So which came first, the chicken or the egg? In her presentation at the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin’s Calf Care Connection event last October, Dr. Sandra Godden, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine, likened the question of calf-feeding systems versus housing systems to this age-old quandary.

Over the past five years, Ruedinger Farms Inc. in Van Dyne, Wisconsin, has increased its herd size by 400 head. They now have 1,400 cows and 210 calves.On average, the farm is milking 1,200 cows each day with one double-11 parlor.

A little over 11 years ago, Cathy Speirs and her husband, Gordon, decided to move their small dairy operation from Alberta, Canada, to Brillion, Wisconsin. At the time, they only had 125 cows on their operation. Through many years of hard work, they and their two sons have grown the herd to 2,000 milking cows and 2,200 calves and replacement heifers.

“My dad always said, ‘If you have a good man, pay him well and he will make you money,’” says George Mueller, a shared partner and one of the founders of Willow Bend Farm in Clifton Springs, New York. Like many children, Mueller wasn’t all that impressed by his father’s advice. Over the years, however, he has come to understand the wisdom.

When it comes to raising calves, Meadow Brook Dairy Farms is known as one of the best, and with the recent addition of a new calf barn and automated feeding, the best just got better.

In a culture where consumers are taking an increased interest in how their food is raised, the topic of animal welfare has become increasingly popular. To help producers develop protocols for their operations that follow the current animal welfare standard, Merck Animal Health has developed a series of training modules which are available on their Dairy CARE 365 website.

Past experience has taught the men and women of the agriculture industry to eye animal welfare commitments from major corporations with an apprehensive eye. Nestlé’s latest commitment appears to be no exception to this rule. In an Aug. 21, 2014, press release, Nestlé announced its partnership with NGO World Animal Protection and renewed its commitment to farm animal welfare. Nestlé has 7,300 suppliers who act as middlemen between Nestlé and producers. Consequently, this initiative affects tens of thousands of dairymen around the world.

For the past 63 years, Keith Spicher’s family has been running Kish View Farms in Belleville, Pennsylvania. The 650-acre operation is a partnership between Keith and his brother. Kent is in charge of managing the crops and books while Keith manages the dairy. Although he is no longer an official partner, their father, David, still helps out on the operation.