Found this nice video about Maddox Dairy in Riverdale, California. Although the dairy is home to around 3000 cows, they employ a “one cow” philosphy – treat each cow as if it’s your only cow. Maddox Dairy was awarded the 2014 Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability award by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.
Adapting to changing consumer expectations
We blogged a few days ago about new produce ratings being implemented at Whole Foods Markets and how similar standards may eventually filter down to regular supermarkets and meat and dairy products. Today an interesting article was published over at cattlenetwork.com regarding how even Walmart and McDonalds are putting increasing pressure on the supply chain for more environmentally sustainable, locally produced and more transparently produced food. [Read more…]
Texas Cattle Industry Struggling with Four Year Drought – Herd down 13%
More than four years into a severe drought, the Texas cattle industry is struggling. Video via Iowa Public Television:
Where does my food come from?
There has been a trend in recent years toward more transparency for consumers into their food sources. This week, Whole Foods Market will complete the implementation of a food rating system for produce that goes well beyond organic.
The system will categorize produce as “good,” “better,” and “best.” The expanded criteria for the ratings system includes [Read more…]
Dairies find increased profitability, lower vulnerability to droughts and high hay prices with fodder systems
Here’s a good article that ran in Progressive Dairyman last year that you may have missed. It focuses on two dairies, one in Texas and one in Idaho which implemented sprouted fodder systems in their operations recently. Here are a couple of takeaways:
Do you need lighting to grow hydroponic fodder?
We get this question from time to time: what kind of lighting does a hydroponic sprouting system require? Our answer is none. A seed is pretty self-contained and needs neither soil nor light for first few days of the process of germination. It only requires moisture and a sufficiently warm temperature. We find that right around 70 degrees Fahrenheit is warm enough for sprouting, but cool enough to [Read more…]
The California drought and the price of hay
Good article recently in the Sonoma Valley Press Democrat describing the transition dairy and beef producers are making to hydroponic sprouting systems as a result of skyrocketing hay prices driven by a drought which shows no signs of ending anytime soon. Here’s an excerpt: