After I fawned over the cute calves, and fell in love with that guy I married, the first real passion I found on our dairy farm was genetics. A decade … Continue reading Why Do Dairy Farmers Use Artificial Insemination?

After I fawned over the cute calves, and fell in love with that guy I married, the first real passion I found on our dairy farm was genetics. A decade … Continue reading Why Do Dairy Farmers Use Artificial Insemination?
Society as a whole has decided to call all cattle/bovines cows, and that alone has made it harder for farmers to have conversations about what we do because it almost creates a language barrier. In order to talk to consumers, we also end up calling most of our animals cows, but it can be a struggle because when we’re here at home, or at an industry event, they’re definitely not all cows.
Today is National Ag Day, and this year’s theme is 365 sunrises and 7 billion mouths to feed. At our dairy we have about 100 Holstein cows to feed twice … Continue reading National Ag Day: 365 Sunrises and 100 Mouths to Feed
Cold and snow come with winter. It’s part of life in the Midwest, but deep snow and extreme cold are things that require extra preparations for those of us raising … Continue reading Is it cold enough for you? – Caring for Cattle in Cold Weather
We did something recently that we’ve never done before. We intentionally crossbred Holsteins. Before I let my crossbreeding friends get too excited, I’ll explain – we used Angus semen and … Continue reading Thinking Outside the Breed
You may remember that we were trying out a technology called sexed semen, but we had limited success with our first go-around. Not easily discouraged, though, we forged ahead with … Continue reading Heifers Having Heifers
Harvest is not a cohesive event at our farm. I know some farmers in some parts of the country get in their combines and run until they’re finished, and that’s … Continue reading Harvest 2013 Update
While at World Dairy Expo, a person working a booth for a genetics company asked David which bulls we were currently using (while I was filling out their survey to … Continue reading HDI: Our Very Own Index
Why do companies with good products feel that they have to use fear and guilt as motivators in their marketing? Let me start by saying that I really like Chipotle’s … Continue reading Chipotle’s Ag Marketing circa 2013
Two weeks ago David and I attended our local county fair. We didn’t have any livestock at the fair this year, but each year fair-week serves as a reunion with … Continue reading County Fair