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Current Progressive Dairy digital edition

1. Market Watch: Cattle: (Organizations); Click a link below to see updates on Cattle from a specific issue of Progressive Dairyman. 2020 Issue 2, 2020: January 19, 2020 Issue 1, 2020: January 1, 2020 2019 Issue 20, 2019: December 12, ...; Created on 16 October 2019
2. Don’t miss these articles: (From the Editor); Here are a few thoughts on three articles I suggest you don’t miss in this issue: Cool stuff we saw at World Dairy Expo For the past several years, editors attending World Dairy Expo and World Ag ...; Created on 04 November 2016
3. Checkoff Watch: Partners continue to deliver milk sales for U.S. dairy farmers: (Organizations); The dairy checkoff’s strategy of working with partners to move more dairy is paying off as the country’s leading food service companies, processors and retailers invest in initiatives that find more homes ...; Created on 04 November 2016
4. Southeast United Dairy Industry Association (SUDIA) and United Dairymen of Idaho:: (Organizations); Your local promotion staff works in a variety of ways with partners and others to help move more dairy. Some highlights: SUDIA and the United Dairymen of Idaho partnered with Chick-fil-A to bring together ...; Created on 04 November 2016
5. Selecting an advisory team for your dairy: (Management); Most dairies have various individuals who owners and managers can go to for advice in the many areas of management and operational matters. Often, this is informal and includes those individuals having ...; Created on 04 November 2016
6. Annual financial conference looks at a new dairy world: (Management); Increased volatility in exports, which is creating price instability, signals that U.S. dairy farmers are operating in a global market more now than ever before, according to Matt Gould, analyst with Dairy ...; Created on 04 November 2016
7. By the numbers: Most multi-generational businesses fail: (Management); There’s nothing any of us want more in this world than to take care of our family. To give them opportunities we never had. So we work and build something, a business, in which the rewards may not be reaped ...; Created on 04 November 2016
8. Safety: A dairy farm’s necessity, not a luxury: (Management); Editor’s note: Click here to read this article in Spanish. In a matter of seconds, one small mistake can change a dairy farmer’s life forever. Did you know human negligence is the major cause of machine-related ...; Created on 03 November 2016
9. Are you leaving the gate open?: (Management); On a dairy, we sometimes think it is our life’s work to open and close gates. It can be so routine that we begin to overlook the importance of a good, well-latched gate. We have all seen that telltale ...; Created on 03 November 2016
10. Multiple sites vs. single-site operation: (Management); On a regular basis, we meet with clients to review financial and statistical information. Through these meetings, we have the opportunity to analyze many different dairy operations. Although there are ...; Created on 03 November 2016
11. Transitioning for the future: Gausmans benefit from four-row freestall barn: (Barns & Equipment); Stan and Sue Gausman, along with their son, Grant, are now eight months into welcoming their 102-cow herd under one roof on their dairy farm near Baldwin in northwestern Wisconsin. They broke ground ...; Created on 03 November 2016
12. Your checklist for building the perfect heifer barn: (Barns & Equipment); Great attention is focused on how to build calf barns to get babies off to the right start, as well as facilities for adult cows to maximize health and production, but let’s not forget that critical phase ...; Created on 03 November 2016
13. Bye-bye birdie at Miner Institute: (Barns & Equipment); After spending many hours on the catwalk at Miner Institute doing cow watch for behavioral research and continually hearing the flapping wings of pigeons, it got me thinking about how much damage birds ...; Created on 03 November 2016
14. Don’t go in circles: Four questions to consider when investing in a rotary: (Barns & Equipment); It’s hard to believe rotary parlors have only been with us since the Borden’s Dairy exhibit featured it in the 1939 World’s Fair. The Rotolactor, as it was called, was a truly amazing innovation that took ...; Created on 03 November 2016
15. 12 energy-efficient options to save money in the milking parlor: (Barns & Equipment); If you have decided to install a new barn or parlor on your dairy farm, you already know the process involves many choices. You are looking to optimize your space to maximize your production and keep your ...; Created on 01 November 2016
16. Getting the most out of your bedding: (Barns & Equipment); Climbing into a fresh, clean bed is something we all can appreciate. Our calves and cows are no different. Every farm lines stalls and pens with some type of bedding. The goal is to assist in a comfortable, ...; Created on 01 November 2016
17. Improve cow comfort by focusing on what can’t be bought: (Herd Health); It doesn’t matter whether the margins are reasonable, like we saw in 2014, or drawn tight, like they are in 2016 – one thing we can always invest in is cow comfort. How can we continually improve upon ...; Created on 01 November 2016
18. Lameness changes cows’ behavior: (Herd Health); Lameness is a painful disease that decreases cattle performance and is one of the most important health and welfare concerns in the dairy industry. Many researchers have reported behavior and production ...; Created on 01 November 2016
19. Is your hoof trimming program preventing lameness?: (Herd Health); We are lucky to have many fine hoof trimmers in the U.S. who do an outstanding job for their clients. Unfortunately, because the business of trimming is largely unregulated, there are trimmers who do not ...; Created on 31 October 2016
20. Hoof trimmers demonstrate how to trim on two different chutes: (Herd Health); For about 15 years, I have been volunteering to help the Hoof Trimmers Association by manning the organization’s booth at World Dairy Expo. Each year, I strike up conversations with visiting trimmers and ...; Created on 31 October 2016
21. Possible antibiotic residues in milk due to local treatment of claw lesions: (Herd Health); Claw lesions, such as those due to digital dermatitis (DD, hairy heel warts, Figure 1), are a serious problem in dairy cattle herds worldwide and often cause lameness. Treatments for DD include a large ...; Created on 31 October 2016
22. Recording hoof lesions by zone reduces lameness in dairy cattle: (Herd Health); When hoof trimmer Rick Trinko of Middleton, Wisconsin, began seeing a large number of cows at one dairy with white-line hemorrhages in zone 2, he was alarmed. The typical site for a white-line hemorrhage ...; Created on 31 October 2016
23. Detecting lameness earlier using an activity behavior system: (Herd Health); Lameness is one of the most common and most economically destructive production diseases of dairy cows. It is associated with a reduction in milk yield and fertility and an increase in culling rate and ...; Created on 31 October 2016
24. Motivation and mindset influence action on the farm: (Management); Distracted. Ignorant. Complacent. Challenging. Just some of the reasons one might not make a change. We’ve all been there; motivating change is hard, period. It’s in these times when the saying, “You can ...; Created on 31 October 2016
25. Is there a silver bullet to controlling digital dermatitis?: (Herd Health); What is the best product to run in my footbath? How often should I run my footbath? These are questions I am often asked by dairy producers. It seems everyone is looking for that “silver bullet” to control ...; Created on 31 October 2016
26. Just dropping by ... Come Ye Thankful People Come’: (Yevet Tenney); The first time I remember singing the hymn of Thanksgiving, “Come Ye Thankful People Come,” written by Henry Alford, was at our eighth-grade Thanksgiving program for our parents back in 1963, the year ...; Created on 31 October 2016
27. Mechanics Corner: Routine TMR mixer maintenance key to consistency: (Barns & Equipment); You rely on your TMR mixer each and every day to deliver a high-quality ration to your cows. But is your ration consistent each day? Are you routinely checking your mixer’s maintenance needs? Your ...; Created on 31 October 2016
28. The Milk House: Writing the wrongs of farming characters: (Ryan Dennis); In the opening scene of Death and Nightingales, Beth is awoken by the bawling of a distressed animal. While in some ways it may be the call of the beast inside her, it is also, in actual terms, a cow with ...; Created on 31 October 2016
29. HERd Management: An adventure of a lifetime: The Emerald Isle: (Guest Blog); We all know how busy dairy life can be – whether it is harvest, haying, spraying or just milking – and we often do not get to take a break from working those 365 days. At least not on our small farm, where ...; Created on 31 October 2016
30. The language of nutrition: IOFC: (Feed & Nutrition); In layman’s terms, what does IOFC mean? Producers and nutritionists use this formula (income over feed costs) to determine the farm’s profitability and identify changes to help increase efficiencies. ...; Created on 31 October 2016
31. Matsches maximize efficiency with new rotary milking parlor: (Barns & Equipment); The recent addition of an 80-stall rotary parlor will bring a Wisconsin dairy up to over 5,000 cows between two milking sites. “Efficiency is always the goal,” Chris Matsche says. He and his wife, ...; Created on 31 October 2016
32. Winter survival on the dairy: (Barns & Equipment); Weather this time of year can change in a hurry. So how many of you, as dairy producers, have heeded the warning and taken the time to prepare for the upcoming winter? Let’s start with some basic areas ...; Created on 27 October 2016
33. Keep running in the winter with engine heaters: (Barns & Equipment); The cooler mornings lately remind us that it is time to make sure the trucks and equipment we rely on to finish harvest or feed cattle need to start and run when we need them. One thing we can do to ...; Created on 27 October 2016
34. The Manure Spreader: Farm tours: (Tim Moffett); I got roped into having a farm tour for my niece’s third-grade class. I’m not complaining about trying to educate these young minds on agriculture. I’m not venting about the “helicopter” moms wiping my ...; Created on 27 October 2016
35. Cool stuff we saw at World Dairy Expo 2016: (Event Coverage); The 50th edition of World Dairy Expo did not disappoint. In addition to reliving history, the show continued to highlight the industry’s potential in the future. Progressive Dairyman editors Walt Cooley, ...; Created on 11 October 2016
36. Six tips to overcome a communication breakdown: (Guest Blog); If there were one word I could use to describe managing a farm with no communication, it would be “nightmare.” I've lived it, and it's like a terrible dream you can't wake up from. Employees don't understand ...; Created on 19 September 2016