If there’s anything that a dairy mama knows, it’s stress. We never have enough hours in the day; sometimes there’s not enough month left at the end of the money. The kids are crying; the cows are bellering; the calves need fed; and the pig is out. (Well, maybe that last one only happens at my house.)

The amount of positive information coming out about milkfat is very exciting. It turns out we knew very little about fat and how it positively affects our bodies. The amount of beneficial bioactive components in milkfat may lead us to someday be proclaiming that milkfat is definitely milk’s healthiest component.

For back-to-back years, the world champion team in baseball has contributed its success in part to a “glue guy.” I submit that to become elite, your dairy needs to find one too. Perhaps you already have one and don’t even know it. 

For the editors and marketing teams of Progressive Dairyman, it’s always heartening to attend events like World Dairy Expo.

The bright red, yellow and orange of autumn leaves and the chill of the wind announce that fall has arrived and winter is well on its way. I can’t imagine how it was back then on that first Thanksgiving Day for those Pilgrims who survived the treacherous sea voyage in a ship not bigger than my house.

If your dairy operation is like most, leadership is probably not a common topic of conversation at your farm meetings or around the kitchen table. It may seem that things just happen on the farm: Cows are milked, crops are harvested, decisions are made and, before we know it, another year is behind us.

As Thanksgiving draws near, we think of harvest time, turkeys and the in-laws. The latter two are basically the same. They both show up empty-handed, stuff themselves and never thank you for having them for dinner. Thankfully, most of the time, the turkey is the only one that shows up naked.

Did you know that if you go to YouTube and search the word “dairy,” the first video that comes up is one titled, “Dairy is Scary”? And if you click, you can watch a video telling you why you shouldn’t drink milk.

Digest Highlights: Bills address dairy labor, school milk issues. Danone expanding plant-based beverage operations. Find a summary of these stories and updates on previous Progressive Dairyman news stories here.

These days, school is heralded as the only way to get ahead, be considered an expert or learn the cutting-edge way to do something. Not so. Let me save you some money before you decide formal education is the only way to move your dairy business forward.