Here’s the story of a typical day for a quality milk specialist, whose alarm clock is her daughter, Sophia, softly crying from her crib at 4:30 a.m. when she’s ready to be fed.

The dairy industry is conditioned to grab a tube and treat every case of mastitis that comes along. But in reality, all mastitis cases are not created equal, and treating all cases the same can mean you’re wasting time, milk and money.

One of the highest risk periods for mastitis in a cow’s life is the period just after it is dried off. Bacteria enter the mammary gland when the teat canal is open, and in the period just after dry-off the teat canal can remain open for a while.

One day late in June, one farm did what others may be too scared to have happen. It let 20 outside individuals conduct a walk-through of the dairy to make observations related to milk quality and to troubleshoot areas for improvement.

Over the last few decades, numerous advances in the dairy industry have allowed lactating dairy cows to produce greater quantities of higher-quality milk than ever before.

Most dairy nutritionists have different philosophies when it comes to dairy cow ration formulation. But we can all agree on one thing: It’s not just crude protein and net energy of lactation anymore.

Feeding fresh cows has been an ongoing challenge for the dairy industry for many years, especially since the national average for a single lactation is over 22,000 pounds and climbing.

Depending upon how much silage inventory carryover your farm has on hand, you may be looking at making the switch to new-crop corn silage very soon, if you haven’t already. When making these transitions, it’s important to keep a close eye on starch content and digestibility.

Fiber continues to be a key nutrient in the dairy rations of high-producing cows. Forages are the main source of fiber that may be raised on the dairy farm. But quality can vary greatly from crop to crop and year to year.

“What do heat stress in dairy cows and ketosis have in common? Leaky gut syndrome (LGS),” Lance Baumgard, professor of animal science at Iowa State University, says.