The constraints that cooperative and non-cooperative dairy farms face in expanding milk production have been reported based on a field study on some cooperative and non-cooperative dairy farms in the state of West Bengal. The study has shown that non-cooperative farms face major constraints and high severity compared with cooperative farms in expanding milk production. Also important is that mo...

1. SMART FARMS SET PERFORMANCE GOALS There is an old saying that you can’t get to your destination unless you know where you are going. Many farms that start on the path to milking excellence don’t make it because they don’t have clear quality goals for their farms. Many dairy farms consistently produce high quality milk. In 1998, over 1,800 Wisconsin dairy farms had average bulk tank somatic c...

JAVMA, Vol 230, No. 6, March 15, 2007 T US dairy industry is moving toward fewer dairy farms with more cattle per farm. Between 1995 and 2005, the number of dairy farms decreased by 43.9% (from 139,670 to 78,295), but the total number of milk cows decreased by only 4.5% (from 9.47 to 9.04 million). Consequently, the average herd size for dairies in the United States has almost doubled during th...

The objective of this study was to determine, via simulation, the premium required for dairy farmers supplying milk with a high concentration of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) to a dairy processor to equal the operating profit ($/ha) of average farms, under New Zealand conditions. Fifty average farms (AVE farms) and fifty farms that fed an oilseed supplement to dairy cows (UFA farms) were simula...

The objective of this case-control study was to identify farm-level risk factors associated with bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in dairy cows in northern Thailand. Spatial analysis was performed to identify geographical clustering of case-farms located in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces in northern Thailand. To identify management factors affecting bTB status, a matched case-control study was co...

Introduction Throughout the world, the business of dairy farming is rapidly evolving. Consumption of dairy products remains strong but fewer farms are producing more milk using less labor and more purchased services. In the United States, the number of dairy farms dropped from 192,700 in 1990 to 92,000 in 2002 (Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics, 2003). The productivity of these larger farms has...

OBJECTIVE We evaluated the epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in enterococci from animal farms and the potential relation of resistance to antimicrobial use. METHODS Enterococci from faecal samples from 18 beef cattle, 18 dairy cattle, 18 swine, 13 chicken, and eight turkey farms were prospectively evaluated over a 6 year period from 1998 to 2003. RESULTS We evaluated 1256 isolates of...

The aim of this study was to compare energy consumption in dairy farms with different sizes. Sources of energy include non renewable sources such as fossil fuel, and electricity and renewable sources such as forage, concentrate, machinery, labor, and water. The required data were collected from 42 dairy farms in Tehran province, Iran and were analyzed to assess energy consumption based on diffe...

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (Map) causes Johne's disease, with large economic consequences for dairy cattle producers worldwide. Map spread between farms is mainly due to animal movements. Locally, herd size and management are expected to influence infection dynamics. To provide a better understanding of Map spread between dairy cattle farms at a regional scale, we describe the ...

UNLABELLED Quinolone-resistant Escherichia coli (QREC) is common in feces from young calves, but the prevalence and genetic diversity of QREC in groups of cattle of other ages and the farm environment are unknown. The aims of the study were to obtain knowledge about the occurrence of QREC on dairy farms, the genetic diversity of QREC within and between farms, and how these relate to the number ...