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Current Progressive Dairy digital edition

1. Market Watch: Cattle: (Organizations); Click a link below to see updates on cattle from a specific issue of Progressive Dairy. 2022 Issue 02, 2022: January 19, 2022 Issue 01, 2022: January 1, 2022 2021 Issue 20, 2021: December 12, ...; Created on 21 May 2021
2. Told you so: (From the Editor); Vindication. That’s what I felt standing at the gate in Charlotte, North Carolina, in mid-January. I was on my way to attend PDPW’s Managers Academy. (Click here and here for the highlights from this event.) ...; Created on 05 February 2015
3. Names in the News: Sue McCloskey: (People); Sue McCloskey and her husband, Mike, run Fair Oaks Farms, a 37,000-cow operation and agritourist park in Indiana. The farm and its cooperative, Select Milk Producers, is working in partnership with Coca-Cola ...; Created on 05 February 2015
4. Export Assistance Watch: CWT helps sell 2.5 billion pounds of milk equivalent overseas in 2014: (Industry News); During the year, CWT received 1,285 requests for assistance. CWT provided member cooperatives with assistance on 582 resulting in 102.5 million pounds of Cheddar, Gouda and Monterey Jack cheese, 53.8 ...; Created on 05 February 2015
5. Checkoff Watch: Considering new feed or animal management practices? This resource can help: (Industry News); A comprehensive new resource on feed and animal management is now available for farmers, veterinarians, nutritionists, dairy science educators and other farm experts and advisers. Considerations & Resources ...; Created on 04 February 2015
6. InFocus: Training participants visit birds, fish and race cars: (Event Coverage); Dairy owners and managers from around the country learned about how to improve their hiring practices and build better teams at the most recent PDPW Managers Academy held in Charlotte, North Carolina. ...; Created on 04 February 2015
7. Conference reviews the basics, dives into innovation: (Event Coverage); More than 550 farmers, nutritionists and industry partners recently attended the invitation-only 2015 Leading Producers Conference, Jan. 6-7 in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, to address everyday challenges ...; Created on 04 February 2015
8. Opportunities to increase fluid milk sales: (Industry News); Fluid milk sales continue to be a challenge. Per-capita consumption of fluid milk today is only about two-thirds what it was back in 1970. There has been little good news to report about fluid milk. ...; Created on 04 February 2015
9. Don’t play Survivor on your farm: (Management); Thomas Henry Ford created a system wherein he paid five times the standard wage to attract the best of the best. The flip side of this policy was that if you didn’t meet his standards, you got fired. Under ...; Created on 04 February 2015
10. Moneyball helps pitch conventional wisdom about markets: (Management); There’s a classic book-turned-movie that has striking parallels between the business of baseball and the business of dairying. Moneyball tells the story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, who ...; Created on 04 February 2015
11. How to project your dairy’s true production, break-even cost: (Management); Dairy producers are reminded by lenders, consultants and possibly even themselves that it is important to know their cost of production (COP) and what their break-even (BE) is. Those reminders create ...; Created on 04 February 2015
12. Don’t panic as prices fall: (Industry News); What does your marketing plan look like for 2015? As I write this, April 2015 Class III milk futures prices are trading in the neighborhood of $14.40 per hundredweight (cwt), $10 less than the September ...; Created on 04 February 2015
13. Communication efforts aid father and son in dairy transition: (Management); Family relationships are not easy. While there is nobody we’d rather spend relaxed evenings with, family members can be so irritated with each other that they sit on opposite sides of the funeral home, ...; Created on 04 February 2015
14. Dairy business planning: The next ways to grow: (Management); Most farmers would never dream of building a real-estate development around their farm or marketing their products in China, but that’s exactly what can happen when well-intentioned business owners spend ...; Created on 04 February 2015
15. Hire eagles, not turkeys, to build your dairy team: (Management); Dairy owners and managers from around the country learned how to improve their hiring practices and build better teams at the most recent PDPW Managers Academy held in Charlotte, North Carolina. More ...; Created on 04 February 2015
16. Fodder cuts dairy’s feed bills in half: (Feed & Nutrition); Editor’s note: Kirt Lindley will be part of a video farm tour at World Ag Expo on February 11 at 1:30 p.m. The first week after dairyman Kirt Lindley installed his fodder growing system, he checked ...; Created on 04 February 2015
17. The language of nutrition: MP (Metabolizable protein): (Feed & Nutrition); In layman’s terms, what does metabolizable protein (MP) mean? Metabolizable protein (MP) is the total amount of amino acid absorbed in the small intestine. The main sources of amino acid to the intestine ...; Created on 04 February 2015
18. Dairy nutrition terminology for new employees: (Feed & Nutrition); The costs to produce milk continue to increase. Feed is the largest cost on the dairy, so it is important for dairy employees and individuals in industries that support dairies to have at least a basic ...; Created on 04 February 2015
19. Why didn’t it ferment?: (Feed & Nutrition); Why didn’t it ferment? This question arises more often than you may think. Having reviewed and shared the results of several thousand forage samples in the past few years, when the fermentation profile ...; Created on 04 February 2015
20. Are you measuring what you think you are with feed shrink?: (Feed & Nutrition); Feed accounts for more than 50 percent of the costs of milk production. There are numerous causes associated with feed shrinkage on a dairy. There can be losses of feed weight related to harvesting, delivery, ...; Created on 03 February 2015
21. Consider the source when supplementing lysine: (Feed & Nutrition); Most dairy nutritionists report that they balance the amino acid levels in their dairy rations to bolster income over feed cost (IOFC). Typically, this includes the use of supplemental methionine and lysine, ...; Created on 03 February 2015
22. Mycotoxins and binders: (Feed & Nutrition); Many dairy farmers have had times when the cows back off on feed consumption for no apparent reason and milk production drops. Then just as mysteriously, everything returns to normal. The conception rate ...; Created on 03 February 2015
23. Lower VOC emissions: A bonus from good silage management: (Feed & Nutrition); Poor air quality, holes in the ozone layer and “the greenhouse effect” have been increasing environmental concerns for some time. Recently, this has led to greater interest in the production of volatile ...; Created on 03 February 2015
24. Nourishing the dam and the calf: (Feed & Nutrition); Past and current nutritional models used to assess nutrient requirements of dairy cattle have attempted to ameliorate metabolic disease after calving through the cow’s ration during the three to four ...; Created on 03 February 2015
25. Feed quality, feed efficiency keys to success at Hunter Haven: (Feed & Nutrition); Doug and Tom Block have learned many lessons while managing their family operation, Hunter Haven Farms near Pearl City, Illinois. Doug shared what makes their farm successful at the 4-State Dairy Nutrition ...; Created on 03 February 2015
26. B vitamins can improve reproduction during ration changes: (Feed & Nutrition); As either a dairy producer or a nutritionist, your goal is to keep the ration composition constant to maintain the rumen environment for better dairy cow health and performance. The reality on most farms ...; Created on 03 February 2015
27. Feeding the 2014 corn silage crop: (Feed & Nutrition); The nightmare is over. Many U.S. dairy farms have finally run out of their 2013 corn silage and have begun to feed the 2014 corn silage, and they are seeing much better results with this new harvest. ...; Created on 03 February 2015
28. Pasture testing, NIRS as tools for dairy grazing management: (Feed & Nutrition); Grazing offers an alternative animal management and forage harvesting system that contributes to economic, environmental, lifestyle and other producer goals. Pastures offer lower cost per pound of dry ...; Created on 03 February 2015
29. Simplifying silage inoculant bacteria: (Feed & Nutrition); No one really knows the origin of the term “jack of all trades.” But I am convinced that the term must have been coined to describe a farmer. Farmers, by far, have the broadest knowledge base, dabbling ...; Created on 03 February 2015
30. Snapshot of California’s corn silage practices: (Feed & Nutrition); Corn silage is commonly fed in California dairy operations as it provides a source of digestible fiber and readily fermentable energy for dairy cattle. In recent years, emphasis has been placed on homegrown, ...; Created on 03 February 2015
31. Consider adding sorghum to a forage ration: (Feed & Nutrition); Corn has been a go-to crop for many dairymen when it comes to silage production, but it isn’t always the best option. Drought conditions that have spread across the country in recent years have underscored ...; Created on 03 February 2015
32. Alfalfa still reigns in dairy diets, but watch for surplus RDP: (Feed & Nutrition); Alfalfa, the “queen of forages,” finds its way into a majority of dairy rations in the U.S. not only because of its feed attributes but also due to its adaptability for growing and broad availability ...; Created on 03 February 2015
33. How to handle 2014’s compromised crops: (Feed & Nutrition); The lab results are in – and the diagnosis is a challenging year ahead as crops harvested in 2014 were not quite up to par. At the PDPW Dairy Feed and Nutrition Conference in November, Dr. Mike Hutjens ...; Created on 30 January 2015
34. Just dropping by ... Remember the Holy Days: (Yevet Tenney); With December 25 and New Year’s out of the way, the shimmer of Christmas is replaced with the crimson flash of Valentine’s Day. Cupids and hearts dance in every store window, prepping for the buying and ...; Created on 30 January 2015
35. Mechanics Corner: Finding the right equipment tire: (Barns & Equipment); When looking for farm equipment tires, you have plenty of options … or at least you should. Good tire dealers don’t just try to sell what’s left in stock. Instead, they’ll offer many different brands and ...; Created on 30 January 2015
36. The Milk House: Life, unmeasurable: (Ryan Dennis); My grandfather, Dieter Kramer, had always told me: “Ryan, don’t be drinking the water beer.” Water beer was his term for any domestic lager. It was as fine a metaphor as any other for life. Born in the ...; Created on 30 January 2015
37. Industry Honor Roll: At the 2014 AcresUSA Conference and Trade Show: (Industry News); At the 2014 AcresUSA Conference and Trade Show in early December, Richard “Doc” Holliday, a veterinarian from Waukon, Iowa, was presented with the AcresUSA Eco-agriculture Achievement Award. This award ...; Created on 30 January 2015
38. On the Edge of Common Sense: Harry Johnson: (Baxter Black); I was reminded of Harry Johnson today. I’d been drivin’ down a long stretch of country road. The snow blowin’ up in the rearview mirror, a thermos of coffee in the seat, and the sun warmin’ the cab of ...; Created on 30 January 2015
39. Extra benefits for attending dairy seminars at World Ag Expo: (Event Coverage); Come to one of Progressive Dairyman’s seminars at World Ag Expo for a chance to win cash. “Dairymen are really going to enjoy the new technologies that will be discussed in our seminars this year,” Progressive ...; Created on 30 January 2015
40. Water usage and new technology use among show’s forage seminar topics: (Event Coverage); Note: All forage seminars will be held in the seminar center at the intersection of S Street and Expo Lane. Tuesday, February 10, 10:00 a.m. “Predicting the 2015 Western Hay Market” Speaker: Seth ...; Created on 30 January 2015
41. Reclaiming system saves sand bedding at Rosebrin Farms: (Barns & Equipment); Rosebrin Farms Ltd., located near Chilliwack, British Columbia, in the beautiful Fraser Valley, is the home of Brad and Lisa Roseboom and their family. Brad’s father established a dairy operation in ...; Created on 30 January 2015
42. Mining for gold in your silage: (Feed & Nutrition); Much of the western U.S. is dotted with old gold mining sites. While some of the mines followed veins, much of the gold was actually obtained through placer mining – the process whereby stream-bed gravel ...; Created on 30 January 2015
43. On the Edge of Common Sense: The manly arts: (Baxter Black); People ask where I got my mittens, my saddle blanket, my wild rag, my dog’s muffler and my colorful selection of pot holders that hang in my tackroom. I always change the subject, but the time has come ...; Created on 30 January 2015
44. The View from Here: Past and present: (Guest Blog); We are well into winter here in upstate New York, albeit not as cold as last year. The trees have shed their leaves, which form a deep mat of organic matter on the woodlot floor. The pastures are green ...; Created on 30 January 2015
45. Bringing protein to the cow’s party: (Feed & Nutrition); The Superbowl is almost here – can you taste it? Oh, wait; we haven’t made the party assignments – who is bringing cheese dip, hot dogs, chicken wings and those mini-wieners in BBQ sauce? After all, ...; Created on 07 January 2015
46. What’s the risk of airborne manure particles?: (Manure); It would seem fair to say that dairy farms are beneficial to their local communities. Not only do they provide a nutritious food source, but have contributed nearly 900,000 jobs nationwide. On the contrary, ...; Created on 11 September 2014
47. Retired professor urges students to pursue higher education: (People); So you’ve been going to school for four years; the bothersome question of “Where will I go next?” continues to linger.While many classmates will return to the home farm or adhere to an industry professional ...; Created on 10 September 2014
48. Hidden feed costs in the milking herd: (Feed & Nutrition); This article was #7 of the Top 25 most well-read articles on www.progressivedairy.com in 2014. It was published in the Jan. 17, 2014 Extra e-newsletter. So that’s where the money went! Feed costs ...; Created on 14 January 2014
49. Four questions to ask before you hire someone: (Management); Most farm managers admit that finding and selecting people is one of the most difficult parts of the job. They realize the importance of it, but are not always confident in their ability to identify which ...; Created on 28 October 2013