On Friday June 15, the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding released its road map for operational and financial aspects of how U.S. genetic evaluations might be carried out once USDA takes a step back from...
Polls indicate that consumers want foods labeled if they contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). But with no health issues, is it germane? Nutrition labels have been mandatory in their current...
We posted a photo yesterday on our Hoard's Dairyman Facebook page of a well-dressed young man standing at the end of his dairy barn with rose petals sprinkled down the alley. We thought it was a unique...
Dairy leadership program will now be held more frequently. The time for leadership in the dairy industry becomes more critical as producer numbers decline and the number of consumers grow. Fortunately,...
Economist Herbert Stein (1916-1999) had a keen wit and ability to sum up complex financial concepts in simple ways. A former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, he is best remembered...
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) seems to have its hands in everything lately. When we turn on the news, HSUS is often cited as a credible source
"Many retailers understand the science behind food production practices, but their customers do not," noted Charlie Arnot with the Center for Food Integrity (CFI), at the 2012 North American Strategy Conference...
After over two years of discussion, industry leaders have begun to publicly share draft documents which could one day guide U.S. genetic evaluations. The first document, known as the Cooperative Agreement,...
Confirmation reached the Hoard's Dairyman offices that a BSE case had been found in a California dairy cow shortly after 2 p.m. Central time yesterday. Thoughts of "the Christmas surprise" of 2003 (the...
Top 50 genomic Holstein bulls are all over 792 Net Merit. by Hoard's Dairyman staff Genomics is accelerating the pace of genetic change. In the Holstein breed, it took a Net Merit (NM$) score of 792 to...
A number of dairy processors have implemented or reconfirmed delivery constraints. U.S. milk production is heading up, up, and up with milk flow growing 2.5, 3.4, and 4.3 percent nationally in December,...
Genomic adjustments will be included in this April's genetic evaluations. After reviewing correlations between genomic test results and actual animal performance, USDA's Animal Improvement Program Laboratory...
We've talked to quite a few Western dairy producers in the last four weeks, and what they've told us paints a picture that is filled with concern. Hay prices are still crazy. Widespread hopes that they...
"This is our playing field. On October 31, 2011 the 7 billionth human was brought into the world. We are in the midst of a population increase," noted Jeff Simmons, with Elanco, at the Northeast Dairy...
In recent weeks, the silence following the October 2011 gathering of the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) was broken when Dave Thorbahn shared a Frequently Asked Questions article with the dairy...
You can explain risk management and its potential benefits to milk producers all day long, but if they go away thinking it's too expensive or too complicated, then they probably won't try it. The dairy...
Hoard's Dairyman columnist, Gary Sipiorski, reminds us why milking cows is still a worthwhile endeavor. And yes, we're talking economics. With record corn prices (resulting in record bean, alfalfa, other...
"Alfalfa and grass aren't the same, but they can be complementary to each other," noted Jim Paulson with the University of Minnesota. Paulson along with Paul Peterson, University of Minnesota, shared...
"Agriculture has been insulated from the forces battering the general economy. I expect that to continue in the coming year," says the University of Wisconsin Madison's economist Bruce Jones at the University's...
