Dairy farmer Phil Stevens, along with his wife, Erin, and son and daughter, Will and Molly, recently competed in the NBC Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge show, coming in second in the first round and third in the second round. The family team started out as the underdogs in both races.

Over the past few decades, North Florida Holsteins has figured out how to achieve more than 90 pounds of milk per day in an environment where extreme heat stress is the norm.

When planning facilities for calves and heifers, dairy producers must piece together their management style with production goals, such as expanding versus maintaining herd size, or using automated versus manual labor.

Sixty members of Congress signed a letter to USDA secretary Tom Vilsack, seeking assistance for dairy producers struggling with declining milk prices. Specifically, the lawmakers – primarily Democrats, and Republicans representing Northeast U.S. states – asked USDA to use its authority under the Commodity Credit Corporation to expand and maintain U.S. domestic markets.

This month’s VAS DC305 tip is a tool that can help you achieve the ultimate goal on every dairy, to preserve food quality.

One day in late July, our neighbor’s field started on fire. He was baling wheat straw, and it has been an extremely dry year in Michigan. A tiny spark started almost an entire field on fire, and it almost burned down a house and barn next to the field.

Producing the highest quality milk is a top priority for Grand View Dairy, and the numbers prove that to be true.

Editor’s note: This article is the final installment in a series profiling sources for an in-depth feature about the Chinese dairy industry, appearing in print later this summer. Dr. Jeff Elliott laughs when asked to describe his work: “Who would have thought a farm boy from west Kentucky would end up traveling around the world thanks to cows?”

The USDA Risk Management Agency’s Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy (LGM-Dairy) program remains one of the better tools to protect dairy incomes, according to Alan Zepp, risk management program manager at Pennsylvania's Center for Dairy Excellence.

The Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Program, administered by the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), is assuming management of the Farm Smart Program, previously managed by Dairy Management Inc.