A productive cow isn’t always a profitable cow. A profitable cow performs in milk volume and quality, breeds back quickly and experiences few health events.

While most ectoparasites may take a break for the winter, it is important not to let your guard down because some parasites like mites and lice prefer the cooler time of the year.

Recently, Tom Wegner was named the recipient of the 2023 Boehringer Ingelheim Dairy First Award. “It was pretty cool for Rebecca Gotham, my BI rep, to recognize me, our farm and my employees for all the hard work we do,” Wegner says.

Cattle may have been domesticated for centuries now, but they remain prey animals and work to keep their secrets. Those masking skills were beneficial thousands of years ago, but they can create herd management challenges today.

What are cows doing if parasites are hanging around? Certainly not what they’re supposed to be doing. External parasites can affect a cow’s milk production immediately, because cows will spend their time scratching instead of eating or resting.

Though the HPAI outbreak of 2022-23 was devastating, an outbreak of FMD in the U.S. could be far worse, particularly for the dairy industry.

Understanding the fundamentals of vaccination helps optimize the return on your vaccine investments and ensure calves are prepared for the challenges they’ll face.

Managing bovine respiratory disease (BRD) can sometimes feel like a game of whack-a-mole for dairy producers. Many stressors can pop up with little to no advanced warning early in a calf’s life, putting them at greater risk for developing BRD.  

Salmonella are very contagious and pathogenic bacteria that can cause high mortality and economic losses in cattle. Salmonella Dublin (S. Dublin) is a specific kind of salmonella, known as a serotype, that is host-adapted to bovine.