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Current Progressive Dairy digital edition

1. ‘Cookies are made with butter and love’: (From the Editor); A wise old Norwegian once said, “Cookies are made with butter and love.” This I know to be true. I’ll never forget the day I opened up the mailbox to find a package from my friend Amy and her husband, ...; Created on 14 October 2020
2. What happened? What’s next? - CFAP 2, October PPDs and the end of a DFA Northeast lawsuit: (Industry News); You’re busy milking cows, emptying manure pits and eagerly awaiting the final presidential debate. With that in mind, Progressive Dairy looks at issues in the news impacting you and your dairy business. ...; Created on 14 October 2020
3. In Focus: Dairy product consumption hits 60-year high despite fluid decline: (Industry News); It may seem like ages ago, before COVID-19, related market disruptions and changes in consumer habits, but 2019 was another banner year for U.S. per-capita dairy product consumption. Based on annual ...; Created on 14 October 2020
4. How your dairy’s leaders impact employee engagement: (Management); For many years, our consulting group has been blessed to get to know and consult with many dairies and their leaders in our industry. For the last two decades, we have been helping these leaders transition ...; Created on 14 October 2020
5. 2021 DMC enrollment period is Oct. 12 to Dec. 11: (Management); Last June, the USDA announced the enrollment period for the 2021 Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program will be held Oct. 12 – Dec. 11, 2020 through Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices. The July 19, 2020 ...; Created on 14 October 2020
6. Rewrite the rules to work for you: (Herd Health); Rules, rules, rules. Use only low-potassium forages, don’t feed buffers, feed lots of wheat straw, chop straw to 1-inch particle size, thoroughly blend all ration ingredients into a TMR, move cows onto ...; Created on 14 October 2020
7. Don’t yo-yo in and out of the target urine pH range; it may cause transition diet failure: (Herd Health); Feeding a prepartum ration with a negative dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) minimizes the risk of both clinical and subclinical hypocalcemia. An acidogenic diet, or a negative DCAD diet, influences ...; Created on 14 October 2020
8. Body condition scoring in dairy cows: Ideal profile and prediction: (Herd Health); Body condition scoring (BCS) is a simple and powerful technique that, by evaluating the thickness of subcutaneous fat and therefore its mobilization, evaluates animals’ energy balance, which is highly ...; Created on 14 October 2020
9. Four factors we see with successful robot retrofits: (Herd Health); Milking in a parlor is hard work. It is fixed on certain times and requires a great deal of labor. For that reason, both small farms and large farms are looking at options to automate milking. A more ...; Created on 14 October 2020
10. Controlling birds and the mess they make: (Herd Health); Dairy barns are meant to be comfortable and safe housing for cattle. But other animals tend to make a barn their home as well. These uninvited visitors pose a serious threat. As cooler weather approaches, ...; Created on 14 October 2020
11. Trace minerals reduce risk of digital dermatitis in heifers, improve dairy performance: (Herd Health); Digital dermatitis, also referred to as “hairy heel warts,” produces painful lesions that can lead to lameness in cows, ultimately resulting in decreased milk production and lowered reproductive performance. ...; Created on 14 October 2020
12. Case study: How a dairy herd increased milk, decreased milking time and fixed feet problems: (Herd Health); Not long ago, my colleague Chip and I visited a 600-cow dairy farm in Texas that was looking for some help. They were struggling with these things: Hoof issues Decreased milk output Efficiency: ...; Created on 14 October 2020
13. Keep the facts straight: Simple hoof health data for effective management decisions: (Herd Health); Hoof lesion recording is imperative for effectively managing a dairy farm. Managers must make decisions based on cow history every day, including breeding, treatment and culling decisions. Simple and ...; Created on 14 October 2020
14. Equipment Hub: How much are you paying for time?: (Barns & Equipment); Time. We say we never have enough of it, but the reality is: It is the only truly fair thing on earth. No matter if you are fabulously wealthy or live in poverty, no matter what country you live in ...; Created on 14 October 2020
15. The vitamin that’s more than a vitamin: (Feed & Nutrition); We hardly even think about vitamin D anymore. It’s one of those vitamins we routinely add to feeds, an inscrutable listing of international units (IUs) on the feed tag. And as for our children, we simply ...; Created on 13 October 2020
16. HERd Management: For the love of cows: (Guest Blog); My story began at 6 years old when a little calf started my love of cows. And it continued on for many years when I showed dairy cattle in 4-H. Every friendship that ever lasted was created at a county ...; Created on 13 October 2020
17. Just dropping by ... Election 2020: Donald Trump: (Yevet Tenney); Editor’s note: The following is the opinion of the author and not to be construed as that of the magazine. To read a contrasting opinion, see The Milk House: Trump and rural America: An exercise in facts ...; Created on 13 October 2020
18. The Milk House: Trump and rural America: An exercise in facts over feeling: (Ryan Dennis); Editor’s note: The following is the opinion of the author and not to be construed as that of the magazine. To read a contrasting opinion, see Just dropping by... Election 2020: Donald Trump. Most of ...; Created on 13 October 2020
19. The Manure Spreader: Milk inspections: (Tim Moffett); As dairy farmers, one of the things we all have in common are state milk inspections. If you’re reading this and have no idea what I’m talking about, the USDA inspects dairy farms to make sure everything ...; Created on 13 October 2020
20. Effectively raising pair-housed calves: Common questions from transitioning farmers: (Calves & Heifers); Pair raising calves is increasing in popularity in the North American dairy industry, where some welfare and productivity benefits have been consistently shown in recent studies. Pair or group housing ...; Created on 02 September 2020
21. Dry cow therapy: A prescription for success: (Herd Health); Mastitis can spell disaster for dairy farmers. This potentially fatal mammary gland infection is the most common disease in dairy cattle in the U.S. and worldwide. But a treatment – dry cow therapy – ...; Created on 26 August 2020
22. How we make co-owning equipment work with neighboring farms: (Guest Blog); My brother and I both had the privilege of working off the farm after high school before we came back to take over the dairy. One of the things we learned in our experience in manufacturing settings was ...; Created on 21 August 2020
23. What does the ‘21st-century eater’ want from dairy?: (Industry News); There have been many trends in the food industries in the past 20 years, but Mike Lee says at the end of the day, it is often emotions that help us decide how we eat. “We sell food one bite at a time,” ...; Created on 14 August 2020