A simple definition of surviving is “the ability to continue to exist.” Many dairies are struggling to exist because they failed to understand or choose to ignore the importance of integrating the management of the dairy and manure operations. Integration is the process of combining or bringing together of operations. Manage is defined as “to be in charge of” or “to control.”

Making brown the new green is the goal of brothers Matthew and Ben Freund of Colebrook, Connecticut, with their successful new invention, CowPots. The biodegradable plant pots are made from manure solids generated from the Freunds’ methane digester, which was built in 1997.

The last six months of 2008 have been one of the greatest shows on earth! No movie, Superbowl, Olympics, Brad and Angelina, Brittany Spears or Royal Birth can compare to the spectacular, outrageous, full-blown television advertising windfall officially referred to as the Presidential Primaries. And the actual election is yet to come!

It’s going to be a wild ride. That is the only thing I am sure of for the hay market for the next couple or three years.

It started in college nearly 40 years ago. Amy met Gary and the two became partners, not only as husband and wife, but as a team that has seen thousands of tons of hay produced, marketed and sold out of the Missouri River bottoms of South Dakota.

When rain occurs in windrowed alfalfa fields, problems often develop. Sometimes referred to as “windrow disease,” these problems can be noted by stripes in the field where alfalfa windrows remained so long that some smothering occurred underneath the hay.

The record-high price of the essential global commodities; wheat, rice and soybeans has been an overdue and much-welcome occurrence for farmers worldwide.

When a lifelong dairyman passes away, it’s hard. But when that man is your grandfather, it’s even more difficult to cope.

Dairymen in Llanquihue, Chile, are experiencing a drought, the likes of which hasn’t been felt for nearly a decade.

After more than two years of meetings, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production finally released its recommendations in late April, more than a month after their initially scheduled release.