Dairy Cattle

Fly season may be coming to an end as summer draws to a close, but it’s never too early to get ready for next year.

Vermont’s Providence Dairy is transitioning from a tie-stall barn to pasture-based dairying. Here are some of the challenges the Connors faced this first spring and how they’ve solved them.

Scoring can help identify health problems or her management issues. It’s as easy as standing behind your cow and comparing her to these photos.

It’s a management problem – and solution. Here are the symptoms, treatment and prevention.

This is the first of a series of articles about the transition to grazing for Jonathan and Maryann Connor of Providence Dairy in Addison, VT. We will cover the farmers’ decision making process, their goals, the planning process, funding, and implementation, along with successes and challenges faced. We look forward to readers’ comments and shared […]

We here at Butterworks Farm have long been interested in no grain dairy farming. For the past forty years we have been grain growers as well as hay producers. Cereals (oats, wheat and barley) and row crops like corn and soy have fit neatly into our crop rotation with grasses and legumes. The straw byproduct […]

How can you fit all that about grassfed milk in one picture? Well, it’s a really big graphic… From our friends at Maple Hill Creamery, here’s the story of grass-based dairy starting with the parts of the grasses that make their milk possible, to the grazing system that grows the grass and feeds the cows, […]

Better weight gain for calves, more milk from cows with just 42 minutes spread over 2 weeks. Plus a “how-to” video.

James Coffelt, owner of Ohio Land and Cattle believes that breeding is simple. “Use the absolute best bulls you can find, and cull the heck out of the cows!” Artificial insemination (AI) is an increasingly popular way for beef producers to access “the best bulls.” However, AI sire selection should involve much more than just […]

When Myron Martin realized that all his dairy animals would become beef one day, he decided to take the bull by the horns and make sure they were good beef. Here’s a look at dual purpose cows at Peace Hollow Farm, and what breeds you might consider.

Whether or not you’re a dairy producer, Tom Trantham can tell you a lot about learning from animals and managing pasture. Here he describes how he went from being one of the top 10 dairy producers in South Carolina, to the edge of bankruptcy and back again thanks to learning from his cows.

This video is one of a series from Pennsylvania’s Capital Resource Conservation District exploring improvements in profitability that come with managing for soil health.  Here Justin Geisinger talks about the improvements in his land and his bottom line since converting from confinement dairying to grazing his dairy cows. While it may have cost him in overall milk […]

“The only certain thing about animal diseases seemed to be man’s inability to prevent or cure most of them. It was not until I had experienced these diseases in my own herd and started at the beginning in my attempt to eliminate and prevent them, instead of accepting the diseases and treating them as inevitable, […]

It’s hot out there, and in some places it’s really humid too! If you’re feeling it, so are your livestock. To help you figure out if there’s a problem and to do what you can to protect them, here are some tips from Rob Eirich, Nebraska Beef Quality Assurance Coordinator, and Mariah Woolsoncroft, Nebraska Extension […]

Editors Note: This article was written by Ann Perry, Agricultural Research Service Information Staff, and comes to us from the ARS’ Agricultural Research Magazine. Every year, a hefty dairy cow tucked away in a snug barn produces more than 20,000 pounds of milk, along with an impressive amount of manure and an array of gases. New modeling work […]