What if you could add an internal thermometer for each of your cows to see core body temperature changes and signatures of disease several days before a cow shows outward signs of illness? A simplified version of temperature monitoring data that some dairies are collecting is shown to the right with its associated signature health condition.

Sometimes there’s just not enough room on the cover of the magazine to specifically highlight all the things I’d recommend our readers to take a look at in an issue. This is one such issue. If you don’t have much reading time, start with the cover articles. But you may also want to read these articles:

Rabobank N.A., a leading provider of agricultural financing and full-service banking products to the Californian agriculture industry, recently released a report entitled, “California Dairy: Turn West,” illustrating the state’s opportunities and competitive advantages as a global dairy exporter. Progressive Dairyman Editor Walt Cooley discusses the report with its author, Vernon Crowder. Q. What will producers find most surprising in this report? A. CROWDER: We’re putting it right on the table, and we’re talking about some of the new limits in terms of domestic growth for California producers. The report may not be a total surprise because a lot of dairymen have suspected these issues.

Utah dairywoman Maria Nye jokingly uses a line from one of the main characters from J.K. Rowling’s famous Harry Potter book series to describe what makes her A.I. and breeding program work – constant vigilance.

This issue we close out our poll about a contentious topic – legalizing retail raw milk sales nationwide. (Click here to learn more.) One reader recently sent me an interesting letter questioning whether I was qualified to speak on the issue because of my age. “You are probably too young to have tasted real milk,” he states. (Click here for the full letter.) Well, actually I have tasted “real” or raw milk – several times.

Editor's note: This article is the extended version, which contains more content from the interview, of the article that was published in the August 11th issue of Progressive Dairyman. The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) recently announced its support for the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2011” or S. 1258, a Democratic-sponsored legislation for immigration reform. The proposed legislation includes a dairy H-2A visa eligibility provision (S. 852) that was introduced earlier this spring by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), which NMPF also supported. Editor Walt Cooley spoke with NMPF’s Jaime Castaneda about why the group has thrown its support behind these bills.

By the time you receive this July 21 issue of the magazine, Congress and the President will be at a make-or-break moment on a bargain to raise the debt ceiling and avoid default on American debt, which some say would be “catastrophic.”

I recently returned from visiting a Midwestern resort to speak to a group of nutritional consultants. During the three-day conference, I noticed something particularly unique about the resort employees. They all said hello to the guests.

AABP recently established a committee to review the supply of and demand for rural practicing veterinarians. Progressive Dairyman Editor Walt Cooley recently asked about the committee’s opinion paper and what it intends to clarify about media reports of a so-called shortage of veterinarians. Q. This opinion paper is not the first time AABP has gotten involved in this so-called ‘veterinary shortage.’ How have you addressed this issue in the past? A. NAVARRE: It was a follow-up opinion to a coalition study that AABP was involved with back in the early 2000s, which is where this whole “shortage issue” first started. Then we had a lot of practitioners who were saying they had jobs, but they didn’t have people applying for them. That study was a marketing study which showed, yes, there were some shortages of practitioners.