Bruce Nelson, state executive director for USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) in Montana, announced that Agriculture Secretary Vilsack declared four Montana counties as primary disaster areas and nine as contiguous disaster areas due to disaster designations authorized in Montana and South Dakota.

Amber Jakes Woodville, Wisconsin Regional Sales Manager AgSource Cooperative Services

Developing and validating a standardized scoring system for bovine respiratory disease tops the priority list for a team of veterinarians and scientists at the University of California – Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Animal Science. The research team, with the assistance of dairy managers and staff, are knee-deep in a project that targets prevention, diagnosis and treatment of bovine respiratory disease in dairy calves.

In a 2011 article, “Foot rot in dairy cows,” I explained what foot rot is and briefly mentioned the different hoof problems that could be misdiagnosed as foot rot. Lameness seems to be on the rise, and misdiagnosing a problem can often cause a lot of unnecessary grief and expense.

In the late hours of Wednesday, May 15, after spending all day in a markup session, the House Agriculture Committee approved a $940 billion farm bill in a 36-10 vote. Nearly 100 amendments were thrown out during the session, many relating to food stamps. The dairy program was the only significant debate related to farm subsidies.