Elyas Tesfaye has been sharing his collection of agricultural film online for several years. Progressive Dairy Editor Matti McBride interviewed Tesfaye to learn how this hobby began and what it means to him.

Hamer Farms grows about 1,500 acres of potatoes, along with alfalfa, corn, wheat and mustard. The farm and packing operation together employ almost 60 people.

H.R. 1 (commonly called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – OBBBA) included numerous provisions impacting agricultural operations (some positive, some negative). For today, we will focus on three.

The benefits to automated milking systems are well documented when referenced to cow welfare, production potential and labor optimization. Although there are many facets to the optimization of these systems, one of the most undervalued is the parameters surrounding individual milking events and what draws the cows to the robot.

A productive cow can only have one calf per year. For generations, that biological limit has defined how fast beef producers can make genetic progress in their herds. No matter how elite a female is, her influence on a herd is constrained by time.

A digital twin is a continuously updated virtual version of a real system. In dairy, that system might be an individual cow, a milking robot or the entire barn. The twin mirrors the real-time state of the animal or equipment it represents. When a cow walks to the feedbunk, her virtual counterpart records it.