You have to stand-up and notice when a dairy company releases an “edgy” advertisement for their product. Yeo Valley, in Blagdon, England, gained Twitter fame yesterday among the #Agchat group for this video of dairy farmers rapping about their products.
Check it out!
Source: Yeo Valley
Hoard’s Dairyman is celebrating a milestone this year that few can claim these days – 125 years of serving readers.
“It’s been a very interesting year for us from the standpoint of celebrating our historic anniversary and secondly, positioning ourselves for the future,” Director of Marketing Gary Vorpahl told me during an interview at World Dairy Expo.
Part of the publication’s longevity can be attributed to diversification and changing with the times. “We’re Twittering and Facebook and Linkedin,” Gary says. “We’ve got three divisions of the company – a newspaper division which is comprised of one daily and 12 weekly newspapers, a commercial printing division where we print everything from last year’s Super Bowl program to high end magazines for shopping centers, and then we have a magazine division, which is comprised primarily of Hoard’s Dairyman, but is also another group of track and field magazines.”
First and foremost, however, Hoard’s is the dairy industry’s leading dairy publication, which was started in January 1885 by W.D. Hoard, the former governor of Wisconsin who was instrumental in making the state the dairy leader it is today. Gary says the publication will continue to evolve and remain relevant. “The print magazine will continue to be valuable but the way we deliver it will probably change as more and more high speed internet is available it will offer us more opportunities to do things in video, more extensive types of podcasting and learning modules,” he said.
Listen to my interview with Gary here. Gary Vorpahl Interview
Here is a little video history that Hoard’s did to commemorate 125 years:
2010 World Dairy Expo Photo Album
Thanks to our World Dairy Expo sponsors:
Reproduction is a key factor for the profitability of dairy operations but in a wide segment of the dairy industry reproductive performance is far from optimal. That’s why a few years ago, a group of concerned dairy industry professionals formed the Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council (DCRC).
At World Dairy Expo, I talked to Dr. Andy Skidmore with Schering-Plough Animal Health, who serves as secretary of the DCRC. “It’s a joint effort among all the different parties that are involved and concerned about fertility in dairy cattle and trying to pool those resources to try and improve the fertility on dairy farms,” Andy said. “Our long term goal is to become the source of information and education for producers to find answers to their questions and improve the industry.”
Two years ago the group started the National Dairy Reproduction Award Program to honor dairy producers from across the United States who have successfully implemented management procedures and achieved high reproductive efficiency. “The objectives are to recognize those who are doing an excellent job and to figure out what we can learn from those who are doing an excellent job,” he explained. “If you look at the finalists, they’ve been able to achieve astonishingly high levels of reproductive efficiency on their farms, but each one of them have done it in a different way.”
DCRC will be holding its annual meeting November 11-12 in St. Paul, where this year’s award winners will be recognized. Andy says they are always looking for new members from all segments of the dairy business who are interested in helping to increase productivity for the industry as a whole. Membership information can be found here on the DCRC website.
Listen to my interview with Andy here. Andy Skidmore DCRC Interview
2010 World Dairy Expo Photo Album
Thanks to our World Dairy Expo sponsors:
Charm Sciences is pleased to announce the launch of its new enhanced website. The new website is designed for a better user experience through improved navigation, enhanced functionality, and easier access to resource information.
The web design includes a novel ‘file tab’ template that provides the user with a virtual file cabinet experience to sourcing information. Data retrieval is easy, fast, and dynamic. The website URL has not changed so the transition is seamless. The information-rich site provides a great resource for food, dairy, and water safety, as well as for other industries where sanitation monitoring is a key concern.
In addition, Charm Sciences has launched a new Charm for Farm website specifically for dairy farmers. The two sites are inter-linked, user-friendly, intuitive, and reflect Charm’s commitment to excellence in quality, innovation and customer support.
Source: Charm Sciences, Inc.
Looking for a new career? The American Jersey Cattle Association is seeking an Advance Services Consultant.
The successful candidate will market and deliver effective customer support for JerseyMate, Jersey Link and JerseyTags, plus cover the northwest field service territory.
This is a full-time position based in the Reynoldsburg, Ohio office, requiring 50% travel.
Persons with degrees or equivalent experience in dairy or animal science or ag business are encouraged to apply. Background knowledge and experience in dairy cattle management, including industry standard herd management software and purebred activities is required.
A simple, inexpensive instrument that is routinely used to measure liquids like wine or orange juice to determine the amount of soluble solids in solution can also be used to quickly measure the quality of colostrum for newborn calves.
Research published in the August Journal of Dairy Science showed how Brix refractometer instruments can be used effectively for the measurement of Ig concentration of colostrum and at World Dairy Expo, APC, Inc. was giving away four of the refractometers every day during the trade show. The instruments are available on-line for about $50-60.
I talked with Jim Quigley, director of calf operations for APC, about how the refractometer can help producers better manage their colostrum program. “If the producer mismanages the first 24 hours of a calf’s life, it can really affect the calf for the rest of it’s life and impair its ability to milk when she grows up,” Jim told me.
The refractometer is easy to use and gives a reading within seconds of the quality of colostrum. “This brix refractometer can be a pretty good tool to help the producer, very quickly at cow-side, to identify the colostrum that’s good quality from the colostrum that’s poor quality,” he explained. “They’re very simple and easy to use and quite handy on the farm, since with feeding colostrum, time is of the essence.” APC offers products that are used to replace or supplement colostrum if a producer finds that necessary.
Listen to my interview with Jim here. Jim Quigley Interview
Watch Jim demonstrate how simple the brix refractometer is to use here.
2010 World Dairy Expo Photo Album
Thanks to our World Dairy Expo sponsors:
We all know that proper nutrition is an essential key to health, whether it’s humans or dairy cattle, but the exact benefit of adding a certain ingredient to the diet may be difficult to quantify. That’s why Novus International puts a great deal of time and effort into performing field trials in real world situations to prove the efficacy of their animal nutrition products.
I talked with Novus’ sales manager for the northeast United States Suzy Demeester about the importance of their field trials. “It allows us to work with nutritionists to show them the monetary and economic value of our products, as well as get the customer to feel comfortable using our product on the farm,” Suzy says. “Most of the time, it’s a win-win for everybody.”
Suzy used Novus’ Agrado-Plus antioxidant as an example of a product that they need to show producers how it works for them. “It is a product that does so many things in the cow that often times you can’t measure exactly where it is affecting because it works in the gut, it works in the rumen, it works on the feed,” she said. “So if you have a specific objective and you’re measuring specific things in the end, you can show the value that way.”
Listen to my interview with Suzy from World Dairy Expo here. Suzy Demeester Interview
A recent field trial that Novus performed was to show the effectiveness of their products in mycotoxin mitigation. According to Ruminant Account Manager Bob Myers, the trial was done on the farm where both aflatoxin and zearalenone in the TMR were affecting a herd. “Because he had such a broad spectrum of problems going on, we attacked it with a broad spectrum approach,” Bob said. That included using Solis, ZORIEN® MOS, and Agrado-Plus.
“We tested the herd’s vitamins A and E prior to the trial and then we tested the vitamin levels in the herd 60 days later,” he explained. Both were improved and they also saw an increase in milk production.
Listen to Bob’s interview here. Bob Myers Interview
2010 World Dairy Expo Photo Album
Thanks to our World Dairy Expo sponsors:
Representatives from Novartis Animal Health were talking total herd health with dairy producers at World Dairy Expo this year, something that includes an effective vaccine protocol.
Director of Veterinary Services Dr. Doug Scholz says a good vaccine program helps manage the animals better. “Obviously, if animals are ill, they are not producing to their maximum potential and if we have diseases like respiratory diseases or scours in young calves, that’s an economic drain on the dairy,” he told me. “If we can put programs in place to prevent disease, it’s beneficial from the standpoint that we have lower treatment costs in those animals and they’ll perform better.”
Novartis’ Vira Shield is a vaccine that prevents a broad spectrum of respiratory and reproductive diseases of beef and dairy cattle that has been on the market for several years, but continually is being updated, according to Dr. Scholz. “Within the last 3-4 years, we’ve updated it with another BVD strain, with Lepto hardjo-bovis, and if we look 4 or 5 years down the road, we’ll make sure we keep that product current because the disease organisms we are fighting do change over time.”
Despite the economic situation that dairy producers have been facing the past couple of years, Dr. Scholz says producers are not trying to save money by cutting back on their animal health programs. “Most of the producers have really stayed current on their vaccine programs and realize that’s a cost that’s very difficult to cut because leaving their herd unprotected can have some pretty dire consequences.”
Listen to my interview with Doug from World Dairy Expo here. Doug Scholz Interview
2010 World Dairy Expo Photo Album
Thanks to our World Dairy Expo sponsors:
A Vermont dairy farm that turns cow manure into electricity held an open house Friday to spotlight “Cow Power.”
Among those who visited Chaput Family Farms in North Troy was a team of USDA officials. The project was funded with assistance from USDA.
“Anaerobic digesters like the one here at Chaput Family Farms will benefit our environment as well as America’s dairy farmers, who can profit from the production and sale of this renewable energy source,” said Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State Conservationist Vicky Drew. “In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the collection of methane, the digester will also reduce energy needed to produce and haul bedding to the farm by recycling the manure onsite into a dry bedding material for the cows, creating a closed-loop system.”
The 300 kilowatt anaerobic digester system that the USDA officials toured at Chaput Family Farms will digest manure from a dairy herd, produce biogas and combust the gas to generate renewable energy on a continuous basis, and provide digester effluent for use as crop fertilizer and for cow bedding material. USDA Rural Development helped finance the digester with a loan and grant through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), authorized through the 2008 Farm Bill.
Chaput’s digester is the first to go online through Vermont’s Standard Offer Program. The state will pay the farm a fixed price of 16 cents per kilowatt hour for the next 20 years. In addition, the farm will receive a renewable energy credit of 4 cents per kWh for the next five years through Central Vermont Power Service’s “Cow Power Program.”
The farm will produce all of its on-farm electricity, heat, hot water and bedding for the cows. It will sell the excess power to the local utility. The excess bedding will be sold to local farms.
Read more from USDA.
Grab your video camera and get out onto your dairy farm and tell the world why you love to dairy! Sponsored by Dairy Management Inc., the “Why I Love to Dairy” contest deadline has been extended to November 1. Enter today for your chance to win a flip cam.
Let everyone know why you love milk and dairy products, being a dairy producer, caring for your cows or just being part of the dairy business. Your video should be fun, consumer-friendly and less than two minutes long. The most entertaining and creative videos will be posted to Dairy Farming Today channels.
For complete video contest rules and key messages to incorporate into your video, visit www.myDairytoolkit.com.
Source: Dairy Herd Management Inc.
