Eight tanks and counting

NEILLSVILLE, Wis. — She is not made of stainless steel, but Echowood Mixer Pearl 143-ET is a milk tank in her own right. Pearl was the star of the Neillsville Dairy Breakfast June 14 at the Begert family’s farm, spending the day under a tent, with a backdrop of eight milk tankers behind her.

The eight milk tankers were on hand to visually quantify Pearl’s current lifetime production — over 420,000 pounds of milk. Single-handedly filling those eight tankers of milk in her lifetime, Pearl’s production equals 840,000 8-ounce glasses of milk; 84,000 8-ounce wedges of cheese; 74,000 sticks of butter; or 1.12 million scoops of ice cream.

Brian Begert, along with his children, Jaron and Abigail, and his parents, Dennis and Cindy, operate Echowood Holsteins in Clark County, near Neillsville, where they milk 550 cows, including Pearl.

“Pearl is one of those cows that just really takes care of herself,” Brian Begert said. “She just never really needs anything. She’s always done what she needs to do, and suddenly one day, I was looking through the test sheets and saw she was over 350,000 pounds of milk lifetime at that point. I thought, ‘Wow – that’s pretty impressive.’ She just keeps going.”

As Begert began thinking about how to present his farm to the public for the dairy breakfast, he decided to put Pearl in the spotlight.

“Once I realized she was over 420,000 lifetime, I thought that was a great thing to share with people at the breakfast,” Begert said. “Then I started thinking about how to help people outside of the industry visualize what that meant, and I started figuring out how many tanker loads that might be. It blew my mind when I realized it was eight; it gave me a whole new admiration for the cow.”

At 13 years old, Pearl is working on her 11th lactation. Fresh since December, she is on service for what would be her 12th lactation. Begert hopes that the homebred cow will continue to add several more lactations to her already impressive lifetime totals, chasing the world-record holder.

The current world record for lifetime production is held by an Indiana Holstein cow, Nor-Bert Colby Connie, who has credits of 515,390 pounds of milk, according to Holstein Association USA Inc. executive secretary Lindsey Worden.

Pearl has been consistent in her production, year in and year out. Her best record was made in 337 days at 6 years and 8 months of age, when she produced 46,570 pounds of milk with a 4.1% butterfat test and a 3.1% protein test.

“Her first lactation wasn’t really that impressive; it was in the mid-20s, but what has been impressive has been her longevity,” Begert said. “She’s been very consistent, and she’s really youthful considering her age. You’d pick her out of the pen as a mature cow, but I don’t think anyone would pick her out as a 13-year-old cow.”

Begert said stature-wise, Pearl is one of his smaller cows — an attribute he believes has factored into her long-time success.

“She’s a big cow, body-wise, with a lot of rib, but not a tall cow,” Begert said. “She’s pretty balanced, and she moves around the pen like a 2-year-old.”

Pearl came equipped with an attitude that has served her well in life.

“She’s never let anyone push her around,” Begert said. “She knows what she wants, and she makes sure she gets it when she wants it.”

Pearl, scored Excellent-90, was bred by Begert and is sired by Mountfield SSI DCY Mixer-ET. Her dam, Regancrest O Pearl-ET, was purchased by Begert as a choice. She went on to be scored Very Good 85 and made a top record of 39,920 pounds of milk, 1,089 pounds of fat and 1,123 pounds of protein. O Pearl was a daughter of Rabur S Padora-ET EX-92, and a granddaughter of the prolific brood cow, Rabur Outside Pandora EX-91-3E GMD DOM.

“I bought O Pearl as a first choice in a Regancrest sale,” Begert said. “I got really lucky when I bought her. She was fourth on the Pedigree Total Performance Index list back before genomics came out. I flushed her a bit and sent a couple of bulls to stud out of her.”

Pearl has five daughters in the Echowood herd, all natural calves.

“Her daughters are a lot like she was; they didn’t necessarily have huge records in their first lactation, but they continue to get better with age,” Begert said. “They’re cows you don’t notice; they are healthy and just do their thing.”

Pearl’s accomplishments do not just happen, Begert said.

“We have a great team here, caring for our cows,” Begert said. “Every single person on our staff, our veterinarian, our nutritionist — everyone plays a role in making a cow like this and in her success. That’s what we do; that’s what our goal is. We want cows like Pearl, cows that live a long time, make a lot of milk, and make it all look easy.”