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2021
Issue 2, 2021: January 19, 2021 Issue 1, 2021: January 1, 2021
2020 Issue 20, 2020: December 12, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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
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