Unfortunately, cows don’t have a dashboard with gauges to tell us which minerals they are low on. Minerals may be considered when things aren’t going well, but how do we know if minerals aren’t adequate? Liver biopsies allow us to check the actual status of the cow without assuming they are OK simply because minerals were offered in the feed. In that sense, liver biopsies are the gauge to tell us how the cow is doing.

As we flip to a new month, here's a recap of the news announced last week regarding financial assistance for dairy producers facing HPAI, as well as testing and research updates. The news also highlights new versions of the FARM Program just released, grant funding for dairy initiatives, and corn and soybean planing reports.

Impacts of heat stress on dairy cows extend beyond immediate milk production. Maternal heat stress in utero affects fetal development, leading to compromised growth, immune function and long-term productivity in offspring.

The dry period, usually lasting 60 days before calving, serves essential roles in preparing cows for lactation, promoting mammary cell renewal and facilitating treatment for subclinical mastitis. However, shortening or eliminating this period has become a strategy to manage milk production, redistributing energy balance and mitigating the risk of metabolic disorders like subclinical ketosis.

Three new states have detected highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a dairy cattle. Last week, state departments in Iowa, Minnesota and Wyoming reported cases of the disease, bringing the total of affected states to 12 and number of cases nationwide to just over 90.

While uncertainty still surrounds how humans can get the H5N1 bird flu virus from cattle, dairy producers, supervisors and workers continue their vital agricultural production in the frontline of these unfolding events.