From consumable supplies, capital investment, parts and field equipment, customer service is an essential element for businesses that successfully supply dairy farms. Some businesses have learned customer service is more than just a reminder hanging on the wall in a break room.

Stagnant growth among equipment dealers is a blame game. Older dealerships view themselves as dated and old-fashioned. They blame their decline on the younger dealerships. Younger dealerships blame their struggle to grow on their inexperience and newness to the industry.

Can dairy farmers expect there to be an ag equipment dealer within 30 minutes of the farm five years from now? With tougher profit margins, the search for efficiency isn’t restricted to just dairy farmers.

Often the decision to grow or transform a dairy farm revolves around adding family or improving profitability. The same is often true for the dairy equipment industry.

Dairy goat product demand is growing and driving a need for more goat milk. Before entering the dairy goat industry, there are a number of factors to consider to make the operation a profitable one.

Dairy farmers today are looking for options to diversify the farm income stream. With labor costs and milk pricing often squeezing most of the profitability from the dairy, staying in business can mean finding new ways to utilize the skills and resources you already have.

Low milk prices combined with high costs of production, feed and energy force family farms to look for additional sources of income. Rosenholm Dairy in Cochrane, Wisconsin, combats the low milk prices and alleviates financial pressure through their composting facility.

Football and farming. For many teenagers growing up on a family-owned dairy, this is a familiar combination. For Doug Mielke, who took over the farm from his father at age 12, however, the balancing act looked a bit different.

The dispersal sale of Indianhead Holsteins on April 7 may have signaled an end, but the couple behind the farm is not retired yet. Bob and Karyn Schauf owned Indianhead Holsteins of Barron, Wisconsin, which became world-renowned over the last three decades.

Fred and Donna Barringer, co-founders of the recently dispersed Hill-Over Holsteins and Swiss herd, are longtime dairy farmers in Copake, New York, with a passion and dedication to the dairy industry.