When the Maddox family expanded their dairy herd to 3,200 cows in the late 1970s, there weren’t many farms of that size in California or across the country

The most important employees on a dairy farm are the cows. What we do for our bovine employees during the dry period plays a big role in how they perform once they re-enter the milking herd

High milk production brings new challenges, one of them being the beginning of the dry-off period

Jim Davenport, a dairy farmer from Ancramdale, N.Y., presents “Clean cows make clean milk.”

The benefits of feeding sugar, often by means of molasses, to dairy cows have been well-researched. From a physiological standpoint, sugar supplementation improves microbial efficiency and supports fiber-digesting...

While automated milking systems sound appealing in many aspects, it takes careful consideration to determine if robotics are the right fit for a dairy

Jim Davenport, a dairy farmer from Ancramdale, N.Y., presents “Clean cows make clean milk.” According to Davenport, “The most important contact surface on the dairy is the teat and the...

Although it might be entertaining to see cows running toward the feedbunk and eagerly start eating, this is also a sign that they’re hungry. Unfortunately, they might be so hungry that it’s...

We started the pandemic thinking milk production would need to be cut somewhere between 3% to 10% to bring supply into alignment with the weaker demand

Are we breeding cows wrong? It is an honest question. Have we lost sight of how or when to breed cows?

Training farm personnel not only improves animal welfare and improves farm profitability, but it also enhances the work environment by making people feel like part of a cohesive team

There are about 100 organisms that can cause infections in the udders of dairy cows. Selecting the best path of management for an individual case of mastitis starts with knowing what type of bacteria

Raising heifers economically isn’t just about feed prices, as herd management practices can make a big impact on the bottom line

Last week, as the North American International Livestock Expo in Louisville, Ky., finished up, it was easy to admire all the beautiful cows

“We have to ask for practical use, is it helpful? Does the farmer know more after consulting the system than he or she did before? Of course, we want perfect sensor systems, but we have to use the...

Removing U.S. dairy cows may reduce nutrient supply while having little effect on greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Journal of Dairy Science

There’s almost always a shortage of time and a lack of space on dairy farms. When deciding which animals get the most attention and best resources, the answer is typically the milking herd, and understandably...

As many of you know, we switched to a robotic milking system last November. When we made the change, we had a pretty good idea of how things would go initially

It was mid-January when a dairy manager and I scouted for inefficiencies within the herd. One tool I like is plotting milk production by days in milk to have an idea of the existence of cows with very...

At calving, cows find themselves in a negative calcium balance. That’s because they are literally drawing from their own calcium stores to put the mineral into milk