Reducing stress and improving the health of dairy cows can improve dairy profitability noticeably. One trend in US dairies is to increase forage feeding levels while maintaining high nutrient intakes. Herds taking this approach often maintain high levels of milk production and cow performance while gaining milk components and improving health. A newly posted article, "Feeding Programs in High Forage Herds" discusses the experiences of a number of New York State dairy farms as they move towards this management system.

One key to expansion is a good supply of heifers to enter the milking string. A recent research report from Ireland discusses "Management, Nutrition and Breeding Strategies to Improve Dairy Herd Fertility". High fertility being a necessary requirement for more heifer calves. Once those calves are born, the work is just getting started.

Two new papers have been added to our large library of calf and heifer papers. A new submission from the folks at Calving Ease, "Dehorning calves", discusses dehorning methods and how to reduce stress and injury for both heifers and humans. Some photos of a very convenient, portable restraint system are included.

Another new paper discusses the prevention and treatment of mastitis in primiparous animals around the time of freshening. Mastitis at this time in an animal's life has become more common for a variety of reasons. However, most are preventable. This paper, "Prevention and control of mastitis in heifers" gives a number of practical ideas for improving prevention.

The experiences of several Irish farms as they tackle the challenges of expansion are chronicled in the "Country Reports" section, under Ireland.
The Country Reports section is a new area of the site. Its goal is to provide more of a case study approach to farming with an emphasis on local production constraints and conditions. Cows may be cows the world over, but natural resources, environment, and political conditions certainly vary widely across the world's dairy regions.

If you would like to contribute a farm experience (a problem, a solution, or just a discussion of unique challenges) to this part of the site, please contact our editor.
Not a good typist? No problem, we'll fix any typos and send the finished version back for your approval.

New contributions to the Visit the Dairies section this month:

Dmitrov Dairy Farms: US citizen Shan Betzold is the on-site farm director on this 530 cow dairy farm in Russia.

Vannulo buffalo farm in Italy: Mr Palmieri is the third generation of  farmers on this ecological buffalo farm, where they also produce mozzarella and yogurt.