I remember getting a call from Alana nine or 10 years ago when she was about 17 years old. Alana was excited at the prospect of getting her very first horse, a black and white paint gelding, and she asked me if I would be willing to go and check out the horse before she bought him. Thinking back on ...

Much of the corn in the Northeast has been affected by drought, suffering lower starch build-up levels due to less water during the growing season. But most areas have received (and are still receiving) enough rainfall. In the latter areas, growers are seeing corn’s whole plant dry matter continuing...

At one time, dairy barn ventilation was simple: leave the doors at the end of the barn open in summer and close them in winter. Although this method is simple and cheap, it doesn’t solve the problem of ridding the barn of excess moisture while keeping cows comfortable. Years of research have shown t...

WARRENTON, VA – The pasture is crisscrossed with fencing and dotted with waterers. The grass is green and luscious. It’s a perfect set-up for a cattle operation, but where are the animals? “Over there was our bull pen,” said Dennis Pearson, who, with his father Harvey, has run Soldiers’ Hill Angus F...

It’s no secret that dairy cattle need their rest, but there are many factors that can affect the cows’ willingness to lay down. The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine hosts a dairy outreach program to educate farmers on welfare topics. This program, called the Dairyland In...

Corn silage is a key component in most dairy rations, and farmers take great care to ensure the highest quality crop. After dealing with a challenging summer, farmers are preparing for the 2024 corn silage harvest. Dr. John Goeser, adjunct professor in animal and dairy science, University of Wiscons...

Have you ever wondered about on-farm trials? Louis Longchamps, assistant professor of digital agronomy at Cornell University, recently explained how it works as he presented “On-Farm Experimentation and Biologicals” as part of the Soil Health & Climate Resiliency Field Day at Rodman Lott & Son Farms...

There are many clever definitions of the word “average.” I like the one where an individual sticks a finger in ice water at 32º and another finger in water used to scald a freshly slaughtered hog at 140º. (We learned this in the meat and slaughter course I took at Cornell my junior year.) That scald...

Farm Credit East (FCE) hosted a webinar on Aug. 1 to summarize data from the 2023 Northeast Dairy Farm Summary and to provide a mid-year check in. FCE worked with 283 volunteering dairy farms (143 from Pennsylvania alone) in the Northeast to determine how profitable the dairy industry was in 2023. C...