FACILITIES & EQUIPMENT

Two very different ways of milking cows can teach us some of the most basic lessons for maintaining low somatic cell counts (SCC) and achieving milk quality goals.

Decisions on the dairy should be based on increasing efficiency to improve the bottom line. As you weigh the costs and benefits of cooling your cows, the numbers quickly add up: Cooling wins every time.

While there’s no hotter topic as it relates to new equipment than precision farming technology, the positive effect those upgrades can also have on older, existing equipment is often overlooked.

Is your dairy farm ready to take the next step to grow in size, but you aren’t quite ready to grow with today’s robotic technology? There are a multitude of robotic options available today, and many more to come.

Sand bedding is known to be great for cow comfort and tough on equipment, especially when it comes to the moving parts and pieces of a robotic milking system, but there are a few things dairy farmers can to do minimize wear and tear.

Lighting often represents one of the best opportunities to reduce electricity use on dairy farms, and lighting retrofits typically have shorter paybacks than other energy-efficiency upgrades. Over the last decade, light-emitting diode (LED) lighting has experienced rapid growth and adoption, with prices dropping 90 percent.