It is a question that has prompted industry-wide information meetings in the past and it prompted another one last week in Tulare. Interest tends to surface during awful financial times, so it's no wonder...
On the farm, the need for a smartphone depends on the user. But I could make the case that each farm could have one if they wanted. Your extra costs are about $100 initially (over two years) for the phone,...
The terms are all too familiar for those in animal agriculture: "growth hormone," "mad cow disease" and "factory farm." All are nicknames for longer, dryer formal names. The mainstream media loves them...
The combination of scorching heat and drought conditions heightens the potential for silo gas during harvest. Late-season rainfall on drought-stressed corn in manured fields could produce higher-than-average...
by Amanda Smith. It's not a new story that this year's drought will have severe consequence throughout production agriculture, especially for those who feed livestock
Word of mouth in the dairy industry has been spreading the bad news for months about how things are in California. But no matter what you've heard, it's worse. Yes, there is a financial catastrophe underway....
In 2009, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy set a goal to reduce enteric methane emissions per pound of fluid milk by 25 percent by 2020. At this point, our industry has seven years left to meet or exceed...
If you're not F.A.R.M.ing, you may want to look into it. The National F.A.R.M. program (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management) is operating as a partnership of the National Milk Producers Federation
Four of California's major dairy producer groups have decided they aren't going to keep rolling over and taking low milk prices from the state anymore. Instead they are fighting back – and hard
Smartphones have quickly risen in popularity. In the 2012 Hoard's Dairyman Continuing Marketing Study, 28.5 percent of dairy farmers surveyed owned a device similar to a smartphone, BlackBerry or iPad....
Time is fading quickly if you want to land a contract for Livestock Gross Margin (LGM) insurance for dairy cattle. This Friday, August 31, approximately $2.5 million will be released as part of the final...
Sire summaries are calculated by the United States Department of Agriculture three times each year in April, August and December. Hoard's Dairyman compiled the August data on the seven dairy breeds and...
In a state often fraught with regulatory burdens, New York's political entity has finally seen the need to work with and not against agriculture in upstate. The current boom in the state's yogurt industry...
Immigration reform is an ongoing national debate. Those of us involved in the paperwork and potential legal harassment associated with finding capable, willing and possibly foreign workers have considered...
With half of the country now in a drought disaster area, if there was ever a year for dairy farmers to take reducing silage losses seriously, this is it. The most silage you have is when it is standing...
When Hoard's Dairyman commissioned artist Bonnie Mohr, Glencoe, Minn., to create a new edition to its Foster Mothers of the Human Race paintings, the result was astounding
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...
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...
You may be facing challenges with the availability and expense of common bedding sources such as sawdust or the management of sand bedding. In recent years recycled manure solids have become a more prevalent...
