Progressive Dairy Podcast

Dairy Management Inc. CEO Tom Gallagher joins Editor Walt Cooley for a discussion about how the dairy check-off has navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. Gallagher talks about where dairy promotion may go in the future, as well as the changing landscape for fluid milk processing and promotion. 

This episode’s guest is Dr. Tom Earleywine. He is the Milk Replacer Director of Nutritional Services at Land O'Lakes. He joins Progressive Dairy Editor Walt Cooley to talk about weaning and how it’s changed over the last several years.

Vir-Clar Farms near Fond du Lac, Wisconsin has elevated the accuracy of feed storage, mixing and delivery with an innovative feed center featuring an automated kitchen and on-site grain storage that saves them time and money.  The 2,000-cow dairy is owned by Gary and Rose Boyke, along with their son J.R. Boyke and daughter and son-in-law, Katie and Grant Grinstead. We’re here at Vir-Clar today, sitting down in the feed center office with Grant. It was actually Grant’s experience in the pork industry that brought to the table concepts of efficiency, automation and accuracy that make this system work on their dairy. Let’s hear from this self-proclaimed “pig guy” about how the automated feed center came to be, and how it’s working out at Vir-Clar Farms.

When prepartum cows are fed a negative DCAD diet, inducing a mild compensated metabolic acidosis, calcium status is improved, resulting in healthier, more productive cows. Recently, some nutritionist have been feeding even lower-DCAD diets (more anions) to acidify cows more deeply than the majority of published research. At these higher, more extreme levels of acidification, cows may walk a fine line between being OK and being overwhelmed by uncompensated metabolic acidosis. Progressive Dairy Editor Audrey Schmitz spoke with Tim Brown to hear more about DCAD myths and the optimum level for negative DCAD diets. 

Today’s episode provides summaries of three different articles we’ve published this past year on manure management. Listen in to find out how to improve nitrogen efficiency from farm to field, what can be done to get the most value from manure and which manure system will make a good addition to your farm.

Ray Bohacz of the Idle Chatter podcast and farmmachinerydigest.com joins Editor Walt Cooley to introduce himself to readers and share three tips for preventative maintenance that will help avoid machinery breakdowns. Bohacz has published more than 3,000 technical articles about machinery in his career. His columns recently began appearing regularly in Progressive Dairy magazine.

Hannah Vander Poel is a female dairy farmer using social media to advocate for the dairy industry. Under the Instagram name @IDdairygirl, she shares the joys and challenges of dairy farm life from Northern Sky Dairy in Castleford, Idaho.  Vander Poel can be found elbow-deep in daily work on the 1,000-cow dairy, a sister-site to her home farm where her parents reside, Sky View Dairy, in Bakersfield, California. In between breeding cows and herd data entry, she balances taking classes toward her accounting degree as a satellite student at Boise State University.  Vander Poel was a featured speaker on the Innovation Stage at the 2020 Dairy Strong Conference held in January in Madison, Wisconsin. There, she shared her social media experience and inspired other dairy farmers to do the same.  Progressive Dairy Editor Peggy Coffeen sat down with Vander Poel to hear more about the hows and whys behind her social media advocacy.

Some estimates indicate that by 2040, just 5% of farms will produce 75% or more of America’s agricultural output. But who will be in that 5%? Aimpoint Research seeks to answer this question. The firm has conducted new, landmark research revealing the psychology of the farmers who are most likely to lead the industry in 2040 and both the internal and external factors impacting their success. Brett Sciotto, president and CEO of Aimpoint Research, is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a former army intelligence officer. He revealed findings from the firm’s research at the 2020 Dairy Strong Conference held in January in Madison, Wisconsin. Who will be the “farmers of the future”? Sciotto shares more with Progressive Dairy Editor Peggy Coffeen about the psychographic segmentation of the current farming population, which groups he believes will remain in business over the next 20 years, and how that impacts interactions within the agri-food supply chain.

At the beginning of 2020, the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) updated its guidelines for how dehorning should be done on dairy farms. The national organization first established guidelines for this practice in 2014. One significant update in the dehorning guidelines is the recommendation for pain mitigation. Progressive Dairy Editor Walt Cooley spoke with AABP’s Executive Director Fred Gingrich, DVM, about the changes and what they mean on-farm.

If you’ve ever been around a dairy cattle showring, or picked up a purebred publication, there's a good chance you know the name “Budjon.” One of the most well-known prefixes in today’s registered cattle business, their lengthy list of showring achievements include: 6 Premier Breeder banners from World Dairy Expo5 National Show Supreme Champions200 All-American nominations among the Holstein, Jersey and Red and White breeds100 All-Canadian nominations across all those three breeds as well But don’t let the showring fame fool you. The Budjon brand isn’t only about trophies and ribbons; they have adapted their focus to become known as a premier boarding facility for elite genetics, and they continue to diversify and re-structure to create a permanent place for themselves in an ever-changing dairy industry. So how are they doing this? Listen to Editor Peggy Coffeen’s interview with the farm to find out.