu Energy Reneu Energy provides expert consulting across solar and storage project development, financing, energy strategy, and environmental commodities. Our team helps clients originate, structure, and execute opportunities in community solar, C&I, utility-scale, and renewable energy credit markets. Email us at info@reneuenergy.com to learn more.

Text me your feedback.We're kicking off the new year with an exploration of the ways in which we can capture the energy and freshness of a new calendar year to every day moments, creating new beginnings whenever we need them. Topics include:how temporal landmarks, like a new year, pull us out of the ordinaryhow walking meditation teaches us how to start over in the present momentand we can train up the capacity to let go in order to embrace a fresh moment in mindfulness of breathing meditationWe'll also go through ways to reaffirm your values, not only as a ritual way of starting over, but also because following your values will capacitate you for the challenges head. Resources mentioned on the show:Sign up for the newsletter: https://www.sati.yoga/letter/index.htmlVIA Virtues and Strengths: https://www.viacharacter.org/character-strengthsSchwartz's Values Wheel: http://theschwartzmodel.com/~ ~ ~SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Kia ora,Welcome to Wednesday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz.Today we lead with news the Powell resistance to Trump has garnered unexpectedly wide support, nationally and internationally, reinvigorating "central bank independence" positions. It also has many Trump supporters worried, if the 'right-wing press' is any indication.First up today, the overnight Pulse dairy auction of milk powders extended last week's full auction gains for both SMP and WMP. And they were good gains, with SMP +2.1% higher than a week ago, and WMP +1.2% higher on the same basis.In the US, the December CPI data released overnight recorded no-change from their November levels, at 2.7% or 2.6% on a 'core' basis. Both are still above the US Fed target. Food prices are up +3.1% and rents up +3.2% within this survey.The ADP weekly jobs data shows a similar +11,000 jobs gain last week, a rate that would confirm January's net hiring as slower than the slow December.US new home sales held at the higher 737,000 annual rate in October, a good result in the circumstances, but now quite dated data.This data will get more 'interesting' in 2026 with news that more migrants left the US than entered. While the net outflow wasn't large (for the US) at possibly about -300,000, the expectation is that it will be similar in 2026. This is the first time in 50 years they have shed people. It has certainly lost its 'welcoming' reputation - for both potential migrants, and for travelers.We got more recent sentiment surveys overnight, The RCM/TIPP survey was more downbeat in January than December and more so than expected - although to be fair the shifts weren't large - they just went the 'wrong' way.But the NFIB survey was little-changed - negative yes (below 100 still), but marginally less so.In Japan, their official "economy watchers survey" was also little-changed, although the forward looking section became marginally more optimistic.Meanwhile, bank lending in Japan rose 4.4% in December from a year ago. That growth was well above what was anticipated. If you ignore than pandemic distortion, that was at least a 25 year high, and probably very much longer.And Japan is on watch, with many expecting Prime Minister Takaichi to call a snap election very soon to bolster her conservative clout in the Diet. That saw the yen tumble and equities soar yesterday. Benchmark bond yields rise sharply too.In India, they released their December vehicle sales data overnight, reporting a very strong +20.6% gain from the same month a year ago, capping a year of +5.0% growth. Apparently their GST rate reduction for other products improved the overall affordability situation for many buyers.In Australia, consumer sentiment as measured in the Westpac survey has shifted lower and is more pessimistic in January. While confidence is still well above the extreme lows recorded during the protracted ‘cost of living' crisis in 2022–2024, consumers are becoming more concerned about what 2026 may bring for family finances and the wider economy. The main catalyst continues to be a sharp turn in interest rate expectations. Nearly two thirds of consumers with a view now expect mortgage rates to move higher over the next 12 months, more than double the level back in September.The UST 10yr yield is now just on 4.17%, down -1 bp from this time yesterday. The key 2-10 yield curve is still at +64 bps.The price of gold will start today at US$4610/oz, and down -US$7 from yesterday, essentially holding yesterday's big run-up on the risks from the unsettled US Fed. Silver is still rising, now almost US$87/oz.American oil prices are up US$2.50 from yesterday at just under US$61.50/bbl, while the international Brent price is still at just under US$65.50/bbl.The Kiwi dollar is down -20 bps from yesterday, now at just over 57.4 USc. Against the Aussie we are up +20 bps at 86 AUc. Against the euro we are down -10 bps at just on 49.3 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today just under 61.6, and down -20 bps from yesterday.The bitcoin price starts today at US$93,492 and up +1.5% from this time yesterday. Volatility over the past 24 hours has again been modest, also at just on +/- 1.5%.You can get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.Kia ora. I'm David Chaston and we'll do this again tomorrow.

It will probably some lifesteal SMP.

Kia ora,Welcome to Wednesday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz.Today we start with news today is all about commodity prices. Silver has jumped sharply, gold and platinum are up, copper is at a record high, and both nickel and aluminium have surged too. Tin is at a three year high. Lithium is on the move up again too after a two year slumber.It's not only hard commodities. The overnight global dairy trade auction surprised to the upside. A small gain was anticipated but in the end we got a +6.3% rise in USD terms, +6.5% in NZD terms. There were gains across the board, but the largest was for WMP (+7.2%), followed by SMP (+5.4%). There follow a worrying string of declines that set in from August, Elevated buying from China was a key driver, but that was on top of sharp increases in demand from the Middle East.The +6.3% rise in USD was the largest since March 2021. The +6.5% rise in NZD was the largest since September 2022. Despite these encouraging signs, overall prices are now only back to early December levels. The rises will be welcome, but on their own are unlikely to alter any farmgate payout prices. Today's recovery will need to be sustained. Don't forget, prices in USD have fallen -22% from May 2025 even after today's lift.In the US, the S&P Global services PMI for the US retreated back to a modest expansion in December after the good expansion the previous month which was revised lower. This metric is now at an eight month low. New business growth dropped to its lowest in 20 months as inflationary pressure bit harder.Meanwhile, the Logistics Manager's Index retreated for a second consecutive month in December. It was the slowest expansion in the logistics sector since April 2024, with the majority of the downward pressure coming from inventory and warehousing markets. Transportation costs rose more than expected.Total vehicle sales in the US rose to a 16 mln annual rate in December, up from a 15.6 mln rate in November. A year ago they ran at 16.9 mln annual rate, so a -5.3% decline.In China, total vehicle sales have not yet been announced, but it is very likely they exceeded 36 mln in 2025 with growing strength in the past six months. That will be +14.6% higher than their 2024 level.China equities hit a decade high in Tuesday trading.Meanwhile, an historic climate shift is bringing record rainfall to China's northern regions, overwhelming unprepared cities and upending agriculture, while leaving the traditionally lush south parched.In Europe, food giant Nestle is recalling infant formula after serious contamination concerns.The UST 10yr yield is now just on 4.18%, up +2 bps from this time yesterday.The price of gold will start today at US$4487/oz, and up another +US$45 from yesterday and heading back up toward its end of year record high. Silver is up sharply to US$81.50/oz and a new record high, and platinum is also back up sharply at US$2430 and also almost at its end of year record high.American oil prices are down -50 USc from yesterday at just over US$57.50/bbl, while the international Brent price is now at just under US$61.50/bbl.The Kiwi dollar is down -10 bps from yesterday, now at just on 57.8 USc. Against the Aussie we are down -40 bps at 85.8 AUc. Against the euro we are unchanged at 49.4 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today just on 61.8, and down -10 bps from yesterday.The bitcoin price starts today at US$92,515 and down -1.7% from this time yesterday. Volatility over the past 24 hours has again been modest at just on +/- 1.2%.You can get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.Kia ora. I'm David Chaston and we'll do this again tomorrow.

Matt Popovits joins Zach for an honest conversation on pastoral formation, SMP, LCMS leadership, preaching, AI, and mission. Matt shares his journey, why pathways must expand, and the wild story of how he won Wheel of Fortune. Visit www.redletterpodcast.com for more.

Text me your feedback.Working through dilemmas and challenges usually involves trade-offs, compromises, or imperfect third options. After all, if there was a lot of internal consensus, it wouldn't be a dilemma. Sometimes, parts may feel bruised and disappointed, making you feel unsure about whether you made the right choice. In this parts work practice, Jen helps you connect with your inner skeptics and naysayers where you can soothe their nerves and solicit their advice on how to move forward more confidently. Skeptics can be a well of insight for how to navigate tricky situations - in other words that can be great allies if you take the time to get to know them. If you want to skip the intro, jump to 2:02 or use the chapter marker if it's supported by your app.~ ~ ~SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

In this chilling new episode of Drew Blood's Dark Tales, vanity, desperation, and hidden menace intersect in a story that peels back the glossy surface of self-improvement to reveal something far darker beneath. When one man seeks a simple solution to his insecurities, he steps into the orbit of a charismatic “professional” whose charm is only the first layer of a far more unsettling reality. What follows is a slow descent into tension, odd behavior, and creeping dread—where every smile hides a secret and every promise comes with a price. “Psycho Sam” by Bryan Asbury — Matt Jersen has spent years struggling with thinning hair and the quiet shame that comes with it. When he discovers a charismatic SMP practitioner who promises a life-changing transformation, Matt jumps at the chance to reclaim his confidence. But once inside the walls of a rundown clinic, he finds himself entangled with a man whose charm masks something far more unstable. As the procedures grow stranger and the behavior more erratic, Matt realizes too late that he may have trusted the wrong set of hands. A tense, spiraling tale of insecurity, manipulation, and the terrifying cost of misplaced faith. To watch the podcast on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/ChillingEntertainmentYT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DrewBlood⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DrewBlood⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Jeff Kloha returns to discuss pastoral formation, the launch of the Center for Missional and Pastoral Leadership, the SMP age decision, and why he believes the LCMS must expand—not restrict—pathways for leaders. Visit www.redletterpodcast.com for more.

Send us a textThe glossy reels say “global help.” The insiders tell a different story. We sit down with director Mitch Brisker to map how Scientology reengineered Narconon after multiple deaths, shifted operations from the secretive International Base to Los Angeles, and used a made-for-TV sheen to mask liability and control. Mitch was there through the rewrites, the SMP launch, and the clampdowns—and he explains how the organization manufactures impact with paid “PSAs,” inflated statistics, and a media pipeline that looks impressive but rarely reaches real audiences.We pull back the curtain on the Hole and the daily mechanics of punishment: segregated meal times, frog-marched lines of staff, and the phrase “PTS to the middle class” used to shame normal life choices. Mitch charts the rise and fall of key enforcers, including leaders who went from running a 300-person studio to sewing buttons in a laundry building. He also walks us through the film lab that out-resolved Hollywood with Kodak's help, yet sat underused because it served only in-house projects—a perfect metaphor for a system obsessed with control over outcomes.Then there's the archive project: CST vaults sealing Hubbard's writings on etched plates and lectures on gold records, complete with a hand-cranked, solar-capable player. The goal was legitimacy and permanence; the result feels like doomsday optics. Meanwhile, AI models learn from what the world actually watches, which means critical reporting increasingly shapes public understanding while official channels stagnate. If you've wondered how Scientology really works—from Narconon lawsuits to SMP's internal culture and those mountain vaults—this conversation connects the dots with first-hand detail.Enjoy the episode, share it with someone curious about high-control groups, and leave a review to help others find the show. Subscribe for more deep dives into the stories mainstream PR won't tell.Support the showBFG Store - http://blownforgood-shop.fourthwall.com/Blown For Good on Audible - https://www.amazon.com/Blown-for-Good-Marc-Headley-audiobook/dp/B07GC6ZKGQ/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=Blown For Good Website: http://blownforgood.com/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2131160 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blown-for-good-behind-the-iron-curtain-of-scientology/id1671284503 RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2131160.rss YOUTUBE PLAYLISTS: Spy Files Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWtJfniWLwq4cA-e...

Join the LCMS Current!(weekly newsletter covering relevant LCMS topics!): https://www.uniteleadership.org/thelcmscurrentIn this special episode of Lead Time, Pastor Tim Ahlman sits down with Pastor Jeff Sutherlin to walk through the LCMS Pastoral Formation Committee's newly released SMP policy requirements—including the widely debated 40-year-old minimum age, the restrictions on SMP placements, and the implications for the LCMS pastoral shortage.Together, they process the document line by line—affirming what is good, questioning what is unclear, and challenging the church to think creatively and relationally about raising up new pastors.With nearly 600 LCMS congregations currently unable to call a pastor, this conversation matters deeply. How do we balance rigor with accessibility? Tradition with innovation? Residential formation with local mentorship? And are these new policies moving the LCMS closer to health—or further away?Whether you're a pastor, district leader, seminarian, SMP graduate, or simply care about the future of the church, this episode provides clarity, context, and courage for the conversation ahead.Support the showJoin the Lead Time Newsletter! (Weekly Updates and Upcoming Episodes)https://www.uniteleadership.org/lead-time-podcast#newsletterVisit uniteleadership.org

In this episode, I catch up with Rico, aka BBoy Reksick, who I've known from the scene for many years.  He's the owner of Calaveras Barber Shop and SMP in Chicago. After a random airport run-in recently, we sat down for a powerful conversation about how barbering is more than a craft for him—it's a calling. Rico talks about being a source of confidence and community for his clients, using his shop as a space to lift people up, one fresh cut at a time. His story is all about purpose, pride, and showing up for others. Please visit www.MyHomeIsSpecial.com for the full project and follow @KBevPhoto on Instagram to see what I'm up to.

Join the LCMS Current!(bi monthly newsletter covering relevant LCMS topics!): https://www.uniteleadership.org/thelcmscurrentIs pastoral formation reform in the LCMS really a “threat to the Synod”?Pastor Joe Beran joins Tim Ahlman for an honest, thoughtful conversation about fear, change, seminary pathways, SMP restrictions, and why this topic has become so emotionally charged across Lutheran circles.In this episode, Joe responds directly to concerns raised across the LCMS—especially the claim that conversations around alternative or adaptive pastoral formation models could “threaten the fabric of the Synod.”We explore what's actually happening, what people fear losing, and how the church can navigate these conversations with clarity, charity, and courage.Topics we cover:Why pastoral formation is so controversial right nowThe real fears behind “threat to the Synod” languageHow SMP changes impact large and small congregations differentlyResidential seminary vs. contextual seminary: what are we actually debating?Why younger pastors feel misunderstood and unheardJoe's experience speaking at the ACELCThe need for honest, public debate in the LCMSWhy the future may require more—not fewer—formation pathwaysHow we can preserve confessional integrity and raise up more workersWhether you're an LCMS pastor, delegate, seminarian, church leader, or simply someone trying to understand this conversation, you'll find clarity, nuance, and hope here.Support the showJoin the Lead Time Newsletter! (Weekly Updates and Upcoming Episodes)https://www.uniteleadership.org/lead-time-podcast#newsletterVisit uniteleadership.org

NEDTAKT DERBY: København er stadig hvid og blå Ekstremt vigtige point i tabellenEn 0-0 kamp der sluttede 1-0Mads Emils bedste kamp i KøbenhavnDet tekniske niveau var under middelSikke en fan-opbakning Kølige Larsson Kotarski rejste sig Smp taktiske justeringer Partner på udsendelsen er Unibet og Austria Tourism.Tjek ud hvor dejligt et ferieland Østrig er: https://www.austria.info/da/anbefalinger/aktiv-ferie/?utm_medium=audio&utm_source=kvartibold&utm_campaign=DNK_25_1-CTM-004-09_top_bewegung-erholung_MM-58947&utm_content=MM-72646

Text me your feedback.Rug up and head outside for this outdoors walking meditation. Practiced by the Buddha himself, walking meditation is an antidote to restless and aching joints and can be practiced anywhere you you're already walking. The meditation starts at 2:56 if you want to jump ahead, but assumes you're already outside and ready to go. Halfway through the practice (~15mins), you'll be prompted to pause the recording if you want continue for longer. Just hit play again when you're about 15 minutes from your final destination. ~ ~ ~SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Join us as we learn about the Arkansas Senior Medicare Patrol! Figuring out frauds and scams are just one topic that SMP can help with.Get in contact with SMP:Phone: 866-726-2916Website: https://insurance.arkansas.gov/consumer-services/senior-medicare-patrol-smp/Email:AID.Insurance.SMP@arkansas.gov

We did it, friends! We're monetized, and it's all YOUR fault! Thank you! Welcome back to another chat with YOUR Brothers in Arms! Tonight we begin with a Win Score, I need a scoreboard, is that your high, SMP is up 5 points, like a Las Vegas night club, a lifecycle fund, even the coasters, starting with the g fund, money talk, financial consultant and glorified pp watcher, that sounded scripted, malicious compliance, you're going to do it but they're going to hate that you did it, it was lubricant, men in well = Manuel, right next to toasted nuts, all the work without the rank, egregious without spellcheck, GOG - Grumpy Old Guy, makeup adult depends and a mobile game, come on Marine, I've been shot a lot, Doc sending hate in the chat, more experienced means discounts, American Football game, you snoozed it and we loosed it, Benny and the Jets, shenanigans, breaking wet bread together, fighting Brandi for the bear, Jake's the man, training with Julia, a squishy backend, fat Richmond feet, YOU'VE got a weird lip, choose the shoes, the comedic timing, get YOU flu shot, COUPONS?! We don't even HAVE a cat! and a few Dad jokes that the chat guessed before the boys! All this and some questionable “how did they know I needed this” adds on this week's episode of Brothers in Arms!   Where you can reach us: YouTube: BrothersinArmsPodcast Instagram: Yourbrothersinarmspodcast Twitter: @YourBIAPodcast Gmail: yourbrothersinarmspodcast@gmail.com Twitch: Twitch.tv/brothersinarmspodcast (schedule varies due to life) Website: https://brothersinarms.podbean.com

Want to stay up to date on LCMS Happenings from Pastor Tim?Join the LCMS Current: https://www.uniteleadership.org/thelcmscurrentThe LCMS is wrestling with a familiar question: are we keeping distinctions or breaking barriers?Pastor Tim Ahlman, Jack Kalleberg, and Pastor Jonathan Dinger return to one of Lead Time's most popular conversations—this time reframed around access.- What does it mean to create access to the Gospel without compromising theological depth?- How do local contexts—from Arizona to Idaho—shape the way churches live out the confessions?- And what happens when fear, control, or mistrust shape our leadership more than faith and freedom?

Text me your feedback.While Jen's taking a mini-break to get her homework done, here's the second of two short practices based on research she did last summer. If you're curious about the theory behind these yin yoga micro-practices, check out the last segment of Episode #113, where she talks about how practices like this can boost your mood by reducing tension and elevating your energy. In this micro-practice, Jen guides three yin yoga poses  while directing your attention to the the breath.The sequence uses minimal verbal cues and several minutes of silence for each pose to help you deepen into the embodied experience. Poses: sphinx + reclining twist on each sideSuggested/Optional Props: folded blanket, blocks, small cushions ~ ~ ~SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Pastor Andy Greer went from fundraising for the Nebraska Cornhuskers to preaching from the pulpit at Messiah Lutheran Church. His story shines a light on one of the most controversial discussions in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod: the Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) program.In this honest and hope-filled conversation, Tim and Andy tackle the ongoing tension between residential seminary training and SMP pathways, the need for new leadership models in growing churches, and how to stay centered on Christ and His mission amid theological division.They also touch on the recent tragedy of Charlie Kirk's assassination, the church's response to political violence, and the call for unity in a polarized time.Whether you're a pastor, lay leader, or simply care about the future of the LCMS, this conversation is a must-listen.Support the showJoin the Lead Time Newsletter! (Weekly Updates and Upcoming Episodes)https://www.uniteleadership.org/lead-time-podcast#newsletterVisit uniteleadership.org

Text me your feedback.While Jen's taking a mini-break to get her homework done, she's bringing you the first of two short practices based on research she did last summer. If you're curious about the theory behind these yin yoga micro-practices, check out the last segment of Episode #113, where she talks about how practices like this can boost your mood by reducing tension and elevating your energy. In this micro-practice, Jen guides three yin yoga poses  while directing your attention to the physical experience of being in the poses. The sequence uses minimal verbal cues and several minutes of silence for each pose to help you deepen into the embodied experience. Poses: butterfly + half butterfly on each sideSuggested/Optional Props: folded blanket, blocks, small cushions ~ ~ ~SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.This is an encore practice with former co-host Sarah Jane Shangraw from back in November 2019. Developed by Tara Brach, RAIN is a technique you can use to skillfully relate to difficult emotions in life, whether they turn up in a meditation session or in daily life. The acronym — which stands for Recognize, Allow, Investigate, and Nurture — invites us to accept inner discord with an open heart. I, Jen, wanted to share this practice as a companion to the most recent episode on Self-Compassion (#113). RAIN evolved as an approach to working with the hindrances, where the Buddha himself implored us to meet common meditation obstacles (aversion, craving, dullness, restlessness, and doubt) as inevitable and, therefore, not worthy of self-criticism. The practice of RAIN provides us with steps for letting go of self-judgement while inviting in the natural impulse to alleviate our own suffering through kindness and acceptance. You can find Sarah Jane at https://www.sarahjaneshangraw.com/coaching.html where she offers online classes and coaching support. ~ ~ ~SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Mr. Antonio (Tony) Colon successfully founded and sold three businesses, Martinelli Realty, Inc., a commercial real estate company; Splat Master's Paintball, Inc. (SMP) known worldwide for engineering and design innovation in the paintball industry; and Combat Training Solutions, Inc. (CTS), a company specializing in Special Effects Devices to enhance military training and save the lives … The post Tony Colon: How to Create a Profitable Business Exit: Part 1 (Episode # 497F) first appeared on TRANSLEADERSHIP, INC®.

0:00 - Intro03:50 - Myles Updates SMP08:08 - Tips: Amazon searches10:40 - Sunday Multiplayer14:30 - VTQ PS Home21:35 - Are Restarting VR games harder?27:55 - Surviving Mars Gameplay48:20 - Tips: PS Store is a Joke55:00 - Tips: Surviving Mars v Into Black 58:00 - Eric Masher Tips1:01:04 - 20 gift memberships1:01:50 - Tips: Which Flat2VR game next1:05:00 - Back to SMP 1:13:21 - PS5 Pro version of SMP1:21:30 - Tips: What you need publisher for?1:24:04 - Tips: SMP DLC1:29:24 - Tips: 30K Units CATS 1:32:52 - Tips: Bioshock Flat 2 VR?1:42:00 - 4 Minute Challenge1:46:45 - Chocolate Bars1:48:27 - RE9 Switch 2 version1:49:20 - Nintendo Direct1:56:45 - Wrap Up Poppy Playtime2:02:14 - Clip of the Week

Kevin Key is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel who served with the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment before going through special forces selection and assessment (SFAS) and becoming a Special Forces Officer (18A) with 7th Special Forces Group. He started his military career in the Army National Guard while attending college under the simultaneous membership program (SMP). He served at Special Operations Command - South (SOCSOUTH) and has commanded a unit within the 82nd Airborne Division.  At one point in this episode, Kevin recounts Operation Willing Spirit (Colombia version is Operation Jacque) — the effort to locate and verify hostages taken after a 2003 FARC plane was shotdown in Colombia, and how U.S. and Colombian forces used covert tactics (including a fake humanitarian operation) to free captives years later. The episode also traces Key's path post‑military shift into real estate, restaurant/event property ownership (Cosmic Tiki), cattle ranching and writing about carnivore nutrition in his book. __________ Please leave us a review on Apple/Spotify Podcasts: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mentors-for-military-podcast/id1072421783 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3w4RiZBxBS8EDy6cuOlbUl #mentors4mil  #mentorsformilitary Mentors4mil Links: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Mentors4mil Patreon Support: https://www.patreon.com/join/Mentors4mil  Intro music "Long Way Down" by Silence & Light is used with permission. Show Disclaimer: https://mentorsformilitary.com/disclaimer/

These are clips highlighting some of the topics discussed in the full episode! Check it out if you want a bite-sized version of the full episode.   Successful scalp micropigmentation (SMP) artist @taylorperry was tired of the grind of $10 barber cuts and used his experience as a tattoo artist to transition to SMP. He shares how he built a new clientele and went from $10 hair services to $3000 SMP sessions.   This Week's Topics:   • Understanding Scalp Micropigmentation (SMP) • The Artistry Behind SMP • The Journey to Discovering SMP • Technical Aspects of SMP Application • Location and Clientele • Cost Comparison: SMP vs. Hair Transplants • SMP as a Foundation: Complementing Other Treatments • Client Acquisition: Engaging with Potential Clients • The Power of Networking • Transitioning to Education   Video versions of our episodes are on our YouTube channel for you to watch! Subscribe to our channel The Hair Game on YouTube and check out ‘The Hair Game Podcast' playlist. Our podcast thrives on the opinions of you, the listener... if you have a moment (and you are an Apple user), please leave us a rating & review on the Apple podcasts app or iTunes! Here's what you do: - Scroll down to 'Ratings & Reviews'  - Click on the empty purple stars (5 is the best)!  - Click on ‘Write a Review' and let us know what you love most! Each rating & review helps us reach more and more of your fellow hair loves, and our goal is to help as many hairdressers as we can find success. Thanks in advance! FOLLOW US http://www.instagram.com/thehairgamepodcast http://www.instagram.com/salonrepublic http://www.instagram.com/loveerictaylor

Successful scalp micropigmentation (SMP) artist @taylorperry was tired of the grind of $10 barber cuts and used his experience as a tattoo artist to transition to SMP. He shares how he built a new clientele and went from $10 hair services to $3000 SMP sessions.   This Week's Topics:   • Understanding Scalp Micropigmentation (SMP) • The Artistry Behind SMP • The Journey to Discovering SMP • Technical Aspects of SMP Application • Location and Clientele • Cost Comparison: SMP vs. Hair Transplants • SMP as a Foundation: Complementing Other Treatments • Client Acquisition: Engaging with Potential Clients • The Power of Networking • Transitioning to Education Video versions of our episodes are on our YouTube channel for you to watch! Subscribe to our channel The Hair Game on YouTube and check out ‘The Hair Game Podcast' playlist. Our podcast thrives on the opinions of you, the listener... if you have a moment (and you are an Apple user), please leave us a rating & review on the Apple podcasts app or iTunes! Here's what you do: - Scroll down to 'Ratings & Reviews'  - Click on the empty purple stars (5 is the best)!  - Click on ‘Write a Review' and let us know what you love most! Each rating & review helps us reach more and more of your fellow hair loves, and our goal is to help as many hairdressers as we can find success. Thanks in advance! FOLLOW US http://www.instagram.com/thehairgamepodcast http://www.instagram.com/salonrepublic http://www.instagram.com/loveerictaylor

In this episode of Lead Time, Tim Ahlman returns from sabbatical with a candid conversation about the changing landscape of ministry in the LCMS. From re-organizing senior staff and shifting governance models, to the biblical case for pastoral sabbaticals, to the urgent realities of pastoral formation, this episode doesn't shy away from the hard questions.Tim shares personal reflections from his sabbatical and his upcoming book release, while Jack dives into the tough realities facing small congregations, bivocational ministry, and the need for fresh approaches to leadership. Together they recap the Pacific Southwest District convention, explore resolutions around SMP pastors and Lutheran identity, and call the church to unity rooted in Scripture and Confession.

Text me your feedback.In order to be an open-hearted, compassionate person, we first have to notice the things things that need our support. This is where mindfulness — the practice of presence — comes in. It teaches how to engage directly with what's real, rather than what we wish were true. This month we're back to mindfulness basics with a guided practice that starts with concentration practice (samata) and then follows with insight (vipassana). The practice starts right away (no intro) and includes periods of silence (nothing wrong with your player). ~ ~ ~SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Episode Summary: Benoy Thanjan sits down with his co-host Nate Jovanelly, Founder & CEO of SunRaise Capital, to break down how the Big Beautiful Bill is reshaping residential solar. They discuss Section 25D's removal, the surge in solar + storage, and innovative financing models like prepaid leases.   Biographies Benoy Thanjan Benoy Thanjan is the Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy, and a strategic advisor to multiple clean energy startups. Over his career, Benoy has developed over 100 MW of solar projects across the U.S., helped launch the first residential solar tax equity funds at Tesla, and brokered $45 million in Renewable Energy Credits (REC) transactions. Prior to founding Reneu Energy, Benoy was the Environmental Commodities Trader in Tesla's Project Finance Group, where he managed one of the company's largest environmental commodities portfolios. He originated REC trades and co-developed a monetization and hedging strategy with senior leadership to enter the East Coast market. As Vice President at Vanguard Energy Partners, Benoy crafted project finance solutions for commercial-scale solar projects. His role at Ridgewood Renewable Power, a private equity fund with 125 MW of U.S. renewable assets, involved evaluating investment opportunities and maximizing returns. He also played a key role in the sale of the firm's renewable portfolio. Earlier in his career, Benoy worked in Energy Structured Finance at Deloitte & Touche and Financial Advisory Services at Ernst & Young, following an internship on the trading floor at D.E. Shaw & Co., a multi billion dollar hedge fund. Benoy holds an MBA in Finance from Rutgers University and a BS in Finance and Economics from NYU Stern, where he was an Alumni Scholar.   Nathan Jovanelly Nate is the CEO and Founder of SunRaise Capital's mission is to provide affordable and accessible renewable energy options to homeowners, while reducing carbon footprints and creating a sustainable future for generations to come. They achieve their mission by partnering with industry leading solar installers to provide our customers with the best possible solar experience at competitive rates. As the CEO of an innovative residential solar lease company, he spearheads strategic initiatives aimed at harmonizing the objectives of our funding partners, installation teams, and homeowners. With a relentless focus on alignment, he cultivates collaborative relationships to ensure mutual success and satisfaction across all stakeholders. Through innovative leadership and a commitment to transparency, he drives sustainable growth while delivering exceptional value to our investors, installers, and customers alike.   Stay Connected: Benoy Thanjan Email: info@reneuenergy.com  LinkedIn: Benoy Thanjan Website: https://www.reneuenergy.com   Nathan Jovanelly SunRaise Capital Website:  https://www.sunraisecapital.com/ Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/natejov/ Email:  nate@sunraise.com   Thank you to AMS Renewable Energy for Sponsoring this Episode of the Solar Maverick Podcast!  This episode of the Solar Maverick Podcast is brought to you by our sponsor—AMS Renewable Energy. AMS is a top-tier solar EPC that operates with the precision and mindset of a commercial general contractor. Headquartered in the Bronx, New York—and licensed nationwide—AMS has over 30 years of construction experience, tackling even the most complex solar projects with unmatched expertise and craftsmanship. Whether it's a challenging C&I rooftop, ground mount, or full turnkey solution, AMS is committed to best-in-class service and results that last. If you're looking for a solar EPC partner who understands construction inside and out—AMS Renewable Energy should be at the top of your list. Learn more at [ams-renewable.com] and tell them the Solar Maverick sent you!   Nate's other interviews on the Solar Maverick Podcast SMP 205: Revolutionizing Solar Finance: How SunRaise Capital Attracts Investors to Residential Solar Projects? https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/smp-205-revolutionizing-solar-finance-how-sunraise/id1441876259?i=1000702871242   SMP 194:  2025 Solar Outlook https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-194-2025-solar-outlook/   SMP 176:  REplus takeaways https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-176-replus-takeaways/   SMP 166: Residential Solar Trends https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-166-residential-solar-trends/    SMP 150: How SunRaise Capital is innovating residential solar financing? https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-150-how-sunraise-capital-is-innovating-residential-solar-financing/    Solar Maverick Episode 147:  RE+ Takeaways https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-147-re-conference-takeaways/    Solar Maverick Episode 139: Opportunities and Challenges with the PJM Solar Market https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u14GHBkqcqo    Solar Maverick Episode 134: 2023 Solar Predictions https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-134-2023-solar-predictations/   SMP 131:  How Technology and Software are innovating the Solar Industry? https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-131-how-technology-and-software-is-innovating-the-solar-industry/    SMP 100: US Residential Solar, Storage, and Electric Vehicle Trends https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-100-us-residential-solar-storage-and-electric-vehicles-trends/    SMP 74: Impact on COVID-19 on Residential Solar https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/smp-74-impacts-of-covid-19-on-residential-solar/id1441876259?i=1000475840259      SMP 58:  Residential Solar Financing and Other Interesting Topics https://podcasts.apple.com/tc/podcast/smp-58-residential-solar-financing-other-interesting/id1441876259?i=1000459212910    SMP 20:  The Solar Intrapreneur Story:  How Nate helped IGS become one of the biggest solar asset owners in the US https://podcasts.apple.com/tc/podcast/smp-20-solar-intrapreneur-story-how-nate-helped-igs/id1441876259?i=1000432329129    

Text me your feedback.In Part 3 of the Awakening the Heart series, we're looking at why acts of kindness and service are powerful resilience-builders — possibly the exact things we need if we're to overcome so much divisiveness in our relationships and discourse. To understand why a generous spirit is so supportive, we explore the Buddhist and Yoga concepts of dana (generosity) and seva (selfless service) and how they relate to modern psychology's hope theory (hat tip to CR Snyder). Then Jennifer is joined by friend and colleague Laurent Goldberg to talk about her simple but brilliant Career Support Care Packages, which perfectly illustrate how generosity can restore our sense of agency and hope when everything feels so dispiriting. Highlights include:how the Eastern philosophical traditions from India view dana and sevahow willpower and waypower fuel hopewhy helping others should be in your resistance/resilience toolkithow Lauren designed her care packages to support both sender and receiverthinking about service not as self-sacrifice but as a way to put your skills and talents toward the greater goodLinksGet in touch with Lauren Goldberg: https://laurengoldbergcoaching.com/Send a Career Support Care Package: https://laurengoldbergcoaching.com/career-support-care-packageBuilding Movement Project's Social Change Ecosystem Map: https://buildingmovement.org/our-work/movement-building/social-change-ecosystem-map/~ ~ ~SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.Tonglen - the practice of sending and receiving - helps us to be with hardship without falling into despair.  An explanation of the practice appears in the Lojong teachings and is associated with those who follow the path of the Bodhisattvas. In addition to cultivating an open, spacious heart, Tonglen can help us to cultivate the paramitas - the perfections - especially generosity, loving-kindness, determination, and diligence. The practice starts at 3:14 after a brief introduction. If your player supports chapter markers, you can skip ahead.~ ~ ~SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Text me your feedback.Continuing our series on Awakening the Heart, this month we're exploring the Buddhist path of the bodhisattva through the cultivation of bodhicitta - the awakened heart-mind that forms the foundation of compassionate living. Drawing from Mahayana Buddhist teachings, we also take a look at Lojong (mind training), the Tibetan Buddhist contemplative practice that can be used as a powerful framework for developing genuine compassion.Highlights include:Cultivating the open-hearted attitude of enlightened ones (Bodhisattvas) Two types of BodhicittaParamitas (Perfections)Short history and details of LojongUnpacking of the First Lojong statement: Train the PreliminariesTips for working with the Lojong phrasesMentioned on the show:Judy Lief's online Lojong translation and commentary: https://judylief.com/offerings/slogans-of-atisha/Norman Fischer's "Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong" https://bookshop.org/p/books/training-in-compassion-zen-teachings-on-the-practice-of-lojong-norman-fischer/9663817?ean=9781611800401&next=tVIA Character Strengths & Virtues: https://www.viacharacter.org/Dalai Lama Poem "This Precious Human Life" https://mountainsangha.org/a-precious-human-life/~ ~ ~SMP welcomes your comments and questions at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com. You can also get in touch with Jen through her website: https://www.sati.yoga Fill out this survey to help guide the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/appM7JWCQd7Q1Hwa4/pagRTiysNido3BXqF/form To support the show, consider a donation via Ko-Fi.

Send us a textIn this episode of the podcast, the hosts interview David Santiago, a scalp micropigmentation (SMP) specialist. David shares his journey from being a licensed master barber to becoming an SMP artist, discussing his experiences, training, and techniques involved in the process. He explains the differences between traditional tattoos and SMP, addressing common misconceptions and emphasizing the importance of proper training. Throughout the episode, David touches on the emotional impact of his work, the challenges faced by the SMP industry, and the satisfaction of helping clients regain confidence. The conversation also explores industry standards, marketing tactics, and the parallels between SMP and traditional tattooing.Support the show

Most people don't know how to control their desire to win, and make it work for them. In this epsode, I break down the proper way to view winning, and how to turn your burning desire to win into an asset, instead of anxiety and extra pressure.  Click here to join the SMP nation (FREE)