The Manager
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Item The Manager November 2024: Research insights(Progressive Dairy, 2024-11)The November 2024 issue of The Manager, published by Progressive Dairy, features the real-world impact of Cornell dairy research.Item Accelerating livestock methane mitigation and monitoring technologiesMcFadden, Joseph (Progressive Dairy, 2024-11)The Accelerating Livestock Innovations for Sustainability (ALIS) program was developed at Cornell University to expedite the development, approval, and adoption of safe and effective technologies that help farmers optimize their production system while protecting our environment. A priority of the ALIS program is to reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from livestock agriculture. The initiative has spearheaded numerous investments in faculty, staff, facilities, and equipment, including an Animal Respiration Chamber facility, to support the organization and action of strategic teams that aim to solve long-standing challenges faced by livestock agriculture.Item Increasing metabolizable protein supply: A strategy to increase early lactation performanceWesthoff, Trent; Overton, Tom; Mann, Sabine (Progressive Dairy, 2024-11)Dairy producers and nutrition consultants alike understand the importance of a well-managed nutritional program during the transition period for the health and productivity of their herd. The success, or lack thereof, of these nutrition programs has potential to affect the productivity and longevity of cows and thereby influence farm profitability. Our research data suggest an opportunity to improve early lactation performance by increasing the metabolizable protein (MP) supply during the postpartum period; and during an appropriate economic situation, producers might benefit from feeding a high level of MP pre- and postpartum.Item Dairying in Colombia: Grazing cows contending with subclinical hypocalcemiaGraef, Geneva (Progressive Dairy, 2024-11)Globally, whether working in a continuously housed dairy or a grazing herd, it is generally accepted that the transition period brings the complexity of shifting metabolic priorities. Grazing dairy cows may have distinctive risk factors and a different level of prevalence to consider when assessing the challenge of subclinical hypocalcemia (SCH); however they are no less at risk of suffering from similar loss of performance as continuously housed cows. While many research questions remain regarding mechanisms, direct causes, and best management, work in the current study emphasizes the importance of SCH in grazing systems. To limit losses associated with calcium dysregulation like SCH, it is prudent to pursue interventions that can be applied to a diverse range of systems and management practices.Item Targeted Reproductive Management with automated estrus detection during early lactation optimizes herd management and performanceGiordano, Julio; LaPlacette, Ana; Rial, Clara (Progressive Dairy, 2024-11)As the dairy industry evolves and new strategies are required to improve herd performance, management, and sustainability measures, a potential approach to improve reproductive efficiency, optimize herd management practices, and increase profitability is Targeted Reproductive Management (TRM). Also known as “precision” or “personalized” management, this approach to herd management consists of two keys steps. First, subgroups of cows within a herd that share some biological or performance potential characteristics (predictors) associated with reproduction and performance must be identified ). Second, targeted management strategies specifically designed to optimize cow performance, herd profitability, or alternative metrics of interest are implemented.Item MyCow$: A novel tool to improve dairy farm business decision-making through real-time estimation of individual cow profitabilityGiordano, Julio; Perez, Martin; Kerwin, Allison; Aguero, Sebastian; George, Angela (Progressive Dairy, 2024-11)Good business decision-making in dairy farming depends on the availability of high quality and current data about the profitability of the business production unit: the cow. Every day producers are faced with important decisions related to culling or keeping, breeding, grouping, treating, and feeding cows, among many others. Unfortunately, despite the many technologies and data available today, dairy producers continue to lack tools that provide an accurate and detailed account of individual cow profitability, with minimal effort, and in real time. Thus, most of the individual cow decision-making continues to be done based on averages for the herd or groups, parameters that do not truly reflect cow profitability, and in some cases perception or "gut feeling". To help dairy managers overcome this barrier to good business decision-making, our research group developed the "MyCow$", a software tool that leverages dairy data to automatically calculate the profitability of individual cows in real time.Item Automated health monitoring using sensors: What have we learned and strategies for on-farm implementationGiordano, Julio; Perez, Martin; Rial, Clara (Progressive Dairy, 2024-11)The burden and challenges of cow health monitoring is growing as qualified personnel becomes scarce, labor costs rise, and herd sizes increase. Minimizing disruption of cow routines is also important to support improved performance. In response to industry needs, availability of automated health monitoring systems has exploded. Most of the systems use wearable or non-wearable sensors to monitor one or more behavioral, physiological, or performance parameter associated with cow health. Rumination, activity, lying behavior, body temperature, and milk yield features are used alone or in combination to generate alerts that indicate potential health problems. Dairy managers are most interested in best use of these technologies to improve herd management.Item The Manager July 2024: Embracing opportunites for a viable future(Progressive Dairy, 2024-07)Nearly 400 dairy producers and industry professionals from across the Northeast gathered in East Syracuse, N.Y. this spring for two intense days of learning, collaboration, industry thought-leadership, and a few laughs. The conference featured insights about the challenges and opportunities facing the dairy industry, shared innovative technologies and strategies for success, and created time to connect with peers. Attendees represented dairy farms, industry advisors and partners, suppliers, consultants, and university and extension professionals. The conference is a three-decade partnership between Cornell CALS PRO-DAIRY and the Northeast Dairy Producers Association (NEDPA).Item Value-added dairy – From feasibility to follow-throughWeeks, Heather; Neckers, Kelsey (Progressive Dairy, 2024-07)Farms start value-added enterprises for many reasons. A dairy may have a high cost of production for the commodity milk market. More revenue may be needed to pay an additional owner or a retiring generation. The farm may produce a niche product like A2A2 milk. Most importantly, farm owners may consider value-added because the market demands it, when the community expresses a need for a certain product that this farm can supply.Item What management practices and facility styles support better milk production?Nash, Clem (Progressive Dairy, 2024-07)The Novus C.O.W.S.™ Program has helped dairy farmers unlock bottlenecks in cow comfort and productivity across North America for over 12 years. The data collected during the program’s on-farm assessments is shared back to producers, showing how their results compare to over 1,700 anonymized assessments completed since the start of the program. While it’s not possible to share all the C.O.W.S.™ program results in one article, here you’ll find some of the management and facility factors that we’ve found are associated with higher milk production on Northeast and Midwest dairy farms.