Author Archives: Jenifer Cruickshank

About Jenifer Cruickshank

Jenifer is the regional OSU dairy extension faculty for the Willamette Valley. She grew up on a small dairy near Dayton and shall forever have a particular fondness for Guernseys. Jenifer lived out of state for quite a few years and is glad to be back in Oregon. She can be reached by email: jenifer.cruickshank-at-oregonstate.edu.

Need to send anyone (back to) Calving School?

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OSU Calving School, Willamette Valley class

WHEN: Thursday, December 8, 2016, 4 pm to 8 pm

WHAT: This program will consist of presentations, educational videos, and simulated calving assistance. Topics covered will include The Calving Process, Nutritional and Management Strategies to Prevent Calving Problems, Designing Calving Facilities, Dystocia and Calving Assistance, Diseases and Injuries Associated with Calving, and Managing Newborn Calves.
(The program will have a beef cattle slant, but dairy cattle have calves the same way.)

WHERE: Oldfield Teaching Center (on west side of OSU campus)

COST: $20 per person (includes program, the calving school handbook, and pizza dinner)

PRESENTERS: Reinaldo Cooke (Beef Cattle Specialist), Shelby Filley (Regional Livestock and Forage Specialist), and Charles Estill (Extension Veterinarian)

For more information on the program, please contact shelby.filley@oregonstate.edu or 541-236-3016

For on-line registration and payment, go to http://bit.ly/LinnCalvingSchool

If you need help registering, please contact the Linn County OSU Extension Service at 541-967-3871

Calving School will also be held in other locations:

December 9, 2016 (4 pm to 7 pm)       Myrtle Point, OR
December 12, 2016 (2 pm to 5 pm)     Fossil, OR
December 13, 2016 (4 pm to 7 pm)     Heppner, OR
December 14, 2016 (11 pm to 2 pm)   Enterprise, OR

For more information on those classes, please contact Reinaldo Cooke (541-573-4083) or your local Extension Office.

Welcome to our blog!

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Welcome to the new Oregon State University Extension Service dairy blog, Dairy Bearing. The blog’s title might seem odd at first reading, but there’s a little more to it than the way it rolls off the tongue.  Dictionary.com (this is an internet-based medium, so forgive me for not pulling the print dictionary off the shelf), lists multiple definitions for bearing. They include

  • The manner in which one conducts or carries oneself
  • The act or capability of producing
  • The act of enduring
  • Reference or relation (e.g., having bearing on a problem)
  • Holding up or supporting
  • Moving in a particular direction

These definitions seem rather fitting if we think about them in the context of dairy farming.

The purpose of this blog is for us at OSU to share research results, techniques, resources, announcements, and other items that might be of interest to those involved in dairy production. Up above, there are permanent links that connect to various web pages that might be useful. This section that you’re currently reading will scroll along in typical blog fashion, with the most recent post at the top. Feel free to comment or post queries. Note that any comments not in the spirit of respectful discourse will be deleted.

And in the humor of the season:

Mother Goose and Grimm comic strip (2016-10-26) depicting vampires milking cows: "The Vampire Dairies".Mother Goose and Grimm