Let mortality be a reminder to live and love fully. At the urging of a good friend, I started listening to podcasts while traveling. If you're looking for a way to make your next road trip thought-provoking...
Electrical fire serves as wake-up call. Fire. There might not be another word so capable of quickly igniting fear in the hearts of farmers. I'm sure you can imagine the level of panic we felt after smelling...
Introducing heifers to the milking barn or parlor before calving may be the ticket to reducing stress. When a dairy heifer has its first calf, its world changes dramatically. A first-lactation heifer is...
Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) training is one way for cattleman to show consumers how much they care about animals and the food they produce. Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to become Beef Quality...
Animal welfare is at the forefront of consumers' minds and at the core of dairy producers' businesses. Happy cows come from California or Wisconsin or wherever. Whatever your opinion is as to where the...
Article in Washington Post is a huge and high profile challenge to common perceptions. We in agriculture are often angered by articles about food or farming in publications with huge readerships that...
There are some benefits to be gained when manure is injected directly into the soil rather than applied on top. By Abby Bauer, Hoard's Dairyman Associate Editor Manure smells like money to farmers because...
Tell your farm's story for the betterment of agriculture as a whole I've come to the conclusion that the positive potential of sharing my farming story with the masses has to outweigh the fear. We hear...
Growth. Also known as improvement, advancement, prosperity or profit. Defined by Merriam-Webster as "progressive development." Growth on your dairy farm doesn't necessarily mean adding more cows, diversifying...
If you ever sensed that organic sales tactics didn't seem to be totally honest, objective and unbiased, then you're smarter than many consumers, according to Organic Marketing Report by Academics Review
"Farm size is a lightning rod for criticism in agriculture," said Dan Weary as he spoke to those attending the April 14 Hoard's Dairyman webinar, "Cow welfare and farm size – challenges and opportunities"
Maybe it was the inch or so of rain that had fallen during the previous several days, or maybe the perpetual optimism that goes with being a farmer of any kind. Either way, there was no panic about the...
U.S. butter usage in 2013 hit its highest level in 40 years, due in great part to growing publicity about the negative effects of trans fats commonly used in margarines. How yummy is that news? According...
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....
Fear not, there is hope yet for America's youth. Not all teenagers have withdrawn into a black hole of no manners, nonstop texting, and social dysfunction. Just look at Future Farmers of America. Incomprehensibly...
Dairy farmers easily get their 3-a-day, but not everyone can drink milk. Traveling through the badlands of South Dakota, the deserts of the Southwest, and many other desolate areas of this country, "Last...
We are quite familiar with the phase, "We all learn from our mistakes." Nothing smacks you in the face as a poor decision, but, once that mistake is made, it is rarely repeated by the same person. We need...
As the San Francisco Giants clinched the World Series title, I was ecstatic as most long-time central California baseball fans were! 55 years is a long time to wait for a World Series title – years...
