When the Professional Nutrient Applicators Association of Wisconsin met earlier this year, the group invited four dairy producers to explain what they expect of the nutrient applicators they hire to handle an important task for their dairy operations.

This article was #9 of the Top 25 most well-read articles on www.progressivedairy.com in 2014. It was published in the March 12, 2014 Extra e-newsletter. Dr. Ken Nordlund shared the importance of positive-pressure ventilation systems and provided practical advice to keep in mind when designing a system. He estimated several thousand barns have been retrofitted with positive-pressure pressure tubes over the last few years in order to disperse fresh air in places where natural ventilation fails to reach.

As the snow begins to melt, frost leaves the ground and rain showers fall, farmers are busy applying manure and other nutrients to their fields in advance of spring planting.

The Discovery Farms Program continues to churn out on-farm research results in relation to the actual performance of environmental best management practices. Since 2002, this University of Wisconsin program has set up monitoring stations at surface, tile and stream sites and, in total, has collected 160 site years of information.

Canada’s two largest breed organizations have tallied the number of animal registrations received in 2013 – and both are proud to announce it was another record-breaking year.

Holstein Canada announced it had 285,449 registrations completed in 2013. This number is up 4,829 registrations, representing a 1.7 percent increase over 2012.

As hidden camera investigations have been used to heighten public attention on animal care issues, the Center for Food Integrity (CFI) created an Animal Care Review Panel to engage recognized animal care specialists to examine video and provide expert perspectives for food retailers, the dairy industry and the media. Since its formation in 2012, the ACRP has reviewed and offered their independent analysis of nine videos, including two of dairies, six of pork production and one of an egg farm.

The African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child,” could easily be transposed to read, “It takes a village to run a dairy farm.”