Members uphold the Holstein Association USA motto of working to be the best. There was cause for celebration as many made it to the winners' circle at the 2013 National Junior Holstein Convention in Indianapolis,...
Dairy feed cost situation is night and day different from a year ago. The West is scorching, yet much of the Midwest and East are soggy. And while crops there generally got a very slow start, high soil...
New dairy farm technologies were center stage at the Precision Dairy Conference last week. Just as cellphones are slowly phasing out landlines, some current mechanics and methods of operation on dairy...
Mastitis occurs in individual cows. Our control programs are designed for the whole herd. "The ideal system for recording clinical mastitis will allow the practitioner to evaluate important cow factors...
Jason Yurs has served as the Hoard's Dairyman Farm Manager since 2002. In this role, he oversees the daily operation of the nationally recognized Guernsey and Jersey herds. He trains and manages employees,...
Foot health impacts reproduction, production and early culling. Nigel Cook presented theHoard's Dairyman monthly webinar on Monday, May 13, 2013, entitled "No more lame excuses." Lameness prevalence has...
In back-to-back days, dairy celebrated sustainability efforts already in action and renewed focus on future projects. In honoring herds milking 50 cows all the way to those with several thousand, the Innovation...
My travels in Australia last month included a visit to a dairy farm and milk processing facility. One-hundred-twenty Guernsey cows grazed the pastured hills in Maleny, in the state of Queensland, Australia,...
Earlier this week, we addressed Ryan Gosling's letter to NMPF (National Milk Producers Federation) in regards to the practice of dehorning (www.hoards.com/blog_dehorning-calves)
In the past few years, it seems as if agricultural majors have received a great deal of flack. In 2011, The Daily Beast (an online news information site) listed "agriculture" as their third most useless...
SECOND EDITION: Greatly expanded, this invaluable guide covers infectious and noninfectious diseases, now in two chapters. Diagnosis of upper leg lameness in calves through adult cattle is probably the...
As printed in our March 25, 2013 issue... GLOBAL PRODUCT PRICES ARE ROBUST. In early March trading, the eight-product mix climbed 10 percent to $1.91 per pound. However, the global auction hasn't translated...
Mastitis has severe economic consequences costing, on average, $200 or more per case. The disease also impairs cattle well being. While prevention is preferred, there are a number of technologies that...
Plastic barrel holds entire milking set The farm at Mississippi State University, Starkville, Miss., needed a way to hold milk meters when they weren't using them. They were able to fit over a dozen in...
As printed in our March 10, 2013 issue... JANUARY MILK ROSE 0.5 PERCENT nationwide over a year ago. Cows fell 17,000 (-0.2 percent) from last January. However, the national herd has grown three consecutive...
"I am not prepared to accept the fact that feet and leg heritabilities are as low as they currently appear. We need to evaluate the trait better," Gordon Atkins, D.V.M., told those attending the 122nd...
A firsthand look at what dairies are already doing to make, save and reduce energy use will be on display March 19 at Ballard Family Dairy and Cheese in Gooding, Idaho
Grader makes great feed scraper We needed something to scrape up feed on our farm and had this three-point grader blade that we no longer used. We welded a short piece of angle iron onto our skidloader...
Sequestration went into effect on March 1 as a result of the Budget Control Act. And with it, the federal budget will be reduced by $85 billion this year or $1.2 trillion over the next decade if congressional...
