Packing, preserving and properly feeding from the bunk silo relies on feeder knowledge of the chemistry behind the crop. That was the basic premise behind the two-day “Feeder Schools” held by Cornell Cooperative Extension last fall and hosted by dairy farms in different regions of New York.

Instead of renovating their 51-cow tiestall barn, Amanda Lukassen and her husband, Kevin Sundborg, chose to build a new 80- to 90-cow robot barn. Using robots gives them more flexibility in their schedules and enables them to run the dairy in Ormstown, Quebec, without hiring outside help. View the slideshow below.

The term "de novo fatty acids" has been popping up a lot recently thanks to emerging research on the fatty acid profile of milk, and specifically the level of de novo fatty acids within the profile. Some co-ops and Dairy Herd Improvement Association labs have started reporting these numbers on a routine basis; however, many dairy farmers are wondering what exactly de novo fatty acids are and why they should care about looking at them.

Defining the ‘lame cow’

Lameness is a clinical sign due to an injury or disease of the foot or leg. In a study the Calgary Lameness Research Team performed across Canada in 2011, on average 20 percent of dairy cows housed in freestall barns walked lame, with a range of 0 to 69 percent.

Anyone who has ever owned cattle has asked the question, “Why aren’t my cows getting bred?” Undetected diseases plague us and keep us guessing. We must always be vigilant to prevent diseases such as trich, bovine viral diarrhea and lepto from entering the herd. Still, the most impactful disease is probably the most treatable and preventable.

While grass was slow to come this spring, it is likely forage quality will rapidly change this summer. As a general rule of thumb, energy values (total digestible nutrients) of forages (pasture included) can decrease rapidly at a rate of 0.33 to 1 percent per day from vegetative to mature stage.

As we head into the summer, dry conditions in most of the West may force producers to evaluate alternative management strategies. Open cows or potential replacement heifers are costly, especially when feed resources are limited.

Loose mineral supplements and molasses tubs or blocks are sometimes used to provide feed additives like fly control products, ionophores, antibiotics, bloat management drugs and others.

Most Progressive Cattleman readers said weather was the main cause of calf mortality this calving season.

Who are public land ranchers? We often know them as those who graze their cattle on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). But do we know the characteristics that define public land ranchers and do we know how diverse they really are?