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A pest control innovation newly available to dairy producers delivers up to 90 days of fly-killing power in a broad-spectrum premise spray.
From the calf barn to the milking parlor, Annihilator Polyzone from Bayer Animal Health brings effective, longer-lasting fly and insect control to the areas of the dairy that need it most.
This article was #4 of the Top 25 most well-read articles on www.progressivedairy.com in 2014. It was published in the Feb. 7, 2014 print issue.
It all began with the need for a new manure-handling system. One thing led to another, and soon Craig Finke was building the most automated dairy in the U.S. A local dealership introduced him to a new automated feeding system in use in Europe.
Two dairymen who will test-drive new Web-based margin-tracking software for one year as part of Progressive Dairyman’s first-ever peer technology user group say they want to know more precisely their real-time dairy margins.
Just five years shy of their family dairy’s 100-year anniversary, dairymen brothers Bruce and Brad Scott of San Jacinto, California, faced a most terrible “what if” situation.
State water quality regulators informed the Scotts that within five years they could no longer apply any manure – in liquid or solid form – to their adjacent farm ground.
Making the switch from old-crop corn silage to new-crop corn silage each year can oftentimes challenge milk production, particularly if the new-crop corn silage hasn’t had enough time to ferment. Depending upon location, some dairy producers may already be faced with feeding the recently harvested 2013 corn crop.
As 2013 corn silage is beginning to be more widely fed, producers need to be aware of the findings from a recent U.S. harvest analysis and the impact it may have on herd health and performance.
We recently conducted a harvest analysis survey for corn silage and various grains to identify which mycotoxins are present and their levels of concentration in this year’s crops. The analysis was utilized to identify which of a possible 38 mycotoxins were present in each sample.
Dairy cattle and other ruminants are biologically designed to convert forages and other fibrous feeds into high-quality products such as milk and meat for human consumption.
Forages also provide the foundation upon which nutritionally sound, rumen-healthy and profitable dairy rations are built. The trend in the Northeast has been to increase the proportion of the total ration from forage in the last 10 to 15 years.
The dairy industry has made great strides in reducing the amount of protein we feed while improving performance. Not only has this had a positive impact on a farm’s bottom line but also on reducing nitrogen flowing into the environment.
Forage is an important ingredient in dairy cattle rations. However, it can be difficult to achieve high intake levels with certain forage-based diets. We have long recognized that NDF digestibility influences intake.
In fact, researchers in 1999 made the observation that a one-unit increase in NDF digestibility (NDFd) is associated with 0.37-pound increase in dry matter (DM) intake and 0.55-pound increase in 4 percent fat-corrected milk.
High-performing dairy cows thrive on consistency and routine, from a quiet and comfortable pen environment and consistent milking times to a stable and nutritious TMR delivered at the same times each day.
Dairy owners, managers and consultants have long recognized that the foundation of a nutrition program is measuring moisture. However, accurately and quickly assessing moisture for a variety of forages and feeds remains a challenging task.
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