Milk Production & Quality
Guides on milking management, milk quality, udder health and milk markets.
Milking Management
- A Consistent Milking Routine: Prep, Lag Time, Unit On-Time and Post-DipMilking is a sequence of small steps done the same way every time. Why timing matters, what each step does and how farms keep a routine consistent across people and shifts.
- Milking Frequency and Persistency: Does Three Times a Day Still Pay?The extra milk is real, but labor, cow time budgets and component prices decide whether it turns into profit.
Milk Quality
- Benchmarking Your Bulk Tank: What "Good" Looks Like for Holstein HerdsSCC is only one line on the bulk tank report; bacteria counts tell you where the problem is hiding.
- From High SCC to Premium Milk: A Twelve-Month Turnaround PlanA month-by-month approach to bringing somatic cell count down, built on data, milking routine and udder health basics.
- Milk Component Benchmarks: Fat, Protein, and the Ratios That Signal TroubleYour herd's own fat-to-protein ratio can flag ketosis and acidosis risk months before a clinical case appears.
- Somatic Cell Count and Milk Quality: What the Numbers Mean and the 750,000 LineTwo numbers on the milk report, somatic cell count and bacteria count, tell a dairy farmer how healthy the udders are and how clean the milk is.
Udder Health
- Mastitis in Dairy Cows: Causes, Signs and PreventionThe most costly disease on many dairies starts with a tiny bacterial invader. How to spot it, treat it with your vet and keep it out.
- Mastitis Risk After Lameness: How Behavior Links the TwoLame cows stand, lie and eat differently, and that may open the door to udder infections.
- Somatic Cell Count Reduction: A Step-by-Step Herd ProtocolStart with the organisms and the cow groups, then fix the highest-impact, lowest-cost items first.
Milk Markets
- Buying Milk From a Local Dairy and the Raw Milk QuestionFarm-fresh milk can be a great find, but rules and risks differ. What to ask, what the law says and how to weigh raw milk.
- How to Read a Milk Label: What the Words Actually MeanPasteurized, homogenized, organic, grass-fed, A2. A plain guide to what is regulated, what is marketing and what to ask.