Despite headwinds from highly pathogenic avian influenza, weather challenges in many parts of the country, and a slight contraction in U.S. dairy herds, 2024 maintained many of the thresholds that were...

An animal’s ability to regularly, completely, and rapidly let down its milk in response to a proper milking routine is termed its “milkability.”

An unusual string of 13 consecutive months with U.S. milk production falling below year-earlier levels ended in August, and a 16-month streak of U.S. dairy cow numbers being down from a year ago ended...

It’s just as important to not miss the forest for the trees as it is to not view milk production as the sole baseline for cow productivity

Last month, I wrote about how the U.S. dairy market is in a Goldilocks period: production is weak and demand is not great, but it is good enough to keep milk prices at profitable levels given the poor...

Around 30% of dairy farms in the United States use an intramammary teat sealant at dry-off

In the most recent USDA Milk Production report, U.S. milk output was down 1% for the month of June compared to the year before

Washington Dairygrams: July 2024

Milk production has been essentially flat for the past three years, and 2024 is on track for another year at the same level, if not less

In USDA’s most recent Milk Production report, May milk output was 19.7 million pounds, down 0.9% from the same month a year before

Farmers rarely complain about cows producing too much milk, but when it comes to drying off high-producing cows, the situation changes

The detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in dairy cows has dominated most of my conversations in late March and early April

The national numbers are in from USDA, and last year’s milk production remained nearly level with production totals from 2022

There is a lot of pessimism about U.S. milk production in 2024. Even USDA, in their monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report, has been continuously cutting the 2024 milk production...

Not long ago I opened a cupboard to grab a coffee mug and noticed a blue-green tint to a bread loaf on the middle shelf above the mugs

Milk production in the United States seems to have entered a period of unknown duration when expansion in excess of demand will be less common than it has been in past years

U.S. milk production has been coming in lower than forecast during 2023, and that has primarily been due to weak milk production per cow

The leaves are changing, the first frost has arrived, and harvest is already nearing completion in some parts of the country. Attention is quickly turning to the holiday season with Thanksgiving approaching

Late last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) extended the deadline to sign up for the Milk Loss Program to the day before Halloween

Research continues to help better understand the intersection of management and the nutritional quality of milk. Driven by the Ireland dairy industry's interest in supporting the export market, food scientists...