Dairy Production
Bloody scours in calves is never a welcome sight, but diagnosing the source can help with treatment and prevent future cases.
While dairy cattle can’t verbally tell us when they’re not feeling their best, they can give us physical cues.
No one wants to have a down cow, but unfortunately it does occasionally happen.
Whether or not to feed hay to preweaned dairy calves is a longstanding debate, without an absolute answer.
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.
New Zealand’s Fonterra on Wednesday raised the price it pays farmers for milk for the upcoming season, following strong demand for its dairy products in China and higher milk prices.
High feed prices have put a lot of strain on dairy farmers and their herd’s nutritionist as they try to navigate shrinking margins.
Beef-on-dairy breeding is a growing phenomenon, not just in the U.S., but worldwide.
What is the biggest challenge you face raising your own replacements?
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 drought out west isn’t just impacting grain and livestock producers. It’s also impacting California’s dairy industry.
When consumers think about dairy farming, one of their greatest concerns are the calves. That can be a good thing because farmers have a great story to tell. But it also may require some flexing of rearing practices.
Just because calves survive a traumatic birth doesn’t mean they’re completely out of the woods. Some extra measures to care for dystocia calves can help put them back on par with their heartmates.
Dairy beef makes up approximately 20% of the fed cattle market.
Mitzie Blanchard of Blanchard Family Dairy shares the changes she has made to her dairy’s management due increasing feed costs.
While udder edema is a common occurrence on dairies, there are several methods to help prevent it from happening.
Growing an array of cereal grains to augment the traditional corn-alfalfa cropping cycle has become the new normal for dairy farmer Josh Tranel and his family of Cuba City, Wis.
Incorporating small grains as a partial or full alternative to alfalfa is gaining popularity among dairy producers.
If you want to control flies on your farm in the summer, the time to act is spring.
Calf hutches and barns are a perfect breeding ground for summer flies, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Is “bigger” always better when it comes to growing first-calf heifers? Probably not.
Producers need to prioritize the three “F’s” in order to build an efficient nutrition program for their animals.
If silage is not properly preserved it can easily spoil, causing palatability to plummet and your feed bill to skyrocket.
This year, 27% of dairy producers are likely to dedicate between 15%-50% to silage production.
Digestibility of corn silage can be impacted by many factors including genetics, fertility, growing conditions and spacing.
The three priorities Andy and Sarah Lenkaitis set out to accomplish when they began their renovation remain the same – take care of the cows, take care of the people and keep the farm around for generations to come.
When the COVID-19 pandemic made its strike early in 2020, dairy producers in the U.S. was left scrambling. But Tennessee dairy producers Brian and Morgan Flowers found themselves juggling another layer of complications.
The agronomic benefits of alfalfa are many and in some areas of the country it is still my preferred legume. However, let us look at what modern improved varieties of red clover bring to the table.
Vitamin E is particularly desirable in both human and animal nutrition because of its antioxidant properties.
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.
Newly fresh heifers have to process a lot of changes on the day they give birth. Making their initial milking a pleasant experience can be aided with some advance training.
When and how preweaned calves are moved from individual feedings to group pens can have a big impact on how well they do on autofeeder systems.
While producers aren’t able to control what they receive for their milk, they are able make slight adjustments to the protein and fat levels in their bulk tank.