Three dairymen who installed rumination and activity monitoring systems over five years ago share their experiences and advice from the East, Midwest and West regions.

Erin Mosley is owner of Mosley Dairy Consulting LLC and lives in Canal Winchester, Ohio. She provides independent dairy nutrition consultation focusing on the utilization of currently available software and technology to aid in the evaluation of feed- and cow-health-related data to help identify key areas of opportunity for production, health and financial improvement.

If you’re reading this, you know something I don’t: who won Super Bowl 53. As I write this editorial, the divisional round of the NFL playoffs is complete.

Whenever I talk to anybody about drinking whey, they look at me like I’m crazy,” says Sam Alcaine, assistant professor of dairy fermentation at Cornell University.

“It is slightly sweet when you first smell it. When you take a first sip, it has the heat you would expect in the vodka, but that heat quickly settles down and leaves you a sweet, almost caramel aftertaste,” says Omid McDonald, founder of Dairy Distillery.

According to recent phone and online polls conducted by Progressive Dairyman, most U.S. dairy farms do not feed a negative dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) diet during the dry period.

Optimizing milk efficiency and component yield are essential to ensuring a farm’s overall profitability. Progressive Dairyman Editor Audrey Schmitz asked Brian Lammers, dairy nutritionist for Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), to share his insights on how to best build rations for cows to maximize milk efficiency, milkfat and protein production.

A.I. and good bulls are where it’s at to build a good herd of cows, says Norman Martin, owner of Martin Dairy LLC in Tillamook, Oregon. To date, the dairy is the highest genetically ranked Jersey herd in the U.S.

While many kids get all excited about their summer vacation trip to the beach or a camping trip in the mountains, a dairy farm kid knows their summer will consist of fixing pasture fences, mowing hay or training a 4-H calf.

Fiber is a key component of the ruminant diet and can frequently account for over 50 percent dry matter intake through the inclusion of silage, hay and fibrous co-products.