A lot of start-up companies hire high-priced marketing agencies to develop a compelling story about their business, paying professionals to script a narrative that can generate well-placed stories in magazines and newspapers. Sonoma County dairywoman Karen Bianchi-Moreda had a great story – she just needed the business to go with it. In fact, she said, it was her family’s story of survival, hard work and perseverance that compelled her to start a farm business that showcases her ancestors’ rich history of life on the land in the Sonoma-Marin dairy belt.

What started as an assignment for a college internship has turned into an Internet sensation for an Illinois student. Erin Ehnle began her Facebook page “Keeping it Real – Through the Lens of a Farm Girl” last January. At the time, she was one of 15 social media interns on the staff of the Illinois Corn Marketing Board. Ehnle says the interns were in charge of creating positive ag messages for use on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

All across the country dairy farmers are again struggling to stay in business. The milk-to-feed price ratio is the lowest it’s ever been, making it increasingly more difficult to make ends meet. As we know, the solution to the problem is very simple – all costs of production must, as a whole, be lower than the price of milk. And wouldn’t we all sleep a little better knowing we’re getting … hmmm … maybe $30 per hundredweight (cwt) for our milk?

Sixty years ago, Dr. Virginia Apgar developed a simple method to evaluate the well-being of a newborn child at birth. Used worldwide, this assessment is performed within minutes of birth using nothing more than a stethoscope and a clock. Babies are given an APGAR score from 0 to 10, which indicates the child’s initial health status and whether or not medical attention is necessary. Today, researchers at the University of Guelph have created a similar assessment to evaluate the health of a newborn calf.

The results of the 2011 Dairy Heifer Raiser Survey, conducted by the National Animal Health Monitoring System, became publicly available in October 2012. Progressive Dairyman staff will be studying the report in depth and inviting industry experts to comment on trends and developments. In the meantime, find out what NAHMS researchers and our staff found most interesting.

It is no secret dairy producers don’t like dealing with sick calves. They are young, vulnerable and treatment can be expensive. Diarrhea, or what is commonly referred to as scours, continues to be the top challenge we face with preweaned calves. Preventing calfhood diarrhea should always be our first priority, but an effective preventive strategy also includes knowing when to utilize treatment. For this, producers need to understand the causes, symptoms and treatment options for young calves. As always, work with your herd’s veterinarian to develop a treatment protocol for calves with diarrhea.

This article was #18 of the Top 25 most well-read articles on www.progressivedairy.com in 2013. It was published in the Nov. 21, 2012 print issue. Click here for the full list of the Top 25. This roundtable, the final in a three-part series, featured five Midwest producers using automatic calf feeders. The producers described factors they considered, challenges they had with installation and lessons learned with the feeders. We asked the producers: Q. If you were given unlimited resources (time, labor, money, land, etc.), what is one change you would make to your calf-raising program and why?