Many dairy farmers have seen animals suffering from multiple tumors in the lymph nodes; this is just the tip of the iceberg. Many infected animals will not be clearly ill but are not producing to the best of their capabilities.

Anyone involved in dairy farming knows the frustration of a mastitis infection. It’s costly – maybe your favorite cow was culled too soon or your milk premiums took a hit. One clinical mastitis case alone is shown to cost $444 during the first 30 days in milk.

A contagious disease once seen as a “California problem” has now crept into every major dairy-producing state in the U.S., and it’s wreaking havoc on infected young calves and adult cows.

Subclinical ketosis: The quiet milk thief, sickening cows and frustrating farmers nationwide. The bad news: Detecting it effectively and efficiently on-farm can be costly and challenging.

Dairy operations looking to add a manure processing or treatment option to the farm need to first understand what is driving this change.

On-farm nitrogen management is important to ensure you are meeting production goals, maximizing return on investment and protecting air and water resources. Nitrogen is essential to the growth of all plants and animals and is typically the most limiting nutrient in agricultural production.

Imagine a regular day on the farm. You’re going about your chores as usual until the pump in the manure transfer pit under the barn breaks. You go down in the pit to fix it, but suddenly you’re overcome by manure gas.

When I was young, I lived on a ranch where we had all kinds of animals. Chickens were plentiful, and I gathered eggs and have seen new baby chicks. Sometimes a goose egg was placed under a setting hen to hatch, so I believed the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen when I first heard his tale of “The Ugly Duckling.”

Agriculture is one of the most important professions you could choose, but it can be unfriendly at times. Commodity prices are often inconsistent, weather patterns are unstable, markets can be volatile, and labor is growing scarce. With so many factors outside of your control, it’s understandable to want predictability and productivity.

Have you ever noticed that when you have to break some seemingly bad news to your young children, they aren’t nearly as bothered by it as you anticipated? A friend from school moves away, one of their show calves catches some strange disease and dies, or the water park plans get canceled because the hay is ready to bale.