Click a link below to see updates on cattle from a specific issue of Progressive Dairy.
2021
Issue 2, 2021: January 19, 2021 Issue 1, 2021: January 1, 2021
2020 Issue 20, 2020: December 12, ...
At Progressive Dairyman, we get to see and write about the coolest new technology available to today’s dairy farmers. These advancements often save time, increase revenue, maximize resources – and sometimes ...
Adam Azevedo and his family run a dairy farm in Stevinson, California. With the milk market the past few years making things tight all over, this family has opened up the farm as a wedding venue to supplement ...
The annual Pennsylvania Farm Show, held each January in Harrisburg,Pennsylvania, is the largest indoor agricultural exposition in the country. Thousands of visitors flock to the eight-day show to see a ...
According to USDA statistics, there were 133 dairy cooperatives in the U.S. in 2012. These 133 cooperatives had 45,100 members. Based on this number, it is estimated that more than 80 percent of the ...
Put yourself in this situation. Your son, your daughter, another family member or a friend has just decided to become a member of a school or other sports team.
As you think of them beginning this new ...
Most readers are probably aware that the recent rally in milk prices is historically significant in that the nearly-$3-per-hundredweight (cwt) climb in futures prices is quite rare. The last time we witnessed ...
As a dairy producer, many different issues and risks are pulling you in a thousand different directions. As you began this new year, you probably assembled a list of priorities, such as a list of things ...
“My wife tells me I don’t compliment [my employees] like I should, or pat guys on the back. I sit and listen and talk and joke with the guys, but I’m usually pretty serious and feel like we’re always behind. ...
Nearly every day, a dairy producer asks us if we know of anyone looking for work. Milkers and herdsmen are in great demand here in the Midwest, and many feeder and manager positions are open as well.
As ...
Taking the time to understand the Hispanic culture can build loyalty and cut down on costly employee turnover, according to Cody Heller, Cowz R Us Consulting and Heller Farm Inc. During the 2013 Vita ...
Canadian farm consultant and mediator Mark Andrew Junkin recently released a new book about how ag families deal with transition and changes in their business. Junkin started consulting with dairy farmers ...
Every second Wednesday, we recognized a pound or two dip in milk production. We’ve traced back the variance to when the relief feeder is mixing the ration.His feeding records verify mixing inaccuracies. ...
A pest control innovation newly available to dairy producers delivers up to 90 days of fly-killing power in a broad-spectrum premise spray.
From the calf barn to the milking parlor, Annihilator Polyzone ...
This article was #4 of the Top 25 most well-read articles on www.progressivedairy.com in 2014. It was published in the Feb. 7, 2014 print issue.
It all began with the need for a new manure-handling ...
Two dairymen who will test-drive new Web-based margin-tracking software for one year as part of Progressive Dairyman’s first-ever peer technology user group say they want to know more precisely their ...
Just five years shy of their family dairy’s 100-year anniversary, dairymen brothers Bruce and Brad Scott of San Jacinto, California, faced a most terrible “what if” situation.
State water quality regulators ...
Making the switch from old-crop corn silage to new-crop corn silage each year can oftentimes challenge milk production, particularly if the new-crop corn silage hasn’t had enough time to ferment. Depending ...
As 2013 corn silage is beginning to be more widely fed, producers need to be aware of the findings from a recent U.S. harvest analysis and the impact it may have on herd health and performance.
We recently ...
Dairy cattle and other ruminants are biologically designed to convert forages and other fibrous feeds into high-quality products such as milk and meat for human consumption.
Forages also provide the foundation ...
The dairy industry has made great strides in reducing the amount of protein we feed while improving performance. Not only has this had a positive impact on a farm’s bottom line but also on reducing nitrogen ...
Forage is an important ingredient in dairy cattle rations. However, it can be difficult to achieve high intake levels with certain forage-based diets. We have long recognized that NDF digestibility influences ...
High-performing dairy cows thrive on consistency and routine, from a quiet and comfortable pen environment and consistent milking times to a stable and nutritious TMR delivered at the same times each ...
The modern dairy cow has an unparalleled ability to consume materials of little to no value for human consumption and transform those materials to food of the highest nutritional value and flavor for humans. ...
History of NIRS Near-infrared radiation was first identified in 1800 by William Herschel, who was curious as to whether a certain color was associated to the heat of sunlight. It is this kind of curiosity ...
What is silage?
Crops such as corn, alfalfa and grass are preserved and stored as silage. Silage inoculants work with the lactic acid found naturally in crops to ferment sugars into lactic and other acids ...
When we finish a TMR audit, some questions are pretty routine. “Which is the best facer to purchase?” though, is not among them. “Which is the best mixer?” is among them. Yet, both the facer and the mixer ...
The high-producing dairy cow in transition adjusts its metabolism to mobilize calcium from skeletal reserves and energy from adipose reserves in a timely fashion, along with up-regulating intake capacity, ...
Cattle were designed to convert low-quality nutrients into high-quality foods, such as dairy and meat products. For the last 15 years, energy co-products (distillers grains) have comprised an increasing ...
With the advent of BMR hybrids, forages like forage sorghum, sorghum-sudan and sudan hybrids have moved sorghums from the “just heifer” feed category to the top of the “dairy” quality feed category (and ...
In the last 10 years, the use of corn grain for feed has been reduced by nearly 30 percent. The emphasis on corn for fuel instead of feed has driven up the competition for corn grain and corn silage.
The ...
Reaching high peak milk production is key to a successful lactation. Each 1-pound increase in peak milk translates into 213 to 304 pounds more milk throughout the entire lactation.
Unfortunately, a cow’s ...
Advances in forage fiber testing have been rapid over the past 30 years to keep pace with our evolving understanding of nutrient needs of high-producing dairy cows. Forage testing today utilizes a combination ...
Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), the queen of the forage crops, is one of the most developed and researched forage and pasture crops in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world where it is well adapted.
It’s ...
As the 2014 silage season approaches, producers will be turning their thoughts to making sure everything is prepped and ready for the annual battle to ensure sufficient top-quality preserved feeds are ...
When I left the university with my master’s degree in 1976 and joined a fertilizer retail chain as agronomist, corn yields averaged about 140 bushels per acre.
At the same time in North Dakota, where ...
The dairy industry has come a long way in formulating and delivering quality dairy diets. It’s really quite extraordinary the level of information dairy producers and nutritionists now have at their fingertips ...
Scriptures are like a rosebud that continues to bloom. Each petal that opens reveals more beauty and depth. At first glance, the scriptures are just interesting stories, but as you re-read and ponder them, ...
Engine oil and hydraulic fluid are literally the lifeblood of your machinery. Selecting the correct oil for your machine and application is important, but are there things that can be learned by using ...
There is so much negativity directed at agriculture. Not exactly the sentence I like to use when starting an article, but it’s the truth. People have so many misconceptions about agriculture and are ...
Several months ago, comedian Louis C.K. appeared on Conan O’Brien’s show, explaining why he didn’t like cell phones. He describes driving down the highway when a Bruce Springsteen song came on the radio ...
• Paul Ekstein of Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada, was selected by the Klussendorf Association as the fifth recipient of the Robert “Whitey” McKown Master Breeder Award, which recognizes a well-managed breeder ...
DSM offers recyclable packaging option for farmers
DSM Animal Nutrition & Health now offers the option of packaging premix in low-density linear polyethylene (LDPE) bags.
These durable, white-tinted ...
Age: 38
Location: Cobb, Wisconsin
History of your dairy, in a nutshell: My husband, Jarred Searls, and I both grew up on farms and wanted to raise our family the same way. We believe the farm is the ...
Age: 39
Location: Denair, California
History of your dairy, in a nutshell: My parents founded the dairy in 1972 on a rented facility in Galt, California. In 1974, they purchased an existing dairy in ...
“In the land of the geldings, the cryptorchid is king.”
That seems to be the best way to describe American politics since Reagan or Truman. But we get what we deserve. Politics by nature is divisive, ...
The Washington (D.C.) Redskins have raised the ire of part of the collective descendants of East Asian migrants who crossed the Bering Strait thousands of years ago. n my conversations with some descendants ...
Approximately 100 dairy producers and industry members descended in Sacramento to acquire the knowledge and skill to turn their own challenges into successes. As Governor Brown was contemplating his ...
I am now reporting to you from Walton, New York. The USDA-NRCS has transferred me to Walton, New York, to work as a planner for the New York City Watershed Agriculture Program. I have been here just over ...
Click the links below to learn about new products being presented at World Ag Expo, which will be held February 11-13 in Tulare, California. Progressive Dairyman will once again be featuring virtual farm ...
Created on 02 January 2014
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