As many of you likely know, the dairy industry, and specifically dairy farmers are not in a good place. Many farmers are going into the fourth year of red ink. According to DATCP license records, we’ve lost over 500 Wisconsin dairy farms per year, on average, since 2003. The weak milk market hasn’t slowed production. Many factors including better feed and cattle genetics, the use of sexed semen, outside investment in mega-farms, cheap imported milk from neighboring states, and the Dairy 30 X 20 program (designed to increase production with incentives) have sustained the flooded milk market. Banks are encouraging expansion of some farms to remain solvent. Small farms that choose not to have
As dairy farmers, one of our top priorities is the health and well-being of our cows. A bovine disease many farmers are familiar with is Hemorrhagic Bowel Syndrome (HBS), a complex condition described simply as a cow bleeding to death due to hemorrhaging in the lower gastrointestinal tract. HBS has two forms, rapid death from acute blood loss and steady decline leading to death from a slow bleed. HBS manifests when the cow is stressed with high production and fed compromised feedstuffs. Treatment is fairly ineffective, and even cows that do survive usually end up culled from the herd. Preventing HBS is the only real option for success in dealing with this disease. Another top priority for d
