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...
Most farms have a clear strategy in place for taking care of their cows: professionally balanced rations, written protocols for milking, well-designed facilities and so on. But do just as many have a people...
It's shaping up to be an expensive summer for hay in the West. By mid-April, prices for supreme and premium quality alfalfa were already over $300 per ton in some of the region's largest dairy states,...
Accurate samples are the cornerstone of diet formulation. Yet, for some nutrients, sampling itself is a major source of the variation seen from one nutrient analysis to the next
The Federal Department of Absurd – er, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – is an entity that regularly seems to defy common sense and logic. This is yet another example: Smoking is a proven...
We've been indoctrinated with the five C's to give calves their best possible start. Colostrum tops this list, followed by calories, cleanliness, comfort and consistency. Despite the order we've all been...
Record milk prices give milk producers a financial opportunity that is simply too good to ignore – dry pen and hospital pen cooling. They're no-brainer investments whose benefits touch every area...
Transition cow diets have been the focus of considerable research the last few decades. However, 90 percent of that research has been done on dry cow or prefresh rations, says Ric Grummer, University of...
Most of us grew up being taught that there was one gene and two alleles involved in the coat color of our Holsteins . . . with the black allele being dominant over the recessive red allele
We don't have to look to a third-world country to find a hungry population. Hunger is here in our own backyards. With 49 million hungry people in the U.S., it is likely you are touched by food insecurity...
More than 15 percent of U.S. milk was exported in 2013. That equates to one out of every seven U.S. tanker loads of milk being turned into products destined for overseas
When it comes to finding sick cows, tie stall herds have the upper hand. As we have transitioned our dairies from this individual care system to managing groups, illness detection has become one of our...
Several swollen hocks or neck abscesses might tell us that our stalls need more bedding or our neck rail height needs to be adjusted. Similarly, bruises on a carcass can reveal a lot about welfare once...
Everyone struggles with taking time away from their daily workload to attend a conference, but it's especially difficult for some dairy farmers to hand the reins over for a few days
Even during a down year, the average U.S. dairy grew in 2013. Both average herd size and milk production per cow went up - herd size by a lot and production per cow by a little. The result was a big bump...
Group housing is becoming a more popular and acceptable way to raise dairy calves. Besides feeding and health benefits, new research shows that raising calves in a group setting might also make them smarter
The Hoard Farm team, headed up by Jason Yurs, continues to be pleased with the performance our Jersey herd. This group was evaluated by a pair of American Jersey Cattle Association appraisers on a very...
The tie stall herds from our February 25, 2014, Round Table have more to share. Earlier this week, the February 25 issue of Hoard's Dairyman hit our readers' mailboxes. On pages 118 to 120, four herds...
Tighter heifer management could be a window of opportunity for many herds. A heifer needs to make about 33,000 pounds of milk to repay her rearing costs, said Cheryl Marti, a dairy production specialist...
It's over half of the frozen desserts consumed. There was a time when ice cream was just for the affluent. With the advent of insulated ice houses in the early 1800s, it could stay cold. Ice cream is a...
