Progressive Dairy

Safety tips when working around bulls

Bulls are dangerous. While it’s best to not have them on the farm, extra precautions should be taken to improve safety if they are on the premises.

September 3, 2025

Emily Krekelberg

Bull safety should never be an afterthought on your farm. If there is a bull on the premises, use the practices outlined here. Exercising caution with bulls reduces risk for everyone on the farm.

Maximizing sand recovery: Proven practices to protect your bedding investments

Discover how new tools and better practices make sand recovery more efficient, less labor-intensive and a whole lot easier on your operation – and your bottom line.

September 3, 2025

Renee Schrift

Choosing the right bedding is essential for cow comfort, herd health and overall dairy performance. Sand is a popular choice thanks to its comfort, cleanliness and long-term affordability – especially when paired with an effective recovery and recycling program.

Rabobank: Subtle shifts for 2025, but a shake-up expected for 2026

September 2, 2025

Audrey Schmitz

Modest milk price recovery and steady consumer demand helped stabilize revenue growth for the world’s largest dairy companies in 2024, according to the latest annual international report from Rabobank.

Dairy risk management calendar: September 2025

Progressive Dairy provides monthly updates to important dates, reports and advice affecting risk management decisions.

September 2, 2025

Jenn Coyne

The USDA released a report in early August that forecast record corn yields this fall – production surpassing 16 billion bushels with a record-high yield of 188.8 bushels per acre. The announcement created buzz in the markets, which only further aided dairy producers’ income over feed cost (IOFC) outlook for the remainder of the year.

Dairy Margin Coverage margin drops to $10.94 in July

Stumbling feed costs weigh down the margin above feed cost for a DMC program margin of $10.94 per cwt.

September 2, 2025

Jenn Coyne

The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released its Agricultural Prices report Aug. 29, which includes feed costs and milk prices used to calculate the July Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program margins and indemnity payments.

Annie G's Dairy: First-of-its-kind milk vending machine debuts in the U.S.

Annie G’s Dairy in Michigan installed a vending machine that allows customers to fill glass bottles with their choice of several milk flavors.

September 2, 2025

Bev Berens

The final piece of their 10-year goal was to sell milk from their farm in a value-added format. Cheese, ice cream, fluid milk – each was researched and on the table. A 2021 trip to Ireland introduced Dave and Kat Mageean to the European design of milk vending machine that they are now using, where customers fill and cap glass bottles themselves using the same concept as a convenience store fountain drink dispenser.

Nontraditional transitions in dairy farming

Mentorship, leasing and partnership are some of the ways to transition the farm to a trusted individual that is not part of the family.

September 2, 2025

Bill Oppreicht

Transitioning a dairy operation through lease, sale or partnership involves more complexity than many other farm enterprises. This article discusses some key areas that require careful attention.

Genomic tools help us manage genetic defects

Genetic defects result from errors in biology that we can’t control; however, new tools that help us identify these defects and genomics are a key in managing them.

September 1, 2025

John Cole

There is perhaps nothing more discouraging on the farm than visiting the maternity pen and finding a calf that displays an abnormality. Developmental defects like this can be caused by something in the environment. Other times, they’re caused by changes in an animal’s DNA that can be passed on from parent to offspring.

A safer farm makes a stronger farm: Virginia dairy wife creates emergency kits

Katie Hammock created emergency kits and sells them to farmers. This way, farmers can feel more at ease doing their day-to-day work.

September 1, 2025

Frances Pierce

Katie Hammock has been passionate about the medical field for a long time and wanted to bridge that passion with her deep-rooted background in dairy farming. Hammock made this possible when she created emergency farm kits to sell to farmers. Her mission grew to educate, equip and empower farm families.

Improve reproduction and heat stress management, one data point at a time

Harness monitoring technology not just to combat heat stress but to identify and breed cows naturally equipped to thrive in warmer temperatures to ensure a more resilient herd for the future.

August 29, 2025

Tera Baker

Dairies using activity monitoring technology to measure the effects of heat stress on their cows can unlock a valuable opportunity: integrating this data into breeding decisions as part of a comprehensive, data-driven herd management strategy.