Landmark Services Cooperative (LSC) introduces ProfitEDGE, a new program to help dairy producers be most profitable and efficient. It is a full-service approach to dairy production, with an LSC team of nutritionists and agronomists collaborating with industry partners to help dairy producers establish management and production goals and create timelines for achieving those goals.

I think my coaching adventures started when I was a young child on a Midwest row crop, pig, chicken and dairy farm. I followed my dad around the farm from a very early age, asked a lot of questions, observed how the work got done and received the responsibility of doing chores.

It takes only one. One employee. One video camera. One YouTube post. One minute to destroy a hard-earned reputation. The risks dairymen face today go far beyond crop failure and commodity market volatility. Producers are tasked with protecting their livelihoods from agenda-driven activists trying to sneak through the door and onto our dairies.

We in the dairy business at times seem to just go through the motions without thinking about the cost of our daily routine, good or bad. So let us consider a few areas in which our daily routine may be costing us big money.

When dairy industry consultants recommend facility or management improvements, more often than not, it’s assumed these types of cow comfort investments are automatically justified. What lenders need to understand, however, is how the investments will provide the returns to justify the expense.

With so much information – and misinformation – circulating about the pros and cons of genetically modified foods, it’s understandable that the public is concerned and, at times, confused about what to believe. An increased focus on health has consumers more conscious than ever about what they are eating and where their food comes from.

From the first generation to the third, transition planning begins with a family meeting When Stephen Maddox was a little boy, he dreamed of one day owning his own dairy farm. After all, his dad helped manage the family dairy that young Stephen’s grandfather started in 1957. Him doing the same would be family tradition.

In a small village in El Salvador, four co-ops are struggling to keep their fledgling dairies alive. Devoted co-op members work seven days a week tending animals not suited for their climate. They produce just enough milk to meet the needs of their communities, and when there is excess, they struggle to find a foothold in the local market.

Tighter lending criteria in the last five years has led many enterprising dairy producers to look after their lending relationships almost as carefully as they do their cows. While cows generate the cash, it’s the lender who can make modernization, growth and smooth sailing through unexpected cash flow troughs possible.