Is now the time to install solar panels on your dairy farm? Is the price just right? Slowing demand in Europe and an ample supply of panels from China may signal that dairy producers should dust off any abandoned solar installation plans and plug in some new pricing numbers.

As things heat up, don’t let your profitability go down. Research shows that cooling cows during their dry period can keep the milk coming for months to come. “By cooling dry cows, we will definitely get more milk in the next lactation,” says Bruno Amaral, dairy nutritionist with Purina Animal Nutrition.

Lewis Horning, a Pennsylvania dairy farmer, has switched to robotic milking, utilizing a Lely robotic milker. He spoke about his experience with the change to a robotic milking system at the Penn State Mastitis and Milk Quality Conference.

TMR mixers are utilized for batch mixing feed rations for dairy cows. TMR mixers allow the use of a variety of feeds (dry hay, silage and haylage, grain, etc.) to be blended into a ration that provides the desired nutritional requirements for the animal.

We asked a major ag original equipment manufacturer, Case IH, questions relating to equipment trends, efficiency and new ag machinery laws popping up around the country. Several professionals from their company team had this to say:

It’s one of those things that producers sometimes take for granted. After completing daily maintenance and equipment checks before heading to the field, producers just expect tires will keep on turning – all day, the next day and for many days and years to come. And because tire failures happen so seldom, when it does occur, especially in the field and away from the shop, the importance of having a tire dealer you can rely on to help keep the wheels turning is essential.

There is a lot of material to move around on a dairy farm, from feed coming in at harvest to feed and bedding delivered to the end user (the cows) to the removal and spreading of manure – and it all needs wheels under it to move. As the size of a “normal” dairy has increased, more and more dairies need their own fleet of farm trucks.

Every producer thinking about or already purchasing a robotic milking system has heard all the stories that can go with a transition – the drama, the tall tales, the truly rough experiences. These sagas usually are the only stories that get re-told over and over, making it seem like every robotic milking startup will have an epic story to tell.