Posted: October 5, 2008 at 2:51 pm
By Chuck
The main presenter at the SUNY Cobleskill virtual farm tour was Tom Poltynski, farm coordinator. He talked about the school’s facility and says it’s unique because they’re very far north for using a flush system. He says they have good student involvement as evidenced by the fact that more students apply for jobs than are available.
One of the things he spoke about was their feeding trials. The tour was sponsored by BASF Plant Science and he said they planted half their corn in 2006-2007 with Nutridense and half with traditional hybrids. They saw very good results and plan to plant all their corn next year with Nutridense.
The advantage of Nutridense that he saw was, “With Nutridense corn, the #1 thing I see is the higher percentage of protein. With high grain prices I could back out a pound of grain and increase corn silage, my forage ration, and not lose anything on the nutrient profile of the diet.” He said they were able to save 19-25 cents/cow/day as a result.
You can listen to my interview with Tom as part of our Milking Parlor Podcast: milking-parlor-38.mp3
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
World Dairy Expo 2008 Photo Album
Sponsors of World Dairy Diary coverage of this year’s World Dairy Expo include GEA Farm Technologies and BASF Plant Science.
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Posted: October 4, 2008 at 3:13 pm
By Chuck
The Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the Wisconsin Beef Council were exhibiting at World Dairy Expo. Lucinda Williams is a dairy producer and Vice Chair of the Beef Board.
She says they were there to remind dairy producers that they’re also beef producers. I got there just in time to sample some of their flat iron steaks they were serving. In fact, I’m making one for supper tonight!
You can listen to my interview with Lucinda as part of our Milking Parlor Podcast: milking-parlor-34.mp3
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
World Dairy Expo 2008 Photo Album
Sponsors of World Dairy Diary coverage of this year’s World Dairy Expo include GEA Farm Technologies and BASF Plant Science.
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Posted: October 4, 2008 at 2:49 pm
By Chuck
One of the features of World Dairy Expo is the virtual farm tours. BASF Plant Science sponsored one by State University of New York – Cobleskill.
Jerry Weigel, Global Nutrition Manager, says these tours allow producers to look at some of the top dairies in the country and they also allow those same dairies to showcase their innovative ideas. He says that the SUNY utilized their Nutridense silage.
If you haven’t been to one of these tours and wonder how they work, basically the presenter utilizes a computer and projector to show slides and/or video of their operation to demonstrate various elements of their dairy like equipment, cows and milk and feed regimes.
You can listen to my interview with Jerry as part of our Milking Parlor Podcast: milking-parlor-35.mp3
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
World Dairy Expo 2008 Photo Album
Sponsors of World Dairy Diary coverage of this year’s World Dairy Expo include GEA Farm Technologies and BASF Plant Science.
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Posted: October 3, 2008 at 9:13 am
By Chuck
This year’s World Dairy Expo Dairy Woman of the Year is Marion Barlass. She has a family farm where they milk about 400 Jerseys. I got to meet her during the Talk Session. She’s seen here getting interviewed by another reporter after the session.
Marion says she’s very honored to have been chosen. “I feel like I’m a representative of all the women in the dairy industry here and I know that women have not gotten maybe the recognition that they’ve deserved over the years.” She says that she’s able to balance work and family since all the family members are passionate about the dairy industry and are willing to help each other out.
You can listen to my interview with Marion Barlass as part of our Milking Parlor Podcast: milking-parlor-33.mp3
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
World Dairy Expo 2008 Photo Album
Sponsors of World Dairy Diary coverage of this year’s World Dairy Expo include GEA Farm Technologies and BASF Plant Science.
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Posted: October 3, 2008 at 7:55 am
By Chuck
When the GEA Farm Technologies brand was launched this week we had Dr. Armin Tietjen on hand. He’s the Head of Corporate Marketing and works in the home office. One of the things he’s responsible for is looking at acquisition opportunities for the company and it sounds like we may see some new activity in this regard in the future.
Armin says that with this new company strategy producers will see a lot of new benefits since the company is becoming a broader supplier and supporter of the whole dairy business. He says the company is now offering a lot more than just support of the milking parlor.
You can listen to my interview with Armin Tietjen as part of our Milking Parlor Podcast: milking-parlor-32.mp3
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
World Dairy Expo 2008 Photo Album
Sponsors of World Dairy Diary coverage of this year’s World Dairy Expo include GEA Farm Technologies and BASF Plant Science.
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Posted: October 1, 2008 at 11:10 am
By Chuck
The first two people I got to know at World Dairy Expo were John Rozum and Lisa Behnke. In fact, World Dairy Diary grew out of an idea that John had several years ago now.
I spoke to them this morning and the main message is “larger,” meaning more people and more exhibitors. Some of the numbers they mention include 717 exhibitors this year and 216 media representatives. Wow. Opening day attendance was up according to Lisa.
You can listen to my interview with John and Lisa as part of our Milking Parlor Podcast: milking-parlor-31.mp3
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
World Dairy Expo 2008 Photo Album
Sponsors of World Dairy Diary coverage of this year’s World Dairy Expo include GEA Farm Technologies and BASF Plant Science.
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Posted: October 1, 2008 at 10:45 am
By Chuck
The first news I found here at Expo came from our sponsor, GEA Farm Technologies. I know we’ve been promoting WestfaliaSurge but the company is re-launching their brand and this post and interviews will help explain it. Basically, WestfaliaSurge is now a part of the new GEA Farm Technologies.
The CEO and President of GEA Farm Technologies is Vern Foster. He gave us a comprehensive presentation this morning (media and dealers) to explain the reasons behind the change and what that means for the company and its customers.
He says, “It’s to pull all of the organizations that are part of GEA Farm Technologies, Houle, Norbco, WestfaliaSurge, pull it under a common brand so it makes sense for the marketplace, makes sense for our investors, makes sense for our customers and our dealer distribution.” The GEA stands for Global Engineering Alliance, a 5.3 billion Euro company that operates in 50 countries. Vern says, “It helps us really re-focus under one umbrella as we continue to grow and create additional organizations and innovate into the field of agriculture.”
Since Houle, Norbco and WestfaliaSurge have separate sales forces he says they’ve been in discussion together to “offer a more total solutions package to a producer.”
He says you’ll start seeing the new GEA Farm Technologies brand at trade show and in their advertising. In fact, his business cards already show the new logo!
You can listen to Vern’s full presentation here: wdx-08-foster-presentation.mp3
You can also download the full presentation using this link (mp3 file).
You can also listen to an interview I did with Vern afterward as part of our Milking Parlor Podcast: milking-parlor-30.mp3
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
World Dairy Expo 2008 Photo Album
Sponsors of World Dairy Diary coverage of this year’s World Dairy Expo include GEA Farm Technologies and BASF Plant Science.
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Posted: January 3, 2008 at 8:37 pm
By Chuck
The World Ag Expo is right around the corner and to learn more about it I interviewed Shelley Kahl, 2008 Chairman. The Expo is “Where the World of Agriculture Means Business.” For many people who will be participating and attending that means the dairy business. I’ve never been to the show and hope to find a way to do so this year. It sounds like they’ve got a huge area devoted to the dairy business including a new pavilion this year.
You can listen to Shelley talk about this year’s show in the latest edition of our Milking Parlor Podcast. You can listen right now here: milking-parlor-28.mp3
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
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Posted: November 1, 2007 at 6:52 pm
By Cindy Zimmerman
The agriculture commissioners from four states were on hand and hands-on at the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, Georgia last month for the second Commissioner’s Milking Contest – which was a whole lot of fun.
The very friendly competition included Tommy Irvin of Georgia, Charlie Bronson of Florida, Ron Sparks of Alabama, and Ken Givens of Tennessee. When it was all over, the winner as you can see by the photo was Tennessee’s Ken Givens, whose background of being raised on a dairy farm was obvious. It took two measuring tubes for Givens milking effort, while Sparks came in 2nd, Irvin 3rd, and Bronson 4th in an event to promote the dairy industry.
Givens is now the champion for two years running in the competition.
Just before they got started with the contest, the guys were milking it for all it was worth in an interview with Randall Weiseman of Southeast Agnet. I made that great little piece of audio into a Milking Parlor podcast, which you can listen to here:
milking-parlor-27.mp3
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Posted: October 12, 2007 at 2:19 pm
By Cindy Zimmerman
A California dairy producer testified last week before the House Agriculture Committee during a hearing called to review the labor needs of American agriculture.
Randy Mouw was one of 12 people who testified at the Committee’s hearing on Oct. 4 in Washington DC. He spoke on behalf of Western United Dairymen, Dairy Farmers of America, and National Milk Producers Federation.
“Immigration reform is a must for U.S. agriculture because I can tell you from my own experience that not one person who has walked on my dairy looking for work in the past five years is a person who was born in this country,” Mouw told the committee.
He outlined three key principles that must be included in a legislative solution for dairy producers.
1) an affordable and efficient guest worker program that ensures the continued availability of immigrant labor for all of agriculture, including dairies;
2) a provision that allows those currently employed or with recent employment history in the U.S. to earn the right to work here legally, regardless of their current legal status; and
3) a provision that specifies the responsibility for ultimate verification of the legal status of a worker lies with the government, not with employers.
Read Randy’s testimony on the House Ag Committee website.
Listen to our “Milking Parlor” podcast with Randy’s complete testimony here:
milking-parlor-26.mp3
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
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Posted: October 12, 2007 at 1:46 pm
By Cindy Zimmerman
You only thought we were done with stuff from World Dairy Expo.
I did an interview at expo with John Deere Hay and Forage Specialist Jim Buchs on how dairy producers can get added value for forage at harvest with Harvest Lab.
“We put a unit on our forage harvester that can measure the moisture as its going through the machine,” Buchs said. “With that information, we can calculate the true tonnage that we are harvesting.”
That information can be used to adjust the harvesting rate to the receiving rate at the bunker silo so you can adjust packing tractors or other required applications.
Listen to our “Milking Parlor” podcast with Jim here:
milking-parlor-25.mp3
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
2007 World Dairy Expo Photo AlbumOur World Dairy Diary coverage of World Dairy Expo was sponsored by:
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Posted: October 6, 2007 at 2:40 pm
By Chuck
When I saw a booth that posed the question, “How is a cow like an ethanol production plant?” I had to stop for a visit.
Manning the booth is Nick Baker, U. S. Dairy Forage Research Center. Nick says that basically the cow’s rumen uses microbes to break down forage and feed into the energy it needs much like an ethanol plant which then converts the sugars produced into alcohol. ‘Nuff said.
I asked him his take on the whole food vs. fuel debate and he believes as I do that there’s plenty of biomass available to not only meet food production needs but energy as well. He’s working on a project to utilize switchgrass in the production of ethanol and says the technology is available now to do so.
Listen to our “Milking Parlor” podcast with Nick here: 
Interview with Nick Baker (MP3)
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
2007 World Dairy Expo Photo AlbumWorld Dairy Diary coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by:
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Posted: October 6, 2007 at 2:33 pm
By Chuck
The National Dairy Shrine is having a great year according to board member Tommy Martin. Tommy is an old friend of mine (he’s not old) from my home state of Florida. He works for Merial. I found him in the trade show this morning and asked him to give me an update on how the National Dairy Shrine is doing.
Tommy says the banquet they had here at Expo was very well attended. In fact, he thinks attendance at the show must be up since it sure seems busy. He says that at the banquet they honored their 2007 Distinguished Dairy Cattle Breeder of the Year, Bob Miller and Distinguished Guest, Dr. H. Duane Norman.
Here’s how the National Dairy Shrine benefits the industry: “National Dairy Shrine annually provides more than $35,000 in awards and scholarships for college students, dairy producers and industry leaders. Funds for these scholarships come from membership fees, interest on a $1 million endowment fund, and voluntary contributions. National Dairy Shrine also provides financial support for World Dairy Expo and National 4-H Dairy Conference.”
Listen to our “Milking Parlor” podcast with Tommy here: Interview with Tommy Martin (MP3)
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
2007 World Dairy Expo Photo AlbumWorld Dairy Diary coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by:
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Posted: October 6, 2007 at 2:20 pm
By Chuck
When you go to Hawaii you get a nice lei of flowers when you get off the plane. When you go to Wisconsin it’s bratwurst and cheese. It’s the Original Wisconsin Lei.
The Lei’d Back inventor is Steve Rheaume. He says he’s sold over 3,000 of these so far and they’re becoming very popular for football games and wherever you want to show your Wisconsin pride.
Steve’s an agricultural tax consulting expert who says he took a sabbatical to Hawaii for a couple years to unwind and get relaxed. When he got back the idea for the Wisconsin Lei just came to him as something he could give to friends and family who would come all the way to north Wisconsin to visit. Now he’s got a great side business going.
Listen to our “Milking Parlor” podcast with Steve here: Interview with Steve Rheaume (MP3)
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
2007 World Dairy Expo Photo AlbumWorld Dairy Diary coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by:
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Posted: October 6, 2007 at 2:12 pm
By Chuck
Kay Zwald is a Wisconsin dairy producer doing some promotional work here at Expo. She’s been on the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board for about a year.
This morning she’s here promoting Wisconsin dairy and cheese to consumers and talking with producers. Kay says that producers are most often asking what’s being done with their funds to promote the industry.
She says that everyone seems to be happy. That’s a theme of almost every conversation I’ve had here this week.
Listen to our “Milking Parlor” podcast with Kay here: Interview with Kay Zwald (MP3)
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
2007 World Dairy Expo Photo AlbumWorld Dairy Diary coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by:
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Posted: October 6, 2007 at 11:00 am
By Chuck
Dairy producers are looking at precision agriculture equipment to help them become more efficient according to Mid-State Equipment’s Chuck Endres. Chuck is exhibiting here at Expo and says that the farmers he’s been talking with are in a very optimistic mood.
When it comes to precision equipment he says the biggest benefit to dairy producers is dealing with moisture when making haylage. He says the equipment they’re selling includes moisture sensing and yield monitoring on their John Deere Choppers. This not only allows the producer to quickly and easily measure moisture content but saves the time of having to run loads to a scale. Producers can learn more about what John Deere is doing with precision agriculture on their Precision Pays website (ZimmComm New Media helps manage this site).
I asked him how this will return the investment and he provides says it could mean the difference between having spoilage and turning cows off feed and that’s a cost no producer wants to deal with.
Listen to our “Milking Parlor” podcast with Chuck here: Interview with Chuck Endres (MP3)
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
2007 World Dairy Expo Photo AlbumWorld Dairy Diary coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by:
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Posted: October 6, 2007 at 10:44 am
By Chuck
The International Forum for Women in Dairying will be holding its global dairy conference prior to the 2008 World Dairy Expo according to Kathy LaScala, chairperson.
Kathy was on hand for our media talk session so I asked her what this is all about. She says you can find out more on their website. The dates are September 28 & 29, 2008 at the Madison Concourse Hotel.
Kathy says the conference will feature many speakers and plenty of opportunities for women to network with each other since they face the same challenges regardless of what country they’re from.
Listen to our “Milking Parlor” podcast with Kathy here: Interview with Kathy LaScala (MP3)
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
2007 World Dairy Expo Photo AlbumWorld Dairy Diary coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by:
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Posted: October 6, 2007 at 10:33 am
By Chuck
Paula Maebon is on the Dairy Checkoff board. She was on hand here at Expo to talk about what the Checkoff is doing for dairy producers.
For one thing she says they’re working hard to make sure the public has a good image of dairy producers. For that reason they created the DairyFarmingToday.org website. It provides consumers with lots of information about dairy farming.
She says that dairy producers should go to DairyCheckoff.com to get information about the work and activities of the Checkoff.
Listen to our “Milking Parlor” podcast with Paula here: Interview with Paula Maebon (MP3)
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
2007 World Dairy Expo Photo AlbumWorld Dairy Diary coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by:
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Posted: October 5, 2007 at 3:38 pm
By Chuck
We’ve got to say that we’re really happy to see Schering-Plough giving away an iPod (Booth 3817). That’ll be one more dairy producer who can subscribe to our Milking Parlor podcast.
The beauty of the podcast and iPod is that you can subscribe to our interviews from here at Expo and ones we do in the future and receive them on your computer, sync to your iPod or other MP3 player and listen when and where you want!
Need some instructions? Get them here.
2007 World Dairy Expo Photo AlbumWorld Dairy Diary coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by:
Posted: October 5, 2007 at 10:33 am
By Chuck
The World Dairy Expo Dairy Industry Person of the Year is Steve Larson (pictured on the left talking Orion Samuelson). Steve is the managing editor of Hoard’s Dairyman Magazine. He’s been in that position since 1998 and started with the publication in 1969.
Steve says that two of his predecessors have received the award and he feels very honored to join their ranks. He says that Hoard’s has long been a supporter of World Dairy Expo and he likes to say that this is a time “when the world comes to see us.” Steve thinks that although the dairy producers are becoming more business like it’s still a great way of life. He’s looking forward to the future and says that you can now search past articles of Hoard’s online.
Listen to our “Milking Parlor” podcast with Steve here: Interview with Steve Larson (MP3)
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
2007 World Dairy Expo Photo AlbumWorld Dairy Diary coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by:
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