The day that most kids wait for finally came for my Jersey squad. No, we didn’t go to Disney World — we got a puppy! “I’ve waited my entire life for this to happen!”

An important part of running any business is finding enterprises that complement each other. For one Michigan dairy farm, potatoes and cows have been the perfect pair. The VanDrese

As anyone who is involved in dairy farming knows, mastitis can be a very frustrating disease. It sounds simple enough to keep mastitis-causing organisms away from the teat canal when it is open, but

Transferring a dairy farm to the next generation can be complicated. No one wants to make it difficult; however, there are a lot of assets on the balance sheet. Terms and agreements in writing m

I was working on a school project of restoring a John Deere 4250 tractor. While operating other tractors, I would get tired of cleaning windshields off from mud flying off of the front tir

Tight margins that ranged from $5.76 to $9.17 per hundredweight after feed costs were among the reasons that 1,725 dairy farmers exited the industry last year. Those business closings were only

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) just celebrated its 23rd birthday. NAFTA is a three-country trade accord negotiated between the North American countries that include Canada, Mexi

Not everyone likes Mondays. I do because it is preg check day at our Kansas State Dairy. It is the culmination of a lot of effort made by everyone on the dairy farm

The possibility of the next generation joining the farm can be an exciting time; yet change, even positive change, can be stressful

Marilyn Hershey You will never see me climb up the side of a silo or shimmy up a ladder to the barn roof. I like both feet on solid, unwavering ground

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