Not all cows react the same way to the same environment or action. There are slight physiological, genetic, and maintenance variations that cause some animals to thrive where others struggle

Implementing an activity monitoring system is a serious investment for a dairy farm. That can be paid back by saving labor costs on heat detection and getting cows bred at the right time

Over the past 30 years, the dairy industry has seen substantial improvement in the reproductive success of our herds

The weather is cooling, the leaves are starting to turn, and football is back. For dairy enthusiasts, that all means two things: corn silage harvest is underway or complete, and World Dairy Expo will be...

Fertilization rates range from 55% to 88% in high-producing dairy cows, resulting in calving rates of 30% or less following a single A.I. Pregnancy loss remains a major factor inhibiting reproductive performance...

Achieving excellent reproductive performance is a critical management goal that impacts milk production and therefore dairy farm profitability. The good news is that we have witnessed an unprecedented...

From a management perspective, having a broad lens and putting pieces together is critical to tackle inefficiencies and take advantage of opportunities. Do not limit yourself to evaluating heat detection...

Back to the basics: Semen handling and tank management Presented by Joe Dalton, University of Idaho sponsored by Select Sires After semen purchase, sire fertility is in the hands of the produ

Location matters — in real estate, business, and A.I. During natural service, a mature bull deposits 8 to 10 billion sperm in the anterior vagina, near the cervix of the cow. One of the advantages...

Appropriate semen storage and handling is critical to the success of A.I. The liquid nitrogen semen storage tank actually consists of two tanks, with a smaller tank housed inside a larger tank

This July, USDA estimated there were 3.75 million dairy heifers over 500 pounds on farms across the United States

To all the avid Hoard’s Dairyman readers out there — thank you! Over the nearly 15 years since graduate school, I’ve written articles for different publications

We know that inbreeding rates accelerated after the introduction of genomic selection in 2009. Part of this shift is simply because we are turning our generations over more rapidly, which raises inbre

One of the three largest expenses on a dairy farm is raising replacements, and the greatest cost in that category is the feed it takes to get a heifer from birth to first lactation

Most dairy farms today collect data by which they attempt to make informed decisions about how to manage their herds

Heat detection on our farm got more technical yet simpler over time

Calves and heifers that grow well and become productive cows is a target every dairy farm aims for. To reach this end goal, it is helpful to have benchmarks to work toward along the way

Some could argue that the upward trend in reproductive efficiency achieved by U.S. dairy farms started around 2009 with the advent of genomic testing, giving us more information about our animals