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.
When it comes to ensilage, most managers’ attention is given to the first part of the process: harvesting the crop at adequate forage stage of maturity and moisture.
This is coupled with the use of a research-proven microbial inoculant and fast filling, tight packing and adequate covering of the silo to ensure that the active phase of fermentation will start quickly and be as efficient and as short as possible.
Fall can be a critical period in the lives of desirable pasture plants. While it is common thought that plants that appear to be dormant can be grazed “to the ground” without hurting anything, perception is far from the truth.
Mud kills. It kills performance, it kills profitability and it can kill cattle. That seems like an ironic way to begin an article when most of the High Plains are thirsting for moisture.
Here are some things you never want to hear your veterinarian say:
“I wish my hands would quit shaking before I operate on your $1,000,000 stud.”
“It’s nothing that $500 in medicine won’t cure.”
I was talking to Okie. He’s the farm dog. He doesn’t care to go out on the range with the cow dogs. His job is mostly guarding, barking and putting up a big front.
He does it well. I found him under one of the trucks. He’d dug a little bed in the dirt. It was in the shade. He seemed to be pondering.
Hometown: Paris, Tennessee
My dairy background: I grew up on a 600-cow Holstein dairy owned and operated by my parents, Michael and Betsey Sumners. I am the second generation along with two of my sisters, Megan and Katherine.
Hometown: Sunnyside, Washington
My dairy background: I grew up around dairy cattle and the dairy industry through family associations. This contact with the industry inspired me, and I served as the 2010-2011 Yakima Valley Dairy Ambassador and as a Washington State Alternate Dairy Ambassador in 2012.
I am currently part of the Cooperative University Dairy Students (CUDS), where I co-manage a herd of 35 milking cows and an equal number of replacement heifers.
Hometown: Windthorst, Texas
My dairy background: I grew up on a small dairy farm that my parents built in north Texas. My brother, a fourth-generation dairyman, took over in 2007 and continues to milk there today. I help out on the dairy from time to time on my visits back home but am not as involved with the operation as I was in high school.
A new analysis was released by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) earlier this week in order to help members of Congress and their staffs better understand the details of current dairy policy and potential changes to those programs.
The CRS report provides an impartial view of the specific programs contained in the Dairy Security Act of the pending Farm Bill.
Although the House has failed to act on the farm bill in September, the CRS report should expedite the process of considering the bill after the November elections in a lame duck session of Congress.
The equipment demonstrations at the North American Manure Expo, Aug. 22, 2012, in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, featured 10 different solid manure spreaders. See each of them in action. Video by PD Editor Karen Lee.
