Why You Should Stress about Heat Stress with Peter Manneke

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 heat stress.

Your Barn is Not that Special, and That is Okay!

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.

Paired Calf Housing with Dr. Whitney Knauer

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.

Monitoring Behavior Using Smart Barn Technologies with Dr. Borbala Foris

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 insights into the experiences of individual cows living in a herd and how this impacts their welfare and productivity.

Build a Better Barn with Joel Hornby

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 retrofitting an existing facility, plan to begin with the end in mind and do it the right way the first time.

Why You Should Stress about Heat Stress

Please join Peter Manneke, Territory Sales Manager for Europe, Middle East & Africa for VES-Artex for a webinar on the basics of heat stress.

Simply put, if your cows are experiencing heat stress, your production, reproduction, cow flow, and in turn bottom line, are going to suffer. This presentation will focus on 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.

Advancing Your Hoof Care Program with Karl Burgi

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. In addition, controlling digital dermatitis and hoof bath management will be discussed before discovering how to adapt a #NoLamenessTolerance policy

Build a Better Barn

Join VES-Artex’s Key Account Manager, Joel Hornby, for our first webinar of 2023. Joel will provide 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 retrofitting an existing facility, plan to begin with the end in mind and do it the right way the first time.

Challenges and Opportunities in Precision Feeding of Dairy Cows with Dr. Trevor DeVries

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 opportunities, currently primarily through automated milking in lactating cows. Dr. Trevor DeVries of the University of Guelph joins us to discuss the automations  currently available to increase our precision in feeding strategies and some of the associated challenges.

Optimizing the Use of Sexed Semen in Dairy Herds with Dr. Paul Fricke

‘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.

Navigating Science and Communication Aspects of Sustainable Dairy with Dr. Erin Cortus

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.

Monitoring Behavior at the Individual Level in Group Housed Cattle Using Smart Barn Technologies

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 Animal Welfare Program will highlight some of the latest research on promising new data streams such as social and grooming behavior that can provide insights into the experiences of individual cows living in a herd and how this impacts their welfare and productivity.

Sharing Your Own Dairy’s Story with Dr. Don Niles

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, Dairy Operations Manager for Pagel’s Family Businesses and Peninsula Pride Farms joins us to discuss the Kewaunee/Door County farming community’s resolution to own their own story and establish greater trust and cohabitation between the agricultural and non-agricultural communities.

Navigating Science and Communication Aspects of Sustainable Dairy

Sustainability goals are fast emerging from industries, companies, and individuals, with varying language and science guiding these goals.

Join Dr. Erin Cortus of the University of Minnesota for our latest webinar! The aim of this presentation is to 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.

An Environment for Healthy, Productive, and Long-lived Cows with Dr. Huw McConochie

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 welfare can even enhance operational efficiency. Problem cows often consume extra resources in terms of employee time and the occupation of a barn slot that would. Through changes to design and management we can meet some important sustainability goals – Barn slots occupied with healthy, productive and long-lived cows.