The introduction of genomics has had a revolutionary impact on today’s dairy industry. Major A.I. companies have aggressively adopted the technology, and now it is up to dairy producers to continue to advance its use as a herd management tool.

As a dairy farmer, you know the hard work that goes into making that gallon of milk in the grocery store dairy case. Wholesome and nutritious, that gallon of milk represents the culmination of generations of hard work expanding and growing the family business. Milk is what your life revolves around: milking the cows, working the fields, caring for the animals. So, as members of the dairy industry, we take that word “milk” seriously.

Digest Highlights St. Johns, Michigan, selected for cheese and whey production facility California’s share of dairy exports should influence aid distribution Labels, labels, labels September California Class 1 prices improve July global dairy price index weakens USDA releases three-year Chesapeake Bay watershed action plan

The USDA’s August World Ag Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report left the outlook for 2018 milk production unchanged, but raised the 2019 forecast based on slightly higher cow numbers and increased milk per cow.

The ideal pre-fresh period is 21 days. Too much corn silage makes heifers fat. Excess dietary salt causes udder edema. The younger the age at first calving, the better. These are just a few things we’ve been told about pre-fresh heifers, but are they facts or fallacies?

At the request of dairy processors, which claim they have a mandate from consumers, rBST has been removed from the toolboxes of many dairy farmers, and some suspect that reproductive hormone therapy could be next.

Cow-calf operations today are much like the Wild West of the cattle industry – operating with little direction and few rules. Sure, there are some broad guidelines for things that must be done, but in general, the rules are pretty limited. Each producer manages his or her herd and raises cattle as he or she sees fit.

Corn is a major user of nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen fertilizer production is an energy-intensive process that uses 1 to 2 percent of the total global energy supply and produces an equivalent share of greenhouse gases.