Purdue Dairy Digest

Today's dairy digest about Borden Dairy filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Is it a sign that more fluid milk processors are going to be facing the same issues in 2020? Or a call that we need real innovation in the fluid milk area to turn around reduced fluid milk consumption?

In today's Dairy Digest we will talk about what I think calves would ask for at Christmas. The needs of calves change as the weather changes and we need to make sure we are still providing the best environment for calves in colder weather.

Digital Agriculture and Dairy Cows - Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest talks about some of the goals for digital agriculture at Purdue related to animal science and gives some examples of how data could change dairy farming in the future. I believe there are so many applications for data to enhance dairy farming however, we need to understand limitations as well.

Today's dairy digest will talk about what Chapter 11 Bankruptcy means for Dean Foods and the dairy farms that supply their milk. While it has only been a couple of days since their announcement, we hope for dairy farmers and Dean Foods' employees that there is a quick and painless transition of the company to new ownership.

The US dairy industry has made great progress at reducing clinical hypocalcemia in herds. However, we are still trying to understand subclinical hypocalcemia. New research indicates that even within cows that are diagnosed as having subclinical hypocalcemia, cows may recover to normal at different rates. Cows that are able to recover quickly, may be ones that we should not intervene with, however the challenge is being able to identify which ones truly need treatment.

Today’s episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest talks about the origins of the World Dairy Expo and how looking at the theme of this year’s Expo gets us thinking of the future of the dairy industry. The World Dairy Expo started over 50 years ago by dairy farmers who wanted an event that was focused solely on dairy cows, that remains true today but we are beginning to see the value in data generated from dairy cows as well as the milk.

On this week’s Purdue Dairy Digest segment, Conor McCabe, a graduate student under Dr. Boerman, discusses his experience from attending the 9th Annual Global Agenda on Sustainable Livestock. Around 300 attendees from 22 countries gathered on the Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS, September 9th-12th, to discuss how innovation can be used in livestock systems to improve economic, environmental, and nutrition sustainability.

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest talks about how we could change our current use of intramammary antibiotics by utilizing data generated from the cows. Resent research has demonstrated the possibility of using data from cows to determine if they are at a high or low risk of developing mastitis. We then could only treat cows at a high risk in order to save money and more effectively use antibiotics on farm.

In this week's dairy digest it is a reminder to check the vitamin levels in your diets. With the cost of vitamins increasing in the last 2 years, we may have become used to feeding less than normal. Re-evaluate your diets to make sure you are feeding at NRC requirements in order to prevent long term negative effects.

Employee retention on dairy farms – because of low unemployment rates especially in rural areas and high turnover in production animal careers it is increasingly important to focus on employee retention.  There are some specific practices that can improve the culture of a farm and lead to reduced employee turnover.  As we are trying to build a productive team, retaining high-performing employees needs to become a focus.

Governor Eric Holcomb has asked for 88 counties to be declared a natural disaster areas for agriculture. Today I will go over some basic information about the changes in prevented planting procedures.  This year there will many dairy farms who will likely be short of forages so looking at options now to get enough fiber in diets makes sense.

On this episode of the Dairy Digest, Master's student Conor McCabe recites his Three Minute Thesis presentation he used to compete this week at the American Dairy Science Association Annual Meeting in Cincinnati. With the title of What if Cows Were Jet Lagged Every Three Days? McCabe's talk discusses recent research performed at Purdue University into circadian rhythm disruptions during the dry period.

Animal activism on dairy farms - what could we learn from video footage from activist groups taken on dairy farms? While this has been a difficult couple of weeks for dairy producers in Indiana, I believe there are some things we should think about as a result of an increase in undercover video taken from activist groups on farm.

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest gives us some information about different flies found on dairy farms and some strategies to control fly populations. Understanding which flies you have may help dictate how to control them as different types of flies have different behavior, location on a cow, and breeding preferences. Flies cost dairy producers milk and can spread disease therefore controlling fly populations will lead to happier and more productive cows.

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest gives a brief update from the Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference held in Fort Wayne, IN from April 22-24th. I would encourage you to attend next year's conference to hear about research and trends in the dairy industry as well as to interact with nutritionists and consultants who feed the cows and implement the research on farm.

Now that alfalfa has broken winter dormancy, it is time to assess the wellbeing of the crop. It is important to scout the entire field and not just one location as differences in soil types can change conclusions made about alfalfa health. The winter was definitely a roller coaster of temperatures and soils were and remain saturated today.

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest discusses why now is the time to start thinking about heat abatement. Even though it seems like we are still in winter and spring has only just begun, warm weather and heat stress for cows is just around the corner. Listen to today's episode to learn more about heat stress and strategies to reduce the negative impacts on dairy cows.

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest discusses using beef semen on a portion of your dairy herd. Many farms are using beef semen and dairy sexed semen as a way to increase genetic progress and increase income from calf sales. Listen to today's episode to learn more about the use of beef semen on dairy cows.

Fever and nasal discharge, must be pneumonia?
Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest discusses some of the challenges of diagnosing pneumonia on dairy farms. While we know more about causes of pneumonia today than we ever have, disease incidences are still high. Listen to today's episode to learn more about the direction that research is going to tackle pneumonia.

Today’s episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest discusses some of the take home messages from the Indiana Dairy Forum.  Despite harder economic times in the dairy industry, the presenters were optimistic about the future of dairy in IN and the US.  Listen to today’s podcast to hear more about the take home messages from the speakers at the Indiana Dairy Forum.