Dr. Tim Henshaw worked his final day on the farm on New Year’s Eve, but the EastGen veterinarian will continue contributing to the dairy sector during semi-retirement. The veterinarian for the cattle genetics company says he has examined more than 1.1 million animals and met “a lot of new friends… and a few enemies” in […] Read more
Tag Archives Dairy Cattle — page 17
‘Dr. Tim’ to continue advocating for farm causes
Tim Henshaw is known for veterinary work over 40 years, but also his social media presence
Editorial: New dairy genetic direction will have multiple benefits
The speed of genetic improvement in livestock is one of the modern miracles of agriculture. The systems, which involve farmers, farmer-driven groups and researchers, have shown that great leaps in productivity improvement can be created, but the systems can pivot when needs change. I grew up fascinated by making genetic improvement recommendations on my family’s […] Read more
Dairy resiliency index to encompass several traits
New traits are expected to be available for farmer use in 2023 or 2024
A program that has worked to create an elusive feed efficiency genetic index for dairy cattle has new funding to add more traits. The Resilient Dairy Genome Project (RDGP), to be co-led by University of Guelph-based Canada Research Chair in Livestock Genomics Dr. Christine Baes, is funded through Genome Canada, and directly involves researchers in Guelph, […] Read more
Jersey sale moves online
Jersey Ontario held a first sale on its new online platform to help dairy farmers to meet December incentive days and a quota increase. The Dec. 12 sale had 30 animals offered. The sale grossed more than $60,700 and averaged $2,024. The Jersey Ontario’s SNF Buster Sale was hosted for the first time on Jersey […] Read more
Dairy compensation coming quicker than expected
Poultry sectors finally get 10-year compensation plan
Glacier FarmMedia – Canadian producers in supply-managed sectors received details of federal government plans to compensate them for recently signed trade deals and the money is coming sooner than later. Why it matters: Supply-managed sectors were forced to permit access to some previously protected markets during negotiations for international trade deals. In exchange, producers in […] Read more
New app tracks and simplifies barn equipment maintenance
Energy also can be monitored with Rakr’s tracking app
A free new app launched by an Ontario start-up aims to simplify barn equipment maintenance. And it’s a precursor to an innovative monitoring system to track and manage on-farm energy use that Rakr is launching in 2021, called NeatMeter. Why it matters: Cost control is essential to farm profitability. Energy is a significant expenditure for […] Read more
Forcing dairy data to tell useful stories
Sports teams have taken old stats and reinterpreted them — and dairy farms can do the same
Sports teams have seen a data revolution in which common statistics known for years have been reinterpreted into new metrics that have led to significant changes in how games are played. The dairy sector should see the same sort of revolution, says Jeff Bewley, dairy analytics and innovation scientist with Holstein USA, an organization that […] Read more
Major dairy breeds moving to composites for bull proofs
Use of genetic scores makes new model more responsive to changes in the dairy population
Lactanet Canada will move to composite indexes for major genetic traits as early as April, 2021 as it aims for a more responsive system for classifying dairy cattle. The change will affect breeders of Holstein, Ayrshire and Jersey cattle, while other dairy breeds will continue to be scored using the existing formula for combining descriptive […] Read more
Dairy trait feet and legs will be split in two
New traits foot and mobility to be added to dairy classification
Canadian dairy farmers will soon see a new, first in the world, change to the way cow feet and legs are classified. The feet and legs category, which has been in used since 1927, will become foot and mobility. Stakeholders in the dairy breeding sector were advised of the pending change in April and the […] Read more
Tips to maximize profitability in dairy
An improved feeding strategy is likely a better route than simply cutting costs
Given the speed of shifts in demand in the Canadian dairy industry this year, it’s hard to predict with any certainty of accuracy what the next five years might look like, and how the industry might evolve. Nevertheless, during Canada’s Digital Farm Show in September, Pioneer dairy specialist Ashley Knapton hosted a virtual round table […] Read more
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