When you wake up in the morning, you have two jobs that must be done regardless of everything else – you need to get your cows milked, and you must get them fed. Everything else can be put on hold to ensure these two activities are completed.

India, a country in which 70 percent of people are involved in agriculture one way or another, has experienced an epidemic of farmer suicides in recent decades. The phenomenon is attributed to the difficulties of the occupation, which can range from monsoon failure to crop problems to money-lending vultures.

Each year, for eight days in January, hundreds of thousands of people flock to Harrisburg to visit the Pennsylvania Farm Show. This event is known across Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic region for its delicious food, animal shows and family-friendly exhibits but, mostly, it’s where city people go to learn about farming.

We’ve all heard of people who are “legends” like John Elway, Carol Burnett and Ronald Reagan. People who were great at what they did. And then we’ve also heard of people who are “legends in their own minds.” Like the Kardashians and CNN’s Jim Acosta.

Proposed changes announced for FARM 4.0 Proposed changes for Version 4.0 of the National Dairy FARM (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management) program – dealing with animal care – were released on Feb. 25.

How many of you have ever had a new veterinarian out to your place? You think you’re scared?

In the current dairy industry, many times when we think of the “typical” dairy farm, images come to mind of freestall barns or drylots, mixing wagons and commodity barns, huge piles of silage and stack after stack of hay.

Use a planned approach to bring even greater precision to strategic breeding. Strategic breeding plans are commonplace among commercial herds. Producers are considering their future goals and breeding different groups of animals to specific types of semen to create the most profitable breeding plan. Beef semen, conventional dairy semen and sexed dairy semen are among the options. Before leaping into a strategic breeding plan, however, it’s important to strategize so the results meet the goals.

Whether you have 100 cows or 1,200 cows, it’s likely you have a few employees. I’m sure you have employed plenty of good, quality workers as well as a few bad employees. The question is, “How do we create and keep quality employees?” – especially during a time when pay increases and bonuses may not be an option.