Dairy farmers are usually subject to net income fluctuations due to volatility in both milk and feed prices. Risk management tools, such as hedging milk prices in the futures market, may be used to protect dairy farmers against milk price volatility. Alternatively, dairy farmers selling milk in Virginia can buy Virginia milk commission base (MCB) to obtain higher milk prices and, therefore, sustain or increase net cash flows.

This video intends to help stakeholders improve their silo face management practices, prevent spoilage and waste! Learn to properly face bunker silos.

This DAIRY PIPELINE contains timely, scientifically based, useful and applicable information that we seek to share with the dairy industry each month. We welcome use of this material in appropriate publications as well as for the formulation of recommendations. If you redistribute an article, we ask for a courtesy notification to be emailed to dascweb@vt.edu with the article title and the publication in which it will appear.

This DAIRY PIPELINE contains timely, scientifically based, useful and applicable information that we seek to share with the dairy industry each month. We welcome use of this material in appropriate publications as well as for the formulation of recommendations. If you redistribute an article, we ask for a courtesy notification to be emailed to dascweb@vt.edu with the article title and the publication in which it will appear.

This video intends to facilitate the learning process about newborn calf management by Hispanic employees. The video is narrated in Spanish and subtitled in English so that English-speaking employers can also improve communication with their labor force.

Typically, feed costs are directly related to milk production, so the more you feed, the more you produce. However, milk production is not necessarily related to profitability. Production-oriented management, which focuses on maximizing outputs (i.e., milk yield) through increased utilization of inputs (i.e., feed), does not necessarily ensure the dairy business will be profitable.

The price of milk in the global market has been decreasing substantially during the last year. The last bid from Global Dairy Trade resulted in a price for whole-milk powder equal to $1,590 per metric ton. This price is 13 percent lower than the minimum price for whole-milk powder reported by Global DairyTrade in 2009.

This DAIRY PIPELINE contains timely, scientifically based, useful and applicable information that we seek to share with the dairy industry each month. We welcome use of this material in appropriate publications as well as for the formulation of recommendations. If you redistribute an article, we ask for a courtesy notification to be emailed to dascweb@vt.edu with the article title and the publication in which it will appear.

Matching nutrient requirements with nutrient supply is essential for maximizing feed efficiency in dairy farming systems. To accomplish this, feeding a consistent and homogeneous ration is critical. In Summer 2015, the variation of the composition of total mixed rations (TMR) was monitored on 7 dairy farms in Franklin County, Virginia.

This DAIRY PIPELINE contains timely, scientifically based, useful and applicable information that we seek to share with the dairy industry each month. We welcome use of this material in appropriate publications as well as for the formulation of recommendations. If you redistribute an article, we ask for a courtesy notification to be emailed to dascweb@vt.edu with the article title and the publication in which it will appear.

Milk prices have shrunk substantially in the last year. Because forages are much cheaper than concentrates, increasing the inclusion of forages in rations for dairy cows can help sustain margins and profitability. On the flip side, forage stocks could decrease faster as the inclusion of forages in dairy rations is increased. As a consequence of the limited forage stocks observed after drought seasons, increasing interest has emerged to replenish forage stocks of corn silage faster through greater corn planting population rates. Previous studies have shown that under non-extreme weather conditions forage biomass of corn for silage increases or does not change when planting population increases.

This DAIRY PIPELINE contains timely, scientifically based, useful and applicable information that we seek to share with the dairy industry each month. We welcome use of this material in appropriate publications as well as for the formulation of recommendations. If you redistribute an article, we ask for a courtesy notification to be emailed to dascweb@vt.edu with the article title and the publication in which it will appear.

Last March, Dr. Wayne Coblentz, a forage scientist from the USDA-Dairy Forage Research Center (Marshville, WI), updated us about baleage technology during our 2016 Area Dairy Conference.

This DAIRY PIPELINE contains timely, scientifically based, useful and applicable information that we seek to share with the dairy industry each month. We welcome use of this material in appropriate publications as well as for the formulation of recommendations. If you redistribute an article, we ask for a courtesy notification to be emailed to dascweb@vt.edu with the article title and the publication in which it will appear.

In a few past issues of the Dairy Pipeline, I reported the initial stages of a Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) project of the Department of Dairy Science, and funded by Natural Resources Conservation Services, in which we were comparing the nutritional quality of different winter crops for silage.

This DAIRY PIPELINE contains timely, scientifically based, useful and applicable information that we seek to share with the dairy industry each month. We welcome use of this material in appropriate publications as well as for the formulation of recommendations. If you redistribute an article, we ask for a courtesy notification to be emailed to dascweb@vt.edu with the article title and the publication in which it will appear.

Farm debt needs to be monitored closely so that it does not become an unmanageable snow ball. There are different ways for monitoring debt status. One of them is the debt to asset percentage. To calculate your debt to asset percentage, simply get your last balance sheet and divide your total debt (or total liabilities) by the total assets and multiply by 100. A debt to asset ratio of 35% implies that for every $100 of assets the farm owns, the farm still needs to pay $35 to a lending source. In general terms, a good debt status implies a debt to asset percentage below 30%, whereas a poor debt status implies a debt to asset percentage above 70%.