2 minute read
Dairy prole pro
seldom need a vet because of being able to take care of a problem early before it progresses.
What is the best decision you have made on your farm? We decided not to raise our replacement heifers about three years ago. This allows more room, time and resources to go toward the cows. Because of more personalized attention to the cows, we are able to keep cull rates below 20%. This minimizes replacement needs. Evaluating our expenses of raising replacements, we noticed grown springers or newly freshen heifers cost less. This has lowered our farm expenses. Most of our cows are bred to a beef bull allowing us to take advantage of the better calf prices.
What are three things on the farm you cannot live without? It seems many jobs on the farm involve a skid loader one way or another, so I could not do without one of those. We would also have a hard time maintaining milk production without our feed mixer. We also value our tube ventilation in our 120-foot milking barn. The tube made a difference not only cooling cows in summer months but moving air when housed inside during the winter months. We haven’t had a case of pneumonia in more than six years because of good air circulation in the barn.
What strategies do you use to withstand the volatile milk prices? We focus on trying to be efcient with cow health and keeping costs down. We are enrolled in the Dairy Margin Coverage program, but I feel the best you can do to protect yourself nancially in a small operation is to aim for high components in milk with a somatic cell count as low as possible.
How do you maintain family relationships while also working together? This is a family farm so our children were always involved in helping with chores. We tried to be active in public schools and our church. We tried to make it to every sporting event and school program. This was sometimes a real struggle, and chores would have to be done early so we could make away games. The extra effort for our family was always important and worth it.
What do you enjoy most about dairy farming? I like the variety. There are a lot of jobs that are monotonous day after day on the farm. But with working with livestock, there is always something that will cause variety. Each season has its own jobs and priorities.
What advice would you give other dairy farmers? We have a lot of great dairy farmers in our area. I feel I am better at taking advice than giving it. If I must give advice, I would say don’t be afraid to admit when something isn’t working and change it, even if it is something that has always been done that way. There can always be a better way if we are willing to try different things.
What are your plans for your dairy in the next year and ve years? Our youngest son is a high school senior and trying to decide on his future. If he decides to dairy, he will probably be looking to expand or add automation to the farm for the next generation. If not, then my wife and I will continue down the same basic road until the sad day when we decide it is time to sell the cows.
How do you or your family like to spend time when you are not doing chores? Our family is involved with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It provides a lot of opportunities for service and social activities that we try to participate in. I also love to train horses. I always have a young horse that I am working with and enjoy riding with the family. When the kids were growing up, we had a horse for everybody. As often as we could, we would hit the local and area park trails or endurance ride. We would compete as much as we could in that and other sports. Life is work and fun.
