This episode features speakers from the 2025 ADSA Applied Nutrition Symposium, “Milk Pricing Dynamics and Strategies for Enhancing Milk Fat Production.”

In this episode, we feature some of the winners of poster and oral presentation competitions at the 2025 ADSA Annual Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. Abstracts can be found here: ADSA 2025 Annual Meeting

Dr. Dahl presented a Real Science webinar on heat stress on April 1, 2025. You can find the webinar at balchem.com/realscience. This episode of Real Science Exchange further explores the key elements of Dr. Dahl’s webinar.

This episode was recorded in Fort Wayne, Indiana, during the 2025 Tri-State Dairy Conference. Dr. Fessenden gives an overview of his presentation which covered both research and field information on automated milking systems. He recommends going back to basics and formulating a rumen-friendly PMR with a complementary palatable feed that encourages the cows into the robot system. (5:57)

Dr. Schwanke begins by describing how we can shape cattle personalities through handling and management and adapting our strategies to accommodate different personality traits so as to not cause undue stress. Personality traits are consistent across time and context, which is nuanced by the other animals in a particular group. There are five generally recognized personality traits: boldness, exploration, activity, sociability and aggressiveness. Some debate exists as to whether dominance should be considered a sixth trait or if it’s just an outcome of the other five. (5:43)

Dr. Hutjens’ presentation focused on herds producing seven pounds of milk fat and milk protein per cow per day, and the genetics, on-farm management and nutrition to make that happen. The panel discusses where components could top out, how added dietary fat has influenced components and the importance of high quality forage to de novo fat synthesis. (4:09)

Dr. Firkins’ presentation covers key aspects of how to improve digestibility of different diet components: fiber, starch, fat and total diet. (4:31)

This episode was recorded in Fort Wayne, Indiana, during the 2025 Tri-State Dairy Conference. Dr. Boerman notes we know cows experience a negative metabolizable protein balance in early lactation, which means they’re mobilizing skeletal muscle to make up for that. Dr. Boerman and her group have been interested in strategies to measure how much muscle they’re mobilizing, when they’re losing it and when they gain it back. (3:51)

Balchem’s Bourbon & Brainiacs event took place at the Frazier History Museum during the 2025 ADSA annual meetings in Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Ryan Ordway, Balchem; Dr. Matt Lucy, University of Missouri; Dr. Normand St-Pierre, Ohio State University; Dr. Paul Kononoff, University of Nebraska; Dr. Manda Williamson, University of Nebraska

This episode was recorded in Fort Wayne, Indiana, during the 2025 Tri-State Dairy Conference. Dr. Carpenter gives an overview of her presentation. She summarizes an Extension risk management project regarding heifer development, assisting dairies in benchmarking their heifer growth and development. Key focus points include reducing morbidity and mortality and timely breeding to achieve goals for age at first calving. Dr. Carpenter also emphasized heat detection and conception, as well as recordkeeping as important considerations for success. (4:10)

Guests: Dr. José Santos, University of Florida; Dr. Jeff Firkins, The Ohio State University; Dr. Bill Weiss, Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University; Dr. Jimena Laporta, University of Wisconsin; Dr. Jim Aldrich, CSA Animal Nutrition; Dr. Tom Overton, Cornell University; Dr. Mark Hanigan, Virginia Tech University; Martin Bengtsson, Balchem; Dr. Barry Bradford, Michigan State University; Dr. Turner Swartz, South Dakota State University; Dr. Adam Lock, Michigan State University; Dr. Goeff Dahl, University of Florida Balchem’s Bourbon & Brainiacs event took place at the Frazier History Museum during the 2025 ADSA annual meetings in Louisville, Kentucky. This bonus episode features a rotating slate of guests throughout the entirety of the episode.

Dr. Jaborek gives an overview of his presentation including sire selection, how beef on dairy crosses compare, feedlot performance, liver abscesses and red meat yield. (6:21) Beef sire availability and quality have changed over time with the development of selection indexes and selection criteria. Calving ease, growth, ribeye area,and quality grade are important traits. (10:03)

Balchem’s Bourbon & Brainiacs event took place at the Frazier History Museum during the 2025 ADSA annual meetings in Louisville, Kentucky. This bonus episode takes a deep dive into bourbon tasting!

In the Real Science Exchange Legacy Series, we celebrate the pioneers who have shaped the dairy industry. In this episode, we honor Dr. Charlie Staples, a distinguished professor at the University of Florida, whose groundbreaking work in dairy nutrition and mentorship touched countless lives. From his 35 years of research mentoring 23 graduate students to earning the American Dairy Science Association's Fellow Award, Dr. Staple's legacy continues to inspire. Join us as we explore his contributions and enduring impact on our industry.

Dr. Hristov gave a webinar titled “Histidine: a limiting amino acid for dairy cows” on March 4, 2025, and joins the podcast in this episode for a deeper dive into the topic. Panelists introduce themselves and give some background on their interest in histidine (00:52) Dr. Hristov gives an overview of his webinar presentation, touching on some of the first research projects that showed lower protein diets resulted in no change in plasma methionine, but a decrease in plasma histidine. When dietary protein decreases, the cow relies more on microbial protein to meet her needs. Histidine content is about 20% less than methionine content in microbial protein. He also notes there are some short-term reserves of histidine in the body, so short-term studies may not show a histidine deficiency when indeed there is one. (7:08)

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Western Dairy Management Conference in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Cantor gives an overview of her presentation at the conference, focusing on data from accelerometers and robotic feeders to predict calf sickness. While the correlations are there and we know calves change activity, behavior and feeding behavior before they get sick, there is more work to be done before the technology is ready for wide implementation. When data from both accelerometers and robotic feeders were used, Dr. Cantor’s group was able to find respiratory disease with a 96% accuracy six days before clinical symptoms. (2:36)

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)