You’ve asked some variation of the question, at least once, at some point in the last couple years. This is the same question everyone else in the dairy industry has asked sometime or other. The question is: “What’s up with this beef price, and how long is it going to stick around?”

Historically, heifer programs have been a source of widely varied growth patterns. Dairy producers that could produce more heifers than needed generated additional revenue by selling extra heifers for a premium.

“They are making an easy 80 pounds of milk. Body condition score is good. The herd’s reproduction and culling are going extremely well, but I just can’t get over how much smaller their Holsteins are than most herds.” This was a recent conversation I shared with another consultant while evaluating a dairy in central California.

Although the technology of sexed semen has been around for a while, many still question if it’s worth the investment. After all, the price of sexed semen for many producers is significantly higher than the cost of conventional semen.

The term “preg check” is a misnomer that has been used in the dairy industry for decades. No matter how you determine the reproductive status of cattle following insemination, the goal of the task is to actually find the open cows.