Elite breeding management strategies

These three dairies were showcased June 17 by Select Sires Member Cooperative for their elite genetics, dairy facilities and technologies, etc. The Dairy Star followed up with some herd questions about breeding and other aspects of their dairy farm.

Becky Clark

Clark Farms LLC

Rollingstone, Minnesota

Winona County

Number of cows: 680

Describe your facilities and list your breeding management team. We have a double-12 parallel parlor and sand-bedded free stalls. Barns are naturally ventilated and have tunnel ventilation with push fans. My breeding team from Select Sires consists of Jack Saemrow, who does an excellent job of breeding; Paul Tveten and Jordan Pahl, for technical support; Andrew Hornberg, who breeds heifers; and Kim DeFrang, who does the matings.

Tell us about your reproduction program? We start breeding heifers at 405 days of age; cows are eligible for breeding at 70 days in milk. Heifers are bred off a Lutalyse shot; cows are on a double ovsynch and resynch program. We also will breed based on standing heat.

What guidelines do you follow to reach the goals for your breeding program?  Giving cows  a relaxing dry period with proper nutrition is important, so when they calve, they are in good body condition, ready to milk and can maintain proper condition for breeding at 70 DIM.

What are the top traits you look for in breeding your dairy herd?  I’m looking for moderate size, feed efficiency, high components, low somatic cell count, high fertility and longevity. I also only breed using A2/A2 bulls.

What role does genetics have in reaching the goals of your farm? It helps us reliably select bulls, which allows us to build a herd with more milk and cows that live longer, have higher fertility, and can resist disease.

What percentage of your herd is bred to sexed, conventional and beef semen? The top 95% of heifers get two services with sexed semen before switching to Angus semen; the bottom 5% get bred to Angus. Forty-seven percent of the top first- and second-lactation cows get bred two times with sexed semen and the rest get Angus semen. We breed a few cows with sexed beef semen if they’re showing in a good standing heat. I do cherry pick some of the older, higher relative value cows in the herd and give them one chance at sexed semen before switching to beef.

What is your conception rate?  Currently 51% conception rate on cows.

Michael Johnson

Trailside Holsteins

Fountain, Minnesota

Fillmore County

Number of cows: 700

Describe your facilities and list your breeding management team. Cows are housed in sand-bedded freestalls in naturally ventilated barns. We work with Jordan Pahl and Kim Defrang from Select Sires and are very grateful for their knowledge and skills.

Tell us about your reproduction program? All cows are bred off of double ovsynch for first breeding. We have an 80-day voluntary waiting period for second-plus lactation cows, an 87-day VWP for first lactation and a 420-day VWP for heifers. CowManager is used extensively on all cows to monitor for heats and health events.

What guidelines do you follow to reach the goals for your breeding program? We have always tried using the very best genetics available to us. Superior genetics is always a good investment. We want to breed strong cows that have a will to milk, breed back well and can live a long, healthy life.

What are the top traits you look for in breeding your dairy herd? We are currently focusing on bringing more positive health traits into our herd primarily through the Genomic Herd Health Profit Dollars and Dairy Wellness Profit Index. However, we will not sacrifice production or strength to do this.

What role does genetics have in reaching the goals of your farm? Good genetics have always been at the forefront when thinking about the future of our herd and our farm. A more recent goal has been to breed a healthier cow with higher components. We have primarily used the composite indexes GHHP$ and DWP$ to aid us in selecting these bulls.

What percentage of your herd is bred to sexed, conventional and beef semen? Eighteen percent of cows are bred using sexed semen, 82% are bred to beef bulls. Seventy-five percent of heifers are bred using sexed semen and 25% are bred to beef bulls. This will vary from month to month depending on the genetic level of eligible animals based on genomic testing results.

What is your conception rate? We currently have a 65% conception on heifers and a 55% conception on cows.

John Meyer

Quarry Hill Dairy LLC

Rollingstone, Minnesota

Winona County

Number of cows: 900

Describe your facilities and list your breeding management team. We operate two sites. The main dairy has tunnel-ventilated barns with sand bedding and a flush manure system with a sand lane. Our second site has sand-bedded free stalls, chimney and panel fans and a flume manure system with a sand lane. We have our Select Sires team handle our breeding program. Jack Saemrow is our main technician. Jordan Pahl delivers semen and supports Jack. Kendra Waldenburger mates the cows and Paul Tweeten supports the staff and watches the numbers. Our herdsman, Angel Guterez, takes care of giving the shots.

Tell us about your reproduction program? We use double ovsynch and catch repeats with our Afimilk rumination collars. We have a 70-day voluntary waiting period.

What guidelines do you follow to reach the goals for your breeding program? We make sure our forage quality is good and monitor it closely for molds and toxins. We also make sure the syringes that we give the shots are working properly so we don’t have a drop in conception.

What are the top traits you look for in breeding your dairy herd? We have always stressed feet and legs and udders in our program along with components and somatic cell count and other health traits.

What role does genetics have in reaching the goals of your farm? Genetics are a key part of our dairy’s success, supporting milk production, components and longevity. Longevity plays a key role in being able to breed more animals to beef bulls to take advantage of that economic piece.

What percentage of your herd is bred to sexed, conventional and beef semen? We use sexed on all virgin heifers for the first two services, then beef. We use sexed on 20% of the cows for the first two services and the rest are bred to beef bulls.

What is your conception rate? 60%.