Ever been curious about grazing dairy systems? Have you tried grazing in the past and found that it didn't work? Wondering about what grasses to potentially grow, how to manage pasture quality, how to...
About 25 years after the exodus began, Hoard's WEST joined the dairy migration from southern California to southern Idaho. Since it began publication in 1999, our Western edition was based near the Chino...
"Wow, the Holsteins here are smaller than the ones back home!" I said while walking to work with a co-worker. "You must be American. Those black and whites are Friesians, not Holsteins." This was one of...
PsyCOWlogy Karlin Peters of Missouri earned 1st in the Beginning Division of the Speech contest at the National Holstein Convention in 2011. She talks about understanding animal behavior using cow psychology,...
We've talked about it before (see our blog, Wars we wage in dairy and agriculture and our editorial from the June 2011 issue, Keep chocolate milk in schools), but, like heat in the summer, the issue of...
Every day a milk truck comes to Shoestring Dairy. We exchange our normal "G'day Mate," then the friendly man hooks up the hose and pumps our cows' hard work from our tank into the truck. He prints off...
The arrest of several undocumented workers at a Colorado dairy farm almost two weeks ago and similar events in recent years has brought the issue of labor to the forefront in the dairy industry. Politicians...
Summer starts next week, but milk prices are already sizzling… much to our continued pleasant surprise. Throughout January, February, and March we watched with some dismay as Class III price futures...
Harvest decisions dictate alfalfa's value, fate. Mahanna is with Pioneer, a DuPont Business, and is an adjunct professor at Iowa State University. Site selection, good soil fertility, and a forgiving growing...
Our well-respected dairy products got special recognition when the USDA released its new, MyPlate nutrition education tool. The MyPlate program replaces the Food Pyramid which had been the government's...
Western herds' net income ranged from $89 to $252 per head last year, reports Moore, Stephens, Wurth, Frazer, and Torbet, Certified Public Accountants and Consultants. That compares to $585 to $962 losses...
Farm safety is always an important discussion topic, but sometimes we forget about farm safety when machinery leaves the farm to travel on public roads. Tractor and machinery traffic has risen now that...
Cash receipts from milk marketed last year totaled $31.36 billion. That was a 24 percent rise over 2009's $24.34 billion. Milk sales totaled $34.85 billion 2008. These numbers come from USDA's annual publication...
Ben Logan's The Land Remembers was originally published in 1975. He is now 90 years old and lives in Viroqua, Wis. Photo by Caroline Beckett used with permission of Itchy Cat Press. As a transplant to...
My hometown has a population of about 5,000 people, and it is the largest town in my county. There were almost 450 students in my high school, and the surrounding schools had fewer students and were located...
"A few special interest groups have managed to hi-jack the term ‘animal welfare' and managed to create the illusion that they are the animal welfare experts", said Jennifer Walker, D.V.M., at the...
USDA finally appears ready to make a decision on national ID. According to the May 24, 2011, Wall Street Journal, "USDA wants every cow to have a unique numerical ID, stamped on an inexpensive ear tag...
Pennsylvania updates custom and rental rates Determining if a quoted custom rate is a fair price can be somewhat challenging especially with today's higher fuel costs. To help give all parties perspective...
