Decisions made at chopping affect silage quality in the bunker, nutrition in the feed alley and milk in the tank. Waiting to involve your nutritionist until you are ready to feed the silage may result in extensive ration adjustments or it may be too late to fix certain issues.

As I visit dairy farms across Pennsylvania in my role as a Penn State Dairy Extension Team member, two dairy cow health-related problems persist on many of the farms – lameness and delayed pregnancies due to various reproductive issues. According to an extension article updated on January 27, 2011, studies completed in the state of New York have shown lameness to cost $90 per cow per year on average.

Manure management is one of the many concerns dairy producers deal with across the country, especially when part of the nutrient management plan involves collecting and moving manure off of the dairy premises. Whether you are a dairy producer or commercial manure applicator, you probably have encountered some type of problem during this process that links back to the manure pump. Has your pump broken down due to gearbox failures? Ever have a situation where your propeller agitator doesn’t reach far enough into your lagoon or have a lagoon pump that has the reach but cannot cut through thick crust buildup?

It has been said that anaerobic digesters are the future for dairy farms and vice versa. At the same time there are a few issues to overcome to make this future a reality. Hurdles such as investment costs, environmental regulations, interconnect problems and power company negotiations have squashed a fair amount of potential digester projects across the country.