Americans are worth more today than ever before, but many still struggle financially. As a group, Americans are the wealthiest they have ever been. This spring household financial wealth was at its peak,...
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...
A field covered in black soil looks good, but there's much more to soil quality than what meets the eye. Soil testing can help farmers properly manage nutrients, saving both money and the environment....
Gone are the days where every youth at a dairy event resides on a farm. There was a time when nearly every youth showing at a fair, competing in dairy judging or competing in quiz bowl lived and worked...
If robots are the next evolution of milking cows on a large scale, then the future is here already. Except it is happening slowly and not at all in the U.S. . . . yet
Shades, fans, misters and water make milk production possible even in the desert. Few places in the U.S. are as deadly an environment for cows as Arizona, but milk producers there have become masters at...
Steady growth in the number of Jersey herds in the U.S., particularly among large dairy owners in the West, naturally leads to the question of how do they do financially? It's not an easy question to answer,...
I grew up listening to my grandpa talk about the "good ol' days" when computers did not exist and cellphones were a figment of the imagination. For better or worse, I have never known agriculture without...
With high summertime temps looming, it is time to start paying attention to Temperature Humidity Index values to manage your cows' heat stress. Just like the kids at the local swimming pool who are cooling...
Tractors hit the road with renewed vigor over the holiday weekend in America's Dairyland. As is the case in many dairy states with a cropping emphasis, the pressure is on to apply manure, work ground and...
For a good part of my childhood and most of my high school and college years, I have been the employee at my parents' 150-cow dairy in Valley Center, Kan. Like most farm children, I headed up calf care
Dairy farms in the U.S. can't be clumped into one cookie cutter mold, as new Census of Agriculture data shows that the dairy industry is still comprised of farms of varying shapes and sizes
Dairy producers are living a milk price dream right now, even though scars from the nightmare five years ago are not fully healed. It's a bust-to-boom turnaround of staggering proportions that producers...
Still a long road ahead of us. By Patti Hurtgen, Hoard's Dairyman Online Media Manager Based on 2014 data, 29 percent of American food consumers think food companies are trustworthy. With 44 percent neutral...
In the decades ahead, climate change is expected to make heat stress an increasingly bigger problem for dairy cows everywhere. Breeding animals with more natural resistance is one way farmers will cope,...
Life does truly go full circle. Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to be on the speaking docket with Scott Armbrust, D.V.M., at the Livestock Genetics Export Seminar in Madison, Wis
Renae Konkler Scheiderer always read the personal classifieds in her dad's Hoard's Dairyman for giggles. However, in the April 25, 2000, issue, one ad caught her eye. Al Scheiderer had given his email...
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,...
