Earlier this year, Balchem and Progressive Dairy Magazine partnered to create a new webinar series, The Real Producer Exchange. In this podcast episode, Scott and Walt reflect on the first webinar in the series, where Clare Alderink from Brian Ryzebol Dairy was the featured producer. Walt gives an overview of the premise and setup of the webinar series along with a brief overview of Clare’s background and current operation. Walt and Scott go on to share some excerpts from the webinar. (0:33)

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference in Reno, Nevada. Stan begins with an overview of the dairy checkoff since its inception in 1983. At that time, dairy farmers were producing 139 billion pounds of milk, but only 122 million pounds were being consumed. Dairy promotion has evolved to focus on research and education about nutrition, crisis management and even partnerships with Domino’s, Taco Bell and McDonald’s. (3:02)

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference in Reno, Nevada. Mike gives an overview of his three presentations at the conference regarding heifer supply. The panel discusses how the industry went from too many heifers to not enough heifers. (3:46)

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Lock begins with an overview of his presentation, discussing nutrition and genomics impacts on the speed of progress in milk fat production. He also talks about historic differences in milk fat production in Europe compared to the US. With the reduction in generation interval that genomics provides, a more complete understanding of rumen and mammary metabolism will continue to be imperative. How do we supply the nutrients she needs to meet her genetic potential? (3:34)

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Kononoff begins with some renewable fuels history. Since the renewable fuels standard in 2007, corn production for ethanol has increased to around 50% of the crop going to ethanol production. With the subsequent increase in fuel has come an increase in distillers grains and the industry has learned how to use them to feed cattle better. Later, the government created additional policy for next-stage renewable fuels, which has spurred biodiesel production. Currently, just under 50% of the soybean crop goes to fuel production. Soybean meal availability has increased and costs have decreased over the past few years. Most of the soybean oil is solvent-extracted. (5:57)

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference in Reno, Nevada. Dr. DeVries gives an overview of his presentation on the economics of feeding more than one ration to lactating cows, with special consideration for additional costs (beyond increased feed costs) such as delivering additional loads of TMR, labor cost and mixing errors. He notes that producer surveys indicate that simplicity and not making mistakes are reasons given for not feeding an increased number of different rations. The surveys suggest there is some real money to be made if appropriate rations are used. Diminishing marginal returns should also be considered: going from one ration to two will yield the largest gain in income over feed costs, with each additional ration yielding smaller gains. (1:52)

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Petfood Forum in Kansas City, Missouri. Austin begins with an overview of the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). Their membership consists of all government officials in the US and other countries who are charged by law to regulate animal feed, including pet food, in their jurisdictions. Canada, Costa Rica, and the US all participate in AAFCO. In the US, animal feed regulation is an integrated food safety system with a partnership between state and federal regulators as well as FDA. AAFCO’s ultimate goal is to harmonize animal feed regulation across all states and provide a level playing field for the industry. (8:14)

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Florida Ruminant Nutrition Symposium. Dr. Baumgard begins with an overview of his presentation, “Importance of gut health to drive animal performance and health.” He notes the metabolic and inflammatory fingerprint of all stressors is essentially the same, indicating they likely all emanate from the gut. Overall, we’re gaining a better understanding of how typical on-farm stressors negatively influence gut barrier function. He thinks the most likely mechanism of leaky gut is the immune cell known as a mast cell. When an animal or human is stressed, the enteric nervous system releases corticotropin-releasing factor, which binds to the mast cell, the mast cell degranulates, and the former contents of the mast cell (TNF-alpha, proteases, histamine, etc.) causes the gut to become leaky. (4:20)

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Florida Ruminant Nutrition Symposium. Dr. Bach gives an overview of his presentation, highlighting that buffers make the rumen resistant to a decrease in pH while alkalizers immediately increase rumen pH. He prefers magnesium oxide, an alkalizer, over sodium bicarbonate, a buffer. Both are effective, but sodium bicarbonate requires a larger amount, thus taking up more room in the diet. The magnesium oxide must be of high quality and soluble in the rumen. (3:40)

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Florida Ruminant Nutrition Symposium.

This episode was recorded in Reno, Nevada, during the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference.

This episode was recorded in Fort Wayne, Indiana, during the 2025 Tri-State Dairy Conference.

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Petfood Forum in Kansas City, Missouri.

This episode was recorded in Reno, Nevada, during the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference.

This episode was recorded in Fort Wayne, Indiana, during the 2025 Tri-State Dairy Conference.

This episode was recorded in Fort Wayne, Indiana, during the 2025 Tri-State Dairy Conference.

This episode was recorded in Reno, Nevada, during the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference. The panel is reviewing a presentation given by Dr. Rick Grant, who was unable to be on the podcast.

This episode was recorded in Reno, Nevada for the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference.

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference in Reno, Nevada.

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference in Reno, Nevada.