Latest News From Dairy Reproduction

The 7 Repro Sins You Can't Afford to Make
The 7 Repro Sins You Can't Afford to Make

These commonly overlooked issues are holding your herd back.

Who Should Be Raising Replacement Heifers?
Who Should Be Raising Replacement Heifers?

A massive question dairy producers often ask themselves is who should be raising replacement heifers. Should they be raised by the producer, contracted out and customed raised, or should they be purchased?

How Will This Year’s Heat Stress Affect Future Offspring?
How Will This Year’s Heat Stress Affect Future Offspring?

Heat stress undoubtedly causes setbacks for cows. But a growing body of research shows it also impacts the calves they are carrying, and possibly even the generation after that.

Tips to Determine the Right Number of Replacement Heifers for Your Dairy
Tips to Determine the Right Number of Replacement Heifers for Your Dairy

Raising too many heifers can be costly for producers, which is why David Erf with Zoetis recommends producers to check their cattle inventory numbers as much as they do milk prices.

Leaning into the Future: Producers Share How Technology Enriches Their Operations
Leaning into the Future: Producers Share How Technology Enriches Their Operations

As producers continue to dial in on productivity and profitability, they also leaned into technology to help them achieve these goals. Three producers talk tech on a Farm Journal Milk Business webinar.

Don’t Let “Bad” Become “Normal”
Don’t Let “Bad” Become “Normal”

World renowned animal behavior specialist, Temple Grandin, shares her thoughts on animal welfare and the farmers role in it.

Repeat Breeders are Repeat Offenders to Your Bottomline
Repeat Breeders are Repeat Offenders to Your Bottomline

Every farmer has that one cow who just doesn’t want to get pregnant. But if she doesn’t get pregnant soon, her time left to stay in the herd is limited.

How One Farm Nearly Doubled Their Pregnancy Rate
How One Farm Nearly Doubled Their Pregnancy Rate

Getting cows pregnant is vital to keeping the pipeline full. According to Jeremey Natzke of Wayside Dairy, a 35% plus pregnancy rate equates to an outstanding repro program and a number his dairy worked hard to achieve.

Revisiting Benchmarks for Age of First Breeding
Revisiting Benchmarks for Age of First Breeding

When it comes to the optimal time for breeding, size is more important than age.

Reproductive Hormones Found to Impact Gut Microbiota
Reproductive Hormones Found to Impact Gut Microbiota

Could reproductive hormones have an impact on the gut microbiota of cattle.

Falling Into Place: Returning to the Family Farm
Falling Into Place: Returning to the Family Farm

Young and exuberant, Katelyn Packard would say that everything kind of fell into place with her role and responsibilities as a sixth-generation dairy farmer in Manchester, Mich.

Are Dairy Crossbreds Harder to Calve?
Are Dairy Crossbreds Harder to Calve?

Compared to Holsteins, is calving time with crossbreds more difficult in terms of calf weight, stillbirth, gestation length, or dystocia?

Going High-Tech Benefits Cows and Employees
Going High-Tech Benefits Cows and Employees

Always looking for the next opportunity, Kutz Dairy is positioned for growth. With the technologies currently in place on the Wisconsin dairy, Allan Kutz believes the next steps of growth will be easier.

A Management Decision That Saved This Iowa Dairy
A Management Decision That Saved This Iowa Dairy

Dairy farms are routine. Milk cows 365-days a year. This is the life that Kelly and Christy Cunningham with Milk Unlimited near Atlantic, Iowa, have grown accustomed to. Although in 2017, that nearly came to a halt.

On-farm Bovine Pregnancy Test Kit Technology Finally Arrives
On-farm Bovine Pregnancy Test Kit Technology Finally Arrives

While many alternatives to palpation have evolved over the years, a quick, convenient, on-farm pregnancy test kit has remained elusive...until now.

Building a Better Herd: Enacting a Genomic Game Plan
Building a Better Herd: Enacting a Genomic Game Plan

Simon Vander Woude has grown his herd in various ways to improve quality and efficiency. With the help of a dialed-in, strategic game plan over the last decade, his herd of Holsteins have seen tremendous growth.

From Zero to 950 Cows in a Decade: Neu-Hope Dairy Shares Their Drive to Success
From Zero to 950 Cows in a Decade: Neu-Hope Dairy Shares Their Drive to Success

The Neuenschwander brothers have thrived during a tough dairy economy because of their ability to maximize cow comfort and produce excellent genetics on their Indiana dairy.

Cooler Heifers Have Healthier Calves
Cooler Heifers Have Healthier Calves

The benefits of dry-period cooling for cows have been documented for several years. But what about first-calf heifers, who don’t technically have a “dry” period?

John Schouten To Receive Top Honors From National Dairy Shrine
John Schouten To Receive Top Honors From National Dairy Shrine

John Schouten endless devotion to global bovine genetics helped earn him the honors of the 2022 Dairy Shrine Guest of Honor award. The World Wide Sires global traveler played a vital role in U.S. dairy semen exports.

Dairy Semen Sales hit 17-Year-Low: What Will the Trend be Going Forward?
Dairy Semen Sales hit 17-Year-Low: What Will the Trend be Going Forward?

With the cost of inflation impacting every corner of a dairy, the producer’s breeding strategy has been forced to become finetuned. More and more producers are keeping just enough replacements to fill the pipeline,.

Take Our Poll: How Concerned Should We Be About Inbreeding?
Take Our Poll: How Concerned Should We Be About Inbreeding?

How concerned are dairy producers about inbreeding in their own herd. Take our poll and weigh in on your concern levels.

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Consider Stocking Density Economics

The milk price outlook has been a welcomed change. Increasing the number of cows in the herd may be a way to capture the benefit of high milk prices. However, feed prices and animal behavior should also be considered.

Larson Acres Leans on Genomics to Make Genetic Progress
Larson Acres Leans on Genomics to Make Genetic Progress

With the dairy at maximum capacity, the Larson’s use genomics as part of a comprehensive herd strategy on narrowing down not only which females they want to keep, but addressing what resources those females need.

Turn Your Beef-on-Dairy Byproduct Into a Go-To Product
Turn Your Beef-on-Dairy Byproduct Into a Go-To Product

Consumers are asking more than “Where’s the beef,” the slogan for the fast-food chain, Wendy’s, that debuted in the 1980s. Consumers now want to know where a piece of beef came from and the story behind it.

Mating Decisions for Beef x Dairy Crosses Just as Important as Conventional
Mating Decisions for Beef x Dairy Crosses Just as Important as Conventional

Six things to keep in mind when considering sire and dam selections in a beef x dairy crossbreeding program.

A.I. Stakeholders Petition U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
A.I. Stakeholders Petition U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Select Sires, Semex, URUS, and STgenetics, all major stakeholders in the cattle genetics industry, joined together to petition the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel two patents owned by ABS Global.

The Liver Functionality Index: A Measure of Transition-cow Health
The Liver Functionality Index: A Measure of Transition-cow Health

The intricacies of transition-cow nutrition and its role in lactation success may be made a bit easier with the Liver Functionality Index.

These 7 Transition Period Diseases are Costing You Money
These 7 Transition Period Diseases are Costing You Money

Here’s a breakdown of just how much these seven transition period diseases could be costing you.

Stay Proactive with Your Dairy Reproductive Program
Stay Proactive with Your Dairy Reproductive Program

To keep an efficient and profitable reproductive program humming, proactive reproductive management practices need to be practiced daily.

Utilizing Technology to Manage Cows on Multiple Locations
Utilizing Technology to Manage Cows on Multiple Locations

Sit down to watch a football game and you’ll likely see players sporting wristband playbooks, allowing coaches to improve communication between players. The same kind of concept is being used on dairy farms.

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Reasons Behind Surprising Milk Production Report

Feed costs, labor costs and material increases all have increased the cost of production, resulting in a steep year-over-year decline in milk production that was illustrated in the recent USDA Milk Production Report.

How Methionine Supports Reproductive Success
How Methionine Supports Reproductive Success

“The more we understand about how specific nutrition components influence health and performance responses, the more we can support cows in their production cycles.”

Age to Maturity – Genetic Wish List
Age to Maturity – Genetic Wish List

Is lowering the age at first breeding still on the industry's genetic wish list?

The Dairy Conference to Attend: Put Your Strengths to Work at the 2021 MILK Business Conference 
The Dairy Conference to Attend: Put Your Strengths to Work at the 2021 MILK Business Conference 

Held in Las Vegas Nov. 30 - Dec. 2, the 18th Annual MILK Business Conference has a great line-up of speakers and sessions to help dairy producers capitalize on and further develop their strengths to work for them.

Cows at Green Valley Dairy
Help High Producing Dairy Cows Get Pregnant

High producing dairy cows are in heat for a shorter period of time, thus increasing the challenges in the timely insemination of cows visually detected in heat.

Manage Body Weight at Calving, Improve Fertility
Manage Body Weight at Calving, Improve Fertility

Over-conditioned cows that lose weight after calving subsequently have lower fertility, produce fewer quality embryos and face higher rates of health problems.

Oh Baby: A Dairy Cow Birthing Center Spectacle
Oh Baby: A Dairy Cow Birthing Center Spectacle

With more than a million people attending the Great New York State Fair annually, one of the must-see exhibits that the fair offers is the Dairy Cow Birthing Center.

The Fast Track to Polled Genetics
The Fast Track to Polled Genetics

Moving to 100% polled genetics is an air-tight method of dispelling consumer concerns about dehorning pain. But the wheels of genetic progress turn relatively slowly in cattle.

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Beef-on-Dairy Boosts Livestock Sustainability

Cargill announces a collaboration with producers to advance the practices of beef-on-dairy, with programs to advance research and support beef and dairy producers in finding the opportunities of beef-on-dairy.

“She’s A Poor Doer…”
“She’s A Poor Doer…”

As dairy caregivers, we see “Poor Doer Syndrome.” These are cows that struggle for unknown reasons until they subsequently develop an infectious disease, a surgically correctable condition or are culled.

Oregon Dairy Farmers Oppose Initiative Petition 13
Oregon Dairy Farmers Oppose Initiative Petition 13

Initiative Petition 13 (IP13), a draft ballot titled the Abuse, Neglect and Assault Exemption Modification and Improvement, was filed in November by David Michelson, a Portland animal rights activist.

Don’t Lose Another Cow to Hemorrhagic Bowel Syndrome
Don’t Lose Another Cow to Hemorrhagic Bowel Syndrome

A highly fatal intestinal disease of adult cows, Hemorrhagic Bowel Syndrome (HBS), draws concerns from dairy producers, veterinarians and nutritionists, as it is also known as the sudden death disease of dairy cattle.

From Dirty Boots and Farming Roots, to CEO of World Wide Sires
From Dirty Boots and Farming Roots, to CEO of World Wide Sires

John Schouten's dairy upbringing not only further generated his interest in the dairy industry, but also propelled the CEO to travel the globe and be remembered for his vital role in U.S. dairy semen exports.

Blood Pregnancy Tests Keep Repro Humming at this Iowa Dairy
Blood Pregnancy Tests Keep Repro Humming at this Iowa Dairy

Reproduction clicks along like a well-oiled machine at Schanbacher Acres near Atkins, Iowa, thanks in part to the farm’s routine use of blood pregnancy tests for the past 17 years.

Does Breeding to Beef Sires Alter Dam Productivity?
Does Breeding to Beef Sires Alter Dam Productivity?

Beef-on-dairy breeding is a growing phenomenon, not just in the U.S., but worldwide.

Creating the Perfect Cow of the Future
Creating the Perfect Cow of the Future

The cow of today may not be the cow you want to milk in the future. As standards change and technology improves, your ideal cow could look very different overtime.

The 5 Steps for A.I. Success
The 5 Steps for A.I. Success

There’s no bull about it, artificial insemination has come a long way since its first use in dairy cattle during the late 1930s. While the technology has vastly changed, the basic principles still remain.

While the treatment of ovarian cysts has come a long way over the past few decades, properly diagnosing the type of cysts can still be a challenge.
‘She’s Cystic’: Treating Cystic Ovarian Disorders

Unfortunately, ovarian cysts are one of the most common ovarian dysfunctions in dairy cattle. In fact, approximately one in 10 cows will become cystic at some point in her life.

Repro Tech: The More You Know, The More You Can Control
Repro Tech: The More You Know, The More You Can Control

When it comes to life on the farm, the knowledge and efficiencies gained from technology are hard to pass up. That’s certainly true when it comes to herd reproduction.

Which Jersey Steer Has More Potential? (Hint: It’s not the Purebred)
Which Jersey Steer Has More Potential? (Hint: It’s not the Purebred)

All too often, we hear of producers taking a loss at the sale barn just to get Jersey bull calves off the farm.