Several years ago, Tony Louters was on a hunt. The Merced, California, dairyman wanted more information on his milking cows in order to improve reproductive protocols and, more importantly, health. The...

While I had planned to write about a different topic this week, I decided I had to share a comical moment from my day instead

The Merle Howard Award given to World Dairy Expo's top junior exhibitor

As the global dairy industry meets in Madison, Wis., World Dairy Expo is not complete without the trade show. Tuesday was abuzz as the trade show opened for the first day

The first animals to parade across the colored shavings at this year’s World Dairy Expo were led by junior exhibitors participating in the Youth Showmanship Contest

For many youth, the culmination of their junior dairy judging career rests on the Intercollegiate Dairy Judging Contest at World Dairy Expo

Clippers buzzed, hair flew, and animals shone as the Youth Fitting Contest began the events of the 2023 World Dairy Expo on Saturday morning

Considering that about 98% of U.S. farms are family owned, it’s no wonder the fall season on the farm includes lots of kids

Internships give students a chance to try their hand at a certain job, possibly solidifying what they want to do — or don’t want to do — after graduation

How does the saying go? Something like, “The worst sentence in the English language is ‘That’s the way we’ve always done it’”? Man, if that doesn’t sound like...

Whether it’s the order of crops and fields to harvest or simply getting machinery where it’s needed and loads timed out correctly, harvest is essentially a thoughtfully planned symphony in...

This back-to-school season, more students are meeting teachers who are prepared to accurately talk about the science behind dairy farming. That’s thanks to efforts led by dairy checkoff and agricultural...

In Alan Jackson’s song, “Summertime Blues,” he discusses how, as a teenager, you work all summer and do not have the opportunity to enjoy it. That perspective most likely resonates with...

As we walk through the barns and pastures to check our cows throughout the day, it pays to watch the cows’ expressions. In a time where people either tend to stare at their phones while going about...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now a consumer buzzword that most of us have heard since the release of ChatGPT4. Now, Google, Facebook, and others are trying to catch up with OpenAI and believe it will...

Summer is coming to an end, and it’s time to go back to school. However, I won’t be going home empty-handed

As we were moving some cows and heifers to our calving pen today, it hit me that the cattle we were moving all have due dates further out than my own

It is Corn Silage Harvest 2023 here at Hillcrest Farms. This year we have been blessed with rain and a good corn crop

One of the annual summer staples around here — best served up lathered in butter and a good sprinkling of salt, in my opinion — is homegrown sweet corn

Served in a classic cone, layered with cookie dough, whipped together with fresh peaches, concocted into a brownie-lover’s dream, drenched with strawberries, submerged in a tall glass of root beer,...