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, ...
In my father’s milk herd, there is one little Jersey that stands out in contrast to a whole herd of Holsteins. Although she doesn’t stand taller than the rest or match the consistent black and white, she ...
In 2016, OSHA finalized rules it hopes will improve the tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses. Some of the regulations that accompanied this ruling have percolated through the system, and now dairy ...
If you employ foreign-born workers on your dairy, preparing in advance for a raid by ICE is a lot like buying insurance. You hope you never have to use it, but you want it to be there if and when it’s ...
There are family members and employees who use their cellphones too much these days. They are texting everyone, watching Youtube videos or getting up-to-date with their Facebook feed instead of doing what ...
Did you know that when contemplating the price of equipment, clothes, feedstuffs or anything else, you’re battling biases in your mind? Hidden forces are at work against you, and that’s worth a peek inside ...
“It’s better with butter” might be a marketing theme, but it’s also true when it comes to dairy farmer milk checks. Without the strong U.S. butter prices during a recent period of weak world prices, domestic ...
Joe Borgerding
Joe Borgerding of Belgrade, Minnesota, says he turned into a “reluctant grazier” about 20 years ago.
They started with a very conventional farm and went from 60 to 180 cows in 1994, ...
Three Idaho dairy establishments have set out on a unique business venture by coming together to form WinStar Genetics in an effort to improve their herds and the Holstein breed.
Last September, Cannon ...
A new herd health strategy, in addition to vaccination and biosecurity, is to change the health and reproductive efficiency of the herd through genetic selection.
In a recent set of presentations as ...
Key takeaways for improving milk quality
Let’s think about what makes for a profitable cow on your dairy. Yes, the cow is productive – strong milk production, the right balance of fluid and solids, and ...
As concerns over falling reproductive performance escalated around the turn of the century, dairy cattle breeders and advisers decided to take on this trend by putting more emphasis on reproduction-related ...
Nutrition is one element of dairy management that can have a profound effect on the cow’s ability to conceive. Many key components of the ration – like energy levels – directly impact the dairy cow’s ability ...
A decade ago, the National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) Dairy 2007 study showed the average voluntary waiting period (VWP) on U.S. dairy farms was 54.8 days in milk and did not differ by herd ...
Your replacement heifers are your next generation of milking cows. Take care of them.
With the intense focus on cow comfort, we all know that milking cows need comfortable barns, adequate space, appropriate ...
Each day, multiple times a day, you carefully calculate the amount of milk replacer and calf starter you feed each calf. But what about after weaning? What if you place the same level of focus on heifers ...
You’ve probably heard or read it 100 times or more – cows love consistency.
Numerous research studies and on-farm experiences show dairy cows perform better with day-to-day sameness in their care and ...
Every day, we make hundreds of decisions. Some are big, while some appear minor and without a significant future impact. Colostrum handling is one of those processes that falsely appears to only have short-term ...
The crude protein (CP) concentrations and sources used in calf starters and growers are frequently questioned and debated today. Thirty-five (or more) years ago when the understanding of rumen-degradable ...
Dairy managers and consultants focus on feeding and managing the lactating and dry dairy herd. This is logical since mistakes become readily apparent in substantial lost income, increased expenses or poor ...
Puberty in dairy heifers can be defined as a measurable increase in blood progesterone with the presence of a corpus luteum (CL) on an ovary, and heifers begin actively cycling. Dairy heifers reach puberty ...
Designing a robotic milking barn, whether it’s a new build or a retrofit, involves a lot of moving parts and pieces, with many experts involved along the way.
However, it’s important for a manure-handling ...
A handful of dairies are adopting an eco-friendly solution to treat wastewater that uses nature’s most simple workers: earthworms and micro-organisms.
This technology, created by the company BioFiltro, ...
Among the masses, prayer has become a thing to post on Facebook, a thing for only church-goers and religious fanatics, and seldom a thing to change the course of one’s life. Jesus meant it when he said, ...
You know the old saying, “If your only tool is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail.” While that might be the case, the next question has to be, “What kind of hammer do you have?”
Hammers come ...
The last 80 years have seen great innovations in the field of assisted reproductive technologies, which has rendered farmers and their agricultural businesses more efficient and more profitable.
Between ...
Most dairy producers focus on their cows’ ability to produce milk and milk components, and become pregnant, because profitability of a dairy operation occurs here.
However, this does not align with ...
Dragging our moldboard plow through the fields in the spring always tended to turn up more than just the soil. Sometimes there would be a cow’s lost neck chain that got scraped into the spreader or parts ...
For me to effectively tell this story, we need to go back in time. The year is 2002, and my husband, Nate, is in his third year of college pursuing a degree in political science with goals of becoming ...
As I look at thousands of calving records every month for dairies ranging in size from 100 to 5,000 cows, one thing that is consistent among almost all of them is the wide range of ages that springing ...
We all love a good story. We all like to see the bad guy lose. And we all like to see a big girl squeeze into a wedding dress that’s three sizes too small just to watch her family cry. That’s why they ...
When brown water starts coming out of kitchen faucets and filling bathtubs, it is concerning for all involved. One of the first reactions is to point fingers. Local residents point to area dairy farmers ...
Eliminating horns has long been part of basic herd management, but the economic value, practicality and acceptability of traditional horn removal practices is in question. A recent analysis compares the ...
Every day, dairy farmers go to great lengths to care for their cows. In this series from Dairy MAX, Tara Vander Dussen of New Mexico shares her story about caring for newborn calves during Winter Storm ...
Spring and fall weather conditions often present calf raisers with the challenge of fluctuating temperatures. The rapid and ongoing transition from warm days to cold nights creates a temperature roller ...
In the big game this Sunday afternoon, highly trained players will coordinate their activities as precisely as they can against the onslaught of the other team. If all goes according to plan, the quarterback ...
With the objective to develop novel waste-to-resource technologies capable of converting organic wastes into value-added fuel and chemical products, Dr. Dana Kirk, Ph.D., P.E. in biosystems and agricultural ...
Created on 06 January 2017
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