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Current Progressive Dairy digital edition

1. Broken bones and naughty ponies: (From the Editor); That stupid pony. How dare he buck me off for asking for a flying lead change. Covered in dirt and too mad to notice the searing pain in my left shoulder, I jumped back on that pony, kept jumping and made ...; Created on 19 January 2016
2. Alltech Dairy School: ‘One Team, One Dream’: (Event Coverage); More than 200 farmers, nutritionists and industry professionals huddled together at Lambeau Field recently to discuss the latest strategies for successful dairy farming and how to achieve their goals for ...; Created on 19 January 2016
3. How hard will you work this February?: (Management); Ask any athlete … what do you do during the off-season? It’s the answer to that question that determines if they are a professional athlete or have a day job. It’s the same thing with farming. There ...; Created on 19 January 2016
4. China’s dairy industry: Bumps and bruises on the fast track: (Industry News); Editor’s note: The following article is the first in a series of articles from the author after a recent trip to observe China’s dairy industry. Click here to read the second of the two part series Chinese ...; Created on 19 January 2016
5. Solar panel cleaner is a top new product: (Products & Services); A new automated washer for ground-mounted solar panels will be available to California dairymen via service contract soon. The new product, MegaWash, was developed by Coldwell Solar and was recently ...; Created on 19 January 2016
6. Executive track, BMP insight and networking make Pennsylvania Dairy Summit a don’t-miss event: (Event Coverage); Danny Klinefelter has been leading the Executive Program for Agricultural Producers for the past 25 years and will share his insight on best management practices producers can and should adopt during the ...; Created on 18 January 2016
7. 5 tips for refractometer use: (Barns & Equipment); While the refractometer only started gaining popularity in the dairy industry in recent years, the technology itself dates back to 1869. It has been used since in chemistry and food sciences to analyze ...; Created on 18 January 2016
8. Pain management at dehorning: (Industry News); How much progress have we really made? One of the more anticipated pieces of forthcoming data in the USDA’s National Animal Health Monitoring System’s 2014 dairy survey is information on the current ...; Created on 18 January 2016
9. Nasal-pharyngeal swabs for bovine respiratory disease tests: (Herd Health); In 2008, the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (WVDL) validated a simple non-invasive technique to sample calves and cows for bovine respiratory disease (BRD). The method uses a double-guarded ...; Created on 18 January 2016
10. Accelerated group feeding has potential long-term benefits: (Calves & Heifers); Dairy farms historically raised pre-weaned calves in hutches or individual pens. This made feedings easier, allowed for individual monitoring and curbed disease outbreaks. As more farms transition to group ...; Created on 18 January 2016
11. New insights on feeding post-weaned dairy heifers: (Calves & Heifers); Nutrition of dairy heifers is often talked about as a whole without referring to the age and growth stage of the heifer. Even though there is a lot of focus placed on feeding milk-fed calves, little research ...; Created on 18 January 2016
12. If a little’s good, is more better?: (Calves & Heifers); Mixing milk replacers for winter feeding of dairy calves The total nutrients consumed by pre-weaned calves affects their average daily gain (ADG). What is even more intriguing is some evidence that the ...; Created on 18 January 2016
13. Prevent pre-weaning problems with proactive planning: (Calves & Heifers); Dairy calves are the future of your herd. In addition to excellent nutrition, high-quality facilities and veterinary care, give calves the greatest opportunity to meet their future potential by having ...; Created on 18 January 2016
14. Indoor calf pen walk-throughs: What you need to look for: (Calves & Heifers); Editor’s note: This article is part one in a two-part series on what to look for during a calf pen walk-through. Part two: Calf hutch walk-throughs: What you need to look for. Many times when I’m walking ...; Created on 18 January 2016
15. Best time to pair-house calves? As soon as possible: (Calves & Heifers); Calves are routinely raised in single pens until weaning or even longer, but housing milk-fed calves in pairs or groups is increasing in popularity. This, in part, is due to the availability of automatic ...; Created on 18 January 2016
16. Facts trump intuition for insight into cow health, performance: (Herd Health); Cow 7250 delivered a healthy heifer calf yesterday. Cow 7250 looks good – her eyes look alert, she’s eating fairly well, and she shows no signs of discomfort. Her temperature is normal and, from all outward ...; Created on 18 January 2016
17. On-the-farm training enhances veterinary student education: (People); As technology in the dairy industry expands, so do the abilities of producers to prevent disease and monitor herd health. In light of these advances, what role will the next generation of veterinarians ...; Created on 18 January 2016
18. There is a cost to raising heifers: (Calves & Heifers); Raising replacement heifers is one of the most costly aspects of a dairy farm. Heifers don’t bring a return for two years or more until they enter the milking string. They are also the future of the dairy ...; Created on 18 January 2016
19. Just dropping by ... Divine nature footprints: (Yevet Tenney); Lately the world is buzzing with talk of “climate change.” If the weather is too cold, it is global cooling. If the weather is too hot, it is global warming. The major flips back and forth in the weather ...; Created on 14 January 2016
20. Mechanics Corner: Quick answers to common equipment problems: (Barns & Equipment); Q: My water pump is slowing down, so I thought I would replace the impeller. How do I get it off? A: (By regular contributor Brad Nelson) Most, if not all automotive water pumps have the impeller pressed ...; Created on 14 January 2016
21. HERd management: Agvocate and get abs, too: (Guest Blog); I had a lot of fun in college. And by fun, I mean club pizza parties and ice cream socials, of course. But then, I had to graduate and it was time to (kind of) grow up. After graduation, life changed ...; Created on 14 January 2016
22. The Milk House: Diving: (Ryan Dennis); I could have either chosen to participate in the culture around me or stayed in my room and watched Internet TV. It was a line that became my defense to the people I explained this to, and one that I often ...; Created on 14 January 2016
23. The Manure Spreader: Crisis management: (Tim Moffett); A dairy farmer friend of mine told me that on his farm, “They don’t have preventative maintenance; they have crisis management.” Farming of any type comes with a Ph.D. in jury-rigging. It is an ancient ...; Created on 14 January 2016
24. Pankratz family focus on youngstock positions farm for future: (Calves & Heifers); Steve and Barb Pankratz were looking to the future of their central Wisconsin dairy farm when they set out to build a new calf facility aimed at positioning the dairy to continue with three active generations ...; Created on 29 December 2015
25. Feeding forage to calves: Is it necessary?: (Calves & Heifers); After birth, the gastrointestinal tract of ruminants undergoes important anatomical changes. At birth, calves possess a very small microbial population in the rumen. Establishment of rumen microbiota ...; Created on 16 December 2015
26. Navel warfare: The first battle to win for newborn calves: (Calves & Heifers); Navel dipping, arguably the very first husbandry act in a dairy calf’s life, is not only the least costly investment in its entire life cycle, but also the most cost-effective management tool to ensure ...; Created on 03 November 2015
27. How to do a modified Wisconsin sugar float test: Find parasite infections with fecal examination: (Herd Health); A fecal examination is a useful tool in determining the presence and level of an internal parasite infection. Veterinarian Dr. Katie Speller (formerly with Animart) provided the following steps to conduct ...; Created on 12 October 2015
28. Good things come in threes for Bear Creek Dairy: (People); One in 8 million. That’s the probability of triplet calves being born at all – let alone a set of three healthy, happy heifer calves to a cow with no known history of multiple births. Despite the statistical ...; Created on 24 September 2015
29. Using mobile devices to offer safety training to dairy workers: (Management); The Dairy Worker Safety Training Using Mobile Technologies, provided by the University of Texas School of Public Health and the New Mexico State University Dairy Extension, is a new learning initiative ...; Created on 29 July 2015
30. Prepare new employees for a successful first day: (Management); There is a lot to think about when hiring an employee, including recruiting, interviewing, checking references and selecting the right individual. Don’t let those efforts go to waste by not following through ...; Created on 16 April 2015