This episode was recorded in Fort Wayne, Indiana, during the 2025 Tri-State Dairy Conference.

Dr. Grant gives an overview of his presentation at the conference, highlighting cow time budgets and the importance of natural cow behavior to health, welfare and productivity. The impacts of overcrowding, including rumen pH and de novo fatty acid synthesis, are a key component of his message. (7:07)

Eating, resting and ruminating are the big three behaviors we’ve studied for decades. In addition to their obvious importance to cow welfare, they have a real health and performance effect. Dr. Grant suggests the recumbent rumination - just lying down and chewing her cud - is really the cow’s superpower. Cows with the same rumination time who accomplish more while lying down have less subacute ruminal acidosis, greater dry matter intake, and higher fat and protein content in their milk. It all boils down to the balance between eating time and recumbent rumination time. (12:15)

The panel discusses the definition of overcrowding. Spoiler alert: it depends. (15:50)

Clay asks Rick if overcrowding of beds or feed bunks is more important. The easy answer is both, but Rick acknowledges he’d say beds if he were pushed for an answer. Resting is a yes or no; she’s either lying down or she’s not. From the feed bunk perspective, a cow can alter her behavior to a point for adjusting to overcrowding - eat faster, change her meal patterns, etc. A hungry cow will walk by the feed to recoup lost rest time. Cows should be comfortable enough to spend at least 90% of their rumination time lying down. (17:50)

Dr. Grant thinks of overcrowding as a subclinical stressor. A cow has different “accounts” for different activities: lactation, health, reproduction, etc., as well as a reserve account. To combat the subclinical stress of overcrowding, a cow uses her reserve account, but that’s hard to measure. If the reserve account gets depleted and another stressor comes along, the overcrowded pens are going to show greater impacts. The panel brainstormed ideas for how to better measure a cow’s reserve account. (19:39)

Clays asks if overcrowding is affecting culling rates. The panel assumes it has to be, though no one can point to a study. Dr. Grant notes there is data from France that shows decreased longevity in cows who don’t get enough rest, which is a hallmark of overcrowding. Given the low heifer inventory, the panel muses if the industry ought to pay more attention to the culling impacts of overcrowding and have a more dynamic approach to evaluating stocking density as market and farm conditions shift. (25:10)

Bill asks about nutritional and management strategies to reduce the stress of overcrowding. Rick notes that overcrowding tends to make the rumen a bit more touchy, so he talks about formulating diets with appropriate amounts of physically effective fiber, undigested NDF, rumen-fermentable starch, and particle size. (29:21)

Dr. Grant talks about the differences in rumination when a cow is lying down versus standing. The panel discusses cow comfort, preferred stalls, and first-calf heifer behavior in mixed-age groups with and without overcrowding. Bill and Rick agree that having a separate pen for first-calf heifers on overcrowded farms would benefit those heifers. Dr. Michael comments on evaluating air flow and venting on-farm. (33:49)

The panel wraps up the episode with their take-home thoughts. (47:55)

Scott invites the audience to Bourbon and Brainiacs at ADSA in Louisville - a bourbon tasting with all your favorite professors! Sign up here: https://balchem.com/anh/bourbon/ (52:02)

The paper referenced in this conversation from Dr. Bach can be found here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030208711226

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This episode was recorded in Reno, Nevada, during the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference. The panel is reviewing a presentation given by Dr. Rick Grant, who was unable to be on the podcast.

The presentation was based on the idea that crowding is a subclinical presence. If you manage it with people and resources, a dairy can do very well. But if something happens in that crowded situation, like a disease or heat stress, it can tip performance over the edge. Evaluating time budgets for cows can allow for the identification of places to improve. Beds are vitally important. If a cow doesn’t have a bed due to crowding then she’s not lying down, chewing her cud, which is what allows her to be as efficient as possible. (3:19)

Jason thinks about time budgets as a tool for managing stress. Jim agrees and notes that crowding is part of every cow’s day, but we can manage to minimize that time in most instances. Jason and Jim talk about some of their approaches to evaluating crowding when they work with a dairy, and where pain points are often located. (5:57)

Jason liked Dr. Grant’s takeaway message that the cow doesn’t necessarily care she’s overcrowded as long as she has a bed she doesn’t have to fight for and room at the feed bunk she doesn’t have to fight for. He describes a very successful client who is overcrowded, but everything else is managed well. All other stressors have been removed, so the only stressor remaining is the overcrowding. But when additional stressors compound crowding, then dairies experience issues. He adds there is a huge opportunity for error when feeding to slick bunks in an overcrowding situation. (16:15)

Jim talks about different measures of efficiency. Is it milk per cow, milk per free stall, milk per parlor stall, or milk per pen? He thinks the real answer is “it depends,” and the answer might be different for each dairy. Jason notes that the bank wants to see assets on a balance sheet, and the cows are the assets. (19:24)

The group discusses geographical differences in overcrowding. Jim’s observations show crowding increases as one moves east in the US. Tom agrees and notes 20-30% of the available stalls are in his part of the world. Overcrowded cows eat faster, and this impacts rumen efficiency, probably leading to lower de novo fatty acid synthesis and overall lower components. The panel talks about whether or not there is such a thing as an “overcrowding ration.”(20:59)

The panel relays some real-world examples of crowding where dairies would cull cows to decrease milk production, but production would remain the same because the cows were now less crowded. They talk more about other management strategies that need to be on point if a dairy is going to overcrowd. (27:50)

The panel wraps up with their take-home thoughts for dairy producers and nutritionists. Jim and Jason share their contact information with the audience. (38:20)

Scott invites the audience to Bourbon and Brainiacs at ADSA in Louisville - a bourbon tasting with all your favorite professors! Sign up here: https://balchem.com/anh/bourbon/ (45:02)

The paper referenced in this conversation from Dr. Bach can be found here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030208711226

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This episode was recorded in Reno, Nevada for the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference.

Dr. Shabtai gives an overview of her presentation. Afimilk has a new technology that includes a feed efficiency sensor to determine eating, rumination, heat stress monitoring and more. The Feed Efficiency Service combined with the AfiCollar can estimate dry matter intake, which, when combined with Afimilk’s milk meter data, yields an efficiency value of milk income over feed cost for each cow. She details how the algorithm works to predict intake and some of the challenges faced during the development of this technology. The algorithm was developed with Holsteins, but a Jersey algorithm is nearing completion. (5:33)

Shane and Emily share some of their experiences with beta-testing the Feed Efficiency technology on-farm to evaluate, including animal-to-animal variation and variation in different stages of lactation. The panel discusses how genomics could pair with this data to aid in selection decisions. (9:21)

Walt asks Dr. Shabtai to share how the company took the technology from research facilities to commercial farms, and asks Shane and Emily to share how the technology has proven itself on-farm. (13:11)

Shane notes that they’ve had a handle on the milk side of the efficiency equation of individual cows for a while, but they didn’t know much about the feed intake side of the equation. This technology allows for that. Shane also shares how this technology adds another tool to their dairy’s sustainability toolbox. (18:50)

Walt asks both producers to share a metric that they thought was important before, but now that we have more knowledge and technology, it might not be as important as they thought. Shane’s pick is starch level in corn silage, and Emily’s is percent pregnant by 150 days in milk. (21:18)

Dr. Shabtai shares the basics that a producer would need to implement this technology. She details a few things that have changed and will change about the product based on data from beta testing and notes there are always new things to see and find on-farm. (22:59)

Scott asks Shane and Emily what metric they’d like to measure that they can’t measure yet. Shane wonders if there would be a way for AI to compile weather and market data to assist with milk or feedstuff contracting decisions. Emily would like to be able to use more on-farm technology to help manage people. She shares how the data she has now allows her to see different improvements that could be implemented for different milking shifts. Shane talks about need-to-know information versus neat-to-know information. (26:35)

The panel discusses how the technology is updated through software rather than hardware when new versions are available. They also share some tips for implementing the software on-farm. Walt asks each panelist their “I wonder if…” question. (29:58)

The panel wraps up with their take-home thoughts, and Dr. Shabtai shares where farmers can learn more about Afimilk’s feed efficiency technology by visiting afimilk.com. (36:49)

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This episode was recorded at the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference in Reno, Nevada.

Dr. Sabine Mann, Cornell University; Dr. Will Mustas, Progressive Dairy Solutions; Dr. Don Niles, Dairy Dreams LLC; and Joey Airosa, Airosa Dairy Farms, introduce themselves. (0:48)

Dr. Mann outlines the high points of her presentation. Giving an adequate amount of high-quality colostrum quickly after birth is essential to equip the calf with the best chances to stay healthy. Colostrum is more than a solution of water and immunoglobulins, and we are continuing to learn more about other nutrients and growth factors that colostrum contains. (12:03)

Dr. Niles and Mr. Airosa talk about colostrum and maternity protocols on their dairies. Each has dedicated maternity staff in charge of postnatal calf care. Don mentions they often have public tours of their dairy and shares some anecdotes. Joey’s maternity staff try to get colostrum in calves within 30 minutes of birth and have worked out a good communication system to ensure seamless calf care when shift changes occur. (13:57)

Dr. Mann emphasizes the timing of colostrum delivery is critical. But what about the amount? Should every calf get four liters? Joey notes they bottle feed and have settled on three quarts for Holstein calves and two quarts for Jersey calves. Sabine says research backs that up - calves will not voluntarily drink much more than 3-3.5 liters. Using esophageal feeders to give four liters could be overfeeding in some cases, which could cause slower emptying of the stomach and thus slower arrival and uptake of immunoglobulins at the small intestine. The four liter recommendation came from the idea that good quality colostrum probably had about 50 grams per liter of IgG, and at that time, we wanted to get 200 grams into the calf. Perhaps making a sheet with recommended amounts based on calf weights could be helpful for maternity staff. Dr. Mann also clarifies that the 50 grams per liter of IgG is not really good quality colostrum. Most herds average about 90-100 grams per liter of IgG in colostrum. She recommends every farm find out how good their colostrum is and optimize feeding amounts from there. (22:45)

Dr. Mann notes the importance of making sure dry cows are not deficient in protein supply and ensuring the dry period is long enough to create high-quality colostrum. While it’s commonly thought older cows have better colostrum than young cows, she underlines again the importance of measuring colostrum quality to know for sure. She also highly recommends measuring colostrum quality from individual cows before pooling so that poor colostrum does not dilute good colostrum. (31:04)

Dr. Mustas shares some of the challenges he’s seeing on dairies where he consults. What can we do to control the bacteriological quality of colostrum? He notes there’s no reason we can’t get very low bacteria counts pre-pasteurization. Making sure maternity areas are clean and sanitary, udders are prepped very well, and harvesting equipment is not neglected are all great strategies. (35:53)

Dr. Mann talks about individual cow variation in colostrum production and some factors that might influence including placental interactions, hormones, and genetics. (38:04)

Scott and Sabine discuss some of the research around supplementing with choline during the dry period and subsequent colostrum production. (41:28)

Dr. Niles comments that pasteurization of colostrum has been one of the most exciting technologies to come along. On his farm, the pasteurizer has given them much more control over colostrum quality and delivery time. Dr. Mann agrees storage of colostrum has given dairies the ability to be strategic about how they use colostrum, what colostrum they use, and to also plan for seasonal colostrum shortages. She agrees with Dr. Mustas that clean colostrum harvesting equipment is key to low bacterial counts. (44:13)

Dr. Mustas talks about how the beef-on-dairy phenomenon has altered colostrum protocols. Calf ranches are giving deductions for poor colostrum scores when calves are received. Some operations even offer premiums or discounts on daily yardage depending on individual calf colostrum scores. (50:21)

Joey, Don, and Sabine comment on the importance of finding the right people to work in maternity and instilling the idea that taking care of cows and calves is both a great responsibility and a great honor. (52:56)

The panel wraps up with their take-home thoughts. (58:31)

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This episode was recorded at the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference in Reno, Nevada.

Gregg Doud, National Milk Producers Federation, begins with an overview of his talk regarding recent and ongoing investments in the dairy industry. Dan Siemers, Siemers Holsteins, notes they were able to build a new dairy and find a new milk market because Agropur built a new plant in their area. Corey Geiger, CoBank, describes that the US is approaching $9 billion of new investment in dairy plants coming online through 2027, over half of that in cheese. High-quality whey protein isolates are in equal demand as cheese, so that has been a large part of the investment as well. He mentions investment in class one beverage milk and extended shelf life, as well as growth in yogurt and Greek yogurt. The panel also discusses milk in schools. (1:35)

Corey talks about the generational change on dairy farms regarding components. Dan mentions that in one generation, you can increase the fat percentage by 0.4 using bulls available today. The focus on pounds of fat and protein plus health traits has resulted in somewhat less milk. Dan feels that the industry needs to focus a bit more on pounds of milk as a carrier to get protein back in the business. Some plants indicate there might almost be too much fat, so a focus on protein pounds may be in order. (11:03)

Corey states that 92% of dairy farmers get paid on multiple component pricing, and 90% of that milk check is butter fat and protein. While some cheese plants don’t quite need all the butter fat that’s coming from dairy farms, it’s important to note that we are still not filling our butter fat needs domestically. There are definitely opportunities in the butter sector. The panel discusses some shuffling in domestic processing might also be needed to better use the sweet cream that’s available. (13:01)

Scott asks about export markets in developing countries. Gregg mentions that many Central American dairy products contain vegetable oil, so there is a lot of potential there. Corey agrees and states there is also similar potential in the Middle East and North Africa. He also notes that lack of refrigeration is still an issue in some parts of the world, so shelf-stable products are critical. Gregg mentions that drinkable yogurts are in demand in Latin America. (18:29)

The panel dives into the way beef on dairy has changed the industry. Dan notes the baby calf market has been a huge profit center, where the dairy can essentially break even and the calves provide the profit. This may be creating a challenge where a lot of dairies aren’t creating enough replacement dairy heifers. (23:16)

Data and how we use it is the next topic the group discusses. Gregg shares a story of an MIT grad who is developing an artificial intelligence algorithm to combine cow genetics with different diet ingredients and feed additives to decrease methane production while improving cow productivity. (28:49)

The panelists close out the episode with their take-home messages. Corey gives listeners a look at the impact of the domestic dairy market. Dan shares the sustainability story and climate impact of the dairy industry will continue to be important. Gregg is excited about new technologies, but asks for assistance in working with the federal government to get those technologies approved at the speed of commerce. The panel also discusses the impacts of tariffs on agriculture and how dairy farmers need to be communicating with their members of Congress. (32:56)

Please reach out to your Congress members. Start the conversation, and help them understand!

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This episode was recorded at the 2025 Florida Ruminant Nutrition Symposium. Panelists Dr. John Goeser or Rock River Laboratory, Inc.; Dr. Bob Kozlowski, PAS of Dairy NExT, LLC and Dr. Tom Overton of Cornell University introduce themselves and give an overview of their backgrounds. (0:10)

Dr. Goeser begins with three different ways to define forage quality: energetic potential, particle size as an interaction factor, and anti-nutritional components. He asks Dr. Kozlowski if these are the hot topics for his consulting clients. (6:53)

When evaluating the energy potential in feed, Dr. Goeser states there’s nothing new as far as measuring the nutrient content of feeds, but capturing the nutrient digestion potential in fiber, starch, and fatty acids is an area where we could stand to make sizable strides. We’ve been studying fiber and starch digestion for more than 50 years, and they're still really hard to measure because nutrient digestion potential is not linear. In the laboratory, ruminal fiber digestion is measured at many different time points to create curves, but if we want to get a good handle on the energy potential in feeds, we need to take a total digestible nutrients approach. (9:31)

Dr. Goeser feels there are more similarities between laboratories in quantifying fiber digestion potential, but there is little agreement among labs for starch digestion. Research shows that seven hour starch digestion is dramatically affected by laboratory technique and starch digestion curves also vary widely among labs. Dr. Overton commends the lab for diligently working to understand these dynamics. (14:31)

From a fiber standpoint, Dr. Kozlowsk states that uNDF has probably been one of the most significant improvements in the tools he has to work with. He gives an example of cows on a 45% forage diet in the Southeast and cows on a 60% forage diet in the Northeast, both with similar uNDF concentrations. Those two groups of cows perform very similarly in terms of volume, fat and protein. (18:43)

Dr. Overton asks both guests for their take on feed hygiene. Dr. Goeser feels that there is at least 10 times more to learn about feed hygiene compared to fiber and starch digestibility. Merging veterinary diagnostics with commercial nutrition laboratory work shows promise for solving undesirable mold, yeast, mycotoxin and bacteria issues in feeds. In case studies, he states there is never just one issue at play; there are two or three that may have negative associative effects with one another. Dr. Kozlowski has been seeing varietal-dependent corn silage DON toxin levels in the last few years. Dairies are now looking at all aspects of the agronomy program in addition to all the other assessments of NDF digestibility and starch. (20:33)

Dr. Goeser goes on to describe some work on large dairies where they’re finding hidden nutrient variation and starch and protein flux that happens within a 1-2 week period that we aren’t able to capture with our current sampling techniques. For dairies feeding 2,000-15,000 cows, a diet formulation is on point today, but within that 1-2 week period at the volume of feed they’re going through, the diet is now out of spec. However, it’s not so out of line that the cows are giving feedback in terms of components or deviation in production or intake. (30:08)

On the cow side, new technologies like SCR are allowing insights into rumination dynamics, which can be applied to feed formulation. Some silage choppers now have NIR units measuring silage quality during harvest. The panelists discuss what other technologies might be on the horizon, including on-farm NIR units on front-end loaders or mixer trucks. Dr. Goeser mentions some of the challenges with these technologies, including feed moisture levels interfering with equipment and lack of trust in technologies. (34:21)

The panelists close out the episode with their take-home messages. (42:03)

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Dr. Drackley begins with an overview of his presentation at the 2025 Florida Ruminant Nutrition Symposium, focusing on the NASEM requirements for pre-weaned calves. He mentions some differences in energy and protein requirement calculations compared to the NRC system, as well as increased vitamin E recommendations and a more biologically based factorial approach to calculating mineral requirements. (5:59)

Dr. Overton notes that milk replacements can be formulated differently to account for changes in mineral or vitamin requirements. In herds that feed whole milk, is there any reason to think about supplementing those calves? Dr. Drackley suggests that Mother Nature may have been smarter than us all along, as the composition of whole milk matches very well with the nutrient requirements of calves. (9:43)

Dr. Lundquist asked what the impetus was for the increase in vitamin E requirements. Dr. Drackley refers to a series of studies examining the role of vitamin E in immune function that have shown the previous requirements were too low to achieve optimum health outcomes. Many dairies give a vitamin injection after birth to help boost young calves. (11:45)

The panel discusses improved colostrum feeding efforts and the variation in successful passive immunity that still exists in the industry. (13:51)

Scott asks Dr. Overton what gaps he sees in calf nutrition from his Extension specialist perspective, and he suggests that best management for weaning is still a big topic. Dr. Drackley agrees this is an area that needs some attention. He feels the industry is doing better on the baby calf side by feeding more milk, but then that almost makes weaning more difficult because people are not changing their mindset about how to step calves down from milk or what age to wean calves. (16:39)

For people feeding more milk than the traditional 1.25 lbs of solids, Dr. Drackley recommends extending weaning time to eight instead of six weeks. He also recommends at least one step down in the amount of milk, which could be a week of feeding just once a day. Calf starter formulation and quality are also critical. Research shows that providing a small amount of forage, preferably grass hay or straw, before weaning is beneficial for buffering and rumination. (18:47)

Dr. Overton asks about the research gap in our understanding of transition cow management and how that impacts the calf in utero and after birth. The panel discusses heat stress and season of birth impacts on calf growth and first lactation performance. (26:08)

The panel wraps up with their take-home messages. Discussion includes pelleted versus texturized starters, sugars in a starter to promote rumen development, the value of increasing the quality and quantity of calf nutrition, the thermoneutral zone in baby calves, and outsourcing calf raising. (33:10)

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