The investment made in young heifers today lays the groundwork for future herd performance and profitability. Heifers are a group of animals that may be overlooked at a time of tight margins. However, when their needs go unmet, growth, health and, ultimately, lifetime production can all be negatively impacted. The long-term consequences of cutting expenses in the heifer pen are a huge price to pay for small reductions in rearing costs. There are producers doing it right – investing in their heifer pens for earlier breeding and calving, leading to greater milk production. Raising heifers to their potential is something Aardema Dairy of Wendell, Idaho, has valued in an effort to achieve optimal herd performance, starting with their young calves.

Editor’s note: The following article is the first in a series discussing electrolyte formulation and function in calves. Electrolyte comparisons show up in articles and publications from time to time, and are typically based on information found on the label of each product. Although probably unintentional, these comparisons usually contain a fair amount of incorrect or misleading information. These profiles may be convenient and are intended to be informative, but caution needs to be exercised when using these comparisons. To begin, the product profiles in these comparisons use values calculated from the actual numbers of molecules of the different ingredients that make up each electrolyte product. What?!

(Setting: Church basement with congregation members sitting around in a circle waiting. Enter ACTRESS playing the part of the never-prepared, always-too-busy person we know in all of our lives. She rushes in and begins to address the group.)

Proper maintenance and management of your tires can have far-reaching effects on your operation – from the performance of your equipment to the productivity of your fields. A few pounds of air pressure quickly find their way to your bottom line. Proper inflation is not a single number – it’s a factor of tire construction, load, speed and pressure, which is why manufacturers create extensive inflation pressure tables.

My father, in spite of himself, scratched the back of the cat’s neck when he passed by. The cat lifted his head and looked up at him. He followed the trajectory of my father’s hand with blank eyes as it slipped back into the pocket of his jeans.