On this episode of the DFD podcast, I have the pleasure of talking to Nick Thurler.  Nick is the President of Green Energy Trading Corporation (GET-Corp). GET-Corp offers a viable avenue for dairy farmers to positively impact their sustainability efforts through the conversion of on-farm organic wastes to renewable natural gas (RNG), while creating nutrient dense fertilizer and providing revenue streams for dairy farms. The RNG generated from the digesters is sold to the market. Nick and I have a great conversation about GET-corps mission and vision around producing RNG from on farm waste ..read more

On this week's episode of the podcast, we have something a little different for the listeners.  I had the opportunity to host a panel where we discussed our careers.  I wanted to say thanks to our participants, Dr. Sara Robson from Grand Valley Fortifiers, Justine Dodson MSc from Sharpe's Feed Supply, Dr. Bruna Mion from Lactanet and Dr. Chris Church from Trouw Nutrition Canada.   Also a special thanks to Dr. David Innes from the University of Guelph's Dairy at Guelph faculty who hosted the podcast for his fourth year Nutrition Group. I hope you enjoy this episode of the po ..read more

On this episode of the podcast, I have a great conversation with Aaron Keunen.  Aaron is part owner of Mapleview Agri, a milk replacer, animal health product manufacturer and veal/calf research facility in Palmerston Ontario, Canada. Aaron and I have a great talk about calves, what we are seeing in the country side currently and what is coming down the pipe with regards to calf health and calf performance. I hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast.  If you have any questions about this episode or future episodes of the podcast, please feel free to reach out to me by email at keith ..read more

On this episode of the podcast, I talk to Dr. Bill Mahanna.  Bill is the Global Nutritional Services Manager with Pioneer, he is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University. Bill and I cover all things corn silage, we touch on plant health, starch deposition, kernel processing and some new and exciting technology coming down the pipeline. He has an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to making high quality forages, especially corn silage.  He has worked for Pioneer for over 30 years and he has travelled all over the w ..read more

On this week's episode of the podcast, I have the pleasure of talking to Michelle Durnin.  Michelle is an agronomist and the owner of Prosperity Ag, located in Huron County, Ontario. Michelle has worked for several years in Ontario with a focus on forage crops.  We have a great conversations about this years corn crop, whether or not we should look at fungicide and we also cover some options for forage crops after this years wheat. Michelle have several iron in the fire outside of being an agronomist.  She is the owner of Durnin Farm and Ranch wear (www.dfrwear.ca), a company th ..read more

On this weeks episode of the Dairy Farmer's Digest, I have the pleasure of talking to Dr. Geoffrey Dahl from the University of Florida.  Geoffrey is the Director of the Feed the Future Innovations Lab for Livestock Systems and a Professor - Harriette B. Weaks Professor President of the ADSA. Dr. Dahl is the leading experts in the world when it comes to the topic of heat stress and its impact biology and physiology of the dairy production animals.  He has won a multitude of professional service honors and awards, he has also been sited more than 10,000 times for research that he has c ..read more

On this week's episode of the Dairy Farmer's Digest, I talk with Gary Markus, who along with his wife and four kids run Markhill Holsteins in Ingersoll Ontario.   In addition to milking cows, Gary also works as an Elite account manager with Alta Genetics in SW Ontario.  Gary and I have a great discussion about developing a plan and choosing criteria to cull animals, it is a tough decision to move on from these animals, but with the right data we can make these decisions a little bit easier, and make your operation more profitable. If you have any questions about this episode or ..read more

On this episode of the Dairy Farmer's Digest (DFD) podcast, I talk to Cox Wensink.  Cox is the owner and herd manager at Hoenhorst Farms in Woodstock Ontario where her and her team milk 500 cows with 10 Lely A4 milking robots on two locations utilizing temporary foreign workers (TFW).  We have a great discussion around how she came about using TFW and how to get the process started and the learning curve involved in going down this route. Cox is a Mechanical Engineer with a Masters in Strategic Product development and she has worked in Canada and in Europe before returning to the far ..read more

On this episode of the Dairy Farmer's Digest (DFD) podcast, I talk to Brad Gilchrist.  Brad is the Beef Marketing and Product specialist for Semex.  Brad is a graduate of the University of Guelph Ag economics and Business degree.  He and his family also operate a purebred Angus cow calf operation in Lucknow Ontario. Breeding Beef x Holstein has become the norm in the dairy industry in North America, Brad and I discuss how farmer are utilizing these genetics and how producers can maximize the calf value by breeding to the right sires. I hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast ..read more

On this weeks episode of the podcast, I have the please talking to Andrea DeGroot from Farm Credit Canada.  Andrea is a Business Advisor who specializes in farm transitions. Transitioning a multi-million dollar farm business is a daunting task, Andrea and I discuss where to start, what resources you may need and how producers can navigate this crucial decision making process. I hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast.  If you have any questions about this episode or future episodes of the podcast, please feel free to reach out to me by email at keithschweitzer@wfs.ca by phone at 1 ..read more