With strong milk prices, farms may wish to bring more cows in to help fill the bulk tank. Outlets for purchasing dairy cattle are plentiful, but so are the disease risks new animals can bring to your herd
A few clicks of my heels and a quick 11-hour drive, and I will be back on my flat, home turf of Kansas, enjoying 100-plus degree temperatures and humidity
A television show traces actor's ancestry. On a spring day in late May, the phone rang at my family's dairy. A television show wanted to film at our location, as someone famous had relatives that previously...
There are just six more weeks until the start of World Dairy Expo, and many eyes are curiously watching the progress of the new pavilions at the Alliant Energy Center
Sometime in the next two weeks or so – the deadline is September 1 – the U.S. Department of Agriculture will issue final details about how the 2014 Farm Bill's voluntary Dairy Margin Protection...
Since the early 2000s, automated heat detection has played an important role in reducing breeding and associated labor costs by eliminating the need for reproductive synchronization protocols
"Do not compare proven sires PTAs to genomic PTAs. Only compare them within their contemporaries for rankings," cautioned Chad Dechow when presenting "The new world of genetics" during the monthly Hoard's...
Of North Dakota's 18,000 dairy cows, one stands head and shoulders above the rest. That's because she is 38 feet tall, 50 feet long and weighs in at 12,000 pounds. Her name is Salem Sue, and she has the...
How do you know where you're going if you don't know where you are? Tracking various aspects of your dairy business is one of the biggest contributors to your financial success. The reasons to keep records...
A common strategy for spending available dollars on the farm is investing it close to the milk parlor. Areas that tend to get the most attention are the ones that directly affect milk production such as...
Comfortable cows or easily maintained manure systems. It seems like many dairy producers feel they must choose between one or the other. Sand has a strong reputation for enhancing cow comfort and lowering...
Water quality is paramount to cow health. "My cows are dying. What is going on?" sobbed the 65-year-old dairy producer as his cracked hands cradled his cheeks and covered his swollen eyes. "They calve,...
Flies become a nuisance in the summer, especially for our cattle. An unmanaged fly population can reduce milk production 10 to 30 percent and decreases feed efficiency
I am now more than two months into my internship with Hoard's Dairyman. It is pretty incredible to realize how fast it has gone and how much I have learned
Hemorrhagic bowel syndrome (HBS) was first detected in the early 1990s in dairy herds. Since that time, it has become a more common issue in the industry affecting all breeds of cattle and especially Brown...
The National Dairy Shrine in Fort Atkinson unveiled a $90,000 technological upgrade to its main floor display last week. "We are very pleased to share the excitement of some of the changes that were made...
The Commercial Herd Award recognizes the top herd in the nation for Energy Corrected Milk. The herd must complete over 50 lactations during the year. Hoard's Dairyman Farm completed 147 records in 2013...
Webinar shares steps to boost production. One pound of milk per cow per day over your entire herd really adds up over a whole year. In his Monday, July 14, webinar, Mike Hutjens, University of Illinois,...
