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, ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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.” ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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? ...
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
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