Much of Jason Hartschuh’s knowledge about a dairy farm was gained from working alongside his older brothers on his parents’ Crawford County dairy farm in central Ohio. However, the college junior – who was recently recognized nationally by The National FFA Organization for his work – says his understanding of his family’s business and the dairy industry as a whole was mightily expanded through the projects he developed as part of FFA.

It was in the 1950s and early 1960s that dairy operations began to take cows out of the pasture and develop confinement-feeding facilities. The primary objective was to gain better control of the amount and quality of forages and concentrates dairy cows consumed. As a result, milk production could be maximized.

Salmonella is a significant problem for dairy producers. A number of diseases, including acute neonatal diarrhea, pneumonia, gastroenteritis in adult animals and invasive septicemia, have been attributed to salmonella bacteria. Dairy operators across the country find that salmonellosis and subclinical salmonella infection have a significant impact on profitability.

Is it a trend? According to USDA’s Economic Research Service, U.S. per capita availability—essentially the same thing as consumption—of beverage milk in 2008 was 20.7 gallons, unchanged from 2007. For some idea of the significance of that, per capita beverage milk consumption had declined for the previous ten years in a row, and almost every year since the mid-60’s. Since the peak consumption year of 1945, it’s fallen an astonishing 54%. So what could be happening to turn things around?

Penta Feed Mixer