In October, I had the opportunity to participate in two different roundtable discussions that presented different perspectives on dairy farm management styles than I had not previously considered. Although it did not make me want to immediately upend our current approach to how we dairy, it did remind me of something I learned a long ago. Every farm has a different approach, a different way of caring for their cows, managing their herd, and operating their farm that works best for them. And there is no one “right way” to manage cows. It’s all about what works best for you, for your family, for your business, for the herd, and for your operation.
That’s why I think dairy farming is so unique and is both incredibly challenging and rewarding at the same time. There is nothing cookie-cutter about a dairy farm business. You can walk into two identical tie-stall barns, and they have different feeding strategies or different breeding strategies. The ventilation and bedding are different. Milking and prep procedures are different. They work with different veterinarians and maybe different nutritionists. They have different ways of monitoring heats and transition issues. They dry off their cows at different times and manage their replacements differently.
When we first started milking our herd in 2005, every “twice a day” dairy farm we knew of was milking cows at 4 or 5 a.m. in the morning and around the same time in the evening. So that’s what we started doing. We soon realized that time of milking did not work for our family schedule. If we went to the barn at 4 p.m., we couldn’t get out in time to attend evening activities like 4-H meetings and soccer practices. In the morning, we could not get done in time to get the boys out the door in time for the school bus. Moving it to 8:30 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. allowed us to do those things. People would often question that schedule because it was different, but for us, it worked.
Eye-opening conversations
Last month I attended an organic dairy roundtable meeting, and one of the questions was about the value proposition of organic dairying. I expected to hear about the sustainability message and how holistic it is for both the land and the animals. But one processor shared that the biggest benefit to organic dairying is a stable milk price. The organic milk markets in the room have already set a milk price for 2026, while conventional milk markets offer prices that fluctuate based on the USDA-announced prices for Class I, III and IV milk. Looking ahead at where Class III and IV prices are sitting for the next six months, knowing that I have a stable, premium-based milk price for the next 12 months would be reassuring.
I also attended a roundtable on robotic milking systems. Up until then, I have heard a lot of conversation about how hard robotics are to cash flow and how difficult it is to manage nutrition in a robotic facility. But these farm families all found ways to work around those issues and found that robots afforded them more time with their families and enabled them to use the data to better manage their cows intensively in a low-stress environment. They also talked a lot about how using robotic milking technology got them to think about other technologies, like robotic manure removal and feed delivery systems that allowed them to more intensively manage their cows in other ways with less labor.
New ideas and different approaches
I am not saying I am going to encourage my family to convert to organic or install a robot. However, hearing those discussions made me realize benefits that I hadn’t considered before to doing something different than we are doing now. That’s the benefit of leaving your farm and taking advantage of opportunities to talk with other farmers and see other facilities. It is also the benefit in attending workshops and conferences, to listening to podcasts, and talking to consultants. Every conversation you put yourself into could provide you with a different perspective than you have been exposed to before. And it could open your eyes to trying something new which could make a huge difference for your farm.
I am fortunate to have a front row seat in many of those conversations because of my role at the Center. But, with the harvest season ending, dairy farmers in Pennsylvania have lots of opportunities through the winter season to attend meetings, visit trade shows, and talk with other farmers. Penn State Extension has many workshops planned through the winter months, and many companies are hosting meetings for their customers. We have just announced the program for the 2026 Pennsylvania Dairy Summit, as well, which is planned for February 4 – 5 in Grantville, Pa. All these events offer opportunities to network with other producers and learn different perspectives to take back to your own farm.
The Center does offer a monthly e-newsletter where we list many of these educational opportunities and events. It also includes links to podcasts and articles that offer different perspectives on dairying. If you are not currently subscribing to that newsletter, you can email Emily Barge at ebarge@centerfordairyexcellence.org or call her at 717-788-0300 to get added to the distribution list.
Editor’s Note: This column is written by Jayne Sebright, executive director for the Center for Dairy Excellence.