When Dr. Jennie Ivey was doing graduate work at West Virginia University in 2008, she saw many emaciated horses and became interested in what happens in horses’ bodies during reduced nutrient intake. Today, Ivey, associate professor of animal science at the University Tennessee, helps teach horse ow...

Over the past five years, seven Vermont dairy farmers have participated in a farmer cohort facilitated by Cheryl Bruce, senior livestock & grazing specialist at American Farmland Trust (AFT), with support from the Dairy Business Innovation Center (DBIC). What started as a two-year pilot grew into a ...

Occasionally the bottom drops out, temperature-wise, in Central New York during the last week of November. Three or four years ago, Thanksgiving Day in our area saw the mercury drop to -25º F. Fortunately, most places had already been blessed with at least a half-foot of protective snow, but it turn...

Benjamin Barnett’s grandfather started a dairy farm in Pennsylvania in 1952 with $1,200 and 14 cows. Today the farm is 700 acres and 200 cows. “It still wasn’t big enough for me to stay when I graduated college,” said Barnett, who operates the farm today with his wife Kelsey. “I went to work as a ma...

In a forward-focused webinar presented by the International Dairy, Deli & Bakery Association (IDDBA), Dr. Armin Pearn delivered a resonant message about the future of dairy farming. As a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and the head of data science and strategic marketing for Dairy Data Warehouse (DDW)...

Pest management is one of the most pernicious problems faced by farmers, thanks to the fact that we are not alone in what we consider to be delicious and nutritious. Bugs, slugs and mice think our fields have been grown as an all-you-can-eat buffets just for them, and defending crops against their b...

As I’m writing this column on the first day of December, it’s about three weeks until days start lengthening in the northern hemisphere. Recently, most of the Northeast had been gathering just a few occasional snowflakes. But that changed the day after Thanksgiving, when the Mohawk Valley got about ...

There are several primary goals for a profitable beef cow/calf herd – the majority of herd females should achieve viable pregnancies and calves are born alive and healthy. The newborn calf's primary requirement is colostrum. While there isn't a lot of information on colostrum for beef cows, theres s...

Improving both profits and animal welfare was the theme of “Farm 5.0 and the Future of Dairy Care,” a webinar recently presented by Beverly Hampton Phifer, senior director with National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) program and hosted by the Dairy Cattle Welfare Council. FARM ...