What’s Happening? is based on photos and video collected from around the world.
From Iowa to California, Poland, Brazil, and China, Jim has collected photos and videos from dairy farms and calf ranches all over the world in his 40+ year career. Many of these depict the results of management decisions made by producers and the results are worthy of documenting in a photo or video.
From calf-jacket wearing Holsteins on a farm in Spain (photo, left) or a newborn calf nursing its mother (photo, right) each photo has a story to tell.
“A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into.”
— Ansel Adams, American Photographer
The calf raising business certainly differs in different parts of the world. There are sophisticated, state of the art dairies with tens of thousands of calves and simple family-run operations with ten calves. Farms with highly mechanized milk autofeeders, and those using nipple bottles. Farms feeding milk replacer and commercial calf starters and those feeding waste milk and home calf grain mixes. Farms that deal with cold and snow, and others that battle constant heat stress.
Throughout all of these experiences, there are some fundamental principles that transcend management style. These are an important part of the media included in What’s Happening?. Other episodes address challenges specific to a particular management strategy or location. In each case, the story behind the media is the important idea behind What’s Happening?.
The photo at the right depicts an important lapse in colostrum management and is a cautionary tale for every dairy farmer. The important message (don’t leave colostrum sitting for too long!) is surely understood by nearly everyone, but the message needs to be repeated from time to time.
Traveling the World… to Tell a Story
What’s Happening? will travel from the United States to Europe, Asia and nearly every place in between to tell interesting and informative stories. We’ll start each episode with the general location where the photo was taken (without revealing exact farm information) to put the photo into perspective.
They say that “a picture is worth 1,000 words”. As Leo Rosten, the American writer, astutely noted “if a picture is worth a thousand words, please paint me the Gettysburg address“. Well put.
While the picture sets the topic, it’s important to describe the story behind the media. Our goal with What’s Happening? is to do just that. Show the picture, but then tell the story.
We hope you’ll enjoy each episode!
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, please paint me the Gettysburg address.”
— Leo Rosten, American writer