As the growing season approaches, farmers will be hard at work outdoors. Farmers face many potential hazards in their line of work, from machinery injuries to chemical exposures from fertilizers and pesticides. One danger that may not be as visible comes from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. While farmers rely on the sun for crops to flourish, they often don’t realize too many of these invisible rays may damage their skin, leading to skin cancer, premature aging of the skin and suppression of the immune system.

Equipment safety training is one of the most crucial parts of your safety program. Since most equipment accidents are caused by operator error, it just can’t be understated. And unfortunately, most equipment accidents are serious, if not deadly. It’s hard to believe that tractor rollovers are still one of the leading killers on a farm.

Q. Part of our milking routine includes forestripping. This seems to slow down the milking process. Why should we bother to forestrip? NMC responds: Forestripping is one of the most important steps in the milking routine. And although forestripping is physically tiring and is often perceived as time-consuming, it is well worth the effort and can actually help shorten milking time and improve milk quality.

Compliments – what’s so hard about giving and receiving them? You’d at least think that receiving them would be easy. But it seems many people feel uncomfortable receiving a compliment too. Why? We just don’t hear them very often. Think about it. How many times in the course of a week do you receive a genuine compliment? If you can recall a few compliments you’ve received recently, it’s probably because they’re so rare they actually stick out in your mind.

A one-size-fits-all fly control plan for all dairies doesn’t exist. Each dairy has its own unique facilities and management, and each fly management program will have to be individually designed to meet the dairy’s specific needs. However, the one overall item that will generally result in the largest economic return for your investment is effective sanitation. This includes not only manure management but also the elimination of any moist, decaying organic matter such as spilled feed, silage, rotting hay, etc. Remember that generally 90 percent of your dairy’s flies will be developing in less than 10 percent of its physical area; therefore, the elimination or cleaning up of those areas will greatly decrease your fly production.

A panel of dairy economists shared the outlook they perceive for the global dairy market at the American Dairy Products Institute (ADPI) Annual Conference held last month in Chicago, Illinois.

As a boy, many of the summer hours were spent building things – huts, tree houses, tunnels, forts and carts. We scavenged lumber from the pallets and crates that brought paper to my father’s printing shop, shipping crates to the town’s hardware stores, fruit and vegetable crates at grocery stores. Cleaned of nails, we would have a stack of wood to build whatever we wanted.

If you make your way through any of your local stores, likely you have found yourself asking the question, “Why does this cost so much?” Perhaps you have seen the illustration that so vividly breaks down a box of corn flakes according to its components and their contribution to the price of that cereal.

Since the last time we explored forward dairy production margins in the February 9 edition, much has changed in the market both for milk prices and feed costs. On a positive note, feed costs have held steady and are under fundamental pressure from larger crop estimates out of South America, as well as indications that acreage will be higher in the U.S. this spring. Moreover, domestic demand over the past quarter has not been as strong as previously expected. Unfortunately, milk prices have dropped sharply since mid-January, more than offsetting all of the benefit gained from steady to cheaper feed prices.