One of the lingering side effects of growing up on a dairy farm is that I continue to wake up before 5 a.m. – despite being removed from the morning milking schedule for several decades.

I was a big Green Bay Packers fan as a kid growing up in the 1960s. Quarterback Bart Starr was my hero, and I did a few book reports on him as well as Coach Vince Lombardi.

You’re busy – milking cows, watching rain clouds and making hay. With that in mind, Progressive Dairyman looks at issues in the news impacting you and your dairy business. In recognition of your time, we’ll attempt to summarize recent events or actions making dairy headlines and reported in our weekly digital newsletter, Progressive Dairyman Extra. Then we’ll try to put that news into perspective and briefly describe how it might affect you.

I was a decent fiddle player and often got standing ovations when I let it rip in nursing homes. Yet I hadn’t played for over a decade until I wanted to impress my fiancee. Let’s just say the fiddle should have stayed in the case, and it’s a miracle she retained her hearing, let alone that I’m now married to her.

Sometimes farm succession planning comes down to one question: Do you want the farm to continue to be a family farm or not?

Having multiple generations of owners and employees on the farm comes with its own set of benefits and battles. How can your business be multigenerational and work well together, especially when it seems like the generational gap is so vast?

When there’s conflict at work, the manner in which it is handled and resolved affects both the individuals involved and the organization itself. Whether the tension is between co-workers, managerial staff and laborers, or owners and employees, improperly managed conflict can cause disagreements, disputes and even litigation.

I often refer to the incredible changes in dairy farms from my time growing up on the family farm in the thumb of Michigan to today. Let’s think about what has happened with feeding cows. When I was growing up, we fed bales of hay – pretty poor-quality by today’s standards – and grain, depending on production.

“We are just going to hang on and hope for better days ahead.” How many times have you heard fellow dairy producers proclaim those words – or even uttered them yourself?

Prevention and treatment of oxidative stress (OS) could be the solution to many of the dairy health, production and welfare issues of our time. Dr. Melissa Behr of the South Dakota State Diagnostic Lab believes “oxidative stress is the backbone of all diseases and cancer in mammals.”