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So often when we are advocating for agriculture we are worried about the people outside of our personal circle, whether it be an acquaintance on social media, neighbors we do not know that well or strangers in a grocery store. So many times we are told these are the people we need to be reaching out to.
When I got asked to write the HERd management column for the “State of the Dairy Industry” issue, I knew it could be a challenge. After all, how do you summarize an entire year into so few words?
When talking to Brett Feldpausch, manager and partner of his family’s dairy farms, Rich-Ro Dairy Farms in central Michigan, you can tell he takes his job seriously. “We have good employees, but we want to make sure they have the tools to do their jobs well,” Feldpausch says. That is why he installed his version of a parlor timer.
All it takes is a walk through the grocery store, and you will begin to realize how important marketing is today. In each food product, there are distinct differences between labels, even when the product is something as basic as a gallon of milk.
We all remember the “got milk?” campaign and have begun to see commercials and materials for the new “Milk Life” campaign. But what about those local campaigns we see in our home state or regions? We might be surprised about the influence they currently have on consumer choices and the influence they could have in the future.
On the recent Innovation Dairy Tour, GEA Farm Technologies showed just how cutting-edge the technology available to today’s producers is. Dairy producers from across the country witnessed a range of high-tech equipment ranging from tools for calf management to the latest in parlor equipment.
At the 2013 Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference in Frankenmuth, Michigan, Dr. Roger Thomson from Team Management Concepts and Dr. Ron Erskine from Michigan State University hosted a talk titled “Treat Them or Eat Them: Prevention and Treatment Critical to Milk Quality and Animal Health.” (Editor’s note: Click here to see a related article from the Thomson/Erskine team in May 21st issue.)
One of the more unique items on the recent Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference schedule was the robot producer panel. The four different farms represented on the panel were of varying sizes with different robotic systems.
