Interested in adding some Halloween fun to your farming business? Take a look at Insight Dairy in Little Falls, NY, to get some great ideas for hosting a successful event. Insight Dairy, a 2,300 head dairy and crop farm, has been offering “Trunk or Treat” for six years. Despite some chilly wind and ...

The All-American Dairy Show, which took place this year in mid-September, features nearly 2,000 of the top dairy cattle shown by over 1,000 of the best exhibitors from the U.S. and Canada. A total of 21 dairy shows take place over five days at the PA Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, PA. For full res...

Most farms maintain some degree of everyday biosecurity, but many are adding another layer with enhanced measures. Dr. Hayley Springer, Penn State Extension veterinarian, said enhanced biosecurity outlines the extra steps producers are prepared to take in the event of a foreign animal disease outbre...

Are your beef replacements developing their mammary glands too early? Are your cattle gestation lengths shorter than average? Have you seen any cases of intestinal hemorrhagic syndrome on your dairy farm? According to Gustavo Schuenemann, mycotoxins may be contributing to these health issues in your...

In honor of National Farmers Day on Oct. 12, Country Folks decided to launch a new way of recognizing some of those who have graced our pages: the inaugural Farmer of the Year Award. We didn’t have to stray far from home to find our first recipient. Located just a mile and a half from the Lee Newspa...

Robotic systems, also known as voluntary milking systems or VMS, are becoming more widely used in North America. Dr. Trevor Devries, Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, said that with the rapid adoption of this technology, there should be benefits, including aspects that make rob...

Competing at the state level is much more challenging than county-level shows; however, for the Marshman family representing Marshman Farms in Oxford, NY, this year’s New York State Fair was a good year. Lily Marshman, 15, won first place in her class for her fall heifer calf at the 4-H Show and her...

At the summer meeting of the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania , Dr. Hayley Springer, Penn State Extension veterinarian, discussed the challenges in developing both everyday and enhanced biosecurity plans for dairy farms. Everyday biosecurity includes measures taken daily on the farm, espe...

It was a good show experience for the Byma family, with several impressive wins in the state fair show ring, thanks to three generations’ involvement in showing. Although retired from milking dairy cows after 35 years, Linda and Benjamin Byma still feel close to the industry – and their family – thr...

Many dairy farms rely on water, usually in combination with fans, to cool cows in hot weather. Dr. Jennifer Van Os, assistant professor and Extension specialist in animal welfare, Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, said although cooling cows with water is helpf...

Dairy farmers who provide a combination of fans and wetting systems for cows often believe they’ve taken care of heat issues for the herd, but that may not be the case. Dr. Jennifer Van Os, assistant professor and Extension specialist in animal welfare, Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, Unive...

Understandably, calving during hot weather can negatively affect dams. But recent research indicates that the effects are far reaching, even to the grown calves of those heat-stressed dams. Geoffrey Dahl presented “Baby It’s Hot in Here: Late Gestation Heat Stress Effects on Cow and Calf” as a recen...

Generational dairy farms with purebred cattle play an important role in preserving and promoting good genetics. In the case of the Ferry family’s Dreamroad Jerseys, paying close attention to superior genetics has paid off. Today, sisters and generational dairy farmers Becky Ferry and Sandra Scott ar...

The widespread use of popular sires can lead to genetic defects in offspring, but the defects aren’t always obvious until generations later. When several New York dairy farmers noticed newborn calves that couldn’t rise and stand after birth, they were facing a mystery. The farms’ veterinarians had d...

Some farmers who operate conventional dairy farms find it difficult to imagine how animals are kept healthy on an organic farm due to limits on products that can be used. Keeping a healthy herd is actually easier than it might seem. Dr. Guy Jodarski, lead veterinarian for CROPP Cooperative/Organic V...