The road to World Dairy Expo is one that can be years in the making for dairy showmen – with sweat, grit and determination to walk the colored shavings. 

When a lack of rainfall negatively affects the pastures that producers rely on, moving cow-calf herds into drylot settings tops the list of management options. While this change is a multifaceted challenge, it also brings some surprising benefits.

Anissa Borges and Dayana Limon Santiago traveled to Thailand with the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) as part of its international internship program this summer.

The U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center in Madison, Wisconsin, is one of 90 locations of the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

When a devastating fire destroyed Reed’s Dairy on Jan. 18, 2024, second-generation dairy farmer Alan Reed faced what could have been the end of his dairy in Idaho Falls. Instead, thanks to a fire plan, quick action, community support and industry connections, not a single person or cow was lost. Reed is now turning tragedy into opportunity with a complete rebuild.

On every dairy, misunderstandings like this happen, sometimes in dosing, sometimes in colostrum feeding, sometimes in milking prep or tagging calves. While some missteps can be costly, almost all point back to the same root cause: people hearing and interpreting protocols differently.

Each year, environmental stressors such as drought, excess moisture, high temperatures, humidity and insect damage predispose crops to mold growth and subsequent mycotoxin contamination. Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites secreted by various fungi species found on crops grown for livestock feed.