I’ve always enjoyed talking to farmers and sharing their stories. Seeing the passion they hold for what they do daily always keeps me smiling. Coming from a farm myself, I know the work it …
This past month was filled with activity. I made many classroom visits, met with local radio stations and saw my gopher friends from the Minnesota State Fair again. January started with a radio …
Weather permitting, our dog, Bella, and I take a walk every day. Her job is to run ahead and scout for strange scents while mine is to tag along behind and superintend. One might think that …
Recently, a farmer called me because a consultant had recommended changing pulsation settings in her parlor. This consultant thought that fewer of their cows might suffer from teat-end hyperkeratosis …
The beauty of redundancy lies well in line with how I prefer to labor. Given the choice, that means I labor as little and as leisurely as possible to achieve my goal. To be able to carry on and say, …
Recently, we have been discussing goals, one of which is to focus on calf health, specifically pneumonia, in our calves during the first 100 days of age. Anyone who has ever worked with dairy …
Questions. Questions. Every day. Some come at me from every which way They make my head spin and spin Which answer to give to win? Life is full of them, at all ages Out of …
The break in the cold weather is wonderful for us, but it creates extra work. We have calf pens to pitch out. The bedding pack needs to be loaded into the spreader and hauled to the fields, and …
After five months and 12,000 pages of testimony, the National Federal Milk Marketing Order Pricing Formula Hearing has ended. Forty proposals were submitted. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will …
The idea for this article started with a baking hack I saw on the internet. I like to make muffins, but I hate how the bottoms are always tough and overbaked due to the high temperatures required to …
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has announced a civil lawsuit against a Stearns County dairy farm. Evergreen Acres allegedly failed to pay at least $3 million in wages and charged rent for …
It was cold last week, in case you were hibernating and didn’t know. I had a great routine of thawing out waterers every morning on the way to check on my cows. I even had to bust …
We have made it through the messiest part of the remodeling project. Our old house had smaller rooms that had just enough room for a couch, recliner and oversized chair. We plan to make two rooms …
If you drive into our yard right now, it looks like a hay auction and an equipment dealership got together and had a baby. We always buy several loads of hay during the winter, but because the …
All I wanted for Christmas was to create memories with Mark. I told Mark all I wanted were 12 gifts. I would like for him to plan a date each month for the year. It could be a movie night, cards with …
High oleic soybeans have been around for more than 10 years, mostly in the eastern United States. More recently, they have worked their way into the Midwest market, catching the attention of the …
Farmstead wineries have become quite common. I have nothing against such businesses and am actually quite familiar with the fine art of on-farm winemaking. I was an early bloomer, having brewed up my …
Midwest Dairy is eager to welcome Class 3 of the Dairy Experience and Leadership program as we kick off the new year. Offering opportunities like DEAL to young people within the industry is important …
When I was 8 years old, I was required to get up shortly after 5 a.m. to do chores on my parents 52-cow dairy operation. I didn’t necessarily like it all the time, but it was an …
The U.S. Department of Agriculture lowered its milk production forecasts for the third time in its latest World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates report. The 2023 forecast was reduced from …