by Maggie Seiler, Associate Editor The USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) orchestrated the sale of more than 300 U.S. heifers to Pakistani commercial and research farms, reopening that export market...
The stress of calving, for both the cow and the calf, can be lessened with a proper maternity pen. There's no one cookie cutter design that all farms must follow, but general recommendations include an...
I walked around a 2,300-cow dairy in Florida earlier this month. No guide, no restrictions, and no objective other than taking a few pictures. A simple thing happened that was a first for me and it's already...
Dairy farmers reaped the largest share of the retail food dollar since the turn of the century, according to data from USDA's Economic Research Service. In making that calculation, economists poured through...
As printed in our March 10, 2016 issue... USDA BECAME MORE CAUTIOUS lowering its 2016 All-Milk price estimate to $15.65 per hundredweight. The agency's projections have fallen steadily from last May's...
Barring a court injunction or higher ranking federal legislation, those selling food in Vermont must use package labels to declare foods that contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). No matter where...
USDA's release of the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report in mid-February provided neutral to slightly negative news for U.S. dairy producers. On the input side, feed costs could...
In following these three fundamentals, the Rodgers family has pushed past a 32,000-pound herd average despite Georgia's hot and humid climate. With herd health closely monitored, Hillcrest Dairy only needs...
What's new in transition feeding? At the ADSA (American Dairy Science Association) meeting, transition cow research abstracts were prevalent. Several abstracts are listed below with a brief summary, a...
Handy Hint: March 10, 2016 Racks help bundle tires Tires that cover bunker silos at Hillcrest Dairy are more organized after creating a number of iron "tire racks." As tires come off the bunker to expose...
The once steady growth in milk quality has become stagnant. After dropping by nearly 100,000 cells per milliliter from 2005 to 2012, somatic cell counts (SCC) have leveled off near 200,000 over the past...
Answer the down cow's 911. The sight no dairy producer or worker wants to see when he or she arrives to the farm early in the morning is a cow that can't get up. According to a recent Miner Institute Farm...
For years, preweaned dairy calves were housed individually as a means to reduce the spread of disease and monitor feed intake. Yet, over time, researchers have suggested that calves may benefit from socialization...
Don't look now, but Michigan's dairy industry is on a roll. Surprise, California's is not. California is still the largest U.S. dairy state for both cows and milk, and by a wide margin, but not much is...
Let's be clear . . . every glass of milk, every slice of cheese, and all dairy products for that matter are antibiotic free. It doesn't matter whether it's produced on an organic or conventional dairy...
Expect big things from U.S. dairy over the next decade. That would definitely be one take away from USDA's recent USDA Agricultural Projections to 2025, released in mid-February. For starters, the federal...
When stepping to the milk case, we all have preferences that weigh heavily on our selections. The same is true across the globe. The Chinese market is one that saw tremendous growth through the early part...
Vitamin D is essential for human health, but very few foods contain it naturally. How, then, do we make sure we consume enough on a daily basis? Thankfully, through fortification, this critical nutrient...
For many years, Cornell University, Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin have collected and summarized annual dairy farm financial records. Recently, these three institutions partnered...
Only 1,225 dairy herds across the United States called it quits last year. Based on sheer dairy farm numbers, that represented the lowest total since 1992. That's the year, the American Farm Bureau Federation,...
