Collaboration across species, proactively building relationships with elected officials on all levels and continuing trust-building efforts were three key takeaways echoed throughout the 2024 Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit, held May 8-9 in Kansas City, Missouri.

There isn’t much need to turn on the TV and listen to talk about athletes; farmers don’t have to look far for creatures that fall into that category. The dairy cow is a prime athlete found on farms across the United States. Every day, she works to produce milk and manure that farms use in numerous ways. To keep her powered up, her diet or ration is a vital daily deliverable for herd managers.

Like humans, dairy cows are vulnerable to heat stress during the summer months. However, this is a problem because heat stress reduces milk production. Understanding how to manage heat stress effectively is essential to keep your dairy farm running smoothly.

The body has several physical barriers to “outside” threats, the skin, the respiratory linings and the digestive tract. Of these three, the digestive tract faces the most potential threats, not only from what is ingested but also from what develops in situ, through the growth of microorganisms, the toxins some produce and even the remnants of those that die within the tract. Pathogenic bacteria normally exist within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Common ones include species of Salmonella and E. coli. Both these bacteria are gram-negative (G-), meaning they have cell walls that will not accept that stain. These bacteria can lyse, and their cell walls are broken into segments that contain “endotoxin” made of lipopolysaccharides (LPS).

Cows crave consistency, and it’s imperative that we provide them with a consistent ration, using clean feed mixed properly and delivered at the same time every day.

If cows could just tell us when they get an upset tummy, maybe we could help them get through the episode without a hitch. Before we can discuss rumen dysfunction, we need to understand what normal rumen function looks like.