Last August, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued regulations regarding “No-Match Letters” from the Social Security Administration (SSA). The regulations said that for an employer to maintain the safe harbor protection of the I-9 form, the employer had to follow these regulations when it received a no-match letter from the SSA or ICE.

While milk production is still the most important aspect of the dairy business, there are other considerations. Maximizing the value of a dairy cow includes making sure that when its usefulness for milk production goes away, the cow’s value is as great as it can be.

It’s not often you see the words sustainability and profitability in the same sentence.

Q. What is the level of consumer interest in sustainability or carbon footprinting?

Dairy producers have long recognized that bovine growth, reproduction and milk production depend on adequate feed intake. However, feed is only one component of proper nutrition.

Have you ever calculated the amount of water and energy used to maintain your milking facility and each of the practices you have decided to employ? Water and energy are required for a myriad of daily functions in the milking parlor, including equipment cleaning, sanitization, precooling milk and water heating for various uses.

A dairy producer’s work is never done. Whether it’s feeding the heifers, fertilizing the field or registering new calves, there is always something that needs to get done.

There are conflicting reports on the contribution of ruminants to greenhouse gas emissions (GGE). In these environmentally sensitive times it will help to put things in prospective.

Everyone who raises calves has a major stake in how well calves obtain passive immunity from a dam during the first 24 hours of life. Calves receive passive immunity via intake of colostrum during the first 24 hours when their intestines are able to absorb immune proteins without digestion.

The last year in agriculture has been a volatile one. We have seen rapid inflation of all commodities followed by rapid deflation. It has left me and many of my clients wondering how we can sustain food animal production agriculture in North America.