Dairy managers and consultants focus on feeding and managing the lactating and dry dairy herd. This is logical since mistakes become readily apparent in substantial lost income, increased expenses or poor use of resources. The primary focus is directed toward providing the resources and working environment.

Puberty in dairy heifers can be defined as a measurable increase in blood progesterone with the presence of a corpus luteum (CL) on an ovary, and heifers begin actively cycling. Dairy heifers reach puberty at a defined stage of maturity (45 to 50 percent of mature size) rather than a certain age.

Designing a robotic milking barn, whether it’s a new build or a retrofit, involves a lot of moving parts and pieces, with many experts involved along the way.

Among the masses, prayer has become a thing to post on Facebook, a thing for only church-goers and religious fanatics, and seldom a thing to change the course of one’s life. Jesus meant it when he said, “Ask and ye shall receive,” but for many it is a matter of, “I don’t know how to ask.”

You know the old saying, “If your only tool is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail.” While that might be the case, the next question has to be, “What kind of hammer do you have?”

Most dairy producers focus on their cows’ ability to produce milk and milk components, and become pregnant, because profitability of a dairy operation occurs here.

Dragging our moldboard plow through the fields in the spring always tended to turn up more than just the soil. Sometimes there would be a cow’s lost neck chain that got scraped into the spreader or parts of a deer carcass turkey buzzards might have pulled off the road.

For me to effectively tell this story, we need to go back in time. The year is 2002, and my husband, Nate, is in his third year of college pursuing a degree in political science with goals of becoming a lawyer.

As I look at thousands of calving records every month for dairies ranging in size from 100 to 5,000 cows, one thing that is consistent among almost all of them is the wide range of ages that springing heifers calve.

We all love a good story. We all like to see the bad guy lose. And we all like to see a big girl squeeze into a wedding dress that’s three sizes too small just to watch her family cry. That’s why they created “reality television.”