Below are the featured articles from recent issues of Hoard's Dairyman.


March 25 2011
How safe is your farm? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) might be helping you make safety determinations due to stepped-up inspection efforts following a tragic dairy farm employee...
March 10 2011
Only 1,805 fewer dairy farms last year Dairy producers proved they are a resilient lot. Despite tough economic conditions during the past two years, most producers kept milking cows as only 1,805 licensed...
March 10 2011
Genomics being adopted at a swift pace In less than two years since genomic-tested bulls were released for sale in Canada, young bulls have overtaken their progeny-proven barn mates by garnering 58 percent...
March 10 2011
Heifers are not only the most fertile group of females on your dairy, they generally represent the best genetics. De­­spite these positive attributes, too many dairies don't take full advantage...
Feb. 25 2011
What, pray tell, is a factory farm? Of the labels bandied about by anti-animal ag activists and the media, the terms factory farming and factory farm, with the negative connotation they've taken on, irk...
Feb. 25 2011
Connie Tipton and Jerry Kozak shared the stage at Dairy Forum as they discussed and at times debated dairy policy. Future dairy policy was a prevailing theme during presentations and in hallway dialogue...
Feb. 25 2011
Question: We have had two cases recently of what we initially thought were unusual milk fevers in first-calf heifers. One of them was three days in milk, and the other about seven. Both of the heifers...
Feb. 10 2011
Four million soil samples reveal fertility shifts Soil fertility rises and falls in response to crop removal rates. At the same time, nutrient surpluses raise soil test levels, while deficits draw them...
Feb. 10 2011
While the job market remains bullish for students pursuing agricultural majors, federal and state budgets are full of bears. Those budget shortfalls spell gloom for many ag schools that rely on government...
Feb. 10 2011
What breeds make up the national herd? Holsteins and Jerseys still dominate, but the national herd is taking on more color with crossbreeding
Jan. 25 2011
The FAO's "Livestock's Long Shadow" shrinks dramatically in new estimates. The carbon footprint of food production is under more scrutiny at the regional, national, and international levels than ever before....
Jan. 25 2011
This article is part of a series being prepared Ashland, Ohio. This article is part of a series being prepared Practitioners. Protocols ensure sick animals get relief and return to production soon. Also,...
Jan. 10 2011
My father used to recite an old saying now and then, "What's good for the goose is good for the gander." What this phrase means is that what is good for the goose is good for everybody else. Recently,...
Jan. 10 2011
From Europe, a glimpse of the future Robots are leading the way in a dairy automation trend that is clearly headed this way. Sometimes going far away gives a better look at things back home, as we learned...
Jan. 10 2011
Each winter, we start to receive this call, "Hey Doc, I have 10- to 14-day-old calves that are dying and nothing I treat them with works." When we visit the farm, we see thin, weak calves that are scouring,...
Dec. 15 2010
In order to get a better idea on how A.I. is used on farms, we developed a survey asking producers a variety of questions about it. The questionnaire was distributed by University of Wisconsin Extension...
Dec. 15 2010
Do you remember what it was like in 2008 . . . when corn and other feed costs were really high, but the milk price also was quite high? Well, I think that 2011 is going to feel a lot like that except without...
Dec. 15 2010
Proposed 3-step reduction by 2014 would make U.S. standards among world's best. Somatic cells were perhaps the biggest news coming out of the joint annual meeting of National Dairy Board, National Milk...
Nov. 15 2010
This time of year, growers are under a lot of pressure to buy seed. Seed salesman pursue seed seed commitments through volume pricing and early purchase incentives even before the current year's yield...
Nov. 15 2010
In 2009, the Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council (DCRC) created the Reproduction Awards program to recognize leading dairy producers