When I was a very small farm girl, dressed in my homemade red velvet jumper, I looked forward to “Edie” Christmas on Boxing Day with my cousins. I recall my great-grandmother singing “Silent Night” to us in German.

Progressive Dairyman staff pulled a list of the articles that were most well-read during 2014 at Progressive Dairyman-Canada.  Here is a summary of each article, along with updates from authors or participants.

Selection indexes are great tools because they combine all significant traits into one. They get us away from setting minimum criteria for particular traits, which allows us to make progress for many different traits all at once.

Five years ago, it felt like there was a ceiling on reproductive performance in the lactating herd. Once top-performing herds got to the 24 to 26 percent annual pregnancy rate level, there was no room to grow. Higher annual pregnancy rates were not sustainable or economical for long periods of time.

Did you know traits like milk yield, conformation, rump and calving ability aren’t included in the LPI? Do you feel these traits are important in your sire selection and herd improvement program and should be included in the LPI formula?

Dairy producers faced with dwindling supplies of forage and delayed planting and harvest situations may decide to increase the level of corn silage forage fed to lactating dairy cows.