Producers who feed corn silage to their dairy cows or custom chop for customers understand the significance of good silage processing. As planning begins for this fall’s corn silage harvest, it’s a good time to ensure your operation is prepared for proper chop length and kernel processing of corn silage.

Heavy supplies weigh on markets World dairy prices fell to a 16-month low in June, tumbling roughly 15 to 20 percent from their February peak.

Most of today’s cow-cooling technologies rely on water to effectively relieve cows during periods of heat stress. Especially in the West, this water usage would likely come from groundwater. Dairies often use groundwater for other necessary production activities such as crop irrigation and livestock drinking water.

After seven hours of eager anticipation, the moment had at last come. Smartphone cameras snapped and gasps erupted from onlookers as small hooves and a wet nose emerged from a laboring cow. With a series of forceful shoves and some helpful human hands, the entire 90-pound calf was expelled, encased in a slimy membrane.

Both dairymen who are test-driving a new handheld feedstuff moisture monitor say it’s still too early to tell if the unit will be of long-term use to their dairies. Since this spring, Cottonwood Dairy in South Wayne, Wisconsin, and P7 Dairy in Roswell, New Mexico, have been using Digi-Star’s Moisture Tracker, a NIR-enabled unit that provides moisture readings on forage and feed within a minute or two.