One of the highest risk periods for mastitis in a cow’s life is the period just after it is dried off. Bacteria enter the mammary gland when the teat canal is open, and in the period just after dry-off the teat canal can remain open for a while.

One day late in June, one farm did what others may be too scared to have happen. It let 20 outside individuals conduct a walk-through of the dairy to make observations related to milk quality and to troubleshoot areas for improvement.

Most of the producers I work with on a daily basis have dreams and clear goals for the future of their operations. This may include milk production benchmarks, income over feed cost targets, gains in reproduction rates, genetic improvement or bringing a new generation into the dairy.

Doing a feed inventory establishes your current stock of various feed ingredients. Generally, the process involves determining the volume of each feed stored and then multiplying by the stored density to yield a weight of feed.

The year of 2016 has brought a cash crunch for many dairies as extremely low milk checks through the first half of the year led to negative margins. The recent rally in milk prices, combined with now-depressed feed costs, is finally bringing some relief – along with more attractive forward margin opportunities.

As one evaluates margins, the wild fluctuation in summer markets changed the outlook of many a dairyman. Stories of coming drought and the consequential lack of feed grains caused markets to climb substantially in the second quarter of the year. Corn prices rallied 85 cents from spring lows. Soybean meal shot up $150 per ton.

With decreasing commodity prices, many farmers are looking for ways to raise cash and pay down debt. One strategy that is often considered involves selling farm assets that are no longer used (or have become unproductive).

Way back in 2005, I left the comforts of a corporate career and started a business dedicated exclusively to helping agribusiness owners plan for generational transfer.

This seems like a simple question. Most of us know what hat we are wearing at any given time. However, if we need a refresher, looking in the mirror is easy enough. It is not that simple when it comes to separating the different roles people fill when running a small/medium business.

As a college student in the early 1970s, I remember being fascinated by a study carried out by social anthropologists Barry, Child and Bacon in the 1950s. They studied 46 societies to understand how modes of food production lead to different child-rearing practices and personality traits.