Sometimes we are so close to a topic that we often forget the values and assume everyone else is just as familiar with it as those who are so deeply entrenched. My responsibilities include the online content...
Milking and managing cows with robots requires some new management styles. As a follow-up to our February 25 Round Table "Robots milk our herds," these herd owners discuss handling repairs and buying used...
At World Ag Expo last week, a giant milk bottle caught my attention. It was filled with hundreds of white ping pong balls with names on them. Each ball, known as a milk drop, represents each dairy producer...
Time and resources limit teaching efforts. Contests should facilitate learning, not just provide scores. by Patti Hurtgen, Hoard's Dairyman Online Media Manager The ability to learn from past experience...
"On the 8th day," Paul Harvey begins, "God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker.'" With that, my Super Bowl party fell silent. Did yours?
A degree of closure has come in the sensational animal abuse video case that occurred in Idaho last October. Jesus Garza, 25, one of three employees seen abusing cattle in an undercover video that was...
Of the two dairy producers making the finals of a new contest, one was successful. This morning, Will Gilmer, a dairyman from Sulligent, Ala., was announced as one of the four "Faces of Farmers and Ranching."
When all is said and done, the farm bill basically was extended for one year. That is because language to renew most of its old components was inserted into legislation passed on New Year's Day to avert...
For some time, dairy producers and other industry specialists who closely follow genetic evaluations have agreed that productive life estimates - a measure of how long a cow lives - have been somewhat...
Per case, mastitis and metritis rank as the most costly transition disorders. On every dairy, the transition period, the three weeks before to the three weeks after calving, is a critical time for our...
The biggest news of the week for "milk" is that prices might double due to the farm bill, or the lack of farm bill passage. Of course, we first heard about this a few months ago from places like CBS news
"Consistent, efficient TMR feeding" was the topic of yesterday's webinar presented by Tom Oelberg of Diamond V. Oelberg has conducted hundreds of TMR audits and has seen several areas of concern for those...
Youth competition stimulates learning. A concept brought to 4-H dairy youth by Maryland extension agent, John Morris, in 1980 has turned into a widely accepted youth activity. Dairy Bowl began in the 4-H...
"You understand, farmers never retire," was one of the astute observations that farm family coach Elaine Froese offered to those attending the World Holstein Conference in Toronto, Canada
The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance is looking for the new face of farming and ranching. Two dairy producers are amongst the finalists. Deciding who agriculture's spokespersons should be is not a debate....
Congressman-elect David Valadao is a partner in his family's 1,700-cow dairy operation. by Lucas Sjostrom, Hoard's Dairyman Associate Editor Agriculture has some friends in Washington, D.C. But it has...
Everyone dies eventually. But when a milk producer passes away it can also mean the end of the dairy, its jobs and family traditions unless some fairly straightforward legal planning has been done to prevent...
A sea of blue corduroy will flood Indianapolis, Ind., in the next few days. High school agricultural students will descend on the 85th annual National FFA Convention on October 24 to October 27, 2012....
A report last month from a major dairy lender confirmed what many producers already knew: the long era of mostly gradual ebbs and flows in U.S. milk prices and production costs is over
