Clean, comfortable cows are happy, healthy cows that are productive both in the bulk tank and reproductively. Any stressor we subject a cow to will compromise immune function and shift nutrients away from normal biological processes, such a reproduction. When looking to improve conception rates and overall fertility on your farm, looking to improve your cow comfort should be the first place you start. We are excited to have Kevin Bousquet of World Wide Sires join us on this episode to continue t...
Apr 17, 2024•34 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Headlocks can be an incredibly useful tool on the dairy. However, when cows are restrained for too long in headlocks, it's time taken away from laying down and resting, and ultimately producing milk. Join Dr. Rick Grant, former President of the William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute, as we discuss the delicate balance between maximizing efficiency and ensuring the welfare of dairy cows when using self-lock systems. We'll explore best practices for managing self-locks to promote optimal...
Mar 27, 2024•21 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Proper maintenance is crucial to keeping any equipment running at full capacity. Field and milking equipment is routinely maintained, and your fans should not be any different. When you are purchasing any piece of equipment, it is an investment that needs to be properly taken care of. Dennis Spurlock of Western Cow Comfort joins us and is a true maintenance guru and keeps many ventilation systems on dairies in the central valley of California in tip-top shape!
Mar 06, 2024•24 min•Season 3Ep. 3
In the world of dairy farming, the pursuit of innovation and genetic advancements is constant. Jeff Ziegler of Select Sires Inc. joins us to explore the fascinating but not as well-known genetic trait, slick genes. These genetics are not only helping dairy producers "beat the heat" but also hold the potential to transform the way we think about breeding and herd management.
Feb 14, 2024•21 min•Season 3Ep. 1
In many parts of the world, the warmer months are long gone. And with the end of summer weather, means the end of running your barn ventilation, right? WRONG! Off season ventilation for your herd is just as crucial as the warmer months in terms of cow health and productivity. Dr. Mike Wolf, consulting veterinarian for VES-Artex, walks us through the challenges that come with ventilation during the off season, proper fan care and maintenance and solutions to utilize for ventilation efficiency and...
Jan 24, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 2
How exactly should you design a proper cow flow system in your barn? Well, the answer will depend on who you ask. Your herd manager will have a different answer than your veterinarian, and your calf care team's answer will differ from your milkers. However, most will agree that a correct cow flow system should allow cows to simply be cows. Ron Dehli of Nedap is a true expert on how to design sorting and routing systems to keep cows moving and shares his experience with us.
Jan 03, 2024•28 min•Season 3Ep. 1
When building a dairy barn, it seems there are a never-ending number of options to consider. Will my cows be more comfortable in freestalls or a bedded pack? What type of ventilation and lighting strategy will I need? What’s the proper amount of space I should allot per head? Should I build now or wait and see what costs are in the future? This is where working with a cow comfort expert is crucial! Join Henry Collins, Asia-Pacific Sales Manager for VES-Artex as he reviews considerations you shou...
Dec 13, 2023•20 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Trace minerals are essential nutrients required for numerous functions in the body of a cow, especially during the transition period. While forages and grains contain some trace minerals, additional supplementation for cows is generally required. This is the topic of our conversation with Dr. Craig Louder of Axiota Animal Health.
Nov 22, 2023•28 min•Season 2Ep. 12
The dairy industry is challenged with pressures to lower our carbon footprint and our focus needs to provide a solution in all areas of sustainability. LED lighting is one area that can aid in lowering dairy's carbon footprint by lower electric usage and improving the ROI of the farm. Join Richard Hill of VES-Artex on the Dairy Intelligent podcast as we explore barn lighting basics and the benefits to your cows, employees and bottom line.
Nov 01, 2023•34 min•Season 2Ep. 11
There are strong seasonal and daily patterns to milk yield and composition. Although the rhythms are rather robust, lighting and feeding times have an impact on these rhythms and provide an opportunity to increase milk component yields. Dr. Kevin Harvatine of Penn State University joins us to discuss what we know about these rhythms and highlight opportunities to better manage them.
Oct 11, 2023•28 min•Season 2Ep. 10
If you're looking to upgrade or even implement a ventilation system, you want to make sure it pays for itself at some point. After all, cool cows are happy cows, and happy cows add to your bulk tank! Join Huw Jones, Ventilation Specialist with Royal de Boer, as he explains the core principles needed in a ventilation system and how to find the right strategy for your facility, all while keeping ROI in mind.
Sep 20, 2023•23 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Join Kristy Campbell of DeLaval for our latest episode! Successful improvements in milk quality take a systems approach. Historically, we’ve focused in the front of the barn to make improvements. While that area is important, significant efforts should be made in the back of the barn as well. Cow comfort, bedding management, ventilation, heat/cold stress and employee protocols all play a role in milk quality. The impacts of these factors are amplified in robotic facilities. Not approaching milk ...
Aug 30, 2023•39 min•Season 2Ep. 11
How does having an automated intelligent barn system that saves you time and energy, and captures lost production and reproduction due to heat stress sound? Phason & VES-Artex's DairyBOS have brought together ventilation, lighting, and cooling into a single platform that is easy to control. Phason's Joel Seys and VES-Artex's Thomas Robledo give us insights on why having unparalleled control over the back of your barn will give you peace of mind and superior scalability....
Aug 09, 2023•12 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Dr. Frank Mitloehner of the CLEAR Center at UC Davis joins us on the Dairy Intelligent podcast. Animal agriculture is often shouldered with a large part of the blame when it comes to climate change, but that’s because we haven’t been looking at all greenhouse gases correctly. While methane is a potent climate pollutant that we can and need to reduce, it warms our atmosphere differently than other gases because of its short lifespan. By rethinking methane, we can see that animal agriculture can b...
Jul 19, 2023•27 min•Season 2Ep. 9
To study something, we must be able to classify it and categorize it. You may have heard that dairy barns are like snowflakes – there are no two alike. Join Dr. Mario Mondaca of VES-Artex on his journey to try and parametrize barns into the most important facility parameters and how they affect ventilation design.
Jun 28, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Dan Schreiner, Product Manager for Feed and Barn for Lely North America, joins us to discuss how feeding technology has evolved, what’s available on the market today and the benefits to the cows, dairy farmers and potentially the planet. Automated feeding reduces labor, feed consistency and accuracy and Dan explains how to feed more sustainably in the back of the barn
Jun 07, 2023•30 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Simply put, if your cows are experiencing heat stress, your production, reproduction, cow flow, and in turn bottom line, are going to suffer. Peter discusses how heat stress occurs in a barn, how to monitor your cows' behavior when the temperature is rising and tangible heat abatement strategies to put in place to keep your herd cool and comfortable, before it is too late. Peter Manneke, Territory Sales Manager for Europe, Middle East & Africa for VES-Artex, joins us to discuss the basics of...
May 17, 2023•21 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Dr. Whitney Knauer of the University of Minnesota joins us and delves into what is currently known about pair housing, its benefits to the calf when compared to individual housing and the current best practices for implementing this pre-weaning housing strategy. We also discuss the benefits of pair housing in terms of labor, growth, health and social behavior.
Apr 26, 2023•28 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Smart dairy farming systems generate a large amount of data that can help farmers monitor barn environmental conditions, milk production, feeding, and reproduction cycles of cows. There is also growing interest in the individual-level monitoring of cow behavior in group housed cattle. Dr. Borbala Foris of the University of British Columbia's Animal Welfare Program chats with us on some of the latest research on promising new data streams such as social and grooming behavior that can provide insi...
Apr 05, 2023•27 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Join VES-Artex's Key Account Manager, Joel Hornby, to learn tangible tips for building a better barn and solutions for avoiding ventilation KPI killers. Sometimes the key to success is knowing what not to do and then determining the best solution. In providing an animal-centered environment for your dairy, specific considerations need to be given to the effects of weather, building structure and facility layout and of course, the cows themselves. Whether you are building a new facility or retrof...
Mar 15, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Lameness and lack of a proper hoof care program are issues many modern dairy farms face around the world. The losses associated with lameness directly impact the producer's bottom line. Karl Burgi of SaveCows Network joins us to discuss what the world’s top farms are doing to combat lameness including how to treat and prevent the top three hoof lesions, a programmed hoof trimming schedule for success, the modern hoof trimming method to achieve optimal results and hoof trimming errors to avoid. I...
Feb 22, 2023•35 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Automated technologies have been developed and increasingly adopted within the dairy industry to not only reduce human labor requirements, but also to increase the accuracy and precision of application of various management tasks. Various forms of feeding technologies are currently available to increase our precision in feeding strategies of dairy cows. At a herd-level, this includes automated feed preparation and delivery. While, at the animal level, this includes individualized feeding opportu...
Feb 01, 2023•34 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Dr. Paul Fricke of the University of Wisconsin, Madison joins us on the Dairy Intelligent podcast to discuss the timely topic of utilizing sexed semen in dairy herds. We dive into the history of sexed semen, its effect on a booming heifer population, technologies and tools available to help with reproduction rates and more. Additionally, Dr. Fricke discusses the advances made in semen sexing technology and the future of sexed semen.
Jan 11, 2023•21 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Sustainability goals are fast emerging from industries, companies, and individuals, with varying language and science guiding these goals. Dr. Erin Cortus of the University of Minnesota joins us on the podcast to discuss how we can increase our comfort and confidence in conversations about sustainability, the Net Zero Initiative and general environmental stewardship as it relates to dairy production - both within and external to the dairy industry.
Dec 21, 2022•22 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Kewaunee county in Wisconsin has the second largest number of cows, per acre, of all the counties in the eastern US. It also has a geologic base of fracture bedrock, which makes it highly susceptible to well contamination events. That, along with being located immediately adjacent to the outdoor tourism center of Wisconsin, has led to public conflict and rancor. Dr. Don Niles of Pagel's Family Businesses and Peninsula Pride Farms joins us to discuss his farming community’s resolution to own thei...
Nov 30, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Dr. Huw McConochie of Zinpro joins us for a conversation on hoof health. The cow evolved to occupy an environment very different to the one which we provide her. This environment challenges her physiology. Although big improvements have been made to enhance the cow’s environment, there are still improvements that can be made on most dairies to alleviate many of these challenges without impacting the efficiency of work routines. In fact, an environment that has a positive effect of health and wel...
Nov 09, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Dan Vander Heiden of DeLaval joins us to explore modern day milking system technology and automation and its potential to address present day challenges facing dairymen in the harvest of milk. Together, we review the technologies, primarily rotaries and robots, as they exist today, but will also preview potential labor saving opportunities that may be adaptable to these technologies. Additionally, Dan covered different farm management considerations, farm vision/mission & family dynamics and...
Oct 19, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 7
The back of the barn is where your herd eats, lies, drinks, walks and lives the majority of their lives - make sure it's as comfortable as possible! Dr. Mike Wolf, consulting veterinarian for VES-Artex, will walk us through the freestall barn and provide tangible suggestions to improve the comfort of your cows for both the short and long term.
Sep 28, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 6
An environmental consultant is not always a dairy farmers' favorite person to deal with. With more and more environmental changes and requirements, many view these changes as more of a cost output with no ROI. Tara Vander Dussen of Elevate Ag is working to bridge that gap as she's both a dairy farmer and an environmental scientist. She sits down to chat with us about how we can all work better together as we continue to produce food for future generations as efficiently as possible while protect...
Sep 07, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 5
A new frontier is here! Terry Canning, CEO and Co-founder of CattleEye will discuss how far we can go with machine vision and if it could eventually become a complete replacement for wearable animal health precision solutions. He will also delve into why cows may be hiding something but AI can spot it.
Aug 17, 2022•17 min•Season 1Ep. 4
