Karen-Bohnert.jpg

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
The idea of taking a vacation or a day off can seem near impossible, but really can be the single best thing a farmer can do. A change of scenery, time to rest, and a chance to talk about something other than the farm.
Challenges surface—whether that is from the world around us, our industry, our farm, our family, or even the challenges in our own head. Although dairy farmers are not the kind of people who make excuses.
Having employees take ownership and complete tasks is ultimately what managers seek in employees. Consider these tips to help boost your team’s leadership.
With the demand for beef up, more dairy producers are crossbreeding poor genetic or less productive cows with beef semen. Over the past few years, dairy semen sales have idled while domestic beef sales have exploded.
From labor to rising feed costs, to regulations —the challenges that face dairy farmers are far from small. Three young dairy producers shared their takes on challenges and opportunities that they are presented with.
Powering a community by what was once considered waste is not only helping the farm’s sustainability efforts, but it’s also generating additional income. Newtrient offers tips to when exploring the carbon markets.
While a winter storm is par for the course for many upper Midwest dairies, the workload for Joe Vander Kooi of Ocheda Dairy in Worthington, Minn., quickly turned into a life-or-death rescue situation.
Innovation can be defined as taking two things that exist and putting them together in a new way. This is exactly the case for Bar 20 Dairy the recipients of the IDFA 2023 Innovative Dairy Farmer of the Year award.
Often the first focus of a dairy isn’t on human resources, but more importantly on the day-to-day tasks. However, leading dairy experts strongly encourage producers to start dedicating time to HR.
Called the ‘participation trophy’ group, often the younger generation gets a bad rap. However, younger generations have a lot to offer in terms of technology, fresh perspectives and innovative ideas.
The bomb cyclone has sucker punched California. While farmers have prayed for rain to end the drought plaguing the state, a leading expert says that the bomb cyclone will not end California’s persistent drought.
While normally any moisture to the Golden State would be welcomed, the massive “Bomb Cyclone” storm hitting California is far from normal. High winds, heavy rain and power outages have impacted California farmers.
Tyler Bohnert gnawed his way to the top by illustrating the very same qualities demonstrated on the family farm. Hard work, teamwork, sacrifice and commitment. Show up. Work hard. No excuses.
One thing that farms can provide that can help attract and retain employees— housing. According to the National FARM program, dairies providing housing for their employees is a valuable benefit for farm workers.
USDA’s Farm Service Agency announced that November’s DMC income over feed costs calculation is $10.89/cwt. This means that for the second month in a row no indemnity payment will be issued.