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...
As new farm buildings go up, older ones stand empty. When milking herds grow, there are more calves to raise. Does it make sense to repurpose empty buildings to house young stock?
While it's not time to make hay just yet, it is time to get the wheels in motion for this year's cropping season. The bane of growing crops lies in our inability to predict the weather
Fall 2011 PDCA showmanship scorecard changes are slow to be adopted. Old habits are hard to break. Forming new habits helps reinforce positive actions, but breaking old ones, can be challenging. In the...
Of the 110 factors studied, 13 ranked as the most important factors at locating a new dairy. For many years, the West ranked high on many of them. by Margaret Seiler It is no secret to those involved in...
Make sure your bedding is doing its job by evaluating cow cleanliness and comfort. Cost and ease of handling are often the first considerations when it comes to bedding for dairy cattle. Ideally, bedding...
Heightened calf care can keep calves healthy and growing during winter weather. "This is the time of the year where we face the most challenges with raising calves," said Noah Litherland from the University...
W.D. Hoard's Notice to the Help set the standard for all farm staff over a century ago. The recent video showing employees at a northeast Wisconsin dairy mistreating dairy calves and cows is very disheartening....
Facility design, space and frequent stirring are essential elements in successful compost bedded pack barns. "Compost barns are not your grandfather's bedded pack," explained Jeffrey Bewley, assistant...
Transition cows need more than just a separate pen during this time of weakened immune response. On dairy farms, we tend to group our animals in an attempt to offer more specialized care. For example,...
Heat stress during late gestation impacts not only cow health and production but calf performance and immunity, as well. As temperatures rise, so does the need for cow cooling. On some farms, milking...
The Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) took its first official action relating to the transition of U.S. genetic evaluations by releasing the fee schedule for genomic evaluations
"I am not prepared to accept the fact that feet and leg heritabilities are as low as they currently appear. We need to evaluate the trait better," Gordon Atkins, D.V.M., told those attending the 122nd...
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...
While most of us hope an OSHA inspector never has cause to pull up to our farm, dairy is slowly, but surely, coming under additional scrutiny. An inspection has a limited scope; it is a snapshot - one...
Youth compete in a variety of contests like dairy judging, dairy bowl and cattle exhibitions. They are known to put in hours of preparation during team practices or train their cattle in the yard for weeks....
It's a study that is cited in almost every issue of Hoard's Dairyman. Those who author herd health, milk quality and facilities-related articles frequently use the NAHMS Dairy 2007 study as a reference
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...
