In a flooded market of animal monitoring systems, it can be easy to get caught up on what is new or flashy. But flashy does not always translate to what you need – efficiency, profitability and, ultimately, a solution that makes your day-to-day herd management tasks easier.

“We know that how a transition cow completes her transition period really sets her up for her entire lactation,” Dr. Erin Horst, Ph.D., said as she began her presentation about the Best Practices for Transition Cow Success at the recent Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference. 

Observing the effects of disease outbreaks in other animal agriculture industries creates an opportunity for dairy producers to look more closely at their biosecurity practices and ask, “Is my dairy prepared for a foreign animal disease threat?”

Are you feeling anxious about the upcoming change of over-the-counter medically important antibiotics shifting to a prescription status in June? Don’t be. It can be a very smooth transition by focusing on what you’ve always been focusing on: excellent animal husbandry.

Heat stress reduces milk yield and compromises fertility in the dairy cow. This problem is observed across the U.S. and is compounded in the Southern and Southeastern states where summer temperatures are excessive.

In a recent Penn State webinar on Dec. 6, 2022, Hayley Springer, DVM, discussed how over-the-counter “medically important” drugs will shift from an over-the-counter status to a prescription status effective on June 11, 2023.

How we responded on the farm to COVID-19 tells us something about our willingness to go from 0 to 60 with biosecurity for animals.