Editor’s note: In early April, Progressive Dairyman reported on a request by National All-Jersey, 14 dairy cooperatives and others asking the USDA to hold a hearing to consider a proposal to implement multiple component pricing (MCP) in two additional Federal Milk Marketing Orders.

After combining his herd with half of his father’s herd, Tyler Hendriks outgrew the tiestall facility and built a new freestall barn.

I’ve been involved with dairy promotion for as long as I can remember, even going back to my high school days with the dairy princess program in Pennsylvania.

Editor’s note: This article is the first in a two-part series. I meet farmers who are in the fifth or even sixth generation on their farm. I have met a few with double-digit generations. My wife and I both have brothers on Century Farms that are transitioning to our nephews.

In November of 2017, the milk price finally broke out of the prolonged sideways market that began way back in July 2016. Unfortunately, that break fell on the downside, and farmers were faced with lower trending prices for the next month-and-a-half.

It seems like every month there’s a new precision dairy monitoring technology introduced to the dairy market. Each introduction coincides with a lot of hype about how this new technology is going to change the dairy industry, with articles in mainstream media about how these new “Fitbits for cows” can be used to identify sick cows and cows in heat.

Lean would be one definition of the financial situation in today’s dairy industry. But the concept of lean represents a mindset of farming that takes stock of every step in the production process to reduce waste.

As a veterinarian, one of the things I dreaded (besides more paperwork) when the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) came about was hearing producers say, “This is just an excuse for vets to charge me more money.”

The 2014 National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) dairy report shows that on average, 5.6 percent of all full-term pregnancies terminate in a dead calf. Dead on arrival (DOA) or stillborn calves are defined as being full-term but not surviving beyond 48 hours after birth. This average indicates there is a lot of room for improvement in the dairy industry.

Whenever farmers get sick, have a fever or sprain an ankle, there are countless options of aspirin or ibuprofen to take for pain relief. However, when a dairy farmer’s animal experiences pain through disease or injury, the options are extremely limited.