Progressive Dairy Podcast

Today’s episode provides summaries of three different articles we’ve published this past year on manure management. Listen in to find out how to improve nitrogen efficiency from farm to field, what can be done to get the most value from manure and which manure system will make a good addition to your farm.

Ray Bohacz of the Idle Chatter podcast and farmmachinerydigest.com joins Editor Walt Cooley to introduce himself to readers and share three tips for preventative maintenance that will help avoid machinery breakdowns. Bohacz has published more than 3,000 technical articles about machinery in his career. His columns recently began appearing regularly in Progressive Dairy magazine.

Hannah Vander Poel is a female dairy farmer using social media to advocate for the dairy industry. Under the Instagram name @IDdairygirl, she shares the joys and challenges of dairy farm life from Northern Sky Dairy in Castleford, Idaho. Vander Poel can be found elbow-deep in daily work on the 1,000-cow dairy, a sister-site to her home farm where her parents reside, Sky View Dairy, in Bakersfield, California. In between breeding cows and herd data entry, she balances taking classes toward her accounting degree as a satellite student at Boise State University. Vander Poel was a featured speaker on the Innovation Stage at the 2020 Dairy Strong Conference held in January in Madison, Wisconsin. There, she shared her social media experience and inspired other dairy farmers to do the same. Progressive Dairy Editor Peggy Coffeen sat down with Vander Poel to hear more about the hows and whys behind her social media advocacy.

Some estimates indicate that by 2040, just 5% of farms will produce 75% or more of America’s agricultural output. But who will be in that 5%? Aimpoint Research seeks to answer this question. The firm has conducted new, landmark research revealing the psychology of the farmers who are most likely to lead the industry in 2040 and both the internal and external factors impacting their success. Brett Sciotto, president and CEO of Aimpoint Research, is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a former army intelligence officer. He revealed findings from the firm’s research at the 2020 Dairy Strong Conference held in January in Madison, Wisconsin. Who will be the “farmers of the future”? Sciotto shares more with Progressive Dairy Editor Peggy Coffeen about the psychographic segmentation of the current farming population, which groups he believes will remain in business over the next 20 years, and how that impacts interactions within the agri-food supply chain.

At the beginning of 2020, the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) updated its guidelines for how dehorning should be done on dairy farms. The national organization first established guidelines for this practice in 2014. One significant update in the dehorning guidelines is the recommendation for pain mitigation. Progressive Dairy Editor Walt Cooley spoke with AABP’s Executive Director Fred Gingrich, DVM, about the changes and what they mean on-farm.

If you’ve ever been around a dairy cattle showring, or picked up a purebred publication, there's a good chance you know the name “Budjon.” One of the most well-known prefixes in today’s registered cattle business, their lengthy list of showring achievements include: 6 Premier Breeder banners from World Dairy Expo5 National Show Supreme Champions200 All-American nominations among the Holstein, Jersey and Red and White breeds100 All-Canadian nominations across all those three breeds as well But don’t let the showring fame fool you. The Budjon brand isn’t only about trophies and ribbons; they have adapted their focus to become known as a premier boarding facility for elite genetics, and they continue to diversify and re-structure to create a permanent place for themselves in an ever-changing dairy industry. So how are they doing this? Listen to Editor Peggy Coffeen’s interview with the farm to find out.

Editor Karen Lee sits down with DeLaval president and CEO Joakim Rosengren to hear his views on sustainability, the future of milking equipment, dairy on an international stage and what motivates him during tough times. Rosengren also shares a couple of interesting, yet short-lived, milking equipment innovations that can be found in the company’s museum in Sweden.

Editor Walt Cooley and ag economist Marin Bozic of the University of Minnesota discuss macroeconomic factors that will likely influence the upcoming decade. In this episode, Bozic touches on the importance of a trade deal with China, the increasing automation of jobs in the U.S. economy, U.S. energy independence’s rearranging of geopolitics and the potential impact of the USMCA trade deal being ratified.

Editor Walt Cooley and Professional Dairy Producers Executive Director Shelly Mayer remind listeners of the reason for the season and challenge all to be grateful for their individual “super power.”

Illinois dairyman Andy Lenkaitis converted his home farm Red Shirt Holsteins to robotic milking in 2017. He is also an environmental sales engineer and works for GEA. He assists dairy farms that are transitioning from conventional to robotic milking. In this episode, he talks about his own robotic milking transition, what he’s found is helpful to producers going through their own transitions and the biggest challenges he sees in most transitions to robots.

In this episode, Editor Peggy Coffeen talks with the Dr. Gordie Jones about a dairy barn design concept he contrived called the all-seasons hybrid barn.

Editor Walt Cooley interviews magazine contributor Andy Junkin. He calls himself a specialist in the decision culture of farmers. In short, he’s a farm family consultant. He’s written several books based on his experience consulting with farms. His most recent book is called Bulletproof Your Farm. It’s a workbook of sorts on how to get your family meeting regularly.

In this episode, Editor Walt Cooley talks with the new principal partners of Vault Ag about forward contracting and risk management in the dairy industry. In October 2019, Rice Dairy LLC in Chicago, Illinois, and Commodity Risk Management Group in Platteville, Wisconsin, announced a partnership between the two businesses to create a single brokerage company that will service the agriculture and dairy industries under the banner of Vault Ag Holding Company LLC. I got a chance to sit down with Pete Turk and Mike North to discuss risk management and forward contracting.

Automated milking systems are changing the way today’s farms function. As more and more dairies adopt the technology, the industry is adjusting its tried and true methods and there is always something new to be said on the topic. Today’s episode provides summaries of three different articles we’ve published this past year on incorporating robots. Listen in to find out whether you should retrofit or build new to accommodate automated milking systems in your barn. Find out the best techniques to train fresh cows for robotic milking success. Lastly, learn what the signals cows are giving you in an automated system mean and how to respond.

Minnesota dairyman Michael Johnson has been using eartag activity monitoring from CowManager for four and a half years. In this episode, he talks about his experience installing the technology, his results and advice for other dairymen who may be considering similar technology. Johnson operates Trailside Holsteins in Fountain, Minnesota, and milks 600-cows.

The pro-livestock, non-profit organization Animal Ag Alliance annually attends the Animal Rights National Conference to discover trends in strategy and tactics among anti-animal agriculture groups. (No, they don’t use undercover tactics to get in.) Kay Johnson Smith, CEO of the Animal Ag Alliance, recaps in this episode what the alliance heard and saw at the 2019 event held in Alexandria, Virginia, and what it means for dairy farmers.

In this first-ever episode, listen to Progressive Dairy editors Walt Cooley, Karen Lee, Peggy Coffeen and Dave Natzke discuss what you can expect from future podcasts published by the magazine.