News
During processing, it’s easy to go through the same old routine without giving much thought to things you’ve done many times before. Take some extra time, however, to look at the labels on the animal health products that you administer to your cattle to improve efficacy and maximize your investment. The illustration below highlights the parts of a label that contain important information.
With good growing conditions this summer and an outlook for big crops, the hope was that feed costs for 2011 would be low. But high feed exports and renewable fuel demands are clouding that once sunny picture.
Dairy producers across the country have complained about low milk fat this year, though nutritionists have been hard-pressed to explain it.
If your nutrition is out of sync, then nothing else matters.
Nutrition is the key to milk production, and forage quality is the key to good nutrition. We use two main forage sources, triticale haylage and corn silage.
Growing and harvesting high-quality forages have gone from being simple things to real challenges.
We have always invested heavily in both feed storage and forage harvesting equipment.
Tips for weathering the economic downturn. Ag lending: visit banker early, communicate often, keep good records, build cash, negotiate rates. Cash rent renegotiation may be in order. Land price rise may be slowing; what the rent-to-value ratio means. What it costs to hire a college grad. Natural gas price down; fertilizer is a good investment.
A properly equipped and maintained planter makes the difference between success and failure
Sustainability: feeding the world with the resources available.
Lack of leadership may be the single biggest void in today’s agricultural operations.
Jerry Jennissen has proven that you can benefit from a methane digester even when you milk 150 cows.
In 2007, Cargill’s Environmental Finance Group began building a plug-flow digester on Bettencourt Farms’ new Dry Creek Dairy, a 10,000-cow operation near Murtaugh, Idaho. Since going online in September 2008, the 5-million-gallon digester has generated electricity for the Idaho grid, reduced manure odor, cut manure handling costs and produced digester solids for the dairy’s bedding.
One trip to look at an anaerobic digester on a dairy in central Minnesota was all it took to convince Lee Jensen that the technology would be a good fit for his 900-cow Five Star Dairy near Elk Mound, Wis.
Forage quality also contributes to an operation’s carbon footprint. We put significant research into selecting hybrids that give us good tonnage as well as high digestibility. If we can maximize forage digestibility, the cows will more efficiently turn nutrients into milk.
Preplanning makes variable-rate technology cheaper and easier to manage for application of nitrogen and seed
As Arizona’s controversial immigration law is set to go into affect tomorrow.
Employee has a heart attack on your farm: Do you need to report it?