Magazine

Prevent lice, flies and mange from limiting your dairy herd’s milk production What are cows doing if parasites are hanging around? Certainly not what they’re supposed to be doing. “The presence of external parasites can [Read More …]

The Art of Feeding: Slick Bunks

I often get some questions on what is known as the slick bunk approach to feeding dairy cows. The idea comes from the feed lot industry and is called the staying ahead of the cattle approach or limiting [Read More …]

Toxins Don’t Have a Season

Regardless of the season, toxins can be found on-farm in various places – especially feedstuffs. As choppers run full throttle into the fall of a moderate 2020 growing season, toxins may not be on the [Read More …]

California Dairy Sustainability Summit Goes Virtual

Dairy farmers, policymakers, technology providers, and researchers will connect digitally this November 5th and 6th to promote the continued advancement of planet-smart, sustainable farming practices. Organizers of the California Dairy Sustainability Summit today announced that [Read More …]

CA: Evaluating Compost Benefits in Alfalfa Hay for Improved Soil Structure and Fertility

We all recognize human health as a goal, but healthy soils is a key goal for farming operations since healthy soils frequently result in higher yields and economic returns over time. “Health” is often defined [Read More …]

Research Centers Rise Up with Industrywide Assist During COVID Crisis

Milk disposal was one of the more unfortunate consequence of COVID-19 for the dairy community. The country’s economic shutdown caused a bottleneck at plants as restaurants and other normally reliable channels were closed for business, [Read More …]

Yield Adjustment Factor in Dairy Revenue Protection

There are a lot of great things about Dairy Revenue Protection (DRP) program and I am generally a fan of it to help dairy farmers hedge their milk price risk. One of the complicated factors [Read More …]

Transition Cow Stress: Are You Part of the Problem?

Intermittent stress is part of any dairy cow’s daily life. But transition cows are especially vulnerable to additional stressors that can cause major disruptions to their health, welfare, productivity and ultimately your bottom line. Cows [Read More …]

USDA Proposes RFID Tags as Only Official ID for U.S. Beef and Dairy Cattle

USDA is considering whether to no longer approve visual-only ear tags as Official Identification (i.e. metal “clip tags” would no longer be considered official identification). Official ID would require an RFID component. This change would [Read More …]

Throw Me to the Wolves

John Ellsworth I recently read a quote from the famous playwright & philosopher Seneca that stated: “Throw me to the wolves, and I will return leading the pack.” As we discussed in my last article, [Read More …]

CALVING TRAITS 2.0 – Reevaluating your Dairy’s Strategy for Calving Traits

Decades of industry wide advancements in management and genetics have driven significant improvements for calving traits. U.S. Calving Trait evaluation results were rescaled to better align with their application and use for on farm genetic [Read More …]

Highlights from the AMERICAN DAIRY SCIENCE ASSOCIATION Virtual Annual Meeting 2020

Introduction The Annual Meeting of the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) is an indispensable forum for worldwide scientific exchange on work to understand and advance all aspects of dairy science from farm to fork. The [Read More …]

Dairy Outliers

What are “Outliers?” “Outliers” is a word made popular by Malcolm Gladwell. It refers to data that does not fit the norm. The Coronavirus has created significant “Outliers” in dairy data. The data simply does [Read More …]

Be Safe and Smart Around Silage

Corn silage making season will soon be upon us. It is important to take the time to communicate with employees proper protocols while making silage, along with safe practices around silage piles or silos. A [Read More …]

Will the 2020 Corn Silage Crop Be One for the Record Books?

As historic as 2020 has been for life in general, it’s also brought about a silver lining of a seemingly adequate growing season for farmers when compared to years past. However, a ‘near-perfect’ growing season [Read More …]

Four Simple, But Essential Steps to Dry Off Success

When it comes to mastitis, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of milk, which means even the small things can make a big difference. Preventing mastitis infections in the dry period is your [Read More …]

Cut Dairy Mastitis Treatment Costs in Half by Targeting Gram-Positive Cases

Up to 60% of mastitis cases may not require antibiotic treatment “When we culture mastitis, cases come in three flavors, so to speak: Gram-positive, Gram-negative and no-growth,” stated Stephen Foulke, DVM, DABVP, Boehringer Ingelheim. He says [Read More …]

Hospital Pens: Does One Size Fit All?

Editor’s note: The author is a consultant for Amelicor and this information is part of a series I am a big believer in not putting the Hospital and Fresh cows together. I also like having lame cows separated [Read More …]

Cornell Dairy Farm Business Summary and Analysis Program

The fourth and final progress report of the Dairy Farm Business Summary has been released for 2019. As dairy businesses across the state continue to analyze their financial and business performance utilizing the Dairy Farm Business [Read More …]

California Producer Review Board Recommends a Hearing on Quota Sunset Proposal

In a virtual meeting held Aug. 27, all 15 members of the Producer Review Board (PRB) gathered online to go through an agenda covering several topics. What follows in this article is a more detailed [Read More …]

CA: #Foodforthought Partnership Helping to Provide One-Million Meals and One-Million Servings of Milk to Hungry Families

Committed to helping California families facing hunger, the California Milk Processor Board (CMPB), creators of got milk? and toma leche, and the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB), representing California dairy farm families, have announced a [Read More …]

CA: Dairy Nutrition in Schools in the Time of COVID-19

August 1, 2020 DairyBusiness News Team DP 0

As summer comes to a close and the new school year begins, COVID-19 continues to have an impact, especially within the school community as many students, teachers and families start with distance learning. To support educators, Dairy [Read More …]

Good News for Dairy, Good News for Science

The main takeaway for dairy foods following the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s (DGAC) scientific report is that National Dairy Council (NDC) and the science behind dairy’s role in nutrition and health remains strong, leading to [Read More …]

Three Myths Debunked: Animal Agriculture’s Real Impact on the Environment

The way the public and the media perceive animal agriculture’s environmental impact can, and should, change. New research from Oxford University and the University of California, Davis have recently debunked some of the most [Read More …]

Choose Wisely

John Ellsworth I recently was reading about a presentation by Damien McLoughlin, marketing professor at the University of Dublin, within which he explained that our industry (in fact, all industries) are currently at what he [Read More …]

Cheese Prices Continue to Climb! Why are They Climbing? Where are They Going?

July cheese prices published in the NASS weekly surveys continue to climb ito record highs. However, cheese inventories as of the end of June do not show any shortages or low inventories. This is a [Read More …]

Magazine

Dairy Experience Forum Delivers Consumer Insights to Drive Dairy Demand

The event virtually united members of the dairy supply chain to gain valuable insights and prepare for the post-COVID-19 future Midwest Dairy hosted the third annual Dairy Experience Forum on July 15, convening more than [Read More …]

Health Benefits of Consuming Dairy Products

Scientific evidence suggests that consuming dairy products is associated with decreased risk for obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some types of cancer1,2. Most of these studies have searched, evaluated, selected, summarized, and performed [Read More …]

Keep an Eye on Your Dairy Farm Employee Vision Health

Do the employees see what they learn? In response to producer requests, SDSU Extension’s dairy team has developed various training (i.e., milking school, dry cow therapy, maternity, and cow handling) for dairy employees in both [Read More …]

Leadership in the Current Environment