Our emotions regularly get in the way of effective negotiations at the farm and at home.

Successful reproductive managers have only so many hours everyday to accomplish a multitude of tasks.

There have been numerous scientific studies that have shown exposing lactating dairy cows to a long-day photoperiod (LDPP – 16 to 18 hours of light and six to eight hours of dark) in a 24-hour period improves milk production and reproduction performance, that this response persists through an entire lactation, perhaps increasing milk yield as much as 8 to 10 percent.

In a previous column, I reported to you my new assignment to Washington, D.C., and then to Baghdad, Iraq.

Milking equipment function can have a profound negative impact on teat-end health and overall milk quality.

No one need say more about how bad the dairy industry’s situation has nose-dived in the last two months.

Since October 2008, the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) has purchased approximately 110 million pounds of non-fat dried milk (NFDM).

Almost 50 years ago the growing number of mastitis cases and accompanying costs sparked the need for producers, allied industry professionals and researchers to join together in an effort to reverse this negative, costly trend.

When crossing a river to engage the enemy, Oliver Cromwell was quoted as saying to his troops, “Put your trust in God; but mind to keep your powder dry.”

Success on a dairy can be measured in many ways. It could be found in pounds per cow, herd growth over time, percent of Excellent-scoring cows or year-end profits.