Empty barns across America are a ghostly reminder of the dairy industry’s rapid exodus. Hollow and empty, they once housed the lifeblood of a farm, and are now begging a return to useful service for the farm family.

Milk prices declined in 2018, but announced prices again didn’t tell the whole story. Marketing deductions continued to shrink basis as well.

With the end of another year, now is the time to brush up on key financial ratios and cost drivers that will assist in evaluating your farm’s performance.

From an award of attorneys’ fees in Idaho to a new legal challenge in Kansas, “ag gag” laws continue to be in the news. Let’s take a look back at recent legal decisions and where pending litigation currently stands.

Everyone can use a little less stress in their lives, especially farmers. Fortunately, there are unlimited options to help you relax and de-stress.

After the time and attention that has been invested in raising and breeding heifers, it can be easy to transition heifers to the pregnant pen and put them on autopilot until calving. However, there are some critical things that need to be monitored during this time period to ensure we are on target to meet dairy goals, and that those goals align to being a profitable dairy farm.

The science of monitoring milk yield and deviations from the expected lactation curve dates back more than half a century – when Dairy Herd Improvement testing began.

In August 2018, six new health traits – milk fever, displaced abomasum, ketosis, mastitis, metritis and retained placenta – were introduced to the Net Merit index (NM$), adding to a growing list of low heritability traits available in the last few years.

Whoever the calendar guru was, I wish he would have made New Year’s in the bright morning of spring instead of the midnight of winter. It would have been so much easier to make resolutions and keep them. In spring, you have the birds chirping, new flowers leaping into blossoms and grass spreading velvet green carpet everywhere.

Farmers are problem-solvers; we have to be. Often, when the chips are truly down, there are few if any options in the way of assistance we can call in time to make a difference. Winter weather can bring all kinds of challenges – frozen pipes, protecting livestock from the elements or simply being able to physically traverse to our tasks.