When corn is $7, we want to get everything we can from the corn we are feeding. What do we have in storage? Is that really high-moisture corn? How do we measure quality?

When I started doing nutrition work 15 years ago, the message was fairly simple. Harvest the high-moisture corn at the right moisture (28 to 32 percent) and roll lightly. I thought – foolishly – that after 15 years, we would have mastered the timing of harvest.

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Tile drainage has proven to be an effective way to use farmland that, in past generations, would have been overlooked for production because it was too wet. To keep tiled fields producing high-yielding crops, farmers must ensure the tile is maintained and working properly.

A field day last fall sponsored by Michigan State University Extension emphasized installation and management of field tiles. During the event, participants learned that proper installation is the first step to ensuring fields are drained properly, but the work does not stop there.

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Despite the fact that free-cow traffic is the norm on robotic milking farms (in the Netherlands around 90 percent of farmers choose this option), we often get questions from farmers about directed-cow traffic.

“What does Vetvice think about directed-cow traffic?” they ask us.

Or, in a more challenging vein: “Why do you never talk about directed-cow traffic – that works well too, doesn’t it?” And they often go on to cite one or more farms as examples.

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Summer has arrived, and with it comes heat and humidity. Now is the time to prepare your heat stress and fly control measures. Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine whether or not you are ready for this summer’s heat:

Have you checked to see if your fans are clean to maximize air movement and save electricity?
Most of us get so busy this time of year that we forget this simple task. Dirty fans can use up to 70 percent more electricity to deliver 50 percent less air movement. This is important to mature animals, youngstock and calves.

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