Within the year of finishing my postgraduate studies, I worked in the industry for a company involved in the production of vitamins and other additives
During the Four State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference, University of Illinois’ Phil Cardosa addressed heat stress and the role nutrition can play in keeping cows productive during hot...
Starting in August 2021, dairy producers will have at their disposal an enhanced Lifetime Net Merit (NM$) index, the selection tool designed to maximize cows’ lifetime profitability
Once the new Net Merit (NM$) formula gets implemented this August, dairy farmers from across the U.S. and around the world will have the opportunity to breed more feed-efficient cows
Of course, cows do not talk to us in the literal sense. Instead, your herd figuratively speaks to you and your advisers through production trends and other quantifiable herd tendencies
Feeding cows with $5 corn and $450 soybean mealMike Hutjens, University of Illinoissponsored by Kuhn. Feed costs per pound of dry matter are rising as corn and soybean meal prices climb, squeezing fa
Livestock feed prices are on the rise, and there’s no clear sign when that trend will reverse. These escalating costs may have dairy farmers reconsidering their current rations
The fresh cow requires neutral detergent fiber (NDF) from high-quality forages such as brown midrib (BMR) corn silage, alfalfa, and even nonforage sources of fiber
Feed costs per pound of dry matter are rising as corn and soybean meal prices climb, squeezing farmers’ profit margins. Strategies to improve ration economics while maintaining milk yield are discussed....
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
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...
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
