By Peggy Coffeen, Progressive Dairy It is a natural response for milk production and components to vary based on seasonal changes. Harvatine said understanding these natural variations and how a cow responds to them can help us improve milk production and components.
By Karen Lee, Progressive Dairyman For more than 130 years, dairy producers and milk processors have been analyzing the content of milk to improve quality and profitability. Dr. Dave Barbano and his team are bringing together years of work to develop new milk analysis tools to study fatty acid composition and how this data can be used to evaluate herd performance.
By Dave Natzke, Progressive Dairyman Basis - the amount received from a milk buyer above the monthly federal milk marketing order Class III minimum price - has been shrinking. Rod Wautlet reported that basis payments differ among processors and payment scenarios.
By Dave Natzke, Progressive Dairyman With too much milk supply, milk marketing has become a 'buyer's market,' according to Larry Hermanson. With his perspective as a general manager of a milk procurement cooperative, Hermanson shared how the supply-demand imbalance has affected milk prices and premiums, and he also provided his advice for farmers.
Hypocalcemia (milk fever) has long been a struggle on dairy farms. New research from Dr. Laura Hernandez shows serotonin may play a more significant role in reducing the incidence of hypocalcemia.
By Peggy Coffeen, Progressive Dairyman How cows eat and ruminate is just as important as the nutritional composition of the feed in front of them. Dr. Trevor DeVries shared how dairy producers can make the most of every minute at the feedbunk by understanding dairy cow behavior and incorporating that into daily herd management.
By Peggy Coffeen, Progressive Dairyman During Vita Plus Dairy Summit 2016, two dairies shared their strategies for managing the tough times of milk price lows.
Dr. Adam Lock joked that he’s “the fat guy” in the Michigan State University Department of Animal Science . His research focuses on lipids in dairy nutrition and milk production – a topic of conversation for many dairy producers as they’re challenged to find the causes and solutions for milk fat depression (MFD).
Monitoring margins in 2016 No two dairy operations are the same – on many levels – said Rod Wautlet, a consultant with Agri-Business Consultants LLC, a subsidiary company of Vita Plus.
By Karen Lee, Progressive Dairyman As the dairy industry continues to make strides in efficiency, producers across the country are showing it is possible to achieve a 30-percent pregnancy rate with a 30,000-pound herd average.
Two dairy producers shared how they are accomplishing such a feat at the Vita Plus Dairy Summit on December 10 in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
By Judy Brown, contributing writer With a flood of information available in the dairy industry, the question is whether producers are drowning in data.
Randall Greenfield, a Vita Plus dairy nutritionist , serves on the technical services team. Throughout his 15 years of service with Vita Plus, he's seen producers confront the challenge of determining which numbers are more important than others in the dairy business.
Consumers and processors in the Upper Midwest demand solids to produce high quality dairy products. But how do we produce high solids milk without giving up production? How does it pencil out?
Dr. Eric Schwab, a member of the dairy nutrition and technical services team at Vita Plus, shared his thoughts on changing consumer demands and how those demands can be met through increasing milk fat and protein content on...