How will ‘sustainability’ impact your farm?

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Check out these phrases: carbon neutral, reducing your environmental footprint, carbon credits, climate change, carbon offsets, producing products sustainably, sustainability. Unless you’ve been doing your best Rip Van Winkle impersonation for the past several months, it’s virtually impossible to read much in the ag media without being bombarded with these terms, all under the umbrella of “sustainability.”

Farm Progress recently talked with Jill Wheeler, senior manager of public affairs for Truterra, the sustainability business for Minnesota-based Land O’Lakes, and a farm owner herself. As one of the nation’s largest cooperatives, Land O’Lakes is farmer- and retailer-owned and is well-positioned to know the sustainability movement inside and out, and how agriculture can respond effectively.

Read the full article by FarmProgress here.

Moisture could be diluting your feed purchase

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Don’t buy water.

Moisture is the water present per pound, bushel, or ton. This may seem rudimentary, but the point here is that water in purchased feed brings no economic value and dilutes out a valuable dry matter. When comparing commodity feed options, we have to first exclude the water and look at the price per pound of the dry matter before accounting for other nutritional factors.

Read the full article by Hoard’s Dairyman here.

Focus on the Pen, Not Individual Cows, to Deliver Profits

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Monitoring what’s happening at the pen level, rather than for individual dairy cows, is proving to be the best approach for producers with more than 1,000 cows.  It allows them to prevent and predict health or feeding issues cost effectively, and hence, increase farm profitability. The ‘power of the pen’ philosophy is leading to changes in how farms feed, vaccinate and manage their cows. Technology is enabling and in fact accelerating this trend.

Farmers have spent hundreds of years checking up on each cow, making sure they are fed and that workers are following best practices. While this is effective for herds of 20, 100, or even 200 cows, the approach is very time-consuming, requires a lot of labor, and is being replaced by time-saving technologies and innovations which eliminate human errors as farms increase in size.

Activity monitors, robots, milk sensors, and smart cameras in the barn and parlor are just some of the technologies arriving on U.S. Dairy farms, with the promise of monitoring feed, drinking, milk quality, heat detection, and disease.

Read the full article by Aidan Connolly with Dairy Herd Management here.

Comparisons in the farm “kitchen”

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Choosing a nutrition plan isn’t a one-size-fits-all mentality. Check out this article for an interesting comparison to your favorite dinner entrée. At the end of the day, selecting the right silage blend warrants a team discussion and budget projections. We’re here to help, contact us to get the conversation started.

Read the full article by John Goeser with Hoard’s Dairyman here.

Don’t Let Inefficient Fans Rack Up Your Electricity Bill | AG Web

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Looking to save on your electric bills? In this article Taylor Leach discusses how inefficient fans can drive your costs up:

“Have you noticed your electricity bill starting to climb up? Maybe it’s time to check the efficiency of your fans.

The energy used to operate ventilation systems on the farm typically accounts for 20-25% of your total energy bill, according to Dan McFarland, an agricultural engineer at Pennsylvania State University.  Regardless of the barn style, proper ventilation is an important part of cow comfort to ensure cows are in an environment that allows them to perform to their potential. Here are three areas to focus on when analyzing your ventilation system’s efficiency.

While the purpose of every fan is to get air moving, not every fan is created equal. Fan efficiency is affected by several factors including blade design, fan enclosure design, and motor efficiency, according to McFarland.

“There has been too much emphasis on ‘cheap’ fans in the ag industry and this is costing more in operating expense and maintenance. If you are looking to buy new fans, make sure you take a look at the efficiency rating of the fans as you compare,” McFarland says. “Typically, larger fan will have better efficiency than smaller fans.”

[…]”

To read more, click here.

Dairy Herd Management Market 2019 Global Outlook, Research, Trends and Forecast To 2025 | The NyseNasdaqLive News

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Looking for some information regarding the outlook of dairy herd management? This article takes a deep dive into some key industry research and trends from 2019:

“Dairy herd management is a process that manages and regulates the health & productivity of dairy animals and is viewed as a cost saving process as it implements techniques of smart farming. Dairy herd management systems offer numerous benefits such as enabling dairy farm managers to keep count of animals, inspect & respond to livestock behaviour, record their conception rate, calf age, births, and promptly detect health related issues faced by the cattle.

These management programs also include vaccination programs for prevention from diseases, parasite control measures and some blood tests too for the better management of health of the animals. Moreover, this management system is developed to increase overall efficiency and production in dairy herd farming with reduced cost and lesser time. Whereas, earlier dairy herd farming practices needed more time, labour, and high cost. […]”

To read more, click here.

A2 Milk Market 2020 Trends, Market Share, Industry Size, Opportunities, Analysis and Forecast by 2026 | Instant Tech Market News

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In 2018 the A2 Milk Market was valued at $5.13 Billion. By 2026, it is projected to potentially reach $26.3 Billion. In this article Instant Tech Market News takes a deep dive into the global market for A2 Milk:

“In the report, we thoroughly examine and analyze the Global market for A2 Milk so that market participants can improve their business strategy and ensure long-term success. The report’s authors used easy-to-understand language and complex statistical images, but provided detailed information and data on the global A2 Milk market. This report provides players with useful information and suggests result-based ideas to give them a competitive advantage in the global A2 Milk market. Show how other players compete in the global A2 Milk market and explain the strategies you use to differentiate yourself from other participants. […]”

To read more, click here.

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