May 2016
Brought to you by Dairy's Professional Development Organization®
 
Opportunities to learn... 
 
Dr. David Kohl
THE WILD WORLD OF GLOBAL AND DOMESTIC ECONOMICS and the curve balls it's throwing at dairy farmers and those that serve the dairy industry will be the focus of the Wednesday, June 8, World Class Webinar led by Dr. Dave Kohl. In addition to examining the state of global and domestic trends, Dr. Kohl will answer 10 of today's dairy farmers' most frequently asked questions. This one-hour webinar will challenge the mindset of the industry and assist in strategic business planning. Pre-registration by Wednesday, June 1, is required for the live 60-minute webinar which will start at noon on Wednesday, June 8. Save money by registering now for the June 8 webinar coupled with the July 6 World Class Webinar, "Financial and Management Strategies in the Dairy Economic Reset," also presented by Dr. Kohl. Click here to get more details and to register online. 

INCREASE THE MILKING SKILLS OF YOUR HISPANIC WORKERS by having them participate in one of three one-day Milking Science Workshops taught exclusively in Spanish: June 9, Goodhue, Minn.; June 16, Malone, Wisc.; and June 23, Richland Center, Wisc. Led by Oscar Duarte, DVM, and Robert Leder, DVM, each workshop will follow the same format and provide the training to protect your business and milk quality while ensuring worker safety. Dr. Duarte will address milking techniques, correct use of equipment and tools during milking, procedures to lessen incidences of mastitis and safety for workers and cows. Dr. Leder will focus on handling techniques for the down cow. If you have a Spanish-speaking milking team, this workshop is for them. Pre-registration is required. Here is where you can see the flyer and register your employees. 

CONNECT TO A WORLD OF INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE by taking advantage of PDPW's Webinar Library which contains every World Class Webinar presentation given in the past five years. That's a lot of information! Topics include business and dairy markets, calf care, feed and nutrition, human resources, milk quality and a variety of special edition topics. Each webinar is available for viewing at your convenience-with the full library accessible for purchase. To access this amazing library of resources click here.

WATER IS EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS, and you can check out how diverse stakeholders - from dairies to wastewater treatment plants and even a brewery - are using science, engineering and management to achieve common goals. You select the day and location for the "Water: It's Everybody's Business" tour that works best for you. Tour dates are Tuesday, June 7, Cashton, Wisc.; Tuesday, June 14, Green Bay, Wisc.; and Tuesday, June 21, Oconomowoc, Wisc. 

A partnership between UW Discovery Farms and PDPW, these tours are the perfect opportunity for business owners, consumers and citizens, legislators, local elected officials and municipality leaders, farmers and neighbors to learn about each area's landscape-specific water quality challenges and the common-ground concerns and work endeavors of businesses and communities. Learning and networking will take place while riding the bus and at each tour's three stops. Join the conversation and see how others are invested in water quality. Click on this link to get more details and to register.
For your dairy...
   
MAKE IT WET. Calves readily accept wetter feeds with a dry matter content of 50 percent, according to the findings of Iranian scientists. Their research also found that adding water to starter diets improves calf performance during the hot months of summer. Offering 3-day-old Holstein calves three starter diets with differing moisture contents (90% dry matter, 75% DM and 50% DM) the researchers discovered that weaning and final body weight values increased linearly with increasing dietary water. Plus, starter intake increased linearly during the pre-weaning and overall study period. ADG also increased linearly in calves receiving the 75% and 50% DM diets compared with those receiving the 90% DM diet. Additional information about this study and how it relates to rumen fermentation parameters, blood metabolites and behavior in dairy calves can be found in the March 2016 Journal of Dairy Science. Click here to read more.

FRESH FORAGE: 4-HOUR, 8-HOUR OR NO ACCESS? Cows with four hours of access to high-quality fresh forage had similar dry matter intake and milk yields as cows fed only a TMR, according to findings of researchers from Uruguay. The researchers' work also shows that exceeding four hours of access to fresh forage reduced dry matter intake and performance without changes in feed efficiency. No differences were detected in the cows not provided fresh forage. Compared with cows without access to fresh forage, those given access to fresh forage for eight hours had decreased milk, protein and casein yields and tended to have decreased fat and lactose yields. The full abstract, published in the March 2016 Journal of Dairy Science, can be read online  here.

MOVE THE TIMING OF FEED DELIVERY  and cows may consume their feed more slowly in smaller, more frequent meals, leading to an improvement in efficiency in production. Those are the findings of Canadian researchers who manipulated the timing of TMR delivery twice a day in relation to the herd's 3-time-a-day milking times. One group was fed at both the 7 a.m. and 2 p.m milking time, and the other group was fed halfway between the first two milking times - at 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Cows fed at milking sorted long particles (102.3%), but cows fed halfway between milkings did not sort for or against those particles. The researchers' article, published in the February 2016 issue of Journal of Dairy Science, also addresses the timing of TMR delivery and its effect on rumination time, lying time, standing time, milk yield, milk fat content and milk protein. Click here to learn more.

APRIL, MAY AND JUNE are the months when the risk for soil loss is the highest and when runoff is likely to occur. Producers should take note of any visible erosion and make plans for repairs later in the fall, notes Amber Radatz, co-director of UW Discovery Farms® Program. Radatz said UW Discovery Farms research also shows that traditional conservation practices like waterways, contour cropping and minimal tillage are important for keeping soil in its place. UW Discovery Farms has developed an easy to follow conservation guide for your farm, you can learn more and download the Field Walkover Guide online. Visit www.uwdiscoveryfarms.org for more information.
For your business mind...
 
STRESS TESTS CAN HELP A DAIRY SEE where the operation is vulnerable and allows dairy managers to assure that they can get through a down cycle in the dairy industry, says Arthur Moessner, Vice President of Agribusiness for Farm Credit Services of America. Dairies that benefit the most from stress testing, he adds, are those dairies operating with low borrowing base margins or planning a major expansion. "With Chicago Mercantile Exchange milk futures down from $16 last October, and down from $17.98 in 2015, it's a good idea for dairies to do their own stress tests." Moessner delves into stress tests, outlines a common approach and provides an example  here.

YES, YOU CAN BOUNCE BACK FROM A CRISIS rather than disintegrate to a point that is no longer manageable. To understand the process of how farm families move from a state of stress and strain through a crisis to re-balance afterwards, Robert Fetsch, Extens ion Specialist, Human Development & Family Studies at Colorado State University, says that "it is critical to identify what determines whether a family will end up in trouble or will end up with increased skills at handling crises and re-establishing their family equilibrium, balance or homeostasis." Fetsch outlines these determinants as well as four steps to managing stress, anger, anxiety and depression in his research article titled "Managing Stress, Anger, Anxiety, and Depression on Dairy Farms." To read more, click this link.

KNOWING THE 7 ELEMENTS OF TRUST-BUILDING TRANSPARENCY can help thos e in the dairy industry understand what today's consumers want to know about us, our products and what we do. The seven elements of trust-building transparency, as identified by the Center for Food Integrity, include: 
1) Motivation: Act in a manner that is ethical and consistent with stakeholder interests
2) Disclosure: Share all positive and negative information publicly
3) Stakeholder participation: Engage those interested in your activities
4) Relevance: Share information that stakeholders deem relevant
5) Clarity: Share information that is easily understood and easily obtained
6) Credibility: Share positive and negat ive i nformation that supports informed stakeholder decision making and has a history of operating with integrity
7) Accuracy: Share information that is truthful, objective, reliable and complete. 
Here is where you can find more information.

AVOID INSTANT GRATIFICATION - RESIST TEMPTATION. Many of us have at least one cell phone or tablet with us at all times and sometimes multi-tasking can seem necessary, but it  can definitely be a safety risk. The Agricultural Safety Awareness Program offers three tips to help us stay safe while operating our business in the technology age: 
1)  Avoid answering your phone if you're working on equipment with moving parts
2)  Turn off farm equipment if you have to step away to use your phone
3) Use your voicemail - you can always check your messages later 
Additional life-saving tips can be found online at this link.

BOOK REVIEW: 15 SECRETS SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT TIME MANAGEMENT.  Entrepreneur and New York Times best-selling author Kevin Kruse surveyed and interviewed billionaires, Olympic athletes, straight-A students and more than 200 entrepreneurs to uncover their secrets to extreme productivity. This book contains his findings and a "Discover Your Time Personality" quiz with over 100 time management quotes. Readers will learn what millionaires use in lieu of a to-do list, how to identify real priorities and a simple "E-3C system" that can double productivity. The book has reading material applicable for everyone; from business people to those managing a household to teens hooked on social media.

WORDS TO LIVE BY. . .

"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life 
as by the obstacles which he has overcome." - Booker T. Washington
A BIG Thank You...    
 
TO OUR PDPW SPONSORS who  support continuous improvement for the dairy industr y. T hey believe in producer leadership and place a high value on lifelong  education for those involved in the dairy industry. We deeply respect their commitment to PDPW and the members we have the honor to serve. It is by this partnership that we c ontinu e to build a strong industry filled with capable professionals. Click  HERE  to see a list of our sponsors. If you interact with any of these companies, please thank them for supporting PDPW! 

If you or a company you know is interested in participating as a sponsor, please contact our team member at [email protected] or call 800-947-7379.