by Fay Benson 

After being involved with grazing livestock for much of my life, first on my family's dairy then owning a grazing dairy, and finally working here at CCE, I am surprised that more grazing doesn't happen in the Northeast. We have a good climate for growing cool-season grasses which support the nutritional needs of all ruminant livestock including the lactating dairy cow. The cost savings are substantial since no machinery is required to harvest the forage, store the forage, put the forage in front of the cow, and on top of that, they spread their own manure.

by Maureen Hanson - Bovine Veterinarian

Original article here  

Published on June 5, 2022 - Morning AgClips 

Agriculture producers who did not receive the 2017 Census of Agriculture and do not receive other USDA surveys or censuses have until June 30 to sign up to receive the 2022 Census of Agriculture

From our friends at Cornell CALS 

As part of Cornell Cooperative Extension's role in strengthening New York State agriculture, we are helping to spread word of the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets' plans to launch a statewide online Farm Directory. 

By Maureen Hanson, Bovine Veterinarian (Click here to access original article)

by Isaac Salfer, University of Minnesota Extension 

I can remember sitting in my Dairy Management class at the University of Minnesota in 2012 and learning that a good milk fat benchmark for a Holstein herd was 3.75%. This was backed up by historical milk market data, which saw average butterfat tests in the Upper Midwest hovering between 3.7% and 3.8% from 2000 to 2012.

This chronic, incurable bacterial infection is difficult to manage, fatal, and can be either fast or slow moving. Learning how to keep it out of the herd and/or control & manage for it to save substantial time and money.

by Michal Lunak - PSU Extension

Direct and Indirect costs contribute to reduced farm profits. Good management practices help reduce loss.

To understand the motivation and evaluate risk factors of implementing automated milking in large dairies, a survey was conducted.

"Lameness is a very broad, complicated disorder," began Jan Shearer during a Cornell University virtual workshop on understanding and mitigating the condition. To dial in on problems and potential solutions, the Extension veterinarian outlined three categories of lameness issues: claw disorders, foot skin problems, and upper leg lameness, which is often from falls or genetic concerns. The first two areas make up about 95% of lameness cases, he described.

Dear Dairy Producer from Erie County, 

The U.S. dairy community is collaborating on an important research initiative, the Dairy Soil and Water Regeneration project (DSWR), a six-year research initiative across 5 major dairy regions that is supported by a $10 million Foundation for Food and Agriculture (FFAR) grant.   The overall project is designed to provide measurement-based assessments of a dairy farm's greenhouse gas footprint for feed production.  This work will help deliver foundational data to fill current research gaps, assist in the sharing of best practice soil health management systems and support potential new market opportunities related to carbon, water quality and soil health.

If your farm is located in the designated area on the map and you are willing to take part in this important initiative, and/or have questions regarding the sampling or the project, please contact Mara Cloutier, Project Scientist at Soil Health Institute. She can be reached at mcloutier@soilhealthinstitute.org or by phone at (828) 708-3490.

The Soil Heath Institute will provide participants with an assessment of soil health and soil carbon stocks approximately 6 months after sampling. Furthermore, an aggregated report of soil health and carbon stocks from the New York region will be shared with you that shows how well your soil health and carbon stocks compare to others in the region. Participants in this sampling study will not be identified, and individual data collected as part of this effort will remain confidential.   

Spring 2022 fertility considerations

Kirsten Workman and Joe Lawrence

Fertilizer prices continue to rise with no relief in the immediate site. With a slowly warming spring 
that has seen snow and wet weather, manure applications in many locations have been delayed.