Sitting in our combine, harvesting this year’s corn crop, gives me lots of time to think. On a recent pass back and forth down the corn rows, I started thinking about what the rest of my family was doing at that very moment.

Gandhi seemed to have known what he was talking about when it came to breeding a profitable herd of cows when he said, “The future depends on what you do today.”

What are your choices when mating A.I. sires to the dairy cattle in your herd? Do you use one of the mating services? Focus on Net Merit Dollars (NM$)? Or simply want to get the cow pregnant because you know that nine months from now she will drop a calf and start all over again on the lactation curve?

New faces in Washington The inauguration of a new president sparked a wave of change in Washington’s executive branch, owing in large part to the support Donald Trump enjoyed from rural votes and middle America states in the 2016 election.

Editor’s note: The CEO Corner contains editors’ compilations of business insights and analysis of current news, which they have tailored for the dairy industry. This column inspires million-dollar dairy operations to think like CEOs in other industries do. What if you could ask your smartphone to tell you which of your cows were lame? Or which cows were most likely to get sick in the next day or two? Or whether a switch from feeding last year’s silage to this year’s crop has impacted milk production? If you think that’s beyond the capabilities of Siri or Alexa, a Dutch-based company wants you to meet Ida.

Editor’s note: The following article is based on information as of Nov. 16. Progressive Dairyman will provide updates as they become available.

When Steve Edstrom started Sugar Hill Dairy in 2001, he was milking eight cows in order to produce enough milk to reach the paddle in the bulk tank. Edstrom, who hadn’t grown up in the dairy industry, started out hand-milking his cows and raising heifer calves to increase his milking string until he had enough cows to move into a real facility.

Current cattle markets can be thought of as a series of bad news-good news stories. The bad news is that cash fed cattle prices pulled back last week from the highs at the end of the week before. The good news is that the jump up to $124 per hundredweight (cwt) live fed cattle prices was not expected and the current level in the $120-121 per cwt range is at or above most expectations for fed prices at this point.

Digest Highlights: All signs point to continued low corn prices. Dairy co-op takes a new name. DFA celebrates new plant opening. Find a summary of these and other news here.

If there’s anything that a dairy mama knows, it’s stress. We never have enough hours in the day; sometimes there’s not enough month left at the end of the money. The kids are crying; the cows are bellering; the calves need fed; and the pig is out. (Well, maybe that last one only happens at my house.)