Milk quality is dependent on three key areas: milking routine; cows and their environment; milking equipment.

Salmonella and Clostridial bacteria can be the cause of serious gastrointestinal diseases of cows and calves. While both types of bacteria can target the intestinal tract, cause death by the systemic effects of toxins and show up clinically as bloody diarrhea, they are very different in many other respects.

Late lactation is an important, yet often overlooked part of the lactation cycle. It’s easy to let cows coast to the finish line, getting fat and lazy along the way.

The “true type” cow for the progressive dairy producer is the “four-event” cow – a cow that freshens, gets bred, is confirmed pregnant and later is dried off. Cows that only have these four “events” in a given lactation are the cows that generate profit for the dairy enterprise.

One afternoon I sat in a stuffy high school classroom and listened to the drone of the teacher’s voice. I was drifting off to sleep when I heard something that piqued my interest. “If an enemy wanted to destroy our government and freedoms, they would take the American Flag and cut it in pieces and give everyone a tiny piece.” I sat up and stared at the teacher. I didn’t understand.

Never was my observation “It’s easy to be green when it’s not personal,” more obvious than today. As population increases and suburbanization encroaches on previously rural countryside, each new settler or squatter must face their own deleterious impact on the environment.

Current prices for alfalfa hay and many other feeds are causing beef and dairy producers to give fresh consideration to alternative forage sources for cattle. Kentucky bluegrass straw is a little-used feedstuff that can be successfully fed to dairy cattle; in addition, feeding bluegrass straw reduces air emissions from field burning. In the Animal Sciences Department at Washington State University, we have evaluated bluegrass straw for dairy cows in late lactation. We limited bluegrass straw to less than 15 percent of the diet for lactating dairy cows.

Forage crops are the staple ingredients of dietary rations fed to ruminant animals. They provide the animal with a large source of dietary fiber, critical for normal rumen function and its associated micro-environment.

Equipment needs for baled silages are quite simple. Mowers do not need to have conditioning rollers, but mower-conditioners are useful because they concentrate the cut forage into a narrow swath.

Forage quality is one of the key driving factors that determine milk production, rumen health and profitability on dairy farms. The benefits of high-quality, highly digestible forages for use in dairy cattle rations is widely accepted by both dairy producers and the nutrition advisors that work with them.