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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 Dairyman. 2020 Issue 2, 2020: January 19, 2020 Issue 1, 2020: January 1, 2020 2019 Issue 20, 2019: December 12, ...; Created on 16 October 2019
2. 3 habits of happy people: (Event Coverage); When was the last time you laughed? Was it within the last 24 hours? Do you consider yourself happy? Why or why not? Society teaches us to look elsewhere for happiness, but according to Marci Shimoff, ...; Created on 18 November 2016
3. The stories I didn’t tell you in this magazine: (From the Editor); For this issue, I set out to feature two dairies’ cross-ventilated barns. I went out to visit them with an agenda: to write an article about each one, highlighting their newly constructed barn. But ...; Created on 19 July 2016
4. Land O’Lakes, Fair Oaks partner to build new farming exhibit: (Organizations); Land O’Lakes Inc. and its seed and crop input brand, WinField, recently partnered with Fair Oaks Farms, a 30,000-plus-cow dairy in Fair Oaks, Indiana, to build a 12,000-square-foot exhibit on the dairy’s ...; Created on 19 July 2016
5. Partners in promotion: How DMI works within McDonald’s: (Organizations); Dairy has been a mainstay ingredient on McDonald’s menu since the quick-service restaurant’s beginning more than 60 years ago. In fact, it was an order for several milkshake mixers that brought Ray ...; Created on 19 July 2016
6. What happened to the pluses? What is creating the minuses?: (Management); How dairy farmers feel about their 2015 net financial results will depend on what part of the country they are located. Table 1 summarizes the net revenues for 2015 by region. The lower Midwest ...; Created on 19 July 2016
7. 7 steps to successfully recommit to strong, engaged management: (Management); Managers tell me all the time: “I’ve been managing the same people for some time now. I realize now that I’ve been too hands-off. Is it even possible to change my whole management style after all this ...; Created on 19 July 2016
8. Can a tiger change its stripes?: (Management); A lot of my clients use a phrase: “A tiger can’t change its stripes.” I strongly disagree with this concept. Farming is a business which causes you to be humble and daily teaches you lessons. You have ...; Created on 19 July 2016
9. The integrated robotic farm of the future: (Barns & Equipment); As an architect, I’m often asked to envision the “barn of the future.” I reply that the future is here, considering the availability of robotic milking stalls, herd management software, cow and milk monitoring ...; Created on 19 July 2016
10. Cross ventilation with a modification: Curtain baffles control airflow at Double S Dairy: (Barns & Equipment); A Wisconsin dairy’s new barn captures the advantages of a traditional cross vent but with an innovative design: adjustable curtain baffles to control air flow. Dan Smits and his brother Steve, who ...; Created on 19 July 2016
11. Baffles vs. no baffles – which design is right for you?: (Barns & Equipment); Proponents of no-baffle barns believe a more open concept allows a more natural environment for the cows: Consider your climate and snow load, if applicable, and additional building costs that may ...; Created on 18 July 2016
12. Cross ventilation with a modification: Trillium Hill Dairy builds cross-vent barn, no baffles: (Barns & Equipment); At Trillium Hill Dairy, things are really starting to “flow” – cow flow, air flow and work flow – thanks to a new cross-ventilated barn with a unique design. “Even though there are more cows and more ...; Created on 18 July 2016
13. An explanation of ventilation: Natural versus mechanical: (Barns & Equipment); Currently, ventilation and cooling are hot topics in dairying. While everyone agrees that we need to improve ventilation to provide cows fresh air, especially in the winter, and they need fast-moving ...; Created on 18 July 2016
14. 6 tips for easy fan maintenance: (Barns & Equipment); The sun is shining, and the air is hot … summer is here. Although we as humans appreciate the warmer weather, our cows do not. Because ventilation and cooling is so important to cow comfort and minimizing ...; Created on 18 July 2016
15. Why we chose robots: Mor-Dale Farms: (People); Established in 1967, the 450-acre, second-generation Mor-Dale Farms in Myerstown, Pennsylvania, has been owned by Ralph Moyer and his wife, Crystal, since 1991. Three hours, three times per day, Ralph ...; Created on 18 July 2016
16. Heat stress effects linger months beyond summer: (Herd Health); Think about your most stressful day. Now imagine that day lasts for several months. How productive would you be? How hard would you work? How much harder would you work if you weren’t stressed? That ...; Created on 18 July 2016
17. A global perspective on compost-bedded pack barns: (Barns & Equipment); Compost-bedded pack barns are a relatively new housing system of interest globally. At the 2015 European Federation of Animal Science meeting in Warsaw, Poland, scientists representing the U.S., the ...; Created on 18 July 2016
18. Balance cows’ time budget to improve health and production: (Herd Health); Heather Dann of the Miner Institute defines cow comfort as being “a function of the cow’s management,” which has both social and environmental components. Comfortable cows are able to naturally balance ...; Created on 18 July 2016
19. When it comes to comfort brushes, placement matters: (Barns & Equipment); Cow brushes for grooming and comfort are becoming an increasingly common sight on American dairy farms. Dairymen agree that these types of brushes provide enrichment through grooming and fly control. They ...; Created on 18 July 2016
20. Using blocks to reduce lameness in dairy cows: (Herd Health); Similar to how humans use crutches to limit the use of an injured foot in order to heal, cows rely on a similar approach called blocking to allow abscesses, claw injuries or other conditions to heal. Blocks ...; Created on 18 July 2016
21. Maier Dairy improves hoof health, one step at a time: (People); Maier Dairy in Waunakee, Wisconsin, has transformed their hoof health program with a systematic, team-based approach that includes scheduled trimming, lameness prevention and routine monitoring. “Cows ...; Created on 18 July 2016
22. Stop using the ‘a’ word to describe hoof lesions: (Herd Health); When talking about hoof lesions, stop using the “a” word. On many hoof trimming records, the term “abscess” is a catchall for just about any insult to a dairy cow’s foot, but according to University ...; Created on 18 July 2016
23. Use trimming records to reduce lameness: (Herd Health); One of the major changes in my business over the years is the type of records I keep on trim day and how I record this data, but even more important is how and with whom I share these records. When dairy ...; Created on 18 July 2016
24. The ethics and economics for trimming cull cows: (Herd Health); When helping a dairyman sort cows to be trimmed, I often point out cows in the herd that have a limp or long toes. All too often, I hear the dairyman saying, “We won’t trim her because she’s a cull cow.” ...; Created on 18 July 2016
25. Defend your herd against infectious lesions with a footbath: (Herd Health); A well-managed footbath is an effective line of defense against digital dermatitis and foot rot. “You can get yourself out of a bad situation with a footbath,” Roger Olson, dairy specialist with Zinpro ...; Created on 18 July 2016
26. How to defeat digital dermatitis: (Herd Health); Digital dermatitis (DD) infections are a common sight on confinement dairies, often ailing more than 20 percent of cows in a herd, but there are ways to reduce the incidence of these painful lesions that ...; Created on 18 July 2016
27. Take control of digital dermatitis in the heifer pen: (Herd Health); Digital dermatitis (DD) goes by many different names: Mortellaro’s disease, strawberry foot rot and hairy heel warts. But the one thing everyone can agree on is how frustrating it is to see on your farm, ...; Created on 18 July 2016
28. Be proactive to prevent lameness during the dry period: (Herd Health); Proper hoof care management during the dry period is crucial to the cow’s ability to recover and replenish body condition. After a long, productive and taxing lactation, it is imperative that the cow is ...; Created on 18 July 2016
29. How record-keeping can impact hoof health: (Herd Health); The sheer volume of information collected on a dairy farm may seem daunting to track, but proper record-keeping can play a vital role when making decisions. One area that may not receive as much attention ...; Created on 18 July 2016
30. Breeding for hoof health means lower maintenance costs: (Herd Health); Hoof problems are the bane of many producers’ existences. Lame cows eat less, fail to achieve optimal production and are more prone to other issues, such as ketosis and reduced fertility. Treating ...; Created on 18 July 2016
31. Just dropping by ... Satan’s counterfeit government: (Yevet Tenney); I am more and more disturbed at the amount of people who are campaigning for a professed socialist. Do they even know what it means to be a socialist? I wonder if they know what kind of society we would ...; Created on 18 July 2016
32. Baler maintenance provides success in the field: (Barns & Equipment); With summer and hay season already upon us, it’s too late for most producers to consider going through their balers with a fine-toothed comb, which is best done during off-season servicing. However, ...; Created on 18 July 2016
33. A nutritional boost to reproduction: (Feed & Nutrition); Investigating the underlying factors of dairy reproductive performance is a lot like peeling an onion – the more you look, the more layers you find. Of course, nutrition is one such layer that has ...; Created on 18 July 2016
34. The Milk House: Tea-talk on the Irish countryside: (Ryan Dennis); There’s a danger that lurks in the Irish countryside. A hazard waiting latent under the gray skies as one passes the seemingly quiet stone houses, covert with peril. Something that has victimized all those ...; Created on 18 July 2016
35. Margins hit seven-year low: (Industry News); Milk price and feed costs drive margins at the farm level. Certainly, sources of revenue other than milk and expenses other than feed impact profitability – but not of the same magnitude. To gauge ...; Created on 18 July 2016
36. Dairyman Caleb Watson qualifies for American Ninja Warrior: (People in the News); Dairy farmer Caleb Watson did the ag world proud when he competed in the American Ninja Warrior competition (Atlanta qualifying round) on June 8. Finishing the course with a time of 1.29.59, Watson ...; Created on 15 July 2016
37. HERd management: What we’re up against: How to win the social media battle: (Guest Blog); I think we all have that handful of Facebook friends who share everything that has ever been posted about dairy. Health benefits of milk? Share! New research on the positives of GMOs? Share! Cute cow photo? ...; Created on 14 July 2016
38. The Manure Spreader: Sexy tractor: (Tim Moffett); As a kid, I would see pictures of big, new, shiny tractors in the magazines and remember thinking, “One day, I’ll have one of those.” Now, 40-plus years later, I have the willpower to breeze right over ...; Created on 14 July 2016