Artificial insemination as a regular practice may seem out of reach on your operation, but this floor- and ceiling-raising technology is more affordable and easier to access than ever before.

Dairy farmers are no longer just milk producers – they are key players in the beef industry. With the right reproductive strategies, they can maximize the value of every calf born on their operation.

We see a lot of variation in cattle, even when we utilize full siblings within sire groups. We wonder why there is so much variation from the lightest calf to the heaviest calf, and from the highest-quality grade to the lowest-quality grade, and from the calf that stays in the herd until she is 14 to 17 years old versus the one that falls out at 2 years old.

A single low-fertility bull can wreak havoc on breeding success, leading to fewer calves and major financial losses. But how can producers know which bulls are underperforming before it’s too late?

Today, sexed semen is available on a wide selection of sires and performs at a fertility level encouraging the most skeptical operators to give it a try.

With dairy heifer replacement values at historic highs due to tight inventory, keeping high-producing dairy cows in a herd, especially those beyond their first lactation, is economically significant. Some dairies are turning to beef embryo transfer (ET) to keep productive cows in their herds longer.

Some producers may be leery of adopting practices such as artificial insemination, embryo transfer and in vitro fertilization due to perceived high costs and risk factors. Here’s a look at some of the numbers.

Running a successful cow-calf operation requires an almost immeasurable amount of management decisions, ranging from ration ingredients to whether in vitro fertilization (IVF) is in the cards.

Sitting in his home office sipping a cup of coffee, Paul Larmer is seemingly common. Unbeknownst to the average person, his influence on the dairy cattle genetics sector of the industry is undeniable. It is for both his remarkable leadership and self-effacing attitude that Larmer is named this year’s World Dairy Expo International Person of the Year.