Eye protection is important, especially when straw dust is involved. To make sure there are always safety glasses accessible, we took a refrigerator magnet clip and put it on our straw chopper

Job titles in the agricultural community are vast. There are many different careers and people that work together to produce a safe food supply for humans and livestock. One of those minds is a lawyer,...

The 2018 Farm Bill has significantly changed the Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy) that was introduced in the 2014 Farm Bill

You can always go home. In the case of Hisao Fukuda, home meant returning to his original vocation: working for the U.S. dairy farmers. “I knew Tom Suber well,” said Fukuda

With lots of loose straw chaff to chop up for bedding but not a good way to transport it from the hay barn to the straw chopper, we created a funnel that fits perfectly. Using plastic bo

Some of the greatest gifts we receive don’t cost a penny. As I reflect over the past year and look forward to a holiday season that exemplifies gifts, I realize it is the people in my life

Quiet is deafening when you expect sound. An idle milking parlor is like a tomb. The roar of silence softens some with the passage of time or if the space is repurposed

Somewhere along the way, someone asked me my thoughts on how authority should flow within a dairy. Upon reflection, I developed “The Purple Truck Theory.”

The “Next 5 Percent” strategy includes more boots on the ground for USDEC. Shown at the Tokyo-based trade mission were (L to R): Luke Waring, Hisao Fukuda, Ross Christieson, Jeff McNeill, Hiroshi

Three themes — the dairy economy, trade, and plant-based imitators — prevailed above all others at this year’s joint annual meeting of the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board

From early on we’re often taught to live by the Golden Rule, “Do unto others, as you would have them do onto you.” It simply means that we should treat people the same way that we would...

Most people living in the northern United States or Canada have come to expect long, cold winters.

This is a friendly reminder to all of you, and myself — never give up on your dreams. I once had dreams

Moving the gutter grates behind cows in a stanchion barn can be hard on your back and messy work. To eliminate this, we welded together some leftover pipe to create hooks. These hooks fit easily

For the most part, North American data collection for genetic evaluations operates much like it did in the 1960s, with data collected through traditional milk recording systems. While farmer-recorded

Each and every replacement heifer and the resulting cull cow come with a cost. Net herd replacement cost (NHRC) is one way to calculate the value of animals leaving your herd

I quit buying the heavy-duty $300 bale rings because the skirts came off in one year. I started buying the $150 economy feeders without skirts

When I look at the definition of patience,Merriam-Webster says this about being patient: bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint; manifesting forbearance under provocation or strain; not hasty...

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) announced September 30 was achieved after months of hard-nosed negotiations

Calves don’t always finish drinking the water we give them. This means their water has to be collected and discarded before milk can be fed. We took a broken lawn mower, removed the eng

The author is a freelance writer in Indianapolis, Ind. He recently traveled to the Netherlands to interview dairy farmers and processors.De Jong normally lays down six layers of grass silage (a layer