The recent political debates over who is Christian and who is not, or who belongs to a cult and who does not, reminds me of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, wherein Gulliver finds himself drawn into a war between the Big Endians and the Little Endians.

It is common in the agricultural industry to operate equipment, like semis and ten-wheelers, to carry tons of weight in feed, forages or even to haul manure. It is critical to know how to be able to stop, and stop evenly, while maintaining safe control of the vehicle. In this article, I would like to focus on a subject that plays a key role in the operation of heavy equipment – air brake systems.

When I was little, I sat on the armrest of the tractor while my father ran the TMR mixer. I asked him many things throughout the course of my childhood, but one of the questions I returned to the most was, “Why don’t farmers protest low milk prices?”

Darrie took a likin’ to Hangin’ Tree cow dogs. They are slick, short-haired and promoted for their endurance and stamina. They have that hound-dog look and come in various colors. Darrie bought her pup out of Missouri and brought her to Arizona. It was female, so she named her Billie.

Dairy producers spend a great deal of time, effort and money ensuring dairy cow rations are fine-tuned to the “nth” degree. A few milligrams of this, a few parts per million of that, all to ensure no stone goes unturned in the quest for the perfect ration. Unfortunately, in the process the most important nutrient of all often goes barely noticed and only lightly considered. What nutrient? Water.

Concentration of IgG in colostrum varies according to many factors, including a cow’s disease history, volume of colostrum produced, season of the year and breed. Research has shown that IgG levels vary widely from one cow to the next and range from less than 20 to over 100 mg per mL. The difference between 20 and 100 mg per mL of IgG in colostrum can mean the difference between failure and success in passive transfer of immunity in calves. Measurement of IgG concentrations in colostrum can be very useful in managing colostrum quality and monitoring colostrum-feeding practices.

Industry research continues to build, showing the short-term and long-term economic benefits of feeding dairy calves a higher plane of nutrition. What was often considered an expense for a dairy operation in the past decades is now an overlooked opportunity for growing calves faster, stronger, bigger and more productive. These calves reach desired breeding age sooner, calve in and become part of the milking herd sooner and produce higher volumes of milk as early as their first lactation. But what about when dairy calves are raised by growers? Obviously, the economic benefits would be no different, but the management decisions and protocols of how to make this a win-win proposition for both the dairy and the grower are significantly different.

At this writing, the harvest season is here. The autumn temperatures and the cloudy days with slow drawn-out rains are right on schedule. I am home in Alma, Michigan, corn and soybean country, where harvest is underway. Most of the soybeans are harvested. Combines are working in corn fields.

The dairy industry is flocking to Texas, especially the Panhandle. Currently, in the Texas High Plains there are 234,000 milk-producing cows. In Texas the number of dairy cattle have greatly increased in the northern High Plains from 6,000 head in 2000 to over 185,000 head in 2010.