Portable Electric Panel If you need a temporary place to plug in a lot of cords, this panel comes in handy. Your cords stay out of the snow or mud, it's portable, and it stores easy. Isaac Hackel
Silage roll-up We created a homemade roll-up with 1-inch cable and a piece of pipe bent into a crank, then welded the cable to the crank. The cable length depends on the size of the bag. We use a 12-foot...
Use curtain strapping in front of stalls We use 2-inch strips of curtain strapping to keep cows from going forward in the face-in free stalls at the Hoard's Dairyman Farm. This polypropylene strapping,...
Dry erase hutch map One of my jobs is to feed baby calves. I found this dry erase board handy to map calves in hutches. This system works very well when others need to feed calves if I am not available....
Improved whey coverage We started feeding whey upon the recommendation of our nutritionist. After pumping whey into our TMR mixer and not getting good coverage of the feed, we added this 6-foot horizontal...
When W.D. Hoard started Hoard's Dairyman as a supplement to the weekly Jefferson County Union newspaper on January 23, 1885, I doubt he would have imagined its potential growth, spread over a century and...
No more spilled milk We took a 12- by 15-inch piece of plywood and cut four holes in to fit a 3-quart milk replacer bottle. Then we screwed a 12-inch 2 by 6 on both ends. Now the bottles don't tip
Quick-attach feed pusher At Boucher Family Farm, Highgate Center, Vt., Denis Boucher was looking for a way to push up feed using an existing skid-steer loader attachment. Using the bale fork, he made a...
Electric String Winder To solve my problem of used string storage, I took old electrical wire reels and wound the string on them with a drill. I used a 1/2- by 6-inch bolt with a couple of nuts as
Easy system to refill dip cups Everyone knows that postdipping is one of the most critical steps in bolstering milk quality. At the Larry and Brent Simon farm of Westphalia, Mich., they partnered with...
As the first day of World Dairy Expo wraps up, the Ayrshire champions for 2011 have been named. Justin Burdette, Mercersburg, Penn., lead judge in the International Ayrshire Show, assisted by Sean Johnson...
Handy Hint: October 10, 2011 Freezer is now mob feeder We made a mob feeder for calves from a nonworking chest freezer. We drilled four holes on each side of the freezer and attached "peach teat" nipples,...
We drove through central and southern Illinois on the way to and from the joint American Association of Bovine Practitioners and National Mastitis Council meeting in St. Louis, Mo
Homemade Grain Feeder We cut a plastic culvert pipe in half lengthwise and cut half circles of plywood for the ends. Metal hooks, made from rebar attached to the culvert, let it hang from the bars of the...
Some new uses for genomics data were reported at the ADSA meetings in New Orleans, La., this July. Scientists at AIPL searched through genomic databases to find "haplotypes" that existed at relatively...
Automatic teat dipper Richard Doran, Jr., is an engineer by training, but dairy farmer at heart. On his farm, Bush River Jerseys, in Newberry, S.C., he has used this money-saving innovation. In its 24-stall...
Guess which costs more: far away by ship or close by truck? Milk-cow-quality alfalfa hay is already over $300 per ton in California which isn't making this a fun summer for dairy producers there. An article...
Easier dehorning paste application We've found a better way to apply dehorning paste to calves. Instead of using a wood applicator, wear a disposable nitrile milking glove and spread the paste on with...
Yesterday, the popular search engine Google celebrated the 189th birthday of Gregor Mendel with this creative "doodle." (Google often celebrates milestones and holidays by working their name into a piece...
