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As farmers, we face challenges and feel stress every day. It is when it becomes unrelenting and overwhelming we begin to experience negative side effects. Dairy farmers are some of the smartest, most innovative, problem-solving, optimistic people in the world. It is good to take a moment to be reminded of this fact.

“What is unique about you and your farm that you can build into your brand?” asked Tera Johnson, director of the Food Finance Institute (FFI) and founder of teraswhey, in her keynote presentation at the Resilient Farms Conference, held earlier this year in Wisconsin Dells.

In today’s unpredictable dairy economy, farmers have looked for ways to diversify their income streams. This isn’t a new way of thinking, though organizations have realized offering a place for brainstorming and sharing of best practices to occur is a way to help those searching for ideas.

You’re busy – milking cows, packing bunker silos and watching presidential candidate debates (well, maybe). With that in mind, Progressive Dairy looks at issues in the news impacting you and your dairy business.

How did you get started in photography?

KNAPP: I took my first photography class as an agricultural communications major at the University of Illinois.

From a young age, Dean Swager has been an innovative farmer, thinking of ways to make improvements both large and small for the benefit of his cattle, his time and the milk and meat he produces.