NEWS

Please Attend

I hope you have made your reservations for the Western Dairy Management Conference in Reno, March 11-13. This conference is held every two years and it has become a "must-do" for dairy producers. It is efficiently run and packed with information during two days of presentations and the huge trade show. For more information, please visit: http://www.wdmc.org/. CSU will be well-represented: Bill Wailes is a member of the organizing committee. Noa Roman-Muniz, your new dairy specialist, will be meeting her new group of colleagues from other states. Frank Garry will be speaking on the CSU dairy mortality study that he is conducting with Craig McConnell. Cecy Rosas will be attending as well.  I am staying home as part of university budget savings!

Have a good time,
Ragan Adams,
Editor CDN

Smart Decisions, Not Just Hard Work, Will Keep Dairies Going in 2009

In challenging economic times, dairy producers may consider cutting expenses to save a few pennies. The decision may not be wise. Chuck Schwartau, University of Minnesota Extension dairy specialist, reminds dairy producers of the dangers of becoming "pennywise, pound foolish."

Although milk prices were good in 2008, dairy farmers now face the lowest milk prices in five years. "Be wary about cutting costs just for the sake of cutting costs. Some of your costs of production may be good investments that more than pay for themselves," Schwartau says. When milk prices are high, dairy producers make repairs and invest in infrastructure. When prices are low, dairy producers often find ways to make their operations more efficient. They use these times to strengthen their operations so they will run better when prices return to profitable levels.

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Proceedings from the Dairy Days Program, Colorado Farm Show

January 28, 2009: Greeley, Colorado

Harvesting Energy from Livestock Waste

January 2009

By: Sybil Sharvelle, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Sybil.Sharvelle@Colostate.edu

Livestock producers are often plagued with the problem of handling waste. Waste management is generally a daunting task, both from an economic and time management perspective. Meanwhile environmental regulations are becoming increasingly stringent. One promising alternative can be anaerobic digestion of waste. This technology produces energy in the form of methane that can offset on-farm operation costs and may even have the potential to generate external profit for producers.

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Why does the wind in Colorado sometimes blow from the east?

By: Stephen Holcomb and Jeffrey Collett
Atmospheric Science Department, CSU
jeffrey.collett@colostate.edu

When the wind blows from the east, ammonia and other agricultural emissions produced in eastern Colorado can be transported westward into the Colorado Front Range, including Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). Increases in ammonia and other nitrogen-containing pollutants in RMNP are receiving increased attention because of their negative impacts on air quality and ecosystem health.

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Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council presents:
Five things you can't cut from your reproduction program

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From The 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners:

The Welfare of Dairy Calves
Daniel M. Weary, Professor; Marina A. G. von Keyserling, Professor Animal Welfare Program, Faculty of Land and Food Systems
University of British Columbia, 2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada. Corresponding author: E-mail: danweary@interchange.ubc.ca

In this review, we address calf welfare from three perspectives: improving health, reducing pain and distress and facilitating natural behavior. Four major areas of concern are reviewed: 1) calf morbidity and mortality resulting especially from poor colostrum feeding practices; 2) chronic calf hunger resulting from outdated feeding practices; 3) social isolation from other calves that can be avoided by keeping calves in small, well-managed groups; and 4) procedures such as dehorning that cause considerable pain that can be avoided using the right techniques and analgesics, or tail docking that prevents the animal from performing natural fly avoidance behaviors, and fails to provide clear advantages to either the animal or the producer. In each example, we show how research can identify solutions that improve calf welfare while remaining practical for dairy producers.

Click here to read the review

IDFA 2009 Sustainability Workshop
March 11-12, 2009 Dallas, Texas

This comprehensive workshop evaluates aspects of the dairy industry in order to define opportunities to improve sustainability. This international meeting includes a presentation by Colorado's New Belgium Brewery's Sustainability Director Jennifer Orgolini.  She will discuss ways to identify opportunities to reduce carbon footprint and increase profit.

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information about ILM activities