Over 30 years ago, a group of farm women in Nebraska recognized a need to speak up for agriculture and formed Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE). Today, it is a national organization with local chapters and state associations in 15 states across the country. “Most of our members are ladies who get the dirt under their fingernails,” says Tammy Basel, national WIFE president from Union Center, South Dakota.

Robyn Buttars of Lewiston, Utah, has been writing and composing music for more than 13 years. When she reached a special birthday milestone in her life, she decided it was time to take her writing to the next level. “About when I turned 40, I thought, ‘I want to write a book,’” she says. “So I just decided it was time to do it.”

The dairy industry in south Florida has seen its share of changes in the last 70 years, and producer Red Larson has witnessed all of them from his start as a hand milker to the large dairy operations he manages today.

Progressive Dairyman asked dairy producers and allied industry at Managers Academy Jan. 20-22 in Orlando, Florida, the following question: “What strategies will your business employ or recommend to keep dairies strong through 2009?”

Success on a dairy can be measured in many ways. It could be found in pounds per cow, herd growth over time, percent of Excellent-scoring cows or year-end profits.

The last time Josie and Jocelyn Riser traveled to World Dairy Expo, Jocelyn was only four years old. The mother-daughter duo had the opportunity to return to Madison, Wisconsin, for the event when they decided to take Jocelyn’s Senior 3-Year-Old to compete.

Through most of the year, Cranberry Creek Dairy appears to be your average dairy farm with a milking parlor, freestall barns, machine shed and feed storage, but come the first hard frost of the year, some of Santa’s many elves descend on the dairy and convert a couple of the farm buildings into Christmas workshops.

Are commodity prices changing your operation?

Traveling one afternoon with Ricardo Ehrenfeld Stolzenbach, a veterinarian and sales manager for Cooprinsem, a farmer cooperative in Puerto Varas, Chile, was most informative. Ricardo is in charge of the A.I. department in his area, supervising three technicians and three insemination routes, along with handling direct herd sales and matings. His company represents CRI, Accelerated and Holland Genetics in the area. The average semen price is 6,500 pesos per unit (U.S. $13.00). They average 1.6 services per conception; however, in some of the better herds it is as low as 1.3 services per conception. The average calving interval for well-managed herds is 13 months.

Vic Robinson’s dairy, just outside of Richfield, Idaho, is reminiscent of the small, family dairies that were once the staple of Idaho’s dairy industry. It isn’t much to look at, and it lacks a lot of the modern equipment found in today’s high-tech operations; however, Robinson wouldn’t have it any other way. “Are you sure I can’t talk you into taking a goose or two?” he says of the 50 or so who honk loudly while waddling out to the nearby field. An array of different animals grace the little dairy; along with the cows, the geese and some horses, a mismatched menagerie of chickens make their home around the barn, and an old farm cat can be seen scurrying by, hoping to score a field mouse or two.