At the 2006 American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) conference in Minneapolis, a speaker presented some unique findings from their human milk studies
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
To all the avid Hoard’s Dairyman readers out there — thank you! Over the nearly 15 years since graduate school, I’ve written articles for different publications
Crop protection often refers to the field and to agronomy. In agronomy, crop protection can take different forms, including insecticides or fungicides, with both aiming to maintain plant health when c
We know that inbreeding rates accelerated after the introduction of genomic selection in 2009. Part of this shift is simply because we are turning our generations over more rapidly, which raises inbre
High-forage diets for dairy cattle are becoming more popular due to the cost-effectiveness of homegrown forages and potential benefits on milk components