Nichelle Stewert, a Georgia farmer who volunteers with her local Farm Bureau, gave one of our favorite sessions at this year's National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference
With advancing technologies, how many (other than producers) have seen a working modern farm? The red barn, white fence and silo are not commonplace anymore. Thousands of guests, both rural and urban,...
The 2011 Guernsey Component Queens were compiled from all 305-day DHI and DHIR lactation records received and made official by the American Guernsey Association. To be considered official for production...
A broken piece of equipment, a visit from a neighbor, or simply losing track of time while completing a single task can wreak havoc on your to-do list. Some days we leave the barn with what seems like...
Uh-oh, they're back. After a quiet enough spring, corn prices roared back to life this month and shot past $7 per bushel as scorching temperatures and dry skies withered fields in America's Heartland
As one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2010, there's no doubt that Temple Grandin is the world's most influential autistic person
I spent the past week at my family's dairy farm in southwest Minnesota. One evening, while helping my dad with a few chores after milking, we felt a few drops of rain. We hoped the sprinkles would turn...
The U.S. isn't the only place where dairy producer opinion is divided about the actions and motives of their cooperatives. Not by a long shot. My just-finished visit to New Zealand, the world's largest...
Last week at the National Holstein Convention in Springfield, Mo., junior members gathered for the youth forum to hear the state of the association address by JAC Chairman Derek Wasson and to select three...
You may have heard Kelly Clarkson sing, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." However, Julia Ridpath, of the National Animal Disease Center/ARS/USDA staff, reminded dairy producers that in the case...
On a decent number of dairy operations, migrant workers comprise a portion or the majority of the labor force. These are people we have come to depend on day to day to successfully run our dairies
Gratitude seems to be lost these days. A sincere thank you is replaced with a "Yea, thanks man." While some gestures only need a quick thank you, others might necessitate more. Writing thank you notes...
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
The cost of raising children increased again last year. That is no surprise with the cost of food and gasoline rising for everyone. According to Expenditures on Children by Families, a child born in 2011...
On Friday June 15, the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding released its road map for operational and financial aspects of how U.S. genetic evaluations might be carried out once USDA takes a step back from...
Oftentimes when feed prices rise, your gut reaction is to start pulling high-priced ingredients from the ration. While cows need nutrients and not particular ingredients, rapid dietary changes negatively...
Polls indicate that consumers want foods labeled if they contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). But with no health issues, is it germane? Nutrition labels have been mandatory in their current...
We posted a photo yesterday on our Hoard's Dairyman Facebook page of a well-dressed young man standing at the end of his dairy barn with rose petals sprinkled down the alley. We thought it was a unique...
Hundreds of votes are in from all over the world; in a landslide election, our Guernsey calf beat our Jersey with a final tally of 55.6 percent to 44.4 percent at 8 a.m
