When I was about 12, a school friend of mine showed me something revolutionary that his father had been given for his work: one of the first calculators
pregnancy status is a key component of herd management. Early identification of open cows and heifers allows for the implementation of a reproductive program to reduce the interval between A.I
Continuous growth in the number of cows per herd, accompanied by greater milk production, has resulted in challenges to health monitoring programs on dairy farms
The authors are a graduate student and a professor at the University of Calgary. Co-contributors include Kayley D. McCubbin, Julia Bodaneze, Ben Caddey, Waseem Shaukat, Diego Nobrega, Jeroen De Buck
Sometimes we must slow down to see important details about dairy cows. So many things cows tell us with their behavior can only be seen with a trained eye and a slow walk
Think globally, act locally. It’s an oft-quoted rallying cry spoken at environmental policy conferences. However, both dairy trade and scientific literature tend to report on environmental imp
When choosing a liner to milk your cows, you are choosing a component that in reality is a one-size-fits-all proposition for the teats of all cows. The one liner that you choose has to milk all cows independent...
About 10% of U.S. dairy cattle were infected with the bovine leukemia virus (BLV) in the 1960s and 1970s. Now, about a third of our nation’s beef cattle and almost half of our dairy cattle are infec
Dating back to my days on the family dairy farm, my favorite tool has been a multi-tool strapped to my belt. While I’ve converted and upgraded nearly all of the mechanics and woodworking tools in...
In each of the last two years, we have had an early winter “outbreak” of what looks like pinkeye in our bred heifers. They are housed indoors, and there are no flies around at that time of...
Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infects approximately half of all dairy and beef cattle in North America. Herd owners and managers may wonder whether it is a disease they should fight, and if so, is it a
Location matters — in real estate, business, and A.I. During natural service, a mature bull deposits 8 to 10 billion sperm in the anterior vagina, near the cervix of the cow. One of the advantages...
Today’s athletes have different goals than their counterparts from prior decades. Athletic goals in this era are attributable to new technologies, training techniques, advanced analytics, new strate
Diarrhea remains a common challenge on dairy farms and calf raising operations around the world. This challenge is also costly. At the University of Guelph, we recently completed a study that eva
Appropriate semen storage and handling is critical to the success of A.I. The liquid nitrogen semen storage tank actually consists of two tanks, with a smaller tank housed inside a larger tank
Despite the many advances in dairy cattle nutrition, we are still faced with some challenges. One of those challenges is to ensure adequate dry matter intake (DMI) in transition cows to optimize health