March 23, 2024 Dairy Star - 1st section - Zone 1

A long line of outstanding cattle

Larcrest Holsteins wins PDCA Distinguished Breeder Award

By Jan Lefebvre jan.l@star-pub.com

ALBERT LEA, Minn. —

For as long as he can remember, Jon Larson has been interested in breeding good cows.

“I remember being a young kid and ipping through a bull book,” Larson said. “People have different loves in life, and this was one of my early ones. I still love it as much as I ever have.”

Dedication to raising quality cattle, as well as service and leadership in a long list of organizations, has led to Larcrest Holsteins being named one of this year’s Distinguished Breeder Award winners by the Minnesota Purebred Dairy Cattle Association.

Larcrest Holsteins is owned and operated by Larson and his wife, Ann, of Albert Lea.

Larcrest Holsteins is home to 250 cows and 400 youngstock. The family owns 500 acres and

rents an additional 100. Larson’s parents were the rst generation to dairy farm there, but the land has been in Larson’s mother’s family, the Whites, since the 1850s. Larson milks cows in the same tiestall barn that his dad, David, did.

“My father had a passion for registered cattle,” Larson said “He loved breeding cattle, and certainly I learned from him.”

Larson has developed cows that are recognized on a global scale that have fetched high prices through embryo merchandizing and have earned top awards for excellence.

In 2013, Larcrest Cardigan sold on the Party at the Park sale for $400,000. Other Larcrest cows have fetched high prices as well. In 2019, Holstein International named Larcrest Holsteins as one of the 12 most inuential Holstein breeders of the world within the past 25 years, and in 2020, it named the Larcrest Cos-

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Dairy Day at the Capitol brings farmers, legislators together

Minnesota Milk Producers Association hosts the annual event

By Jan Lefebvre jan.l@star-pub.com

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Each year since 1981, Minnesota Milk Producers Association has brought dairy farmers to the Capitol to meet with representatives and senators.

This year’s Dairy Day at the Capitol, held March 7 in St. Paul, connected 60 MMPA members with legislators. They shared their stories and concerns about dairy farming and received updates about the

ways government is working on their behalf.

Luke Sjostrom is the executive director for MMPA. He said it is important to have farmers meet with legislators to personalize dairy industry issues.

“The farmers come to tell their stories like only they can,” Sjostrom said.

Jacob Twohey milks 250 cows near Stewartville. This was the second consecutive year that he attended the event.

SADIE FRERICKS/DAIRY STAR

Riley Ruble (from le ), of American Foods Group LLC, Jacob Twohey, of Twohey Dairy, and Kristen Salzl, of Corstar Farm and Minnesota Dairy Ini a ve, meet with Rep. Paul Anderson and Rep. Dean Urdahl March 7 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The group traveled to the Capitol to discuss the dairy industry with legislators during the annual Dairy Day at the Capitol.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Bridget Volpel (from le ); Linda and Chase Saxton; Ann, Jon and Tyler Larson; and Caleb and Connor White gather for an extended family photo in 2021 at Larcrest Holsteins near Albert Lea, Minnesota. The dairy farm, owned by the Larsons, is home to a 250-cow dairy herd, 400 youngstock and 500 acres of cropland.

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mopolitan family of cows one of the top eight most inuential cow families of the past 25 years.

Cosmopolitan and the other members of the Larcrest “C” family line began with one special cow — Cosmopolitan’s granddam, Chanel — who was born through what Larson calls a lucky series of events when he was in his early 20s.

“I had purchased some semen, and the bull I had ordered was not the bull that was delivered,” Larson said. … “I wound up using the wrong bull on about 10 of our best cows.”

The breeder made it up to Larson by giving him 20 units of semen from the bull of his choice.

“I took a bull called Ked-Juror,” Larson said. “The Ked-Juror semen I used sired something really great, and that was a cow named Juror-Chanel. She wound up being 93 points, milked her heart out and was just a phenomenal animal.”

Today, 75% of the milking herd at Larcrest Holsteins are descendants of Chanel.

When Chanel was a calf, a man contracted with Larson to use Chanel for his kids to show. However, when Chantel returned, three weeks before her due date, she weighed 900 pounds and had a hip injury.

“I was nauseous when I saw her,” Larson said. “She gave birth two weeks later to a 150-pound bull calf, which knocked her hip out. She was laid out at for ve days.”

The vet scolded Larson, wondering why the cow had not been put down yet.

“We stuck with her, and after ve days, she sat up,” Larson said. “It was probably two weeks before she could get up and down on her own. She was 800 pounds and couldn’t walk on one hip, but she had shown well in the ring, and I certainly wanted to keep her.”

They put the cow in pasture for the summer. By the next spring, she was healthy and produced a calf.

“Chanel shouldn’t have made it, and it was more luck than sense on my part,” Larson said.

With semen from Convincer, Chantel produced a heifer, Convincer Chante. It was when Chante was just fresh that Dave Erf, of Accelerated Genetics, asked to visit the farm.

“Erf contracted Chanel and Chante for bulls to go to A.I.,” Larson said. “It absolutely oored me and my father because we had no idea why Dave was coming out, and that was the start to everything.”

When Chanel’s due date arrived, she calved in the middle of the night with a set of twins, one heifer and a bull.

It was a happy result for a cow who almost had to be put down. The bull calf fullled the contract with Accelerated Genetics, and the Larsons kept the heifer calf, who became Larcrest Champagne.

Champagne later produced one of the Larsons’ most successful cows, Cosmopolitan, who captured the No. 1 spot in the country on the Total Performance Index and went on to pro-

A group of third-grade students pet Larcrest Crimson EX-94 at the Larson family’s farm near Albert Lea, Minnesota. The Larsons offer an annual farm tour for all third graders in Freeborn County.

duce more winning cows for the Larsons.

One of Cosmopolitan’s offspring was Crimson, who turned out to be a favorite of Larson’s.

“Cosmopolitan was probably about 65 inches tall and one of the most enormous cows I’ve ever seen, and Crimson is a little bit bigger,” Larson said. “In her

peak, she was a 2,600-pound cow, and she has a personality twice that size.”

Larcrest Crimson EX-94 was the highest scoring Ramos daughter and is the granddam to Larcrest Commander, one of the Larsons’ many winning bulls, who in 2017 became the No. 1 Lifetime Prot Index bull in

Canada and top 10 TPI bull in the U.S. Crimson’s lifetime totals include a 96-point mammary system, 372,038 pounds of milk, 15,915 pounds butterfat and 13,180 pounds protein. She was named the 2016 Global Cow of the Year by Holstein International.

Today at 17 years old, Crimson is retired, living in a box stall adjacent to where Larson milks.

“Milking takes me about 5.5 to 6 hours, … so I’m with Crimson 12 hours a day,” Larson said. “She is the most intelligent animal I’ve ever been around and just as full of personality and as good a friend as I will ever have — other than my beautiful wife.”

Crimson is wonderful with visitors, Larson said, and she is a favorite of kids who visit during the Larsons’ annual farm tour they hold for Freeborn County’s third graders.

“She absolutely knows she’s the star of the show,” Larson said. “She loves people and all children.”

Looking back, Larson said he is grateful for his wife who helps with calf care, does the bookkeeping and has been by his side since they married in 1993. Larson calls her the “morale” of the farm.

“She is absolutely a wonderful woman,” he said.

Their son, Tyler, is at college, but their nephew, Chase Saxton, works with them on the farm.

Larson said he and Ann could not have accomplished what they have without so many helping them.

“A good share of our success I can attribute to the people we have met and surrounded ourselves with and those who have represented us,” Larson said. “When it’s all said and done, it’s about the people we’ve met, and we’ve met some incredible people along the way. It’s been an unbelievable ride.”

PHOTO SUBMITTED

cipant in

“I chose to attend to stay informed on current legislative issues facing the dairy industry and to help advocate for dairy to our lawmakers,” Twohey said. “DDC is an all-around valuable day, as it allows dairy farmers to stay informed on current issues, provides a face for the dairy industry and helps keep dairy on the minds of our lawmakers when legislation passes their desk.”

Bob Dombeck said he has attended around 10 times. A dairy farmer from the Perham area, he milks 360 cows with his brother and brother-in-law. This year, Dombeck’s daughter accompanied him for the rst time.

“I brought my daughter, Taylor, to show her how the government works in St. Paul,” Dombeck said.

Like Twohey, Dombeck said having farmers meet with legislators helps

shine a light on dairy issues.

“I see value in meeting with our representatives to discuss the issues that we see daily on our farms because if we don’t, they will never know about them,” Dombeck said. “We can explain to them how it personally affects us. It is good to go and talk to our legislators so that they know our concerns and priorities that may help or negatively affect us.”

Rep. Paul Anderson, who represents District 12A in west central Minnesota, attended the event and heard from farmers about a variety of topics, among them milk prices.

“We usually talk about the price squeeze facing those who milk cows,” Anderson said. “That’s more of a fed-

Turn to DAIRY DAY | Page 7

SADIE FRERICKS/DAIRY STAR Gene Goenner (from le�), of Alltech, Anthony Anderson, of Stone Dairy, and Taylor and Bob Dombeck, of Sandhill Dairy, convene March 7 outside the State Office Building during Minnesota Milk’s Dairy Day at the Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota. Taylor, a student at Perham High School, was a rst-�me par�

the industry lobby day.

eral issue, and milk pricing can get complicated. We all agree that current milk prices don’t fully cover the cost of production.”

Capacity, Anderson said, is another concern shared by dairy farmers, especially when they look to the future of their farm.

“I have heard on many occasions that Minnesota’s milk processing capacity is full and cannot accept any more milk from (producers),” Anderson said. “That makes it difcult when a son or daughter wants to return home to the family farm, and they would like to add cows to the herd. They can’t nd a home for any increased production they may want to add.”

Anderson said he appreciates the opportunity DDC offers for making connections with farmers.

“I enjoy Dairy Day because it gives legislators a chance to visit with folks who are actually involved in the dairy industry,” Anderson said. “We visit, usually in a small group setting, and can hear about their issues and what they would like us to do about them. We get to know them better, and they can put a face to the name and hopefully feel more at-ease when calling or writing us in the future.”

In a press release through MMPA, Sjostrom stressed the goal of DDC.

“We believe it is important for our members to have the opportunity to meet with their legislative representatives to

the dairy community’s legisla ve priori es at Minnesota Milk’s Dairy Day at the Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota. The event began in 1981 and connected 60 members with legislators this year.

discuss pending legislation that may have a direct impact on their families and farms,” Sjostrom said. “We appreciated the willingness of our legislative representatives to meet with us to discuss important issues. We believe it is always time well spent to take a day or two off the farm to help bridge understanding between the farming community and others.”

Sjostrom also shared a current focus of MMPA efforts.

“Our top priority at this time is to be sure policies and regulations are science-based and do not put unnecessary burdens on farms doing busi-

ness in Minnesota,” Sjostrom said.

DDE’s face-to-face meetings have led to positive impacts on dairy policy, Sjostrom said.

“We continue to have a great turnout of over 50 farmers each year, and that has a tremendous benecial impact on dairy rules and laws in Minnesota,” Sjostrom said. “For an example, a comment made by the Groetsch family about the (value) of robots turned into a benet of extra points on Livestock Investment Grants.”

Personal input from farmers like the Groetsch family

sticks with legislators as they make decisions about regulations and policies that shape the state’s dairy industry.

Twohey said the state’s budget might be less than helpful this year.

“My main takeaway from this year’s DDC is that many lawmakers are sympathetic to issues the dairy industry is facing but are reluctant to support additional spending with a forecasted decit for the next scal year,” he said.

The evening before DDC, MMPA held its annual Dairy Dinner at the St. Paul Hotel, celebrating dairy and naming

this year’s award winners for the organization.

The Producer of the Year Award went to Kerfeld HillView Farms near Melrose, a 250-cow dairy that has adopted conservation practices.

Legislator of the Year went to Sen. Aric Putnam, who is chair of the state’s Agriculture, Broadband, and Rural Development Committee.

The Bruce Cottington Award, named for its rst recipient in 2006, was given to Brad Rugg of Owatonna for his years of service to 4-H and the dairy community. Rugg delivered a speech at the event about how investing in purpleribbon kids positively impacts the future of dairy.

“(The annual Dairy Dinner) is always a special time when we can come together as an industry to celebrate the good work we do as individuals and as an organization,” Sjostrom said in a press release.

MMPA also held its annual member meeting March 6.

Aaron Vogt retired from his board position, and Garrett Luthens and Rick Smith were reelected to the board. Also, leadership positions on the executive board were restructured. Positions are lled as follows: Garrett Luthens, president; Shelly DePestel, vice president; Sadie Frericks, secretary; and Rick Smith, treasurer. Anthony Anderson and Tom Walsh will also serve as board members.

SADIE FRERICKS/DAIRY STAR

Duane Alberts (from le ), Vincent Migliazzo, Brian Yo er, Rick Smith, Sen. Steve Drazkowski, Kaitlin Heusel, and Dave and Ann Buck gather for a photo March 7 following their discussion on

Award-winning dedication

Kerfeld family named Minnesota Milk’s 2023 Producer of the Year

By Tiffany Klaphake tiffany.k@dairystar.com

MELROSE, Minn. — Every day, four generations of Kerfelds set foot in the barn at Kerfeld Hill-View Farms.

The Kerfelds were recognized by the Minnesota Milk Producers Association as the 2023 Producer of the Year March 6 at the association’s annual meeting.

“It was a surprise to us that we won,” Tim Kerfeld said. “We are just your normal, everyday dairy farmers.”

Tim and his wife, Carrie, are the main overseers of the farm and have ve children and four grandchildren. Their four sons — Nicholas, who is also part owner, Nathan, Isaac and Riley — all help in the day-to-day operations.

“We all typically meet in the barn in the morning and go over what needs to get done for the day and the rest of the week,” Tim said. “In general, we all have our own jobs, but we all help out as needed.”

Nicholas takes care of crop inputs, and Nathan is in charge of the youngstock, including the steers; both are full time on the farm. Isaac

and Riley are in school and help on a regular basis. Their daughter, Jessica, and her husband, Michael, have their own dairy farm. Tim’s parents, Art and Rosie, live and help on the farm.

They milk 290 cows with four Lely A5 robotic milking units and farm 400 acres near Melrose. The Kerfelds also use automation in their barn for manure scraping, feed pushing and calf feeding.

“With the robots, you still have to

be there every day, but you have the exibility do to more with your day,” Tim said.

The Kerfelds raise heifer replacements and steers. They also do custom soil sampling, manure hauling, harvesting and planting of cover crops for others. The family mainly uses rye and sorghum for both a cover crop and as a double crop. Kale and radishes also are used as cover crops.

“When the kids expressed interest in returning home to farm, we had to nd something to generate extra income,” Tim said.

farm. They work with the National Resources Conservation Service on conservation programs and are recognized with the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certication Program. They encourage and assist other farmers in getting started with sustainability practices.

“Now, we do a fair amount of notilling for other people,” Tim said. “We do it whenever we can on our farm too.”

MINNESOTA DAIRY INITIATIVE

With so many people involved and so much going on at Kerfeld HillView Farms, it is important to the family to not cut corners.

“Tim is really good at showing the boys the details of how and why we do things,” Carrie said.

Besides utilizing technology in their barn, the Kerfelds also utilize technology on their tractors due to the breadth of their custom work.

“The precision ag technology is mainly how we are able to get everything done that we need to,” Tim said. “With the custom work, we got involved with cover cropping and practicing no-till a number of years ago.”

The Kerfelds are a reduced-tillage

Kerfeld Hill-View Farms was part of a four-year sustainability study with the Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership. The study collected data on the economic and environmental impact of conservation practices.

Due to the Kerfelds’ diligence with conservation efforts, the family was also named the 2023 Outstanding Conservationist by the Stearns County Soil and Water Conservation District.

Besides promoting conservation, the Kerfelds do what they can to promote the dairy industry and agriculture in general. Art and Rosie have been active on the Stearns County American Dairy Association board

TIFFANY KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

The Kerfelds — Henry (front, from le ) and Carly; (middle, from le ) Rosie, Art, Carrie, Tim and Kris n; (back, from le ) Isaac, Riley, Nathan and Nicolas holding Aiden — gather March 15 in their freestall barn near Melrose, Minnesota. The Kerfelds were named the 2023 Producer of the Year by the Minnesota Milk Producers Associa on.

TIFFANY KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Riley Kerfeld loads manure with a skid loader March 15 at Kerfeld Hill-View Farms near Melrose, Minnesota. The Kerfelds milk 290 cows with a robo c milking system.

March 15 at Kerfeld Hill-View

a third-genera

for 30 years. Kerfeld Hill-View Farms hosted a Stearns County farm city tour in 1998 and the Stearns County Breakfast on the Farm in 2021.

“We did the farm city tour, which was the very rst version of breakfast on the farm,” Tim said. “After four or ve years, they changed the name to breakfast on the farm. So, we hosted the rst and the latest one for Stearns County.”

All of the Kerfelds agreed that dairy farming together is not just a ca-

reer but rather a lifestyle.

“It is a great way to raise a family,” Tim said. “We are all together every day, and I get to see my kids and grandkids every day.”

Carrie agreed.

“The farm teaches a lot of good values, mechanics, dairy health, soil health and communication skills that you can’t learn living in other places,” Carrie said. “We also enjoy the freedom of being our own boss.”

TIFFANY KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR Nicolas Kerfeld and his three children, Aiden, Carly and Henry, take a break

Farms near Melrose, Minnesota. Nicolas is

on, part-owner of his family’s farm.

Stay engaged in farm bill advocacy

With the current farm bill extended through September and no rm prospects for bringing new legislation up for a vote, National Farmers Union President Rob Larew is warning members not to be discouraged. “Even when there is a middle ground, unfortunately, there’s a small group of members that are blocking that,” Larew said. During his State of the Farmers Union address at the annual meeting, Larew encouraged members to stay engaged “If farmers speak up, we can make the difference so that those that can nd a middle ground can get a farm bill wrapped up and through the halls of Congress,” Larew said.

NFU approves special orders of business

NFU delegates approved six special orders during its convention. The priorities include fairness for farmers, the farm bill, the farm safety net, conservation, dairy policy reform and support for the cooperative business model. The special order regarding dairy policy said the milk price only covers about 50% of the production costs, which has led to record Dairy Margin Coverage payments. The NFU is calling for an incentive-based plan to match milk supplies with demand, a reevaluation of the Federal Milk Marketing Order system, the establishment of a national make allowance to reect the difference between milk prices and the cost of production, and the restoration of whole milk as an option in the school lunch program.

Emergency action sought

The American Dairy Coalition is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to grant the American Farm Bureau Federation’s ofcial request for an emergency decision to return the Class I skim price formula to the higher of. During the past ve years with the average of methodology, dairy farmers have experienced a net loss of $1.1 billion. Nearly 30 state, regional and national dairy organizations, state Farm Bureau organizations and cooperatives have signed the ADC letter.

Larew, Kippley return for another term

NFU delegates re-elected presi-

dent Larew and vice president Jeff Kippley by unanimous ballot. Both will serve another two-year term. Larew has served as the NFU president since 2020. Kippley, who farms near Aberdeen, South Dakota, is beginning his second term as vice president.

GOP lawmakers press White House to address ag trade

pean Union and New Zealand,” Fuess said. “We see milk production getting challenged in those regions, and we still see growth in the U.S. over the long term.”

Ag Insider

Over 20 Senate Republicans have sent a joint letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai voicing concern about the sharp decline in ag exports. The letter said, “While the Biden administration continually refuses to pursue traditional free trade agreements, China, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom and others continue to ink trade pacts that diminish American export opportunities and global economic inuence.”

By Don Wick Columnist

A double-edged sword

The NFU looked at the future of co-ops in local communities at their annual convention. In his address at the NFU convention, National Cooperative Business Association President and CEO Doug O’Brien said technology can be a double-edged sword for rural communities. “On one hand, technology does tend to create an even bigger magnet for people to go to more urban areas,” O’Brien said. “On the other hand, particularly during the pandemic, we could see that technology could be a solution for people who want to live in rural communities.” O’Brien said one challenge for rural cooperatives is access to capital.

Athian Inc. and held several leadership positions over 15 years at Land O’Lakes.

MHA elects ofcer team

The Minnesota Holstein Association has elected its new executive committee. Darrel Rennich, of Bruce, South Dakota, will serve as president in the year ahead. Eric Sonnek, of Foreston, Minnesota, is vice president, and Ashley Swenson, of Nicollet, Minnesota, is the nance chair. Board members are Nate Donnay, of Glencoe, Minnesota; Trevor Ekkel of Pipestone, Minnesota; Tony Kohls of Arlington, Minnesota; Rebecca Groos of Howard Lake, Minnesota; Chris Schulze of Holland, Minnesota; Lucas Plamann of Hutchinson, Minnesota; Randy Gross of Lake Benton, Minnesota; Jacob Pehrson of St. Peter, Minnesota; Kari Swanson of Hutchinson, Minnesota; and Chad Kieffer of Utica, Minnesota.

Great Plains Institute adds executive vice president

A difcult farm economy Margins will be tighter on the farm this year. Farmers Business Network Financial general manager Dan English cites the current economic environment. “This certainly isn’t going to be as protable of a year, unfortunately, as we saw a year or two ago,” English said. “The good news is we’re expecting to see a little bit of relief on interest rates here in the second part of this year, but there’s a lot more pressure on farmers this year with higher interest rates, higher input costs and lower prices.”

Reason for optimism

Despite the recent downturn in the dairy markets, Rabo AgriFinance LLC senior dairy analyst Lucas Fuess remains optimistic for the second half of 2024. “We’ve got to get through the spring ush period over the next few months, of course,” Fuess said. Fuess said several variables are at play. “Looking ahead, the U.S. is very well positioned, especially when considering other key dairy exporting places around the world, places like the Euro-

MARL group returns from Panama

The Minnesota Agriculture and Rural Leadership Program class has returned from an international experience in Panama. MARL Executive Director Brad Schloesser said the class learned about agriculture in the region and got a close-up look at the Panama Canal. “One of the takeaways was concern over the amount of water, specically fresh water, that comes out of Lake Gatun, and that’s what raises the ships to the appropriate level to get them across the country,” Schloesser said. MARL aims to equip participants with leadership skills and foster relationships in networking that will last a lifetime. The application process for the next MARL class is open through the end of this month.

Midwest Dairy names CEO

The Midwest Dairy Association has named Corey Scott their new Chief Executive Ofcer. Scott began her duties March 13 and will be transitioning from retiring CEO Molly Pelzer. Scott previously served as vice president of sales and marketing for

Starting April 1, Louise Miltich will join Great Plains Institute as its rst executive vice president. Miltich is now the assistant commissioner of regulatory affairs for the Minnesota Department of Commerce Energy Resources Division. The new role serves GPI’s focus on energy and stakeholder engagement on climate issues. GPI is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Trivia challenge

The average American consumes 18 gallons of milk per year. That answers our last trivia question. For this week’s trivia, what was the average retail price for a gallon of whole milk last year? We will have the answer in the next edition of Dairy Star. Don Wick is owner/broadcaster for the Red River Farm Network of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Wick has been recognized as the National Farm Broadcaster of the Year and served as president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. Don and his wife, Kolleen, have two sons, Tony and Sam, and ve grandchildren, Aiden, Piper, Adrienne, Aurora and Sterling.

The cost for custom

Operators share eldwork rates

By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com

MARSHFIELD, Wis. — Saving time and labor as well as money spent on equipment are key reasons farmers choose to hire a custom operator for eldwork. The speed at which crops can be harvested is another advantage of using a custom operator.

Rates for custom work vary, so farmers may wonder how custom operators determine what to charge. Knowing this information can eliminate shock when receiving a bill for custom work.

Equipment size and power can affect the rate charged. Larger pieces of machinery or equipment featuring advanced technology often garner a higher price tag. Many services are based on a per-acre cost, while other services, like chopping, are calculated by the hour.

Steve Salzmann operates Salzmann’s Custom Field Work near Marsheld, serving about 28 customers within a 50-mile radius, including 12 dairy farms. Salzmann is starting his fourth year of custom work, providing tillage, planting, chopping and combining services.

“Most of my customers hire me to do it all,” Salzmann said.

Salzmann charges $16 per acre for discing and soil nishing, $18 per

acre for chisel plowing, $21 per acre for planting, and $30 per acre for combining soybeans and small grains like barley and wheat. For corn, Salzmann charges $35 per acre because he runs a shredder head, which shreds cornstalks while he combines.

“My rate for corn can vary,” Salzmann said. “If I don’t run the shredder head, I charge a little less.”

Salzmann’s rate for cutting hay is $17 per acre. For merging, he charges $16 per acre. Rates for hauling and chopping are congured by the hour. Chopping runs $385 per hour while hauling a tractor with 24-foot wagons is $100 per hour.

“I run a used chopper, so my rate is a little lower than some people’s,” Salzmann said.

Salzmann’s rates do not include fuel as the farmer is expected to supply that.

When determining rates, Salzmann consults with other custom operators in his area each year to get an idea of what they are charging.

“If they’re getting a new chopper, their rate goes up a little because of the price of the equipment and the technology that goes with it,” Salzmann said. “Since I have a used chopper, my monthly payments are less, so I can charge less than some of the other guys. I try to be more competitive and give the farmer a better price in the long run.”

“Troubleshoot issues and analyze all aspects of the dairy.”

What do you like about the Dart program?

I like the ability to customize reports to help analyze the trends on the farm.

Why did you decide to use Dart and how long have you been using it on your dairy? I’ve been using Dart for 13 years. It’s a very user friendly program that we could not only input and manage our cow information but also build reports, graphs, and lists to help troubleshoot issues and analyze all aspects of the dairy.

Which Dart features do you use the most? I use Dart for all my animal records, ID, treatments, matings and genetic data, but I probably use the pocket dairy on my phone the most. I can take all the info with my anywhere I go.

What are some other DHIA tests you use?

We also use DHIA for Leukosis and Johnes testing.

Tell us about your farm. My wife Robyn and I milk 180 cows with my sister Jocelyn and dad Jim. We raise our own heifers, have a commercial ock of sheep and farm around 350 acres primarily for feeding the livestock.

DHIA: Now MORE than ever

Sauk Centre, MN Buffalo, MN

763.682.1091

Salzmann said some custom operators will calculate chopping and hauling rates according to tonnage. To do this, he said one must have a scale on their wagons and/or have a scale on hand for weighing.

“Newer choppers sometimes tell you the tonnage coming out,” Salzmann said. “Tonnage is hard to charge because you have to have a scale.”

Field conditions can affect pricing as well. Salzmann has raised rates a couple of times when he found rock in the ground during tillage and planting.

“Rocky ground beats the heck out of my equipment, and I could lose money on the job,” he said. “In those cases, I might charge more to cover myself if I have breakdowns.”

Salzmann occasionally offers discounts to farmers who use multiple services and pay their bill upon completion of the work, or soon thereafter.

is and the quantity of hay. If I’ve never chopped at that farm before, I would not know the answer.”

Custom operator Mike Maass, of Maass Farms, provides a variety of custom services, from planting and spraying to harvesting of forages and combining as well as installing eld tile. Based in Seymour, Maass has been doing custom work for 14 years and serves about 18 customers in a 20-mile radius. Maass said the dairy farms he services milk anywhere from 50-350 cows.

“If it’s a hefty bill with multiple services, and I get paid within a week or two, I usually give a 5%-10% discount,” he said. “At one farm, I do all the tillage, planting, and combining and also go back in the fall to chisel plow so it’s ready for springtime. It’s a big expense, so I give him a discount because he pays me within two weeks.”

Before deciding which custom operator to go with, Salzmann recommends asking what kind of equipment the operator has.

“This gives the farmer a better understanding of why rates are what they are,” Salzmann said. “A question that is not fair to ask is, ‘How many tons per hour can you do?’ A lot of factors go into that, such as how far the haul

“We charge mostly by the hour, and rates depend on machine size, etc.,” Maass said. “We have two self-propelled choppers.”

Last year, Maass charged $500 per hour to chop corn silage and haylage using his smaller, 600 horsepower chopper and $650 per hour when running his 800-plus horsepower chopper. His rate for planting is $22 per acre. Combining rates are $38 per acre for soybeans and $40 per acre for corn. Maass charges $8 per acre for spraying. Prices do not include fuel, as fuel is provided by the farmer.

Maass may raise prices this year to compensate for increased business costs.

“I’ve been eating some of the costs the last couple years with higher insurance rates and expensive parts,” Maass said. “Overall, everything is going up. The ination rate went up so high that insurance is raising their rates 15%20% this spring. The price of parts has also skyrocketed, putting us in a pinch.”

Things he used to be able to swap out, like a set of knives, have increased drastically, Maass said. Knives used

to cost $3,500 but now cost $4,500$5,000.

“Things are really getting out of control, and we haven’t changed our prices as needed,” Maass said. “We have to try to nd a happy medium. As equipment gets bigger, faster and more efcient, we can put more things through, but that comes with a cost.”

Field size, driveways and access to the farm are other factors that can affect rates, Maass said.

“I have to charge some customers by the hour because getting on and off highways takes longer,” he said.

Brad Wichman, of Wichman Farms, uses a custom operator for harvesting hay and corn silage. Wichman and his family milk about 250 cows and farm 680 acres near Appleton.

“We use a custom harvester for time savings, efciency and more consistent feed,” Wichman said.

Every year, Wisconsin Custom Operators conducts a survey on rates charged by its members. The following data was gathered from the 2022 growing season.

The average combining rate was $38 per acre, planting was $24 per acre, and tillage was $17 per acre.

The average rate for crop preparation using a merger or mower conditioner was $16 per acre.

For nine years, Wichman has called on Maass Farms to chop his corn silage. Last summer, he also began using their custom services for cutting, merging and chopping hay. The Wichmans do their own planting. The Wichmans have 140-150 acres of hay and 120-130 acres of corn harvested by Maass and his crew.

“The rest of the corn we combine, and we plant soybeans also,” Wichman said.

To help decide which custom operator to go with, Wichman said to rst ask the following questions: What are they capable of doing? How much are they capable of handling? How much time do they have? What are they willing to do regarding harvest?

Average forage harvesting or chopping rates were as follows: corn silage with a 500-800 horsepower chopper was $570 per hour; corn silage with a chopper greater than 800 horsepower was $845 per hour; haylage with a 500-800 horsepower chopper was $487 per hour; and haylage harvested with a chopper greater than 800 horsepower was $720 per hour. All rates reect the customer providing fuel.

Hauling rates were normalized to a 30-foot length to compare machine types. A semi came out at $96 per hour; a straight vehicle such as a chopper box on a truck was $118 per hour; and a tractor was $134 per hour.

Bagging rates averaged $8 per foot for a 10-foot diameter bag and $12 per foot for a

12-foot diameter bag. Pack tractor rates averaged $138 per hour when fuel was not included and $133 per hour when fuel was included.

Regardless of size or management philosophy, farmers can always use help in the elds. With a better understanding of how custom rates are determined and the average rates for services, farmers can make informed decisions in selecting a custom operator.

Steve Salzmann Salzmann’s Custom Field Work

Mike Maass Maass Farms

from our side our side OF THE FENCE THE

How do you see the large animal veterinarian industry changing in the next 5-10 years?

Dr. Hannah Adney

St. Norbert College; Iowa State University Postville Veterinary Clinic in Postville, Iowa 5 years of experience

Tell us about your normal workweek. My typical workweek is a mixture of scheduled work, such as herd health and chute work, and running sick calls and emergencies. I am on call roughly one night a week and work about every third weekend.

What kind of health issues did the warmer than average winter pose for your dairy animals? The biggest issue I saw with the warmer winter was an increase in respiratory disease. The cattle haired up as usual in the fall/early winter and were ready for cooler temperatures, only to have milder temperatures that left them far too warm. We had only about two weeks of actual winter here in Iowa, and that drastic temperature swing led to cows going off feed and a slug of displaced abomasum.

What other challenges are dairy farmers facing this winter and leading into spring? In this region, the two biggest concerns are suboptimal milk prices and drought. While the milk price is not as bad as it has been in recent years, it has been hanging right around the break-even point for several farms and has been for quite some time. Farmers could use a little breathing room in the milk price. There is hope that with more dairy farms utilizing beef semen that the heifer population will decrease and eventually lead to an increase in milk price, but I am not sure how many farmers place stock in that. We have been in a drought for about a year now, and many farmers are concerned that we won’t see that change anytime soon. Some of our farmers have cattle on pasture, and the pastures went dormant early last summer, which meant feeding more hay than expected. Crops affected by the drought have made poorer feed as well.

Has a shortage in large animal veterinarians impacted your practice? Yes, our clinic has denitely been impacted by a shortage of veterinarians but more so indirectly. We have stayed relatively consistent with the number of vets on staff, but other local clinics have not been as fortunate and have been trying to hire additional veterinarians without much success. Farmers are sometimes left with long waiting periods to have sick animals seen or emergencies tended to and have difculty scheduling appointments in a timely manner. These farmers have either chosen to switch their business to our clinic or have been re-

Dr. Amy Dahlke

University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine Anderson Veterinary Service in Zumbrota, Minnesota 10 years of experience

Tell us about your normal workweek. Most of the early part of my workdays start with routine, scheduled dairy herd health visits. Afternoons vary depending on the week. After the herd health visits are complete, I help cover any sick animal calls or emergencies that have called into the clinic for the day. I also may have a scheduled afternoon of pregnancy checking or vaccinating beef cattle or small ruminants. I typically have one weeknight on call for the week, and I am on call every sixth weekend.

What kind of health issues did the warmer than average winter pose for your dairy animals? The warmer than average temperatures were not necessarily harmful alone, but it was the temperature swings that contributed to health issues. It was a challenge to manage keeping barn curtains open on warm days but having to close them back up the next day for a drop in temperatures. Earlier in the winter, when we had a few more rainy and humid days, it was harder to keep bedding clean and dry, which did contribute to health challenges. To try and combat these issues, I had discussions with producers about frequent bedding changes and keeping things as clean and dry as possible. Keeping stocking density low — especially in youngstock pens — is also important to improve cattle health.

What other challenges are dairy farmers facing this winter and leading into spring? The low milk prices are the biggest challenge for our dairy farmers this spring. The potential for drought-like weather will also have an impact on the ability to produce quality, affordable feedstuffs.

ferred when other clinics simply cannot keep up. As a result, we have been far busier than usual. The overall region could certainly use more veterinarians.

How do you see the large animal veterinarian industry changing in the next 5-10 years? The population of large animal veterinarians will likely continue to decrease. I was told at a conference this year that roughly one-third of large animal veterinarians are poised to retire by 2030, and we are not recruiting and retaining veterinarians fast enough to keep up. Farm numbers are also shrinking, but overall cattle numbers are staying consistent as farm sizes keep growing. This will continue to make for less “re engine medicine” and more consulting for veterinarians.

Tell us about the most unique call you have ever been on. I was treating milk fever and a tractor started on re about 20 feet from where I stood IV’ing the cow. I gave the farmer my bucket of water to put the re out. His mesh hat wasn’t holding water very well. He then said as long as I was there, why don’t I help this heifer who had been calving for a little while with no progress. It turned out to be a schistosomus reexus. Between the tractor re and the deformed calf, it was probably one of the most interesting mornings I have had. My other one was my very rst solo emergency after I graduated from vet school. I had been in practice for about a month and a calving was called in. I was told to do the best I could until someone else could come help me, but I would have to go and try it myself in the meantime. I was incredibly nervous, and I remember the GPS counting down the miles to my destination and feeling my dread increasing the whole time. When I got there, the farmer told me that it was a valuable embryo calf, which didn’t help my anxiety. It was a simple backward calving, so we jacked it out and had a live heifer calf. I must have made a good rst impression, because that farmer and I have been married for almost four years now and have two little boys.

What do you nd most rewarding about your work? Being part of this community is the most rewarding part of my job. When I started almost six years ago, one of the vets at the clinic told me that the clients will become friends the longer I work here. I remember thinking that maybe that was the case for him, but I doubted it would be the same for me. I am happy to say that I was wrong, and the community has been incredibly welcoming. I love the bonds I have been able to form with clients while pregnancy checking cows, helping with DAs and vaccinating calves. Some of them have become good friends outside of work. I can never thank them enough for the hospitality they have shown me. I am so grateful for the role they have played in my professional and personal development.

Has a shortage in large animal veterinarians impacted your practice? We are very lucky to be fully staffed. The biggest impact on our practice has been the number of solo large animal veterinarians retiring in the area, resulting in a large expansion of the area we cover. To be honest, we are still guring out how to best manage this within our practice. It is a hard balance to make sure we are taking care of our longtime clients in a reasonable and timely manner while still offering services to clients further away. Along with doing this, making sure we have time to make it home at night to be with our families. It is a controversial topic because many of the areas that are facing a veterinary shortage do not have enough consistent veterinary work to support a full-time veterinarian.

How do you see the large animal veterinarian industry changing in the next 5-10 years? As large animal veterinarians, we continue to change and adapt as the demands of our clients change. An increasing number of our clients are able to handle basic sick cow care and are instead looking to their veterinarian for more of a consulting role to analyze facets of the dairy.

Tell us about the most unique call you have ever been on. Looking back, most of the story-worthy recollections I have involve a dangerous situation that could have been avoided with good facilities. There are a couple of instances in which I have rode on the back of a four-wheeler into the woods to nd a beef cow tied to a tree trying to calve. It makes for a good story, but I hope to never encounter it again.

What do you nd most rewarding about your work? The most rewarding thing about my job is helping to come up with solutions that can improve efciency and protability on the farms I work with. As a large animal veterinarian, I get to know my clients when I visit them on a routine basis. I thoroughly enjoy developing those relationships.

Dr. Nathan Marti

University of Minnesota

New Ulm Regional Veterinary Center in New Ulm, Minnesota 23 years of experience

Tell us about your normal workweek. Mornings usually have scheduled herd health visits with palpation exams and often vaccinations, castrations and dehorning. The rest of the day is most often sick animal work of all large animal species.

What kind of health issues did the warmer than average winter pose for your dairy animals? We saw an increase in pneumonia through all life stages this winter. It was a good opportunity to go over housing and prevention protocols. Nutritionally, this winter was better than most for most producers.

What other challenges are dairy farmers facing this winter and leading into spring? Milk prices and a lack of creamery options for where to sell their milk.

Has a shortage in large animal veterinarians impacted your practice? I don't think there is a shortage of large animal veterinarians. There are less practicing veterinarians but also less herds and less animals to service. The perceived shortage is due to the economics of needing a baseline of herds to run a large animal practice.

How do you see the large animal veterinarian industry changing in the next 5-10 years? There will continue to be consolidation of food animal agriculture and subsequent reduction of large animal veterinarians. At the same time, there is an increase of work from small ruminants that will likely continue. The continued expansion of a clinic's service area to maintain a big enough client base is a certainty.

Tell us about the most unique call you have ever been on. I've had lots of unusual calls, but the most unique was when I had to replace a prolapsed bladder on a dairy cow. She somehow pushed it out through her urethra. It took 30 minutes, but I was able to slowly get it back in with my thumbs. My thumbs were very sore.

What do you nd most rewarding about your work? The variety is a huge benet, but the great clientele is the best part of this job. I guess pulling out adorable, live calves is a close second.

Dr. Jon Hucker

Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine

Lester Prairie Veterinary Clinic in Lester Prairie, Minnesota 25 years of experience

Tell us about your normal workweek. The normal work week for a large animal vet is varied. I would consider myself a general large animal veterinarian rather than a dairy-exclusive veterinarian, so that is why I say the normal work week is varied. Although the clinic is primarily dairy, we do all farm species. Most of my work is diagnostic with sick animals rather than pregnancy checking, so I get a wide variety of cases.

What kind of health issues did the warmer than average winter pose for your dairy animals? On a normal winter in central Minnesota, January through March, most of the health issues would be related to frozen silage that leads to digestive system upsets, which means displaced abomasum surgeries. Also, enclosed barns for calves would also lead to both diarrhea and pneumonia. However, this winter, the DAs are slightly less than normal, and the calf diarrhea issue is also down in incident rates. The biggest issues that seem to be hot right now are respiratory issues in both age groups. This can be related to trying to regulate the ventilation of barns. As far as the feed issues, we might be seeing results related to the drought of last summer with some of the lesser-known mycotoxins appearing to be sporadically being an issue.

What other challenges are dairy farmers facing this winter and leading into spring? For the most part, the challenges of this spring are similar to the challenges that are historically faced this time of the year. This year’s twist would be if the farm has had a respiratory outbreak. Has a shortage in large animal veterinarians impacted your practice? The answer to this question should be its own article, as there are multiple layers to it. Yes, as it has increased the

Dr. Alan Sletten

Gustavus Adolphus College; University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine

Wall Lake Veterinary Services LTD in Fergus Falls, Minnesota 36 years of experience

Tell us about your normal workweek. I schedule 1-2 herd visits a day and then do medical or surgical calls. In the fall, I work on at least 3-4 beef farms a week.

What kind of health issues did the warmer than average winter pose for your dairy animals? It has been a very good winter for dairy animals with no frozen teats, ears or waterers. The temperature uctuations and rains led to some respiratory issues. Bedding has been a problem. When we didn’t get the normal Minnesota concrete and had mud to deal with, people had to use more bedding.

What other challenges are dairy farmers facing this winter and leading into spring? Low milk prices are putting a big strain on the dairies. One producer told me the bank helped last year, but this year, they are on their own; it will hurt.

Has a shortage in large animal veterinarians impacted your practice? Our area has lost six large animal veterinarians in the last ve years. They either couldn’t nd a replacement or have lost so many clients that they didn’t think they could afford to pay a replacement. So, that’s the dilemma. First, to nd someone who wants to do large animal work and second, to retain enough clients in a small enough practice area to pay them a salary and not spend all day traveling.

How do you see the large animal veterinarian industry changing in the next 5-10 years? The dairy industry will continue to change as it has. The large dairies will continue to expand. The middle-sized dairies will struggle the most with labor and repairs, and the smaller farms that have their own labor and feed can go until retirement. Veterinarians will have to continue to provide services that these groups need and can afford. As the number of farms declines, then we will have to do more work with beef cattle or other species.

Tell us about the most unique call you have ever been on. A few months ago, a client called with a calving. He said he had three feet and a basketball coming. When I got there, he was right: three feet and a basketball. There were two hooves on the right leg and the left leg was normal. The basketball was a hydrocephalus. The skull didn’t cover the brain, and a sack of spinal uid formed the basketball. I managed to deate the uid and deliver the calf without a cesarean-section. Mother did ne; the calf, not so well.

What do you nd most rewarding about your work? The people. I have seen three generations on the farm in my career. I’ve witnessed kids growing up, graduations, weddings and funerals. My clients are some of the most interesting people there are, mostly in a good way.

practice radius, but also no, as the livestock industry has contracted. There are fewer clients that need to be serviced.

How do you see the large animal veterinarian industry changing in the next 5-10 years? I foresee that there will be more graduates who are production animal medicine consultants and fewer that are livestock veterinarians, as the food animal industry consolidates into ever larger facilities and the monetary bottom line dictates treatment decisions versus the line of thought of doing what is best for the individual animal or pen of animals.

Tell us about the most unique call you have ever been on. I could write a book similar to the late James Herriot, but most people would consider my experiences to be a work of ction. I will tell of one quick stop that happened shortly before I was married. I was on afterhours emergency duty when a call came in about a pet that was bleeding from the mouth. Of course, it needed to be a house call, so my future father-in-law, who was visiting, along with my future wife, jumped in the truck with me. It was a juvenile pet black bear. Upon inspection, it was a loose baby tooth that was loosened by the bear biting the wire of the cage, and no treatment was needed.

What do you nd most rewarding about your work? The two most rewarding things are the relationships that are formed between me and the clients and delivering animals and watching them get started in life.

Congratulations to the ve young ladies crowned Stearns County Dairy Princesses.

Woitalla won the other scholarship.

Ambassadors are Chloe Hoppe, the daughter of Travis and Amy of Albany, Emily Peters, the daughter of Jeff and Melanie of Sauk Centre, and Haddie and Lanna Walter, the daughters of David and Cathy Walter of Sauk Centre.

Five ladies (from left) Avery Rieland, the daughter of Josh and Kadee of Sauk Centre, Jaiden Smith, the daughter of Jeremy and Emily of Melrose, Selena Corona, the daughter of Kelly Corona and Ross Lemke, and Steve Corona of Albany, Grace Woitalla, of the daughter of Keith and Patty of Holdingford and Grace Herdering, the daughter of Steve and Pam of Freeport were crowned Stearns County dairy princesses March 9 at the Freeport Community Center in Freeport, Minn. Corona was also named miss congeniality and was one of the scholarship winners.

Con nued from OUR SIDE | Page 16

Dr. J. Larry Goelz

University of Minnesota

College of Veterinary Medicine

Windy Ridge Veterinary Clinic in Pipestone, Minnesota

28 years of experience

Tell us about your normal workweek. It is a mixture of scheduled weekly or every-other-week herd checks on large dairies, mixed in with emergency calls and seasonal beef and dairy work.

the skills and knowledge that our clients demand is difcult and, once found, to attract them to a rural community is not easy.

How do you see the large animal veterinarian industry changing in the next 5-10 years?

What kind of health issues did the warmer than average winter pose for your dairy animals? The warmer than average winter rst and foremost lead to a higher buildup of pathogens in the environment. Most diseases that are acquired from the environment, such as coccidiosis, parasites, etc., die in freezing weather, and the frozen environment is near sterile when frozen. This winter was much more difcult in terms that the ground was not frozen, more dirt was incorporated into feeding systems, and many barns and shelters were more difcult to correctly ventilate. I worked with my clients to address these issues with more bedding, more astute ventilation adjustments and more diligence in preparing feed mixes.

What other challenges are dairy farmers facing this winter and leading into spring? First and foremost is the challenge of protability. While commodity prices have dropped, most dairies are feeding silage and haylage that was procured under a higher commodity price, resulting in a strain on protability.

Has a shortage in large animal veterinarians impacted your practice? We are blessed to be fully staffed with great young veterinarians. However, in order to add another or replace one of our existing veterinarians, it will be difcult. To nd a new graduate with

Herd size will get larger due to economies of scale. Veterinarians will be practicing more population medicine. Dairy and beef business decisions will have more zeros after them and thus need to be well thought out with the most up-to-date information available. There will be fewer veterinarians but more well-trained support staff. Veterinarians will have to be disciplined in how they work to provide the most efcient use of their time. Rural areas without signicant animal agriculture will struggle to have access to veterinarians.

Tell us about the most unique call you have ever been on. An owner called one morning in January. When bedding the cows the night before with a loader tractor, he hit a cow in the chest with the grapple fork. When I saw the cow, she was chewing her cud. The other side of the cow had a gash in the chest 14 inches long. After restraining the cow, I began to pull rib pieces out of the chest and could feel her heart beating against my hand. I repaired the chest wound and pulled air out of the pleural space to inate the lung. The cow calved two days later and went on to be very productive.

What do you nd most rewarding about your work? Being a veterinarian is a people profession. The animal and the farm is simply the avenue to help people accomplish their goals. Working with farmers in a rural agricultural area is my life’s dream. Every day, I get to do what I love, where I love to live.

How many times a day do you milk, and what is your current herd average, butterfat, and protein? We milk the main herd twice a day, and we milk the fresh group four times a day. Our rolling herd average is 30,909 pounds of milk with 4.7% butterfat and 3.48% protein. Our herd is averaging 96 pounds of milk per head per day.

Describe your housing and milking facility. We have conventional freestall barns that have curtain sidewalls. One of our barns has free stalls that are equipped with waterbeds while the other has free stalls that are bedded with sand.

Who is part of your farm team, and what are their roles? Our team includes Cal and Char Lubben, their son, Chad, and his wife, Morgan. Cal is in charge of overall herd health, fresh cows, breeding and chopping silage. Char takes care of the calves and is the farm’s bookkeeper. Chad does the feeding, and Morgan is the herdswoman. Morgan also helps with the calves, breeding, herd records and fresh cows.

What is your herd health program? Our vet performs herd health checks every other

TOP PERFORMERS

Cal Lubben, of Lubben Dairy | Edgerton, Minnesota | Rock County | 400 cows

JERRY NELSON/DAIRY STAR

Madelyn (from le ), Morgan, Cal and Char Lubben stand in their freestall barn Feb. 13 on their family’s farm near Edgerton, Minnesota. The Lubben family milks 400 Holsteins. Cal and Char’s son, Chad, is not pictured.

week. We give the cows a J-5 vaccine at dry-off. They are vaccinated with SRP salmonella and ScourGuard two weeks later and are boosted throughout their dry period. Calves are given Nasalgen at birth. Close-

up cows also receive a dose of Nasalgen.

What does your dry cow and transition program consist of? Our cows are given a dry period of 60 days. At dry off,

we move them to free stalls that are bedded with sand. Three weeks prior to calving, they are moved into a pen that has a bedding pack. Our dry cow ration consists of straw, grass hay, rye silage, sorghum silage

and corn silage. After calving, the animals are moved to our fresh cow pen where they remain for the next three weeks and get milked four times per day. They are then moved to either the heifer group or the mature cow group.

What is the composition of your ration, and how has that changed in recent years? Our total mixed ration contains haylage, cottonseed, liquid molasses, soybean meal, corn silage, nely ground corn and a protein/mineral mix. Adding nely ground corn and amino acid balancing has helped us achieve higher milk production and has increased milk components.

Tell us about the forages you plant and detail your harvest strategies. Our forage crops include winter rye, alfalfa, sorghum and corn silage. When we harvest our alfalfa, we cut it one day and chop it the next day. We pay very close attention to moisture levels. We have our own chopper, so we can stop and wait for the hay to dry before continuing to chop. Highly digestible forages are the foundation of high milk production.

Turn to

Target practice with teat ends

What target?

How about your liner that remained open under the teat during the “rest”

How did milking go this morning with that target on the teat ends of your cows?

607-849-3880 • 607-352-0053

- Stephanie Hughes

“We love cows and producing a nutritious quality product for consumers. That’s why we love Udder ComfortTM line of defense for 15 years. It’s our go-to for everything, and it’s wonderful for fresh cows, keeping udders supple during to protect the ligaments and get fresh cows going.

“Try it, you’ll love it. Nothing else compares,” says Stephanie Hughes. She and Alan started their Sunsett Dairy, Pittsville, Wisconsin in 2015 after building cow numbers since 2007. They worked and saved to make dreams reality.

They milk 60 cows in rotational grazing, with sons Bryce, Gavin, and Derek helping. Steph runs the herd, Alan the crops. He also serves as Wisconsin Air National Guard F-35 crew chief.

Steph says is good advice learned since starting their own dairy.

“That’s true for cows too. It’s good to have this versatile product for fresh cows, hard quarters, and it gets show cows ready quickly.”

Read their story at qrco.de/sunsett

or scan QR above

SUNSETT DAIRY, PITTSVILLE, WISCONSIN

The Hughes Family: Alan and Stephanie with sons Bryce, Gavin, and Derek, who was pictured with Carlaton Diamondback Raven VG88 (right) on the cover of the July 2023 Holstein International. 60-cow grazing herd of registered Jerseys, Holsteins, Ayrshires, Milking Shorthorns SCC consistently below 200,000

phase.

Yep, that liner was looking right at those teat ends just sucking and destroying. Perhaps it is time for pulsation and a liner that doesn’t do that.

Con

nued from

What is your average somatic cell count, and how does that affect your production? Our current SCC is 118,000. Keeping our SCC low has helped us attain good milk production and components. We closely monitor our dairy facilities for stray voltage.

What change has created the biggest improvement in your herd average? The biggest improvement has been adding nely ground corn to the lactating ration. Doing this has increased our average daily milk production by 3-4 pounds. Grinding the corn down to 300 microns makes more of its starch available to the rumen yet doesn’t cause hemorrhagic bowel syndrome.

What technology do you use to monitor your herd? We monitor our herd with ID tags and track milk production with Dairy Herd Improvement Association and DairyComp.

List three management strategies that have helped you attain your production and component level. First was nely grinding our corn to 300 microns. Second was focusing more on our calves and making sure that they get the best possible start in life. We have also begun to pasteurize our colostrum and constantly monitor its quality, with the goal of it having a Brix score of 27-28. We make sure that all of our calves receive a gallon of high-quality colostrum within two hours of birth.

Tell us about your farm and your plans for the dairy in the next year. We are a multifamily, fourth-generation dairy farm. We have no big plans for the coming year. We just hope to keep getting better and, hopefully, be protable and pay down debt. It’s

possible that we will add tunnel ventilation to our freestall barns. There is no magic bullet to high production; it’s simply doing many little things right. High feed intakes means getting the cows to eat that extra mouthful of feed. We are averaging 58 pounds of dry matter intake per head per day. We have been with the same nutrition company for 40 years. I listen to podcasts and webinars and do a lot of reading, including the Dairy Star. Char and Morgan have implemented an excellent calf program with Purina and are getting 2 pounds of average daily gain in our calves. Because of that, we are beginning to see higher milk production from our rstcalf heifers. Our goal is to get 8 pounds per head per day of combined fat and protein.

JERRY NELSON/DAIRY STAR

The dry cows at Lubben Dairy are housed in free stalls that are bedded with sand Feb. 13 at the family’s farm near Edgerton, Minnesota. The Lubbens said a en on to dry cow comfort has helped them increase their rolling herd average.

A pile of nely ground corn is ready to be included in the total mixed ra on Feb. 13 at the Lubben family’s farm near Edgerton, Minnesota. Daily milk produc on has increased by 3-4 pounds per head since the Lubbens began to include the corn that is reduced to 300 microns or less.

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Dairy kids win on the mat

Farm wrestlers across the region compete at the state level

By Amy Kyllo amy.k@star-pub.com

WATERVILLE, Minn.

— When the referee lifted Keegan Kuball’s arm in victory, it marked his second consecutive state champion title for heavyweight wrestling.

“I felt a lot of pressure go off my shoulders,” Kuball said. “I had a lot of pressure to win it again, because I’m supposed to be the best one in the bracket. ... It was just fun because I love doing it, and it’s pretty rewarding.”

Kuball, a junior, wrestles for the Grizzlies, a co-op 1A

team encompassing two districts, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown and Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton.

Kuball is the son of Nate and Shannon, who milk 240 cows near Waterville. The Kuballs also farm 1,100 acres for feed and as cash crops.

Every day after practice, Kuball is outside working in the shop. On weekends, he works as well, including milking on Sunday nights. In the summer, he helps with eldwork, milking, feeding and work in the shop.

“Farming taught me a lot about leadership,” Kuball said. “At a young age, I had to learn how to know what to do (and to) know what other

people should be doing. ... It also taught me a lot about hard work. Dairy farming is a demanding job.”

The heavyweight champion was 40-4 in the regular season. Kuball has wrestled for 13 years.

“You’re the only one out on the mat,” Kuball said. “You’re the one winning, but

you’re also the only one out there when you lose too. ... (You) have to put a little pressure on yourself to win, but you also don’t have to rely on a whole team to be really good.”

At Willmar Senior High School, cousins Cavin and Conlan Carlson both competed at the state level.

They are part of Carlson

Dairy, located near Pennock, which milks 2,000 cows.

Cavin, who won third at state, is the son of Carl and Kellie. The sophomore wrestled at 133 pounds. This was Cavin’s third time competing at state but his rst time placing.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FARIBAULT DAILY NEWS

A referee li s Keegan Kuball’s arm in victory at the 2024 Minnesota State High School League state wrestling tournament at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Kuball, whose family has a dairy farm near Waterville, Minnesota, won the heavyweight class for the second year in a row.

PHOTO COURTESY OF RIKKI VAN DYK Walker Zoellner wrestles Jan. 16 in Groton, South Dakota. Zoellner placed third in the regionals and competed at the state level but did not place.

Con

Cavin’s record was 39-4 in the regular season and 12-1 in the postseason. Cavin said he has been wrestling ever since he can remember.

“I love wrestling,” Cavin said. “It’s just something I really care about. ... I like to call it a legalized ght. ... You get to go out there and impose your will on another guy. ... There’s some fun about that and then going into a room every day with a team and having them behind your back.”

Cavin helps on the farm about two days a week. He helps his dad with whatever is needed, including sorting cows, giving vaccinations, moving feed and moving tires.

“There’s always work that has to be done (on the farm), whether you do it now or you put it off,” Cavin said. ... “With wrestling, I’ve just made that a thing where I might as well put in the work now. ... All this work will pay off eventually.”

Cavin and Conlan have spent the year working together as practice partners every day. The pair shared everything, talking about their matches and whether a move was going to work.

“It’s a lot easier to do something and accomplish something when you’re with someone who has similar goals,” Conlan said. “That was something different this year, having him right there by my side, wanting it just as bad as me.”

Conlan, a junior, is the son of Chad and Kindra.

Conlan competed at state and was named to the state AAA all-tournament team. His regular season record was 42-4, and his postseason record was 10-2. This was

his fth time competing at state, where he has placed three of the past ve years.

Like his cousin, Conlan also has been wrestling since he was young.

“I’ve been wrestling ever since I can remember,” Conlan said. “I don’t remember a specic rst time. ... It was something I picked up right away and took off with.”

Conlan helps his dad on the farm two or three days a week. He said he does not go to the farm much when school is in session but helps more in the summer.

Conlan has taken the lessons learned on the farm to his sport.

“I’ve learned hard work and grittiness,” Conlan said. “Sometimes when you’re wrestling the best guy, not everything is going to be easy. I’ve learned that, on a farm, not all work is to sit behind a computer and click a button and everything happens. It’s handson work.”

Going south across the border into Iowa, Jayden Mara, of Waukon, competed in wrestling at state for Waukon High School.

Mara, who is the son of Kyle and Ashley, works as an employee for Rolinda Acres in Waterville, Iowa. The farm has over 900 cows milked by a robotic system and a double-12 parlor. On weekends, he helps mix feed and work the elds.

Mara, a junior, had a regular season record of 24-4 and a postseason record of 26-7. This was his rst time competing at state.

Mara wrestled at 113 pounds, having cut during the season from 130 pounds.

“It’s a lot of work,” Mara said. “I cut a lot of

weight, and you have to really push yourself. It’s really hard sitting down to lunch watching everyone else eat and you know you can’t.”

Outside the wrestling season, Mara milks every evening as well as two or three mornings a week. During wrestling season, he picks up as many mornings as he can. He said the mornings were an advantage to him at early meets.

“They’re all tired, and I’m used to it,” Mara said.

Heading west into South Dakota, Walker Zoellner, of Groton Area High School, also competed at state. His record, wrestling at 126 pounds, was 34-16. He placed third in the regionals and competed at state but did not place.

Zoellner has wrestled since he was 4 years old. He enjoys the dual nature of wrestling.

“It’s a team sport, but it’s not at the same time,” Zoellner said. “If you

win or you lose, it’s all on you.”

Zoellner, the son of Darin and Anne, helps on his parents’ farm near Groton, South Dakota. They milk 10 cows and have about 1,000 acres. Zoellner helps with eldwork, feeding calves and mixing feed. He pauses much of his farm involvement during the wrestling season.

Zoellner said a lesson he learned on the farm that he takes to wrestling is to not give up.

PHOTO COURTESY OF EMILY KOCH PHOTOGRAPHY

Jayden Mara walks through the arena during the Iowa High School Athle c Associa on State Wrestling Championships Feb. 14-17 at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. Mara, a junior, had a regular season record of 24-4 and a postseason record of 26-7.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MACY MOORE/WEST CENTRAL TRIBUNE

Conlan Carlson wrestles on the mat at the 2024 Minnesota State High School League state wrestling tournament at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Carlson, a junior, competed at state for the  h year in a row.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MACY MOORE/WEST CENTRAL TRIBUNE Cavin Carlson wrestles on the mat at the 2024 Minnesota State High School League state wrestling tournament at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Carlson, whose family has a dairy farm near Pennock, Minnesota, placed third in the 133-pound weight category.

Penning a farm family story

Geiger writes two historical non-ction books

By Stacey Smart

stacey.s@dairystar.com

REEDSVILLE, Wis. — Corey Geiger grew up hearing stories about his family and ancestors on the dairy farm he called home — a farm with family ties dating to 1867.

Geiger listened attentively when his elders spoke, storing the details in his memory, not realizing then that this information of his family’s past would one day ll the pages of two books.

“We were a farm family that had victories and struggles and moments you might want to redo,” Geiger said. “These were tough days of life, and there are a lot of themes I like to feed people in my books.”

Geiger, an international agricultural journalist, spent 28 years on the editorial team at Hoard’s Dairyman magazine, including 13 years as lead editor. Currently, he works at CoBank where he serves as the lead dairy economist.

Geiger’s rst book, “On a Wisconsin Family Farm: Historic Tales of Character, Community and Culture,” was released in 2021 and is a National Indie Book Awards win-

ner.

His second book, “The Wisconsin Farm They Built: Tales of Family and Fortitude,” came out last year and contains a foreword written by Jerry Apps, a Wisconsin author.

“They’re a good read,” Geiger said. “These people would be good characters in a ctional book, except this is a non-ction book, and they’re real. Their stories help you dig back and understand history.”

Geiger transports his readers back in time through storytelling containing vivid details of the past. The books feature a series of short stories in which Geiger captures the history of his family’s farm. The stories are complemented by numerous historic photographs saved by his grandmother.

“Busy, hardworking farm folk or retired people were the audience I had in mind when writing, and this is why I did it in short sections,” Geiger said. “You can pick it up and read in short spurts, put it back down and pick it up again 10 days later. There are people who told me they haven’t read a book in 10 years, but they read mine.”

Geiger’s books can be found in 215 stores throughout

Author Corey Geiger holds a copy of each of his books Feb. 7 at Literatus & Co. bookstore in Watertown, Wisconsin. Geiger’s historical non-c on books, “On

equally enjoy getting out and talking about my book and interacting with readers. When my rst book was published, I drove all over the state and introduced myself.”

The farm in Reedsville where Geiger and his sister, Angie, grew up is the setting of both books. Geiger and his family milked 65 cows in a tiestall barn and farmed 375 acres.

“We had a nice herd of registered Holsteins,” Geiger said. “Our farm was our life. We didn’t go on vacations when I was a child. As an adult, I worked up there almost every weekend, even when I was working at Hoard’s. I took my vacations there too.”

Geiger’s parents, Randy and Rosalie, bought the farm in 1981.

“My grandma’s heart was at the farm,” Geiger said. “She and my grandpa visited often, and there would always be a story. I was very close to my grandparents.”

Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest. In addition, the books are sold on Amazon and on Geiger’s website. Geiger’s rst book has been sold to all 50

states.

“My books are doing well at ‘mom and pop’ bookstores,” Geiger said. “Many authors enjoy the writing part, but I

Geiger’s six-generation family farm turned 150 years old in 2017. Geiger wanted to have a party to celebrate but could not convince his parents. Instead, he decided to have a party in the local paper, The Brillion News, by writing a series of stories known as the Homesteaders’ Hope.

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

a Wisconsin Family Farm: Historic Tales of Character, Community and Culture,” and “The Wisconsin Farm They Built: Tales of Family and For tude,” were wri en to capture the history of his family’s dairy farm.

“I told the newspaper I would like to write about 20 stories, but it turned into 99 stories,” Geiger said. “Using our farm as characters, I also talked about local history.”

The series was a success, as the paper picked up subscribers from 37 states who had heard about Geiger’s column.

“I began receiving emails from readers, and I thought maybe this should become a book,” Geiger said. “Many of the stories in these books were told through the eyes of women because the farm went through the women in my family. They were meticulous notetakers.”

John and Anna Burich, Geiger’s great-grandparents, are the main characters in his rst book. Anna, who was born in 1877, became owner of her family’s homestead in 1905. She married John Burich in 1906. Geiger’s grandparents, Elmer and Julia Pritzl, are the stars of the second book. The Pritzls purchased the farm in 1939.

The books’ beginnings contrast — one enveloped in happiness, the other in sadness.

The rst book opens with a marriage proposal of Geiger to Krista Knigge, which took place on his family’s farm in 2006. The second book opens with a tragic story describing the death of Geiger’s great-grandmother, Anna Pritzl, who was killed by a train in 1932 while on her daily outing to pick up milk.

Elmer Pritzl was only 16 when his mother died. Forced to become an adult before his time, he got a job at the foundry and was promoted to foreman by 18. Five years later, he fell in love with a farmer’s daughter, Geiger’s

grandmother. Elmer had no farm background, but his mother-in-law entrusted him and his wife with the farm.

Geiger tells not only of his family’s history but also weaves in historical happenings of the times. From lime to cheese, the rst book describes how these two industries took off in Wisconsin. In the second book, Geiger details the rise and fall of the Allis Chalmers company in West Allis. The books also describe Geiger’s Bohemian heritage with ancestors who came from the Czech Republic.

Geiger was in the middle of writing his rst book when his father passed away in 2019. Work on the book came to a screeching halt. Geiger negotiated a new deadline with his publisher and completed the manuscript one year later.

The cows were sold in the spring before his father’s passing. Geiger continues to crop half of the land and rent the other half and works with neighbors doing custom work. His mother lives in the original farmhouse — the same house built in 1916 that is mentioned many times in the books.

Geiger is not done writing and has ideas for two more books.

Geiger hopes his journey encourages others to record their family’s past, sharing the history and stories that make their farm unique.

“One reader told me my books are a family conversation starter,” Geiger said. “That is the best compliment I ever received. It gets children and grandchildren talking to their parents and grandparents and inspires other people to capture their farm history.”

and his family milked 65 cows on their farm, which is at the center of two books wri en by Geiger.

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IN DAIRY women

Tell us about your family and farm. Our family farm is a 30-cow operation with 20 beef cattle and 10 ewes and their lambs. We farm 300 acres of pasture, hay and grain to feed all the livestock.

What is a typical day like for you on the dairy? My husband and I get out to the barn around 7 a.m. I feed, water and bed the calves in the hutches. The number of calves range from four calves to 13. I also feed and water the sheep before I have to leave for my preschool teaching job at 8:15 a.m. During night milking, besides the calves and sheep, I sweep up hay, scrape behind the cows, and give hay and feed to the cows in our 39-stall station barn.

What decision have you made in the last year that has beneted your farm? Feeding concentrate to the cows is much simpler since each cow gets the same amount before and after each milking except for the dry cows.

Tell us about your most memorable experience working on the farm. My most memorable experience was when we had 21 calves in a short time. That was stressful to get them all fed and get to work on time.

Kathy Dux Stewartville, Minnesota Olmsted County 30 cows

What have you enjoyed most about dairy farming or your tie to the dairy industry? I enjoyed raising our kids on the farm, and now, I especially love to see the grandchildren play and learn about animal care and the milking process. I also enjoy having families out to see and learn about dairy farming as well as the sheep.

What is your biggest accomplishment in your dairy career? We built a silo and shed near the dairy operation, which was convenient for the beef, steers and calves as well.

What are things you do to promote your farm or the dairy industry?

I have been on the Olmsted County American Dairy Association board since 1995. I am serving as secretary and been involved in dairy princess day care visits, farm visits, Rochester Honker’s game, county fair milk wagon and other promotions. Two of our daughters were dairy princesses, so I was involved in supporting them at parades and other events. For a number of years, in April and May, our county Extension organized Ag in the Classroom visits, which I did the dairy class at surrounding schools.

What advice would you give another woman in the dairy industry?

Dairy takes a lot of dedication and sacrice, but it is a good feeling to be an active participant of the dairy industry. Also, keep things in perspective. Maybe things are not as bad as it seems. Focus on the good and maybe it is not that bad.

What is a challenge in the dairy industry you have faced, and how did you overcome it? It is always dif-

cult planning for family gatherings and holidays. Everything is contingent on milking times, eldwork, a cow having a calf, cleaning the barn and grinding feed. It changes almost every day.

When you get a spare moment, what do you do? I do watch the grandchildren when I can, and it seems each extra moment is used to catch up with the house chores or preschool planning.

www.extension.umn.edu/dairy

Beat stress with boundaries

There is always something to do on the farm. From working, planning, spending money or predicting the best time to do a project, it is a lot to manage. We are told to take time to slow down, reect and rest. How can we do that with all this other stuff we need to do? One way we can prioritize our health during times of stress is by setting boundaries.

In its simplest denition, a boundary is a limit put on something. In this case, we are thinking about personal boundaries we set with ourselves and others to maintain positive relationships and good mental health. Boundaries are not a bad thing; they serve as a mechanism for us to limit our exposure to experiences we may nd stressful or hurtful.

from person to person or situation to situation, and that is OK. Think of boundaries as a way to customize experiences in a way that feels healthy and safe.

By Emily Krekelberg University of Minnesota

Setting boundaries requires strong communication and a clear understanding of the purpose of the boundary. Expressing your needs clearly and rmly is a crucial step in the process. If you have not set many boundaries in the past, this may feel uncomfortable or confrontational. Remember that setting boundaries is a form of self-care. They are a way for us to avoid stressful situations and to protect our sense of self and peace.

Nedra Glover Tawwab provides three easy steps to setting healthy boundaries:

Setting healthy boundaries is going to look different for each person and for different situations.

Dr. Jo Nash writes, “Boundaries differ from person to person and are mediated by variations in culture, personality and social context. Setting boundaries denes our expectations of ourselves and others in different kinds of relationships.”

The boundaries we set may vary

— Be as clear and as straightforward as possible. Do not raise your voice.

— State your need or request directly in terms of what you would like, rather than what you do not want or like.

— Accept any discomfort that arises as a result, whether it is guilt, shame or remorse.

Below are four examples of ways

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we can set boundaries in different situations. It may be an uncomfortable conversation, a request to you or another situation where you feel you need to protect yourself and your limits. Consider how you may be able to use some of these ideas in the future.

“No.” It is OK to tell people no. It does not mean you do not care about something. Knowing when you can and cannot take something on is an important part of setting boundaries.

“Let’s talk about something else.” You have no requirement to participate in something that makes you uncomfortable. Redirecting the conversation communicates your boundaries to others.

“Can I follow up with you later?”

Sometimes the biggest boundary we need is time. Asking for more time allows us to focus on what needs our attention now.

“I need some time to myself.” Communicate with others when you need a break. Be an advocate for yourself and your health; sometimes we just need space.

Setting healthy boundaries takes self-awareness and self-understand-

Dana Adams adam1744@umn.edu 320-204-2968

Joe Armstrong armst225@umn.edu 612.624.3610

Luciano Caixeta lcaixeta@umn.edu 612-625-3130

Gerard Cramer gcramer@umn.edu 612-625-8184

Marcia Endres miendres@umn.edu 612-624-5391

Les Hansen hanse009@umn.edu 612-624-2277

Brad Heins hein0106@umn.edu 320-589-1711

Nathan Hulinsky huli0013@umn.edu 320-203-6104

Karen Johnson ande9495@umn.edu 320-484-4334

Emily Krekelberg krek0033@umn.edu 507-280-2863

ing. It is important to take the time to reect on your needs and how boundaries can help fulll your needs. It can feel difcult or weird if you do not have a lot of practice, but remind yourself that this is not about being selsh but rather about being able to show up as your whole self without fear of being in a situation that will make you uncomfortable.

Boundaries can also help build resilience. Creating ways to avoid unnecessary stressors can help us handle our overall stress better. Boundaries may mark a change in a relationship, which can make the process feel harder. A healthy view of change is the foundation to resilience. Setting boundaries is an act of self-care, and self-care is not selsh.

As we head into another busy planting season, remember that boundaries are a healthy way to build positive relationships. Consider ways you can build boundaries and increase your resilience. Take the time to explore what boundaries are good for you and put them into action. Be purposeful and intentional in the boundaries you set and enjoy building your resilience.

Claire LaCanne lacanne@umn.edu 507-332-6109

Brenda Miller nels4220@umn.edu 320-732-4435

Isaac Salfer ijsalfer@umn.edu 320-296-1357

Jim Salfer salfe001@umn.edu 320-203-6093

Mike Schutz mschutz@umn.edu 612-624-1205

Melissa Wilson mlw@umn.edu 612-625-4276

Isaac Haagen hagge041@umn.edu 612-624-7455

Michael Boland boland@umn.edu 612-625-3013

Sabrina Florentino slpore@umn.edu 507-441-1765

What makes a feed-efcient cow?

With high feed costs, improving whole-farm feed efciency is crucial for maximizing herd protability. The most important metric for determining your herd’s whole-farm feed efciency is feed cost per hundredweight of energycorrected milk sold.

Data from the University of Minnesota Center for Farm Financial Management shows that in 2022, dairy herds in Minnesota in the top 10% for protability (net return) had 40% lower feed cost per cwt of milk ($9.58) than herds in the lowest 10% ($15.61). This highlights the critical importance of maintaining low feed costs for dairy farms.

By Isaac Salfer University of Minnesota

Two factors affect whole-farm feed efciency: the amount of feed loss due to shrink and refusals, and the digestive and metabolic efciency of the cow itself. Last March, I discussed ways to successfully minimize feed refusals, and for this article, I will focus on discussing opportunities for improvement of feed efciency of individual cows.

When thinking about feed efciency, it is important to consider where nutrients, particularly energy, can be lost to entities other than milk production. The major sources of energy loss from cows include feces, urine, gas (primarily methane and carbon dioxide) and heat. Energy can also be retained in tissues such as adipose tissue or muscle rather than being used for milk production.

Fecal energy losses are mostly due to poor digestion of feeds due to improper feed processing, poor ration formulation or feeding high concentrations of low digestibility feeds. Even when farms do all of these properly, factors such as poor feed bunk management, decreased eating frequency, poor water quality or stressors such as heat, diseases and even noise can still decrease digestive efciency. Increased urinary energy loss can occur when protein is overfed, resulting in required energy for excretion of nitrogen.

Methane, carbon dioxide and other gases are produced during rumen fermentation and eructated by the cow and lost to the environment. Much attention has been paid to reducing these gas emissions (especially methane) from an environmental standpoint, but reducing them also benets farmers because they can represent a loss of up to about 10% of total feed energy.

Reducing emissions of methane is challenging to do without negatively affecting rumen microbial growth and ber degradation, because methane production is an important way to maintain metabolic hydrogen balance within the rumen. Most approaches to reduce methane focus on increasing propionate concentration because propionate consumes hydrogen that would otherwise go toward methane production.

Heat is generated both during ru-

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men fermentation and during metabolism due to the breakdown or synthesis of nutrients. The total amount of heat lost by an animal can be reduced by reducing the total number of chemical reactions, particularly wasteful reactions. In the rumen, certain bacterial species and protozoa are more or less wasteful. Feed additives such as ionophores selectively reduce these species. Within the cow, activation of the immune system, heat stress or metabolic stress can lead to unproductive energy consumption. Therefore, minimizing stress on cows is one of the major ways to improve feed efciency.

Within dairy nutrition, we generally consider higher producing cows to be more feed efcient. Cows require a certain amount of energy for basal functions such as breathing, muscle contraction, digestion and hormone production, which we term maintenance energy. Maintenance energy is minimally impacted by milk production of a cow and makes up a much smaller percentage of feed nutrients compared to milk production. As a guideline, 14-16 pounds of dry matter are needed for maintenance in a lactating cow. Because maintenance energy needs are xed, increased milk production decreases the percentage of energy intake used for maintenance functions compared to milk production, even if total feed intake increases.

In December 2020, the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding introduced the feed saved trait. This trait estimates the difference in the amount of

feed animals consume after accounting for milk production, body weight and body condition.

The goal is to identify sires that genetically make the same amount of milk with less feed. Notably, because this trait requires individual feed intakes of cows, it requires data to be collected from research herds with that capability, which means that it is not measured across as diverse a range of commercial environments, and includes less total cows in its evaluation compared to traits such as milk production, conformation or daughter pregnancy rate.

Initial development of the feed saved trait started at the Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin, with several other research institutions, including the University of Minnesota, contributing data for improvement of the evaluation. Estimates suggest that feed saved is 19% heritable, which would put it lower than production traits but higher than health traits such as somatic cell score or daughter pregnancy rate.

Increasing feed efciency of individual cows is worthwhile but challenging, and requires a multi-faceted approach, including proper ration formulation and reduction in animal stress. Into the future, it may be improved through genetic selection. As we try to improve feed efciency, it is useful to think about and minimize sources of energy loss from the animal.

STAR

Keegan Stangler (from le ), Trevin Hartung, Abe Hartung and Grant Revermann listen to Bill Krivanek March 20 at the Central Plains Dairy Expo in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The group is part of Hartung Family Farms near Freeport, Minnesota, where they milk about 100 cows.

AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR

The Mendoza Family — Raul Sr. (from le ), Raul and Marisol with her hand on Olivia’s shoulder — sign up for a door prize at a booth March 20 at the Central Plains Dairy Expo in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Mendozas said they were at CPDE to see how the dairy industry is improving and what the future will look like.

AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR

Alex Van Donkelaar visits with Jon Kulzer of A1 Mist Sprayers March 20 at the Central Plains Dairy Expo in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Van Donkelaar is part of Hoogland Dairy in Maurice, Iowa, where they milk about 5,000 cows.

Temperature swings can

be hard on heifers

This winter was one of the warmest we’ve experienced in the past several years. While the nice weather has advantages, these conditions also can be stressful for calves and heifers. Increased ambient temperatures during the day, increased humidity and cooler nights have clear impacts on heifer performance and health.

Ventilation requirements

The goal of any calf or heifer ventilation system is to provide enough air exchanges per hour without creating a chilling draft. Managing ventilation is challenging in the spring and fall with uctuating temperatures.

Something to Ruminate On

By Barry Visser Nutritionist

In the winter, the minimum ventilation rate is four air changes per hour, which is often achieved utilizing a positive pressure tube system for calves and younger heifers. As the temperature increases so does the required ventilation rate. In mild spring and fall weather, a target rate of 15-20 air changes per hour is recommended. In summer months, it rises to 40-50 air changes per hour. This can be achieved by opening the sidewall curtains in stages in naturally ventilated barns.

Early spring is also a good time of year to perform regular maintenance on curtains, fans and positive pressure tubes. Also check eaves, softs and weatherhoods for debris to ensure these systems perform efciently and effectively.

Inconsistent dry matter intakes

Cold temperatures generally increase intakes. Conversely, intakes will often decrease when warmer temperatures follow a cold spell. Fluctuating temperatures and humidity often lead to variable intakes, making it difcult to evaluate the feed bunk and predict intakes.

In turn, variation in energy intake and nutrient supply impacts feed conversion efciency. In heifer systems, where grain and hay are fed separately, producers are likely to see lower forage and higher concentrate intakes since heifers that are marginally hungry will typically have lower voluntary intakes.

Health challenges

Changes in feeding behavior and feed intake are typically the rst signs heifers are feeling the stress of environmental change. Decreased or variable intakes may increase coccidia shedding, which can lead to exposure to other calves, especially in high-risk environments like wet bedding. Disease challenges in the digestive tract have been linked to higher risk for decreased respiratory health.

Higher daytime temperatures in the spring result in thawing of bedding packs and increased bedding moisture. With plenty of moisture and organic matter, microbial activity accelerates and ammonia concentration increases. This change can irritate the respiratory tract and increase risk of respiratory disease, especially in enclosed facilities where ventilation is not adjusted. Increased humidity also increases the risk for airborne pathogen transfer as pathogens can travel further on moist air.

All these factors make spring a good time to work with your veterinarian to review vaccination protocols to make sure heifers have optimal protection from respiratory disease-causing organisms.

Additional management considerations

Although this past winter was signicantly milder than the previous year, heifers developed a thick winter hair coat. It may not always be practical to remove this winter coat, but some farms have installed brushes to assist with long hair removal in the spring.

Heifers with wet, dirty and matted hair coats will require signicantly more energy to stay warm than animals with clean, dry coats. Increase bedding frequency and amount to maintain a clean and dry bedding pack. Box-scraping outside lots can also be helpful through the spring mud season.

Managing calf and heifer environments can go a long way in promoting youngstock health and performance. Finally, remember that energy demands increase when environmental quality decreases. Work with your nutritionist to ensure diets meet nutrient requirements.

Barry Visser is a nutritionist for Vita Plus.

Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center check-in

2023 was a unique and rewarding year for the Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center. The center underwent signicant changes, including welcoming many new team members and identifying areas for enhancement. Two major changes included hiring a new executive director and updating the strategic plan.

In 2023, I joined the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota and assumed the role of MDFRC executive director. For the two years prior, I had been serving as the Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center interim director. I have a diverse background within the industry and am passionate about all dairy research, especially my own in dairy fractionation and separation science. I was also pleased to welcome two new faculty members. Drs. Prafulla Salunke and Maneesha Mohan are based at South Dakota State University. The center is eager to have them and to continue working together to advance dairy research.

Updating the strategic plan was a rewarding process as we reviewed and modied it to better reect the center’s priorities. Under this strategic plan, the MDFRC’s vision is to “develop dairy scientists and innovate dairy technologies, ingredients and products through industry-driven collaborative research to drive regional and global opportunities for Midwest Dairy farmers.”

This statement is important to me. I know this is only possible through collaborative efforts by principal investigators in land grant universities, graduate students, industry partners, Midwest Dairy and Dairy Management Inc.

Notable changes included updating the four previous focus areas: food quality and safety, sustainability, exports and consumer solutions. Our committee of industry experts condensed these four focus areas into two: consumer solutions and industry solutions.

This decision was based on research from the past, concluding that all research falls into one of these two areas. While condent in these two new focus areas, the center wanted to ensure that food safety, quality and sustainability remained foundational drivers inuencing these new focus areas.

After discussion, the planning group determined that sustainability and food safety and quality were inherently part of each funded research project and sometimes fell into multiple focus areas. Now, with only two categories, there are no gray areas. Research is either categorized as a consumer or industry solution and can incorporate both foundational drivers without being dened as one or the other.

As the center underwent changes, the great research continued. One project the MDFRC is sponsoring involves heat treatments for high-protein dairy-based drinks.

High-protein dairy-based drinks require heat treatments like ultra high temperature or retort sterilization to be safe to consume and last longer on shelves. These treatments involve heating the drinks to specic temperatures: 138 degrees Celsius for at least 2 seconds or 115-120 degrees Celsius for 5-15 minutes. However, the challenge lies in knowing if the drink will stay stable early on. Testability problems like sedimentation or age gelation usually occur later in the storage, making it challenging for the industry to predict stability. Therefore, there is a pressing need for a predictive method capable of identifying changes in the stability of high-protein dairy-based drinks during their early stages.

The center’s research aims to validate electrical resistance tomography as an innovative, novel, fast and cost-effective method for detecting destabiliza-

tion in high-protein drinks in the early stages. ERT features a linear probe equipped with sensors that measure the conductivity in the whole bottle, which is altered by chemical or physical changes in the drink during storage. Samples were tested at regular intervals from 0-225 days. Day 0 samples served as a reference, where each point of measurement was subtracted from the reference to identify the changes in the conductivity over the storage. Using special software, ERT can also create images of the drink based on conductivity measurements. These images help predict if the drink might start to separate or thicken over time.

The study’s ndings suggest that ERT is a novel, fast and cost-effective tool for predicting destabilization in high-protein dairy-based beverages induced by sedimentation or age gelation during storage. This research project is just one of many being conducted to solve challenges in dairy food and beverage processing.

Midwest Dairy is proud of the updates made to the center in 2023 and is condent these changes are vital to the future research. MDFRC will continue to work positively on the farmers’ behalf as we roll out this strategic plan in 2024 and beyond.

Historic Galena

Galena: (gә lē’nә) noun. Primary ore of lead: a lustrous blue-gray crystalline mineral that consists mainly of lead sulde and is the main source of lead.

Another denition of galena is “a historydrenched town located in the northwestern corner of Illinois.”

My wife and I visited Galena some years ago and discovered that it’s a place where, historically speaking, many historical people once lived.

Named for the ore that brought much wealth to the town, Galena seems frozen in time. It simply oozes history, mostly from its plethora of Victorian buildings. The lead ore has long since played out, so Galena now mines a rich vein of tourists.

Galena’s most famous citizen was Ulysses S. Grant. A former soldier who had gone from job to job and had embarked upon a series of failed businesses, Grant landed in Galena in 1860 and became a clerk in his father’s leather shop. When the Civil War

erupted, Grant volunteered his services, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Galena produced a total of nine Civil War generals. One wonders if close proximity to the stuff that bullets are made of exerted some sort of metaphysical force.

There’s no escaping Grant in Galena. His image seems to be everywhere, prompting one to impulsively think “$50 bill” several times per hour.

This is all part of a endish plot to subliminally acclimate tourists to the exorbitant costs of being tourists. It seemed as if we couldn’t visit any of the quaint Victorian shops lining Galena’s Main Street without leaving $50 behind.

This was illustrated by a couple my wife and I passed as we strolled down Main Street. The other husband, who was carrying armloads of shopping bags, exclaimed to his wife, “Did you see anything in there that you didn’t like?”

From a guy’s point of view, many of Galena’s shops offered stuff that’s pretty much useless. Can we live without these cute ceramic gurines? I bet so. Are we the sort of people who buy artsy prints? Not really. There was even a business called The Bead Shop. Need I say more?

Scattered diabolically among these unessential shops were a few that actually featured very interesting items. Look, there’s Jamie’s Wine Studio. It must be time to do more wine tasting. And is that the aroma of broiling steak? Let’s duck into this restaurant for a quick bite. After all, it’s been an hour since I had my last steak, which was approximately the size of a yearling steer.

By Jerry Nelson Columnist

There are lots of other things to do in Galena besides eating or shopping or sampling wine. Many of these things involve visiting historical museums, most of which are housed in historical buildings.

We visited several museums, each boasting items of Grant memorabilia. In one, we viewed the general’s cavalry hat and saddle; another displayed his left boot in a glass case. The town of Galena has Grant covered from head to toe, although I wonder how the museum obtained that boot and if the general had to go around semi-barefooted.

Speaking of museums, my wife and I stayed at the historic DeSoto House Hotel. The DeSoto was named for the rst European to see the Mississippi, a man who seems to have had a penchant for long, double-lettered words.

The DeSoto has hosted numerous historical gures. An aspiring politician named Abraham Lincoln gave a speech from its balcony in 1856, as did Stephen Douglas in 1858. In 1868, Grant used the DeSoto as his presidential campaign headquarters. Slumber offered no respite from thinking about Grant.

My wife and I paused from our hectic touring to enjoy a cold beverage in the DeSoto’s taproom. I could easily imagine Mark Twain — yes, he had also stayed there — leaning against the bar, his right foot alighted on the brass rail, a cloud of cheroot smoke lazily circling his head.

After resting a bit, it was back to shopping. Various items displayed in storefronts elicited such comments as “cute!” or “neat!” or “ooh, how cool!”

In one particular store, as my wife and the lady proprietor chatted, I opined that all this shopping was more than any normal guy could bear. My wife turned to the shopkeeper and said, “Do you know what we did yesterday? We spent the whole day touring a John Deere tractor factory.”

A deathly silence fell over the room as a dozen female eyeballs bored into me. Someone hissed, “You owe this lady a whole lot of shopping, mister.” She was right, of course. So, we shopped and shopped until I shattered my personal record for shopping, and that was denitely a historical event.

Jerry Nelson is a recovering dairy farmer from Volga, South Dakota. He and his wife, Julie, have two sons and live on the farm where Jerry’s great-grandfather homesteaded over 110 years ago. Jerry works for Dairy Star as a staff writer and ad salesman. Feel free to email him at jerry.n@dairystar.com.

Dear County Agent Guy

Programs, loans to help carry the farm forward

By Steve Frericks Stearns County FSA executive director

Ah, March — in like a lion, out like a lamb, or so the saying goes. But this year, in like a lamb, out like a lion? Let’s hope that is not the case. We are hearing reports of several eld activities underway. Some are taking full advantage of the unseasonably warm weather. The staff at Farm Service Agency is hopeful that all producers took advantage of the programs available, with deadlines ending March 15. This included several insurance options and program elections.

Starting Feb. 28, dairy producers were able to enroll for 2024 Dairy Margin Coverage, an important safety net program. This year’s DMC enrollment ends April 29. Producers with dairy are encouraged to schedule an appointment to sign up for DMC if they have not completed this already. There is a January payment that trigged for those with $8.50 coverage or higher. This cannot be released until the $100 fee is paid and the 2024 contract is signed.

Through the Conservation Reserve Program, farmers and ranchers establish long-term, resourceconserving plant species, such as approved grasses or trees, to control soil erosion, improve water quality and enhance wildlife habitat on cropland. In return, the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides an annual rental payment for land devoted to conservation purposes. The USDA has announced the 2024 general CRP sign up period to run from March 4-March 29. Land that is not enrolled in CRP or is expiring from the CRP may be offered for enrollment during general signup.

The general sign up process is conducted on a competitive basis, whereby enrollment offers are scored based on an environmental benets index. Producers can improve their individual EBI score by enhancing the existing cover or selecting a grass mixture that is more diverse, if planting a new stand of grass. There are several ways to improve an EBI.

FSA offers a nine-month Marketing Assistance

Loan, which is a great tool to receive cash up front to help nance an operation. If you have 2023 grain in the bin, MALs provide producers interim nancing at harvest time to meet cash ow needs without having to sell their commodities when market prices are typically at harvest-time lows.

Did you know the Farm Storage Facility Loan Program can help with storage and handling needs? During harvest, were you thinking that you really could use a truck, grain cart, sugar beet cart, auger or another piece of equipment to meet your handling needs? Do you need additional storage? Are interest rates at your local lender holding you back from making that purchase? The FSFL program can help: acquire new or used storage and handling trucks; acquire portable or permanently afxed storage and handling equipment; and/or acquire new storage bins.

A variety of structures, handling equipment and trucks are eligible under this loan.

A producer may borrow up to $500,000 per loan, with a minimum down payment of 15%. Loan terms range from three to 12 years, depending on the amount of the loan with favorable interest rates (3.875%-4.125%).

Producers must demonstrate storage needs based on three years of production history for storage facilities. FSA also provides a microloan option that, while available to all eligible farmers and ranchers, should also be of particular interest to new or small producers where there is a need for nancing options for loans up to $50,000 at a lower down payment with reduced documentation.

Applicants for all loans will be charged a nonrefundable $100 application fee. If there is construction required, which would include ground disturbance such as site preparation, an environmental review must be completed before actions are approved. Contact a FSA ofce early in your planning process to determine what level of environmental review is required for your program application so that it can be completed in a timely manner.

Jerry Hurrle, farm loan manager

It is amazing how different it can be from one year to the next. At this time last year, we had piles of

JD

JD

snow and cold temperatures. This year, we have had record warm temperatures and very little snow. There is very little frost, so we may be in the elds much earlier than last year. Before everyone gets busy with the new crop season, you should review your nancial information and progress.

Hopefully your 2023 records and taxes are complete, and you are ready for this year. Record keeping is very important and not only for income tax purposes. If you haven’t kept records or good records in the past, now is a good time to start.

This is also the time of year to review your cash ow and discuss your nancial position with your lender. The current commodity prices are much less than the past two years and may be below break even. The volatility in the markets and increasing expenses continue to make cash ow projections challenging, which also increases the importance of cash ow planning and knowing your cost of production.

If you will be requesting an FSA loan this year, you should contact us as early as possible. If you want to discuss our loan programs or need an application packet, contact a local FSA ofce.

Farm Service Agency is an equal opportunity lender. Complaints about discrimination should be sent to: Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., 20250. Visit www.fsa.usda.gov for application forms and updates on USDA programs

Farm junk drawer

What do you do with a winter like ours? Things you could only imagine.

Many of the projects on the bottom of the to-do list have suddenly pushed their way to the top of working projects. Technically, it is still winter, but the 70-degree days push us to nd jobs we never seem to have the time or the right temperature to complete. It is too nice to be inside the house with spring cleaning, but it is the perfect weather to start those projects outside around the farm without the threat of frost bite. Since it is too early to be in the elds, we need to be doing something productive.

Anyone walking into our yard would never see these jobs, unless they knew where to look. The dark hidden corners veil unsuspected treasures from long ago buried in various sheds around the farm.

We started with the old milkhouse connected to the hip-roof barn which houses our young, weaned calves. I can barely walk into this room without feeling claustrophobic as cobwebs stretch across the doorway. Nervously, I keep an eye on where I am stepping, afraid of a critter scurrying to a quick escape. I hit a quick, sharp,

high note of surprise when I spot a mouse slipping out of its hiding spot, but I can tolerate them. Anything bigger is a much louder and higher note with feet stomping as I try to nd my quickest escape route. My greatest fear is a rat crawling up the inside of my pant leg. Luckily, none were found during any of our jobs.

The milkhouse has served as the kitten playpen to protect wandering kittens from the large hooves of switch cows lumbering through the barn. We have been able to lengthen the lifespan of many farm cats with this system. It also makes it easier for little visitors to the farm to nd and play with the kittens.

We also use this space as a warming box for frozen calves. The big, blue-domed hot box takes up most of the oor space of this small room. Fortunately, we have only had to plug in the heater once this winter, so our trips into the milkhouse have been limited.

Mostly the milkhouse is the catch-all junk drawer of the farm. A large collection of used and busted water cups is scattered across the oor. Empty 5-gallon buckets are piled in any open space. Other “valuable” items

are stuffed on makeshift shelves. As with any good junk drawer, it needed to be completely emptied, cleaned and restocked in an orderly fashion. This is not a high priority job in any given year, but this was the year to get it done.

Heavy cast iron water bowls were lined outside of the milkhouse awaiting their fate, salvageable or junk. As Mark examined each bowl, I focused on swiping right and left at the cobwebs stretched across the room. The ceiling and walls were all swept down, and the oors were cleared. It was refreshing to see rays of light ltering through the window despite the billow of dust generated by all our cleaning.

Just Thinking Out Loud

The saved water cups were stacked along open shelves. There are more cups than we will ever need to replace, but at least the busted ones are moved out of the way. I turned my attention to the other shelves in the room. I started to clear away old short chains, rusty clipper blades and other junky things.

By Natalie Schmitt Columnist

Mark spotted a contraption of three strands of connected chain links I had thrown in the junk bucket. He quickly retrieved a lost treasure. He tried to explain how it was a neck chain that looped around the cow’s neck and the other two chains connected to the front of the stall to tie her in place. I didn’t really see how we would ever use this chain again, but Mark hung it on a nail to remind him of how things used to be. At least it was put away in a neat manner.

Once the milkhouse was restocked, we continued our cleaning frenzy in different buildings. I moved on the granary, which houses many enterprises in the different bays. There is a bay for my gardening supplies, another for pelleted calf feed and one for all the show tack. Bags of mineral and milk fortier are stacked along the walls. Once clean, there are now fewer places for critters to hide from hungry cats.

Mark’s next project to tackle was the work bench in the machine shed. This is a project area I have spied for many years but didn’t dare start. You see, it seems everything has at least seven lives or uses, be it cats, nails, boards, chain links, pieces of rope and strands of wire, and I would have thrown out “good stuff” that could be used. I don’t know how many pails of rusty, bent nails Mark has lled. Apparently, there is a limit of usefulness or maybe a lack of storage space.

I’m sure one of those pails is ear marked to be buried next to the root ball of new apple trees. An old farmer told us many years ago to add rusty nails to the hole when planting fruit trees. He said the trees need iron, and this was a great way to help the trees produce more fruit. Apparently, this isn’t quite true.

According to Laidback Gardener, “It’s easy enough to understand the basic concept behind this myth. If a nail rusts, it’s because it contains iron, and iron is one of the minerals that plants need to grow. Once people understand that iron is essential to plant growth, imaginations run wild. The problem is that iron produced by rusty nails is iron oxide and is an insoluble compound that is unusable by the plant. So even if you ll the ground with rusty nails, it changes almost nothing for the plants.”

I’m not sure where all these buckets of nails and busted water cups will end up, but I do know they aren’t going back in the junk drawer.

As their four children pursue dairy careers off the family farm, Natalie and Mark Schmitt started an adventure of milking registered Holsteins just because they like good cows on their farm north of Rice, Minnesota.

Feeding wrestlers

Three years ago, when Dan joined the wrestling team, I could often be heard saying, “Never in a million years did I think I’d have a wrestler.” Now, I have three wrestlers, and I’m still shaking my head in disbelief.

Daphne started elementary club

Dairy Good Life

By Sadie Frericks Columnist

wrestling last year. Monika joined our school’s brand-new girls wrestling team this year.

Dan and Monika wrapped up their seasons last month. Daphne has one more wrestling tournament, and then, we’ll call this season complete. Looking back, it was a whirlwind of practices, matches, and tournaments; of aches, pains, and strength gains; of triumphs and tears. Overall, though, it was so enjoyable to watch them wrestle and witness their physical and mental growth.

For three months, it seemed like everything revolved around wrestling: our schedule, the laundry, the meal prepping. Even our living room evolved. We rearranged it to make room for a wrestling mat, which meant that even I was pulled in as a practice partner at times. Every time I got close to pinning one of the girls, they’d succumb to laughter, and we’d have to pause the match.

Our conversations also centered on wrestling: How was practice? How was your match? What did the scale say this morning? Are you under or over? What are you eating today?

When Monika and Daphne started wrestling, I got questions from others about female wrestlers, weight classes, and weighing in. That whole “never ask a woman her weight” adage is deeply embedded in the American psyche. The answer is, “Yes. We talk about it the same way I talk about it with Dan.”

The number on the scale is just a measure of gravitational pull at a specic moment. However, that gravitational pull does uctuate depending upon what a wrestler does or doesn’t eat, how hard they pushed themself at practice, how much they slept, and how much water they drank, etc. That gravitational pull dictates whether you get to wrestle your match or not.

I am grateful that Dan and Monika settled into their weight classes fairly easily, but I also did everything I could to help them stay there, which included answering their questions about nutrition and providing nutrient-dense meals and snacks.

I made meals that included lots of protein, healthy fats, and healthy carbs.

We ate lots of slow-cooked beef and pork roasts, meatballs, and roasted chicken with buttered veggies and brown rice. Scrambled eggs for supper became a goto when I was short on time.

I kept high-protein snacks in the fridge and pantry; Greek yogurt, beef jerky, and string cheese were a few of their favorites. Shakes made with whole milk and whey protein helped the kids meet their protein needs, as well.

I also stopped baking and kept most sweets out of the house. (Ice cream was the one treat we kept on hand.) At one point toward the end of the high school season, Glen said he was going to have to punch a new hole in his belt. I reminded him of what the the kids’ coaches always say: “Wrestling is a whole-family sport.”

In the end, our family’s efforts and the kids’ individual efforts were 100% worth it. Dan, Monika, and Daphne each met their wrestling goal for the season. Hard work, mental toughness, and good nutrition all helped them get there.

This creamy hamburger rice was a wrestling-season favorite. I usually make it with leftover rice but freshly cooked works too. You can skip the celery and onion if you’re short on time. I know you’ll wonder: Who puts cottage cheese in a dish like this? But, trust me, it’s way better than a can of cream-of-something soup and adds extra protein.

Also, it’s not the prettiest looking meal, but it sure is tasty and reheats well. If you don’t have hungry wrestlers to feed or like having leftovers in the fridge, a half batch might be appropriate.

Creamy hamburger rice

2 pounds ground beef

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

4 medium celery stalks, minced

1 medium sweet yellow onion, minced

2 teaspoons minced garlic (or 2 cloves, pressed)

24-ounce bag frozen mixed vegetables (carrots, peas, corn, green beans)

4 cups cooked brown rice

2 cups whole milk cottage cheese

1/2 cup heavy cream

You can reduce the rice to 2 cups or forgo the rice altogether, depending on your wrestlers’ carbohydrate needs. If you omit the rice, you might not need the heavy cream.

In a 6-quart pot, brown the ground beef over medium heat, then add salt and pepper. Add celery and onion to ground beef, cover the pot, and cook until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally. While celery and onion are cooking, thaw the frozen vegetables in the microwave. Add the thawed vegetables and cooked rice to the beef mixture and stir well. Let cook until veggies are hot, stirring occasionally. Gently stir in the cottage cheese and cream. Remove from heat and serve. Sadie Frericks and her husband, Glen, milk 100 cows near Melrose, Minnesota. They have three children: Dan, Monika, and Daphne. Sadie also writes a blog at www.dairygoodlife.com. She can be reached at sadiefrericks@ gmail.com.

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