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As the year ends, it brings a sense of closure for all that has transpired within the dairy industry during the past 12 months. We’ve seen higher than normal farm-gate milk prices coupled with record-breaking feed and fuel costs. Who would have ever tho...
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ICE in your cell phone
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Editor’s note: The following are available market reports and futures data as of November 16, 2007.
Butter
Butter prices were lower this week at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), losing 1 cent on cash trading to close the week at $1.3750. Activi...
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Change is accelerating to an incredible pace in the dairy industry. In just the past few years we’ve had to deal with issues like: BSE, rBST, organic, high grain prices, volatile milk prices, feed grains for fuel production, high demand for milk compone...
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Who is the most valuable person on your dairy farm? Herdsman? Milker? Many owners forget that they are the most important person on their farm. Why do dairy farmers immediately call their veterinarian when an animal is sick? Yet many dairymen postpone vis...
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How do you make a good dairy a great dairy? Is it adopting all the latest gadgets that are introduced? Is it changing protocols all the time to stay on top? Neither of these are the answer for Jim Collins, author of the best-selling book, Good to Great. H...
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While walking through the finishing barn one day, the owner stopped to inform Rita that she was neglecting to properly monitor the feeders. The owner also added that she would need to stay late to finish a project another employee had started but did not ...
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Editor’s note: The following opinion was submitted by the House Agriculture Committee
As the Farm Bill debate began this year, reformers thought they found an unlikely ally in the Bush Administration, which has argued forcefully against the farm safet...
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In addition to being an occupational therapist, I live on a small farm with my husband and two sons. I understand the delicate balance of the blessings and stressors of farming. On most days, those of us who farm feel there is no better place to be than c...
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My most memorable Christmas occurred in the mid-1950’s, when I was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
For several years, our division, headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, took Christmas to needy families of the province. Months before Chri...
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In a mountainous region in Afghanistan, along the Pakistan border, fighting and drought had decimated the animal population. What was once a thriving livestock region had turned into a combat zone, leaving farm families with limited options for survival.
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Observing the dairy industry’s recent changes, one might think registered animals are becoming a thing of the past. We asked Randy Carpenter, regional representative for Holstein Association USA, a few questions about where registrations are heading.
C...
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Often, it is only when circumstances force us to re-examine our daily routines and plans that we do so. High feed and grain prices fueled by growth in demand for biofuels, for instance, are causing many producers to rethink farm plans either to take advan...
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Calculating how much is spent on family living expenses is never easy. But it can be especially hard when the family and the business are tied closely together, as they are on the family farm. To control your family finances, you have to know where your m...
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Feed efficiency may be called milk production efficiency or dairy efficiency, but all these refer to the same thing: How efficiently a dairy cow converts feed to milk. Far more important than the name is how this efficiency can affect a dairy’s bottom l...
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The investment in proper heifer care is not an overnight return. Almost two years of feeding and care goes into heifers before they start producing milk. That’s why getting heifers into the milking string sooner while ensuring proper health is so critic...
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Dairy farms today face some difficult financial challenges. They are looking for innovative ways to reduce costs and increase profitability. Investing in electric energy efficiency is one way to do this. By installing energy efficient electrical products,...
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Frost crocheted like lace flutters over the windows and waits for the sun to melt it away. The morning sunlight leaps and dances over the new fallen snow, and the blue abyss of sky stretches forever in cloudless wonder over the trees that droop with their...
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The following column previously appeared in Progressive Hay Grower in July 2001.
The timing of the day had deteriorated to the point that it got dark just before we got loaded. We were loading in the Black Mesa area of Idaho, south of the Snake River, an...
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New GM appointed
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Re: purebred guernseys
Posted on Saturday, 08 June 2013 by Ron.Hello! Brooke I am an old retired beef cattle rancher living in...
Re: Les Hansen on crossbreeding: Video footage from 2013 World Ag Expo
Posted on Thursday, 30 May 2013 by Howard Whitmore.Les, Excellant data and explanation. It was the toughest decision I...
Re: HERd management: Tackling the tough questions
Posted on Tuesday, 28 May 2013 by Alison T.I appreciate this sane and thoughtful information. I've got a...