Peter Vitaliano Much of the talk about the economic outlook for the nation’s dairy farmers in 2018 has been rather downbeat lately

Just you wait.” I used to never like that phrase. When I was just married and before I got pregnant, which was just a few months after, everyone would tell me, “Just you wait until...

The CDCB (Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding) announced during this year’s World Dairy Expo that they will conduct genetic evaluations for six disease resistance traits

In many cases, the milk check revenue has not inflated as fast as the expense side of the ledger

The value that dairy calves, heifers, cows, bulls, and steers have in the beef industry is significant. In fact, dairy animals of all types are estimated to contribute 20 to 25 percent in any given year...

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is the cause of enzootic bovine leukosis, which is a noncurable, progressive disease that affects cattle in almost all U.S. dairy herds. The virus infects white blood

Linear score and percent of the herd not infected are two additional measures for evaluating udder health and milk quality. Of course, somatic cell counts are key, too.One of the key factors affecting

Marilyn Hershey When we give water to the pens in our calf barn, we do this by filling a 30-gallon tub using a hose. On days when that is my task, I end up tucking the water hose into the tub, le

A fundamental rule in business is that “The customer is always right.” If customers’ needs are not being met, they will look elsewhere for goods or services

A few days ago I was feeling overwhelmed with an endless workload facing me and a dirty house screaming at me

The bills were pouring in. From the hospital, I received a bill for over $92,000, the anesthesiologist charged $7,000, radiology came next and was almost that high

Determining a cow’s due date is an imprecise science. We can predict the date for most cows within a day or two, but the sex of the calf, season of year, and geographic region all play a role

Change appears to come slow or seems not even to exist in the business of milking cows at times

The first colostrum feeding not only helps calves establish passive immunity, it also populates the intestinal tract with bacteria needed for digestion

Starch leads a storied life on the modern dairy farm. It begins in the cornfields where sunlight converts water and carbon dioxide to sugars, and these sugars are stored as starch in the grain

A year ago, the combined milk output in the key exporting regions — Argentina, Brazil, the European Union (EU), Oceania, and the United States — trailed the prior year

Marilyn Hershey I was told several times in my youth to “dream big.” I do not remember having a ton of aspirations, but I know that one of my childhood dreams came true

Karen Bohnert My now second grade son, Jacob, came home last year with homework — for his mom! I was asked to write one short story to describe Jacob. Where do I even begin?

Katie grinstead founded the Fond du Lac County Fair Ag Birthing Center in 2014, which draws an annual crowd of 20,000 attendees.The majority of today’s food conversations are among consumers who...

Many changes we make to dairy cows through genetic selection are easy to see or quantify. Our cows are much taller, thinner, and have far better udders than cows from past eras. We’ve also doubled...