While it may no longer be June Dairy Month, educating the public is a year-round challenge. As summer shows and fairs get into full swing, do you take the time to educate the public about your animals,...
You may be facing challenges with the availability and expense of common bedding sources such as sawdust or the management of sand bedding. In recent years recycled manure solids have become a more prevalent...
Put on your Star Wars T-shirt; this is a subject where one's imagination can run wild. Relatively speaking, genetic engineering is still in its infancy
Consider writing a standard operating procedure to ensure tasks are completed uniformly on your operation. The workforce on a modern dairy farm is both multigenerational and multicultural. Without training,...
Did your herd's average somatic cell count drop a little in 2011? Chances are it did, according to USDA and the National Dairy Herd Improvement Association. The annual report by the Animal Improvement...
Idaho and Oregon will become the leaders in U.S. raw milk quality in coming months, when maximum somatic cell count limits for farm milk shipments in those states drop to 400,000 and 500,000, respectively
Top 50 genomic Holstein bulls are all over 792 Net Merit. by Hoard's Dairyman staff Genomics is accelerating the pace of genetic change. In the Holstein breed, it took a Net Merit (NM$) score of 792 to...
This year's conference "Got Manure?" featured a preconference tour of three New York digester systems. Methane digester interest continues to grow, as a near capacity crowd filled the conference room at...
Optimism was in the air as three robotic milking dairy producers took the stage at a panel concluding today’s Tri-State Robotic Milking Seminar in Belmont, Wis. The meeting gave a background
We attended the Illinois Agricultural Communications Symposium last week, organized in honor of the University of Illinois Ag Communications' 50-year anniversary. The daylong event started off with a...
In its 51st year, the National Mastitis Council (NMC) annual meeting continues to look to the future. With the nation's somatic cell count effectively at 400,000 (at least for those with product that has...
Setting goals for your dairy can be done at any time, but take the time this New Year to write them down.Yesterday, I worked with high school students preparing their 2012 livestock project goals. The...
Top 50 genomic Holstein bulls are all over 788 Net Merit. Genomics is accelerating the pace of genetic change. In the Holstein breed, it took a Net Merit (NM$) score of 788 to make the top 50 list among...
For the first eight months of 2011, the average somatic cell count (SCC), for all months, has remained under 260,000. Traditionally, the highest SCC month is August. This year, August came in at 260,000
Growing up in a populous dairy region, I often failed to recognize how expansive our local dairy infrastructure actually was. If we faced a milking equipment break down, someone was there, within the hour,...
Sexed semen has only been on the market for a handful of years, but has already become a familiar, although not necessarily widespread, tool in the dairy industry. Higher cost and lower fertility are still...
Top 50 genomic Holstein bulls over 750 Net Merit. The August sire evaluations are ready for your review. We have created lists for all seven breeds. In the Holsteins, the Top 100 bulls for Net Merit are...
Every day a milk truck comes to Shoestring Dairy. We exchange our normal "G'day Mate," then the friendly man hooks up the hose and pumps our cows' hard work from our tank into the truck. He prints off...
Paul Dyk, who recently left University of Wisconsin Extension for a job in the private sector, wrote a good article in a recent UWEX newsletter titled Higher Speed Internet Options for Fond du Lac County....
