Latest News From Maureen Hanson

More dairy heifer raisers are taking a page from the feedlot world these days by utilizing liquid supplements as carriers for vitamins, trace minerals, and feed additives in heifer TMRs.

Dairyland Laboratories, Inc. of Arcadia, Wis. has announced a new offering of an enhanced tier of Near Infrared Spectroscopy analysis of corn distillers grains and corn gluten feeds.

The livestock production businesses of the future will need to balance much more than the bottom line.

Rumen pH is highly influential on how milkfat production can be maximized.

After culling nearly a quarter million cows in January, the U.S. dairy herd currently sits at 9.435 million head – the largest since August 2021. That growth gap is being filled largely with springing heifers.

There’s a new equipment option for raising preweaned dairy calves, and it’s a far cry from the pocket-knife-slice approach of the past.

Raising heifers is expensive, to be sure. But in the long run, raising them right is far more important than raising them cheap.

The Holstein breed is wrestling with the phenomenon of a newly identified genetic defect for Recumbency.

Excessive frame size, dark meat color, narrow loin eyes, lengthy finishing time – these are among the top complaints about feeding Holsteins for beef.

What dietary supplements are best for preweaned calf rations? Out of the literally hundreds from which to choose, do any of them really work?

Four days of intense learning, peer networking, and innovation exposure await attendees of the 2023 Cornell Dairy Nutrition and Management Shortcourse, scheduled for June 5-9, 2023.

It’s an old agronomic adage that “March is the month when alfalfa lives or dies.” How did it fare this year?

Self-locking head-lock stanchions have become a management staple on most U.S. free stall dairies. But their convenience can become too much of a good thing.

Holstein springer values remained steady to slightly higher in the past month, amidst a fairly monumental sell-off of lactating dairy cows nationwide.

Silage-storage methods have evolved over the years, with drive-over piles becoming the increasingly popular method of choice today.

Waning milk prices, persistently high feed costs, and spotty feed inventories appear to be the emerging financial story of the 2023 U.S. dairy industry.

Precision dairy technology isn’t just for cows. Autofeeders, activity monitors, and other emerging tools are making it possible to raise calves with the type of individual attention received by the calves of yesterday.

Surplus dairy calves – those not intended for breeding – are their own, unique subset of the dairy industry.

Over the course of eight weeks and 16 virtual sessions, Dotterer will teach participants basic Spanish terminology and phrases to enhance communication with Spanish-speaking farm employees.

Cows still milking heavily at the end of lactation have a hard time switching gears when they enter the dry period.

In just a few months, you no longer will be able to stop at your local farm store and pick up a bottle of penicillin or box of mastitis tubes.

The University of Idaho is building a massive dairy research center focused on the industry’s sustainability.

A widely used dairy management software program is celebrating a big birthday in 2023.

Dairy enthusiasts from the upper Midwest and across the country will convene for the Central Plains Dairy Expo on March 28-30 in Sioux Falls, SD.

Ruminants walk a fine line in their ability to utilize cereal grains while maintaining digestive integrity.

The global dairy market could be navigating a bumpy road through the course of 2023.

Holstein springer values finally are approaching cost of production in many U.S. markets.

Real-time monitoring of the environmental conditions for baby calves during transport would be highly beneficial to their comfort and health. Now, that task is becoming a possibility.

Beginning June 11, 2023, most livestock antibiotics will no longer be available over-the-counter. Ohio State University dairy veterinarian Kevin Jacque shares his thoughts on adapting to the new rules.

Acidification of milk or milk replacer is a common practice for some calf raisers, with some studies showing it improves weight gain and fecal scores in calves.

A remote hay monitoring system was recently honored as a Top-10 New Product winners at the 2023 World Ag Expo in Tulare, Calif.

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

It may seem far-fetched and highly impractical in the U.S. But raising calves with their dams is happening at a growing pace on commercial dairies around the world.

Supplementing early lactation dairy cow diets with bile acids could provide a pathway to suppressing fatty liver and ketosis, and ultimately boosting milk production and profitability.

Dairy replacement heifer values are off to a checkered start to 2023.

Feed prices will remain a top concern for dairy farmers in 2023. But could soybean prices soon be heading south?

How many replacement heifers do you need? What will be the price of raising a replacement heifer? Penn State University Dairy Extension has published a free, mobile app to answer these questions.

It may not be a fancy cocktail, but accurate mixology is important for calf milk replacer, too.

Detecting respiratory disease in calves early – when treatment is most effective – should start by examining the head and facial features, according to veterinarian Tiago Tomazi with Merck Animal Health.

Feed additives can be included in dairy cattle diets for a variety of reasons. However, feed additives should not be considered a cornerstone to any farm feeding program.

Supplementing stressed animals with algae extract could significantly reinforce intestinal barrier function.

Meetings are an inevitable element of business, but they can be a boon or a bore, depending on how they are run.

While war with Russia dragged on in their homeland, young Ukrainian agriculturalists soldiered on to represent their country and support the Ukrainian ag economy at the 2022 Agromek Exhibition late in 2022.

The acceptable threshold for broken tails in adult dairy cows listed in the National Dairy FARM Program standards is 5%. Does your farm meet this target?

The label change accommodates a change in packaging for the injectable cattle drug, which was designed to prevent accidental injection by human handlers, and promote human safety.

When it comes to choosing jackets to protect calves in the winter, it’s hard to beat the ingenuity of Mother Nature, according to longtime Wisconsin calf raiser Sherry Arnold, who helps raise 14,000 calves annually.

Holstein springing heifer prices faltered slightly at year-end auction sites, based on light trade and inclement weather through much of the country. Outlook for replacement heifer demand and value is mixed for 2023.

Could probiotics improve early calf growth? Researchers think so.

Just because we have easy access to the thousands of beef-on-dairy cross calves eventually headed for feedyards doesn't mean we should be vaccinating them every week, according to Dan Thomson.

Launching transition cows into a successful lactation fundamentally relies on feed and dry-matter intake. At Singing Brook Farms, they help encourage close-up cows to eat with a top dress of a pelleted electrolyte.