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Cows wearing fitness trackers?
Dairies using tech to monitor herd health
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The size and scope of today’s dairy farms are amazing feats of efficiency and advancements through technology. The ability to feed, nurture and milk thousands of cows everyday is such a monumental task, and Texas dairy farmers do it every day. Producers continue to adopt technology to identify and monitor their animals to maintain their health. Even facial recognition of cows is being tried on modern farms. It sounds unbelievable, but it’s true!
On many dairy farms, cows wear collars or ankle monitors (think Fitbit) with a chip that transmits much of the same health information we receive from the fitness monitors we, ourselves, wear. For example, the dairy farmer can find out how many steps a cow takes, as well as track her temperature and rumination.
Paired with the data that can be recorded two or three times a day at every milking, the dairy farmer has a wealth of data on each dairy cow every day of their lives. This data can alert the producer to an issue before it impairs an animal’s health. Early detection is proving to positively impact the overall longevity of a herd.
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Darren Turley, TAD Executive Director
Robotic milking operations, which are being increasingly installed by Texas dairy farmers, are expected to increase the production of milk from cows who enjoy the low stress environment and technological evaluations these new barns provide.
The technological advances even reach a cow’s diet. Dairy nutrition is becoming so advanced that most people would be amazed at the analysis that goes into making sure every animal eats a balanced diet precisely tailored to the animal’s age and milk production level. Feed is not just balanced on the animal’s macro needs of protein, carbs and fats, but also on the cow’s amino acid requirements. ...
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Around the Texas Capitol
Primary elections to determine many legislative seats
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Election Day is right around the corner, with early voting running Feb. 20 through March 1 ahead of the March 5 primary election.
With 18 retirements announced by Texas legislators (two Senate, 16 House), several very crowded races that will likely go to a runoff, while incumbents up and down the ballot are working hard to get reelected. Most representation in Texas’ legislative districts will be determined in the primary election, which has made recent months very busy in Austin and around the state.
Below are several races that will be significant to the state and the Texas dairy industry, in addition to the ones highlighted in the January newsletter.
Texas House District 2
In a Jan. 30 special election runoff, voters in Hopkins, Hunt and Van Zandt counties elected Jill Dutton (R) to serve for the remainder of the term in the vacated HD 2 seat. She was sworn into office on Feb. 14. Dutton defeated Brent Money (R) in this special election runoff by 107 votes.
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Lauren Fairbanks and J Pete Laney
TAD Governmental Affairs
Both candidates are back on the ballot in the March primary election to fill the seat for a full two-year term, so the two haven’t missed a beat on the campaign trail. Dutton was raised in East Dallas and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Texas at Tyler. She has 22 years of entrepreneurial business experience at the family’s commercial construction consulting firm in Dallas as director of administration. She is married to David Dutton, and they have three adult children and three grandchildren.
The winner of the Dutton/Money match will compete in November against Kristen Washington, who is unopposed in the HD 2 Democratic primary. ...
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Comptroller update:
Broadband expansion in Texas
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In 2021, the 87th Texas Legislature established Texas’ first broadband office in the Texas Comptroller’s office to oversee the expansion of high-speed internet access statewide, particularly in rural areas. Since then, there hasn’t been an idle moment.
Full participation in modern society often requires high-speed internet, and the long-term health of the state and national economies depends on our rural-based industries getting connected. But expanding broadband access is a monumental task – one that requires collaboration and partnerships between local governments and private entities, across counties and among residents.
I’m proud to say the Texas Broadband Development Office (BDO) has reached significant milestones during these first years as it reaches out to communities and gauges public opinion, draws on stakeholder feedback to set long-term goals for broadband expansion and secures the funding necessary to make broadband-for-all a reality in Texas. Success doesn’t come easy when starting from scratch, but we have worked tirelessly to meet those challenges head on.
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The Honorable Glenn Hegar
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
Federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program
Last summer, the state was allocated $3.3 billion in federal funding from the national Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Texas’ share was the largest of any state. Why? Because the challenge facing our state is unique: Texas has a large population with a significant share of unserved areas over a vast and geographically diverse landscape. Our state has lots of rural ground to cover, and the economic implications of connecting those areas to high-speed internet cannot be overstated.
Historically, Texas has typically been a donor state, meaning our tax dollars would go to Washington and then get sent out to fund projects in other states. ...
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Dairy farmers invited to upcoming
High Plains Dairy Conference
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The 2024 High Plains Dairy Conference, to be held March 5-6 in Amarillo, will once again provide dairy producers with the latest information on the current state of the science, dairy insights and producer perspectives. The conference will include a total of 15 talks and five panels over the two days.
Among the topics to be covered: the global dairy industry and the future market outlook; alternative revenue streams; the future of exports; AI in dairy; beef on dairy; monetizing manure and carbon; and more. Find the full agenda here.
Prior to the start of the conference, on the morning of March 5, the High Plains Dairy Conference has partnered with both Texas Animal Nutrition Council and the Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council to provide the best of their respective programs through two concurrent workshops concentrated on either nutrition or reproduction. These workshops are included in the conference registration.
Following the conference is a Middle Managers Workshop on March 7. The five-hour workshop, to be presented in both English and Spanish, will focus on front-line supervisors and the challenges they face, from managing cows to managing people.
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Volleman appointed to Texas Food System Security and Resiliency Planning Council
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Texas dairy producer David Volleman has been appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to the Texas Food System Security and Resiliency Planning Council.
The Council is tasked with developing a State Food System Security Plan that provides for the orderly development and management of food system security throughout the state and ensures that food is available at a reasonable cost, accounts for times of severe drought and natural disasters, and includes legislative recommendations that facilitate the resilience and availability of food in the state.
Volleman is a partner at Volleman’s Dairy in Gustine. He is a former board chairman of the Texas Association of Dairymen and is a member of the Texas Farm Bureau Dairy Commodity Advisory Committee. He is a director of the Comanche County Aggie Club, member of the Knights of Columbus and vice president for the Texas A&M Alpha Gamma Rho Alumni Association. In addition, he is the former president of the Texas A&M Dairy Science Club. Volleman received a Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness from Texas A&M University.
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Strategies to include sorghum silage
in lactating cow rations (Part 2)
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Introduction
The expansion of milk processing capacity and dairy cows in Texas is increasing forage demand amid ongoing water scarcity concerns. While corn is the primary silage crop, sorghum offers drought resistance at lower input costs. However, the current challenges with conventional sorghum silage are lower fiber and starch digestibility compared to conventional corn silage. Strategies to increase sorghum fiber digestibility have been discussed in a previous article and include using brown midrib (BMR) hybrids that have been shown to have similar fiber digestibility to conventional corn silage. This article will focus on the use of grain processing technologies to increase berry processing and starch digestibility of sorghum silage.
Strategy No. 2. Focus on yield and starch digestibility
To decide which sorghum hybrid to use, farmers need to set their priorities while
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Juan Piñero, DVM, MSc, Ph.D.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Dairy Specialist - Stephenville
Douglas Duhatschek, DVM
Department of Animal Science, Texas A&M University
Guest author: Lyndon Luckasson
OEM Business Director, Scherer Inc.
considering land availability, water well capacity and access to cutting-edge harvesting technologies. If the priority is to obtain high yield and starch digestibility from forage sorghum, then cutting-edge grain processing technologies are needed to process >95% of sorghum berries, especially if harvesting hard dough stage. Berry processing improves starch digestibility by breaking the pericarp and starch-protein matrix and increasing surface area for digestion.
In collaboration with Scherer Inc.’s team, we randomly collected samples from three different areas of a forage sorghum field harvested at the hard dough stage. ...
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2024 Dairy MAX scholarship
applications now open
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Applications are open until March 31 for three $2,500 Dairy MAX scholarships. The Dairy MAX scholarship program supports local dairy farm families while investing in future generations. In the past 17 years, Dairy MAX has awarded more than $90,000 in scholarships.
To be eligible for the Dairy MAX scholarship, students must reside in the Dairy MAX region, be a graduating high school senior or an undergraduate student currently enrolled in college and be a child of a dairy farmer, child of a dairy farm employee, or an FFA/4-H dairy show participant. For a complete list of eligibility requirements and information about applying, visit https://www.dairymax.org/dairy/scholarships.
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