NEWS
Finances
Wise business decisions and careful management are important tools on the dairy in these days of low milk prices, failing banks and soaring feed prices. Our emphasis this issue is on finances. There are two articles from the Western Dairy Management Conference this March in Reno that deal with financial issues. Also, John Denning the CSU Northern Colorado Agriculture and Business Management Specialist explains the Livestock Gross Margin Insurance program now offered by the federal government.
I would like to express my appreciation to the organizers of the Western Dairy Management Conference. The program they organize is always timely as exemplified by the articles in this issue.
Best of luck,
Ragan Adams,
Editor CDN
What is Livestock Gross Margin Insurance for Dairy (LGM Dairy)?
John Deering is the Northern Colorado Agriculture and Business Management Specialist for CSU Extension. In this article he explains the new federal program that dairy producers may use to protect their businesses from sinking milk prices and soaring feed prices.
 Click here to read the article
Managing Feed and Milk Price Risk
Dr. Dillon Feuz from Utah State explains futures, options, and insurance programs that you can use to manage price volatility. These difficult concepts are more easily understood by Dr. Feuz's examples.
Click here to read more
Don't Let Shrink Kill You with High Feed Prices
Dr. Micheal Brouk of Kansas State University offers ways to decrease feed shrink, which is an issue that has gained in importance in times of elevated feed costs. Feed shrink is caused by many factors including: delivery weight errors, wind, birds, rodents, tires and tracked feed, cattle tossing feed, silage bunker losses, feed refusals, bunk heating and spoilage, moisture losses, mixing errors, scale accuracy and water damage. These losses may represent 5-30% of the feed purchased by the farm.
Click here to read more
From the American Association of Bovine Practitioners:A poster on Top 10 Considerations for Culling and Transporting Dairy Animals to a Packing or Processing Facility to post in your dairy. Versions are available in English and Spanish. Employees at all levels can not be reminded enough about the important decisions that must be made surrounding culling and transport. This succinct brightly covered poster is a helpful reminder.
Click here to download the poster
Killing with Kindness
Erika L. Voogd, President of Voogd Consulting, Inc. Since 1994, Voogd Consulting, Inc. has assisted plants and governments to more clearly understand Humane Handling of Beef, Swine, Poultry and Lamb. Ms. Voogd has provided HACCP and Sanitation Training in Australia, Asia, Central America, Europe and Latin America. Training materials are available in Spanish, Portuguese, Serbian and English.
In this article, Ms. Voogd addresses practitioners, producers and slaughter establishments to be aware of the criteria and expectations necessary to proactively address animal condition. This includes proactive management of on-farm facilities and care, timely cull, careful transport, immediate euthanasia of downed animals and the utilization of auditing criteria to measure results.
Click here to read more
|
EVENTS CALENDAR |
|
May 18-19, 2009
Building Sustainable Dairy Production
Lexington, Kentucky
CLICK HERE FOR INFO
|
|
June 12-13, 2009
Dairy producers of New Mexico Annual Meeting
Ruidoso, New Mexico
CLICK HERE FOR INFO
|
|
July 27-29, 2009
XVth International Silage Conference
U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
CLICK HERE FOR INFO
|
|
August 24-27, 2009
17th Discovery Conference on Food Animal Agriculture: Dairy Herd Analytics
Sponsored by the ADSA
Nashville, IN
|
Click here for more
information about ILM activities
|
Colorado Dairy News is published monthly as a service to those people interested in the health and welfare of the Colorado dairy industry.
Issues from 1995-2006 are available on the ILM website.
For further information, contact:Dr. Ragan Adams, Editor, ILM, CSU-VTH 300 West Drake Rd Ft Collins, CO 80523 (970)297-0371; radams@lamar.colostate.edu
Material published in the Colorado Dairy News is not subject to copyright. Permission is therefore granted to reproduce articles although acknowledgement of the source is requested. |
|
