On our dairy we use 50-pound bag shavings, which are stacked on a pallet for delivery. It’s a four-hour drive by semitruck to our location. When tying them down, bags used to rip from the tie-

Many people may have heard about the four or five D’s when it comes to lending and farming. Each can tear a business apart. Some of the D’s are unavoidable. Others are a matter of choice

While beef prices have been making a rebound from last fall’s market bottom, dairy beef hasn’t benefited from the improvement in meat prices. That’s because the demand for our bull calves

Over the past decade, Wisconsin’s dairy industry has seen a resurgence in dairy cow numbers by adding 43,000 additional cows to its farms

Karen BohnertOprah Winfrey once said, “You can have it all — just not all at once.” And, honestly, I never really understood what this meant until I hit motherhood. Trying to...

I made this calf box to move calves from the hutches over to the group pen. This box sits on the front of our skid loader using the pallet fork. It makes moving calves more fun than leading them

Obedience comes in many shapes and sizes on the farm. Some rules are big and noticeable and some are so commonplace they do not get much attention. We teach our children how to obey at a

As is always the case, the key factors affecting milk prices this year will be demand and supply. On the favorable front for U.S. prices is a likely continuation of last year’s robust domestic demand

I’d come to expect the unorthodox from Don. Hard driving, able to think outside the box, Don made great strides in turning around a large, troubled dairy operation

It’s high time that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enforce its own existing regulations that clearly define milk as originating from dairy animals

I use a bowl brush in my 1/2-inch cordless drill to clean the waterers on our farm. This picture is one that I just cleaned. It came out pretty clean and saves a lot of scrubbing

as dairy producers continue through the second year of very slim or negative margins, I am sure many of you are feeling rather discouraged. I have never been a dairy farmer, so I cannot speak from experience

Change is only fun for a baby with a wet diaper. Sometimes we seek change, sometimes change finds us. When it finds us, it’s usually better to not be a baby about it

The best of 1976. Steve Jobs formed Apple computer. Nadia Comaneci won three Olympic Golds. Rocky premiered in cinema. ABBA had a number one song with “Dancing Queen.”

Only 2.2 percent of a cow’s diet is digestible and desirable to the U.S. human food market

Global trade is forecast to grow at 3.6 percent per year over the next five years, requiring an additional 800,000 million pounds (370,000 tons) of product annually, according to a new USDEC report

There have been a number of people in my lifetime who have exemplified character qualities that influenced me to strive to do my best in whatever pathway I chose. The added bonus I received from

Iowa’s Millionaire Model Dairy Farms (MMDF) prove that financial success can be attained that can set dairy producers on a path to become “millionaires” by managing a variety of dairy...

At Vir-Clar Farm in Fond du Lac, Wis., co-owner and calf manager Katie Grinstead uses a system of colored duct tape to communicate with calf feeders. Different colored duct tape attached t

You know the slogan “no pain, no gain.” The toughness represented in those words fits our occupation and mentality as farmers. We work right through our ailments

To make feeding wrapped round bales easier in the barn we made a round bale turntable. On a four-wheeled wagon, we mounted an old wheel hub with the rim bolted on and then welded a metal plate t