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Projected forward profit margins for dairy producers held relatively steady over the past quarter, although that masks some rather extreme volatility in price variation of both feed costs and milk values since March.
Margins remain only average for dairy producers through the first half of 2013, although positive all the same.
It looks to be a challenging landscape for dairy producers in the second half of the year given the uncertain outlook for feed, with adverse weather across the Corn Belt reducing yield prospects.
What once seemed to be a very promising growing season has now been thrown into question.
Volatile fuel costs are steadily becoming the new norm for consumers in the U.S. and much of the world. Earlier this year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected the price of imported crude oil to peak at $115 per barrel this summer, but due to stagnant global economic growth backed by rising financial uncertainty in Europe, oil prices fell well below $100 in June.
Predicting the cost of oil is contingent on many factors, yet it’s hard to deny the dramatic trend of rising fuel costs – today’s oil prices are more than four times what they were a decade ago.
More than 425 nutritionists and dairy industry professionals gathered in Dubuque, Iowa, June 13 and 14 for the Four-State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference.
The program planning committee consisted of dairy extension faculty from Iowa, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the intention of the conference was to provide timely research information for dairy industry professionals.
Decisions made at chopping affect silage quality in the bunker, nutrition in the feed alley and milk in the tank. Waiting to involve your nutritionist until you are ready to feed the silage may result in extensive ration adjustments or it may be too late to fix certain issues.
Liquid feeds can be a valuable resource for dairy farms to include in their TMRs.
Common liquid feeds included in the TMR include water, molasses-based supplements and byproducts such as whey products.
Feed programs that nurture rumen microbial populations help increase the dairy’s income over feed cost (IOFC).
Rumen microbial populations play a pivotal role in converting feedstuffs to high-quality microbial protein and volatile fatty acids (VFA), which serve as energy sources.
Every growing year is different. That’s what makes farming interesting, and some years, very challenging.
I’d like to delve into some of the major environmental factors that determine the quality of our corn silage when we go to harvest.
As I visit dairy farms across Pennsylvania in my role as a Penn State Dairy Extension Team member, two dairy cow health-related problems persist on many of the farms – lameness and delayed pregnancies due to various reproductive issues.
According to an extension article updated on January 27, 2011, studies completed in the state of New York have shown lameness to cost $90 per cow per year on average.
This anaerobic digester calls Big Sky West Dairy in Gooding, Idaho, home but it is financed, owned and operated by AgPower Group based in Colorado.
According to Bob Joblin with AgPower, the owner of the dairy realized the potential of a third-party system. “He was a progressive dairyman that understood what we were doing and had a need for it,” Joblin says.
Manure management is one of the many concerns dairy producers deal with across the country, especially when part of the nutrient management plan involves collecting and moving manure off of the dairy premises.
Whether you are a dairy producer or commercial manure applicator, you probably have encountered some type of problem during this process that links back to the manure pump.
Has your pump broken down due to gearbox failures? Ever have a situation where your propeller agitator doesn’t reach far enough into your lagoon or have a lagoon pump that has the reach but cannot cut through thick crust buildup?
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