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, ...
The simple solution to boosting dairy cattle conception rates (CR) is to improve reproductive management and cow environment, as these two general categories account for 96 percent of CR variation.
More ...
My inquisitive 11-year-old recently asked me if a newborn child belonging to a family we know was in the hospital because the baby didn’t get enough colostrum. Wow. I could tell by the look on his face ...
My husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary at the end of September by going for a swim at our friends’ quarry lake. It hit 91ºF that day, tying a record set in 1936.
Despite the July-like ...
The USDA’s Sept. 1 grain stocks estimates provided smaller-than-expected inventories for both corn and soybeans, initially giving some price support for both crops.
However, the impact faded relatively ...
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Rivers and streams are threatened across rural America. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, agriculture sources contribute over 70 percent of the nitrogen and phosphorus pollution to ...
In Issue 16 of Progressive Dairyman (Oct. 1, 2017), we discussed ongoing legal battles involving Golden Sands Dairy LLC and a local government over the siting of a new dairy operation. (Land use law and ...
Immigration issues have seen heightened attention since last year’s presidential election. Concurrently, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) has expanded its efforts to identify undocumented ...
Issue 16 of Progressive Dairyman (Oct. 10, 2017) highlighted the Rural Firefighters Delivering Agricultural Safety and Health (RFDASH) project from the National Farm Medicine Center.
This project encourages ...
No matter where your personal convictions fall in the legalized marijuana debate, what we have right now is a potential legal mess for many employers.
At this writing, 29 states and the District of ...
Serotonin has many known roles in the body, from signaling in the brain to coordinating intestinal movements. But researchers at the University of Wisconsin are investigating a new use for the compound ...
Take a moment to think about your last cow to calve. Was it smooth sailing or were there complications? If a complication arose, has this issue occurred before?
While a fresh pen issue may seem random ...
Managing cows through the end of the dry period and into their next lactation remains a challenge across many dairy farms. Much of this is driven by what we ask cows to handle throughout the weeks before ...
The optimal dry period length between lactations in dairy cows has been debated since the early 1800s. During this time, some English farmers believed a two-month dry period was optimal, while others believed ...
Cows are in negative energy balance (NEB) when their energy requirements (i.e., maintenance, gestation, production) are not met by their energy intake.
Days before calving, cows enter into an NEB period: ...
On a typical day, how often do cows interact with people on your dairy?
It’s common for a dairy team to mingle with a herd at least two or three times for milking, again if it’s a herd health day, again ...
At this year’s American Dairy Science Association annual meeting held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in June, several invited speakers presented ideas about how they saw the dairy industry in 50 years.
Michael ...
Over the past decade, reproductive tools used to get cows pregnant have evolved tremendously. Automated activity monitoring technology has developed to deliver accurate detection of heats.
Meanwhile, ...
Historically, dairy cattle breeders had limited tools to work with. Genetic selection was based only on what could be seen. Decisions were handicapped to visible and subjective conformation traits.
Attempts ...
When we think about successful Olympic athletes, one of the first names that comes to mind is Michael Phelps. He has won an incredible 28 Olympic medals and is one of the most finely tuned athletes of ...
It was back in the ’70s or ’80s that I first heard the term “comfort zone.” It became my new buzzword, and I even wrote goals to break out of my comfort zones. Back then, I was obsessed with self-improvement, ...
Hydraulic power is something easy to use but not always easy to understand. At its root, hydraulics is the science of how fluids are harnessed to perform mechanical tasks. That can be anything from folding ...
ByIt was a busy road to Headford, and like all Irish country roads, it didn’t have a shoulder. I was going to the Saturday mart – the weekly livestock auction – the only way available to me: by bicycle, ...
At the end of the school year, my city-dwelling cousin contacted me and asked if I would be willing to let her 12-year-old come spend a week on our farm during the summer. She wanted him to experience ...
Farmers, as a group, have been misrepresented. People who watch TV think farmers just sit in front of a peanut bucket while whittling a stick and talking about local gossip. Now, some of my best friends ...
Each farm is different and each family is different. Therefore, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to transitioning the family farm from one generation to the next.
Three dairy farmers shared how ...
Dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) for close-up dry cows doesn’t have to be hard. For many dairy producers looking to try DCAD for the first time, implementing a brand new nutritional practice on-farm ...
There are plenty of financial indicators of which dairy producers should keep close track. Milk prices, of course. Your income over feed cost is certainly important, and knowing your margins is a key to ...
If they say two are better than one, how great are three? One California dairy has found success putting three breeds into one cow to reach their goals for a more profitable and efficient herd.
Hoekstra ...
I will be honest: I didn't know anything about veal farming until after I started blogging about our family dairy farm a few years ago. As my content began to be shared within activists groups, the accusations ...
Eighty percent of all problems arise in the transition period – 80 percent. Problems like milk fever, ketosis and metritis are a direct result of shortcomings in dry cow management. This is cutting cow ...
Created on 30 May 2017
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