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Current Progressive Dairy digital edition

1. Dairy life is the best life: (From the Editor); Living in Idaho so close to Yellowstone National Park has me watching the popular TV series Yellowstone. In the third episode of season three that just came out, there was a scene I loved and think not ...; Created on 06 August 2020
2. Pace of change makes lifelong learning essential: (News); New technologies, new management practices, new evolving regulatory policies and ever-changing consumer trends mean that today’s dairy farmers must be more focused than ever before. A commitment to ...; Created on 06 August 2020
3. What happened? What’s next? - Negative PPD impact varies by order, handler: (Industry News); You’re busy milking cows, watching dairy markets and trying to figure out if your office will be a school classroom for the kids this fall. With that in mind, Progressive Dairy looks at issues in ...; Created on 06 August 2020
4. Challenge accepted: Protein consistency in nutrient content, digestibility: (Feed & Nutrition); Feeding dairy cows is as much an art as it is a science, and there are several obstacles that can pose challenges to a successful feeding program. One of these challenges is the consistency of the feeds ...; Created on 06 August 2020
5. How precise is your nutrition program?: (Feed & Nutrition); The goal of precision nutrition is to formulate rations that support the nutritional needs of the herd and the financial needs of the business as closely as possible. As our industry experiences unprecedented ...; Created on 06 August 2020
6. Making the cut: Field observations of robotic milking nutrition: (Feed & Nutrition); As farms have implemented robotic milking into their operations, the perceived challenge of feeding robotic herds has grown. Many farms that have implemented robotic milking or automated milking systems ...; Created on 06 August 2020
7. Dietary starch levels: How much is not enough?: (Feed & Nutrition); The fresh cow period is the time of greatest opportunity during a cow’s lactation. Starting cows off strong can result in increased peak milk, an ideal lactation curve and improved income over feed cost. ...; Created on 06 August 2020
8. Probiotics, prebiotics, DFMs, yeasts, bacteria: Do they really work?: (Feed & Nutrition); Over recent years, a whole category of additive products have exploded in dairy cow (and other food animal species) nutrition. Microorganism-based products such as yeasts, bacteria, fungi, enzyme products, ...; Created on 06 August 2020
9. Garbage in, garbage out: Impacts of silage mismanagement on the rumen: (Feed & Nutrition); Forage quality is the Achilles’ heel for any ruminant nutritionist. The better the forage coming out of storage, the better the nutritionist. Silage management is not easy and involves many complex ...; Created on 06 August 2020
10. Get a handle on lurking pathogens in forages: (Feed & Nutrition); You might be surprised to know that harmful pathogens often lurk in fermented forages like haylage and corn silage, causing health and productivity issues when consumed by dairy cows. In fact, a recent ...; Created on 06 August 2020
11. The fungal battlefield: (Feed & Nutrition); Coming off a couple of years of adequate to excessive rainfall throughout many dairy forage growing regions across the country, feed hygiene is an increasingly scrutinized forage quality item. In some ...; Created on 06 August 2020
12. The ‘normal’ pattern of corn forage and grain development: (Feed & Nutrition); The 2020 corn production season has gotten off to a relatively “normal” start. Timely planting occurred – a welcome change compared to the previous three seasons, when colder and wetter conditions influenced ...; Created on 06 August 2020
13. Three mistakes that could limit digestible starch: (Feed & Nutrition); Corn silage is the go-to homegrown forage for supplying digestible starch and fiber high-producing cows require. Often, however, shortcuts and oversights during the growing, harvest and storage processes ...; Created on 06 August 2020
14. August 2020 calving traits will reflect lower breed averages: (A.I. & Breeding); Historically, the PTA calculations for calving traits have been centered on a breed average phenotypic base of 8% for Holsteins (calving ease and stillbirth) and 5% for Brown Swiss (calving ease). In ...; Created on 06 August 2020
15. Three dry cow strategies for high milk quality: (Herd Health); Dairy cows are most susceptible to new intramammary infections (IMIs) during the dry period. Cows are at greatest risk two to three weeks after dry-off and two to three weeks prior to calving. New ...; Created on 06 August 2020
16. A novel approach to controlling bovine leukosis: (Herd Health); Control and even eradication of bovine leukosis, caused by bovine leukemia virus (BLV), is possible in U.S. dairy herds dedicated to prioritizing diagnostic testing, acting on results and employing regular ...; Created on 06 August 2020
17. How can the dairy industry communicate more effectively on animal welfare?: (Herd Health); Although major investments and advancements have been made in animal welfare science that are increasingly incorporated into animal production, effectively engaging consumers and other members of the public ...; Created on 06 August 2020
18. Tools to build trust on your farm: (Management); Imagine how much better life would be on your farm if trust was not an issue. When a farm founder trusts the next generation, it is a beautiful thing to behold. The spirit of generosity is fully empowered ...; Created on 06 August 2020
19. Just dropping by ... Remember the suffering: (Yevet Tenney); I am increasingly troubled at the mob’s efforts to destroy monuments to American heroes and bury our classic and sacred literature. Why would anyone purposefully try to erase the past? Don’t they want ...; Created on 06 August 2020
20. The Milk House: (Corn)holed up in the U.S.: (Ryan Dennis); “It’s all the rage,” my father said. “Everyone is doing it.” I was a bit skeptical. The last time my father told me about the latest rage that everyone was doing, he was referring to “finger trolling,” ...; Created on 06 August 2020
21. HERd management: Why and how to avoid fear-based marketing with dairy: (Guest Blog); I want to start this with saying, trust me, I know we all have to market our products. But in this article I want to discuss the tactics we use to promote our products and how they can harm the image and ...; Created on 06 August 2020
22. The Manure Spreader: Grillmaster: (Tim Moffett); You ever wonder what happens to all the 4-H animals that don’t make it to the show? You know, the animal you’ve dropped thousands of dollars and lots of time into so your kid could be part of the fair. ...; Created on 06 August 2020
23. Wild ride gives new meaning to the term ‘basis risk’: (Management); My colleague has likened the ride our dairy industry has been taking to an out-of-control car. One moment we are panicked by nearly plowing into the ditch from low prices, the next we are overcorrecting ...; Created on 28 July 2020
24. How audiobooks make me a better dairy manager: (Guest Blog); What are you listening to right now? What do you listen to while you're in the barn, or in the skid loader or in a tractor doing field work? I have often heard the quote, “Leaders are readers.” When ...; Created on 26 June 2020
25. Deworming dairy replacement heifers is a balancing act: (Herd Health); Even a few parasites in a high-producing dairy cow have the potential to reduce herd performance. Parasite-free animals convert feed more efficiently, have fewer disease problems, enter the milking string ...; Created on 10 June 2020
26. 5 things I can’t do without with Garrett Miller of Oakwood Dairy: (Herd Health); Garrett Miller has worked as the dairy manager at Oakwood Dairy LLC in Auburn, New York, since 2009. Miller has been surrounded by dairy cows all his life. He grew up on his family’s small dairy farm and ...; Created on 10 June 2020
27. Consumer preferences for production changes: (Management); U.S. consumers are increasingly interested in how their food is produced. Understanding consumer preferences and the choices they are making can help dairy producers, and the industry in general, understand ...; Created on 27 May 2020
28. Making the transition to pair-housed calves: Two heads are better than one: (Calves & Heifers); Pair housing (or small groups of up to four calves) for pre-weaned calves is increasing in popularity due to the myriad of benefits for calf welfare compared to individual housing. Converting to pair housing ...; Created on 26 May 2020
29. The one thing that will save your dairy money this year: (Management); If you do nothing else in 2020 to reduce expenses on your dairy, do this one thing: Implement a purchase order (PO) system. What is a PO system? Purchase order (PO) systems are a way of creating ...; Created on 13 May 2020
30. Rethinking pull-type sprayers: (Barns & Equipment); Manufacturers are seeing an uptick in pull-type sprayer sales. Manufacturers of sprayers weighed in on this trend at a National Farm Machinery Show panel earlier this year. Mark Bee, sales manager ...; Created on 10 April 2020