Foot health impacts reproduction, production and early culling. Nigel Cook presented theHoard's Dairyman monthly webinar on Monday, May 13, 2013, entitled "No more lame excuses." Lameness prevalence has...
Little things can be overlooked when preparing for showmanship. I attend several youth dairy shows throughout the year as a spectator, but participated in dozens during my junior years. Showmanship is...
Having a heifer enterprise won't make sense for every operation. Most dairies have three enterprises on-farm: cows, cropping and heifers. Within this subset, the cost of raising replacements also accounts...
It took an NFL stadium to contain the excitement Minnesota youth had for the Fuel Up to Play 60 Program. It's not every day you get to meet an NFL athlete, especially as a 6th grader. But if you're in...
Students write essays to connect farming with their food. This spring, Wisconsin's Ag in the Classroom program held an essay contest. Fourth and fifth grade students from across the state wrote one-page...
In back-to-back days, dairy celebrated sustainability efforts already in action and renewed focus on future projects. In honoring herds milking 50 cows all the way to those with several thousand, the Innovation...
My travels in Australia last month included a visit to a dairy farm and milk processing facility. One-hundred-twenty Guernsey cows grazed the pastured hills in Maleny, in the state of Queensland, Australia,...
Whey, the liquid by-product of cheese making that is often disposed of as waste, is being made into vodka by a large-herd dairy farmer in England. No kidding. Naturally, the mere fact he is doing it has...
Few things can irritate a person like finding out they overpaid for a product or did not sell their own for its true value. In the April 8 Hoard's Dairyman "Reviewing forage and feed costs – What's...
The farm bill came very close to passage last year. As part of that comprehensive national farm law, the Dairy Security Act (DSA) would have become the dairy portion of the farm bill
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
A firsthand look at what dairies are already doing to make, save and reduce energy use will be on display March 19 at Ballard Family Dairy and Cheese in Gooding, Idaho
Sequestration went into effect on March 1 as a result of the Budget Control Act. And with it, the federal budget will be reduced by $85 billion this year or $1.2 trillion over the next decade if congressional...
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...
Milk Income Loss Contracts (MILC) were automatically extended through September 30, 2013, under the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. There is no need for producers to re-enroll in MILC
Dairy management programs offered at no cost. No dairy herd is a cookie cutter of the next. Each have their own unique set of fixed costs, feed options and management criteria. Fortunately, there is software...
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...
Dependent on worker availability, region and farm size, foreign labor has become vital to accomplishing daily operations on some dairy operations. Earlier this week, a bipartisan group of eight senators...
The long-standing county quota system has been eliminated. One of the most popular activities for Wisconsin dairy youth is exhibiting at the state fair. Last year, there were over 800 dairy exhibitors....
