Part 2: Focused stress reduction strategies Farmers are professionals when it comes to getting things done under stress, but often at the expense of their health. Because stress can be a major contributing factor in many complicated health issues, it’s worth pursuing stress-reduction strategies to a...

While most of the youngsters in the six- to 10-year-old group of little horse and pony riders are working on their lead line and short stirrup skills in shows, young bull riders of the same age are, well, riding bulls. It was realized that there was a need for smaller and age-appropriate bulls to be...

Transportation of livestock is a stressful event for the animals. Just ask Brianna the cow, a recent New Jersey escapee who either fell or jumped from a transport truck heading to the slaughterhouse. While events such as this aren’t common, the safety and well-being of cattle being transported – no ...

The Glassmaker of Donbridge by R D Vincent, author of the Donbridge Series My grandmother bustled about her kitchen cooking away for the annual New Year’s Eve party which was held at my parent’s house each year. Knocking on the pine door, which was halfway open, I noticed my grandmother was startled...

Newborn calves begin life without a fully functional immune system – their only hope for immediate protection against disease is passive immunity acquired through maternal antibodies in colostrum. However, even calves that receive maternal antibodies from their dams’ colostrum are subject to disease...

Agriculture is the largest industry in the state of Virginia, with an annual economic impact of about $70 billion and more than 334,000 jobs, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The beef industry accounts for a very large portion of that pie, with cattle and ca...

There’s nothing like a furlough to jump-start the satire for the New Year. As we welcome in 2019 the U.S. government and the USDA are shut down or have been. It’s starting to become a yearly habit. It got me to thinking, what if all the farmers in the USA decided to shut down, take an un-paid leave ...

Dairymen realize that cutting feed usually means milk production slacks off. That’s why Bill Weiss with Ohio State University’s Animal Sciences presented “Cutting Feed Costs Without Cutting Milk” as part of Hoard’s Dairyman’s webinar series recently, sponsored by Quality Liquid Feeds. When producers...

A considerable amount has been written about the production of methane gas by the cattle population and its impact on global warming. Another gas studied that is a natural part of a cow’s metabolism is ammonia. While this naturally-occurring gas does not affect global warming directly, it may have a...