It is National FFA Week! It always begins on the Saturday preceding George Washington's birthday and runs through the following Saturday. National FFA week started in 1947. This year, it is celebrated...
Imagine a world where the manure check equals the milk check. No one is saying it is possible, but there is hope on the horizon for profiting from the waste end of the cow, and some are doing it already....
TV newscasts and city newspaper articles dote on the idyllic image of small farms while deriding commercial agriculture, all the while blissfully ignorant about which group actually feeds America. But...
Milk prices will be higher this year, according to USDA's Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook which was released Tuesday. The Class IV price is expected to average $16.70 to $17.50 per hundredweight...
1. Yuma Rugged Tablet Computer This handy hand-held tablet computer is farming-friendly. Its thick case prevents breakage from drops or falls. We loved that it is waterproof (and manureproof) and protects...
In a ceremonial fly-over, the blasting engine of an F/A-18F Super Hornet took to the skies to help celebrate the opening of the world's largest annual agricultural expo. Pleasant, sunny, moderate temperatures...
Class III futures really took off last week with March climbing to $17.44 and April moving up to $17.10 by last Friday. The momentum continued Monday, as March was up 75 cents to $18.19. April jumped 59...
The recent runup in 2011 Class III milk price futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has brought both relief and a euphoria to the nation's milk producers. But, as we've said before, as prices have...
It is early February and we are just about at the half-way point in the 81st Hoard's Dairyman Cow Judging Contest. So far in 2011, you have seen the Brown Swiss and Holstein classes on our January issue...
Late last week, USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) granted nonregulated status for alfalfa that has been genetically engineered to be resistant to the herbicide commercially known...
Like many of us in the dairy business, our roots are planted deep in history. Not only did Dad grow up on a dairy farm and milk cows daily, but so did Grandpa. That story was true for Bill Payne of Knob...
Meeting in Arlington, Va., near the nation's capital, the 50th Annual Meeting of the National Mastitis Council was both festive and productive. There was plenty of fun and reminiscing sprinkled amid the...
It must be a busy week for dairy meetings. The editorial staff of Hoard's Dairyman is spread thin this week with one editor attending the International Dairy Foods Association meetings in Miami, Fla.,...
As people get older, some believe that they have learned all they need to know and forego any further education, whether formal or informal. And with the hectic lives that dairy producers lead, many focus...
Do you watch daily Class III milk futures prices at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange? We do. While it's exciting to see rosier financial prospects for the industry in 2011, we're skeptical . . . and wary....
If you read our most recent issue, you would've noticed an article by Frank Mitloehner from the University of California- Davis who is taking the time to set the record straight on the dairy industry's...
The demand for corn continues to grow due, in part, to the federal government's ethanol mandate and the world's growing population. As this occurs, corn growers are planting the crop on land that is not...
It's just one state and it may not reflect what is happening across the rest of U.S. agriculture, but it's still good news in an industry that can certainly use some: Farmland values in Indiana are shooting...
Most people would agree that dehorning cattle not only protects animals from each other, but it also protects employees who work with them. While dehorning, the process of removing horn buds from a calf,...
Except for a handful of states primarily in the West, hourly workers across the U.S. aren't in line to get raises this year. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 24 states set their minimum wage...