Special Episode 8: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Updates
Episode 1: Welcome to Cornell Cow Convos!
Available Oct 19, 2023
In this first episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Dairy Specialists Lindsay Ferlito and Betsy Hicks cover what to expect in this new podcast series, introduce other hosts and their areas of specialty, and present topics for the first few episodes.
Episode 2: Preventative Health Care for Dairy Cows
Available Oct 26, 2023
In this second episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Northwest New York Team Dairy Specialists, Margaret Quaassdorff and Kaitlyn Lutz, interview Jimena Godoy, Animal Welfare Specialist and manager at Aurora Organic Dairy, to discuss preventative health care for cows, the importance of technology and training, and compassion for both employees and cows on conventional and organic dairy farms.
Episode 3: Trends in the Beef x Dairy Industry
Available November 30, 2023
In this third episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Northwest New York Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Team Dairy Specialist, Margaret Quaassdorff and South Central New York Dairy and Field Crops Team Dairy Specialist, bjh246 [at] cornell.edu (Betsy Hicks) discuss the opportunities and challenges for farmers surrounding the beef x dairy industry in New York as well as the latest national trends.
Episode 4: Looking into the New Year, Key Management Strategies
Available December 28, 2023
In this fourth episode of Cornell Cow Convos Daniela González Carranza, CCE Dairy Management Specialist and Kathryn Barrett, Sr. Extension Specialist, Cornel PRO-DAIRY interview Tom Overton, PhD, Professor and Chair, Animal Science Cornell University, and Director of the Cornell PRO-DAIRY program. Dr. Overton outlines key factors dairy farmers should look at to evaluate their farm businesses as we head into the new year.
Episode 5: The research behind pair housing calves
In this fifth episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Lindsay Ferlito, CCE North Country Regional Ag Team Dairy Specialist, and Camila Lage, CCE Southwest New York Dairy, Livestock & Field Crops Program Dairy Specliast, interview Dr. Jennifer Van Os, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist in Animal Welfare on the faculty of the Department of Animal & Dairy Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Van Os discusses the benefits of pair housing calves, management tips, and challenges and potential solutions. She provides more resources on her website: animalwelfare.cals.wisc.edu/calf_pairing/.
Episode 6: Pair Housing Calves from a Farmer’s Perspective
In this sixth episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Lindsay Ferlito, CCE North Country Regional Ag Team Dairy Specialist, and Kaitlyn Lutz, CCE Northwest New York Dairy, Livestock & Field Crops Program Dairy Specialist, interview Sam Peetz, Youngstock manager of Rosy-Lane Holsteins, LLC in Watertown, Wisconsin. Sam shares his experience with managing pair housed calves in their facility, including the challenges and benefits. To learn more about Rosy-Lane Holsteins LLC and view photos of their calf program, visit rosylane.weebly.com/our-calves.
Episode 7: Healthy Herds – Disease Diagnosis, Treatment, and Recording
In this episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Lindsay Ferlito, CCE North Country Regional Ag Team Dairy Specialist, and Besty Hicks, CCE South Central New York Dairy and Field Crops Team Dairy Specialist, interview Dr. Michael Capel (Perry Veterinary Clinic) and Dr. Tracy Potter (independent herd consultant). They discuss a recent project they collaborated on with the NYFVI and funding from the USDA, focusing on what healthy herds look like in NYS. The project looked at disease diagnosis criteria, treatment protocols, and record keeping for calf scours and diarrhea, and cow mastitis and metritis.
Episode 9: Winter Forages and First Cutting
In this episode of Cornell Convos, Northwest New York Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Team Dairy Specialist, Margaret Quaassdorff and South Central New York Dairy and Field Crops Team Dairy Specialist, Betsy Hicks interview John Winchell, Territory Sales Rep with Alltech about opportunities and considerations for winter forages and first cutting.
Episode 10: Automated Health Monitoring Systems
In this episode of Cornell Cow Convos,Margaret Quaassdorff, Northwest New York Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Team Dairy Specialist, and Daniela Gonzalez Carranza, CNY Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Team Dairy Specialist, interview Dr. Julio Giordano, Cornell University, about the appropriate integration of automated health monitoring systems on dairy farms.
Episode 11: Impact of Heat Stress in Cows
In this episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Lindsay Ferlito, Cornell PRO-DAIRY’s Dairy Animal Welfare Specialist, and Dr. Kaitlyn Lutz, Dairy Management Specialist with CCE Northwest NY Dairy, Livestock, and Field Crops Team, interview Katie Ballard, Research Director at the William H. Miner Institute. They discuss the impacts of heat stress in dairy cows in NY, the takeaways from Katie’s research in this area, and heat abatement strategies to consider on our region’s dairy farms.
Episode 12: Impact of Heat Stress in Calves
In this episode of Cornell Cow Convos, CCE Regional Dairy Specialists Daniela Gonzalez Carranza, BVS, MPS, and Kaitlyn Lutz, DVM, interview Dr. Jimena Laporta on the impact of heat stress on dairy calf health and growth. Dr. Laporta is an assistant professor of lactation physiology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. After completing her PhD, Dr. Laporta spent five years on faculty at the University of Florida, so she is no stranger to heat stress! Over her career, so has studied the effect of heat stress on many animal classes.
Episode 13: Corn Silage Harvest Considerations for 2024
In this episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Margaret Quaassdorff of the CCE NWNY Dairy, Livestock & Field Crops Team and Betsy Hicks of the CCE SCNY Dairy and Field Crops Team interview John Winchell, Territory Sales Rep with Alltech, on all things related to the Corn Silage crop in 2024, including the progress of the corn crop across NYS as well as strategies for staging corn harvest to maximize quality in different scenarios. John also shares his thoughts on this year’s crop in regards to molds and yeasts.
Episode 14: MyCow$ Tool – Individual Cow and Herd Level Profitability with Dr. Julio Giordano
In this episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Margaret Quaassdorff, CCE NWNY Dairy, Livestock & Field Crops Team, interviews Dr. Julio Giordano, Cornell University Professor of Dairy Cattle Biology and Management and Co-Director of the Cornell Institute for Digital Agriculture, about his research group’s progress on the “MyCow$ tool” to help dairy farmers make better management decisions using individual cow and herd level profitability calculations.
Additional Resources:
Episode 15: Robotic Rotary Management with Keith Keberle of Oakfield Corners Dairy
In this episode of Cornell Cow Convos, regional dairy specialist Margaret Quaassdorff of the CCE NWNY Dairy, Livestock & Field Crops Team and Lindsay Ferlito, Cornell PRO-DAIRY's Dairy Animal Welfare Specialist, interview Keith Keberle about his experience transitioning to a robotic rotary, and his insights in managing employees and cows in a higher tech system. For almost 30 years, Keith Keberle has been the farm manager at Oakfield Corners Dairy in Oakfield, where they milk 2,800 cows in a 72-stall GEA DairyProQ robotic rotary parlor. We also discuss dairy data and the mindset involved in keeping the wheel turning.
Episode 16: Managing Lameness On-farm with Dr. Gerard Cramer, University of Minnesota
In this episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Lindsay Ferlito, Cornell PRO-DAIRY, and Dr. Kaitlyn Lutz, CCE NWNY Dairy, Livestock, & Field Crops Team, interview Dr. Gerard Cramer about lameness. Dr. Cramer is a Professor of Dairy Production Medicine with the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota. We discuss Dr. Cramer’s thoughts on current rates of lameness in the US dairy industry, risk factors for lameness, what farms are doing well, and technology and the future of lameness detection.
Episode 17: H5N1 in Dairy Cattle – An Update with Dr. Elisha Frye, Animal Health Diagnostic Center
In this episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Dr. Kaitlyn Lutz and Dr. Daniela Gonzalez Carranza, regional dairy management specialists with the CCE NWNY and CNY Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Teams, talk with Dr. Elisha Frye about the current situation with H5N1 in dairy cattle in the United States. Dr. Frye is an associate professor of practice with the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. This episode discusses where H5N1 is currently spreading, how it is being monitored here in NY, lessons learned and the importance of flu vaccination this season!
Episode 18: 2025 Outlook and Changes to the FMMO
Daniela Gonzalez Carranza, CCE Dairy Management Specialist, and Kathy Barrett, Cornell PRO-DAIRY, interview Dr. Chris Wolf, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. Dr. Wolf gives an overview of the recent changes to the Federal Milk Marketing Orders. He also discusses the milk market outlook for the Northeast dairy industry.
Episode 19: Body weights for improved management and efficiency with Tom Tylutki
Betsy Hicks, CCE SCNY Dairy and Field Crops Team, and Margaret Quaassdorff, CCE NWNY Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Team, interview Dr. Tom Tylutki of AMTS. All things related to body weights in a dairy context are discussed – including time points to assess body weight and rate of average daily gain for heifers, nutritional context for growth during different time periods, and costs for putting weight on heifers. The importance for body weights in the context of antibiotic usage is talked about, and how mature weights of dairy cows have changed over time.New technologies around monitoring cow size and implications wraps up this episode.
Episode 20: Livestock Mortality Management on Dairy Farms
Katie Callero, Dairy Management Specialist with CCE SWNY Ag Team, and Kathy Barrett, Cornell PRO-DAIRY, interview Kirsten Workman, PRO-DAIRY Nutrient Management and Environmental Sustainability Specialist, and Jason Oliver, PRO-DAIRY Dairy Environmental Systems Engineer, about new regulations to manage mortality. They discuss the best options, benefits and challenges involved.
Special Episode: A conversation with Commissioner Richard Ball
In this special episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Lindsay Ferlito, Dairy Animal Welfare Specialist with Cornell PRO-DAIRY, and Betsy Hicks, Dairy Specialist with CCE South Central NY Dairy and Field Crops Team, have an exciting discussion with the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Richard Ball. They discuss hot topics in the dairy industry including immigration, local processing capacity, and HPAI, as well as grant funding opportunities for NYS farmers.
Episode 22: Microbiome of dairy cows
Dr. Kaitlyn Lutz and Daniela Gonzalez, regional dairy management specialists with Cornell Cooperative Extension interview Dr. Erika Ganda, professor, Penn State about her research into the impact of the dairy cattle biome on health and productivity.
Series Introduction
Dr. Rob Lynch, PRO-DAIRY Herd Health and Dairy Management Specialist and Betsy Hicks, Cornell Cooperative Extension Regional Dairy Specialist describe the importance of managing dairy cows to optimize herd health.
Episode 1: Pre-Weaned Calves (Part 1)
In this episode, CCE Regional Dairy Specialists Alycia Drwencke and Margaret Quaassdorff discuss trouble shooting herd health issues surrounding pre-weaned calf health. This episode will troubleshoot topics that include scours, growth rate, respiratory disease, and facility management.
Episode 2: Pre-Weaned Calves (Part 2)
In this episode, CCE Regional Dairy Specialists Margaret Quaassdorff and Alycia Drwencke will continue to discuss trouble shooting herd health issues surrounding pre-weaned calf health. This episode will troubleshoot topics that include grouping, using automatic feeders, disbudding, and weaning.
Episode 3: Weaning Transition
CCE Dairy Specialists Betsy Hicks, Margaret Quaassdorff & Melanie Palmer focus on troubleshooting issues through weaning transition for calves in this episode. Factors to be discussed include housing & facilities as well as social & behavioral factors. Nutrition through the transition as well as management of the calves and facilities will also be focused on as areas to troubleshoot.
Episode 4: Post Weaned Heifers - Disease and Growth Issues
In this episode, Rob Lynch, DVM, Herd Health and Management Specialist, Cornell CALS PRO-DAIRY, and Dave Balbian, Regional Dairy Specialist, Cornell Cooperative Extension Central New York Dairy, Livestock and Fields Crops Team, discuss how to troubleshoot disease and growth issues that impact post weaned heifers.
Episode 5: Heifers - Reproduction
In this episode, Dr. Julio Giordano, DVM, PhD, Cornell University, describes how to identify problems that impact heifer reproductive performance.
Episode 6: Calving
In this episode, CCE Dairy Specialists Casey Havekes and Margaret Quaassdorff, discuss challenges during calving. Margaret describes the stages of normal calving, as well as when to intervene, and Casey discusses the impact a difficult calving may have on the newborn calf. Management strategies that can help the dam and the calf following a difficult calving are also shared during this episode.
Episode 7: Transition Cow Issues
This episode's discussion centers around how to troubleshoot transition cow problems. Casey Havekes and Margaret Quaassdorff, CCE Regional Dairy Specialists, lead the discussion.
Episode 8: Mastitis (Part 1)
In this episode, Dr. Matthias Wieland, DVM, Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine and Dr. Rob Lynch, DVM, PRO-DAIRY discuss different techniques for accurately trouble shooting mastitis issues.
Episode 9: Mastitis (Part 2)
In this episode, Dr. Wieland and Dr. Lynch continue their discussion on methods to identify mastitis problems on your dairy.
Episode 10: Fresh Cows
CCE Dairy Specialist, Margaret Quaassdorff and PRO-DAIRY veterinarian, Dr. Rob Lynch focus on troubleshooting issues during the post-fresh period. Topics discussed include tracking fresh cow health and rumination data including using software monitoring systems, evaluating fresh cow pen management and dynamics, as well using tools to troubleshoot fresh cow nutrition and feeding behavior.
Episode 11: Lactating Cow Production
In this episode, Dr. Rob Lynch, DVM, Herd Health and Dairy Management Specialist, Cornell PRO-DAIRY discusses how to investigate reproductive issues your lactating cows maybe experiencing.
Episode 12: Milk Production
In this episode, CCE Regional Dairy Specialists Dave Balbian & Betsy Hicks cover issues around production in lactating cows on the dairy. Factors including nutrition and facilities will be covered, as well as troubleshooting by analyzing herd records. Culling parameters and strategies will also be discussed to help producers determine the approaches that might work best for their farm.
Episode 13: Feed Behavior
In this episode, CCE Dairy Specialist Casey Havekes interviews Trevor DeVries of the University of Guelph on lactating feeding behavior. Factors that will be discussed include the types of feeding behaviors that producers should watch out for, learned behaviors, and how to manipulate feeding behaviors through feeding management. Pen management and the effects on feeding behavior will also be a focus in this episode.
Episode 14: Facilities and Ventiliation
Facilities and ventilation have a significant impact on the health of dairy animals. This episode focuses on how to identify when the physical environment is having a negative impact on your dairy cows. Lindsay Ferlito and Dave Balbian, CCE Regional Dairy Specialists, lead this discussion.
Episode 15: Lameness
This episode covers how producers can approach hoof health and troubleshooting lameness on their dairies. CCE Regional Dairy Specialists Lindsay Ferlito & Betsy Hicks will focus on lameness as a scale, causes of lameness, troubleshooting lameness between pens, targeting protocols with treatments, and methods of tracking lameness. Analysis of records and tying this information with cull rates will also be covered to help producers best manage hoof health.
Episode 16: Dry Cows
CCE Dairy Specialist, Casey Havekes, is joined by Dr. Tom Overton, Professor of Animal Science and director of PRO-DAIRY at Cornell University, in this episode to discuss troubleshooting issues during the dry period. Topics discussed include target body condition score at dry off and throughout the dry period, nutritional and feeding management of dry cow diets, dry period length, and non-nutritional factors that play a role in a successful dry period.
Episode 1: Reaching Your Herd’s Genetic Potential
Dialing into Your Best Dairy: Reaching Your Herd’s Genetic Potential opens with CCE Regional Dairy specialists Betsy Hicks, Lindsay Ferlito, and Margaret Quaassdorff, who share an overview of the series. Dr. Mike Van Amburgh, Professor of Animal Science at Cornell University, provides background on epigenetics and how he came to study the effects management and nutrition play in genetic programming of the calf for her entire life.
Episode 2: Calves - Birth to Weaning
In this episode, CCE Regional Dairy Specialists Alycia Drwencke and Casey Havekes, discuss best management practices for the dairy calf from the time of birth through weaning. Topics include colostrum management, cleanliness, ventilation, housing, plane of nutrition, and weaning strategies.
- Episode 2: Calves - Birth to Weaning
- PAACO Dairy Welfare Auditor Training - Learn how to assess many animal-based measures such as BCS, Hygiene, Lameness, and more.
- FARM – Animal Care Training Resource Library
- Calf Health – University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dairyland Initiative
Episode 3: Heifers and Springers
In this episode, CCE Regional Dairy Specialists Margaret Quaassdorff and Dave Balbian discuss best management practices for dairy heifers from post-weaning to freshening. Topics include heifer health and nutrition, growth and breeding targets, housing facilities and ventilation, and incorporation into the milking herd.
Episode 4: Don’t be a Heifer Hoarder
In this episode we discuss culling policy and inventory management with Rob Lynch, DVM, Dairy Herd Health and Management Specialist, PRO-DAIRY, Margaret Quaassdorff, CCE Regional Dairy Specialist and Lindsey Worden, Holstein USA.
Episode 5: Nutrition and Feeding for the Lactating Cow
This episode features CCE Dairy Specialists Margaret Quaassdorff, Dave Balbian, and Melanie Palmer while they discuss dialing in lactating cows’ nutrition, goals as a feeder of lactating cows, and recommendations from Miner Institute to create the perfect dining experience for our cows.
Episode 6: Managing the Lactating Cows’ Environment
In this episode CCE Regional Dairy Specialists Dave Balbian, Betsy Hicks, and Margaret Quaassdorff cover best management practices for lactating dairy cows including ventilation, heat abatement, management through lactation, and time budgets. They also interview a producer on factors to keep in mind for facility design, and the changes he saw in his herd after implementing herd management and facility design strategies.
Episode 7: Reproduction, Gestation and the Dry Period
This episode is hosted by CCE Regional Dairy Specialists Alycia Drwencke, Casey Havekes, and Lindsay Ferlito. They discuss management practices during the breeding, gestation and dry cow phases. Topics include feeding and nutrition, body condition score, breeding, time budgets, and behavioral considerations.
Episode 8: Pulling it All Together
Dialing into Your Best Dairy concludes with an interview of the owners of Selz-Pralle Dairy, the herd that contains the U.S. milk production record holder Selz-Pralle Aftershock 3,918 that produced 78,170 pounds of milk in a single 365-day lactation. The Pralles have a whole herd of cows that deserve appreciation, and they share some of their management strategies to achieve exceptional results. CCE Regional Dairy Specialists Betsy Hicks, Lindsay Ferlito, and Margaret Quaassdorff, wrap up the series in this episode and share where to find contact information and more resources on topics covered in the series.
- Episode 8: Pulling it All Together – Management for Record Setting Cows
Episode 1 - Corn Silage 2020 Season Recap
Ron Kuck, Dairy Educator, CCE Cayuga County and Joe Lawrence, Forage Management Specialist, Cornell CALS PRO-DAIRY kick off this podcast series by discussing the 2020 growing season. They discuss the impact weather has had on the growing season and what to consider when assessing fields, staging harvest, whole plant DM in decision making, storage planning and what to do if you’re short of space.
Episode 2 - Timing and Processing
Casey Havekes, CCE Regional Dairy Specialist, CCE NNY Team, interviews Margaret Quaassdorff, Regional Dairy Specialist, CCE NWNY Team and Joe Lawrence, Forage Management Specialist, Cornell CALS PRO-DAIRY. Margaret and Joe discuss the importance of timing and whole plant dry mater, theoretical length of cut, and kernel processing.
Episode 3 - Monitoring and Preserving Quality
Betsy Hicks, Regional Dairy Specialist, CCE SCNY Dairy Team and John Winchell, Territory Sales Representative, Alltech discuss why and how to take corn silage samples at harvest and feed out, mycotoxin considerations, best practices for inoculant use and maximizing the fermentation process.
Episode 4 - Filling and Packing
Devon Shelmidine from Sheland Farms in Jefferson County, NY, Ron Kuck, Dairy Educator, CCE Cayuga County and Joe Lawrence, Forage Management Specialist, Cornell CALS PRO-DAIRY discuss the nitty gritty of getting corn silage into the bunk, packed and covered to maximize forage quality.