Buttergate Canadians have started to notice firmer butter and are looking for answers to make butter more spreadable. Palmitic acid has been identified as a possible cause for the firmer butter, listen to today’s podcast to learn more about Buttergate.Oleh Dr. Jackie Boerman

Oleh Dr. Jackie Boerman

Corn, soybean, and milk commodity prices for 2021 Prices of corn and soybeans are the highest they have been in 7 to 8 years due to reduced supply and increased demand. What does that mean for dairy producers in 2021? Listen to hear more about what impacts high corn and soybean prices have on the dairy industry.…

The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans was released at the end of 2020 with some updates on recommendations for dairy. With still almost 90% of Americans not consuming the recommended amount of dairy, the guidelines still suggest 3 servings per day.”Oleh Dr. Jackie Boerman

Recommendations have varied for the optimal age at first calving in order to maximize milk production and profitability. However, due to variability in bodyweight, there is likely no optimal age at first calving and perhaps we should be focused on optimal bodyweight at first calving instead. Several factors should be considered when determining wha…

Dairy Management Inc. has announced a goal for the dairy industry to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. We now have to figure out innovative strategies to make that possible. One strategy we are exploring today is a seaweed based feed additive that has shown promise in reducing methane emissions.Oleh Dr. Jackie Boerman

On this week’s dairy digest Becca Klopp, a current PhD candidate at Purdue University will recap a discussion about if ketosis is a symptom or a disease that was brought up at a recent Dairy Discover Conference. Please listen to hear both sides of the debate and you can decide for yourself if ketosis is a symptom of another disease or the disease i…

Have you ever wondered about what makes a show cow a winning show cow? If you have you probably haven’t thought it was due to a genetic mutation. Researchers at Penn State have looked into if the genetic mutation of cholesterol deficiency is related to success in the show ring.Oleh Dr. Jackie Boerman

How many of your heifers have mastitis? If you asked me before I listed to Dr. Ben Enger talk at the Virtual Dairy Nutrition and Management Series, I would have said very few. Now I am not so sure. Listen to today’s podcast to learn more about the effects of mastitis in heifers.Oleh Dr. Jackie Boerman

Can we use technology to improve animal health and welfare? A group of researchers are looking at the possibility of using camera images to assess teat ends using a user interface that does not require cow-side observations. This is likely the beginning of different image technologies that can be used in the milking parlor to improve milk quality a…

Hypocalcemia in dairy cattle is not a new phenomenon, however, researchers are making progress on understanding nutrition and management strategies to mitigate the change in calcium that occurs around calving. Dr. Jesse Goff, a leading researcher on hypocalcemia, has recently provided an update on hypocalcemia in dairy cows. This episode of the Pur…

As we experience hot weather, cows are subject to heat stress. While we observe reduced milk production and reduced reproductive success in lactating cows, there are also negative consequences for dry cows that experience heat stress during late gestation. We will be discussing a journal article that looked at the long term effects of daughters and…

No one said that milk pricing was easy and certainly the volatility of milk prices recently have made us all question what we know about milk markets. We have seen very high Class III milk prices recently however, there are some factors that make prevent dairy farmers from seeing the full benefit of high Class III prices in their milk checks. Liste…

The USDA recently announced Coronavirus Food Assistance Program payments for agriculture commodities. Dairy is eligible for these payments due to coronavirus related reduced milk price received so far this year. Please listen to this podcast to learn more as well as visiting the website www.farmers.gov/cfap to determine if you are eligible and how …

At the Virtual Dairy Nutrition and Management Series, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt73Tf2Ore7oFiBdxY_9znA , Dr. Albert Devries discussed the optimal cull rate for dairy farms. To get information on the optimal cull rate for dairy farms, listen to this podcast and also visit the YouTube channel linked above.…

Some farms are being asked to receive milk into their manure storage as we are dealing with a surplus of milk due to reduced demand. This dairy digest is addressing some of the considerations regarding land applying and receiving milk into your manure storage.Oleh Dr. Jackie Boerman

In this podcast, Dr. Tana Dennis will discuss what a producer needs to consider if they are going to start feeding milk to calves instead of milk replacer. While there is a surplus of milk, some farms may be tempted to feed their calves milk instead of milk replacer. This may make sense economically however, there are some important things that far…

If you are affiliated with the dairy industry, you have probably seen images of milk going down the drain, what a powerful image. Listen to today's podcast to understand why that is happening and what we can do to try to help.Oleh Dr. Jackie Boerman

Oleh Dr. Jackie Boerman

Oleh Dr. Jackie Boerman

Oleh Dr. Jackie Boerman

Oleh Dr. Jackie Boerman

Digital Agriculture and Dairy Cows - Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest talks about some of the goals for digital agriculture at Purdue related to animal science and gives some examples of how data could change dairy farming in the future. I believe there are so many applications for data to enhance dairy farming however, we need to underst…

Today's dairy digest will talk about what Chapter 11 Bankruptcy means for Dean Foods and the dairy farms that supply their milk. While it has only been a couple of days since their announcement, we hope for dairy farmers and Dean Foods' employees that there is a quick and painless transition of the company to new ownership.…

The US dairy industry has made great progress at reducing clinical hypocalcemia in herds. However, we are still trying to understand subclinical hypocalcemia. New research indicates that even within cows that are diagnosed as having subclinical hypocalcemia, cows may recover to normal at different rates. Cows that are able to recover quickly, may b…

Today’s episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest talks about the origins of the World Dairy Expo and how looking at the theme of this year’s Expo gets us thinking of the future of the dairy industry. The World Dairy Expo started over 50 years ago by dairy farmers who wanted an event that was focused solely on dairy cows, that remains true today but we ar…

On this week’s Purdue Dairy Digest segment, Conor McCabe, a graduate student under Dr. Boerman, discusses his experience from attending the 9th Annual Global Agenda on Sustainable Livestock. Around 300 attendees from 22 countries gathered on the Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS, September 9th-12th, to discuss how innovation can be used in l…

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest talks about how we could change our current use of intramammary antibiotics by utilizing data generated from the cows. Resent research has demonstrated the possibility of using data from cows to determine if they are at a high or low risk of developing mastitis. We then could only treat cows at a high risk…

In this week's dairy digest it is a reminder to check the vitamin levels in your diets. With the cost of vitamins increasing in the last 2 years, we may have become used to feeding less than normal. Re-evaluate your diets to make sure you are feeding at NRC requirements in order to prevent long term negative effects.…

Employee retention on dairy farms – because of low unemployment rates especially in rural areas and high turnover in production animal careers it is increasingly important to focus on employee retention. There are some specific practices that can improve the culture of a farm and lead to reduced employee turnover. As we are trying to build a produc…

Governor Eric Holcomb has asked for 88 counties to be declared a natural disaster areas for agriculture. Today I will go over some basic information about the changes in prevented planting procedures. This year there will many dairy farms who will likely be short of forages so looking at options now to get enough fiber in diets makes sense.…

On this episode of the Dairy Digest, Master's student Conor McCabe recites his Three Minute Thesis presentation he used to compete this week at the American Dairy Science Association Annual Meeting in Cincinnati. With the title of What if Cows Were Jet Lagged Every Three Days? McCabe's talk discusses recent research performed at Purdue University i…

Animal activism on dairy farms - what could we learn from video footage from activist groups taken on dairy farms? While this has been a difficult couple of weeks for dairy producers in Indiana, I believe there are some things we should think about as a result of an increase in undercover video taken from activist groups on farm.…

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest gives us some information about different flies found on dairy farms and some strategies to control fly populations. Understanding which flies you have may help dictate how to control them as different types of flies have different behavior, location on a cow, and breeding preferences. Flies cost dairy pro…

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest gives a brief update from the Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference held in Fort Wayne, IN from April 22-24th. I would encourage you to attend next year's conference to hear about research and trends in the dairy industry as well as to interact with nutritionists and consultants who feed the cows and implem…

Now that alfalfa has broken winter dormancy, it is time to assess the wellbeing of the crop. It is important to scout the entire field and not just one location as differences in soil types can change conclusions made about alfalfa health. The winter was definitely a roller coaster of temperatures and soils were and remain saturated today.…

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest discusses why now is the time to start thinking about heat abatement. Even though it seems like we are still in winter and spring has only just begun, warm weather and heat stress for cows is just around the corner. Listen to today's episode to learn more about heat stress and strategies to reduce the nega…

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest discusses using beef semen on a portion of your dairy herd. Many farms are using beef semen and dairy sexed semen as a way to increase genetic progress and increase income from calf sales. Listen to today's episode to learn more about the use of beef semen on dairy cows.…

Fever and nasal discharge, must be pneumonia? Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest discusses some of the challenges of diagnosing pneumonia on dairy farms. While we know more about causes of pneumonia today than we ever have, disease incidences are still high. Listen to today's episode to learn more about the direction that research is going …

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest talks about an unusual facility used to produce milk near large population centers. We will talk about a prototype of a dairy farm build offshore as a way to reduce transportation costs associated with dairy production as well as some large potential concerns with this approach. Listen to today's podcast t…

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest talks about the optimal range for milk urea nitrogen in dairy cattle. We will discuss the biology behind why milk urea nitrogen can be a valuable tool to evaluate protein status of dairy cattle and provide insight on what is happening inside of the rumen. Listen to today's podcast to learn more about milk …

Today’s episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest discusses the use of genomics to predict future health outcomes in dairy cattle. We will review a convincing study that shows differences in disease outcome based on the ranking of genomic predictions of individual diseases. Listen to today’s podcast to see if you are convinced of the potential of genomics…

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest discusses what may be the future of the dairy industry using facial and pattern recognition to identify dairy cattle. This technology is in the early stages but may have applications in improving health and welfare on dairy cattle. Listen to today's podcast to learn some of the potential uses for facial re…

Today’s episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest discusses our current understanding on how daylight length influences milk production. Research has been conducted that demonstrates that altering daylight length for lactating and dry cows increases milk production. While we are still working to understand the role of external stimuli on the onset of lact…

Today's episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest discusses how much cheese is in cold storage around the United States and what some of the reasons are for all of that cheese to be stored. Because milk is perishable, cheese is an option to provide longer term storage of dairy. We may now be sitting on a mountain of cheese with not enough demand to use it…

Today’s episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest talks about the use of lung ultrasonography to assess health in calves. With pneumonia still a large health concern for dairy calves and the risk of pneumonia increasing as we see fluctuations in temperature and humidity, this may be a tool to use to determine the extent of lung damage on farms. Previous r…

Today’s episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest talks about what impact the USMCA, or new NAFTA, has on dairy in the US. While not yet approved by Congress, USMCA has the potential to have a positive impact on dairy exports to Canada from the US. The USMCA is welcome progress as we continue to produce more milk in the US than we can use domestically.…

Today’s episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest talks about what tariff relief for dairy farmers looks like. The initial indication of tariff relief for agriculture was announced in July 2018 but we will discuss how much of that relief, both direct and indirect, is going to dairy farms. It is uncertain how long retaliatory tariffs will be in place but o…

Today’s episode of the Purdue Dairy Digest talks about the importance of dairy consumption especially for an aging population. Dr. Jim Aldrich from CSA Animal Nutrition will discuss some of the ongoing research that supports dairy consumption to promote health and muscle mass as Baby Boomers, the largest single generation in US history, reach more …