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Karen Bohnert

Dairy Editorial Director

Karen Bohnert is the Dairy Editorial Director at Farm Journal, overseeing Dairy Herd Management and Milk Business Quarterly since 2021. A lifelong advocate for dairy, Karen draws from both professional expertise and personal experience—she and her husband operate Bohnert Jerseys, a 750-cow dairy in East Moline, Illinois.

Raised on a dairy farm in Oregon, her editorial career spans freelance journalism and roles at organizations like Swiss Valley Farms and the American Jersey Cattle Association. She was named a Distinguished Alumni Leader by the Holstein Foundation.

Latest Stories
Bad times don’t last forever. Neither do good days. The mood of the industry quickly changed from an upbeat tone in 2022 to a sad melancholy note this summer.
Hank Wagner, a farmer and a certified leadership training coach, encourages us to lift everyone up around us by telling them not only what they want to hear, but also what they need to hear or just be a good listener.
While a lot has changed for Ballard Family Dairy and Cheese in Gooding, Idaho, in the last ten years, one thing has remained consistent—their drive for sustainability.
As predicted, a very large Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) payment is coming to producer’s mailboxes. In fact, June’s DMC income over feed cost calculation set a new record low at just $3.65/cwt.
Raising teens isn’t for the faint of hearts. Raising teens is not easy and while many of those years are spent watching our children thrive on and off the farm, other times we are just trying to survive.
A 60 second program has become a crowd favorite and for the youth who were brave enough to stand up in front of the room to share their message, it was a launching pad for future success.
There are 22 proposals for consideration during the Federal Milk Marketing Order system hearing process that will be assembled on Aug. 28 at 9 a.m. EST in Carmell, Ind.
Phil Plourd with Ever.Ag says that combine miserable weather in key growth areas such as Texas with shrinking farm margins and you get a Milk Production report showing the worst performance that we’ve seen in a while.
Often, dairies have an idea what their operations will look like down the road. But they can’t answer who will be the successor of the operation, as no formal succession plan has been set.
Few people will pass up the opportunity to scoop up a refreshing bowl of ice cream. The ice cream industry is worth more than $10 billion and the average American consumer scarfs down 20 pounds of ice cream each year.
With the exclusion of firefighters and other personnel responding to emergencies, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) is now issuing a permanent heat rule effective July 17 for outdoor workers.
Sporting a vintage “got milk?” t-shirt while vacationing in Italy, celebrity Hailey Bieber garnished attention by Glamour magazine. This led Glamour to run an entire article talking about dairy’s Gen-Z reawakening.
With the milk price not looking promising compared to last year, Ben Laine says that taking advantage of some opportunities elsewhere will help producers push past what we hope is the bottom of the milk market in 2023.
Negativity breeds negativity, right? Remember that. But the same can be said about positivity. Positivity can grow if we choose it too. Flip a switch on your mind, that will turn up cheerfulness on the farm.
Secretary Tom Vilsack welcomes Xochitl Torres Small on her confirmation as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. NMPF and IDFA share the same sentiments, congratulating Torres Small on her confirmation.