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Current Progressive Dairy digital edition

1. Issue 16 2011: Checkoff watch: (Industry News); Click here to download a pdf of the latest checkoff watch, provided by Dairy Management, Inc. PD; Created on 04 November 2011
2. Do you spell digester with four letters?: (From the Editor); In some parts of the U.S., digesters are a four-letter word. I’ve heard about the good, the bad and the unsure outcomes from installing them. Few have been installed without some type of seed money invested ...; Created on 01 November 2011
3. Are you a victim or a victor?: (Guest Blog); Post-Civil War, the nation’s industry rapidly grew and expanded throughout the continent. Telegraph lines linked every corner of the country, providing nearly instantaneous spread of news. Railroads ...; Created on 01 November 2011
4. Who’s in charge tomorrow?: (Management); Earlier this year, after almost 10 years of searching, the U.S. military finally got Osama bin Laden. Through a combination of observing, strategizing, communicating, planning, training, waiting and executing, ...; Created on 01 November 2011
5. Dairy Security Act press conference held during World Dairy Expo: (Industry News); In keeping with World Dairy Expo tradition, a press conference was held on the show grounds in Madison, Wisconsin, to announce a major industry initiative. This year, it was the introduction of the Dairy ...; Created on 01 November 2011
6. U.S. dairy farmers must become world supplier of choice: (Industry News); Note: The following is an opinion commentary. I am excited about being in a growing and prosperous dairy industry. Yes, I know, there are many that think our industry is in terrible shape, but they are ...; Created on 01 November 2011
7. Will there be enough corn to go around?: (Industry News); With the short crop and volatile prices, end users are fussing with each other about their needs for corn. And the livestock industry has raised its ire with the ethanol industry about tax credits and ...; Created on 01 November 2011
8. The greatest legacy: Preparing the next generation: (Management); Many of my clients have heard me say how fascinated I am with families who can work and operate a business together. It’s hard enough to just be family, let alone with the added stress of working side ...; Created on 01 November 2011
9. 2012 outlook: Carefully manage forward profitability: (Industry News); Profit margins for dairy producers have remained relatively steady over the past few months since our last update in July. While the forward margins themselves have not changed much, movement in the individual ...; Created on 01 November 2011
10. Does marketing matter … enough?: (Management); All over the business world the prevailing opinion is that market volatility is here to stay. As a result, the world’s leading businesses are taking action to manage risk. In fact, a 2011 study by the ...; Created on 01 November 2011
11. Dairymen use creative social media to give cows a voice: (People); What if the next Bond girl was not a woman, but a bovine? Dairyman Ryan Bright and his blogging undercover bovines believe it’s completely possible. Bright works with his dad and uncle, Douglas and ...; Created on 31 October 2011
12. Illinois dairy provides learning opportunity to students: (People); (Click here to listen to the online exclusive audio interview with past intern Jackie Florent.) Golden Oaks Farm in Wauconda, Illinois, is known for a high-quality genetics program – including work ...; Created on 31 October 2011
13. Mr. Chairman, Mandatory E-Verify threatens U.S. agriculture: (Guest Blog); The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration held a hearing on Oct. 4 that focused on the agricultural labor crisis and the existential threat American agriculture faces by efforts in the House to ...; Created on 31 October 2011
14. Get the most out of cultures and intramammary treatments: (Herd Health); Bacteriological culture and intramammary infusion are two very powerful and important tools of an effective mastitis control program. They have been used for several decades and, when coupled with good ...; Created on 31 October 2011
15. Are all your employees happy?: (Herd Health); I enjoy reading Tom Wall’s monthly articles on employee management in Progressive Dairyman. He brings intelligent ideas to the important topic of managing your employees. For understandable reasons, I ...; Created on 31 October 2011
16. Path to higher-quality milk and profits can be found in DNA: (Herd Health); Mastitis causes more than $2 billion in production losses to the U.S. dairy industry each year. Traditional mastitis testing can be prone to error and be slow – barriers that may prevent dairy farmers ...; Created on 31 October 2011
17. Considerations for direct tanker loading on dairy farms: (Management); The objective of this article is to examine the factors a producer will want to consider when choosing the milk cooling and storage system for the dairy farm. The two systems considered are the traditional, ...; Created on 31 October 2011
18. A.I. with no observation and no injections?: (A.I. & Breeding); Over the last 30 years, people have searched for alternatives to traditional observation of cows to detect estrus. Injections to synchronize estrus/ovulation have replaced observations and are now a common ...; Created on 31 October 2011
19. Cow observations that make you money: (Barns & Equipment); Observing cows is nothing new in the dairy business – we all do it every day. But taking some time to critically review a few fundamental cow behaviors on your own operation can have great effects on cow ...; Created on 31 October 2011
20. Pregnancy rate: Improvements from a nutritional angle: (A.I. & Breeding); Over time the knowledge and ability to get cows bred has taken tremendous strides towards greater on-farm success. Reproductive success takes effort from every angle of the dairy and starts with an understanding ...; Created on 28 October 2011
21. Consider all your dairy’s nutritional effects on reproduction: (Feed & Nutrition); Sound reproductive programs are one of the keys to dairy profitability. Perhaps no other area of dairy management has as many influencing factors as reproduction. A herd’s incidence and severity of metabolic ...; Created on 28 October 2011
22. A.I. cover sheaths improved fertility in lactating dairy cows: (A.I. & Breeding); Reproductive efficiency is a major factor for profitability in dairy herds. Artificial insemination (A.I.) is the most common practice used to breed dairy cows in the United States, accounting for approximately ...; Created on 28 October 2011
23. Producer panel provides straight talk on digesters: (Manure); At a special AgSTAR seminar held at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, a number of dairy producers and anaerobic digester operators came together to speak openly about their systems by responding ...; Created on 28 October 2011
24. What is efficient liquid manure transport and land application?: (Manure); In recent years dairy farms have grown in size and efficiency. When more livestock are housed in one location, the volume of stored manure and the manure hauling distance to reach the land base needed ...; Created on 28 October 2011
25. Proactive dairymen install digester in Northeast: (Manure); Chaput Family Farms is a partnership between brothers Reg and Mike Chaput in North Troy, Vermont. The farm includes 950 cows, 900 heifers, 1,100 acres of tillable land and an anaerobic digester. “It ...; Created on 28 October 2011
26. Stay safe in and around anaerobic digesters: (Manure); As a technology, anaerobic digestion offers many potential environmental and economic benefits for dairy farms. However, anaerobic digestion can pose significant health and safety hazards when not operated ...; Created on 28 October 2011
27. Web Tools: Dairy producers can be more efficient with SaveEnergy: (Barns & Equipment); A collaboration between the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy and the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has yielded a new online tool that connects dairy producers to the resources they ...; Created on 28 October 2011
28. Just dropping by ... ‘A Few of My Favorite Things’: (Yevet Tenney); When I was about 11 years old, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music starring Julie Andrews came to the Snowflake Show House. We had to drive from Heber, 30 miles away, to see the movie. We had ...; Created on 27 October 2011
29. Mechanics Corner: A power winch can come in handy: (Barns & Equipment); A power winch is one of those farm tools that’s handy to have around, especially if you like off-road driving, want to drag pallets or need to pull out a piece of equipment stuck in the mud. Here are ...; Created on 27 October 2011
30. The Milk House: Why we bought so much feed: (Ryan Dennis); Her name was not Connie, but I’ll call her that. The company she worked for was not Cargill, but I’ll say it was. The first time I saw her was at our kitchen table, a red folder of pamphlets and fact sheets ...; Created on 27 October 2011
31. New Products for November 1: (Products & Services); Here are some of the new products or updates to previous products that have been announced as of November 1, 2011. Return to this section of the Progressive Dairyman website periodically to find out what ...; Created on 27 October 2011
32. I belong to... Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy Sustainability Council: Steve Graybeal: (People); Age: My real age is 65, and I am lucky to enjoy excellent health. For the most part, I don’t feel any different than I did 20 years ago – except maybe I don’t quite have the stamina that I used to have! ...; Created on 27 October 2011
33. New Hire Marin Bozic: (People in the News); Marin Bozic St. Paul, Minnesota Assistant Professor in Dairy Foods Marketing Economics University of Minnesota Please describe your agricultural background. I was born in an urban family in the ...; Created on 27 October 2011
34. New Hire Steve Riesenbeck: (People in the News); Steve Riesenbeck Escalon, California Management Consultant Pine Creek Nutrition Service, Inc. Please describe your agricultural background. I have been working on dairies for approximately 17 years. ...; Created on 27 October 2011
35. On the Edge of Common Sense: Deer hunting cow lick: (Baxter Black); I’ve got a mule deer hangin’ on my wall from northern New Mexico, so I could relate to Rafael’s story. He had joined two of his cousins for a deer hunting trip near Cuba, New Mexico where his uncle had ...; Created on 26 October 2011
36. Milk fat is a valuable part of what goes into the bulk tank: (Feed & Nutrition); Keeping an eye on milk fat production is important because milk fat is a valuable part of milk and is very responsive to herd management.Milk fat concentration is very variable from farm to farm and even ...; Created on 26 October 2011
37. Feed dairy cows for body condition score: (Feed & Nutrition); Changes in bodyweight are not a very good indicator of the nutritional status of dairy cows. For example, while the gut contents of a 1,400-lb dairy cow weigh approximately 200 lbs, the cow has a daily ...; Created on 26 October 2011
38. How to make the most of feed for the dry cow: (Feed & Nutrition); Under ideal conditions, dairy cows produce milk during 305 days of the year and are dry the remaining 60 (Table 1). In reality, feeding for high production should begin during the dry period or towards ...; Created on 26 October 2011
39. On the Edge of Common Sense: Master of none: (Baxter Black); It helps to know a little about a lot of things. It gives you a broad perspective. It also allows you to make a fool of yourself in many different areas. In my column, readers may notice that I appear ...; Created on 26 October 2011
40. The View from Here: Honoring our fallen soldiers: (Guest Blog); In March of 2011, at 0200 hours (2 a.m.), I stood at a forward operating base near Mosul, Iraq, with about two dozen soldiers. We lined up, adjusted our Kevlar vests and helmets, our fragmentary eye protection ...; Created on 26 October 2011
41. Five ideas for improved milk quality: (Herd Health); It’s awalys a good idea to set your sights on milk quality improvements that can help you capture greater return from your milking herd. “There is always room for improvement when it comes to milk quality, ...; Created on 26 October 2011
42. Thousands of building decisions – Who will make them all?: (Management); Are you thinking about building a new barn or milking center? It may seem like a simple business decision, but those of you who have built a new building or completed a major remodeling project know the ...; Created on 26 October 2011