Share your feedback, earn a hat This year at World Dairy Expo, Progressive Dairyman is committed to hearing from readers. We invite you to stop by our booth in the Arena Building and tell us what you like (or don’t like) about any of our offerings: the print magazine, the Extra e-newsletter or our social media activity.

In the September 1 issue of Progressive Dairyman, we reached out to calf researchers and asked them to share their thoughts on the future of automatic calf feeding. For this issue, we’ve invited company representatives to talk about their automatic calf feeding offerings.

Editor’s note: Since this is our World Dairy Expo issue, we thought we’d use this HERd management column to catch up with Kim Wilson, who wrote a blog for our Proud to Dairy network in 2010. She shared with us her now-husband Brandon’s creative and romantic marriage proposal at World Dairy Expo that year. Kim says she and Brandon were married on April 21, 2012. Their wedding was held on the border of the Missouri and Oklahoma. Instead of a unity candle, the couple combined soil from his family farm and soil from her family farm.

Two years ago, leaders of Ohio State’s animal science department decided to cut the campus dairy herd, located at the Waterman Dairy Farm, from two breeds to one. The Holsteins were sold to the state prison system, while the Jerseys remained. The herd, which now consists of about 100 milking cows, served as a real-life example of research conducted by Washington State University’s Jude Capper, which she shared at the recent Ohio Dairy Forum.

Progressive Dairyman recently reached out to several industry researchers to provide up-to-date information about automatic calf feeding. Roundtable participants include: Tom Earleywine, technical services director for Land O’Lakes Animal Milk Products, who recently gave a presentation on automatic calf feeding at the Mid-Atlantic Nutrition Conference Mike Van Amburgh, associate professor of animal science at Cornell University, where the dairy research herd utilizes an automatic calf feeder Miriam Weber Nielsen, professor of dairy management and physiology at Michigan State University, who provided tips for raising calves with automatic feeders at the Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference

Dave Forgey isn’t afraid to go against the grain and make his opinions known. He was the first dairy producer in the U.S. to obtain Fresian genetics from New Zealand and he’s become a resource for those looking for grazing advice. He’s also become a prominent voice in the discussion about dairy policy reform, particularly given his involvement in the Dairy Policy Action Coalition (DPAC).

The differences between environmental and contagious mastitis are now largely understood among researchers and dairy producers alike. But it took a great many studies over a number of years to make that distinction. One project in particular that helped to point out the need for new mastitis control methods was developed in the 1960s by The National Institute for Research in Dairying in Britain in cooperation with Cornell University.

Junior, Iowa State University Iowa Dairy Sales Intern with Alltech Based in Ames, Iowa Background Q. What is your agricultural background? My dairy background is quite unique. I did not grow up on a dairy farm, however, I have had a passion for showing dairy cattle since I was a clover kid. In about 7th grade I started working on my uncle’s dairy farm: feeding calves, painting buildings, cleaning pens and relief milking. I also pursued dairy judging in high school through the FFA. It was these programs that allowed me to fall in love with the industry.