Each and every time tetracycline is applied to a cow’s hoof to treat digital dermatitis, there must be a veterinarian prescription because that use of the product is extra-label.Federal and state...

The older we get, the faster summer seems to go by. Just as we begin to enjoy bright sunshine and warm weather, fair time and school time come along to signal the approaching end to another summer

Sometimes I think water is not valued enough for dairy cattle because it seems to be “free” or costs little compared to other feedstuffs. And it all begins with calves

At times, feed and forage analyses combined with an advanced nutrition model diet or ration formulation provide the means to improve herd health, performance, and profitability

You’ve heard it before: calves fed a higher plane of nutrition make more milk in the first lactation. But how does it happen?

What will U.S. dairy farming be like in a half century? That was the focus of a topic I presented at the Tucker Endowed Lecture at Michigan State University this past March

In alfalfa fields, weeds are no more welcome than rain on freshly cut hay. Weeds compete for the same resources needed to grow a good crop of alfalfa: water, nutrients, and light

Finding performance and profitable opportunities within your nutrition program can happen through various channels

Do we really have the opportunity to improve first-lactation milk yield with the decisions we make when the calf is still consuming milk or milk replacer?

In today’s world, milk production efficiency is the name of the game. Feed efficiency is often calculated as the pounds of 3.5 percent fat-corrected milk (FCM) produced per pound of dry matter consu

Proper grouping of cows can improve cow health, boost production, and raise income over feed costs. However, grouping cows is not free. Adequate facilities, time to make grouping decisions and manage

Research has shown us that a calf’s diet today can influence its milking potential two years down the road. The days of simply feeding calves a pound of milk replacer daily are almost behind us

Mention milk fever or mastitis and most producers will conjure up mental pictures of these diseases

With all the exciting advances in forage and field crops, including reduced-lignin alfalfa, drought-resistant corn hybrids, and shredlage, agricultural lime seems like a boring topic

Many dairy producers are under the false impression that all that is needed to prevent BVD (bovine viral diarrhea) from entering their herd is to vaccinate with a proven BVD vaccine

A lot of intramammary infections occur during the dry period even if we don’t see them as clinical mastitis. That situation quickly changes after calving when clinical mastitis reaches its pinn

Choosing the right machinery for harvesting alfalfa can have a large impact on forage yield. While we certainly need to drive over the field to harvest it, we can minimize the effect traffic has

Often we fail to take time to sit back and contemplate progress . . . to compare where we are with where we were

Ridpath recently retired from the ruminant diseases and immunology research unit, NADC/ARS/USDA, Ames, Iowa. Miller is a senior professional services veterinarian-dairy, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica

Quality milk must be a total team effort. That means that dairy farm owners and managers must allow employees to openly share observations and thoughts to improve the milking process