Confirming more than 40 percent of cows pregnant from the first service and conception rates nearing 30 percent don’t just happen; these are the result of meticulous management, protocol adherence and teamwork.

Endless Mountains Veterinary Center PC (EMVC) in Rome, Pennsylvania, recognized the shift in the dairy industry from conventional embryo transfer (ET) to oocyte pick-up (OPU) and in vitro fertilization (IVF), and cracked open the books over a four-year span to research as much as possible before launching its new OPU center earlier this spring.

Students from Australia, Maryland and Louisiana handily won the attention of leading science organizations and a household-name philanthropist foundation in their efforts to address how to improve data sharing related to dairy farm production. Specifically, a $7,500 innovation contest challenged participants to create new methods to enhance data measurement, collection and sharing as it pertains to small-holder farmer dairy production in developing countries.

When given access to drinking water, lactating dairy cows can handle iron (Fe) concentrations of up to 4 parts per million (ppm) without decreasing the amount of water they consume, according to results of a recent study entitled, “Preference and drinking behavior of lactating dairy cows offered water with different concentrations, valences and sources of iron.”

Providing a comfortable, dry resting surface for lactating cows always may serve as the single-most critical success factor for managing a compost bedded pack barn, according to findings from a University of Kentucky College of Agriculture Cooperative Extensive Service study, “Compost Bedded Pack Barn Design Features and Management Considerations,” co-authored by Jeffrey Bewley, UK Animal and Food Sciences, Joe Taraba, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, and colleagues.