It’s long been said that the dairy industry is built on relationships. For more than 25 years, university, technical school and short course students have gotten an early start on building relationships for their careers through the Professional Dairy Producers (PDP) Mentor Program.

Listed on Forbes 30 Under 30, dairy farmer, dog mom and businesswoman Hayley Painter joins host Matti McBride to tell the story of Painterland Sisters Organic Skyr Yogurt. Learn about Painter’s youth on an organic dairy farm in rural Pennsylvania, where the idea to diversify the family business came from and how Hayley continues working alongside her family.

Productive life can be like a New Year’s resolution. It sounds like a good idea, but often it doesn’t come true. Increasing the productive life of dairy herds needs to be a priority for the dairy industry.

At the heart of the approach of harvesting high-quality milk is ensuring farmers have a thorough understanding of key milk quality parameters, including milk composition, somatic cell count (SCC), bacterial count and the absence of contaminants.

All lactating cows should be locomotion scored on a weekly basis. This is a great start in identifying cows that could benefit from a trip through the trimming chute. In addition to locomotion scoring, what other techniques can we implement on a daily basis that could help us catch the cows with an early onset of lameness? 

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.