Top Performers

How many times a day do you milk, and what is your current herd average, butterfat and protein? Our herd is 730 cows; we milk 650 cows three times a day. Our current herd average is 33,197 pounds of milk (103 pounds per day), with tests of 4.7% butterfat and 3.3% protein.

Describe your housing and milking facility. We have a four-row barn for our first and primarily second- and third-lactation cows. We have a 6-row barn for our aged cows. The barns are both tunnel ventilated with pasture mats and sawdust bedding. Our parlor is a double-12 parallel.

Who is part of your farm team, and what are their roles? Jason manages the nutrition for the herd with a full-time feeder. He also manages the crop operation and oversees finances with his wife, who does the books. Derek manages the calf barn, schedules employees, takes care of herd manager duties and helps in the field as needed. Justin does all the A.I., cattle sorting between barns, herd health checks and vaccinations with the vet, along with fieldwork as needed. Derek’s son, Devin, is primarily in charge of maintenance of equipment and facilities along with the bulk of the fieldwork, including planting and combining. We have a full-time feed man who also helps with fieldwork and another full-time man who works closely doing herd management with Derek. We also have two shifts of full-time milkers. Besides our full-time milkers, we have help from high schoolers who milk after school until 8:30 p.m. We have one employee who feeds calves, working a 3-hour morning shift and a 3-hour afternoon shift.

What is your herd health program? We have a herd health check every Tuesday with the Winthrop vet clinic. We pregnancy check the milking herd weekly and do heifer pregnancy rechecks on the herd twice a month. Our vaccination program is as follows: At birth, we give Inforce 3, followed by Bovishield Gold and Vision 7 at 4-5 months and 10-11 months; at the first pregnancy check, we give salmonella and Vision 7; at the 6-month pregnancy check, it’s Guardian and J-Vac, and we’ll do that again at six weeks from calving and two and a half weeks prior to calving; at the fresh check, we’ll do Bovishield Gold and J-Vac followed by another J-Vac at the pregnancy recheck; finally, at dry check, we’ll do salmonella and Vision 7 and dry off is dosages of Guardian and J-Vac.

What does your dry cow and transition program consist of? Cows are dried up every Wednesday between 48-56 days. Some are dried off earlier if they are low producers or due with twins. Far-off dry cows are housed in free stalls. They are moved to a bedded pack area at three weeks before due date. Cows calve in a group setting on a bed pack.

What is the composition of your ration, and how has that changed in recent years? Our ration consists of low-lignin haylage, protein mix, cottonseed, dry ground corn, roasted soybeans and brown midrib corn silage and some liquid molasses. We have moved to a higher concentration of BMR in the diet over the past few years as we have focused on increasing digestibility for dry matter intake.

Tell us about the forages you plant and detail your harvest strategies. We plant roughly 1,000 acres of corn each year with 450 acres of BMR corn silage. We shoot for a half milk line on the kernel to optimize starch when harvested. We plant around 500 acres of beans every year, with the bulk of them going into high-oleic beans this year so we can feed even more and offset some more of the purchased fat costs. We have around 350 acres of low-lignin alfalfa, harvested as 100% haylage every year.

What is your average somatic cell count and how does that affect your production? We average about 130,000 on our SCC and feel this a good number, considering we are not looking to bed with any sand.

What change has created the biggest improvement in your herd average? We have had multiple changes over the years, but we feel adding tunnel ventilation in 2020 to both milking barns was huge for us. Before that, we struggled every summer with falling production that usually wouldn’t be recovered until late fall. Now, production may dip a few pounds in extreme heat and humidity, but it usually recovers quite fast once the heat subsides. A new calf barn in 2016 also helped propel our heifer performance significantly. A more recent addition of a new barn finished in December 2023 to house 4-11-month-old heifers has allowed us to introduce total mixed ration at a younger age, and we hope to see the benefits of that already this summer. Sexed semen, along with an aggressive double ovsynch program, has kept pregnancy rates much higher than we have ever seen.

What technology do you use to monitor your herd? We use SCR collars for heat detection and rumination. Our dairy data is entered into PCDart. We also use EZfeed technology in our mixer tractor for more precise management of feeding data. That has been quite beneficial.

What is your breeding program, and what role does genetics play in your production level? Our breeding program is a double ovsynch program. Genetics plays a huge role. Our goal is for our cows to produce a lot of milk with high pounds of fat and protein. We also want trouble-free cows that last multiple lactations. We use elite genetics through Select Sires and our main genetic selection criteria are milk, pounds of fat and protein, mastitis resistance and fertility. Using this strategy provides us with the best ability to maximize production when all other management factors are well executed.

List three management strategies that have helped you attain your production and component level. First, focusing on reducing cull rates to keep older cows around longer has been something we have honed in on the last few years. That is really where you put it in the tank. Second, we have a very sound breeding and heifer rearing program with the goal to have as high a conception rate as possible. Third, we have highly digestible feed put up at the proper moisture.

Tell us about your farm and your plans for the dairy in the next year. At the moment, there are no plans for expanding the milking herd. We have general improvements we need to make every year to maintain the facilities. We are focused primarily on maximizing income over feed costs with what we have. My brothers and I are fifth generation, with a nephew being sixth generation. Our goal is to be good stewards of the land that has been passed down to us so future generations can enjoy this way of life.