Fluctuating milk prices, long hours, last-minute emergencies, unpredictable weather – these are just a few of the many challenges dairy farmers face every single day. When you grow up in the industry, these are part of normal life, but for people joining the dairy industry, they can be a huge learning experience and adjustment.

I have been active on the Veterinary Practice Sustainability Committee of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) for the past five years. The members of the committee have been great to work with and are very proactive on tackling issues in the workplace.

Maintaining a healthy herd from birth until cow retirement benefits a dairy. A healthy animal can lead to lower maintenance and treatment costs, and even increased milk productivity.

You don’t need to look far in mainstream life to see evidence of concern regarding antibiotic resistance. It seems every week, a new fast-food chain touts its products are “raised without antibiotics,” and media stories about antibiotic resistance in human health appear just as regularly.

The goal of any nursery calf program should be to strike a balance between maximizing health and growth during the first half of the nursery phase and building a fully functional rumen during the second half.

Raising a calf to become a high-producing cow is critical to a herd’s future. To help dairy producers in their quest to develop more productive animals, the last decade of industry and university research has explored the connection between calf nutrition and lactation performance.

Nearly a decade ago, Prairie’s Edge Dairy Farm LLC in Fair Oaks, Indiana, began looking at manure as more than a byproduct of milk production. The owners decided to install an anaerobic digester to harvest the biogas and begin monetizing the value of the farm’s manure.

Nutrient removal systems for manure management have been around the dairy industry for more than 10 years, yet very few dairies in the U.S. are currently utilizing these systems. The cost of equipment, operating expenses and additional labor needs are major considerations when it comes to an installation.

Composting is a microbial-driven process. Like other living creatures, microbes need the right environment to survive and thrive. For successful composting, it is necessary to provide nutritious microbial “food”, suitable moisture, pH, temperature and oxygen.

It was March 2003, and I had just returned home from a dairy promotion as the Pennsylvania Dairy Princess. “We are selling the cows,” my dad said to me as I sat across the kitchen table from him.