We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
In order to gain a better understanding of what building projects are taking place on dairies, Progressive Dairyman reached out to contractors across the country to learn what is trending in terms of number of projects, costs and general producer preferences.
There are many things to consider when building a new parlor.
A dairyman needs to look at the size of the milking parlor he wants to build, how many cows he will milk and the amount of time he is willing to spend milking.
Farms may have the most diverse list of air curtain (or air door) uses than perhaps any other application.
First used decades ago in industrial buildings for indoor-outdoor environmental separation at open doorways, air curtains on farms today are used for energy conservation, flying insect prevention, employee and livestock air comfort, productivity increases, supplemental heating and cooling, ventilation and other uses.
With an annual pregnancy rate of 21 percent, the herd at D&D Dairy near Rushford, Minnesota, significantly exceeded the industry average for reproductive performance. But co-owner Dean Smith knew the dairy could do better.
People make choices every day, and sometimes you just have to hope you make the right decision. For my family farm, Weller’s Dairy, we definitely made the right choice. We have a small, family-owned and operated dairy farm.
Robots are milking cows, pushing up feed and scraping manure on dairies around the world. For several years, they have been feeding cows in Europe, and now three companies have plans to introduce similar, yet different, systems in North America.
There is nothing more frustrating than persistent high bacteria counts. The CIP detectives were recently called to a 249-cow dairy in Wisconsin facing just this problem.
Over the past 60 or so years, fertility has declined in all of the major dairy breeds, including the Jersey.
The historical drop in fertility has been ascribed to a variety of factors such as an increase in milk yield, changes in management and herd structure, inbreeding and lack of selection for reproduction.
Everyone wants enough replacement heifers to maintain or even grow their herd size. Producers have achieved this goal with relative ease throughout the past 20 years.
While the trend during that time has shown a decline in the number of U.S. dairy cows, the heifer population has remained fairly constant. This means the heifer population as a percentage of the total cow population has been on the rise.
