A PCR assay can enhance your milk quality diagnostics. The incorporation of a robust diagnostic strategy has been promoted heavily in recent years as a way to identify the predominant pathogens causing...
Research shows that healthy and unhealthy eaters alike select foods on taste over nutritional value. An apple is healthier, but why do we reach for the doughnut instead? Most likely because we know it...
Digital dermatitis in heifers can change hoof shape without causing lameness. By Maggie, Seiler, Hoard's Dairyman Editorial Intern A good set of feet and legs is imperative for a cow to live a long and...
DHIA milk sample-based method is 91 percent accurate identifying herd prevalence. Next to mastitis, perhaps no subclinical health problem is as common, as unseen (if not outright ignored) or as costly...
In difficult economic times, we become better managers. Shrink is one area where we can tighten our belts. Dairy rations are balanced on the cents per cow that an ingredient will add to or cut from a feed...
Keep fresh cows "fresher" by identifying high risk cows early on. The high-risk fresh cow: She's older (third lactation or greater), had a difficult calving and is battling lameness. She had a longer lactation...
There were some surprises in who signed up for the Dairy Margin Protection Program (MPP-Dairy), according to figures announced recently by USDA. The biggest surprise is who didn't sign up: almost half...
A classic game, Jenga tests players' ability to strategically remove blocks from a sturdy tower. One by one, blocks are pulled until the stack comes crashing down. The individual with the steadiest hand...
"I'm fine." How many times have family members commented when a loved one looks under the weather and got that response? I venture a lot if you deal with farmers. They are the "no excuses, gotta get work...
If there was one job I truly despised as a kid growing up on a dairy farm, it was helping bed the calf barn, which housed our calves from 3 months of age to around 500 pounds. I just never found a way...
Mastitis threatens your young ladies – and your bottom line – long before they reach the milking parlor. Heifer mastitis is real, it is costly, and dairy scientists say it is more common than...
Lameness and hoof health have garnered a great deal of attention in recent years. At the Vita Plus Dairy Summit, veterinarian Gerard Cramer discussed how we can address hoof health globally. An often-mentioned...
Prevent problems before they cause early culling. Mike Hutjens presented "Feeding cows for transition success" during the January Hoard's Dairyman webinar. He shared 10 Key Performance Indicators (KPI)....
Running a business has a lot to do with building and maintaining relationships, and for a farm, an extremely important relationship is the one with their lender. The foundation of that relationship is...
Growing prospect of another recession threatens exports and farm milk prices. Despite big dips in the stock market this week, the U.S. economy remains in fabulous shape. Except that's in comparison to...
It was drilled into my head from a very young age to watch out for calves with droopy ears, sunken eyes and clear signs of illness. Many producers use physical and behavioral signs such as these to detect...
Strong production by most major dairy exporting nations during the second half of 2014 collided with weakening economies in much of the world to swamp global markets, cut demand, and trigger the rapid...
Dairymen balance their feed budgets on pennies. Ingredients are often pulled from a ration based on the perceived cents per cow it could save the bottom line
Today's dairy producers use the lactation curve to schedule milk harvest from a cow. Her milk production level dictates ration changes, housing group and may push up or move back her dry-off date
Slowly but surely, the average quality of U.S. milk is becoming amazingly good. In 2013, for the 12th year in a row, the nationwide average somatic cell count (SCC) for all cows on Dairy Herd Information...
