Once a technology becomes a boring experience it means it has become proven, well-adopted, and easy to utilize. There are three "boring" technologies silently shaping the industry.
Consumers are interested in how animal agriculture affects health and wellness, environmental stewardship, animal welfare and worker safety. Now is the time for a more robust and meaningful conversation.
Art Schaap, owner of Highland Dairy in Clovis, New Mexico, has been living a nightmare for the past four years. His nightmare is finally coming to an end, but not without the heartache of euthanizing 3,665 cows.
Its name sounds like something that belongs in the pages of a Dr. Seuss book. But festulolium actually is a highly useful hybrid forage grass – the result of a cross between fescue grass and ryegrass.
The sooner calves eat enough dry feed to sustain themselves, the better equipped they are to bridge the nutritional gap between the fixed liquid ration and a weaned diet of solely dry feeds.
A new insurance concept is being launched to allow dairy producers around the world to financially insure against the production losses caused by heat stress.
Flies are a nuisance and contribute to lost productivity on the dairy. Controlling flies requires an integrated management plan that includes inspection, sanitation, treatment and monitoring.
Maternal colostrum is often considered nature’s “perfect food.” But does this “free” resource help calves achieve passive immunity as reliably as the guaranteed ingredients in a bag of colostrum replacer?
The power of a mother is enormous. A mom is more than a chauffeur, a cook or someone who does the laundry. A mom shapes self-esteem and responsibility in her children and makes endless sacrifices to empower her children.
The new Calf Care & Quality Assurance program is ready to engage some arms and legs to carry out its mission. The second CCQA Instructor training is planned for June 2022.
Keep an eye on water intake and feedstuffs. Avoid vaccinations when heat levels are high. Address the environment for management steps you can take to improve cow comfort.
Young animals often benefit from stemmy, lower quality forages. WIth regard to nutrition, this may seem counterintuitive but research indicates that's the case.
Probiotics may not be as beneficial for animal and human health as people think, according to recently published research at Kansas State University. Here's why.
It’s important to stay abreast of new research that can influence dairy management practices. That’s what happened recently at Rosy-Lane Holsteins, Watertown, Wis.
With the cost of inflation impacting every corner of a dairy, the producer’s breeding strategy has been forced to become finetuned. More and more producers are keeping just enough replacements to fill the pipeline,.
In the quest to find alternatives to antibiotics to fight disease in dairy calves, essential oils are the subject of a growing body of calf health research.
Continued demand for non-GMO feed for livestock will increase greenhouse gas emissions on farms, and raise consumer prices for meat, milk and eggs, according to a study by Iowa State University.
Access to livestock drugs through over-the-counter (OTC) channels was curbed considerably starting in 2017. Soon, OTC antibiotics may no longer be available through traditional channels at all.
A long-anticipated “origin of livestock” final rule has been released by the UDSA that illustrates the uniform standards for transitioning dairy cattle to organic production.
A researcher explores the intricacies of fecal pH and explains how changes in the metric can be an early signal of digestive and health disruptions in dairy cows.
A protocol overhaul helped the team at Singing Brook Farms, Imler, Pa., up their game in colostrum delivery. Two of their key managers share how they now seamlessly deliver high-quality colostrum to every newborn calf.
It is well-known that sub-acute ruminal acidosis (SARA) is a harmful and costly condition for adult dairy cows. But when calves get SARA, is it bad news for them, too? A Canadian researcher’s conclusion: maybe not.
Providing free choice water to newborn calves has been shown to deliver a wide array of benefits in terms of calf health and performance. But it’s also a huge challenge for some farms in the winter.
TMR consistency and composition are important to efficient and reliable nutrient delivery in lactating cow rations. But the impact of those factors actually can span much further.
A research team, led by Walter Verhoef with the Bureau Vétérinaire de Richmond, Richmond, Quebec, Canada, evaluated three different, commercially available calcium boluses. Here are their conclusions.
During the recent Academy of Veterinary Consultants conference, Dan Altena, DVM, Valley Veterinarians Inc., offered some take-home points to help veterinarians with crossbred calves in the feedyard.
The dairy, beef, and veal sectors are collaborating to form a first-of-its-kind program to promote the health and welfare of calves throughout the supply chain.
Report reveals a shift to technology to support existing farming practices as globally producers look to innovate in the face of changing market pressures.
Colorado ranchers say they are “under attack” by their governor after hiring a director of the Bureau of Animal Protection who has ties to Mercy for Animals and leads a project that promotes plant-based food choices.
Habits formed early in life – whether good or bad – often carry through to adulthood. Like little children, calves, too, need to be trained on positive behaviors, including the way they eat.
More and more farms have made the switch from feeding calves individually to group autofed systems. However, disease detection in group-housed calves remains a challenge. Could autofeeders help detect sick calves?
Dairy cow numbers started 2021 at an all-time high in January, with 9.445 million animals in the U.S. milking herd. However, those numbers would steadily drop throughout the summer and fall months.
Dairy farmers and calf raisers have tried to adapt calves to solid calf starter as soon as possible to save money. If this is done poorly, calf raising costs can soar due to increased levels of sickness and even death.
Similar to human fingerprints, cow noses are detailed, nearly unique, difficult to change, and remain the same over the life of an individual, making them ideal long-term markers of identity.
Rural communities are likely to see an outbreak of the COVID-19 variant omicron later than big cities but Chief Medical Advisor to President Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci says the pandemic will eventually end.
Breakdowns in the global supply chain are hitting home for U.S. livestock producers and the veterinarians who serve them, in the form of shortages of commonly used medications.
The most profitable parts of the U.S. in 2022 will be the Northwest and Northeast, but smaller farms in those regions won’t participate in this success. Here's why.
Factors for consideration include colostrum management, group composition and dynamics, bedding and space, nutritional management, early disease detection and the need for "real life" observations.