While dairy farmers may be considering sustainability-focused solutions such as cover cropping, conservation tillage, and best management practices for manure application and manure-based products, a key...
In a unanimous Supreme Court ruling, the justices on the highest court in the land agreed that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) overstepped its authority in threatening penalties of $40,000 per...
When feeding dairy cows, a buffer helps maintain a balanced rumen pH by limiting the effects of excess acid. Outside of the cow, buffers in a farm’s fields serve a similar purpose for the water features...
An evening vet call came in that a high value bull calf was down. I wasn’t far away from the calf grower, so I soon pulled in to find Becky running subcutaneous (SQ) lactated ringers (LRS)
To teach our calves to drink from the water trough, we take one ball completely out so they can easily access water on one side and learn how to operate the ball in the other
The sustainability conversation around agriculture, particularly animal agriculture, has become increasingly front of mind for a growing number of people
Sometimes I think water is not valued enough for dairy cattle because it seems to be “free” or costs little compared to other feedstuffs. And it all begins with calves
April showers bring May flowers. Along with them have come planting delays and other farm level concerns. One benefit that some may not think of is the opportunity to analyze where rain runoff flows
The Golden State is known worldwide as a top producer of hundreds of crops and commodities. Due to the rich, abundant soil and ideal, long growing season, California farmers and ranchers have benefited
"While scarcity may be the most pressing water issue, water quality is a close second," said Mike McCloskey, owner of Fair Oaks Dairy and chairman of the Sustainability Initiative for the Innovation Center...
When is field runoff risk the highest, particularly in more northern climates? "March is the month," says Amber Radatz, co-director of the University of Wisconsin Discovery Farms. She explained that March...
When we throw away food, we are tossing more than just nutrients into the trash. No doubt, water is a valuable resource. We use it every single day in a multitude of ways. When water supplies get tight,...
Now is the time to conduct a postmortem on your heat stress mitigation plan and evaluate potential modifications. With full bunkers and only a few remaining harvest tasks to check off the list, the warmth...
Hopes of drought relief are soaring in California these days, due to growing indications that wet El Niño conditions are coming to the West Coast this winter. Four years of low precipitation have...
by Amanda Smith, Associate Editor Water. To thrive, agriculture needs water. And it's the ingredient that California, one of our nation's most agriculturally productive states, is most severely lacking....
In New Zealand, nobody owns water. You do not have rights over any water; all waterways that are of any significance are public property except that owned by the Maori (natives). All waterways in New Zealand...
California irrigation districts sue the state water board after it demanded they stop using pre-1914 water rights. As California's drought woes worsen and tempers keep climbing, you just knew it would...