It is always refreshing to step aside from our regular topics and deliver content on a special subject. While articles on feed and nutrition, A.I. and breeding, calf and heifer raising, and milk quality are extremely important and likely to impact what you do each day, I always enjoy taking a step back from the day-to-day and taking a broader look at the industry.

DFC’s 2014 Dairy Research Highlights contain a review of research investments and outcomes for the year and are available online. Here are a few examples of the progress made over time on the basis of research investments.

She came up to me quietly after my presentation, looking tired and sad. “Elaine, I haven’t been off the farm in months, and I don’t know who is going to help us with seeding. I am 70, and I cannot take this anymore. My husband is very verbally abusive and won’t get help for his depression. What do I do?”

Since 2000, Canadian farm debt has more than doubled to $84.42 billion in 2014. With rising farmland prices and wild swings in the prices of both inputs and outputs, a number of recent media pieces have raised questions on the farm sector’s ability to meet their debt obligations and their sensitivity to changing market conditions.

Dairy producers in Manitoba now have a public exchange to buy and sell underproduction credits. The quota credit exchange opened in December and allows dairy farmers the opportunity to buy or sell a portion of their total daily quota.

I support supply management. Period. As a member of a Canadian dairy farming family, proudly producing top-quality milk for my fellow citizens, I know supply management’s demise would mean the end of the dairy life I know and love.  Recent articles from various news outlets as well as a newly released study have brought these feelings to the foreground once again.

Anyone who works in the dairy industry will be aware that there is tremendous variation in maternity pen design. Part of the reason for this variability is a lack of research on what types of environments are best for the cow while she is giving birth.