Wisconsin’s highest producing dairy farms get the most out of their cows, and they do it without high feed costs. Feed costs averaged less than $4 per hundredweight of milk on six farms with rolling herd averages exceeding 30,000 pounds of milk, according to results of a survey by University of Wisconsin-Extension specialists.

There’s cash in contented cows, a survey of the highest producing dairy herds in Wisconsin has shown.

With the farm economy in recession, the goal of

Dairy marketing specialist Robert Cropp started warning Wisconsin dairy farmers last December that it might be time to think about locking in some of those record high milk prices with dairy futures, options or forward pricing.

Over the past eight years, Milo Wiltbank has helped hundreds of livestock producers improve reproductive management on their farms. His efforts have earned him the J. S. Donald Excellence in Teaching Award for Farm and Industry Short Course for 1999.

Dairy judging enthusiasts ages 12 to 19 have a chance to solidify their dairy fundamentals and get a jump on the upcoming judging and showing season at Badger Dairy Camp, June 10 to June 12 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Auntie Em did the laundry and the cooking, and was referred to as a “farm wife.” But farm women today bristle at that term. Now farm women consider themselves farmers, too. And well they should: They manage and care for calves, milk and feed the cows, take charge of farm finances, and do artificial insemination. They also have a much larger role in decision-making than economists give them credit for. Until agricultural economist Lydia Zepeda did her research, all the economic models of technology adoption assumed that farms had one decision-maker, typically the male head of the household.

Margaret R. Dentine, a dairy cattle geneticist, has been named associate dean for research and executive director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Tom Cox, Yong Zhu and Jean-Paul Chavas of the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics have recently released the final report to a three-year study looking at the how the GATT URA will affect the U.S. and world dairy sectors.

Dr. Leland Allenstein of Whitewater, Wis. received the 1999 Short Course Service to Agriculture Award at the annual Short Course alumni reunion, held in Madison at Jingles. He was recognized for his untiring and unselfish efforts to improve the health of Wisconsin dairy cattle.