Dairy Seminars Scheduled for Empire Farm Days
Northeast DairyBusiness brings three information-packed Dairy Profit Seminars to Empire Farm Days, Tuesday through Thursday, Aug. 9 – 11, 2005. Seminars begin at 10:30 a.m. at the Dairy Seminar Center (#424) on the Empire Farm Days show grounds in Seneca Falls, N.Y. Here’s a preview of what’s in store:Dairies with strong internal herd growth (IHG) have been shown to produce more milk and do it more efficiently, to have better cost control, to run facilities at higher capacity and to make more profit from earnings. Find out why from a panel of dairy producers who all have a 10% or higher IHG.
They’ll be joined by Tom Overton, Cornell animal scientist, to discuss key management areas for strong IHG: herd health, reproduction, age to first calving, replacement programs, cull rates and causes, nutrition, transition cow management and much more.
Gary Snider, farm business consultant with Farm Credit of Western New York, joins the panel to discuss how IHG influences dairy profitability.
Dave Galton, PRO-DAIRY director and Cornell animal scientist, will moderate the internal herd growth panel discussion.
As it has for the last two years, Northeast DairyBusiness will host the Junior Dairy Leader graduation on Tuesday afternoon.
Wednesday, Aug. 10. Super milk: It takes a team
Shipping high quality milk impacts a dairy’s bottom line, as today’s panelists are sure to tell you. Every area of a dairy impacts milk quality – herd health, nutrition, milking protocols, equipment and employee performance, and dry cow management, to name a few. The panel will discuss these areas and more.
They’ll also show how they use a team approach to ensure their dairies put the best food in the tank and on the truck. Two dairy farm team members, a veterinarian and a milk cooperative’s area supervisor, join three dairy producers recognized for their super milk. A team approach requires tapping all the resources available from Quality Milk Promotion Services and the New York State Cattle Health Assurance Program to their veterinarians, milking equipment technicians and nutritionists. It also demands good communication to keep cows, equipment and employees working at peak performance.
John Huntley, New York State veterinarian, will moderate this important discussion.Following the Super Milk panel discussion and lunch at the seminar center, Northeast DairyBusiness and the Empire State Milk Quality Council host a reception for the 46 dairies that have received the Super Milk Award for all 15 years of its existence. Nathan Rudgers, New York State Commissioner of Agriculture, will present the awards.
Thursday, Aug. 11. Make the most of forage from field to cow
To improve hay harvest timeliness and forage quality, more and more dairy producers are implementing a hay-in-a-day approach to harvesting forage. They get hay harvested in a narrow time frame while reaping the rewards of high quality forage.
Through wide swathing, producers increase the drying surface, allowing haylage to dry as much as three times faster than narrow swaths. Wide swaths can be chopped sooner – in seven hours after cutting compared to 25 hours, according to research done by Tom Kilcer, Rensselaer County Cornell Cooperative Extension educator and a panel member.
The benefits of timely hay harvest are many: more milk in each ton of feed, lower concentrate costs and better herd health. How you harvest hay can add 300 pounds more potential milk in every ton of dry matter your cows eat, Kilcer says. In an alfalfa study, there was 20.1% more milk in a ton of fermented wide-swath hay compared to fermented narrow swath.
What’s this mean to ration balancing and herd health and performance? Find out the answer from our panel of producers. Panel members include Vicki Carson, a Vermont dairy farmer, who does nutrition on the family’s dairy, teaches dairy nutrition at Vermont Technical College and works as an independent feed consultant, and Corwin Holtz, a well-known Northeast dairy nutritionist and consultant.
As he has done for several years, Joel Pankowski returns as moderator of Thursday’s panel on forage quality.
The Dairy Profit Seminars are sponsored by Arm & Hammer Animal Nutrition, Dairylea Cooperative, Genex, Land O’Lakes Feeds and other leading firms.