often, we do the same thing time and time again out of habit. We can get comfortable with familiar treatments and be reluctant to change, or perhaps we don’t even assess how well they are working
About this time last year, I had the notion that if I just made it to 2020, life would be so much better. I was anxious to turn the page and put 2019 behind us
We buy calf pellets in bags and transfer the pellets into 32 gallon garbage barrels for storage. Each barrel easily holds 100 pounds of pellets. The lid securely snaps on, keeping the pellets fresher
it was a beautiful fall day. Earlier that morning we had started covering the bunker silo first, and then a stack of corn silage, with plastic and tires
I am an open book. Or at least my life is an open book, or so I have been told. Through this column and in my blogs, followers get an open glimpse of my dairy farm life
this year will go down in the annals of history as one for the ages. Indeed, 2020 had both immense challenges and immense opportunities . . . both are coming to light
What am I most proud about in 2020? That was the question posed by Lucas Lentsch to dairy farm leaders of the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), and USDEC
We use this homemade bucket holder made from 1-inch PVC pipes on our dairy. The shorter PVC pipes coming out of the main pipe structure hold all sorts of things. On ours, we store buckets and bottles
The reason the government is involved in Federal Milk Marketing Orders is because dairy farmers must sell milk every day of the year to a buyer who does not have to buy milk every day
Cattle have been converting grass and other forages into high-quality milk, meat, and fiber, and used as draft animals, pulling heavy loads for humans, for roughly 10,000 years
At our dairy farm, recently weaned calves would jump out of their pen through the feedbunk. We hooked a gate to the bunk that keeps the calves from jumping out, and the feed can still be put in
With several farms sprinkled throughout the countryside, it is not uncommon to drive down the road and see signs offering “Free kittens.”Farmers know, when there are two cats, many will quickly...
I first attended the North East Production Medicine Symposium in 1993. Cow comfort was a major topic presented by the late Bill Bickert and a host of colleagues
There are some in our midst who continue to both belittle and bemoan dairy product exports. During a recent conversation, staff members for a rather well-known dairy farm organization went so far as t
The vast majority of our country’s population is several generations removed from farming. Most people are unfamiliar with modern production practices, yet dependent on agriculture and the food supply