Providing nutrients is essential for producing profitable alfalfa yields. Throughout its growth alfalfa continuously depletes soil nutrients.

It is not uncommon to hear about conception rates being around 20 percent, especially on large dairies.

Getting cows pregnant has multiple financial benefits, including another lactation and additional replacement heifers.

Although many years of research and use have proven rBST (Posilac) safe to the cow and the consumer, as well as effective in increasing the efficiency of milk production (increase milk yield 10 to 15 percent), an effort to remove this efficacious biotechnology from the dairy farmer’s repertoire is ongoing and gaining traction.

With the emergence and wide acceptance of sexed semen, producers are finding their own unique application of this latest technology.

Improvements to dairy cattle reproduction are made in a myriad of ways.

Reliability and stability exemplified by ABS second crop sires With the release of the January 2009 Sire Summary data, ABS second crop sires proved once again to lead the dairy industry with the addition of three ABS Diamond Sires (1,000 milking daughters) and two sires reaching the one million unit milestone.

With the vestiges of winter snows swirling around me, and the icicles dripping from the roof, I wonder about Al Gore’s global warming theory.

I mixed business with pleasure one day way back when, and it turned into a rather long day.

Winters can be cold along the Hi Line of Montana. It’s a place where neighbors help neighbors. Survival often depends on it. Dan and Jay were havin’ a big time in town. They had the night off, these cowboys did, and were makin’ the best of it. At closin’ time they jumped in their pickup and headed back to the ranch in good spirits.