One of the greatest blessings Duane and I received this year was during one of the most difficult times. My mother had been ill for a few years, so her passing was not a total surprise. Her 91-year-ol
Butterfat composition in the national bulk tank has been on a meteoric rise over the past decade. Before that, according to USDA data, butterfat levels held in a tight window of 3.65% to 3.69% from 19
The author is a professor emeritus at Virginia Tech and an independent dairy consultant with Down Home Heifer Solutions.Each farm must weigh the pros and cons of feeding milk or milk replacer in their...
Central Lakes College in Minnesota has a law enforcement training course that teaches young recruits to respond to emergency and nonemergency calls for service. This includes traffic enforcement dutie
I took a used container that originally held ice melting salt and now use it in our shop to put down Floor-Dry. The slotted top works very well for spreading this product. Shaun Coyne, New York
Four years ago, U.S. dairy’s safety net was completely revamped. Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) replaced the largely ineffective Margin Protection Program (MPP-Dairy), and Dairy Revenue Protection (DRP
The official December genetic proofs are now available. In the Holstein breed, STgen Cowen Thorson-ET again retained the top spot in the genomic Net Merit (NM$), Cheese Merit (CM$), and TPI
The practice of treating all dairy cows with intramammary antibiotics at the time of dry-off has been a successful management strategy for decades. Dry cow therapy has been proven to cure existing mas
For both crops and animals, timing often means everything on a farm. Following the appropriate timeline can be the difference between a healthy outcome and one that fails. On the cow side, that means
Feeding prepartum diets with a negative dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) to close-up dry cows is a practice used frequently to reduce the risk of hypocalcemia postpartum. The DCAD is determined
There have been a lot of discussions this year about possible changes to the milk pricing system with dairy cooperatives within the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) aligning on a set of propo
What do you think the fastest growing segment is among the U.S. population?If you guessed Gen Z . . . you’d be wrong. Instead, it is the other end of the age spectrum – adults 85 and older....
It was purely coincidence that the recent Sustainable Agriculture Summit took place in Glendale, Ariz., a city in Maripoca County, which happens to be the county projected to lose the most farmland in
The first best day of Don Niles’ dairy career was when the first of his clients installed self-locking headlocks. As a veterinarian, that simple tool made herd checks a lot easier and safer for both
On Tuesday, December 6, nearly 79 million dairy animals will receive updated U.S. genetic evaluations – commonly called “proofs.” The Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) delivers...
At $3.3720 per pound, the five-month run that saw the federal order butterfat price set new monthly records from June to October ended in November 2022 milk checks. However, the November $3.3720 per p
As we approach the end of the year, farmers may be reviewing their income tax obligations and marketing plans or completing a business or enterprise analysis. A successful farm manager is already keep
Moving a cow out of the fresh pen and into the general herd population might allow a farm manager to breathe a small sigh of relief that the cow has made a successful transition. And while that is an
The potential to develop and publish U.S. genetic evaluations for milking speed is being explored by USDA Animal Genomics & Improvement Laboratory (AGIL) and the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (
