It wasn’t expected. There was no plan to respond, but you’re the highlight of a social media experience – a negative experience. The video shows a cow being hauled several hundred feet, all four feet off the ground, from an alleyway to a hospital pen.

Recall your feelings the last time you arrived at a meeting – conference, board of directors, lunch – at an unfamiliar location. What were your emotions? Did you know where to park? Did you know where to go? Did you know what to expect?

Employees are your business. Without the right employees and a productive work culture, your business cannot be as successful as possible.

During the process of setting up our herd management software, I spend a lot of time in the pen with herdsmen learning their record-keeping systems. As a standard, we customize our program on the dairy’s computer and on the staff’s mobile devices to their procedures, specific to each dairy farm.

The generational makeup of society and the workforce is rapidly changing. The baby boomer generation is comprised of about 78 million people born between 1946 and 1964. This generation is six years into the retirement age and will continue to retire for about the next 15 years or so.

In 2010, we had a vision to create an online resource for dairy producers that assisted with the construction of facilities designed to optimize the well-being of their dairy cattle.

It takes at least three years for a farm to transition from conventional practices to organic, but that transition time can be an important period to gain knowledge and build relationships, said Julia Barton, sustainable agriculture educator with Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA).

The key to a successful dairy farm always starts with creating a positive environment for your cows. With new advancements in technology and efficiency available each day, it is important to be aware of the cows’ needs before making monumental changes to an operation.

Trade has garnered a lot of attention from the Trump administration and in recent political discussions as of late, but trade has always been an important issue for the U.S. dairy industry. Jaime Castaneda, senior vice president of strategic initiatives and trade policy with the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council, explained the value international trade has for dairy farmers and their bottom line during his presentation at FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative’s annual meeting on Feb. 10.

“Start early and communicate often with your family about how you are thinking about transferring the farm business and land,” Teresa Opheim said, who works on farm transition issues for Practical Farmers of Iowa and Renewing the Countryside.