Every day, dairy farmers go to great lengths to care for their cows. In this series from Dairy MAX, Jodi Jackson of Bentwood Dairy in Texas shares her story about caring for a calf with a broken leg. Can you relate?

The congressional journey to develop the 2018 Farm Bill moved to Kansas, where the Senate ag committee held its first hearing on Feb. 23. The Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy) was again a featured topic.

Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) withdrew a proposal seeking increased milk pooling flexibility in the Northeast federal milk marketing order (FMMO 1). In a letter to Northeast Market Administrator Erik Rasmussen on Feb. 17, Elvin Hollon, DFA vice president of fluid marketing/economic analysis, said the request to withdraw the proposal was due to a lack support from other dairy organizations.

With the recent downturn in market prices, producers are looking for ways to add value to their calves before they hit the market. One alternative is backgrounding. Cimarron River Cattle Company, a custom feeding operation near Kismet, Kansas, specializes in backgrounding calves and preparing them for the feedlot.

Taylor Clifford and Eric Bogardus decided it was time to get creative when their already decrepit barn cleaner finally gave up the ghost, and shelling out money for a new one just wasn’t in the budget.

“It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.”—Neil Armstrong

As record-high grass prices take their time coming down, many livestock producers have been forced to seek out alternative ways of keeping their cattle business in the black.

Southern Utah – where Indians scribed their history on cliffs, Butch Cassidy hid from the law, and John Wayne became the Duke. The area has been known as the land of cowboys and Indians.

Darr Feedlot in Cozad, Nebraska, sits on 325 acres that are divided into two lots – one with just under 30,000 head of cattle, the other with nearly 20,000 head of cattle in it.

“Even if you don’t do anything else, manage your colostrum well,” says Dr. Clifford Shipley about reducing reliance on antibiotics in cattle.