Dairy News provides timely information about the dairy industry, featured events, farm safety and animal health.
Direct questions or comments to umndairy@umn.edu.
30 Minutes: Robotic milking webinars
Each month, co-hosts Marcia Endres and Jim Salfer interview a dairy producer that has a robotic milking system for an overview of their operation followed by audience Q&A. Watch past webinars on our YouTube channel.

Continually rising feed prices have tightened margins for dairy farms, making reducing wasted feed critical to farm success.

If you were to ask 10 people about what constitutes sustainable food production, you could easily receive 10 different responses due to different personal values and circumstances. Large complex societal problems are considered “wicked problems.”
With a variety of skills and experience, often hard-won through working for others, Latinos look for ways to lower barriers to ownership.
Sustainability is not a single metric, but rather a set of attitudes, practices and systems that reduce the environmental burden and waste from a system. The recent Minnesota Nutrition Conference focused on opportunities and challenges associated with improving the sustainability of livestock operations.

Robotic milking is a great choice for many farmers. It is worth thinking about if your goals and management style will lead to success.

Discussions aid understanding of high-tech dairy systems, cow health, and the farm’s bottom line.

The past 10 years have seen the milk fat benchmark for a Holstein herd increase from 3.75% in 2012 to an average milk fat of over 4.0% in 2021.

Feed costs have increased dramatically, and futures indicate they will remain high throughout 2022. There are practices that may help lower feed costs without affecting performance.

Dana Adams, University of Minnesota Extension educator, marries her fascination with dairy animals with desire to help livestock farmers.

Study shows good governance, the ability to identify and develop talent, an orderly succession strategy, and “family gravity” are traits of successful family-owned businesses.