There is no question that local anesthetics for dehorning are part of animal welfare. I learned that in the 1970s at vet school, and not only because it reduced pain for the cow, but it also made it a...
Additional milk per day is just the start. The signs of heat stress in dry cows are less obvious when there is no production to monitor. In the March Hoard's Dairyman webinar, Geoff Dahl, University of...
Among the top 10 states when ranked by farm numbers, only 3.1 percent of dairies exited the business. For the 40 remaining states, losses were steeper at 4.9 percent. Record milk checks received by U.S....
Of the 3.15 million bulk milk tankers tested last year for antibiotics, only 429 came up with a positive result. That number represents just 0.014 percent of all samples and ties 2013's record low. Positive...
For years, dairy producers and veterinarians measured animal welfare standards around the theme that good health leads to good production. As far as Nina von Keyserlingk is concerned, we must rethink that...
Elite breeders have simple advice for dairies about how to get started. Genomics technology has taken the dairy breeding world by storm, giving milk producers tools to make dramatic improvement in their...
It's hard to see the good ones go, but culling is an inevitable part of having a dairy and an important herd management tool. For decades, the Dairy Herd Information Association (DHIA) has been collecting...
U.S. milk production has grown by 36 billion pounds since 2003; nearly 70 percent of that "new milk" has been sold overseas, making global dairy trade an important and growing issue. by Hoard's Dairyman...
64th Annual Hoard's Dairyman Round Table: How these farmers got their start The road to farm ownership is rarely easy, but these four first-generation dairy farms are proof that options exist for young...
It makes sense that herds with a standardized milking routine would have much lower rates of clinical mastitis. Yet, many parlors lack the consistency cows crave. "The people we depend on in the parlor...
Format that attaches at every stall attracted many lookers at World Ag Expo this week. Goodbye milkers. One of the busiest dairy exhibits at World Ag Expo this week in Tulare, Calif., gave an up-close...
For the first time since 2007, the U.S. dairy and beef cattle herd has expanded. After reaching the lowest number of cattle since 1951 at the start of last year, 2015 is heading in the opposite direction....
Research shows that healthy and unhealthy eaters alike select foods on taste over nutritional value. An apple is healthier, but why do we reach for the doughnut instead? Most likely because we know it...
DHIA milk sample-based method is 91 percent accurate identifying herd prevalence. Next to mastitis, perhaps no subclinical health problem is as common, as unseen (if not outright ignored) or as costly...
Keep fresh cows "fresher" by identifying high risk cows early on. The high-risk fresh cow: She's older (third lactation or greater), had a difficult calving and is battling lameness. She had a longer lactation...
With another new year underway, California continues to be the largest dairy state by a wide margin, accounting for over 20 percent of all milk made in the U.S. Its dairy industry continues to have much...
One of the keys for a breed to remain economically viable is the ability to make genetic progress, and small populations are at a large disadvantage in this respect. Genomic selection may create an even...
The nation's major dairy states led the pack for both corn silage and alfalfa forage harvest. Producers in Wisconsin put up 15.7 million tons of corn silage, while California stored 10.9 million tons of...
The dairy industry could learn a thing or two from motorcycle powerhouse, the Harley Davidson Motor Company. Motorcycles and cows don't have much in common, but when it comes down to image and product...
Prevent problems before they cause early culling. Mike Hutjens presented "Feeding cows for transition success" during the January Hoard's Dairyman webinar. He shared 10 Key Performance Indicators (KPI)....
