How important is hay?
Horses need fiber in their diet to maintain a normal digestive tract. For grazing horses, fiber comes from pasture, but for horses without access to pasture, hay provides the needed fiber.

Piles are a popular storage system for corn silage on many livestock operations, particularly large dairies. However, an estimated 18 to 22 percent of the corn silage stored in piles never makes it to the feedbunk because too many piles are not sized and shaped correctly.

The USDA has awarded New York’s Chobani Yogurt with a one-month contract to provide its yogurt to public schools across seven states through the USDA’s School Lunch Program Pilot. These states will include New York, Arizona, Idaho, California, Iowa, Illinois and Mississippi.

The University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine recently treated a cow's damaged teat by using a technique developed to address urethral sphincter failure in humans, which causes urinary incontinence. This might be the first time the procedure was conducted on a cow, according to the professor who initiated the treatment.

Veterinarians will be able to carry and use controlled substances to provide complete care to their animal patients beyond their clinics and across state lines, due to the U.S. House’s passage of the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act.

Dr. Mark Boggess has been selected as the new director for the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center (USDA Agricultural Research Service USDFRC) in Madison, Wisconsin.

He has been with ARS since 2009 as a national program leader in Beltsville, Maryland. A native of Iowa, Dr. Boggess earned a Ph.D. in animal breeding from Iowa State University, an M.S. in animal breeding from Cornell University and a B.S. in animal science from Iowa State.

The relationship of corn silage harvest moisture and maturity to its quality and performance is often underestimated. It’s important to minimize fermentation and storage dry matter losses because it’s difficult and costly to compensate for lower-quality forage in ration balancing and animal performance.

Junior at Morrisville State College Sales Intern with ABS Global RMS program New York and Vermont