Brian Waymire, dairy manager at DeGroot Dairy Farms, is seeing overall improvement in his herd’s repro performance, milk production and herd health after adjusting his cows’ diet and conducting feeding trials through the hot summer months when milk production historically can take a major hit.

This Dairy Regional Recap includes information on use of EPA funds by environmental advocates in Washington state, the latest outlook for Pennsylvania dairy farms and a study of farmer health in robotic milking systems. This and other U.S. region-by-region dairy news can be found here.

Feeding calves is a serious business to me. It takes up a huge chunk of my day to get them fed, but the end results are worth the effort. When a healthy calf leaves her hutch to join her mates in the barn, I am satisfied with my work. In my eyes for our operation, if our calves haven't more than doubled their weight by weaning, I did something wrong.

Progressive Dairyman has received more comments and feedback about tail docking than any other issue since the debate about supply management and margin projection in the 2014 Farm Bill. It’s one of those issues dairy producers have strong opinions about one way or the other.

The number of niche-market dairy and beef products are expanding, with individual companies making various label and marketing claims. One of the fastest-growing markets is “grassfed” milk, attracting producers and consumers, and premium prices.

As dairy farmers who currently (Brian) and formerly (Ray) represented farmers on the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board, we’ve attended our share of farm and trade shows.

Note: This is the final article in a five-part series for Progressive Dairyman about dairy culture.  Nothing sends a chill through a dairy producer’s heart like a barn fire.

In about a month, we will again be in the graduation season – high school, college or maybe even preschool. Most of you will attend a graduation, open house or other event celebrating the graduation. Let’s pause to think about the meaning of graduation.

You know your employees are important for your dairy’s success, but do you know how important? It’s challenging to measure the impact of human resources management investments on increasing company performance and success as compared to a new technology you might implement.

As a rule of thumb, I try to never use rules of thumb, especially when evaluating a dairy operation. Every dairy operation has its own strengths, weaknesses, challenges and goals.