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The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance is a major concern for human and animal health worldwide. Consequently, there is increasing pressure to reduce antibiotic use in food-producing animals.
Hay marketers had plenty of USDA numbers to contemplate as 2018 got underway. U.S. alfalfa exports continue at a record pace, year-end data showed a smaller 2017 hay harvest, new acres seeded to alfalfa in 2017 were the lowest in a decade, and on-farm hay inventories entering winter were the smallest in years.
In 2015, the Hammond family built a four-robot barn with 240 freestalls and sawdust bedding. The previous freestall barn is now used for heifers and dry cows, while the old parlour and holding area were renovated for calves in group pens with automated feeders. The family is looking to expand their new barn this spring with two more milking robots and a maternity area.
Overcrowding and an aging parlour had the Hammond family contemplating the next step for their dairy farm near Ingersoll, Ontario.
“We decided going forward that robots were the best idea for the long-term,” Glen Hammond says.
Growing-season drought in some major hay-producing states, increased hay exports and large numbers of forage-consuming cattle in the nation’s beef and dairy herds resulted in the smallest on-farm hay inventories entering winter since 2012, according to the USDA’s Crop Production report, released Jan. 12.
Mastitis is the most common bacterial disease on most dairy farms. According to Pamela Ruegg, a veterinarian for Michigan State University, 65 to 85 percent of all antibiotic handlings on-farm are used to treat and prevent mastitis.
When the vet of Cattail Dairy Farms, Dr. Glenn Johnson, first approached the Holig family about becoming the first-ever Food Armor certified farm, they had no idea they would gain so much.
Cembrit introduces corrugated roofing sheets to the U.S.
Danish company Cembrit has introduced their high-density fiber cement (HDFC) corrugated roofing sheets to the U.S. ag market. The 4-by-8-foot sheets of 2-inch corrugations are known as Cemsix and are installed with self-tapping screws.
As a parent, you try to incorporate teaching the alphabet into daily life, and as dairy farmers, what better way to learn your ABCs but to use the letter of the dam and come up with another word that starts with the same letter?
