Proper barn planning saves time and money. For every decision, it is important to understand its associated ramifications. In calf barns, housing style and pen configuration decisions impact ventilation options, which in turn affects the overall success of the barn.

Gone are the days of feeding calves 2 quarts of milk or milk replacer twice a day, but while feeding higher levels of nutrition is the new industry norm, there’s still room to improve.

Whether we’re talking about a kid with one 4-H calf or a calf ranch with tens of thousands of calves, the key questions about feeding calves are the same. How do you minimize cost of production? What composition of protein and fat milk replacer should we feed? How much should we feed each day? And for how many days should we feed milk?

Heifer raising is a major expense for the U.S. dairy industry, accounting for 15 to 20 percent of the total cost of milk production. Respiratory disease will significantly increase that cost, at up to $16.35 per pre-weaned calf and $2.22 for a weaned calf.

Every dairy youth project member who steps in a show ring has the opportunity to excel at showmanship. Unlike type classes, where winners can be purchased or raised by others, in showmanship it is all up to the exhibitor.

Getting the most out of grazing your dairy herd means going beyond the basics of pasture management. Putting the right nutrition into the herd from pasture forages requires intensive management of the grass and the cows.

Editor’s note: This year’s “Dairy Grazing Your Way” panel at the annual GrassWorks Inc. Grazing Conference held in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, featured three operations. Hubert and Suzanne Nelson Karreman of Reverence Farms in Saxapahaw, North Carolina, will be featured in a separate article later this year. Below, learn about grazing practices from the Paul Tillotson and Roman Stoltzfoos.

Ethan and Jade Proksch’s farm is proof grazing dairy goats is possible and feasible. The Proksches have been commercially selling milk from their goat herd for more than six years.

Sometimes in life, we take on a project and, no matter what we do, it seems to go wrong. And no matter how hard we try to correct it, it still keeps going wrong – but if we stick with it a long time, it will turn out well, although it may be entirely different than what we planned on in the first place.

Budgets have always been my plague. I write down a wonderful plan, but I never follow through. It is always easier to use a credit card than to carry cash in my purse. Credit cards make it easier to browse the aisles of the store and pick out what you want and get to the cash register with more items than you intended to buy, but you don’t worry because you have your credit card.