In addition to being detrimental for cows’ longevity, reproductive performance and production, lameness is our dairy industry’s most visible animal welfare issue. We face increasing pressures from the public to ensure our cows are well cared for.

Hoof trimmers, industry representatives and sponsors gathered in Syracuse, New York, July 19-22 to attend the Hoof Health Conference.

The bright red, yellow and orange of autumn leaves and the chill of the wind announce that fall has arrived and winter is well on its way. I can’t imagine how it was back then on that first Thanksgiving Day for those Pilgrims who survived the treacherous sea voyage in a ship not bigger than my house.

Obtainable in multiple styles and sizes, manure spreaders fill an important role in dairy farm management. While having so many choices is wonderful, it can create a confusing and stressful decision for a producer when purchasing a machine for the first time or updating an old spreader.

If your dairy operation is like most, leadership is probably not a common topic of conversation at your farm meetings or around the kitchen table. It may seem that things just happen on the farm: Cows are milked, crops are harvested, decisions are made and, before we know it, another year is behind us.

Novels set on farms are getting hard to find, and a good one is even rarer. To write about something well, one usually has to come from that experience, and few people both farm and write. Presented below (in no particular order) are 10 novels that deal with farming.

Forage processors are an invaluable component of many of our cattle operations today. If you are feeding cattle in bunks or on the ground, forage processors add efficiency by reducing manpower, improving forage utilization and reducing waste.

I could hear her frustration and feel the pain as I read the lengthy email describing an all-too-common scenario for farm families today. The aging parents have been pressured to be “fair” to the non-farm siblings, who have noticed farmland values have increased significantly.

As Thanksgiving draws near, we think of harvest time, turkeys and the in-laws. The latter two are basically the same. They both show up empty-handed, stuff themselves and never thank you for having them for dinner. Thankfully, most of the time, the turkey is the only one that shows up naked.

Most Progressive Cattleman readers have a culling rate below 10 percent.