As a forage agronomist I usually find myself preaching about how short the optimal harvest window is for hay crop forages. This is because, for most of the season, the optimal window for maximizing haylage yield and quality only lasts for a week or two.

Over the past six years I’ve written extensively in these pages about the agronomic and environmental impacts of tile drainage, as did Eric Young before me, and Ev Thomas before him. With so much ink spilled on the topic, I hope you’ll permit me a quick trip back into the past to help explain its importance to the region, and why it was adopted locally long before it achieved the widespread popularity it now boasts throughout our farming communities.

This past summer was a busy one for all of us. With students on the farm there was a lot of activity and learning taking place each day. Now that the season has ended and our students have returned to school, we’re taking the opportunity to step back and look for areas of improvement. It’s important to identify areas where small changes can make a big impact.

Knowing what’s really in your feed is the first step to making good rations that meet the cows’ needs. That’s why taking and testing feed samples regularly is such an important tool — it helps to avoid nutrient shortages or waste. But the more tests we run, the more we see that feed values can vary a lot, especially in forages and by-products.

Methionine is more than just another nutrient in a dairy cow’s ration. As one of the key building blocks of protein, it influences not only how much milk a cow produces but also how efficiently she uses the nutrients in her diet. Over the years, advances in feed technology have made it possible to deliver methionine in a form that bypasses the rumen and reaches the small intestine, where it can be fully absorbed.

Much emphasis has been on the calf period and improving growth and health of the preweaning period. However, the postweaning period is a very dynamic transition as heifers move to solid feed intake. Consumption of starter or grain and forage can be influenced by age, body weight, previous milk or milk replacer consumption, ambient temperature, availability of forage, water intake and others. How much do we expect them to consume and what is motivating intake during this age?

The period around calving is one of the most physiologically challenging phases in a cow’s life. As lactation begins, the cow’s calcium...

On July 23, we hosted The Alice T. Miner Museum's history camp for a "Day on the Farm" experience. We were joined by Leni Vradelis,...

The chain of events following colostrogenesis in the cow, to collection, storage, and calf consumption of the colostrum is an important process to manage on the farm. The timing of collecting colostrum, as well as the proper handling and storage, play key roles in the quality of colostrum being delivered to the calf. Furthermore, minimizing bacterial contamination from the cow’s udder, milking equipment, storage vessels, and feeding equipment will help maintain clean colostru

Thunderstorms are the primary source of moisture for our non-irrigated crops in July. While the rain is often needed by our crops this time of year, these powerful convective storms have the potential to do plenty of damage to them under the right conditions.