Our firm has prepared and issued averages of our dairy clients’ income and expense reports on a quarterly basis for many years. We have done this for the purpose of providing comparable industry standards to benefit our clients and others working in the dairy industry.

In 2014, when producer milk was priced at over $24 per hundredweight (cwt), making money was pretty easy. In 2008, when prices fell to $12 per cwt, it’s doubtful any producer was making money. More recently, prices have hovered in the $15-to-$17-per-cwt range. Some have made money, but a lot of others have struggled.

Consistency is a foremost principle for success in raising calves. Unfortunately, calf producers who use a Brix refractometer in an effort to maintain consistent milk replacer concentration are wasting their time.

While wooden hutches – consisting of a base, flooring and hutch system – are relatively inexpensive to build, they may not be the cheapest calf housing option available on the market today.

Being aware of some of the major risks that can result from overcrowding heifers is essential to managing them effectively. Implementing mitigation strategies early on can help prevent the situation from taking a negative toll that will ripple into future lactations.

In addition to the information that will be available from the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding later this year, several dairy companies have already taken the lead in providing options for dairy producers to improve herd health through genetic selection.

Over time the dairy industry has encountered the challenge of declining trends for fertility and overall health, across diverse production systems. A number of reasons may explain this performance slope, including changes in cow physiology related to greater milk production, challenges in nutritional management, housing, increased herd size, reduced estrous expression and changes in the genetic makeup

Holstein breeders making sire selection and breeding strategy decisions will have genetic information directly related to herd health beginning in April 2018.

Five dairy producers discussed if and how new genetic evaluations for health traits might be incorporated into their herd management during the Council for Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) annual meeting, held Oct. 3 in conjunction with World Dairy Expo.

Through technology and other tools, the amount of information available to make dairy management decisions continues to grow. That includes reproduction and genetics, where official evaluations will feature six new health traits beginning in April 2018.