Since a dairy cow’s diet consists of from 40 to 60 percent forage, the quality of that forage has an enormous impact on the performance and profitability of the dairy. What exactly determines the quality of forage? Forage quality is determined by the nutrient content and the digestibility of those nutrients. Protein, NDF, fat, sugar and starch are the nutrients to be most concerned with.

Due to my interest and background in purebred dairy cattle, I have followed the price of dairy replacements for many years. While working with a Florida-based dairy cooperative, my interest in watching dairy replacement prices grew for another reason. Many of the cooperative members purchased all or a large percentage of their replacements. Some members purchased hundreds of replacements each year. Watching the replacement buying patterns of cooperative members provided me another barometer of what was happening on their dairy farms in terms of profitability.

The extra point in football has been called pointless. The National Football League has discussed getting rid of it because the kick is easy, almost always made and just takes up valuable game time to move the kicking unit on and off the field. What if the NFL decided to add a wrinkle to the extra point kick? Let’s say the opposing team could line up, and when the whistle blew to start the play, they could move the goalpost one way or another to fool the kicking unit.

I’ve often said “I am not good with numbers, but I can spot a trend.” I have spent hours poring over data from milking machines. Unit-on time, peak milk flow, average milk flow, milk in the first two minutes, first 30 seconds and first 15 seconds are all data points that can be analyzed and at times need to be. But the truth is: At times the data can be truly overwhelming. What does it all mean?

A large portion of any dairy farmer’s milk check can come from quality bonuses. These quality bonuses ordinarily pay additional money for shipments of milk that test low in somatic cell count (SCC) as well as bacteria, which is measured by total plate count. These are on top of the usual payments for butterfat and protein. All of these quality components have a direct effect on the finished dairy product that is created with this milk.

An 18-month, nationwide study confirms there are large and consistent differences in the fatty acid profile of organic and conventional milk and dairy products in the U.S. The research was carried out by a team led by scientists at Washington State University and appeared in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Plos One last December.

Producing high-quality milk is a front-and-center goal of most dairy operations. Controlling mastitis and treating it effectively are key to achieving that goal. As the general public turns up its scrutiny on food production, it’s as important as ever to make sure we as an industry are using antibiotics responsibly.

Implementing a whole-farm approach to mastitis can impact farm profitability. A partnership between farmer and veterinarian managing udder health, based around protocols and education, can see a milk-quality program develop to minimize losses through mastitis. That can be worth several dollars per cow per year.

In 2013, the Center for Dairy Excellence released the results of a year-long comprehensive “Pennsylvania Dairy Futures Analysis,” showing trends in dairy production, processing and consumption, as well as opportunities for future growth in Pennsylvania. We conducted this analysis with the help of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn State and Saint Joseph’s University. When we released the results of the analysis early last year, the Center for Dairy Excellence offered 20 prescriptions intended to inspire the industry to strengthen our foothold in dairy. One of the most simplistic pieces of advice we offered in those prescriptions is that “getting better is essential.”