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Southwest plant expansions will likely draw milk from distant regions

As dairy producers employ new breeding strategies to capture more revenue by creating beef cross calves, dairy replacement heifer inventories have taken a massive hit.

The key to maximizing the return on investment of a dairy’s workforce lies in the management’s ability to humanize operations, understand employee needs, and deploy individual skills appropriately.

Recently Assemblyman James Gallagher proposed a California bill to pull back current overtime rules and mandate overtime for farmworkers working more than nine hours in a day or 50 hours in a week.

Numerous studies have now shown that feeding colostrum replacer to mimic transition milk has beneficial effects for preweaned calves.

A significant body of research now indicates that keeping phosphorus low in the pre-fresh ration has a positive effect on blood calcium levels.

If there’s any assurance about the economic picture for the dairy industry and agriculture in general going forward in the next few years, it’s that volatility will be a constant.

Cow numbers declined last year and will likely decline further if milk prices remain low. Tightening heifer numbers and higher milk replacement cow prices may reduce the ability of farms to keep stalls full.