Ohio native Skylar Gericke quickly learned how brutal Arizona summers can be on conception rates and getting cows pregnant. He did his best to get cows bred, and when he was done for the day, he started noticing other improvement areas on the dairy.

In this podcast episode, Matt Hendel shares how herd data supports day-to-day decision-making on his dairy operation.

The latest issue of Progressive Dairy magazine is available. To view, make sure you're logged into your agproud.com account. If you do not have access, click "Subscribe" in the top-right corner of agproud.com to add permission to view. 

Progressive Dairy, in collaboration with Professional Dairy Producers (PDP), recently invited each of the following companies on stage during PDP’s Business Conference March 4-5 as winners of Nexus Innovation Awards. Each was deemed an award winner by a panel of dairy producers.

As I write this, I can hear the crunching of roof and tin being pulled away from our old dry cow barn on our dairy farm. The barn has been here for longer than I have. Shortly after we purchased our own herd, the barn became a dry pen. So, for the past 21 years, the barn has served as the place where basically all our animals calved.

Words are extremely powerful. Written words can completely change a person’s attitude.

Growing up, our garden was less a place of vegetables than a weedier portion of our lawn. Whatever enthusiasm my parents found on a warm spring day to scatter seeds had usually evaporated by the time fieldwork took off.

There is an old hymn that asks the question, “Ere you left your room this morning, did you think to pray?” The better question would be, “When you left your room this morning, did you think when you prayed?”