Housing calves in groups can sound like a jump into the deep end, far from the safe waters of individual pens long considered the standard to prevent disease transmission
Hoard's Dairyman talked with Darren Van Buuren of Agri-Plastics Group Companies at World Dairy Expo about their business and the solutions they offer for dairy farmers. Watch the video above for more information...
My tools were getting unorganized, and I would not know where the last person put them. So, I came up with a simple idea. I hung all my tools in the right place and traced them with a permanent marker
Individual calf housing is by far the most common form of calf rearing in the country. According to research done by the University of Wisconsin in 2019, 77% of farms raise calves individually
Consistently, research shows that the longer calves can be backgrounded (housed and fed individually) before they are put into a group pen setting, the better
“For us, the Pocket Cow Card on the phone and tablet is a great reference tool when out among the herd,” said Jake Weisenbeck when discussing how his farm tracks heats, breeding records, and...
This tool scrapes and rakes To help clean the freestalls on our farm, I welded a piece of angle iron to a steel rake and bolted a rubber strip to it. I use the rubber end to scrape manure out of the stalls...
Solve your transition housing puzzle Well-designed transition barns should include space for cows to rest, eat and calve with minimal disruptions.There are four characteristics of excellent transition...
The MILC or Milk Income Loss Contract program was the first program that recognized that a safety net program needed to incorporate feed costs. However, MILC payments only offset 45 percent of the milk...
Cows spend their days doing core activities, like sleeping and eating, and luxury activities, like playing and exploring. Luxury activity will decline when time or energy resources are limited during stress...
An old dairy ration evaluation tool has a new trick. The Penn State Particle Separator (PSPS) received an update for 2013 in the form of a 0.16-inch (or 4 mm) screen. This new, smaller screen adds the...
Your one stop shop for dairy planning! From the planning and development process to various housing options, this book contains tables, charts, figures and measurements to customize your dairy housing...
Since the advent of A.I. synchronization programs in the early 1990s, many producers now use reproductive hormones to manipulate the estrous cycle of cows in order to time ovulation and insemination and...
New tool better estimates alfalfa quality. Relative forage quality (RFQ) is the new standard to measure alfalfa quality. It replaces Relative Feed Value (RFV) which was a good tool in ranking forages for...
