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Dairy producers and their transitions cows probably have more in common right now than they usually ever have. Both are feeling stressed and strained.I imagine that if cows could talk during transition they would be saying similar things that dairymen are saying about their industry right now.
For most people in the dairy industry today, extra time is not easy to come by. But for Christine Vieira of Turlock, California, there is always extra time to help America’s soldiers.
Since high school, Vieira has been involved in the dairy industry, working in auction yards and then hauling, buying and selling her own cattle. Vieira and her husband, Joe, have tried to run their own dairy twice but found that buying and selling cattle is where their strengths lie.
New rear-mounted cameras and strategically located convex mirrors aid us in backing up. They provide us a wider, clearer and less obstructed view of the rear. Even then, these improvements in seeing behind us are insufficient to replace driving full speed down a highway looking forward through the windshield at what is ahead.
It is not just that they are not useful going forward, they tend to distort the view of what we see. The pole that seems six feet away is six inches. Thus the warnings, “Objects are closer than they appear.”
Milk producers everywhere face the challenge of many different problems on their dairies. Today I am going to discuss three of those issues. They are: Downer cows, bovine pain control and animal rights versus animal welfare. Let’s consider each of these relevant topics.
Downer cows
The USDA has a ban on the sale of down cows for human consumption. There are almost 300 documented causes of “down cow syndrome.” There are four primary reasons for down cows. They are: calving paralysis, mastitis, metritis and accidents.
Editor’s note: The following is an actual conversation the author had with a Missouri dairy producer about how to deal with employees not meeting the standards of the dairy.
Missouri Dairyman: I have an employee who is not working out, what can I do?
In the past two issues of Progressive Dairyman, we have printed the pros and cons of MPC imports and shared some producer comments on the subject.
To the right are some facts about the amount of MPCs imported (in 1,000 pounds) in 2009.
Hummus, flat bread, dates and aloe-vera-flavored yogurt – traditional desert cuisine – are not my preferred continental breakfast foods. Luckily Western businessmen and tourists frequented the same Middle East hotel where I was staying.
Surveying the buffet breakfast counters at the Dubai hotel, I also saw scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes and turkey bacon. (Eating pork is against the Muslim religion.) I filled my plate with them and headed to a table for an almost American breakfast in the Arab world.
The act of juggling objects in the air is not a skill possessed by every human. Yet, most of us can relate as we’ve juggled multiple actions, issues and challenges simultaneously.
Last month at the PDPW Business Conference in Madison, Wisconsin, Dan Thurmon, a professional juggler, taught an audience member the skill of throwing and catching in a rhythmic order. The secrets, he provided, are as follows:
