Clean, comfortable cows are happy, healthy cows that are productive both in the bulk tank and reproductively. Any stressor we subject a cow to will compromise immune function and shift nutrients away from normal biological processes, such a reproduction. When looking to improve conception rates and overall fertility on your farm, looking to improve your cow comfort should be the first place you start. We are excited to have Kevin Bousquet of World Wide Sires join us on this episode to continue the conversation on cow comfort's affect on fertility, a topic he is truly passionate about.

Headlocks can be an incredibly useful tool on the dairy. However, when cows are restrained for too long in headlocks, it's time taken away from laying down and resting, and ultimately producing milk. Join Dr. Rick Grant, former President of the William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute, as we discuss the delicate balance between maximizing efficiency and ensuring the welfare of dairy cows when using self-lock systems. We'll explore best practices for managing self-locks to promote optimal productivity while prioritizing the health and comfort of your herd.

Proper maintenance is crucial to keeping any equipment running at full capacity. Field and milking equipment is routinely maintained, and your fans should not be any different. When you are purchasing any piece of equipment, it is an investment that needs to be properly taken care of. Dennis Spurlock of Western Cow Comfort joins us and is a true maintenance guru and keeps many ventilation systems on dairies in the central valley of California in tip-top shape!

In the world of dairy farming, the pursuit of innovation and genetic advancements is constant. Jeff Ziegler of Select Sires Inc. joins us to explore the fascinating but not as well-known genetic trait, slick genes. These genetics are not only helping dairy producers "beat the heat" but also hold the potential to transform the way we think about breeding and herd management.

In many parts of the world, the warmer months are long gone. And with the end of summer weather, means the end of running your barn ventilation, right? WRONG! Off season ventilation for your herd is just as crucial as the warmer months in terms of cow health and productivity. Dr. Mike Wolf, consulting veterinarian for VES-Artex, walks us through the challenges that come with ventilation during the off season, proper fan care and maintenance and solutions to utilize for ventilation efficiency and herd profitability.

How exactly should you design a proper cow flow system in your barn? Well, the answer will depend on who you ask. Your herd manager will have a different answer than your veterinarian, and your calf care team's answer will differ from your milkers. However, most will agree that a correct cow flow system should allow cows to simply be cows. Ron Dehli of Nedap is a true expert on how to design sorting and routing systems to keep cows moving and shares his experience with us.

When building a dairy barn, it seems there are a never-ending number of options to consider. Will my cows be more comfortable in freestalls or a bedded pack? What type of ventilation and lighting strategy will I need? What's the proper amount of space I should allot per head? Should I build now or wait and see what costs are in the future? This is where working with a cow comfort expert is crucial! Join Henry Collins, Asia-Pacific Sales Manager for VES-Artex as he reviews considerations you should have when building a barn and gives you the tools to make the best decision for your herd.

Trace minerals are essential nutrients required for numerous functions in the body of a cow, especially during the transition period. While forages and grains contain some trace minerals, additional supplementation for cows is generally required.  This is the topic of our conversation with Dr. Craig Louder of Axiota Animal Health.

The dairy industry is challenged with pressures to lower our carbon footprint and our focus needs to provide a solution in all areas of sustainability. LED lighting is one area that can aid in lowering dairy's carbon footprint by lower electric usage and improving the ROI of the farm. Join Richard Hill of VES-Artex on the Dairy Intelligent podcast as we explore barn lighting basics and the benefits to your cows, employees and bottom line.

There are strong seasonal and daily patterns to milk yield and composition. Although the rhythms are rather robust, lighting and feeding times have an impact on these rhythms and provide an opportunity to increase milk component yields.  Dr. Kevin Harvatine of Penn State University joins us to discuss what we know about these rhythms and highlight opportunities to better manage them.

If you're looking to upgrade or even implement a ventilation system, you want to make sure it pays for itself at some point. After all, cool cows are happy cows, and happy cows add to your bulk tank! Join Huw Jones, Ventilation Specialist with Royal de Boer, as he explains the core principles needed in a ventilation system and how to find the right strategy for your facility, all while keeping ROI in mind.

Join Kristy Campbell of DeLaval for our latest episode! Successful improvements in milk quality take a systems approach. Historically, we've focused in the front of the barn to make improvements. While that area is important, significant efforts should be made in the back of the barn as well. Cow comfort, bedding management, ventilation, heat/cold stress and employee protocols all play a role in milk quality. The impacts of these factors are amplified in robotic facilities. Not approaching milk quality from a systems point of view leads to missed opportunities for improvement.

How does having an automated intelligent barn system that saves you time and energy, and captures lost production and reproduction due to heat stress sound? Phason & VES-Artex's DairyBOS have brought together ventilation, lighting, and cooling into a single platform that is easy to control.  Phason's Joel Seys and VES-Artex's Thomas Robledo give us insights on why having unparalleled control over the back of your barn will give you peace of mind and superior scalability.

Dr. Frank Mitloehner of the CLEAR Center at UC Davis joins us on the Dairy Intelligent podcast. Animal agriculture is often shouldered with a large part of the blame when it comes to climate change, but that's because we haven't been looking at all greenhouse gases correctly. While methane is a potent climate pollutant that we can and need to reduce, it warms our atmosphere differently than other gases because of its short lifespan. By rethinking methane, we can see that animal agriculture can be on the path to climate neutrality with scalable solutions and give the global community tools to fight global climate change.

To study something, we must be able to classify it and categorize it. You may have heard that dairy barns are like snowflakes – there are no two alike. Join Dr. Mario Mondaca of VES-Artex on his journey to try and parametrize barns into the most important facility parameters and how they affect ventilation design.

Dan Schreiner, Product Manager for Feed and Barn for Lely North America, joins us to discuss how feeding technology has evolved, what's available on the market today and the benefits to the cows, dairy farmers and potentially the planet. Automated feeding reduces labor, feed consistency and accuracy and Dan explains how to feed more sustainably in the back of the barn

Simply put, if your cows are experiencing heat stress, your production, reproduction, cow flow, and in turn bottom line, are going to suffer. Peter discusses how heat stress occurs in a barn, how to monitor your cows' behavior when the temperature is rising and tangible heat abatement strategies to put in place to keep your herd cool and comfortable, before it is too late. Peter Manneke, Territory Sales Manager for Europe, Middle East & Africa for VES-Artex, joins us to discuss the basics of heat stress.

Dr. Whitney Knauer of the University of Minnesota joins us and delves into what is currently known about pair housing, its benefits to the calf when compared to individual housing and the current best practices for implementing this pre-weaning housing strategy. We also discuss the benefits of pair housing in terms of labor, growth, health and social behavior.

Smart dairy farming systems generate a large amount of data that can help farmers monitor barn environmental conditions, milk production, feeding, and reproduction cycles of cows. There is also growing interest in the individual-level monitoring of cow behavior in group housed cattle. Dr. Borbala Foris of the University of British Columbia's Animal Welfare Program chats with us on some of the latest research on promising new data streams such as social and grooming behavior that can provide insights into the experiences of individual cows living in a herd and how this impacts their welfare and productivity.

Join VES-Artex's Key Account Manager, Joel Hornby, to learn tangible tips for building a better barn and solutions for avoiding ventilation KPI killers. Sometimes the key to success is knowing what not to do and then determining the best solution. In providing an animal-centered environment for your dairy, specific considerations need to be given to the effects of weather, building structure and facility layout and of course, the cows themselves. Whether you are building a new facility or retrofitting an existing facility, plan to begin with the end in mind and do it the right way the first time.