Back when average herd size was 50 cows or fewer, it was easy to manage cows individually. As herd sizes increase, however, it becomes harder to make sure each cow gets the attention she needs. With animal health and reproduction programs that require regular cow handling, individual cow management is even more critical.

Are commodity prices changing your operation?

Alfalfa hay and other forage producers often become complacent when they hear the term “risk management.”

The orderly progression of plant growth is manifest organically.

My daughter recently began collecting one of the most current and frequently distributed tradeshow giveaways – stress balls. Yet, as you probably know, the reason they’re growing in popularity is because they don’t come in just one form anymore. Among her expanding collection, she’s received a sun, an apple, a loaf of bread and a growing herd of animals, including a bison, chicken, pig, horse and, of course, a dairy cow. She calls them her “squishy toys.”

The Proud to Dairy network continues to grow across the country. We have had interest shown from June Dairy Month organizers in Vermont to a race car team wishing to display the Proud to Dairy logo on their race car in the upcoming race season! Where else could you see Proud to Dairy this next year? Send your ideas to proud@progressivedairy.com

When asked where her milk comes from, the consumer answered matter-of-factly, “The store.” This often-told expression says more about farmers than it does about consumers. As farmers, what we know best is how to produce the greatest and safest food product. It is our world. By showing consumers all of the technology and skills employed to make milk with pride, consumers will answer back in a collective “Ahh!” and will inevitably buy more of our products; no questions asked. Or so we hope.

Hispanics represent a significant portion of the agricultural workforce in the U.S. Between 1996 and 2000, the number of Hispanic farm workers has nearly doubled from 183,000 to 364,000. These farm workers may or may not have prior livestock experience, but constituted 47.4 percent of farm labor in 2002. Because only a very small number of farm managers are Hispanic, and Hispanic farm workers are for the most part foreign-born and Spanish-speaking, a communication gap is likely to arise between English-speaking management and Spanish-speaking labor on livestock operations.

Ask a few dozen agricultural managers what their largest human resource management issue is and chances are a good many of them are going to say, “Turnover!” However, it’s important to consider whether or not turnover is an issue in and of itself. Doctors frequently run tests and perform lengthy examinations when patients present very common complaints, simply because symptoms and diseases are two very different things. That’s exactly the case with turnover. Turnover itself is not a diagnosis. To truly understand why a business is having difficulty retaining a qualified workforce one has to go deeper – beyond the symptom to the disease itself.

Following the current increase in overall production costs, dairymen, nutritionists and feed industry professionals are actively looking for management alternatives to maximize dairy operation efficiency. Since 30 percent of dairy cows in a herd leave the dairy roughly 90 days postpartum, proper nutrition – particularly through the dry and transition period – has a significant impact on the animal’s longevity and performance.