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Current Progressive Dairy digital edition

1. Jason Jenks: What is precision ag?: (Guest Blog); Jason Jenks serves as a precision ag specialist for Pro-Ag Farmers Cooperative in Minnesota. He recently began a blog to explain to consumers how precision ag is helping agriculturalists to produce more ...; Created on 09 August 2012
2. InFocus: Dairy Research Institute’s New Product Competition: (Event Coverage); The Dairy Research Institute, through the support of thedairy checkoff, announced the winners of the inaugural DairyResearch Institute’s New Product Competition during a ceremonyJuly 16 at the 2012 American ...; Created on 08 August 2012
3. The View from Here: Wandering in a Michigan cornfield: (Guest Blog); I often write of the cornfield. Here, in Central Michigan, the corn plant is in the middle of its vegetative growth. On a recent one-day trip, I discovered the enduring tug of the cornfield, taking me ...; Created on 08 August 2012
4. On the Edge of Common Sense: Cow stupidity: (Baxter Black); I was watching Will trying to entice a small bunch of cows through an open gate by baiting them with protein pellets. The last two cows could not find the gate! After three backtracks he finally coaxed ...; Created on 08 August 2012
5. On the Edge of Common Sense: The skunk blind: (Baxter Black); One of the jobs of a Dad is to protect his family from invaders. It explains his membership in the NRA and his tendency to look longingly at the .357 magnum in the glass case. He’s never had to shoot ...; Created on 08 August 2012
6. The Milk House: Farmers, farm dogs and fixations: (Ryan Dennis); Her addictions ruled her. It affected all of her decision-making. When she had what she wanted she collapsed into neurotic pleasure and forgot about those who cared for her. When she didn’t have it she ...; Created on 08 August 2012
7. Mechanics Corner: Ensure your skid steer is safe to operate: (Barns & Equipment); A skid steer is one of the most versatile pieces of equipment on a farm or ranch because it is designed to maneuver easily in tight spaces and has a variety of attachments to complete multiple jobs. Injuries ...; Created on 08 August 2012
8. Just dropping by ... The Sabbath of the Lord: (Yevet Tenney); Not too many Sundays ago, a little girl came to church in her jeans and T-shirt. She got up in front of the congregation and said, “It is not a matter of how you dress or if you come to church or not – ...; Created on 08 August 2012
9. HERd management: This is no longer just a ‘Good Old Boys Club’: (Guest Blog); Back in my grandparents’ day, farmwives and daughters were in charge of the household and helped out on the farm when needed. Few would have been considered in charge. But today women really are becoming ...; Created on 08 August 2012
10. Indiana grazier does things differently: (People); Dave Forgey isn’t afraid to go against the grain and make his opinions known. He was the first dairy producer in the U.S. to obtain Fresian genetics from New Zealand and he’s become a resource for those ...; Created on 08 August 2012
11. Rotational grazing makes economic sense for Missouri dairy: (Management); Fourth-generation dairyman Mike Meier likes to go hunting in December and January. There’s no reason to bring in hired labor to milk his 92-head herd while he’s gone. All the cows are dry. Meier first ...; Created on 08 August 2012
12. The realities of robotic milking technology today: (Management); I was born and raised on a dairy farm in Colombia where, from an early age, I was embracing the lifestyle of and nurturing a passion for milking cows. My family and I organized our lives and schedules ...; Created on 08 August 2012
13. Audit team: Ration and milk quality both needed review: (Management); When a 1,150-cow dairy asked for a TMR audit, we welcomed the opportunity to work with this well-run operation to help it gain ever greater production efficiencies. Even well-run dairies often have ...; Created on 08 August 2012
14. Forage digestibility: Beyond NDF: (Feed & Nutrition); While the total neutral detergent fiber content (NDF on a DM basis) of a forage crop is a major factor in defining the overall maturity at cutting, it’s by no means the last word in understanding the digestibility ...; Created on 07 August 2012
15. Do cows efficiently use their protein, or is it being wasted?: (Feed & Nutrition); Cows have a history of being easy targets for blame. Mrs. O’Leary’s cow was credited with starting the fire that burned down Chicago when she kicked an unfortunately placed lantern on Sunday, October 8, ...; Created on 07 August 2012
16. Amino acid balancing reduces dairy’s environmental impact: (Feed & Nutrition); Change is not always an easy concept to embrace. But for dairy producers and nutritionists willing to look at their rations in a new light, getting in on the leading edge of change with amino acid balancing ...; Created on 07 August 2012
17. How to evaluate bypass amino acid use: (Feed & Nutrition); For over a decade, the importance and the value of balancing for specific amino acids in dairy cow diets has been a very hot topic. Amino acids play a direct role in a cow’s metabolism including milk ...; Created on 07 August 2012
18. Measures of feeding economics: Focus on margins, not ratios: (Feed & Nutrition); What is the best measure of feeding economics? There are a variety of ratios used in the dairy industry to evaluate feeding economics – and they are misleading or inaccurate if used inappropriately. Examples ...; Created on 07 August 2012
19. Repairing milking parlor flooring: What are the options?: (Barns & Equipment); At first blush, the floors of milking parlors would seem to be one of the last areas of concern for dairymen. Typical milking parlor floors are generally concrete slabs designed to withstand the heavy ...; Created on 07 August 2012
20. Remember, nutrition can impact udder health and SCC too: (Feed & Nutrition); Maintaining good udder health and low bulk tank somatic cell counts (SCC) is increasingly important to dairy profitability, particularly in light of the recent marketing requirement adopted by most milk ...; Created on 07 August 2012
21. CIP Challenge: Putting a magnifying glass on maintenance: (Management); Regardless of which hemisphere you call home, if you run a dairy, maintenance issues can sneak up on you. The CIP Detectives were recently called to an 800-cow operation in Japan to catch any culprits ...; Created on 07 August 2012
22. A common theme: ‘I culled cows and production increased’: (Herd Health); During the Spring quarter at UC – Davis, our dairy cattle production class of 40 students was on the road again doing weekly field trips to 10 dairy farms. We traveled all of California, as far north as ...; Created on 07 August 2012
23. Economic considerations for direct tanker loading on dairies: (Management); Editor’s note: The following article is the final installment in a series regarding direct tanker loading systems. In the previous two articles, we considered some of the capital costs and marketing ...; Created on 07 August 2012
24. Evolution of contagious vs. environmental mastitis: (Herd Health); The differences between environmental and contagious mastitis are now largely understood among researchers and dairy producers alike. But it took a great many studies over a number of years to make ...; Created on 07 August 2012
25. Machine makes hygiene products for pennies per gallon: (Barns & Equipment); A hygiene technology that has been in use for more than 30 years in the water treatment industry, but never applied to agriculture, was introduced to the dairy industry earlier this year at World Ag ...; Created on 07 August 2012
26. New Mexico leads in per-cow production: (Industry News); No state in the nation has squeezed more milk out of its dairy cows in the past three years than New Mexico. Producers got nearly 25,000 pounds out of each cow in 2011. What’s the secret? A combination ...; Created on 07 August 2012
27. Debate over dairy policy reform still not over: (Industry News); Dairy reform’s most controversial issue isn’t going away quietly. Supply management for U.S. milk production survived the House Ag Committee’s markup of the 2012 Farm Bill on a bipartisan 29-17 vote, ...; Created on 07 August 2012
28. Puerto Rico’s not-so-secret dairy industry: (Industry News); If agriculture and Puerto Rico appear in the same sentence, most people would think of sugar cane, bananas or other tropical fruits. Yet, the dairy industry in Puerto Rico represents 25 percent ...; Created on 07 August 2012
29. 3 open minutes with Charlie Arnot: (Management); Ag communications consultant and owner of CMA Consulting Charlie Arnot recently said this summer’s consumer and news media attention on food brands and agriculture production should be an “inflection ...; Created on 07 August 2012
30. Keep safety first during silage packing season: (Feed & Nutrition); From 2007 to 2011, an average of 108.5 million tons of whole-plant corn was harvested annually for silage in the U.S. The majority of corn silage was stored in large bunker silos and drive-over piles. ...; Created on 07 August 2012
31. Develop consciousness in your dairy business: (Management); What is consciousness and why does it matter to your dairy? Consciousness is the capacity to catch and learn from reality, to be attentive and paying attention to our internal world and to the world that ...; Created on 07 August 2012
32. Time to look at hedging the milk-feed margin again: (Feed & Nutrition); I know you’ve heard it before but, given the current volatility in both the milk and feed prices, I thought now would be a good time to review the importance of hedging the milk-feed margin. Some of you ...; Created on 07 August 2012
33. Five ways to get employees to take responsibility: (Management); In his book Moments of Truth, Jan Carlzon, former CEO of the Swedish airline SAS, states that “An individual without information cannot take responsibility. An individual who is given information cannot ...; Created on 07 August 2012
34. Why you must develop a passion for information: (Management); I’ve been hearing a lot of conversation recently about the profitability of milking cows. The buzzwords include three-year price cycles, three-year production cycles, market stability, market risk, risk ...; Created on 07 August 2012
35. August 11, 2012 issue: Checkoff Watch: (Organizations); Click here to download a pdf of the latest checkoff watch, provided by Cattlemen's Beef Board and My Beef Checkoff Program. PD ...; Created on 07 August 2012
36. Indiana producers hold CME tour: (Event Coverage); “What’s corn going to do?” and “Where’s milk headed?” These are top-of-mind questions for dairymen. While there have always been ups and downs, the past five years have felt more like Mr. Toad’s Wild ...; Created on 07 August 2012
37. On-the-record and quotable: (From the Editor); Several articles in this issue were inspired from published comments we’ve tracked down to more fully report on. Two of their backstories are detailed here. ‘Fragile consensus’ On July 11 the House Ag ...; Created on 06 August 2012
38. /MORE: Links to trending topic articles: (From the Editor); For our readers' convenience, we've compiled a list of all of the trending topic articles features. July 1, 2013: A.I. company hand-picked its preferred activity monitor system June 11, 2013: Flavor ...; Created on 30 December 2011
39. Market Watch: Cattle [2012]: (Industry News); Click a link below to see updates on Cattle from a specific issue of Progressive Dairyman. Issue 18 2012: December 11, 2012 Issue 17 2012: November 21, 2012 Issue 16 2012: November 1, 2012 Issue ...; Created on 27 December 2010