It's that time of year. The snow is about to leave us, baseball games will be televised, and demand for ice cream will increase. In theory, higher milk prices, feed costs, and haymaking season will be...
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...
The size of the turnout spoke volumes about interest in the subject material at the "Dairy Financing Conference" February 22 in Visalia, Calif. Over 120 people – dairy owners, bankers, co-op leaders,...
Meeting in Arlington, Va., near the nation's capital, the 50th Annual Meeting of the National Mastitis Council was both festive and productive. There was plenty of fun and reminiscing sprinkled amid the...
Between a forecast for lower milk prices and the likelihood of higher feed costs, it's hard to not have a gloomy financial outlook for U.S. milk producers in 2011. Sorry. Amid the dreariness, however,...
Years ago, bunkers were only known as a military hide-out. Those bunkers were safe. The bunkers on our dairy farms can be anything but. Deaths can and do occur because of poor face management, accidental...
Can you believe that Thanksgiving is just a week away? I almost did until of course, I spent a good hour of my evening going back and forth with family about what time the big "to-do" should be. One of...
All the hype surrounding methane emissions, greenhouse gases, and odors have left most of our brains spinning. It isn't uncommon for us to think, "Ok, so what am I supposed to do?" In addition, regulations...
Even though it was the smallest cow class of the day, Judge Hank Van Exel and Associate Judge Tom McCauley spent more time deliberating the top end of the extremely competitive Jersey 5-year-old class...
Biggest change, of course, will be in the House, where the Republicans easily gained control. It looks as if the GOP could gain as many as 50 to 60 seats in the lower chamber when all the dust settles....
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...
Although milk prices in 2011 are forecast to remain near this year's level, higher feed prices are expected to squeeze producer margins, impacting the size of the dairy herd in 2011, according to the USDA's...
This may not be the case at all universities, but we suspect the trend is occurring at other institutions of higher learning. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, data from Chancellor Biddy Martin's...
The trend continues. More and more milk. September was the seventh month in a row that U.S. milk production has been above year-earlier levels. September's growth in milk production across the nation was...
With 40 percent of dairy operators over the age of 55, some may speculate some push-back to adapting to new information. The average dairy producer hovers around this age demographic. However, all producers,...
Tomorrow, USDA will release its Crop Production report which will shed some light on just how much corn might be harvested in this country this fall after all is said and done. It is an anxiously awaited...
World Dairy Expo 2010 has come to a close. In a matter of a just a week, shows, sales, and contests were all held in Madison, Wis. Total attendance was up, with 65,136 attending. International visitors...
Welcome to 2010 Hoard's @ Expo! The staff at Hoard's Dairyman has prepared this section just for youwith pre-show stories, schedules, history, photos and our Hoard's @ Expo blog. We'll be posting new content...
Signaling the start of World Dairy Expo week for those of us at Hoard's Dairyman is always the annual visit from the National 4-H Dairy Conference. Today, around 200 attendees from across the country (and...
The Class III roller-coaster cycle we've come to hate will eventually swing back to $20. Count on it. Every down has been followed by an up, so it's important to plan for the inevitable recovery that's...
