What a crazy, incredible turnaround. Huge 2014 crop outlooks in the U.S. and other major grain-producing countries have destroyed the high prices for feed grains that made life so painful for anyone with...
Comfortable cows or easily maintained manure systems. It seems like many dairy producers feel they must choose between one or the other. Sand has a strong reputation for enhancing cow comfort and lowering...
Water quality is paramount to cow health. "My cows are dying. What is going on?" sobbed the 65-year-old dairy producer as his cracked hands cradled his cheeks and covered his swollen eyes. "They calve,...
Flies become a nuisance in the summer, especially for our cattle. An unmanaged fly population can reduce milk production 10 to 30 percent and decreases feed efficiency
I am now more than two months into my internship with Hoard's Dairyman. It is pretty incredible to realize how fast it has gone and how much I have learned
Before there was 4-H and FFA, there was the Hoard's Dairyman Juniors. In addition to launching the Young Dairyman page for farm youth in 1915, Hoard created the Juniors, which was the forerunner of the...
Americans are worth more today than ever before, but many still struggle financially. As a group, Americans are the wealthiest they have ever been. This spring household financial wealth was at its peak,...
Manure is a valuable commodity that provides needed nutrients for crop acres, but it takes multiple steps to get it from Point A to Point B. Most times, moving manure from storage to the field happens...
Hemorrhagic bowel syndrome (HBS) was first detected in the early 1990s in dairy herds. Since that time, it has become a more common issue in the industry affecting all breeds of cattle and especially Brown...
The National Dairy Shrine in Fort Atkinson unveiled a $90,000 technological upgrade to its main floor display last week. "We are very pleased to share the excitement of some of the changes that were made...
Webinar shares steps to boost production. One pound of milk per cow per day over your entire herd really adds up over a whole year. In his Monday, July 14, webinar, Mike Hutjens, University of Illinois,...
A field covered in black soil looks good, but there's much more to soil quality than what meets the eye. Soil testing can help farmers properly manage nutrients, saving both money and the environment....
Growth. Also known as improvement, advancement, prosperity or profit. Defined by Merriam-Webster as "progressive development." Growth on your dairy farm doesn't necessarily mean adding more cows, diversifying...
It's that feeling of hope. The red-carrier Holstein (carrying one copy of the recessive red gene) was bred to a Red and White bull (carrying two copies of the red coat color gene). There was a 50-50 chance...
Gone are the days where every youth at a dairy event resides on a farm. There was a time when nearly every youth showing at a fair, competing in dairy judging or competing in quiz bowl lived and worked...
In an ideal world, every calving would happen unassisted and result in a perfectly healthy, active calf. However, as all dairy producers know, that sometimes is not the case. "We can have a critical impact...
If robots are the next evolution of milking cows on a large scale, then the future is here already. Except it is happening slowly and not at all in the U.S. . . . yet
For the U.S. dairy industry, mastitis carries a $1.7 billion to $2 billion price tag. Reducing the infection risk takes a multi-pronged approach, but keeping cows on their feet a bit longer postmilking...
