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Helpful Benchmarks For Raising Calves

Click here to view as a pdf: Helpful Benchmarks For Raising Calves 

By Carley Ciolkosz, B.S.
Livestock Nutritionist

Raising healthy calves is one of the most important and hardest tasks on a dairy farm. Healthy calves turn into healthy cows and the months from birth to weaning sets up the calf for the rest of its life, as well as the longevity of being a high producing dairy cow. To ensure that the calves are getting the best care in order to thrive there are a few factors we need to look at including the mortality rates, morbidity rates, growth rates and colostrum management.
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Know Where You Stand: Helpful Benchmarks To Track On Your Dairy

Click here to view as a pdf: Know Where You Stand: Helpful Benchmarks To Track On Your Dairy

By Erik Brettingen, B.S.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” An arguably overused but truly powerful statement. When evaluating dairies and looking for ways to improve on client farm successes, tracking performance over time and comparing to benchmarks can be very helpful. Tracking key metrics on your farm can help catch issues before they become big problems, identify the next steps to take toward increased profitability, and allow for successes to be celebrated when improvements are made. Crystal Creek® helps clients build reports and uses herd management software to monitor performance of key areas on farms. Lactation performance, economics, transition cow success, reproduction, and calf growth/health are the main areas that are beneficial to monitor.

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Understanding Milk Pricing- If That’s Even Possible: Part 2

Click here to view as a pdf: Understanding Milk Pricing- If That’s Even Possible: Part 2 

By Ryan Leiterman, D.V.M.

In the previous article, we discussed the history of milk pricing in the United States, the equations that govern milk price and how end-product pricing works. This article will be the final part of a two-part series where we will look at the make allowance and Producer Price Differentials (commonly referred to as PPD’s); arguably two of the more controversial parts of the milk pricing process.

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