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...
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...
Handy Hint: March 10, 2011 Cable prevents cows from getting caught in stalls After constructing their recent free stall barn, Jay and Amy Krahn of Brillion, Wis., advised their builder to include a cable...
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...
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...
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...
Handy Hint: February 25, 2011 They use silo to store wheat straw The Krahn Family of Brillion, Wis., uses wheat straw for bedding. "As our herd grew, getting enough straw blown into the old tie stall barn...
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...
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...
Handy Hint: February 10, 2011 Screen Protects Truck Since the farm truck at the Steve and Carl Ayers Family farm in Perryville, Ohio, goes through many crossing guard gates, they added a frame around the...
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....
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,...
Handy Hint: January 25, 2011 Bracket keeps ball hitch handy Never look for the ball again. I took a piece of angle iron and bolted it to the cage of my skid loader. That way whenever I need the ball to...
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,...
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...
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,...
Handy Hint: January 10, 2011 Wire stops for calf hutches We found that filling discarded 15-gallon soap containers with a little sand makes for great stops for calf hutches. They can easily be cleaned,...
Handy Hint: Jan 10, 2010 Colored Tape Marks Distance During the winter months, my employees are so bundled up that they have a hard time turning around inside the skid loader to see behind them. This led...
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...
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...