On any sized dairy operation there are a multitude of events occurring from the time a calf is born until she leaves the herd. Software programs are available to help manage this task of recording events. The bottom line is no matter how good someone’s memory is it is no substitute for having historic information on animals of all ages that can be easily accessed. However, the information is only as good as the person entering the data and is useful only if someone is monitoring the events.

Production Perspective

As soon as a calf is born her record begins with her ID and genetics. Information on the amounts, quality, and times colostrum is fed should be recorded as well as any vaccinations or treatments performed. Vaccination protocols require booster shots so keeping track of animals and dates is extremely important. Calves are susceptible to scours and respiratory problems and listing health and treatment events is useful in sorting through potential inadequacies in operating procedures. The more thorough the records are kept the easier it is to spot problems before they become disasters.

After weaning the majority of events involves movement from pen to pen or in some cases another facility. Prior to breeding age many of the events recorded are booster shots and the occasional health problems. Some producers will weigh and measure height of animals to ensure they are growing within the recommended parameters. This can be helpful in deciding when animals are ready to be bred instead of relying solely on age. The next major list of events is related to heat detection and number of times bred.

Once an animal is confirmed pregnant there may be some follow-up vaccinations and possible hoof trimming events. The expected calving date is typically recorded and preparations are made as she is close to entering the lactating herd.

From freshening day forward the volume of events recorded increases substantially. As the lactating animal enters the herd, there will be events related to health (both preventatives and treatments), production, milk quality, reproduction, hoof trimmings, body condition scores, and others depending on the operation. With all the challenges facing the dairy industry why are some operations not keeping good records or implementing basic management protocols?

The two answers are time and money. Those operations keeping good records usually respond by saying they don’t know how they would function without having all the information at their fingertips to evaluate how the herd is doing. For them finding time is a priority and the positive results far outweigh the investment in time. Keeping track of herd events does not equate to having fewer problems compared to the herd keeping minimal records; the advantage of good records is finding the problems faster and making corrections sooner while minimizing production loss or high cull rates.

The Penn State extension dairy business management team has itemized the costs associated with reproduction, vet and medicine. This area on the farm rarely is the cause of poor profitability. The cost per cow per year averages $76 for reproduction and $111 for vet and medicine. These expenses are relatively insignificant compared to the big ticket items of feed and labor costs. The advantages far outweigh any negatives associated with implementing standard operating protocols and using records to monitor animal events.

Action plan for monitoring health events of the dairy operation.

Goals

With the appropriate software program, develop a system for entering information on a daily basis on all animal groups in the herd.

Steps

• Step 1: Develop standard operating procedures for events such as freshenings, vaccinations, breedings, and treatments.
• Step 2: Depending on the herd size, on a daily/weekly basis generate the appropriate reports to check that all animals have received their vaccinations, treatments or other age related events.
• Step 3: On a monthly basis review the number of incidences of health events by age, pen, and/or stage of lactation with the farm’s advisory team.
• Step 4: Based on the findings, implement the necessary adjustments in protocols to correct the problem(s).

Economic perspective

Monitoring must include an economic component to determine if a management strategy is working or not. For the lactating cows income over feed costs is a good way to check that feed costs are in line for the level of milk production. Starting with July’s milk price, income over feed costs was calculated using average intake and production for the last six years from the Penn State dairy herd. The ration contained 63% forage consisting of corn silage, haylage and hay. The concentrate portion included corn grain, candy meal, sugar, canola meal, roasted soybeans, Optigen (Alltech product) and a mineral vitamin mix. All market prices were used.

Also included are the feed costs for dry cows, springing heifers, pregnant heifers and growing heifers. The rations reflect what has been fed to these animal groups at the Penn State dairy herd. All market prices were used.

Income over feed cost using standardized rations and production data from the Penn State dairy herd.

Note: March’s Penn State milk price: $18.49/cwt; feed cost/cow: $5.69; average milk production: 84 lbs.

Feed cost/non-lactating animal/day.

Source: PennState Extension

The dairy sector is calling for more people, particularly school-leavers, to consider a career in dairy given a shortage of skilled staff.

DairyNZ education facilitator Susan Stokes says the number of young people undertaking formal training is nowhere near demand.

“We have a real shortage of young people for both on-farm positions and rural professional roles. Just about every graduate has multiple job offers as demand far exceeds supply,” says Ms Stokes.

To help attract more young talent into the dairy sector, which has an aging demographic, DairyNZ has created a careers booklet outlining the variety of roles available, and answering questions they may have.

“We want to open people’s eyes to the opportunities available to them in the dairy sector. Milking cows is, of course, the foundation, and there are many other roles too, from working on-farm through to agri-business or agri-science positions,” she says.

DairyNZ’s Sally Peel grew up in Auckland and has found her niche in dairy. She works alongside farmers, scientists, rural consultants, agricultural retailers and DairyNZ colleagues developing resources, such as feed budget templates, for use by farmers.

“I have the best of both worlds. Some days I get out onto farms, other days I’m in the office not far from Hamilton city shops and cafes,” Miss Peel says.

Her advice to young people considering a role in the dairy sector? “Give it a go, and try something new. Studying agriculture-related subjects can open a lot of doors, both on and off-farm, and in the other primary industries.”

Source: Business Scoop

Dry cows must be provided with total comfort at all times, so as to ensure a successful calving, according to Co. Antrim vet Brian O’Donnell.

“This includes the provision of adequately-sized cubicles, plus ample feed troughs and water space.

“Great care must be taken when introducing new animals to a dry cow group, so as to minimise stress levels for all the animals involved.

“At calving, cows should be placed in well-bedded pens that are directly adjacent to the dry cow accommodation, again so as to minimise stress,” he said.

O’Donnell is a member of the professional team with the Caddy veterinary practice in Randalstown. He said that eight weeks is the optimal dry cow dry period for a dairy cow.

“Cows should be scanned during mid-pregnancy to ascertain their exact calving date. Simply going by an insemination date is not accurate enough. Increasing numbers of farms are now using heat detection technology to facilitate their breeding programmes.

“This is additional information that can be used to ascertain calving dates, should cows be running with a bull,” the vet added.

Breeding Season Management Priorities

In preparation for the upcoming breeding season, O’Donnell cited a number of management priorities.

“Cows should be achieving high dry matter intakes. Good udder and hoof health are also important. If a cow is off her feet, she won’t feed and she won’t breed,” he explained.

O’Donnell pointed out that cows that had experienced milk fever after calving will, inevitably, prove difficult to get back in calf.

“Bull selection is also an important factor in determining cow fertility,” he said.

Sires with any form of calving difficulty associated with them should be avoided at all costs. Problems of this nature will only set the cows back and delay them significantly when it comes to conceiving again.

O’Donnell said that dry cow management has an impact on all of the factors that come into play, where fertility is concerned.

“Body Condition Score (BCS) is the key driver in this regard. Cows should have a score of 3.0 at calving. In fact, dairy farmers should make it a priority to have their cows at this level of condition the year round,” he said.

Source: AgriLand

During lactation the udder is under pressure to continue producing milk after which there is a dry period during which the udder has an opportunity to recover.

Impact

Control of mastitis in the dry cow

Responsible use of antibiotics

For information regarding the responsible use of antibiotics click here.

Source: Boehringer

Hear from Dr. Heather Dann on the importance of transition cow management, and how feeding lower-energy transition diets could benefit a herd. From monitoring intake to coordinating various diets, Dr. Dann offers insights into setting cows up for success in their next lactation.

Mitch Bruenig has been around dairy cows long enough — all his life, to be exact – to suspect something was amiss with two of his Holsteins.

He’s been around UW–Madison dairy science department long enough – he graduated in 1998 and his 450-cow farm in Roxbury is practically a field research station for the department – to suspect ketosis.

This “silent killer” is caused by excessive toxic particles released by the liver, usually when a cow starts to produce milk after giving birth.

And so it was fortuitous that Heather White, an assistant professor of dairy science at UW–Madison and one of the world’s experts on detecting ketosis, was visiting Bruenig’s Mystic Valley Dairy, within sight of the St. Norbert’s church steeple in Northwest Dane County, on that day in March.

The start of lactation is the moment of maximum metabolic stress for a dairy cow, when her over-worked liver can crank out molecules called ketones that provide energy to other tissues in the body but, if excessive, can reduce milk output, set the stage for disease, and even cause the cow to be culled from the herd.

Milk output from the cows in question had dropped, which could have many causes. Ketosis, however, appears in 40 percent to 60 percent of lactating American dairy cows.

Even though ketosis costs an average of $290 per cow, it’s often undiagnosed, as the blood tests are laborious and expensive. Far better would be a test for tell-tale molecules in the milk, which is exactly what White has been working on, in collaboration with department chair Kent Weigel, and Gary Oetzel, a professor of veterinary medicine.

The result of their labor, called KetoMonitor, is now incorporated in the AgSource system used by dairy farmers across the state to track their herds and milk output in an average of 100,307 cows over the last 12 months, predominantly in Wisconsin. AgSource relies on a sophisticated spectrometer to look for two milk-borne compounds that signal ketosis, and then uses sophisticated computer analysis to refine the prediction.

When Ryan Pralle and Rafael Caputo Oliveira, both graduate students with White, sampled blood from the two cows, Bruenig’s hunch proved correct. The cows had a silent, or “sub-clinical,” ketosis. Armed with that knowledge, Bruenig began corrective measures that usually tame ketosis, such dietary supplements.

Blood tests are the old-fashioned way – but still the gold standard –for detecting ketosis. But ketomonitor’s milk tests and computation have become the first line of defense.

By testing milk from “fresh” cows every week or so, Ketomonitor first estimates the prevalence of ketosis in the fresh cows. Then, by analyzing the data on milk production, reproductive history and other matters, on each fresh cow, it identifies cows that might need a blood test for ketosis.

Ketomonitor already catches 85 percent of cows with the condition, which is almost enough to avoid blood tests entirely. Once they reach 90 percent accuracy, blood tests for every fresh cow would no longer make economic sense, White says.

To reach that magic number, Pralle is using computational tactic called “machine learning” (think digital self-help class). When the software makes a mistake, it combs through the data, looking to do better next time around. The accuracy is improving, he says. “When we compare it to some other non-blood tests, I think our tools are very competitive.”

When White and her collaborators began tackling the problem about 10 years ago, “We recognized there is a lot of money lost in sub-clinical ketosis,” she says. “A cow is having negative outcomes — she’s making less milk and is not going to re-breed as easily, but she can’t walk up and tell you she’s sick.”

Due to the efforts of White and others at UW–Madison and beyond, that has changed. “Ketosis has become something that producers really want to manage because they recognize the cost of the disorder,” says Pralle.

None of this is lost on Bruenig, who sees a future with more constraints as a prime reason to focus on efficiency. “We will be in a position where we will need to grow more food on less land with fewer cows.”

Ketomonitor can help in unexpected ways, Bruenig says. “When we adapted to the market by eliminating BST [the hormone bovine somatotropin], we had to change nutrition and management, and we used Ketomonitor to assess the impact of those changes.”

“Advances like KetoMonitor help us keep the herd healthy, and allow us to stay competitive,” he says. “That’s the kind of help we really need.”

Source: News

CRV Ambreed has made a genetic discovery that it anticipates will result in a more sustainable dairy industry and potentially reduce nitrogen leaching on New Zealand farms by 20% within 20 years.

In what’s thought to be an international first, the dairy herd improvement company has announced it will market bulls that are desirable for traditional traits as well as being genetically superior for a new trait that is related to urea nitrogen in milk.

CRV Ambreed is now selling semen from bulls whose daughters will have reduced concentration of Milk Urea Nitrogen (MUN) under a LowN Sires™ brand. MUN is a measure of the amount of nitrogen contained as milk urea, and CRV Ambreed R&D Manager Phil Beatson says there’s overwhelming international evidence of a direct connection between MUN and the amount of nitrogen excreted in urine when fed different diets.

“If this connection carries over, cows bred for lower levels of MUN are expected to excrete less nitrogen in their urine which will, in turn, reduce the amount of nitrogen leached from grazed pasture,” Mr Beatson says. “Daughters of CRV Ambreed’s 2017 LowN Sires™ could potentially save New Zealand 10 million kilograms in nitrogen leaching a year, based on a national herd number of 6.5 million dairy cattle.” He says CRV Ambreed’s projections indicate that it’s possible to breed cattle that will reduce nitrogen leaching by 20% within 20 years.

CRV Ambreed Managing Director Angus Haslett says the firm has been researching the connection between MUN and nitrogen in urine for five years. “The link between MUN and lower nitrogen output has been acknowledged before in international research, but this is the first time in the world that genetics for low MUN is being marketed with the aim being to reduce nitrogen leaching.”

Hundreds of thousands of straws of semen from a team of more than 20 existing top-performing bulls with desirable genetic makeup for low levels of MUN, known as LowN Sires™, are already available for use in 2017.

Mr Haslett says this is a continuation of CRV Ambreed’s ongoing work to breed for particular traits that improve New Zealand’s dairy herds for health and environmental reasons. “The future is about using genetics for better breeding and CRV Ambreed has been operating in the future for some time. Farmers are already using genetics to breed cows that are more tolerant to Facial Eczema and for breeding polled calves that will not need costly and time-consuming de-budding.”

He says while there is a vast amount of research being conducted and proposed in New Zealand to mitigate nitrogen leaching, it makes sense to look at breeding cows that produce less nitrogen from economic and environmental viewpoints. CRV Ambreed will be the first organisation in New Zealand and possibly the world to provide a long-term genetic solution to nitrogen leaching by identifying and selecting bulls for low MUN genes.

“Genetics can produce great gains for farmers,” he says. “Farmers already choose CRV Ambreed bulls to breed certain traits in their cows, so this is another step on that journey of finding solutions in genetics.”

Mr Haslett says there is still research to be done to further test and confirm the genetic development and CRV is working with DairyNZ, AgResearch and Lincoln University on this. CRV Ambreed is very positive about the potential benefits the discovery will deliver for farmers and the nation.

The genetic announcement has been welcomed by major industry players such as DairyNZ. DairyNZ Strategy and Investment Leader for Productivity, Dr Bruce Thorrold, says the potential for farmers to reduce nitrogen leaching by breeding cows with lower urinary nitrogen output is exciting.

“If the planned science proves the link between breeding for MUN and urinary nitrogen output, this would give farmers in nitrogen-limited regions such as Canterbury more options to reduce nitrogen leaching without going away from a pasture-based system. Animal breeding would potentially add to gains from DairyNZ investment in research on managing nitrogen inputs, using stand-off and finding plants with lower nitrogen content.”

CRV Ambreed has already briefed some of New Zealand’s regional councils about the discovery as many regional councils are working with farmers to minimise nitrogen leaching.

Source: Business Scoop

The microbiological revolution is improving forage quality and cow health. Chloe Palmer attends an event hosted by EnviroSystems to hear how soil biology is the essential ingredient.

Ensuring the soil can support a strong biological component is key to high quality forage and a healthy cow, farmers heard at an event in Staffordshire.

“You are what you eat and it is the same for a cow,” says David Lievesley, who along with James and Jonathan Pickford, runs Picston Holsteins at Spot Acre Farm, near Stone, Staffordshire.

Mr Lievesley was joined by David Law, managing director of the New Zealand-based Forward Farming Biological Consultancy, and both explained how they believe many of the disease problems seen in the modern dairy cow are linked to deficiencies in the soil, passing through to forage.

“All cows are built on calcium and we send a tank of calcium off the farm each day. What are we doing to put it back?” Mr Lievesley asked.

Mr Leivesley pointed to cows giving more than 10,000 litres each year and whenever they are stressed, they will take calcium from their metabolism.

A farm expansion planner says it takes time to properly go from concept to completion. Emily Schmidt of Miller Engineers & Scientists in Sheboygan, Wisconsin helps farmers with the expansion process and says there are two time-consuming steps. “If you take the 90-days in just for the permitting process plus the time to design, I mean we usually look into a month to six months in advance before we want to break ground.”

Schmidt says planners like to meet with farmers to look beyond their present expansion plans. “Do kind of like a 1,000-foot view of your farm and like a really big picture on how big you are really going to expand so that you don’t get backed into a corner geographically later.”

Schmidt says sometimes engineers have to deal with problems during the design process, because when one part of the farm operation changes, it impacts everything else from feed storage to manure management.

She says farmers who are considering expansion should discuss their ideas with experts at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the local land and water conservation department, or an engineering firm for guidance.

Source: Brownfield

If you think your heifer reproduction program is on track, you may want to look again. Conception rate and percentage of heifers pregnant within three services are metrics commonly used to track performance of heifer reproduction.

Unfortunately, time is the missing component from both of these heifer reproductive measurements. And time wasted is money wasted. There is a sizable financial advantage for a heifer that calves for the first time at 23 months of age versus one that freshens at 25 or 26 months.

Measuring how quickly open heifers are converted to pregnant heifers or the pregnancy rate is a much better indicator. Getting heifers inseminated soon after the end of the voluntary waiting period will have an enormous impact on pregnancy rate because heifers have higher fertility than lactating cows. And it will get them to the milking string sooner.

Follow these five steps to improve management of your heifer reproduction program and save money: 

Step 1: Move heifers to the breeding pen.

Timely pen movement is often overlooked. First, heifers should be moved into the artificial insemination (AI) pen based on age. Then, evaluate if they are ready for breeding by ensuring height and weight targets have been met. On most dairies, heifers should be moved at least every two weeks, but weekly is better.

Step 2: Use prostaglandin on the date of the move.

Depending on your veterinarian’s advice and what works best for your operation, administer LUTALYSE^® Injection (dinoprost tromethamine injection) or LUTALYSE^® HighCon Injection (dinoprost tromethamine injection) on the day of movement and again 10 to 12 days later for heifers not yet inseminated. Research has found that administering a prostaglandin in this protocol can improve breeding success.¹

Step 3: Make sure all heifers are inseminated.

EAZI-BREED^™ CIDR^® Cattle Insert should be used for timed breeding on heifers not inseminated during their first 28 days in the breeding pen. This will ensure all heifers are inseminated within 36 days of arrival into the AI pen.

Step 4: Do routine pregnancy checks.

Conduct pregnancy diagnosis routinely as heifers are moved to the breeding pen to identify pregnant females and move them out, making room for new heifers. All pregnancies should be reconfirmed at 70 to 90 days carried calf.

Step 5: Re-enroll open heifers.

At each pregnancy check, any heifers that aren’t bred should be immediately submitted to a breeding program with LUTALYSE or LUTALYSE HighCon and/or EAZI-BREED CIDR.

Simple steps can help accelerate performance and profitability. Your veterinarian is your best resource to help evaluate and manage your breeding program.

Source: Zoetis

Over the past few years, there have been dramatic improvements in dairy reproductive performance.

Research is revealing and the industry is embracing aspects of management, genetics and physiology that are propelling repro rates, Dr. Milo Wiltbank, University of Wisconsin Madison dairy scientist, said during the March DAIReXNET webinar.

Cow comfort, compliance and AI skills are essential for productive management, he noted. Genomics now allow selection of cows that are higher for DPR (daughter pregnancy rate) and cow conception rate, and reproductive management programs are available that drive service rate and improve fertility.

But when it comes to high-efficiency dairy cattle and reproduction, Wiltbank said, nutrition is a particularly big player.

The role of nutrition

Recent research has illuminated the important time periods to focus on and the effect of Vitamin E on reproductive performance, as well as the importance of dry period nutrition and postpartum body condition score.

Wiltbank splits a cow’s timeline into several critical segments: the dry period of the last three weeks before she calves, the early post-partum of three weeks following calving, and the pre-AI period of one week before breeding.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E plays a critical role in cow health. It decreases as calving approaches due to accumulation in colostrum, which poses problems since cows with lower levels are more likely to retain fetal membranes.

Wiltbank reported that research geared toward improving retained placenta rates was conducted on three dairy farms in Brazil. There were nearly 900 cows in the study that injected 1,000 IU of vitamin E at three weeks, two weeks and one week before expected calving.

While the amount of vitamin E injected was not enough to change concentrations, it was enough to have an impact on outcomes. Retained placenta rates dropped significantly, from 20 percent in the control group to 13.5 percent in the Vitamin E group.

Interestingly, stillbirths were dramatically reduced by supplementing Vitamin E, dropping from nearly 15 percent to under 9 percent. “This suggests that stillbirth is also related, probably to the placenta, and probably to the Vitamin E and immune status of the animal,” Wiltbank said. “This was an intriguing result.”

There was no effect on milk production, but reproductive performance also improved. Pregnancy losses for first postpartum AI dropped significantly with Vitamin E , while the percentage of cows pregnant from all AIs was significantly higher with the vitamin.

“That was a key result”, Wiltbank observed. “Somehow, by supplementing Vitamin E before calving, we can reduce retained placentas, stillbirths and pregnancy losses, and also somewhat improved fertility.”

Nutrition

Another study focused on how prepartum nutritional strategy affects reproductive performance by evaluating seven previous studies. The effort involved over 400 cows fed controlled energy or high energy diets during the far-off or close-up dry period.

Nutrition had no effect on the far-off dry period, but it did close-up. With the controlled energy diet, the period from calving to pregnancy were reduced by 10 days and body condition score (BCS) losses were reduced.

“There was better reproductive performance when we had a more controlled energy, a higher fiber, diet during the dry period,” Wiltbank pointed out.

The studies make the argument that reproductive performance can be improved by optimizing nutrition during the dry period. “Dry period nutrition can alter calving and early postpartum physiology and subsequent fertility,” he summarized.

BCS impacts

In recent years, researchers have tested whether nutrition in early postpartum has an effect on embryo quality. Wiltbank referenced a study on the relationships between fertility and postpartum changes in body condition and body weight in lactating dairy cows, showing a cow’s body condition score at the time of AI does, indeed, impact her fertility.

In one experiment involving double-Ovsynch for first service and over 1,880 cows in Wisconsin, researchers evaluated BCS at calving and 21 days later. About 42 percent of the cows lost BCS, 36 percent maintained BCS and over 22 percent actually gained BCS.

“The effect on fertility was just incredible,” Wiltbank said. “The animals that gained weight had amazing fertility, and it dropped down from there.”

At 40 days, cows that lost BCS had 25 percent fertility, while cows that maintained BCS had 38 percent and cows that gained BCS hit 84 percent fertility. Subsequent studies echo the results, Wiltbank noted.

Research on embryo quality was also conducted by weighing the animals weekly after calving, superovulating them and then evaluating the embryos to determine the effects of body weight changes.

The study of 460 embryos found big differences. Almost 50 percent of the low BCS animals had degenerate embryos, compared to 20 percent in other weight groups. “There was quite a dramatic difference, and it was mostly for the animals that lost a lot of body weight (about 8 percent) in the early post-partum period,” Wiltbank said.

He noted that lower BCS near the time of AI reduces fertility, but this effect might be addressed by Double-Ovsynch protocol.

Considering the last week before AI is a very sensitive period, researchers tried to evaluate how dietary components are associated with fertility traits. Complete diets were obtained on 50 dairy farms with Dairy Comp 305 backups for fertility and other traits.

The resulting data showed the higher the non-detergent fiber in the diet, the better the pregnancy rate at first AI, but the higher the non-fiber carbohydrate, the lower the pregnancy rate per AI at first service. “The high carbohydrate seems to be very much a negative. The same is true for starch,” Wiltbank observed.

Too high of carbohydrates in diets reduces pregnancies per AI, possibly due to elevated insulin in the blood, he summarized, while fat, particularly polyunsaturated fatty acids, can improve pregnancies per AI.

Methionine in the diet has been shown to improve reproductive efficiency by stopping abnormal gene expression. “It seems to have a effect on pregnancy loss with multiparous cows,” Wiltbank said, noting pertinent research is ongoing.

Wrapping it up

Considering the critical periods for nutritional effects on reproduction, Wiltbank offered four keys. Improve nutrition in the dry period, particularly in terms of sufficient Vitamin E and energy.

In early post-partum, reduce BCS loss to positively impact the embryo.

One week before AI, Improve nutrition by lowering the NFC and increasing PUFA to impact fertility and, during pregnancy, optimize amino acids to reduce pregnancy losses.

Source: Wisconsin State Farmer

Oregon has 228 family dairy farms, ranging from fewer than 100 cows being milked each day to more than 30,000. Regardless of the size of the farm, there are certain values, standards and management practices that every Oregon dairy farmer has in common.

Farm size does not determine farm quality. It’s a misperception that larger farms are somehow not as good for the animals, environment, employees or community. Here are seven things you should know about large dairy farms:

1 They are good stewards of the air, land and water. No matter how many cows they milk, farmers care for their land and their natural resources. It’s important to them to do the right thing and be good neighbors and members of the community and they take the initiative to do so by voluntarily implementing best management practices on their own.

2 Their cows are well cared for. Dairy farmers’ commitment to providing high quality milk begins with taking good care of their cows. On farms of all sizes, farmers work with nutritionists and veterinarians to provide a nutritious diet, great medical care and healthy living conditions. Cow comfort is key to a farmer’s livelihood.

3 They follow the rules. Large farms must meet state and federal standards, and they face the same kinds of regulations and oversight as smaller farms. They have regular inspections of their operations to check for and ensure compliance. Dairy is one of the most highly regulated industries in the U.S.

4 Sustainability is not just a buzzword. Farmers are innovating and working toward a sustainable future. They are increasingly working smarter with robotics, automated feeders, methane digesters, precision agriculture, solar panels and beneficial use of waste to increase efficiency and reduce impacts. Large scale farms allow optimal use of scarce resources such as water, energy and land.

5 Food safety starts at the farm. Milk is one of the most tested and regulated food products, and all farmers employ rigorous standards, practices and procedures to ensure that it is kept pure, cold and safe. Farmers are held personally responsible for the quality of the milk that comes from their farms.

6 Oregon dairies are family owned. Even the largest Oregon dairies are family owned. Dairy farmers take great pride in their work, and they want to continue working on the same land so they can continue providing the nutritious food that we enjoy and depend on. It is their legacy.

7They coexist alongside smaller farms. Large farms support smaller farmers and vice versa. Not all farms produce milk for the same processors or the same dairy products or the same consumer markets. There is room for farms of all sizes and types – organic and conventional – to thrive.

Source: Oregon Dairy and Nutrition Council

What is the best way to go about choosing genetics for your grazing herd?
“No single ideal pasture-based cow exists,” says Ted Probert, regional dairy specialist with the University of Missouri Extension.

Probert says a discussion on what genetics to use for a grazing herd really needs to start with a look at what type of system the farm uses. For example, a seasonal dairy’s top priority should be fertility.

Probert says another very important thing to take into consideration is how your milk is marketed. Are you getting a premium for components, or is your primary goal high production of fluid milk?

Body size is another important trait to consider for many pasture-based dairies. “Many pasture-based producers prefer smaller cows that tend to do less damage to grass paddocks, especially during wetter weather,” Probert says. He says many graziers also believe smaller animals have an easier time dealing with heat stress and are typically more mobile than their larger counterparts.

Many traits, such as good udder health, longevity and feet and legs are, of course, important – no matter if the cows are housed in a conventional dairy barn or out on pasture.

Bradley Heins, associate professor of organic dairy production with the University of Minnesota, says when choosing genetics for a grazing herd, producers should focus on profitability more than production. “It’s best to think about it in terms of the amount of milk per acre rather than just production numbers,” he says.

Although there is no type of cow that works best in all pasture-based systems, the cow genetically designed to most efficiently convert forages into milk will usually bring the highest profits.

According to Heins, the top traits to breed for in grazing cows are fertility and longevity, followed by feet and legs. He notes that although fertility is a top priority on seasonal dairies, some grazing operations add a second calving season to reduce the number of cows culled for not being bred on the first try. Heins says this choice simply depends on what works best on an individual farm.

Although many graziers choose crossbreds for their increased fertility, disease resistance and calving ease, some still prefer purebred Holsteins for their milk volume. Heins notes that producers who want to stick with Holsteins on grass-based diets may want to explore New Zealand Friesians, which have been bred over generations for being a smaller animal, efficient on grass and low-input operations, having good body condition and high fertility.

Probert adds that before exploring New Zealand genetics of any breed, producers should be aware that much of the milk in that country is produced into powdered milk, which has led to genetic selection for milk solids content and selection against fluid volume. Farmers who get a premium for components may do well with New Zealand genetics.

Many dairy producers who switch a Holstein herd to a grass-based system have great results crossing to Jerseys, resulting in cows with increased hybrid vigor.

“Traits with low heritability tend to be the traits that can be most easily and quickly improved by heterosis through crossbreeding. Fertility is one of these traits,” says Probert. Moderation of size and increased milk solids content are also usually benefits of this cross.

Heins notes Holstein-Jersey crossbreds tend to have hardier calves, fewer calving problems and increased disease resistance in addition to the increased fertility.

Some graziers use a two-breed system with good results; some incorporate another breed for a three-breed system, often using another breed to improve specific traits in the herd.

“All breeds and their different traits can have their place,” Heins says. Montbeliarde cows tend to have high fat and protein, and good feet and legs. Viking Reds are known for fertility, overall health, low somatic cell count and longevity. Normandy cows carry traits for high fat and protein, compact size, good body conditioning and high fertility.

Operations that do not feed any grain at all may want to consider genetics from New Zealand or France, as dairy cows’ diets tend to be all grass in those countries, Heins says.

Probert says that no matter which crossbreeding system is used, record-keeping is essential. He says, “Good animal identification is important to maintain the proper breed rotation.” He adds, “I do think it is a mistake if producers go wild and mix too many breeds.”

Both Heins and Probert note that there are graziers who successfully use purebred cows as well. “Sometimes it just comes down to personal preference,” Probert says.

Both Probert and Heins recommend the use of A.I. over use of a bull. Heins advises to select bulls of merit that have traits for good fertility, then start narrowing down the selection to what traits are best for your herd.

Probert notes crossbreeding programs are much easier with A.I. because, at any time, the herd will have animals that should be bred to different breeds.

Some dairy producers believe it is more cost-effective to have a bull rather than using A.I. But Probert says, “When the value realized from the use of A.I. (increased genetic gain, improved profitability, increased replacement value, etc.) is properly assessed, cost concerns are seen differently.”

Source: UMN.EDU

A spike in empty cow rates shows how easily nature can expose flaws in dairying best practice, says a Waikato vet.

Tirau vet and farmer Ian Scott said the exceptionally wet spring and early summer experienced in many parts of the country had played a large part in an increased number of cows failing to get in-calf.

Empty rates among his clients were sitting about 13-14 per cent, although he had seen some herds with a rate nearer 18 per cent and heard of others in the 20s.

“You do get some farmers who have the skills and the financial means to keep the rate down but you also have guys with lower quality feed and a financial situation that can impact their ability to correct things,” he said.

“Thirteen or 14 per cent isn’t good and when you get to 18 or 20 per cent, it can have a huge financial impact.”

Unusually wet and cloudy weather over spring and summer had affected the ability of plants to produce sugar and carbohydrates, which had in turn reduced the energy available from pasture, Scott said.

During the dairy downturn, many farmers had tried to lower their expenses by reducing both herd size and the amount of supplementary feed given to their animals. There had also been a push from DairyNZ towards grass-only feed systems, Scott said, and this meant available pasture had to be high-energy to meet the needs of the animals grazing it.

“To to be fair to DairyNZ, what they’re endeavouring to do is get farmers to use every blade of grass first then look at what else they can do to build on it,” he said.

“In an ordinary spring and summer, that can work well for a lot of farmers. But nature’s very good at testing the system and what used to be successful isn’t always when it’s thrown a curveball like this wet weather.

“An adverse event like this season shows that what you thought was best practice might not have been.”

Farmers who had reduced their herd size during the downturn and now faced higher than normal empty rates had less wriggle room when it came to which cows could be culled, Scott said.

“Part of the issue is that by the time they allow for a handful of animal deaths and get rid of the empties and a few really broken down animals, there’s no room to cull on production.

“They’re in a situation where they have higher wastage, fewer incoming heifer calves and no replacements,” he said.

Empty rates were similar down-country. The Taranaki Veterinary Centre, which serves farms across South Taranaki, had to date tested about 85,000 cows in the area.

The average empty rate from those tests was 13.1 per cent, from an average 11.1 weeks mating length. That rate was about double the target rate for optimal reproductive performance, TVC chief executive Stephen Hopkinson said.

“Up until 2004, when restrictions on inductions were introduced, the empty rate tracked at 6 to 8 per cent with a mating length of 15-16 weeks,” he said.

“In the years since, the empty rate has stayed fairly constant at 10-11.5 per cent but had increased to 12 per cent last year and now 13 per cent.”

Weekly pasture samples from the Taranaki Agricultural Research Station showed dry matter content had fallen from 16-17 per cent to 11-12 per cent in October and early November.

This meant that although the grass was growing quickly and covers were high, cows were actually being underfed by as much as 25 per cent every day, Hopkinson said.

As well as affecting milk production and body condition, the reduced energy that resulted from unintentional underfeeding could have serious effects on conception rates and drive cows into a non-cycling status.

“Once in a forced state of non-cycling it is very hard to get a cow out of it, plus you also assume she is pregnant to her last mating,” he said.

“And with conception rates to AB (artificial breeding) reduced this meant more cows for the bulls to get in-calf. If you tried to scrimp on bull numbers then this may have backfired as well.”

With supplements taken out of a lot of farms, sudden reintroduction was difficult and even those farms where supplements were used had suffered, Hopkinson said.

“Even System 4 and 5 farms that already feed supplements have had higher empty rates because they didn’t replace the dry matter lost in the grass with extra high energy supplement,” he said.

DairyNZ’s regional manager for Taranaki, Katrina Knowles, said farmers were generally reporting lower six week in-calf rates than last year.

“Farmers have said that a below average spring saw them putting up fewer cows for artificial insemination,” she said.

“Looking ahead, DairyNZ is urging farmers to have a good autumn management plan to get their cows to target body condition score at calving.”

Knowles said the target for cows was a body condition score of 5.5 for first and second calvers, and 5 for mixed-age cows.

Each November the NZ Dairy Statistics report showed the best overall measure of herd reproductive performance, the six-week in-calf rate, of several thousand herds around the country.

DairyNZ supported the view that farmers should monitor their pasture, cow condition and consider their business, and use supplement, as needed.

Knowles said best practice was monitoring conditions and adjusting accordingly.

“We see most farmers do this every day – it’s ingrained in the job – and means that farmers are flexible and adaptable to conditions, whether they are wet or dry,” she said.

Source: Stuff

Training cattle to poop and pee in a designated area could revolutionize manure management, pen and barn design, animal health and welfare.

And research proves it can be done, although more study is needed on the specifics.

Jennifer Van Os, a post-doctoral scholar in the University of British Columbia’s animal welfare program, is interested in taking up that study.

She would like to build on work done by Dr. Alison Vaughan, formerly of UBC, who undertook a study and published a paper in 2015 indicating dairy calves can be trained to urinate in a specific area.

Van Os was among several UBC researchers on hand March 8-10 to explain their work during the Western Canadian Dairy Seminar.

“I’m interested in taking over this,” she said about Vaughan’s initial study. “Part of the reason we design these barns on concrete is to manage manure and that’s why we want cows to lie in cubicles in a certain direction so that we can keep them clean.

“But then if they’re on concrete it results in lameness and all these other issues and I just love this idea because it could possibly improve or reduce lameness, reduce dirtiness problems and then also reduce pneumonia because of the urine and the feces combining.”

In her initial study, Vaughan focused on urination training for six one-month-old Holstein heifers. The animals were put in a stall and given a diuretic. As soon as they urinated, they were released from the stall and given a 20-millilitre milk reward from a teat.

They were then returned to the stall for two more urinations, each followed by two more milk rewards.

The next day, the calves were tested in the same pen. They were not given a diuretic but if they urinated within 15 minutes of entry, they were released to get a milk reward. Those that failed were given a time out with no reward.

The experiment went on for 17 days, with training days followed by testing days.

Vaughan found that calves urinated more often in the stall on test days than the calves used as a control.

One apparently precocious heifer learned to urinate in the required spot after only one training day and another heifer, apparently less trainable, failed to urinate more than the control animal during the entire test.

“This study is the first to show that cattle can be trained to urinate in a specific place and demonstrates that calves have both the cognitive ability and the physiological control required for toilet training,” said the study synopsis.

Van Os said the next step may be to see if calves can learn the desired place to urinate but also identify and avoid the wrong place.

The synopsis indicated that UBC’s department of physics is helping develop an automated system for detecting and rewarding urination and defecation in specific areas so producers wouldn’t have to spend time training animals individually.

“I’d love to see it someday come to fruition,” Van Os said about the research.

Source: The Producer

Japanese telecommunications giant NTT Docomo will launch an internet-linked monitoring service later this month that will help farmers better determine whether a cow is in heat.

Dairy cows are said to produce more milk when in estrus, and the innovation would also promote the efficient breeding of beef cattle.

Source: Nikkei

Small actions can lead to large gains in farm profitability.

Kristjan Hebert is Canadian farmer who has presented on a farm improvement framework he calls “The 5% Rule”. This is a simple rule where farmers should aim to increase yield and price received by 5% and decrease expenses by 5%.

I should note that we have no affiliation with Kristjan or any of his business interests (I simply really like his business philosophies).

The small 5% improvements have a large compounding effect on farm profitability.

This rule/mindset is the backbone of a great farm business. It’s not something that can be acheived overnight. It’s a long-term, ROI-focused approach to business decisions.

See below for a simple illustration on the power of small, incremental improvements using soybeans as an example.

The power of compounding! 5% + 5% + 5% = +132%

See below for a great presentation that Kristjan gave on this topic. I particularily enjoy his commentary regarding cutting expenses and increasing efficiency while focusing on not hurting your yield prospects. I call this “trim the fat, not the muscle”.

While I love this concept, there is one point that I would like to build on. I think producers need to be careful with the goal of increasing price by 5%.

Every successful business tries to maximize revenue. Increasing pricing in a major component in achieving that.

But most businesses are not farms.

The truth is that a commodity-based business is a price “taker”(at least from a futures market standpoint). Individual producers have no control over futures prices.

It’s dangerous to get stuck in a cycle of always wanting 5% more.

My 5% rule clarification: Get 5% more by maximizing the basis and carry on your futures sales/hedges.

In the video shown above Kristjan alludes to the fact that most farms don’t separate the futures and basis side of their sales. I agree with that but I want to add some additional commentary on the increasing price component of the 5% rule.

I like to break marketing decisions down into the following steps:

1. Set the futures price when that price that work for your farm’s financials. This often occurs during the growing season when your crop is in a state of uncertainty. That’s the reality of farming.
2. Ignore the dozens of market predictions that are thrown at you every week.
3. Make store vs not-store decisions by the amount of carry in your specific commodity market.
4. Ignore the dozens of market predictions that are thrown at you every week.
5. Set the basis on your futures sales when your local market is hungry for your commodity. Click here for a blog post on maximizing storage ROI.
6. Ignore the dozens of market predictions that are thrown at you every week.

I will admit that the steps listed above are much easier said than done. But running a farm is not easy. Make strategic investments in your farm business that will allow you to better accomplish these steps.

In any aspect of grain marketing, there are no certainties. Just like on the agronomy side of your operation, use a probability-based decision making process.

It’s common sense that you’re rarely 100% certain that an incremental input purchase will produce a positive ROI. You make your decision based on the probability of said purchase giving you that positive ROI. We need to apply that same logic to our marketing.

Agricultural commodity markets tend to price in risk premium when the future crop size is in question. This tends to happen from March-July. Once the market is comfortable with the crops size, we can quickly see risk premium come out of the market.

Once again, nothing is a certain but over time the market offers risk premium before and during the first couple months of the growing season. Be aware of this seasonal pattern.

See below for a video I produced for a now-closed course we offered this past winter.

(On a side note, we’ll be launching a new and improved course in December. Keep your eye open for it.)

Another important consideration is the fact that we can’t change past decisions. If you sell 20% of your wheat the day before the market goes up $.20, it’s over and done with. Don’t dwell on it.

Kristjan hammers home the point that farmers need to measure their profitability on an accrual basis. Doing this focuses a farm on the fact that higher prices are great! Don’t let a fear of higher future prices stop you from making a sound marketing decision today.

Furthermore, there’s a popular quote in business that states, “What Gets Measured Gets Improved”. Accrual-based accounting allows a farm to meaure their profitability on a crop year-basis rather than simply monitoring the cash flow. A farm’s cash flow can be a dangerously lagging measure of farm profitability.

In summary, every business decision needs to be approached from an ROI-standpoint and a farm business is no different. If you focus on making small, incremental improvements to your farm it will pay big dividends in the long run.

Source: HarvestProfit

Though he didn’t come from a farming family, from a young age Tim Joseph was fascinated by the idea of living off the land.

Reading magazines like The Stockman Grass Farmer and Graze, he “got hooked on the idea of grass-fed agriculture — that all energy and wealth comes from the sun,” he explains, “and the shorter the distance between the sun and the end product,” the higher the profit to the farmer.

Joseph wanted to put this theory to the test, so in 2009, he and his wife Laura launched Maple Hill Creamery, an organic, all grass-fed yogurt company in upstate New York. He quickly learned what the market has demonstrated: Demand for grass-fed products currently outstrips supply.

Grass-fed beef is enjoying a 25 to 30 percent annual growth rate, while sales of grass-fed yogurt and kefir have in the last year increased by over 38 percent, compared with a drop of just under 1 percent in the total yogurt and kefir market, according to natural and organic market research company SPINS.

Joseph’s top priority became getting his hands on enough grass-fed milk to keep customers satisfied, since his own 64-cow herd wasn’t going to suffice.

His first partnership was with Paul and Phyllis Van Amburgh, owners of the Sharon Springs, N.Y., farm Dharma Lea. The Van Amburghs, too, were true believers in grass-fed. In addition to supplying milk from their own 85-head herd, they began to help other farmers in the area convert from conventional to certified organic and grass-fed in order to enter the Maple Hill supply chain. Since 2010, the couple has helped close to 125 small dairy farms convert to grass-fed, with more than 80 percent of those farms coming on board during the last two years.

All this conversion has helped Maple Hill grow 40 to 50 percent every year since it began, says Joseph, with no end in sight.

Joseph has learned that a farmer has to have a certain mindset to successfully convert. But convincing open-minded dairy people is actually not that hard, when you look at the economics.

Grass-fed milk can fetch up two-and-a-half times the price of conventional milk. Another factor is the squeeze that conventional dairy farmers have felt as the price of grain they feed their cows has gone up, tightening their profit margins. By replacing expensive grain feed with regenerative management practices — grazing animals on grasses coaxed from the pastureland’s latent seed bank, and fertilized by the cows’ own manure — grass-fed farmers are completely insulated from spikes in the price of feed.

Champions of this type of regenerative grazing also point to its animal welfare, climate and health benefits: Grass-fed animals live longer out of confinement. Grazing herds stimulate microbial activity in the soil, helping to capture water and sequester carbon. And grass-fed dairy and meat have been shown to be higher in certain nutrients and healthy fats.

In the grass-fed system, farmers are also not subject to the wildly fluctuating milk prices of the international commodity market. The unpredictability of global demand and the lag-time it takes to add more cows to a herd to meet demand can result in events like the recent cheese glut. Going grass-fed is a “safe refuge,” says Joseph, a way for “family-scale farms to stay viable.”

“Usually a farmer will get to the point where financially, what they’re doing is not working,” says Paul Van Amburgh. That’s when they call Maple Hill. If the farm is well managed, has enough land, and the desire to convert is sincere, a relationship can begin.

Through regular regional educational meetings, a large annual meeting, individual farm visits and thousands of phone calls, the Van Amburghs pass on the principles of pasture management. Maple Hill signs a contract pledging to buy the farmer’s milk at a guaranteed base price, plus quality premiums and incentives for higher protein, butterfat and other solids.

While Maple Hill’s conversion program is unusually hands-on and comprehensive (Joseph calls sharing his knowledge network through peer-to-peer learning “a core piece of our culture”), it is just one of a growing number of businesses committed to slowly changing the way America farms.

Last summer, Massachusetts grass-fed beef advocate Ridge Shinn launched Big Picture Beef, a network of small grass-fed beef farms in New England and New York that is projected to bring to market 2,500 head of cattle from more than 125 producers this year.

Early indications are that Shinn will have no shortage of farm members. Since he began to informally announce the network at farming conferences and on social media, he’s received a steady stream of inquiries from interested farmers.

Shinn says he will provide services ranging from formal seminars to on-farm workshops on holistic management, to “one-on-one hand-holding and an almost 24/7 phone hotline” for farmers who are converting. In exchange, he guarantees an above-market price for each animal and, for maximum traceability, a calf-to-customer electronic ear tag ID system like that used in the European Union.

Though advocates portray grass-fed products as a win-win situation for all, they do have downsides.

Price, for one: Joseph says his products are priced 10 to 20 percent above organic versions, but depending on the product chosen, compared to non-organic conventional yogurt, consumers could pay a premium of 30 to 50 percent or more for grass-fed.

As for the meat, Shinn says his grass-fed hamburger will be priced 20 to 25 percent over the conventional alternative. But a peek at the prices on online grocer Fresh Direct suggests a grass-fed premium of anywhere from 35 to 60 percent.

And not every farmer has the option of going grass-fed: For both beef and dairy production, it requires, at least in the beginning, more pastureland. Grass-fed beef production tends to be more labor intensive as well.

But Shinn counters that if you factor in the hidden cost of government corn subsidies, environment degradation, and decreased human health and animal welfare, grass-fed is the more cost-effective model. “The sun provides the lowest cost of production and the cheapest meat,” he says.

Another grass-fed booster spurring farmers to convert is EPIC, which makes meat-based protein bars. Founders Taylor Collins and his wife, Katie Forrest, used to be vegan endurance athletes; now they’re advocates of grass-fed meat. Very soon after launching EPIC’s most successful product – the Bison Bacon Cranberry Bar – Collins and Forrest found they’d exhausted their sources for bison raised exclusively on pasture.

“When we started digging into the supply chain,” says Collins, “we learned that only 2 to 3 percent of all bison is actually grass-fed and grass-finished. The rest is feed-lot confined and fed grain and corn.”

So two years ago, the company created a secondary, clearly labeled line of “natural” bars using animals that had eaten grain as well as grass. Collins wrote this post to explain the move to customers.

But after General Mills bought EPIC in 2016, Collins and Forrest suddenly had the resources they needed to expand their supply chain. So the company teamed up with Wisconsin-based rancher Northstar Bison. EPIC fronted the money for the purchase of $2.5 million worth of young bison that will be raised according to its grass-fed protocols, with a guaranteed purchase price.

The message to young people who might not otherwise be able to afford to break into the business, explains Collins, is, “‘You can purchase this $3 million piece of land here, because I am guaranteeing you today you will have 1,000 bison on it.’ We’re bringing new blood into the old, conventional ranching ecosystem, which is really cool to see.”

Source: NPR

Dairy producers in the United States are feeling the stress of volatile markets, increasing regulation and consumer demands. During stressful times, it can be easy to let emotions overtake rational thinking, which often leads to poor decision making. Dr. Chris Canale, Cargill U.S. dairy technology manager, offers these tips to ‘hold the line’ when it comes to making decisions:

Utilize a systematic review approach.

“Have a disciplined approach to decision making. Write out all pros and cons and discuss them with a trusted advisor. Make sure you always follow the approach to help limit gut reaction decision making.”

Detach yourself from the emotion.

“Removing the emotion from a decision can be very difficult, but it’s something that must be done. When our emotions take over, it can cloud our judgement, and lead to a decision we likely would not have made. Following a systematic review can often help keep rational thinking at the forefront when emotions are attached.”

Evaluate the decision before, during and after you make it.

“Evaluate decisions, especially ones that are significant, to improve future decision making. Don’t just evaluate the outcome though, look back and assess your motivations; did you make the decision for the right reasons? Assess your process: did you stick with your system, or did something cause you to deviate? Confront emotions: Were sentiments or stress under control, or heavily influencing you? By taking the time to evaluate these things you will be better able to hold the line the next time you’re under pressure to make a significant decision.”

Source: Wisconsin Farmer

Dairymen who use the right feed at the right time can maintain profitability even in down times, says Mike Hutjens.

“Every dairy farmer should be feeding corn silage,” Hutjens, a retired University of Illinois dairy specialist, told producers at a meeting here.

“We call it Christmas corn silage. You do not feed corn silage until Christmastime. It’s been fermenting in a bag for three or four months, which makes the starch more available.”

That is among several tips Hutjens provided to help dairy farmers who have struggled through low milk prices over the past couple of years.

Many are optimistic that prices will improve this year. Still, economical feeding solutions can help bridge the gap.

“Dry matter is 10 to 12 cents per pound. Every dairy farmer in Illinois needs to know that number,” Hutjens said. “What’s it cost for a pound of dry matter for your cow? The magic number is that 1 pound of dry matter should support 2 pounds of Jersey or 2 ½ pounds of Holsteins. I’ve already paid her maintenance costs.”

With milk prices at 17 cents per pound, a dime’s worth of dry matter yields 24 cents more profit, numbers indicate. There are some feed bargains out there that are on the good side of the break-even price.

One is distillers grains. Another is corn gluten feed.

“You’ve got to be feeding distillers grains,” Hutjens said. “It’s half price. Corn gluten feed is almost half price. Then there are soy hulls and fuzzy cotton. They’re still not break even, but at a good price this year.”

But making economical feed available doesn’t do much good if the cow doesn’t eat it. Hutjens points to a University of Wisconsin study giving three reasons for under consumption:

• A cow may be physically full and is unable to eat any more feed.
• Something tells the cow it is time to stop feeding. Researchers believe it could be related to rumen pH, fat level in the diet or other factors.
• Lameness may restrict feeding. Studies show 18 to 20 percent of cows are considered lame.

“What do lame cows not do? They don’t go to the feedlot eight to 10 times a day to get that extra mouthful of feed,” Hutjens said. “This lameness thing is huge.”

Additives that may also make economic sense include rumen-protected amino acids, which may increase milk protein and may yield more milk.

A study by The Ohio State University showed adding amino acids to the ration can add as much as 8 more pounds of milk daily.

“If your cows are producing 2.4 pounds of true protein, I would really check out your amino acid balance. There may be an opportunity for you,” Hutjens said. “And mycotoxin binders. This should be in every ration in Illinois.”

One survey indicated that many dairymen aren’t aware of exactly what they’re feeding their cows. For lactating animals, Hutjens recommends additives of rumen buffers, yeast products, silage inoculants, biotin and organic trace minerals.

For dry cows, the list changes, and includes organic trace minerals plus chromium, and anionic product.

Source: Missouri Farmer Today

A consultant says there are benefits to expanding dairy farms during times of low milk prices.

Dairy business consultant John Roach tells Brownfield farmers often expand dairies when milk prices are down. “Some of the best to expand historically has been when low milk price has been there because there’s not as much demand from the builders because there’s not as much building being planned, so often times you’re able to generate a better price.”

For producers that expand during times of low milk prices, Roach says producers usually get to capitalize on the price rebound. “Generally, the cycle will give you an upside on the other side, so expand that year when you have low milk prices, and then when the milk price rebounds, your expansion is fully populated and ready to go, but that assumes that you’ve got enough cash flow and ability in your balance sheet to be able to absorb that.”

Roach says if the decision to expand is made, don’t present lenders with a request that barely meets construction costs as unexpected expenses usually happen with construction projects.

Source: Brownfield

It can be as easy to do it right as wrong so manage animal health by doing the basics right.

At this time of the year, most livestock farmers haven’t time enough for their normal workload – without also having to care for sick animals. However, when sick animals appear they must be cared for and, with labour limited, many will look to prevention rather than treatment.

Higher vaccine use is good, but it must be matched with the basics of good farm management. Scour in calves is the biggest calf killer and usually reaches a peak in early March, as sheds fill up and newborn calves are housed in pens where older calves have just moved away from.

Kieran Mailey and the Journal Vet go through some of the calf-care basics that are essential to manage scour. While vaccination is effective when managed properly, it is not a cure-all and often the management around newborn calves is just as important.

With the start of breeding around the corner in suckler and dairy herds, go back through the calving notebook and think now about cows that had the hard calvings, the retained placenta, the twins, etc.

They might need a bit more attention and, if lacking in condition score, now is the time to mind them before the start of breeding and maybe a little extra feed or once-a-day milking might improve the situation.

On many sheep farms, given the exceptional rainfall, it is proving difficult to turn out ewes and lambs.

The increased risk of mastitis is a challenge and Darren Carty discusses what to look out for with the Journal Vet.

Rather than fire fighting individual herd health problems, farmers need to develop annual herd health plans that can allow for more structured and cheaper herd health control.

Farmers involved in the Knowledge Transfer Programme rightly need to complete an annual herd health plan.

Source: Irish Farmers Journal

Dairymen who use the right feed at the right time can maintain profitability even in down times, says Mike Hutjens.

“Every dairy farmer should be feeding corn silage,” Hutjens, a retired University of Illinois dairy specialist, told producers at a meeting here.

“We call it Christmas corn silage. You do not feed corn silage until Christmastime. It’s been fermenting in a bag for three or four months, which makes the starch more available.”

That is among several tips Hutjens provided to help dairy farmers who have struggled through low milk prices over the past couple of years.

Many are optimistic that prices will improve this year. Still, economical feeding solutions can help bridge the gap.

“Dry matter is 10 to 12 cents per pound. Every dairy farmer in Illinois needs to know that number,” Hutjens said. “What’s it cost for a pound of dry matter for your cow? The magic number is that 1 pound of dry matter should support 2 pounds of Jersey or 2 ½ pounds of Holsteins. I’ve already paid her maintenance costs.”

With milk prices at 17 cents per pound, a dime’s worth of dry matter yields 24 cents more profit, numbers indicate. There are some feed bargains out there that are on the good side of the break-even price.

One is distillers grains. Another is corn gluten feed.

“You’ve got to be feeding distillers grains,” Hutjens said. “It’s half price. Corn gluten feed is almost half price. Then there are soy hulls and fuzzy cotton. They’re still not break even, but at a good price this year.”

But making economical feed available doesn’t do much good if the cow doesn’t eat it. Hutjens points to a University of Wisconsin study giving three reasons for under consumption:

• A cow may be physically full and is unable to eat any more feed.
• Something tells the cow it is time to stop feeding. Researchers believe it could be related to rumen pH, fat level in the diet or other factors.
• Lameness may restrict feeding. Studies show 18 to 20 percent of cows are considered lame.

“What do lame cows not do? They don’t go to the feedlot eight to 10 times a day to get that extra mouthful of feed,” Hutjens said. “This lameness thing is huge.”

Additives that may also make economic sense include rumen-protected amino acids, which may increase milk protein and may yield more milk.

A study by The Ohio State University showed adding amino acids to the ration can add as much as 8 more pounds of milk daily.

“If your cows are producing 2.4 pounds of true protein, I would really check out your amino acid balance. There may be an opportunity for you,” Hutjens said. “And mycotoxin binders. This should be in every ration in Illinois.”

One survey indicated that many dairymen aren’t aware of exactly what they’re feeding their cows. For lactating animals, Hutjens recommends additives of rumen buffers, yeast products, silage inoculants, biotin and organic trace minerals.

For dry cows, the list changes, and includes organic trace minerals plus chromium, and anionic product.

Source: Illinois Farmer Today

One third of the cows is not making it in their barns. Why? Because of diseases, and one in particular. Subclinical rumen acidosis is barely visible, but will weaken you cows, leading to other diseases. In the end, this is cutting cow lives short. If we want to do something about this, we need to broaden our knowledge of feed. There’s plenty of information about feed quality available, but more knowledge of housing and management with regard to feeding is much needed.

In the titel of this blog we specifically mention advisors. That doesn’t mean farmers can lie back and relax. It’s a farmer’s reponsibility to keep their cows healhty. So this is as much of an appeal to farmers as it is to advisors. We just want to challenge the advisors to do better as well, because we believe they can have a crucial role in changing things.

By the time you catch it (or not), the other trouble has already started: mastitis, lameness, low fertility..

One third of the cows is not making it. ‘Not making it’, is saying that the average productive lifetime for cows is below 3 lactations, where it can be 5 lactations. Did you know 20% of lactating heifers doesn’t make the second lactation? When we’re looking at why cows don’t go the distance, we’re quickly faced with disease numbers:

• 50% bloody soles after calving
• 50% subclinical milk fever
• 30% mastitis or much more
• 20% ketosis
• x % subclinical rumen acidosis

Shocking numbers and there’s plenty to say about each disease individually. But let’s look at one disease in particular: rumen acidosis. This disease is hard to recognize for farmers, but will seriously weaken the cow. It starts with nausea and by the time you catch it (or not), the other trouble has already started: mastitis, lameness, low fertility rates and so on. This is what in the end is keeping cows from happily and healthy making it to five lactations.
Rumen acidosis is the silent killer of our cows.

So if you can hardly catch it in time, it is even more crucial to prevent it. For prevention farmers need a good understanding of how the rumen functions and an excellent feeding program. A major issue is feed quality and luckily, most farmers have a good feed advisor for this. What the feed advisor often doesn’t tell the farmer is how management and housing effect feed intake. Without broadening knowledge about feeding to these areas as well, rumen acidosis just will keep happening.

Like we said, it is a farmer’r responsibility to keep their cows healthy. They need to actively search for broader knowledge on feeding. However, we believe that advisors have an important role in providing this information more easily. We like to challenge them to do a better job.

What the feed advisor often doesn’t tell you, is how management and housing effect feed intake

Farm advisors that can advise on a broader scope, will probably do a lot better than their competitors. They can actually help farmers solve problems that are of key importance to them. This makes them highly valuable. Also, instead of just advising farmer to just buy their product, they will also be giving farmers advice on things they don’t earn a penny from. This will make them a more trustworthy partner for their clients. Expending their knowledge is in the best interest of the advisors as well.

In summary, rumen acidosis is a very serious disease that has enormous effects on both the cow’s as the farmer’s life. Good farmers will actively search for new insights and improvement opportunities in the housing and management department. Good advisors, that are keen on giving quality advice and creating a sustainable relationship with their clients by constantly being of added value, face the challenge to give advice on a broader scope and involve all factors needed for a good feeding program. This will not only benefit cows and farmers, but also the farm advisor. Together, we can do a better job.

About Feeding Signals
We just developed a new video learning ‘Feeding Signals’. It focuses on housing and management with regards to feeding and it provides solutions that have proven themselves in practice. The video learning is for both farmers and feed advisors, vets, fertility specialists and barn designers. Feeding Signals is also available as a day training.

Learn more:

• Free webinar Feeding Signals for Farmers
• Free webinar Feeding Signals for Advisors
• Free whitepaper

U.S. dairy producers work hard every day to provide the safest food in the world to consumers, but there is always room for improvement. Although dairy cattle make up less than one tenth of the total cattle sent to market, dairy and bob veal from dairy account for 90% of the violative residues on an annual basis. Just one single residue violation can erode consumer confidence and a dairy operation’s reputation.

We have a huge responsibility to consumers to supply a safe, wholesome and quality product with no residues — in both milk and meat. If we can do that, they’ll have confidence in buying our products, which will help producers and the dairy industry in the long run.

When inspectors find drug residues in milk and meat, it’s most often because product labels or withholding times for milk and meat weren’t followed at the farm level. Help your dairy avoid the damage of drug residue violations by recognizing their leading causes and establishing procedures to avoid them. Start with these tips:

1. Consult with your veterinarian regularly

Having a strong veterinarian-client-patient relationship and including your veterinarian in regular conversations with your management team not only helps improve cow health and the overall performance of your herd, but also helps prevent residues in milk and meat.

2. Keep written treatment protocols up to date

All treatment protocols provided by your veterinarian should be in writing. Review protocols with your veterinarian at least twice a year to make sure they are up to date and appropriate for your operation. Also review protocols with farm employees — especially those administrating animal health treatments. Written protocols should include:

• How to diagnose the disease
• Which medications and doses are approved for treatment
• Instructions for administration
• Milk discard and pre-slaughter withdrawal times
• Steps to ensure that cows are withheld the appropriate amount of time

3. Maintain accurate treatment records

The risk of a drug residue violation is significantly increased if your operation does not keep accurate records. All records should note the:

• Animal treated
• Date and time of treatment
• Drug and dosage administered
• Route of administration
• Length of any milk discard or pre-slaughter withdrawal times
• Who administered the treatment

4. Always follow labeled instructions

Make sure your operation always follows labeled dosages for any drugs prescribed by a veterinarian or purchased over the counter. When it comes to using pharmaceuticals, never make guesses on weight, treatment frequency or route of administration, no matter where they are purchased. Only a veterinarian can prescribe extra-label uses and determine appropriate withholding times based on dosage and route of administration.

5. Retrain employees on treatment protocols at least twice a year

Keep all employees on the same page and prevent treatment protocol drift by retraining employees who administer medications at least every six months. Train new employees before allowing them to administer products.

6. Use separate drug storage areas for lactating and nonlactating cows

Most violative drug residues are caused by human error. Clearly labeling and keeping medicines for lactating and nonlactating cows in separate areas is an easy way to avoid a simple mistake that can have major consequences.

Don’t think residue violations could affect you? Know the risks. Take this 10-question Residue Risk Assessment to learn how your operation needs to maximize its residue avoidance procedures.

Reviewing the numbers probably isn’t the most exciting thing at your dairy farm. But if you want to be around next year, and the year after, you better know where you stand.

That was part of the message delivered by Gary Sipiorski, dairy development manager with Vita Plus, and Dianne Shoemaker, Ohio State University dairy field specialist, during the Northeast Ohio Regional Dairy Conference March 1 at the OARDC.

Sipiorski told dairy farmers how to manage budgets, feed and operating costs, if they want to be in the top third of dairy producers.

“The financial clock is ticking,” he said. “If you don’t like numbers, it’s time to start liking them. It’s time to start knowing what’s going on, because top-third dairy producers know how to manage money.”

Managing debt

One of the biggest factors is managing debt. Sipiorski said top-third producers keep debt at 20 percent of their income or less. Put another way, they don’t carry more than $20 of debt for every 100 pounds of milk they sell.

He said it’s OK to borrow money — and borrowing can lead to a good investment, “as long as you can pay it back in a reasonable amount of time.”

Shoemaker, who also dairy farms in Mahoning County, said having no debt is fine, but sometimes producers who have no debt should look at the next best area to invest.

“If there is no debt, a good question is ‘are there some things I could do, to do better,’” she said.

She also cautioned producers about taking too short of a loan term, especially when the term is much shorter than the usable life of the product. She said it’s usually better to take the longer term debt, and pay it off more aggressively, than limit yourself to too short of a term.

Balance sheets

Sipiorski told producers they need to keep accurate balance sheets, and do their budgeting three months before end of year. They also need to be reviewing their cash flow on a quarterly basis, monitoring key financial ratios like debt-to-asset and return-on-investment, and they need to be risk managers.

“You’ve got to educate yourself on risk, and if you don’t want to educate yourself on risk, stay away from it (dairy farming), because you will get smucked,” he said.

On the milk production side, Sipiorski said top dairy farmers know how to maximize cow comfort and feed efficiency. They limit calf loss to less than 1 percent, their heifers freshen at 22-24 months, somatic cell count is kept to 100,000 or less, and top producers think about cow comfort on a daily basis.

On the feed side, top-third producers are working with crop advisors, planning for the growing season in winter, and they also know when to harvest, store and transport their feed in a way that maximize energy and protein, while reducing shrink and loss.

Improving relations

On the social side, the best producers also spend time improving their relations with farm employees, family members, and the different people they interact with. Sipiorski said it’s a good idea to attend at least two or three educational events each year, and to look for ways to improve as an employer.

Some important steps are keeping current on your OSHA paperwork, hiring people who share the same values, and providing opportunities for your employees to advance and grow within the industry.

Shoemaker said dairy farms also need mission statements, and everyone involved with the operation needs to be on the same page.

“Do the people involved agree with the mission,” she asked. “You have to know and agree on why you are in business.”

By the numbers

Shoemaker reminded farmers that the number of dairy farms in Ohio are rapidly decreasing, and if they want to be in it for the future — they need to be among the top.

In 2007, there were 2,517 licensed Grade A milk producers in Ohio, and in January 2017, the number dropped to below 2,000 — for a decrease of nearly 600 producers.

She said managing your numbers is important, “if you don’t want to be part of that next group that leaves the industry in the next 10 years.”

She also reviewed the results of OSU’s Ohio Farm Business Analysis program, which tracked the performance data of 40 Ohio dairy herds. The top 20 percent of producers kept feed costs to just $10.42 per cwt. (100 pounds), compared to $11.88 for the average of all farms.

The top 20 percent sold nearly 2,000 pounds more milk per cow, and the top 20, on average, kept total costs per 100 pounds of milk to about $3 less ($15.28) than the average of all farms ($18.21).

The net return per cow, before labor and management, showed producers in the top 20 netting $905 per cow, compared to only $36 per cow for the average of all farms.

Looking at everything

Like Sipiorski, she reminded farmers to review the critical benchmarks and ratios of their business, but reminded them that they need to look at more than just one number.

“One number will not give you the whole picture, and if you calculate one number and it’s excellent, that doesn’t mean you don’t keep looking at what the other numbers are,” she said.

Sipiorski said there isn’t necessarily a magical herd number, or size of farm that is most profitable.

“I’ve seen all the different size dairies that are out there, I see them on a regular basis. And it isn’t a number, it’s the bottom line number,” he said.

He said they should keep an open and honest communication line with their lender. Lenders should visit the farm, and be kept in the light.

“The best lender is one that’s real honest with you, and the best customer is the customer that’s honest with the lender,” he said.

Source: Farm and Dairy

Millennials, those born after 1982, will soon make-up 50% of the workforce. This generation, often misunderstood and identified as being lazy, was raised on grading rubrics. Every performance expectation and academic milestone was carefully spelled out, clearly outlining the necessary steps to achieve an ‘A’ or just get by with a ‘D’. When millennials fell short, a parent, teacher, or mentor coached them to success.

Farm owners and managers in need of more than ‘D’ performers must also integrate the use of grading rubrics and coaching strategies to ensure the success, growth, and development of their employees. According Dr. Robert Milligan, Professor Emeritus from Cornell University and consultant at Dairy Strategies LLC, every successful employee needs clear responsibilities, performance expectations, and an improvement plan. Just as the Kindergarten grading rubric spelled out the standards for exceeding counting standards, managers must carefully spell out and measure the standards for success on their farms.

Managers and owners have the responsibility of facilitating employee success through continuous monthly performance measures. A simple excel spreadsheet could serve as a performance grading rubric for employees. As displayed in Table 1, the left hand column represents jointly agreed upon performance measures. Next room exists for the expected and actual performance. A 12 month rubric provides opportunity for monthly discussion and corrective actions of performance.

Monthly discussions of performance measures provides both managers and employees with opportunities to communicate and assess business performance. As stated by Erica Leubner, a personal consultant with New York FarmNet, “Lack of effective communication is the number one reason (I have observed) why farm businesses experience conflict and dysfunction”. Clearly stated performance measures are the first step in effective communications with family and non-family members.

The performance evaluation and communication process breeds accountability and success for the entire organization. Similar to the kindergarten grading rubric, employees (family and or non-family) need clear responsibilities, performance expectations, and an improvement plan. The role of the farm manager/owner is to coach the employees, including the often misunderstood Millennials, to success.

Source: Morning Ag Clips

There is no question that Michigan dairy farms have been experiencing tough economic conditions over the past two years. Some drivers of these conditions are new, or at least greater in scale than have been experienced previously. The response by individual farms is critical to their ability to survive and thrive.

When we travel to dairy farms to talk with producers that are going through these tough times, we cover three areas that we believe are important to turning the operation around. These areas include: maximizing the resources that you have, reducing waste, and re-evaluating the business structure.

Maximizing resources means getting more out of investments you have already made, particularly resources that are currently underutilized. Examples could include milking cow barns that are not full, work schedules that don’t fully utilize workers time, and parlor underutilization. Milking cow housing that is only partially full is an automatic red flag. Farms can ill afford to have assets that are not being fully utilized to generate revenue. Underutilized cow housing is often associated with other problem areas, including higher cull and death rates, poor reproductive performance and compromised calf raising. 

Another underutilized resource that farms may not immediately recognize is the external resources that they have available to them. One such resource is your Michigan State University Extension Dairy Team. The MSU Extension Dairy Team consists of six field educators and several campus-based specialists who can bring varied expertise to help producers identify opportunities and pathways to improvement. Like other outside people resources, MSU Extension educators offer an external perspective, and we also are a link to unbiased research-based information.

Reducing waste on farms means identifying any area where there are losses of value. This includes animals that should be pregnant and are still open, dead animals, disease that robs production or decreases reproduction or milk quality, wasted feed, wasted seeds, and wasted time. This area requires the farm manager to take a step back, observe, do inventory and look for opportunities to cut waste without hurting performance. This is a great area to utilize employees as they are your eyes on the front lines. Seek their input, thank them for their input and use their ideas. Even when an idea is off the mark, recognize that employees are trying to help your business succeed. Use these ideas that are “off the mark” to help train employees on why it is important not to cut a certain area.

Reevaluating the business structure means that you critically evaluate each operation and whether you consistently, efficiently and profitably perform it. Oftentimes, that will take bringing in some outside thinking and ideas. The newest economic realities may necessitate that your business structure change from what you have always done. That could be using a custom heifer grower to free up facility space, feed and human resources. It could be contracting with a custom harvester to free up financial resources that have been dedicated to machinery that is underutilized and improving the harvested product by getting it put up in a narrower window. Finally, it may mean changing debt structure to enable you to weather these tough economic times. 

In all of these cases, you will need to have a firm grasp on your farm’s cost of production, balance sheet information, net income and cash flow. You’ll need to be able to determine what areas of your farm are profitable and which areas are not. If this is where you could use assistance, there is a MSU Extension resource available to help you.

Michigan State University Extension is offering a program entitled Newest Economic Realities in Agriculture: Building Your Farm’s Plan.  This program is designed to help everyone, from a novice to an advanced farmer, understand your business’ numbers and how that translates into prioritizing options and making timely management decisions. There will be breakout sessions for dairy/livestock, field crops, and fruits/vegetable production.

The program is being held on March 8 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center in East Lansing. It runs from 8:30 to 5:00 p.m. with an optional dinner with Question and Answer session from 5:30 – 7 p.m. To view the full program agenda and register for the program, please go to the event page online.

Tough times demand re-evaluation. Don’t miss the opportunity to re-evaluate your business and put it on a path to greater profitability.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit http://expert.msue.msu.edu, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

Agricultural debt on a nominal basis in Illinois has been increasing since 1991. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Illinois Farm Business Farm Management (FBFM) are shown to see if increasing debt levels pose problems for the financial health of Illinois farms. With the continued downturn in the farm economy, increasing debt levels need to be monitored closely.

Overall Agricultural Debt Levels

USDA publishes estimates of total agricultural debt outstanding in the United States (see Economic Reporting Service, USDA website). This series is available from 1960 onwards and gives the amount of debt outstanding as of the year-end.

Nominally, agricultural debt reached a peak in 1984 of $188.8 billion (see the nominal line in Figure 1). From 1984 through 1989, agricultural producers retired debt and agricultural lenders wrote off some debt, resulting in a decline in total debt. By 1989, agricultural debt had declined by 31%, reaching a level of $131 billion.

Since 1990, agricultural debt increased an average of 4.1% per year. The rate of increase varied from year-to-year but exhibited no escalating or decreasing trends. The highest rate increases occurred between 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 when increases were 11.6 and 8.4%, respectively. Increases of less than 3% occurred 6 times in this period while decreases happened in 3 years with the greatest at negative 3.2% in 2002-2003.

At the end of 2004, agricultural debt reached $197.6 billion, surpassing the previous high set in 1984. Increasing debt levels may cause concerns that financial stress occurring during the 1980s may repeat. However, the above debt levels are stated in nominal terms and do not take into consideration inflation’s devaluing impacts on the dollar.

Using the gross national product – implicit price deflator to state nominal debt levels in terms of 2009 dollars gives a different picture of debt levels (see the real line in Figure 1). In terms of 2009 dollars, agricultural debt started at $365 billion in 1980 before declining until 1994. Since 1993, agricultural debt in real terms increased all but three years 2000, 2003 and 2012. Since 1990, the rate of increase averaged 2.1% for real debt levels, much lower than the 4.1% nominal rate increase. The forecasted numbers for 2016 and 2017 are the highest levels in real terms since 1985

Debt Levels on FBFM Grain Farms

Additional perspective on debt can be obtained by analyzing farm level data from FBFM. Table 1 presents average data for grain farms enrolled in FBFM who have certified-useable balance sheets. The data is stated in nominal terms and debt levels are stated as of year-end 1991 through 2015. Three measures of debt level are presented in Table 1: debt-to-asset ratio, debt per tillable acre, and interest expense per tillable acre.

The debt-to-asset ratio had a very slight downward trend from 1991 to 2003. In 1991 and 2003, the debt-to-asset ratio was 33.4% and 29.2%, respectively. From 2004 to 2012, the debt-to-asset ratio decreased at a faster pace, averaging 5.2%. In 2004 and 2012, the debt-to-asset ratios were 28.5% and 18%, respectively. Since 2012, the debt-to-asset ratio has increased 4.3% annually. Since 1991, both asset and liability levels rose, with asset levels increasing slightly faster than debt levels.

Increases in debt can be seen by examining debt per tillable acre. Debt levels were $258 per tillable acre in 1991 compared to $372 in 2004, an increase of over $100 per acre (see Table 1). Since 2005, debt levels per tillable acre increased almost $300 per acre. Between 1991 and 2004, debt per tillable acre increased an average of 2.9%, which is about equal to the 3% for all U.S. agricultural debt. However since 2005, Illinois FBFM grain farms debt per tillable acre increased 5.7%, slightly higher than the national average of 5.6%.

While debt levels have increased, interest expense per tillable acre declined from 1999 to 2013, except for 2006, 2007 and 2008 which saw double-digit increases of 11.7%, 18.9% and 11.8%, respectively as well as 2.0% in 2011. Interest per tillable acre has been increasing since 2014. Interest expense was $20.72 per tillable acre in 1991 and $18.63 in 1992, while in 2014 and 2015 interest expense was $18.50 and $20.20, respectively. Lower interest rates in the late 90s and early 2000s caused the reduction in interest expense per tillable acre in the face of rising debt levels per acre. However, an interest rate increase in the mid-2000s caused an increase in interest expense per tillable acre during that period. From the mid-2000s until 2013, interest rates have decreased, but the amount of debt has increased more rapidly. Interest rates as well as debt has begun to increase since 2013, leading to interest expense per tillable acre to increase on average 7.5%.

Summary

The importance a farmer puts on monitoring their debt level is becoming increasingly important in this period of lower farm returns. With lower crop prices and higher inputs, we will continue to see the increase in debt per acre. With interest rates moving higher, this mean a rising interest expense as well. In addition, with some farm assets decreasing in value, this can also lead to higher debt-to-asset ratios even without any additional debt. Finally, as debt levels increase, farmers need to monitor their term debt and capital lease ratio. The greater the number, the greater the margin to meet all term debt and capital lease payments. A ratio of one means that income available is equal to the term debt and lease payments. In 2015, the average for the 2,601 IL farms enrolled in FBFM with useable data was 0.42 compared to 1.48 in 2014. Establishing or maintaining good recordkeeping during these times will help farmers identify areas of concern faster and be able to make better farm financial decisions.

Source: Farmdoc Daily

Farmers looking at the dairy shed and pasture from a cow’s perspective could reduce cow stress and end up with more milk in the farm vat, says DairyNZ.

The dairy industry organisation ran a Milk Smart seminar near Palmerston North at a dairy farm, and about 20 people went to find out more about cow senses.

“Think from a cow’s point of view,” said Murray Holt from DairyNZ

“A fearful cow makes adrenaline and that stops her letting down her milk. if a cow is upset, even when she is calm, it takes half an hour for her to be ok.”

Holt told farmers calm cows produced 4 per cent to 14 per cent more milk.

He said all domesticated cows came from 70 auroc cattle, and they were prey animals.

“Even though we have bred a quieter cow, they still have the basic instincts of being a hunted animal.”

Holt said cows had social interactions with other animals.

“They have friends and remember family. They are curious. if a sick TB possum crosses their paddock what do they do? Go over and investigate, and smell it. Sheep run away. Cows also have moods and emotions. They are intelligent.”

He said a cow’s sense of smell was better than humans, and they could smell other animals eight kilometres away.

“They can smell the urine of other cows, and if a cow is afraid it shows in the urine and other cows know. They also use smell to recognise other cows in the herd, and they use their sense of smell to recognise you.”

Holt said cows had two or three times as many taste buds as humans and could hear higher frequencies than people.

“Don’t have the radio on full in the cow shed. If a cow can’t hear, it would be like she is wearing a blindfold.”

He said cows could see more widely than people, with a 330 degree vision. A cow had 30 degrees at the back which she could not see. In contrast, people can see 170 degrees.

“But we work behind a cow in her blind spot. She can’t see us, and often when the [milking] cups go on a cow, she jumps. She only knows you are there because she can hear you.”

Source: NZ Farmer

There is no question that Michigan dairy farms have been experiencing tough economic conditions over the past two years. Some drivers of these conditions are new, or at least greater in scale than have been experienced previously. The response by individual farms is critical to their ability to survive and thrive.

When we travel to dairy farms to talk with producers that are going through these tough times, we cover three areas that we believe are important to turning the operation around. These areas include: maximizing the resources that you have, reducing waste, and re-evaluating the business structure.

Maximizing resources means getting more out of investments you have already made, particularly resources that are currently underutilized. Examples could include milking cow barns that are not full, work schedules that don’t fully utilize workers time, and parlor underutilization. Milking cow housing that is only partially full is an automatic red flag. Farms can ill afford to have assets that are not being fully utilized to generate revenue. Underutilized cow housing is often associated with other problem areas, including higher cull and death rates, poor reproductive performance and compromised calf raising. 

Another underutilized resource that farms may not immediately recognize is the external resources that they have available to them. One such resource is your Michigan State University Extension Dairy Team. The MSU Extension Dairy Team consists of six field educators and several campus-based specialists who can bring varied expertise to help producers identify opportunities and pathways to improvement. Like other outside people resources, MSU Extension educators offer an external perspective, and we also are a link to unbiased research-based information.

Reducing waste on farms means identifying any area where there are losses of value. This includes animals that should be pregnant and are still open, dead animals, disease that robs production or decreases reproduction or milk quality, wasted feed, wasted seeds, and wasted time. This area requires the farm manager to take a step back, observe, do inventory and look for opportunities to cut waste without hurting performance. This is a great area to utilize employees as they are your eyes on the front lines. Seek their input, thank them for their input and use their ideas. Even when an idea is off the mark, recognize that employees are trying to help your business succeed. Use these ideas that are “off the mark” to help train employees on why it is important not to cut a certain area.

Reevaluating the business structure means that you critically evaluate each operation and whether you consistently, efficiently and profitably perform it. Oftentimes, that will take bringing in some outside thinking and ideas. The newest economic realities may necessitate that your business structure change from what you have always done. That could be using a custom heifer grower to free up facility space, feed and human resources. It could be contracting with a custom harvester to free up financial resources that have been dedicated to machinery that is underutilized and improving the harvested product by getting it put up in a narrower window. Finally, it may mean changing debt structure to enable you to weather these tough economic times. 

In all of these cases, you will need to have a firm grasp on your farm’s cost of production, balance sheet information, net income and cash flow. You’ll need to be able to determine what areas of your farm are profitable and which areas are not. If this is where you could use assistance, there is a MSU Extension resource available to help you.

Michigan State University Extension is offering a program entitled Newest Economic Realities in Agriculture: Building Your Farm’s Plan.  This program is designed to help everyone, from a novice to an advanced farmer, understand your business’ numbers and how that translates into prioritizing options and making timely management decisions. There will be breakout sessions for dairy/livestock, field crops, and fruits/vegetable production.

The program is being held on March 8 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center in East Lansing. It runs from 8:30 to 5:00 p.m. with an optional dinner with Question and Answer session from 5:30 – 7 p.m. To view the full program agenda and register for the program, please go to the event page online.

Tough times demand re-evaluation. Don’t miss the opportunity to re-evaluate your business and put it on a path to greater profitability.

Source: MSU Extension