If you were raised on a tie stall dairy, you quickly learned that a cow's appetite dropped well before her milk yield showed signs of slowing. As our industry has transitioned from this one-on-one setup,...
I recently read a report on "The Enough Movement" and thought I would share its findings. It addresses world hunger and looks at not only food quantity, but quality. Most often when we think of not having...
Transition cow diets have been the focus of considerable research the last few decades. However, 90 percent of that research has been done on dry cow or prefresh rations, says Ric Grummer, University of...
Most of us grew up being taught that there was one gene and two alleles involved in the coat color of our Holsteins . . . with the black allele being dominant over the recessive red allele
To treat or not to treat is a question whose answer once seemed obvious: treat every clinical mastitis case found, and treat every cow at dry-off. But things have changed. Public perception is intensifying...
We don't have to look to a third-world country to find a hungry population. Hunger is here in our own backyards. With 49 million hungry people in the U.S., it is likely you are touched by food insecurity...
"Beef is in the global marketplace," reminded University of Wisconsin-Madison Animal Sciences Department Chairman Dan Schaefer. Depending whether it is beef, pork or poultry, about 10 to 25 percent is...
More than 15 percent of U.S. milk was exported in 2013. That equates to one out of every seven U.S. tanker loads of milk being turned into products destined for overseas
With spring approaching, runoff concerns come to mind for many dairy farmers around the country. Managing or redirecting the water that could run to or through manure storage facilities and confined animal...
It's a refreshing new trend: farmers and lawmakers saying "no" to groups that think they are entitled to obtaining private information about farmers and then making it public
When it comes to finding sick cows, tie stall herds have the upper hand. As we have transitioned our dairies from this individual care system to managing groups, illness detection has become one of our...
A variety of people are choosing organic foods, leaving an upside of opportunity for organic dairy production. Organic sales are driven by people wanting to make better choices. Organic is one of those...
"How can I improve my dairy farm?" It was an unexpected question from a Ugandan dairy farmer to the group - an assembly of one Canadian, two American and 12 European farm writers touring farms in this...
February and March have brought new reminders that nondairy events almost anywhere in the world can affect milk production costs on U.S. farms. The latest examples continue to bring new price volatility...
Most of the time, a single type of bacteria will cause mastitis. When multiple strains are recovered the milk sample is almost useless. It becomes difficult to interpret which bacteria is the culprit,...
Garrett Oetzel, University of Wisconsin, presented "Cows and their calcium", in our Monday, March 10 webinar. For 30 years our presenter has studied the topic. With development of a new calf and the onset...
Several swollen hocks or neck abscesses might tell us that our stalls need more bedding or our neck rail height needs to be adjusted. Similarly, bruises on a carcass can reveal a lot about welfare once...
Even during a down year, the average U.S. dairy grew in 2013. Both average herd size and milk production per cow went up - herd size by a lot and production per cow by a little. The result was a big bump...
Like many of you, the Hoard's Dairyman Farm met its match this winter. Amidst frozen feed, frozen pipes and a few calves lost too soon, we've battled unpredicted and unforeseen cold. And, as every member...
Group housing is becoming a more popular and acceptable way to raise dairy calves. Besides feeding and health benefits, new research shows that raising calves in a group setting might also make them smarter
