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When it comes to consistency, it’s hard to beat a robot. For brothers Jon and Mark Qual, their father, Alan, cousins Nathan and Tyler, and uncle Rodney, who all own and operate Qual Dairy in Lisbon, North Dakota, a robotic rotary parlor fit what they wanted in their new parlor.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 45,000 Americans died from suicide in 2016 – one person every 12 minutes. Another 1.3 million people attempted suicide that year. Given these numbers, mental health has been a topic of increasing concern.
When it comes to raising healthy, vigorous calves, Mohamed ElSheikh, DVM, feed department and calf manager at North Florida Holsteins in Bell, Florida, believes it all comes back to management.
Subclinical ketosis: The quiet milk thief, sickening cows and frustrating farmers nationwide. The bad news: Detecting it effectively and efficiently on-farm can be costly and challenging.
With heifer raising accounting for roughly 20 percent of total farm expenses, paying close attention to heifer nutrition and management is essential for raising quality replacement animals without adding on unnecessary expenses.
“There’s always something to learn,” Sam Gardner, co-owner and farm manager of Gardner Heifers in Huddleston, Virginia, says. “If you’re going to be involved in any industry, you really need to be out on the forefront trying to learn what’s new. Like anything, if you get stuck in how it was always done in the past, and you’re not looking to see what’s out ahead of you, then you’re going to get left behind.”
Proposed changes announced for FARM 4.0Proposed changes for Version 4.0 of the National Dairy FARM (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management) program – dealing with animal care – were released on Feb. 25.
After growing their milking herd from 300 cows to 500, Myron Daniels, co-owner of MGD Farms in Union Grove, Wisconsin, had too many calves for their 25-pen calf barn.
Auto-feeder systems face many challenges, including temperature, moisture (humidity), dust, colostrum, genetics, environment and ventilation. Overcoming these challenges is important for raising healthy calves on an auto-feeder.
Calf diarrhea is a costly, but common problem on today’s dairies. In fact, according to the 2014 NAHMS data, diarrhea was responsible for 56 percent of pre-weaned heifer deaths. In addition, recent research shows that even when calves overcome this disease challenge, there are still negative consequences in the form of reduced first-lactation milk production and increased age at first calving. Thus, preventing diarrhea is essential to raising healthy calves.
