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DAIRY ST R
July 9, 2022
“All dairy, all the time”™
Volume 24, No. 10
Conservation through collaboration Schaefer works with fellow farmers to employ environmentally-friendly farming practices By Stacey Smart
stacey.s@dairystar.com
CHILTON, Wis. – Mitchell Schaefer is grateful he has not had to travel alone on his conservation journey. Relying on the expertise of other farmers in Calumet County who have been there and done that, Schaefer has successfully implemented cover crops and minimal tilling practices into his operation. “These techniques help our farm be sustainable while also helping the environment,” Schaefer said. “My goal is to be here on the land but not wreck it. I want to exist with it but not cause problems if
possible.” Schaefer milks 230 cows and farms 400 acres near Chilton. Established in 1894, Schaefer is the fth generation to operate the farm he and his wife, Amanda, and their three kids – Allison, Clay and Levi – call home. His love for the land has led him to try new things that he believes are right for the environment and the farm’s future. Three years ago, Schaefer began exploring with doing minimal tillage and no tillage and planting Turn to SCHAEFER | Page 6
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
Mitchell and Amanda Schaefer are pictured with two of their three children – Clay and Allison – on their farm where they milk 230 cows and farm 400 acres near Chilton, Wisconsin. Not pictured is the Schaefers’ son, Levi.
Tractor-Ɵme dream Roehls host Wisconsin Farm Technology Days By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
LOYAL, Wis. – For many farmers, time in the tractor is thinking time; the time when plans are born. That is exactly how the 2022 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days landed in Clark County at Roehl Acres in Loyal. “I spend too much time in the tractor,” said Dennis Roehl. “Hosting Farm Technology Days is something I have always wanted to do. I have always wanted to be able to inuence how the public views agriculture and show them how we produce the food they consume.” Wisconsin Farm Technology Days will be July 12 to 14 and is co-hosted
PHOTO COURTESY OF KAILA FITZ PHOTOGRAPHY
The Roehl family – (front, from leŌ) Velora, Lowell and Kathryn; (back, from leŌ) Dennis, Jackson, Devon and Suzie – plan to welcome thousands of visitors when they host Wisconsin Farm Technology Days July 12-14 at their farm in Loyal, Wisconsin. by Roehl Acres and Rustic Occasions, an event facility operated by Roehl’s cousin, Doug Roehl, and his wife,
Kim, on another Roehl family farm located just up the road. “My family has been very supportive of this dream,”
Roehl said. “They have all worked to make this a reality.” Roehl and his wife, Suzie, and their three children –
Devon, Jackson and Kathryn – milk 210 registered Holsteins on their 800-acre farm. The family retrotted their existing freestall barn to install four DeLaval robotic milking systems. They began using the robots May 16. “The startup could not have gone smoother,” Roehl said. “We worked with Joe’s Refrigeration, and they were great. They brought out a team of eight people. They were here 24 hours a day, and they just made it go so well.” Roehl said the cows transitioned well. “They have been in the barn throughout all the construction; the crews have pretty much worked around them,” Roehl said. “Not having a routine had almost become their routine. One day they had to go one way, and the next they might have had to go another way. They never really seemed to
Turn to ROEHLS | Page 8
Page 2 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
DAIRY ST R www.dairystar.com
ISSN 020355 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave. Sauk Centre, MN 56378 Phone: (320) 352-6303 Fax: (320) 352-5647 Published by Dairy Star LLC General Manager/Editor Mark Klaphake - mark.k@dairystar.com 320-352-6303 (ofce) 320-248-3196 (cell) 320-352-0062 (home) Ad Composition Nancy Powell 320-352-6303 nancy.p@dairystar.com Editorial Staff Jennifer Coyne - Co-editor (320) 352-6303 • jenn@dairystar.com Danielle Nauman - Staff Writer (608) 487-1101 • danielle.n@dairystar.com Stacey Smart - Staff Writer (262) 442-6666 • stacey.s@dairystar.com Abby Wiedmeyer - Staff Writer 608-487-4812 • abby.w@dairystar.com Kate Rechtzigel - Staff Writer 507-696-9213 • kate.r@dairystar.com Maria Bichler - Copy Editor 320-352-6303 Consultant Jerry Jennissen 320-346-2292 Advertising Sales Main Ofce: 320-352-6303 Fax: 320-352-5647 Deadline is 5 p.m. of the Friday the week before publication Sales Manager - Joyce Frericks 320-352-6303 • joyce@dairystar.com Bob Leukam (Northern MN, East Central MN) 320-260-1248 (cell) bob.l@star-pub.com Mark Klaphake (Western MN) 320-352-6303 (ofce) 320-248-3196 (cell) Laura Seljan (National Advertising, SE MN) 507-250-2217 fax: 507-634-4413 laura.s@dairystar.com Jerry Nelson (SW MN, NW Iowa, South Dakota) 605-690-6260 jerry.n@dairystar.com Mike Schafer (Central, South Central MN) 320-894-7825 mike.s@dairystar.com Amanda Hoeer (Eastern Iowa) 320-250-2884 • amanda.h@dairystar.com Megan Stuessel (Western Wisconsin) 608-387-1202 • megan.s@dairystar.com Kati Kindschuh (Northeast WI and Upper MI) 920-979-5284 • kati.k@dairystar.com Deadlines The deadline for news and advertising in the Dairy Star is 5 p.m. Friday the week before publication. Subscriptions One year subscription $40.00, outside the U.S. $200.00. Send check along with mailing address to Dairy Star, 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave., Sauk Centre, MN 56378. Advertising Our ad takers have no authority to bind this newspaper and only publication of an advertisement shall constitute nal acceptance of the advertiser's order. Letters Letters and articles of opinion are welcomed. Letters must be signed and include address and phone number. We reserve the right to edit lengthy letters. The views and opinions expressed by Dairy Star columnists and writers are not necessarily those of the Dairy Star / Star Publications LLC.
The Dairy Star is published semi-monthly by Star Publications LLC, 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave., Sauk Centre, MN 56378-1246. Periodicals Postage Paid at Sauk Centre, MN and additional mailing ofces. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Dairy Star, 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave., Sauk Centre, MN 56378-1246.
Dairy Procompetition le brought to youaddressed by your Dairy
North bill America dealers. in farm hearing
During a recent House Agriculture Committee hearing, University of Minnesota dairy economist Marin Bozic questioned the ability of federal milk marketing orders to deliver fair prices to the producer. Bozic said it is very difcult for dairy farmers to switch to a different processor, which inuences competition for milk. “If a corn producer wishes to know how different local elevators would pay for corn, all they need to do is go online or tune into their local radio station,” testied Bozic. “In contrast, when some dairy producers have asked for milk price benchmarking information, in multiple instances, they faced tacit disapproval or even aggressive legal threats from some dairy processors.” Bozic said the farm bill must also address the long-term implications of dairy policy changes. The drop in uid milk consumption and the increase in dairy exports were cited as ongoing trends.
“Some of the tax issues where the IRS is dening income, there may not be much we can do other than have a conversation to see if there is exibility and we’ll work on that this summer.” Ducheneaux said issues with prevented plant will also be addressed. Farmers with crop insurance have until July 22 to complete and submit their forms. FSA will send out prelled applications for 9,000 eligible farmers with NAP coverage in mid-July.
Edge seeks federal order reform Edge Dairy Farm Cooperative has unveiled its priorities for milk pricing reform. The proposal focuses on two principles—exibility and fairness. “More regional exibility in federal orders would benet everyone,” said Mitch Davis, who is a member of the Edge board. “With our proposal, each order would have the authority to operate its milkshed in a way that makes sense for the order.” To promote fairness, Edge is proposing contracting principles to cover the timeliness of payments, price transparency, competitive risk management and incentive payments.
A war crime According to the European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Russia needs to safely open the Black Sea for shipments of Ukrainian grain. In his words, it is a ‘war crime’ to have millions of tons of wheat blocked in Ukraine while the world goes hungry. The EU supports efforts by the United Nations to nd a way to restart grain shipments out of Ukraine.
Ag Insider
By Don Wick Columnist
Options available to challenge Canadian dairy tariffs The United States is challenging Canada’s dairy tariff-rate quota policies. This is the second time the U.S. Trying to x emergency relief program hiccups has led a dispute with the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Trade The United States Department of Agriculture knows Agreement settlement panel over dairy policy. Wisconsin there were a few hiccups in the implementation of the Congressman Ron Kind said the U.S. has options. “We Emergency Relief Program. “The AGI-related issues, we’re looking to the exibility in the regulations for that,” said Turn to AG INSIDER | Page 5 Zach Ducheneaux, administrator, Farm Service Agency.
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Wisconsin Dells, WI
Cecil, WI
Ultrasound is a useful tool in detecting pneumonia in calves First Section: Pages 9, 13
Neillsville, WI
Begert family promotes agriculture with farm videos
Sazama makes goat milk soap Second Section: Pages 6 - 7
Reducing inversions creates success for Sunset Farms
First Section: Page 10
First Section: Pages 11 - 12
Tomah, WI
Plymouth, WI
Women in Dairy: Kitt Hernandez
Bindl travels to Africa to implant embryos
First Section: Pages 23, 25
Wisconsin Rapids, WI
Allenton, WI
Miller churns homemade ice cream with tractor engine
First Section: Page 29
First Section: Pages 26 - 27
Loyal, WI
Elroy, WI
Clark County residents enjoy annual recipe contest
Clark siblings show seven animals
Second Section: Pages 18 - 19
Third Section: Page 7
FROM OUR SIDE OF THE FENCE:
For additional stories from our other zone, log on to www.dairystar.com
How does this year’s hay crop compare to previous years? First Section: Pages 15-16
Zone 1
Zone 2
Columnists Ag Insider der Pa Pages 2,, 5 Fi s Section Fir tion First
From the F Zwe Z Zweber Farm P Page 34 Fir First Section
Farmer and Columnist Page 35 First Section
Ram Ramblings fro from the Ridge R Page Pa 36 First Section n
Vet Veterinary V y W Wisdom P Pa Page 37 Firs Fir s Section on n First
From My Perspective Page 38 First Section
Come Full Co Da Circle Dairy P Page 39 Fir Section First
The “Mielke” Market Weekly Pages 8 - 9 Second Section
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ConƟnued from AG INSIDER | Page 2 have trade remedies; we can hit them with sanctions, specically targeted to their industry,” Kind said. “We’re still in earnest discussions with them, but we hope to get this resolved shortly.” Trade mission returns from United Kingdom Deputy Agriculture Secretary Jewell Bronaugh said a goal of the trade trip was to offer a positive impression of U.S. agriculture. Bronaugh said there is hope the trip will lead to resuming formal trade talks with the United Kingdom. “I think we’re all very hopeful there will be a U.S.-U.K. Free Trade Agreement,” Bronaugh said. “Our job is to set the stage for removing and reducing barriers to trade and the non-tariff barriers. We also have to develop an understanding of how we can knock down some of those walls ahead of a free trade agreement.” Recession may already be here AgriSompo North America market analyst Sterling Smith thinks the U.S. is already in a recession. “I’m going to say something few are willing to say,” Smith said. “We’re in a recession in the United States right now. The GDP numbers in the last quarter were negative, and we’ll probably have a negative print this quarter as well, at least, in terms of real GDP.” Smith emphasizes commodity prices, other than in the energy sector, don’t have that much to do with ination. “Stock market behavior the last few days is giving me an indication maybe we’ve seen a bottom,” Smith said. “Typically, when the recession starts to improve, the recession has already hit bottom.” Wisconsin milk output rises In the latest USDA milk production report, Wisconsin and Texas were the only states experiencing year-over-year increases in production. Cow numbers declined 0.1%, but milk production on a per-cow basis was up 0.9%. AMPI announces leadership transition After 38 years with the cooperative, Associated Milk Producers Inc. CoPresident/CEO Donn DeVelder plans to step down at the end of the year. Sheryl Meshke, who has been co-president/ CEO since January 2015, will continue leading AMPI. “We are excited for what is to come and know Sheryl’s leadership will be critical in achieving continued success for AMP member-owners and employees,” said Steve Schlangen, board chairman.
AFBF names executive vice president Joby Young is the new executive vice president for the American Farm Bureau Federation. Most recently, Young was a partner in a lobbying rm. Before that, he was the chief of staff for Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Young replaces Dale Moore, who announced his retirement in March. Calvert moves to Equity Livestock Dave Calvert is the new vice president of market operations for Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales Association. Calvert spent more than 20 years in the genetics business with Accelerated Genetics and ST Genetics. Cheese production slides lower For the third straight month, Wisconsin cheese production declined in May. USDA said total cheese production was at 289.5 million pounds. That’s 2% less than last year. The state’s production of American cheese declined more than 4%. Cheddar cheese production dropped 3.4%. Italian cheese production rose 2%. Wisconsin-produced mozzarella was up 1.9%. One scoop or two? In conjunction with its annual Capitol Hill Ice Cream Party, the International Dairy Foods Association released a report on ice cream trends. The study conducted by Research America said nearly two-thirds of Americans rank vanilla as their favorite ice cream avor. The top 10 list rounds out with chocolate, cookies ‘n cream, mint chocolate chip, chocolate chip cookie dough, buttered pecan, cookie dough, strawberry, moose tracks and Neapolitan. Trivia challenge The average American consumed 655 pounds of milk, cheese, ice cream and other dairy products in 2021. That answers our last trivia question. For this week’s trivia, how many servings of dairy products are recommended by USDA each day? We will have the answer in the next edition of Dairy Star. Don Wick is owner/broadcaster for the Red River Farm Network, based in 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 adult sons, Tony and Sam, and ve grandchildren, Aiden, Piper, Adrienne, Aurora and Sterling.
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Page 6 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
ConƟnued from SCHAEFER | Page 1
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Corn grows in a a eld June 14 at the Schaefers’ farm near Chilton, Wisconsin. This corn crop was planted into the rye eld May 11.
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cover crops. His goal is to have 100% of his acres in cover crops someday. He is currently 75% of the way there, using winter wheat, and alfalfa through the off Repair vs. Replace rye season. He joined the Calumet Electronic Dairy County Ag Stewardship Alliance Board Repair Service – a farmer-led conservation group Specializing in: – two years ago to gather ideas that could help him reach his goals. WestfaliaSurge, BouMatic, “This group is trying things & DeLaval pulsators & Takeoffs, people never thought of before and circuit boards, Mueller milk having a lot of success doing it,” tank circuit boards. Schaefer said. Call: (c) 406-590-7764 Committed to cover crops, www.circuitÀxer.wixsite.com/ Schaefer started with winter rye. boumaticboardrepair Last fall, he planted rye after corn, letting the rye grow 6 inches in spring before applying manure with a light disc. The crop grew back afterward, and Schaefer then worked the rye with a vertical till before planting corn into it. One G5000 SERIES struggle that Schaefer has faced is dealing with crop residue in the elds. Root masses from the rye created clumps, and Schaefer wondered if he should work it again. “I just decided to plant into it, and it seemed to work out,” he said. Collaboration with other farmers has meant less trial and error for Schaefer. “CCASA shares information on the different trials they’re conducting which gives you condence to try things yourself,” Schaefer said. “You try not to lose
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money doing these things because at the end of the day, this is still a business, and I don’t want to be giving money away.” Schaefer comes from a background of reduced tillage management, growing up on a farm that tried to take it easy on the land. “Tilling and plowing seemed useless to me,” he said. “It seemed like those practices were making everything worse.” Schaefer does minimal tillage, making one pass over the land in the spring with a vertical till that only goes a couple inches deep. In the fall, he does not work the ground. “Minimal tilling tolerates compaction better, and it seems we have less compaction problems now,” Schaefer said. “We do a lot of spring manure application, which is a time when elds are more vulnerable. But with the rye there, the tractor doesn’t sink in and wreck the ground as much.” Rich in limestone and bedrock, Schaefer said his area is more susceptible to ground water contamination and that problems with water quality were occurring a couple miles away. This issue contributed to Schaefer’s decision to try new cropping techniques. Schaefer rents equipment from a neighbor, such as a no-till drill, Turn to SCHAEFER | Page 7
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Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 7
Con�nued from SCHAEFER | Page 6
vertical drill, and machinery for planting and chopping corn. “I appreciate when I drive through the neighborhood and see something holding onto the eld versus a barren eld,” Schaefer said. “The cover crop is there to hold everything in place and reduce erosion and runoff. Alfalfa and winter wheat are cover crops that don’t get enough credit, in my opinion. They do a good job of holding the ground in place.” Schaefer is also an advocate of rotational grazing – a practice he is familiar with since childhood and one that further amplies his sustainability efforts. Sixty acres of permanent pasture are devoted to rotational grazing of heifers and faroff dry cows. Schaefer grazes heifers year-round using drive-by feeding in the winter. Reducing feed and labor costs are some of the benets he likes best about pasturing heifers. “In summer, heifers are eating 80%-90% grass, which works really well,” Schaefer said. “Pasture is super cheap, and animals stay healthy. But, you
Schaefer said. “It produces like crazy. I don’t plant anything; it just regrows each year. But you have to do it right by keeping ahead and managing the pastures so that the quality is there. You can’t feed brush.” Through his involvement with CCASA, and education acquired through reading articles on cover crops and minimal tillage, Schaefer is progressing on a sustainable path to the future. “People tend to get stuck in their ways, but you shouldn’t be afraid to try something new,” he said. “You can learn a lot from others. Just ask someone who’s doing cover crops or no till. They can help you get started.” Innovation in cropping techniques does not scare STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR Schaefer, who is taking Heifers graze on a new paddock June 14 at Mitchell Schaefer’s farm near Chilton, Wisconsin. Six- action to preserve the ty acres of permanent pasture are devoted to rota�onal grazing of heifers and far-off dry cows. land and ensure his farm’s longevity. “You’re going to be around for a while, so have to know what you’re his pastures. He rotates replaced stainless steel it’s nice to not destroy doing.” between 16 paddocks that fence wires with poly wire your resources,” Schaefer Schaefer has two groups are approximately 3.75 which he has found to be said. “I like to team up on pasture – one containing acres in size, moving the more exible and easier to with nature rather than go against it, which is good for open heifers and the other fence within each paddock work with. comprised of bred heifers a quarter acre per day “There is so much the environment and for the for a total of 160 heifers until the whole paddock is fertility in the pasture future of this farm.” and 20 dry cows occupying nished. Schaefer recently as long as we get rain,”
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ConƟnued from ROEHLS | Page 1 miss a beat.” our cows are now that we aren’t Prior to the introduction pushing them,” Roehl said. “It of the robots, the Roehls were used to be that you’d walk into milking in the farm’s old the pen, and they would scatter. stanchion barn. Now they pay no attention to “An upgrade was needed, you.” and installing a parlor just did The renovation of the not make sense,” Roehl said. freestall barn was planned to “Finding good help is always allow the Roehls to increase an issue, and putting in robots their herd to 280 cows. They helped solve some of that issue. plan to slowly work toward After researching the different that number using internal robots available, I chose the expansion to complete the DeLaval robots because I really growth. liked the way they attached. Roehl Acres was purchased Everything works so quickly, by Roehl’s parents, Lowell and it is like the cows don’t and Velora, in 1967. They even realize they are there.” began their dairy farming Activity monitors were career milking 33 cows before incorporated with the robotic expanding to 82 cows in 1972. system. Automated feed The next expansion came in pushers and automatic alley 1996 when Roehl came home scrapers were also installed. from college. They expanded “The biggest change I have to 114 cows and milked in two noticed is how much calmer barns, including the barn that is
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
Suzie and Dennis Roehl tell members of the media about their farm during the Wisconsin Farm Technology Days Media Day at WFTD co-host RusƟc Occasions June 7 in Loyal, Wisconsin.
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
The recently retroƩed roboƟc freestall barn at Roehl Acres will be open for barn tours throughout Farm Technology Days held July 12-14 in Loyal, Wisconsin. now home to Rustic Occasions. The freestall barn on the home farm was built in 2010, and the herd was consolidated back under one roof. During WFTD, the Roehls will be opening their barn to the public to view the robotic milking system. “The farm tour won’t just be a bus tour,” Roehl said. “You’ll be able to get off the bus at the farm, walk through the barn, see the robots, the cows, the milkhouse, everything.” With Clark County being one of the leading dairy counties in the state, Roehl said it is important to him that the show have a strong dairy focus. “I really want everything to be dairy-related,” Roehl said. “I want to make sure that people can have their questions answered.” The WFTD grounds will encompass nearly 500 acres of
the Roehls’ farm. Roehl is not concerned about the impact thousands of people walking across his elds for three days will have. “We got all of our rst crop made like normal, and our second crop will really only be down the area where tent city is located,” Roehl said.. “We’ll be able to make the second crop off all the other areas. Our third crop will be compromised some because of the trafc, but if we can get some good rain the week after the show, I think it will be OK. Good weather cures all.” Besides the support of his family, Roehl said the community has been a blessing of support in pulling together an event of the magnitude of WFTD. “Our neighbors have been on-board from the beginning,” Roehl said. “I think everyone is
looking forward to showcasing not only agriculture in a positive light, but Clark County and our little town of Loyal as well. We really do live in a great Wisconsin small town.” Roehl said he has learned something new every day in the show planning process and that his anticipation for a great event continues to grow as the days remaining until the show continue to dwindle. “I am really excited to showcase our farm for a great show,” he said. “I am looking forward to see how many people attend,” Roehl said. “I have always loved attending Farm Technology Days. I love seeing all the new equipment, technology and ideas. I am looking forward to sharing that and what our family has done here on this farm with everyone.”
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Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 9
A closer look at lungs Ultrasound is a useful tool in detecting pneumonia in calves By Abby Wiedmeyer abby.w@dairystar.com
WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. – Calves are not always the easiest animals to detect sickness in. While many farmers are aware of the clinical signs of pneumonia – coughing, fever, nasal discharge, sunken eyes and loss of vigor – how can one better detect the subclinical signs in a calf? “Calves are not always super easy to interpret,” Dr. Kendra Wells said. “With an ultrasound, I am detecting subclinical lesions.” Wells presented the benets of thoracic ultrasound at the Vita Plus Midwest Dairy Conference June 15 in Wisconsin Dells. Subclinical signs of pneumonia are occurring before the calf shows any physical signs of sickness. Wells said a calf can go from acting normal, eating and being active to becoming severely sick without any obvious warning. Upon euthanasia, Wells has often found that those calves’ lungs had lesions on them. “A subclinical lesion occurs when a calf seemed totally normal but was still internally sick,” Wells said. “With the ultrasound, we’re
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ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR
Dr. Kendra Wells shows parƟcipants a calf lung during her presentaƟon June 15 at the Vita Plus Midwest Dairy Conference in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
able to detect it, and in certain cases, we are doing some subclinical treatment.” Wells said the reason calves may not display symptoms is because of their biological nature to not show weakness as a way of survival. “Cattle, in general, are the prey so their habit is always to try to hide something,” Wells said. “In nature, you have those wolves waiting to see who is the weakest link, and they’re going to attack them. If I’m the weakest link, I’m not going to try to show that.” Turn to VITA PLUS | Page 13
“We make most of our management decisions based off of what we see in the reports.” What are some of the DHIA tests you use? We use the standard tests; milk production, butterfat, protein and somatic cell count. Which is your favorite and why? Snapshot by string, quick list and the youngstock report. We use the reports from the tests. How does testing with DHIA beneÀt your dairy operation? We make most of our management decisions based off of what we see in the reports. Tell us about your farm. Our cows are housed in a freestall barn and milked in a parallel parlor. We have stir fans in the freestall barn. The cows are fed twice a day. I have enough land to provide all the corn silage and some of the hay. Roger Peters (right) Most grain, protein, pictured with herdsman David Grooters concentrates, minerals Prairie Line Farm and the balance of hay 275 cows • Tyler, Minnesota are purchased.
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By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
CECIL, Wis. – If you happen to attend an outdoor summer event in northeastern Wisconsin, you just might hear the distinctive sound of an old-time tractor engine. Chances are, if you follow that sound, you will enjoy a delicious homemade ice cream treat. “A lot of people DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR tell me they knew Jacob Miller from Cecil, Wisconsin operates PuƩ PuƩ Ice Cream as a side-busiexactly where to nd ness. He makes and sells homemade ice cream at community events and fesƟme because they could vals throughout northeastern Wisconsin. hear the engine from a couple of blocks away,” Miller said. Jacob Miller, of Cecil, owns his ice cream looking – or listening, as the case may be – for business, Putt Putt Ice Cream. Miller keeps busy us,” Miller said. Miller takes his Putt Putt Ice Cream machine selling his homemade ice cream at events nearly every weekend from early June through the end to a variety of community events throughout the summer, making a vanilla ice cream that he said of September. “July and August are denitely my busiest has a custard-like consistency. Miller offers a wide times,” Miller said. “But, it keeps me fairly busy variety of toppings when serving his ice cream. He said crushed Heath candy bars and cookies throughout the whole summer.” Putt Putt Ice Cream is churned using a custom- and cream are two of the most popular toppings, ordered 1946 John Deere Hit and Miss tractor along with chocolate and caramel syrups. “The ice cream is classied as a custard engine, which has been completely restored and because of the high percentage of dairy,” Miller attached to a 5-gallon ice cream freezer. “I grew up on a farm in Ohio and knew of said. According to Miller, it takes about 20 minutes several people that had homemade ice cream makers like this,” Miller said. “But, I haven’t seen for the machine to make a 5-gallon batch of ice cream, and he estimates that each batch creates another one around this area like it.” The uniqueness of the machine captivates approximately 100 servings of ice cream. Miller both young and old, and Miller said he enjoys said that during the average event, he makes sharing the experience that reminds him of his anywhere from four to eight batches of ice cream. The ice cream is made using a purchased ice own childhood with those he meets at the different cream mix, and Miller adds whole milk, sugar and events. “It really draws attention with the distinctive vanilla avoring. Miller uses a hand crank to re noise it makes,” Miller said. “People of every up the tractor engine. Currently, Miller operates his ice cream age group love it. The older generation enjoys reminiscing, because they grew up with tractors business from a pop-up tent and is a vendor only like that. The younger kids are just fascinated by at local events. Future plans for Putt Putt Ice Cream might it and love the sound.” Since he began offering his ice cream, Miller include obtaining a food truck license, which said he has developed a following of many familiar Miller said will allow him to expand not only what he can offer to his customers but also increase his faces that seek him out at events. “I will see numerous familiar faces that are ability to attend more events and functions and possibly have regular non-event hours. Miller said the gaspowered, water-cooled engine is fairly simple to operate and requires minimal maintenance to keep it running in tiptop shape, including oil changes after each 20 hours of operation and occasionally changing the spark plugs. “The nostalgia of the old hit-and-miss engine, the homemade ice cream and the spirit of small-town community events have made this a very rewarding venture for me,” Miller said. DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
PuƩ PuƩ Ice Cream is made using a fully restored 1946 John Deere Hit and Miss tractor engine which is hooked up to a ve-gallon ice cream freezer. Jacob Miller uses the machine for his business.
Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 11
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Darren and Karen Hughes are part owners of Sunset Farms where they milk 1,200 cows and farm 3,500 acres near Allenton, Wisconsin. Karen is the farm’s herd manager and Darren is the assistant herdsman and feed manager.
Reducing inversions creates success for Sunset Farms By Stacey Smart
stacey.s@dairystar.com
ALLENTON, Wis. – By focusing on minimizing the number of cows that are producing more protein than butterfat, Sunset Farms has built a healthier, higher-producing animal. In the last ve years, the farm reduced inversions by 20%. As a result, components have climbed, and cows are in better shape. Karen Hughes, the farm’s herd manager, and her husband, Darren Hughes, the assistant herdsman and feed manager, were ecstatic when the farm achieved a long-awaited goal of 7 pounds of combined fat and protein. But reaching this objective required patience and perseverance. “It seemed to take forever to get to 7 pounds, but we nally made it thanks to advice from our veterinarian,” Darren said. “For a long time, we were really close, and now this is our second year at 7 pounds. Hopefully we can maintain it.” Sunset Farms has been in Karen’s family since 1847, and she is the sixth generation on the farm where they milk 1,200 cows, nish 200 steers a year, and farm 3,500 acres of haylage, BMR
corn for silage, grain corn, soybean, winter wheat, winter rye and canary grass. Currently, eight members of the fth and sixth generations as well as two longtime employees own and operate the farm with help from 25 fulltime employees. Karen and Darren’s three children – Haley, 13, Hayden, 10, and Hunter, 5 – represent the seventh generation at Sunset Farms. Inversions were at 23% in 2017 when the farm’s veterinarian encouraged Karen and Darren to focus on this aspect. The couple took his recommendation to heart, and today, inversions are at 2%-3%. The industry standard is for inverted cows to make up no more than 10% of the herd. But even that was not a number Karen and Darren were willing to live with. “We really watch nutrition with regards to ber, making sure we feed the right kinds with good particle length,” Karen said. “That was the biggest step to meet our goal.” Breaking the herd down into three groups – rst lactation, second lactation and third lactation – cows were further examined according to days in milk to try to eliminate inversions and also create a more persistent peak in production. “By doing this, our fat cows went away, but butterfat stayed high,” Karen said. “When cows are milking well through their entire lactation, Turn to HUGHES | Page 12
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Page 12 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
ConƟnued from HUGHES | Page 11 they never get fat. We prevented a lot of long-term health changes and are drying off cows at the right body condition, which helps them get through the transition period easier and be more successful in their lactation.” Maintaining a lower inversion rate long term also helped milk production rise across the board. Cows are milked three times a day and average 95 pounds of milk per cow per day. Butterfat is at 4.2% and protein is 3.2%. Cows in their third lactation or later comprise 47% of the herd. “Fat and protein are up a lot in the last three years,” Karen said. The farm’s nutritionist does an audit for the ration once a year to help ensure the dairy is feeding a diet compatible with achieving its intended goals. “When you do things every day, it’s really easy to let little things slip,” Darren said. “The audit helps ensure we’re doing things correctly to keep us on track.” Maintaining close communication with all team members has been an important facet of the farm’s success. Karen and Darren hold monthly meetings with their veterinarian, nutritionist, calf manager and a parlor representative from BouMatic. Using Dairy Herd Improvement Association reports, the team is able to address items before they become a problem and will discuss seasonal changes such as when to change dips. “Working to achieve our goals is denitely a team effort, and I think meeting every month helps a lot,” Karen said. In addition, they meet weekly with their veterinarian as well as their nutritionist and talk outside of scheduled meetings also – critical
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
Cows are milked three Ɵmes a day and average 95 pounds of milk per cow per day with seven pounds of combined fat and protein at Sunset Farms near Allenton, Wisconsin. In the last ve years, the farm reduced inversions by 20%, resulƟng in a healthier, higher-producing animal
conversations that feed into the farm’s proactive approach. Karen said they also use a translator who helps explain details to barn employees, ensuring they are on the same page as Karen when it comes to her goals for the herd. “Communication helps everyone know what the goals are on the farm, and each person is held responsible for their area,” she said. Karen and Darren work in tandem to ensure diets are geared to meeting expectations in the bulk tank. A big change in strategy occurred in 2016 when they stopped using bovine somatotropin. “Not using BST changed our methods, and managing the diet correctly became even more important,” Darren said. “We focused on feed quality to get the production we wanted.”
The dairy lost some volume when removing BST from their regimen, but what they lost in liquid, they gained in solids as components crept up. Two years ago, Darren started using a SCiO cup for instant dry matter testing to gain quick feed quality results. He tests forages twice a week and corn once a month. “I can sample a large variety of feedstuffs by using the SCiO cup,” he said. “It’s even very handy to use before chopping as it lets me know if the eld is ready. If the eld is wet, then we’ll wait. I can use it when packing hay too.” Previously, Darren used a Koster Moisture Tester, but he said it took longer to get results. With the SCiO cup, he sees results in ve seconds, and accuracy is within 1.5%. The device also helps him make feeding decisions
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based on weather events. “If I come up to face feed and it has too much moisture, I can make adjustments to the ration,” Darren said. “I may feed more then to compensate for water weight.” In 2017, Sunset Farms started using a monitoring system to track rumination in transition cows – another decision that helped boost herd health and ultimately assure fewer inverted animals. Karen said cows wear monitoring collars approximately 30 days pre- and post-fresh. “This allows us to catch those transition cows sooner and give them the help they need,” Karen said. “It’s easier to manage employees when they can see on paper which cows aren’t doing well. The monitoring system makes it easier to nd those cows. It ags them before they’re showing symptoms, and we give them a nice drenching before they’re running really low. This helps prevent milk fever and gets cows off to a better start.” Karen said reproduction on the farm has always been good, which is why they did not invest in collars for the whole herd. The current pregnancy rate is 32%, but their goal is to get to 34%. Working to improve all aspects related to the FARM program and the Dairy Farmers of America Gold Standard Dairy Program, Darren said, is built into the routine at Sunset Farms as well. “We’re always looking to improve and make sure we’re doing what’s good for the cows,” Darren said. “The quality of work we do is like our signature. If you want people to have a good outlook on your farm, you have to hold yourself accountable to do the best you can every time.”
Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 13
ConƟnued from VITA PLUS | Page 9
To nd subclinical illnesses, Wells uses ultrasound to determine if a calf’s lung has lesions or not. She then scores the calves from zero to ve based on the ndings, with zero meaning no lesions and ve meaning severely sick with multiple lesions. When looking at a lung with an ultrasound, Wells said a healthy lung will present reverberation lines while a lesion shows up as dark spots. Lobular lesions are at the beginning of a bacterial pneumonia and score a two on the scale. They indicate the rst step of what may end up being viral pneumonia. Wells said there are different reasons for these signs and can sometimes be the result of an error on the caregiver’s part. If a calf is tubed wrong and ends up aspirating while being fed, then a lesion can show up when a calf is as young as 2 days old. “It could just be that we messed up,” Wells said. “Sometimes, I will see calves that are less than 7 days old with these lesions, and then we go straight back and look at how the colostrum was fed.” In other cases, lesions are the result of environmental factors. Particularly in the Midwest, Wells has seen more evidence of lesions during February than in other times of the year. This is due to closed barns to keep cattle warm which can restrict air ow and cause pneumonia or subclini-
“This is not the be all and end all. But, it is usually leading us to the next step of the program that we can improve to change what we are seeing on the ultrasound.” DR. KENDRA WELLS
cal symptoms. Housing type also plays a role. “All of the hutch calves that I have scanned have been very, very clean,” Wells said. “With auto feeders, it’s kind of like sending all your kids to kindergarten when they bring bugs home and they get sick. There’s nothing wrong with auto feeders or hutches or barns, but it’s just what I’ve seen.” With treatment, the lesion will shrink, stop growing or disappear by the time that animal becomes 2 years old. Wells has seen cases where lesions shrink weekly with treatment. “This is still pretty new, so we don’t know yet what the antibiotic efcacy is,” Wells said. “I can’t say if the bug responded to the antibiotic without taking bacteria from that calf, putting it on a plate and testing it against the antibiotics. What I can say is that the calf responded to treatment.” Wells also uses the #WeanClean Philosophy by Dr. Theresa Ollivett with the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine. This system looks for the percentage of calves that have lung scores at weaning. Wells usually looks for a score of three or greater. “That means these calves have had some event before that and have not cleaned up from that yet,” Wells said. “Your goal should be less than 50% calves with lesions. If I’m being honest, I have few herds that actually hit that. If you’re doing this and you’re frustrated with it, don’t be.” Wells said there are many factors to consider when looking at lungs in calves and why some develop lesions and some do not. When a young calf of 2 weeks or less presents lesions, it is likely management at birth. If a 9-week-old calf is presenting evidence of lesions, Wells said to review the weaning program. “This is not the be all and end all,” said Wells of calf lung health. “But, it is usually leading us to the next step of the program that we can improve to change what we are seeing on the ultrasound.”
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Page 14 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
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From Our Side Of The Fence
Samantha Krueger Allenton, Wisconsin 165 cows
Tell us about your hay harvest this year. We have 150 acres of hay that is mostly used for haylage. We bale 13 of those acres. We harvested our rst crop May 30 and stored it in one of our silos as well as in one bag. We started second crop hay June 29 and will store it in bags. My husband, Justin, our fulltime employee, Evan, and I handle the harvest. We use a pull-behind chopper, four wagons and a merger. We also do custom work for a neighbor. What was the yield? We had really good yield on rst crop hay at 4.98 tons per acre. We did not test the feed value, but once in a while, we will test as we make it. The hay is used to feed all of our heifers and cows. How does this year’s crop compare to previous years? It is pretty good in comparison. In 2017 or 2018, we had a lot of rain toward the end, so it was not a great year, but we’ve gotten pretty good yield the last few years. We have feed coming out of our ears right now, which is a good problem to have with expanding our herd and the dry weather they’ve had out west. What has been the greatest challenge of hay harvest this season? How have you overcome it? The hay got really dry really fast. We cut one day and chopped the next, and it was still to the point that it almost got away on us. It was windy and hot when we were ready to chop, so the hay really dried down fast, which meant we had to work fast. If we were to have baled, everything would’ve been perfect. How will you plan to manage your hay crop for the remainder of the season? We will try to stay on a 28-day cutting schedule. In our rst cutting, we go for quantity. In our third cutting, and fourth cutting especially, we shoot for quality. We usually do four cuttings total, and we typically do not take any samples until we start feeding. We mark the bag when we go into a different eld so we can anticipate changes in feed. We take feed samples when we start to feed a new section of the bag. Tell us about your farm. We currently have 200 cows and 100 calves and heifers and farm 650 acres. My husband started working on this farm when he was 13 years old. By the time he was 18, he started buying cows, land and equipment. In 2015, we bought the land where we recently built a freestall barn and milking parlor that we moved into in April and are also installing a manure pit this summer. All of our youngstock and dry cows are here now that we have the room, and it’s exciting to have them all onsite. Our goal is to get up to 200 cows milking by the end of the year.
Dairyy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 15
How does this year’s hay crop compare to previous years?
Ryan Harm Cadott, Wisconsin 95 cows
Tell us about your hay harvest this year. We make the hay from the Country Fest grounds, which is about 135 acres, just for dry hay. We have about 130 acres for haylage, typically. This year, we cut the Friday before Father’s Day and started chopping it the next day. By Sunday, it was getting too dry to go in as haylage so we nished lling a 10-by-300-foot bag and tedded the rest out for baling. Because it was getting to be older hay, we gured it would be better as baled hay. We actually had the stretch of weather for drying. What was the yield? We normally chop all of our haylage and store it in ag bags. Yield ran quite well just because everything got pushed back so far. The relative feed value may have suffered some, but we haven’t tested any yet. We lled that 10-foot-by-300-foot bag and made about 275 big square bales off of 130 acres. The Country Fest grounds is just grass hay to be sold and runs about 1.5 4-by-5.5-foot bales to the acre. There was quite a bit of feed for rst crop; it was not great quality. How does this year’s crop compare to previous years? Just like everything this year, it all got pushed back about two to three weeks. What has been the greatest challenge of hay harvest this season? How have you overcome it? The biggest challenge this spring was wet, cold weather. We are in the process of building a new freestall barn so that came with more challenges. But, we keep pushing forward. We have ended up with a lot of late nights since mid-May. How will you plan to manage your hay crop for the remainder of the season? We are going to cut second crop at about 24 days, weather permitting, to get more quality feed and get back close to schedule. Tell us about your farm. Currently, we milk in a 118-stall tiestall barn that we rent about 3 miles up the road. We run about 530 acres total of crop land and are milking roughly 100 cows now. We plan to be at 125 to 130 cows once we get into the new barn. We hope to be putting cows in there by the end of July.
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Terry Arentz Rockland, Wisconsin 50 cows Tell us about your hay harvest this year. We have 70 acres in hay. We chop just about everything and round bale a little bit. We store all of our feed in bags. The timing has been perfect so far this year. I can cut it one day and chop the next. That’s how I do it every single time. Consistency in feed is the most important thing in a dairy herd. What was the yield? Two 150-foot bags out of the rst crop. How does this year’s crop compare to previous years? We’re a little bit behind, but it’s good feed. We cut about on that 30th day. I don’t stay with the big guys, but I stay right behind them. What has been the greatest challenge of hay harvest this season? How have you overcome it? Budgeting everything has been a challenge this year, but I think next year might be worse. I am usually ahead of the curve on things and buy ahead, but that might not be possible next year. Availability of product has been a challenge. It’s been hard to get it when you need it. There is really no way to overcome that. How will you plan to manage your hay crop for the remainder of the season? I usually take three to four crops depending on the weather and how much I have. If I need it, I’ll take a fourth crop, but if I don’t, I’d just as soon leave it stand. Tell us about your farm. I farm with my two sons and plan on getting out after this year. My sons are probably going to take it over. We are going to run it together next year and see how it goes. They both work off the farm right now and help besides. We milk 50 cows and run 240 acres. Turn to OUR SIDE | Page 16
Page 16 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
ConƟnued from OUR SIDE | Page 15
Alby Slowey Westeld, Wisconsin 1,460 cows
John and Katie Noth Wilton, Wisconsin 130 cows Tell us about your hay harvest this year. We crop around 125 acres of hay, and it is all made into baleage. We round bale and wrap everything. We did rst crop around May 29 which was good timing for us. We just nished second crop. What was the yield? We estimate each bale to be around 1,800 pounds, and we yielded three bales per acre for rst crop. We do not test until it is cured and we begin feeding. We bale to achieve between 30% to 40% moisture. How does this year’s crop compare to previous years? We have been seeing more of a problem with bugs in the last couple years. Otherwise, this year has been a good year so far. What has been the greatest challenge of hay harvest this season? How have you overcome it? The biggest problem is nding enough manpower to get done in a timely fashion. We overcome this by doing baleage. How will you plan to manage your hay crop for the remainder of the season? We cut at 28-day intervals and plan to harvest four crops. We only harvest a fth crop if it is excellent feed, but we want to leave some growth before the frost comes. Tell us about your farm. John is a fth-generation dairyman and the third generation of Noths on this farm. We milk twice a day in a double-8 parallel parlor. We have around 500 acres total, including our pasture. We are working on transitioning into ownership of the farm.
Tell us about your hay harvest this year. We did 2,250 acres in our rst cutting and 1,750 acres in our second cutting. We cut fewer acres the second time around because we didn’t do some of the heifer hay. We started chopping rst crop May 24 and second crop June 20. Everything was chopped for haylage and stored in a pile on concrete. We cover it with two layers of plastic when we’re all done. We use a New Holland T8.380 tractor for cutting with a Kuhn triple mower and do our chopping with a New Holland FR920 forage harvester. What was the yield? First crop tonnage was very good at 3.43 wet tons per acre. It was a lot better than second crop. We usually follow a 28-day cutting window to get the quality we want, but we did second crop hay between 25 and 28 days to get everything back on track. We had perfect weather, so we did some hay earlier than normal. Tonnage on second crop was 2.24 wet tons per acre. I thought they were both pretty good crops overall. We will not know the feed value until we open up the piles for feeding. Our hay is used to feed both heifers and cows with 450 acres dedicated to heifer feed. How does this year’s crop compare to previous years? This year’s crop is normal for us, being pretty similar to past years. Our rst crop was a little higher than normal, and second crop was a little less. But, it would’ve been normal if we had let it go the typical number of days. First crop took two weeks to harvest, but second crop only took six days because of the dry weather we had. What has been the greatest challenge of hay harvest this season? How have you overcome it? Making sure we make hay at the correct moisture is always the greatest challenge for us. Quality is so important, especially this year with the high cost of protein, which makes it even more critical to get the moisture right. The nice thing about doing it ourselves is that we can dictate when we harvest our hay. For example, this year we were just about done planting corn when we decided to stop and do rst crop hay. We then nished planting corn after the hay was done. We try to manage moisture based on how we cut. We set the conditioning and width of the rows on the triple mower to get the moisture we want. How will you plan to manage your hay crop for the remainder of the season? Twenty-eight days after we start cutting, we’ll start again and try to keep up if weather permits. We’ll do four cuttings, and on some hay, we’ll do ve. We’re early enough that we can do that. We always try to pick the end of May to start, whether alfalfa is short or not because that sets us up for the whole summer crop schedule. We don’t take any clippings of our alfalfa. Tell us about your farm. Slowey Farms Inc. is a fth-generation farm that has been in our family since 1912. I farm with my wife, Dawn; my mom and dad, Tim and Sue; my son, Alex, and his wife, Mattie, and my granddaughter, Ruth. We also have 30 phenomenal employees. We milk three times a day in a double-24 parallel parlor and farm 3,000 acres. We hire a little bit of manure hauling; otherwise, everything else on the farm is done in-house, including raising our calves.
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Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 17
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Page 18 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
Breeding Prole
Hyde Park Holsteins breeds for sustainable cows Kerwin, Sandy, Kevin and Kay Siewert Employee management team: Eric Hanson, Dan Hanson, Nick Hanson and Cam Laqua Hyde Park Holsteins Zumbro Falls, Minnesota 670 cows Describe your facilities and list your breeding management team. We milk in a double-8 parallel parlor. Our cows are housed in sand-bedded, naturalventilated freestall barns with fans and sprinklers. Eric does all the shots and breeding for the milking herd. Cam follows the activity monitors on both the cows and heifers. Kerwin breeds most of the heifers. What is your current pregnancy rate? 30% for the milking herd. What is your reproduction program? Do you use a synchronization program? How do you get animals pregnant? All cows get two shots of Estrumate or Lutalyse before they go into an OvSynch program. The rst shot is between 41 and 47 days, and the second shot is between 55 and 61 days. If they show up on the activity monitors, or physically show a heat, we’ll breed them then. Two weeks after that, they get a GnRH shot on a
Monday, and then the following Monday, they get cycle checked by our veterinarian and resume our double Lutalyse OvSynch program if they have a corpus luteum. With our double Lutalyse OvSynch program, they get GnRH one week, and then the following week is Lutalyse on Monday, Lutalyse on Tuesday, GnRH on Wednesday and bred on Thursday. Cows are pregnancy checked at 30 to 36 days, and if one is open, she’ll get a GnRH shot and get checked again in the next week. If she has a corpus luteum, she’ll resume our OvSych protocol. The heifers are all bred natural and get caught with the activity monitors. Very seldom, we’ll give a Lutalyse shot to bring one in heat.
Describe your breeding philosophy. We look for sustainability. We want them to keep going in our herd, and in order to do that, they have to be on a good set of feet and legs and have a decent udder. We did run into the problem of getting the legs too straight. We found out they just don’t make it in a freestall facility on concrete. Now we watch for posty legs and try to stay away from them. Bull selection is based off of net merit, and then we work down from there. We want them to be a plus on udder, a plus on milk
KATE RECHTZIGEL/DAIRY STAR
The Hyde Park Holstein employee management team – (front, from leŌ) Nick, Eric and Dan Hanson – and owners – (back, from leŌ) Kevin and Kerwin Siewert – milk 670 cows at near Zumbro Falls, Minnesota. and a plus on feet and legs. Then, we watch to make sure their legs are not too posty. What guidelines do you follow to reach the goals for your breeding program? Staying diligent with our shots, making sure the shots are given on time and on the right day, and being among the cows helps. With our OvSynch cows, we get a fair number of them who will
show heat on Wednesday, the day before they are due to be bred, and then we’ll go ahead and breed them that afternoon. What are the top traits you look for in breeding your dairy herd, and how has this changed since you started farming? We still go by net merit. It used to be a lot toward type, but now we are breeding more for health traits and net
merit. We also watch combined fat and protein, which is different because before we weren’t concerned about that. We’d look for cows that milked. What are certain traits you try to avoid? Posty legs. The cows get up on their toes, and those feet go bad in a hurry.
Turn to BREEDING | Page 20
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Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 19
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ConƟnued from BREEDING | Page 18
What is the age of your heifers at rst service? 14 months, so they calve at 23 months.
Describe the ideal cow for your herd. An ideal cow for us gets around on a really good set of feet and legs and has an above average udder, because those are the cows that last in our herd. We also want her aggressive at the feed bunk, because if she’s aggressive there, odds are she’s going to milk. We are not concerned about size because we have had all sizes of cows milk well for us. What role does genetics have in reaching the goals of your farm? They are huge, because we are always trying to jump that genetic bar. We have used embryos. We don’t any more, because we wanted to try and bring up the bottom end of the genetics in our herd. We’ve also used pre-release semen in the past to try and get a jump on genetics. Right now, our biggest change is the environment. We are on sand, which has helped keep the cows healthier and has boosted our reproduction and milk production. So, the cows’ environment is good, and now genetically, we just keep climbing because that is what’s going to drive our herd. What percentage of your herd is bred to sexed, conventional and beef semen? We are all conventional in the tank right now. The only sexed semen we use is if a bull stud only carries sexed semen on that particular bull that we want. There’s no beef semen. We are calving out the last of the embryo transfers
How does your heifer inventory affect your breeding program? It doesn’t. For the foreseeable future, we plan to stay with conventional semen. We haven’t seen the reason for adding any sexed or beef semen to our operation as we have been slowly expanding for the last ve years. We’ll take the extra heifers because we are building from within. We haven’t bought any cows since 2004.
KATE RECHTZIGEL/DAIRY STAR
The team at Hyde Park Holsteins breeds for cows that have a good set of feet and legs and an above average udder. They have a pregnancy rate of 30%. that we had. We went away from that because we were having issues getting them pregnant. What is your conception rate? How does this differ with different types of semen? The cows are at 48%. The heifers are at 54%, and they still had some of the ETs factored in. The ETs were at 33% for conception and the standings at 63%. What is the greatest lesson you have learned through
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your breeding program? The biggest lesson in the past few years has been posty legs. Net merit is a great number, and the feet and legs score is a good number, but for a while, a posty leg was helping her feet and leg score. So, we were taking these really high feet and leg scores and thinking we were xing the problem and we actually weren’t. As far as the breeding program, it helped the older cows when we put that second Lutalyse shot in our OvSynch
program. We went up about 5% or 6% on conception rate. The heifers, we found, are virtually the same whether you do two Lutalyse shots or one. Our activity monitors, however, helped with the heifers, because not everybody is going by there all the time. Five years ago, some were getting missed, and now the activity monitors can pick them up. And, same with the cows. During the day, we would catch cows, but over the weekend, we’d miss a lot.
Tell us about your farm. We milk a fair number of cows, but it’s still got a family farm feel to it because Kevin and Kerwin are very involved, and all of the management team is related; Eric, Dan and Nick are brothers and Cam is a cousin. Everything is bedded with sand, so we have a settling land and reclaim all of our sand. Most years we can also get by without buying any new sand; however, this year we did because we put a new building in and are using more sand. We also run around 1,380 acres of corn and 845 acres of hay, with 15 acres of new seeding. Next year, we will plant more new seeding, and then, we’ll have 650 acres of hay and 200 acres of new seeding. Then, we’ll probably cover it with winter rye which we chop and feed back to the heifers. All the crops go back to feed the cows, and the harvesting is done by us. We don’t hire anybody.
Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 21
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COMBINE PLATFORMS Case IH 3020-25 2013, 25 ft., Flexible, #535860 ..............................................................$27,900 Case IH 3162-40 2014, 40 ft., Draper, #191979................................................................$41,000 JD 630F 2010, 30 ft., Flexible, #532667.............................................................................$25,000 JD 630F 2013, 30 ft., Flexible, #276370.............................................................................$33,900 JD 635F 2009, 35 ft., Flexible, #191014.............................................................................$15,250 JD 635F 2013, 35 ft., Flexible, #188774.............................................................................$17,500 JD 635F 2011, 35 ft., Flexible, #532567.............................................................................$19,900 JD 635F 2009, 35 ft., Flexible, #191019.............................................................................$19,900 JD 635F 2010, 35 ft., Flexible, #533569.............................................................................$20,900 JD 635F 2012, 35 ft., Flexible, #533446.............................................................................$22,900 JD 635F 2013, 35 ft., Flexible, #187514.............................................................................$26,500 JD 635F 2016, 35 ft., Flexible, #191984.............................................................................$32,500 JD 640FD 2012, 40 ft., Flex/Draper, #533070 ....................................................................$51,000 JD 640FD 2012, 40 ft., Flex/Draper, #189742 ....................................................................$54,000 JD 640FD 2012, 40 ft., Flex/Draper, #187230 ....................................................................$58,500 JD 640FD 2015,40 ft., Flex/Draper, Flip Over Reel, #191020 ..............................................$60,000 JD 640FD 2013, 40 ft., Flexible, #533071 ..........................................................................$61,000 JD 640FD 2015, 40 ft., Flex/Draper, Flip Over Reel, #276035 .............................................$64,900 JD 640FD 2017, 40 ft., Flex/Draper, Flip Over Reel, #524731 .............................................$75,000 JD 640FD 2017, 40 ft., Flex/Draper, Flip Over Reel, #273817 .............................................$75,900 JD 640FD 2018, 40 ft., Flex/Draper, #275555 ....................................................................$82,900 JD 640FD 2018, 40 ft., Flex/Draper, Flip Over Reel,#531229 ..............................................$85,900 JD 640FD 2018, 40 ft., Flex/Draper, Flip Over Reel, #191824 .............................................$86,500 JD 645FD 2017, 45 ft., Flex/Draper, Flip Over Reel, #276167 .............................................$79,900 JD 645FD 2018, 45 ft., Flex/Draper, Flip Over Reel, #274892 .............................................$87,900 JD 745FD 2020, 45 ft., Flex/Draper, Flip Over Reel, #191084 .............................................$95,500
COMBINES Case IH 7088 2010, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 3175 hrs., 2476 Sep. hrs., #531665 .........$99,000 JD 9500 1993, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Singles, 5698 hrs., 3476 Sep. hrs., #531747....................$22,000 JD 9500 1993, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 4730 hrs., 3072 Sep. hrs., #531515 ......................$27,000 JD 9600 1992, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 4764 hrs., 3192 Sep. hrs., #524471 ......................$22,000 JD 9560 STS 2005, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Singles, 3291 hrs., 2065 Sep. hrs., #531329 ..........$82,900 JD 9650 STS 1999, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 5395 hrs., 3467 Sep. hrs., #276232 ...............$34,900 JD 9670 STS 2011, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 3677 hrs., 2503 Sep. hrs., #188158 ...............$99,900 JD 9770 STS 2009, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 4550 hrs., 3172 Sep. hrs., #190521 .............$81,000
JD 9770 STS 2010, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Singles, 3620 hrs., 2851 Sep. hrs., #533838 ........$107,500 JD S660 2012, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 1700 hrs., 900 Sep. hrs., #539380 ......................$185,000 JD S660 2014, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 1555 hrs., 1181 Sep. hrs., #532082 ..................$189,500 JD S670 2013, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 2765 hrs., 1916 Sep. hrs., #191646 ....................$139,900 JD S670 2014, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 2229 hrs., 1622 Sep. hrs., #531781 ....................$155,000 JD S670 2014, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 2590 hrs., 1673 Sep. hrs., #191790 ..................$167,000 JD S670 2016, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 1372 hrs., 820 Sep. hrs., #531783 ....................$259,995 JD S670 2015, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Floaters, 1000 hrs., 750 Sep. hrs., #531784 ................$279,900 JD S680 2012, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 2575 hrs., 1817 Sep. hrs., #524875 ....................$132,500 JD S680 2012, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 2300 hrs., 1600 Sep. hrs., #532046 ....................$150,000 JD S680 2015, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 2755 hrs., 2048 Sep. hrs., #524469 ....................$165,900 JD S680 2014, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 2653 hrs., 1525 Sep. hrs., #541179 ..................$169,000 JD S680 2015, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Singles, 2433 hrs., 1762 Sep. hrs., #190078................$191,000 JD S680 2014, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 2248 hrs., 1668 Sep. hrs., #531966 ..................$195,000 JD S680 2014, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Singles, 2352 hrs., 1713 Sep. hrs., #276314..................$219,900 JD S680 2016, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 1842 hrs., 1250 Sep. hrs., #532830 ..................$249,000 JD S680 2017, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 1487 hrs., 1053 Sep. hrs., #273646 ..................$254,900 JD S680 2017, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 1942 hrs., 1362 Sep. hrs., #191923 ..................$271,000 JD S680 2017, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 1538 hrs., 1084 Sep. hrs., #541254 ..................$278,000 JD S690 2017, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 3100 hrs., 1945 Sep. hrs., #535149 ..................$165,000 JD S770 2018, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 1411 hrs., 1051 Sep. hrs., #421313 ....................$277,000 JD S770 2021, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 293 hrs., 200 Sep. hrs., #532535 ........................$524,900 JD S780 2018, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 1080 hrs., 700 Sep. hrs., #531873 ......................$319,900 JD S780 2018, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 1598 hrs., 1130 Sep. hrs., #276170 ..................$329,900 JD S780 2019, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 1352 hrs., 750 Sep. hrs., #191164 ....................$368,000 JD S780 2019, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Floaters, 1272 hrs., 888 Sep. hrs., #275242 ................$369,900 JD S780 2018, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 996 hrs., 772 Sep. hrs., #523885 ......................$379,000 JD S780 2019, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 800 hrs., 650 Sep. hrs., #542133 ......................$389,900 JD S780 2020, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 639 hrs., 373 Sep. hrs., #181757 ......................$429,900 JD S780 2020, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 880 hrs., 633 Sep. hrs., #531647 ..................... $439,900 JD S780 2020, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 793 hrs., 596 Sep. hrs., #188309 .....................$454, 900 JD S780 2020, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Singles, 658 hrs., 473 Sep. hrs., #532549....................$465,000 JD S780 2021, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 290 hrs., 217 Sep. hrs., #191047 ......................$504,900 JD S780 2021, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 217 hrs., 168 Sep. hrs., #191048 ......................$507,900 JD S780 2021, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 387 hrs., 310 Sep. hrs., #191065 ......................$509,900 JD S780 2021, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 115 hrs., 79 Sep. hrs., #191064 ........................$518,900 JD S780 2021, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Singles, 342 hrs., 281 Sep. hrs., #191053....................$528,000 JD S780 2021, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 277 hrs., 161 Sep. hrs., #191038 ......................$529,000
JD S790 2018, Corn/Bean, 2WD, Duals, 1241 hrs., 914 Sep. hrs., #273973 ......................$334,900 JD S790 2019, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 1390 hrs., 1110 Sep. hrs., #532032 ..................$359,000 JD S790 2020, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 1148 hrs., 864 Sep. hrs., #275917 ....................$429,900 JD S790 2020, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 1090 hrs., 684 Sep. hrs., #274274 ....................$449,900 JD S790 2021, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 565 hrs., 439 Sep. hrs., #531357 ......................$488,000 JD S790 2021, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 517 hrs., 382 Sep. hrs., #276139 ......................$524,900 JD S790 2021, Corn/Bean, PRWD, Duals, 447 hrs., 316 Sep. hrs., #533167 .....................$529,000
CORN & ROW CROP HEADERS JD 1293 2000, 12 row, 30” Spacing, #191275 ....................................................................$19,900 Geringhoff 1822/b 2009, 18 row, 22” Spacing, StalkMaster, #187697.............................$46,000 Case IH 2608F 2006, 8 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #531346 .......................................$19,500 Harvestec 5308C 2011, 8 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #531666 ..................................$24,500 JD 608C 2014, 8 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #190633 ..................................................$45,900 JD 612C 2013, 12 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #275887 ................................................$37,900 JD 612C 2013, 12 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #531354 ................................................$42,900 JD 612C 2015, 12 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #275886 ................................................$44,900 JD 612C 2013, 12 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #532760 ................................................$48,900 JD 612C 2014, 12 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #191963 ................................................$59,900 JD 612C 2015, 12 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #276067 ................................................$62,900 JD 612C 2016, 12 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #275631 ................................................$73,900 JD 612C StalkMaster 2010, 12 row, 20” Spacing, #532117 .............................................$30,900 JD 612FC 2017, 12 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #524915 ............................................$105,000 JD 618C 2012, 18 row, 22” Spacing, StalkMaster, #191869 ................................................$74,900 JD 618C 2013, 18 row, 22” Spacing, StalkMaster, #191818 ................................................$89,900 JD 618C 2014, 18 row, 22” Spacing, StalkMaster, #191011 ................................................$92,000 JD 618C 2014, 18 row, 22” Spacing, StalkMaster, $191015 ..............................................$119,000 JD 712FC 2019, 12 row, 30” Spacing, #532937 ................................................................$109,900 JD 712FC 2020, 12 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #191025 ............................................$159,000 JD 718C 2019, 18 row, 22” Spacing, StalkMaster, #190232 ..............................................$177,000 JD C12F 2021, 12 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #276138 ..............................................$172,900 JD C12F 2021, 12 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #534411 ..............................................$173,500 JD C18R 2021, 18 row, 22” Spacing, StalkMaster, #191067..............................................$204,900 Geringhoff RD600 2010, 6 row, 30” Spacing, #273931 ....................................................$19,900 Geringhoff RD800 2004, 8 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #531020................................$21,500 Geringhoff RD800 2011, 8 row, 30” Spacing, StalkMaster, #191648................................$39,900 Drago S18TR 2009, 18 row, 22” Spacing, StalkMaster, #532808 .......................................$38,900
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Page 22 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
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Show preparations
According to a young Stearns County native, the Stearns County Fair in Minnesota is at the end of this month. That means if you haven’t trained your calves yet, you better get to halter breaking. This will be my rst time visiting Minnesota’s largest dairy county’s exhibition. Also on the schedule for the Stearns County Fair is the District 8 Holstein Show. I am excited to see the caliber of cow quality aunting through the show ring July 27. I contemplated entering my two beef heifers in the open class division for the Stearns County Fair, but due to my busy schedule and By Grace Jeurissen lack of time at the farm, they Staff Writer have less than adequate hair and need some diet changes to dial them into proper condition. They should be ready for the McLeod County fair in mid-August for my brother to show. Speaking from personal experience, here are a few things I consider before my calf’s showcase. Cattle should be exposed to at least one show ring before their destination show; either enter them in a different show or walk them in the ring before show day. This not only gets them accustomed to a new environment, but it gives the showman a chance to observe their heifer’s behavior in and out of the ring. I may be preaching to the choir in this instance, but I would love to share my observations with our readers. I know I mentioned beef heifers, but other than the diet and way we show the two variations of bovine, they are very similar. The best ways I have prepared a heifer for a show has been by starting early. My two heifers were started on the halter last September and have attended one show. Some other things to take into consideration are heat abatement, hair growth and standing time. Let’s start with heat abatement. I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep fans moving the heat off their backs. There is nothing worse than standing in 90-degree sweltering heat with no air movement. For hair care and growth, rinse your calves with cold water in the mornings and evenings. Always make sure to blow them completely dry. Water left on cattle’s skin will absorb their heat and hold it there having the opposite effect you desire. Don’t wash them with soap but once or twice each week. Using cheap soap sparingly will strip the natural oils from their skin leaving it vulnerable to dandruff. I use Suave. I’m sure you know someone who has gorgeous, long, luxurious hair. I will bet money they use conditioner. Products like Revive Lite and ProPolish are great to condition the hair and hide of cattle. In the show ring, appearance is 9/10 of the law. A judge is more likely to be drawn to a glistening, healthy looking heifer over a mangy, dusty looking one. A proper diet also helps with hide and hair. Now, let’s talk bratty heifers. We’ve all dealt with at least one. Cattle stand in the chute for 20 minutes to up to an hour before they get to go in the ring, sometimes even more. Time the rst few classes of the morning. I usually predict 3-5 minutes for a class of ve animals. Try to time your tting so your heifer isn’t standing too long before your class. When you are preparing your heifers at home, tie their heads up for a while. I start with 30 minutes and increase to about 2 to 3 hours by the end of summer. They need to get comfortable with standing. I want my heifers to be comfortable getting shown for upward of 20 minutes because of how long showmanship is. This isn’t the only way to prepare your cattle for shows. There are a lot of systems that work. I have tried many ways, and this is what I have found the most success with. I wish good luck to all junior showmen this summer as county fairs across the Midwest start gearing up for their exhibitions. Don’t forget to have fun, make a new friend and eat lots of cheese curds.
Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 23
Sharing their story one video at a time Begert family promotes agriculture via YouTube By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
NEILLSVILLE, Wis. – In the evenings after nishing chores and homework, Jaron and Abigail Begert enjoyed watching farming videos on YouTube with their dad, Brian Begert. Those evenings inspired an adventure of creating their own videos to share the story of their family farm with the world. “Jaron enjoyed the videos we watched so much he wanted to try doing it,” Brian said. “We decided to try it and share the story of our own family dairy farm.” Over the past year and a half, the Begert family has published more than 60 videos on their Echowood Holsteins YouTube channel. The Begerts, along with Brian’s parents, Dennis and Cindy, milk 600 registered Holsteins on their Clark County dairy farm near Neillsville. “We just try and do videos of everyday stuff on the farm,” Brian said. “It might seem mundane or uninteresting to us, but to the public who has no farm experience, it can be very educating. We have found that people really like the videos with cow stuff in it. Those seem to be the most
popular.” Some of their videos have featured making rst crop hay, injecting manure, routine maintenance and repairs around the farm, caring for hospital cows, herd classication, calf care and milking in the parlor. Jaron tracks their progress with the public. “Lots of people liked the video we did about milking, and it is one of my favorites,” Jaron said. “That got a lot of really good comments. It had over 3,500 views on our YouTube channel.” Besides making the milking parlor video, one of the Begerts’ favorite videos was recorded during a day they tackled the project of putting activity collars on rstlactation heifers. Brian said it captured a real day of work. “I really enjoyed that video because both Jaron and Abigail were very involved with the work of the day,” Brian said. “Abigail actually lost her tooth that day, and the video editor put it in the video like a newsash with a breaking news graphic.” Another unique video was recorded the night Brian and Jaron slept in a calf hutch during a snowstorm in December 2021. “We were bedding calf hutches before a storm and were talking about how nice and warm
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
The Begert family – (front) Abigail; (back, from leŌ) Brian and Jaron – share the story of their own farm, Echowood Holsteins, with the world on their YouTube channel. The family milks 600 cows near Neillsville, Wisconsin. they were,” Jaron said. “I said we could almost sleep in them, so we did.” The decision about what subjects to cover does not always come easy. Brian said there have been times he has been indecisive about certain material. “Recently, we had a difcult calving; we actually thought we might need to do a C-section,” Brian said. “The calf’s head was
turned back. The vet had to give an epidural. We lost the calf. I have not decided yet if I want to go ahead with that.” The videos produced by the Begert family are not quick 30-second videos lmed with a cell phone. Similar to how they operate their farm, they invest the time and effort into making a quality product for their digital followers.
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The Begerts use a GoPro Hero 9 camera to lm the videos. Right now, they only have one camera, but they have entertained the idea of getting a second camera to make it easier to have different angles and points of view. “The videos really happen naturally,” Brian said. “We just
Turn to BEGERT | Page 25
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Page 24 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
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Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 25
ConƟnued from BEGERT | Page 23
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Jaron (leŌ) and Brian Begert prepare acƟvity monitors to put on rst-lactaƟon heifers in a video they made for their Echowood Holsteins YouTube channel. The family farms near Neillsville, Wisconsin. lm what happens throughout the day. We might make a list of things we want to cover or explain, but nothing is scripted out.” Once the footage is lmed, the Begerts work with a professional video editor based out of nearby Marsheld who pares down a day’s worth of footage to the nal product that is typically 10 to 20 minutes long, depending on the subject matter. The editor also adds relevant graphics and text to the videos. Jaron said the production process condenses the footage they have. “The videos use maybe 20% of the raw footage,” Jaron said. “A 20-minute video probably has over 100-minutes of video that we have taken.” While some might fear putting their farm in the public spotlight, Brian Begert said they have not found themselves in any negative situations because of a social media presence. “The response we have gotten has been great,” Brian said. “The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. People either comment about their own farming
experiences or ask very good and engaging questions. The comments and feedback help us know what kinds of things people want to see.” Many followers have commented on the technology and cleanliness of the farm, Brian said. “People have commented about how well we take care of our cows,” Brian said. “That has been great to get that positive feedback. We appreciate hearing what kinds of content people would like to see.” Once they created the Echowood Holsteins YouTube channel, the Begerts have let the channel grow and gain followers organically, opting not to use advertisements to promote or increase exposure for their videos. “I wish we could do more videos, but with all the work that goes into making and producing them, they’re aren’t something you can do every day,” Brian said. “They have been a great experience for us as a family to share the story of our farm in a positive way.”
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Page 26 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
Sharing quality genetics with the world Bindl implants embryos in Africa By Stacey Smart
stacey.s@dairystar.com
PLYMOUTH, Wis. – Last month, on a dairy farm more than 8,000 miles from his home near Plymouth, Dr. Kent Bindl did something not previously done in that region before. He implanted the rst bovine embryos in the country of Tanzania, Africa. Shafa Agra Dairy is hoping these embryos will help them reach their goals of improving efciency and sustainability as they strive to create a higher quality, longer lasting, more productive cow. “Shafa Dairy is very excited about the possibilities and is creating the infrastructure to make it happen,” Bindl said. “Shafa is a progressive organization extremely focused on increasing production to improve sustainability as they try to meet the demands of feeding their country.” Bindl is one of the practice owners at Dairy Doctors Veterinary Services in Plymouth. Certied by the American Embryo Transfer Association, he has performed embryo transfer since 2005. Departing on the two-week trip to Africa June 5, Bindl was delighted to share the experience with his oldest daughter, Ella. “We left on the day of Ella’s graduation from Plymouth High School,” Bindl said. “As soon as she gave her student council speech and turned her
tassel around, we headed to the airport.” After four plane rides while crossing eight time zones and stops in two continents, the pair reached their nal destination. The Bindls spent ve days on the dairy, performing embryo work in the mornings while afternoons were devoted to consulting. The embryos came from EverGreen-View Dairy near Waldo, which is owned and operated by Tom and Gin Kestell and their son, Chris, and his wife, Jennifer. Having shipped more than 30,000 embryos overseas, the Kestells’ involvement with the international embryo market is extensive. In 30 years’ time, Kestells’ sought-after genetics have reached more than 30 countries from China to Russia to Thailand to countries in Europe. “Embryo export is another dimension to our business of producing milk,” Tom Kestell said. “We take it as our mission to help the world, as many countries do not have access to the technology, good land and other resources that we have in the U.S. When doing business with farmers in other countries, we also try to teach them the management and agronomy skills it takes to support modern genetics.” Cows at Ever-Green-View Dairy excel in both production and type. With a 45,000-pound herd average, the 130-cow registered Holstein herd is the highest producing in the world. The farm has a BAA of 111.7, making it No. 1 in the country for herds of that size. Ever-Green-View Dairy has won the Herd of Excellence award 12 times – the most of any herd in the nation. In addition, the Kestells emphasize health
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Dr. Kent Bindl reviews ultrasound images with employees at Shafa Agra Dairy in Tanzania, Africa. Bindl implanted 70 sexed embryos in June on the 500-cow dairy.
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traits and components in their breeding – features found important by the countries they do business with. “We give our customers a good base to work with,” Kestell said. “An old friend once told me, ‘Never promise more than you can deliver, and always deliver more than you promised.’ And, I try to do that.” Shafa Agra Dairy has been in business since 2019 and is family owned under the umbrella of the Shafa Group, which is located in Dubai and includes other divisions such as construction. About 70 sexed female embryos were implanted into cows at the dairy, and all of the embryos came from cows scored Very Good or Excellent. “We coordinated the trip with Tanzania’s winter to try to increase conception rates,” Bindl said. Bindl enjoyed 75-degree days and 60-degree nights while in Africa. Bindl helped the on-staff veterinarian, Dr. Ibrahim, learn the process of implanting embryos so he can continue the work Bindl started. In the future, Ibrahim will be responsible for implanting embryos on the dairy. Currently, cows at Shafa Agra Dairy average 70 pounds of milk per day. Bindl said their goal is to try and match production in the U.S. and get closer to 90 or 100 pounds of milk. The farm uses modern feed mixers and have bunkers for storing feed and a mill for storing dry corn. They do not raise alfalfa but instead grow grass for forage and also feed soybean for protein. Africa is not the farthest Bindl’s work has ever taken him. In 2016, Bindl, who grew up on a small dairy farm in southeast Wisconsin, traveled to Siberia – going through 12 time
zones to implant embryos. And in 2019, he went to Dubai for the same reason. “Saying yes to this opportunity has allowed me to see parts of the world I never dreamed of,” Bindl said. “I’ve been really fortunate to have Tom, a leader in exporting bovine genetics, entrusting me with his product to create pregnancies and help build a successful market for him.” Bindl has been Kestell’s herd veterinarian for more than 15 years and instrumental in helping Kestell expand his reach to other areas. “Many foreign countries do not have people qualied to put in embryos, so you have to send in someone who is knowledgeable and personable as well as someone who is a good teacher, listener and observer and is willing to go there and do the work,” Kestell said. “Kent is all of those things. He has been to three vastly different areas implanting embryos on my behalf, and I really appreciate his willingness to do this work.” Kestell often travels to the farms that purchase his genetics and has been to Russia and China several times and has plans to visit Tanzania this winter. “It’s not hands off after we sell embryos or live cattle,” he said. “We try to be involved. We want to continue making contacts to develop new markets. It can be very stressful, but to me, it’s been well worth it.” In his consulting work at Shafa Agra Dairy, Bindl started from the ground up with day-old calves through lactating cows, following each group of animals through the different stages of life and lactation while examining evTurn to BINDL | Page 27
Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 27
ConƟnued from to BINDL | Page 26
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Dr. Kent Bindl (center) of Dairy Doctors Veterinary Services in Plymouth, Wisconsin, and his daughter, Ella, stand with Dr. Ibrahim of Shafa Agra Dairy in Tanzania, Africa. Bindl spent ve days on the dairy in June implanƟng the area’s rst bovine embryos. ery aspect from treatments to housing to vaccinations. “We didn’t have to reinvent the wheel; they have a lot of expertise and know what they’re doing, but I offered a fresh set of eyes and perhaps a different approach of doing things,” Bindl said. At Shafa Agra Dairy, cows are
“No matter where I’ve been, dairy farmers are so similar across the globe.” DR. KENT BINDL, VETERINARIAN
milked in a double-12 parlor and housed in a 500-cow freestall barn. They are in the process of building another barn and expanding to 1,000 cows. All of the farm’s milk goes to uid sales, which Bindl said is fairly common in the region as demand cannot be met. The dairy is putting in a bottling facility and is going to sell milk directly, a venture that coincides with their upcoming expansion. “There is really good water at this location, which is why the Shafa Group
decided on purchasing this particular farm,” Bindl said. “It is a beautiful dairy, and the 4-row, natural-ventilated freestall barn was like one I could nd anywhere in my practice.” Labor is plentiful in the area, and as a result, the dairy utilizes about twice as much labor per cow compared to farms in the U.S., Bindl said. In rural Tanzania, working for the dairy is considered a premier job. Giving back to the community is also important to Shafa Agra Dairy, which is sponsoring desks, books, paper and teachers for the local school. “No matter where I’ve been, dairy farmers are so similar across the globe,” Bindl said. “They’re good, honest, hardworking people who are passionate about what they do. They want to create a good product and have faith in that product as they help feed their country. The quality of people I meet and exposure to different cultures is one of the highlights of all these trips.” Once his work at the dairy was completed, Bindl and his daughter went on a four-night safari at a local national park. “It’s crazy where the Holstein cow can take you,” Bindl said. “I’m really fortunate to be in this profession.”
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Shafa Agra Dairy is a 500-cow operaƟon located in Tanzania, Africa. The farm recently implanted embryos in cows with a goal of creaƟng a higher quality, longer lasƟng, more producƟve cow.
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Women In Dairy Kitt Hernandez Tomah, Wisconsin Monroe County 50 cows Family: My husband’s name is Jose, and our three boys are Aidan, 12, James, 9, and Jax, 6. My parents are Kurt and Kathy Westpfahl. Tell us about your farm. Our farm is around 260 acres, about half of which is tillable. We grow alfalfa and corn. We have always been Holstein and Red and White Holstein, and now we are crossbreeding with Milking Shorthorn and Jersey. I am a fourth-generation dairy farmer here, and my kids will be the fth. The original Westpfahl farm is just over the hill. What is a typical day like for you on the dairy? A routine day is waking up before the sun, feeding cows, milking cows and cleaning barns. Depending on the season, between milkings we do crops and work cattle; we vaccinate and move cattle to different pastures. We just started branding this year for better ID purposes. Our brand is an anchor to honor my time in the Navy. And, we are always working on projects. What decision have you made in the last year that have beneted your farm? The biggest change I made was two years ago when we went from feeding out of silos to feeding out of bags and using a total mixed ration. My dad had a heart attack in 2019 after climbing the silo and pitching out spoiled feed. He spent two and a half weeks in the hospital; that was my baptism by re of running the farm by myself. Now it only takes us half an hour to feed cows. Tell us about your most memorable experience working on the farm. I have always had safety drilled into my head. We have all had our share of accidents, but when my uncle passed away from a farming accident, we were especially focused on safety. But the day I got attacked by a bull was the most memorable for me. I could tell you everything about it except how I got out. I remember everything about getting knocked over and pinned to the ground and the next thing I remember was climbing over the gate and getting away. What have you enjoyed most about dairy farming or your tie to the dairy industry? Being my own boss and working with my family. I like being able to be a mom and take my kids anywhere with me. My dad always told me if you don’t want someone on your farm, you can tell them to leave. What is your biggest accomplishment in your dairy career? Without sounding arrogant, the fact that I am still here. I have watched so many farms around me close up shop. My parents and other farms have taught me how to survive in bad years. I bought the farm in 2018 which was right in the middle of the tariff wars. It taught me to be a better businessman and how to better manage nances. What are things you do to promote your farm or the dairy industry? I try to spread knowledge by talking with people. So many people have misconceptions about agriculture and their food. I also educate my kids so their friends learn from them.
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What advice would you give another woman in the dairy industry? Stay strong. Have some grit and stick to it. I have come against a lot of discrimination in my career, and I have used peoples’ negativity and changed it to motivation. People have always underestimated me, and it feels good to prove them wrong. When you get a spare moment, what do you do? I exercise. It doesn’t happen every day, but I try to take an hour to work out. It has beneted me so much with mental health, stress relief and easing my back pain. I do workouts off of YouTube at home.
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Page 30 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
Recognize the red ags of pre, post-partum mental wellness
Hovis discusses warning signs as advocate for rural health By Abby Wiedmeyer abby.w@dairystar.com
PRAIRIE DU SAC, Wis. – One in ve women either during pregnancy or postpartum will have a diagnosable mental health concern or illness, but 75% will go untreated, according to Elizabeth Maxwell Hovis. “It doesn’t stop with the mother,” Hovis said. “It actually has a ripple effect through the entire family and will eventually affect the entire community if we don’t
recognize it and treat it.” Hovis spoke at the Farm Well Summit June 22 in Prairie Du Sac. She is a psychiatrist at the Medical College of Wisconsin who specializes in maternal mental health. Hovis has studied how the variables of a life in agriculture affect rural communities and especially women during the prenatal period and the year following childbirth; this is referred to as the perinatal period. As mental health becomes more of a priority among the health care community, certain groups have focused on mental wellness in rural communities. Farm Well Wisconsin is one such group that works to give rural communities the tools they need to support its residents. “Rural America struggles with a lot of mental health
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concerns, and farming especially can be an incredibly challenging space to be in the community,” Hovis said. “It is isolating, hard work waking up at sunrise and getting done at sunset and burning all of the daylight hours.” Recognizing a clinical health concern can be difcult during the perinatal period because there are many changes taking place that are considered common during pregnancy and the symptoms are similar to those of depression. Changes in sleep patterns, weight gain, changes in appetite and decreased energy are all interchangeable symptoms. “When I ask my patients how Elizabeth Maxwell they are sleeping, most of them Hovis laugh at me because they have a Medical College of newborn,” Hovis said. “They are Wisconsin frustrated that I would even ask this. I don’t blame them for that.” Hovis said there are certain criteria she considers to be red ags when considering mental health. If a parent is not caring for themselves and not caring for the baby, it is cause for concern. They may also lack in caring for the older siblings or have a hard time doing regular duties. “They describe it like they are walking through molasses,” Hovis said. “Things that used to be second nature for them become really difcult.” Another red ag for someone during pregnancy is if they experience a loss of interest in things they enjoy and in the pregnancy itself. It may indicate an unwanted pregnancy which puts them at higher risk for developing postpartum depression. Weight changes are considered common during pregnancy, but if a patient cannot gain weight like their doctor needs them to in order to sustain a healthy pregnancy, that is a red ag. It is also worrisome if a patient is below their pre-pregnancy weight by their six-week checkup. While most new parents attest they do not get a lot of sleep with a newborn, there is a problem if a new parent suffers from insomnia. Ideally, they should be able to sleep when the baby is sleeping. “My goal for pregnant or postpartum women is four hours of uninterrupted sleep in a 24-hour period,” Hovis said. “It’s not an Olympic team goal; you don’t have to get eight hours.” The other big red ag for Hovis is recurring thoughts of death. This manifests by the patient feeling like a burden or that their family would be better off without them. “I have so many patients tell me they do not feel up to the task, or they think their children would be better off with a different parent,” Hovis said. “That is never a normal thing. We should never normally be thinking about death.” Many people have heard of what is referred to as the baby blues. This affects 80% of women to some degree. It is characterized by tearfulness, mood variability and irritability, especially in women with many kids at home. A dening feature is that symptoms tend to go away within two weeks of giving birth. Hovis said mental illness is treatable. Many times, there are concerns about prescribing medication to a pregnant woman, but Hovis believes there are safe ways to do so. And, furthermore, it is riskier to leave a mental health problem untreated. “There’s been a lot of data recently showing the negative health supply of babies born to women with untreated depression and untreated anxiety in pregnancy,” Hovis said. “Historically, the medications were linked to things like preterm birth, low birth weight and longer NICU stays. But it’s actually gone to show that untreated depression and anxiety are associated with those exact same things. We’re not comparing risk of medication to no risk. We’re comparing risk to risk.” Her passion for bringing awareness to perinatal wellness has led Hovis to participate in the Periscope Project. The project was created to ll the gap between screening initiatives and psychiatric treatment services in Wisconsin. It serves as a resource to assist health care providers in treating pregnant or breastfeeding patients. Hovis said her goal with bringing awareness to these topics is to help rural communities to be better advocates for each other by recognizing the red ags of mental wellness. “These conversations are only uncomfortable if we perceive it as such,” Hovis said. “If someone gives you a string, pull it.”
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Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 31
Michelle Popp Unity, Wisconsin Clark County 22 cows, 50 heifers
husband continues to work off the farm and helps me more than he could before. So far, we have no problem working together at home in our small little barn.
How did you get into farming? I grew up farming and married right into it after high school.
What do you enjoy most about dairy farming? I am so thankful I was able to be a stay-at-home mom all these years and bring my children up with good work ethics and nancial understanding. I also love seeing miracles happen all the time when the next generation of calves are born.
What are your thoughts and concerns about the dairy industry for the next year? The biggest concerns for the dairy industry are cost of inputs (supplies, fuel, feed, etc.) and labor. The milk price is up now, but if it would fall and inputs would still be high, it could bring major devastation. Labor is something I don’t have to deal with, but I certainly understand the challenge for farmers who hire labor. I don’t see that improving no matter what until everyone that can work will work. Then, it’s hard to beat the wages they are paid in town. What is a recent change you made on your farm and the reason for it? Last year, I began leaving my calves on the cows during good weather months of the year. I was impressed with their growth, how healthy they were and all the labor it saved me. I will admit the calves are crazy and wild when I wean them, simply for the fact they aren’t physically handled by me daily. But as heifers, I can’t tell the difference in personality from the calves raised in hutches. I saved a ton on straw for bedding because they were on pasture all the time. They also ate way less calf grain. I noticed less ies in our yard last year which I credited with not having calves in hutches. I do a pour-on for my cows, and that seemed to protect the calves plenty from ies.
What advice would you give other dairy farmers? The best advice for dairy farmers is to be open to change. Very few farmers farm the same as their grandparents did. Change is sometimes hard and sometimes exciting, but we must be willing to change to survive. Tell us about a skill you possess that makes dairy farming easier for you. I like to think I have good cow care. I try to catch problems way before they explode. I also do well with heifers, but calves can stump me at times. That is why leaving the calves at cow-side in the good months is a great t for me just because they are healthy in the pasture.
foundation, or I just crumble and fail and get frustrated. My family has helped me so much over the years. I can’t even begin to thank them enough. A skid loader saves me a lot of hard physical work that I used to do by hand. It is so handy for unlimited jobs. My famous saying when I work with family is, “Should I get the skid steer?”
What is the best decision you have made on your farm? The best decision I have made was putting in a feedline to feed my cows and heifers. It has headlocks and that helps with herd health, vaccinating, tagging and breeding.
What strategies do you use to withstand the volatile milk prices? The two strategies I use are Dairy Margin Coverage and trying to watch my inputs.
What are three things on the farm that you cannot live without? First, I couldn’t do any of this without God and lots of prayer and thanksgiving. Second, I couldn’t do this without my family, and third, a skid loader. God must be my
How do you maintain family relationships while also working together? Up until a couple months ago, we always had two farms, one for me and one for my husband. We had gotten married later in life and both had our own herds. We sold his farm and his herd in April. Now my
What are your plans for your dairy in the next year and ve years? My plans are to stay the same size as I currently am. That has not always been the case, but things change and opportunities appear. I have started a value-added business on the farm, Jersey Girls lotion, that I am excited about and want to continue to expand. I will continue to sell replacement cows and heifers to t into my small 26-stall barn and not have to switch milk cows. How do you or your family like to spend time when you are not doing chores? I enjoy time together with family and friends. I also enjoy ying out of here to be on a vacation, which we rarely do, but I would like to do more often. Even driving away for a day trip knowing I don’t have to milk cows that night is a real treat.
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Page 32 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
Improving cow comfort, production through automation Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy stacks parlor technologies for better outcome By Stacey Smart
stacey.s@dairystar.com
KEWAUNEE, Wis. – Since installing cow monitoring and parlor task systems, productivity at Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy has skyrocketed. Pregnancy rates are up while hormone use is down, and minimal headlock use is saving time and labor for the farm. “We have a lot of new technology at the dairy that is benetting both cows and people,” said Chris Szydel, herd manager at Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy. “We can build custom reports, and cows are checked with no disruption or knowledge of what is being done. The systems are also easy for our employees to use. They adapt to new technology well, and the fact it’s easy for our people is very important to us.” During the Connect Summit June 15-17 in Nashville, Tennessee, Szydel discussed how animal monitoring provides data-driven management for breeding, herd health and labor efciencies at Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy. The dairy is using the Allex monitoring system for heat detection and cow health as well as Dairy Comp’s ParlorBoss system for streamlining herd health tasks. All cows wear monitoring collars which they receive as heifers and wear for the duration of their time at the dairy. Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy milks about 6,500 cows on two sites near Kewaunee. Cows are milked three times a day in one of the farm’s three parlors – a 72-stall rotary, a double-20 parallel and a double-18 parallel. The farm is home to a crossbred herd in which they start with Holstein then breed to Jersey. Once they have a Holstein-Jersey cross, they breed back to Holstein twice. “We want to build a little smaller animal as the Holsteins were getting too big on us,” Szydel said. “The crossbreds are working out really well.
They’re creating higher components and have better health traits too.” A couple years ago, the farm was using headlocks on every cow but slowly went away from that practice. “Our systems help us monitor cows without having to set headlocks,” Szydel said. “We’re doing most of the work on the wheel in the parlor or in a separate pen as cows come off the wheel. With the new monitoring system, cows walk past the monitors or readers in the barns, and it lets us know who needs attention without disrupting the animals.” Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy is monitoring fresh cows every day with the system. “We went away from daily checks and are utilizing reports from the computer system to check fresh cows that need attention, while we let everybody else go,” Szydel said. One report shows which fresh cows are ready to move, and the dairy is now moving cows seven days a week out of the fresh pen and blending those animals into the milking herd. “This really helps out the parlor for efciency, so we’re not slug feeding a bunch of new heifers in, which is more frustrating for cow movers,” Szydel said. “Moving fresh cows every day provides a more consistent and easier ow for everyone involved.” The pre-fresh cow monitoring report reveals which animals are in steam-up pens and who to check. It will not detect every cow that is going to freshen but informs the farm which cows need to be looked at based off of rumination and activity. “Some of the pre-fresh animals we see will be at the feed bunk eating with the calf’s feet sticking out; the system is not going to detect those cows,” Szydel said. “But if there’s a cow low on rumination or activity, there’s a good chance she’s laying down in the freestall barn. That information will show up on the computer screen for us in our maternity pens, letting our maternity team know to check those cows.” The breeding report indicates which cows to breed for the day, while the health report ags cows that need attention, which would be those ani-
mals whose health index has dropped below 80. The farm made alternations in its breeding program – going from breeding once a day to now breeding cows in the morning and afternoon. “We increased insemination rates by breeding twice a day and are able to get more cows bred back sooner,” Szydel said. In the past, the farm ran a 65% insemination rate using double OvSynch and tail chalk, which jumped up to 77% when utilizing collars and double OvSynch. “The system is nding the cows, and we’re breeding those cows back before they get a chance to get preg checked,” Szydel said. “When it comes time for herd check day, we’re nding there are fewer open cows and more pregnant cows.” The dairy is also saving time with its veterinarian. Previously, it would take about an hour to check a group of cows with headlocks, but now by separating cows, it takes about 15 minutes to check a pen. “We’re only separating the ones we need and are also giving our hormone shots on the rotary, which has created better cow comfort,” Szydel said. “There is less overall stress on the cows as well as less heat stress, and we’re seeing better feet on the cows. We’re also using fewer hormones by nding cows that need to be bred back sooner.” Since starting the activity monitoring system four years ago, the pregnancy rate has risen from 31% to 34%, and the number of cows receiving hormones dropped from 83% to 47%. The dairy’s 21-day pregnancy rate improved greatly. In 2018, the palpated pregnancy rate was 60% with 40% of cows open. In 2022, 80% of cows are being found pregnant with only 20% open. “The new system is nding cows coming into heat, and we’re breeding those cows back sooner, which is saving days in milk,” Szydel said. Because the system is nding greater than 95% of cows that abort, the farm has stopped doing follow-up pregnancy checks and conrm checks, which were done on all cows in the past. “Eliminating this step saves a lot of time, and we’re able to make decisions
on those animals whether to rebreed or put on a do not breed list,” Szydel said. “We also save labor costs and stress on cows by eliminating headlock time.” The breeding report shows the number of days since last heat along with breeding window, heat index and sire options. The report lets the farm know whether to breed the cow back to Jersey or Holstein and if they are going to use sexed, conventional or beef semen. Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy began using the ParlorBoss system 2.5 years ago, which Szydel said was a game changer for the farm. A worker standing on the parlor platform uses the reader or TV screen in the parlor which shows what cows are on the wheel and what type of attention they need for the day. Level-one tasks include cows that are high attention or need to be moved that day, while level-two tasks indicate cows requiring vaccinations. Numbers are mounted above the stall so workers can take a look at the number of the rotary and the cow number and match that up to who is on the wheel for accuracy and compliance to ensure the right animal is receiving care. The farm uses a pulse needle-less system when doing vaccinations or giving hormone shots on the wheel. “This needle-less system is a great benet to us,” Szydel said. “We’re in the process of becoming leukosis negative, so we want to make sure we eliminate blood transfer from animal to animal. By having a needle-less system, we’re able to cleanly give vaccines without having to worry about needles.” Szydel said they see less reaction from cows by using this system. The person giving the shots can adjust the air pressure depending on whether the shot is being administered subcutaneous or intramuscular. If given subcutaneous, pressure on the machines is lowered, and if doing intramuscular, they raise the pressure. Typically, only one person is needed on the wheel, except for herd check day or vaccination day. “In the past, we would set headlocks for the whole pen and would have to scan every cow,” Szydel said. “But with the new systems, we’re just checking the cows that we need.”
Shade is a valuable tool for reducing heat stress
Almost every article about hot weather heat stress recommends providing shade to reduce the heat load from sunshine. Cows housed in barns or access to open front sheds, hoop structures or buildings with mono slope or gable roofs will have shade. There are also feedlot shade structures designed to provide shade. Solar collectors that generate electricity can also provide shade in a grazed paddock or pen. Shade impacts Shade reduces the amount of heat absorbed by a cow’s coat. A high-producing cow generates 3,840 British thermal unit/hour or more of metabolic heat. A cow without shade can By Kevin Janni absorb slightly over 3,000 Btu/hour of solar radiant heat on University of a sunny day at solar noon. This sunshine nearly doubles the Minnesota heat load high-producing cows need to get rid of to avoid heat stress. If a cow has shade, she does not need to breathe as rapidly or sweat as much to manage her heat loads. Research at the University of Minnesota West Central Research and Outreach Center found that grazing cows in a paddock with shade from a 30 kw photovoltaic solar collector system had body temperatures about 0.4 degrees lower than cows without shade during daylight hours. At night, the cows had similar body temperatures. The study period had only mild heat stress based on the temperature humidity index values, but the sunshine increased cow body temperatures enough to increase the heat stress level. Results from a thermal balance model for high-producing lactating cows indicates that shade can reduce a cow’s body temperature by 1.6 degrees compared to a cow out in the sun; from 103.8 degrees to 102.2 degrees. The respiration rates at solar noon when the air temperature was 92 degrees and the THI was 79, was 90 breadths per minute for cows without shade and 56 bpm for a cow with 100% shade. These results indicate that shade can move a cow from a moderate-severe heat stress level down to near the threshold stress level. Table 1 lists respiration rates and rectal temperatures for four heat stress levels. Small body temperature changes have big impacts. Heat-stressed lactating cows have reduced dry-matter intake, milk production and pregnancy rates and increased lameness, days open and death rates. Heatstressed dry cows have shorter gestation periods, calves with lower birth weights and lower milk production after calving. Heifer calves from heat-stressed cows also produce less milk after growing up and freshening. Shade can reduce the heat stress levels and improve cow performance. Shade structures and design considerations Shades in pens and feedlots are recommended to be sized to provide 40-squarefeet or more per animal. Less shade leads to crowding and reduced airow past cows bunched together. Airow is another important way cows stay cool. Many shade structures are xed and not movable (e.g., barns). Fixed structures need to be managed to avoid manure accumulation, soil compaction and wetness. Movable shade structures can be moved to distribute manure and urine from the animals on pastures or in pens. Long and narrow rectangular shades oriented with the long axis in a northsouth direction can maintain drier pen or pasture surfaces as the shadow moves with the sun each day. Shades oriented east to west have drier pen surfaces if they have openings in the shade to avoid having pen areas that never receive sunshine. Shade structures can be built using metal roong or shade cloth. Shade cloth materials come in various colors, densities, strengths and expected useful life. Shade cloth materials can be damaged by wind unless sufciently tensioned. Shade cloth materials can be removed in the fall and reinstalled in the spring to avoid snow issues and allow sunshine into the pen during cold weather. Taller shades provide better ventilation, but they must withstand higher wind loads. Consider equipment that might be used under the shade when setting shade height. Twelve feet is a common minimum recommended shade height. Shade size and slope impacts the wind and snow loads the shade must withstand. Mono sloped shades have more airow compared to at shades. Shade slope and orientation impact where rain and snow accumulate. Provide drainage to avoid creating wet areas that become muddy and compacted by animals after wet periods. Whatever structure is used to provide shade, it is important to be designed and constructed to be structurally sound to withstand wind loads and snow loads. Wind and snow loads depend on the roof or shade slope, size and height. The roof or shade can generate either a downward load or a lifting load depending on wind direction and structure slope. Make sure that cables are well connected to provide adequate tension when using shade cloth. Heat stress level
THI
Respiration rate (bpm)
Rectal temperature (F)
None
< 68
Threshold
68-71
> 60
> 101.3
Mild-moderate
72-79
> 75
> 102.2
Moderate-severe
80-89
> 85
> 104.0
Severe
90-99
120 - 140
> 105.9
Table 1. Dairy cow stress based on THI and corresponding respiraƟon rates and rectal temperatures based on Renaudeau et al. (2012)
Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 33
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Those 6 inches
“Man – despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication and his many accomplishments – owes his existence to a 6-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.” This is a quote I’m From the Zweber Farm sure you’ve seen or heard by Paul Harvey who was famous for telling us the rest of story. Even if you’re too young to have heard his radio broadcasts, you’ve undoubtedly heard his speech at an FFA gathering in By Tim Zweber 1978 entitled, “So God Made a Farmer.” If Farmer & Columnist you haven’t heard that speech, look it up. It’s worth the read, because, much like that quote, it sums up agriculture and those who choose to take on the occupation of growing food well. Despite my last article talking about the inevitability of rain falling on that 6-inch layer of soil as soon as we start cutting hay, very little has fallen on our farm since before rst crop hay. Thankfully, this isn’t a widespread drought like last year which resulted in crop failures in much of northwestern Minnesota and the Dakotas. Even our rented pasture land 15 minutes from home has gotten enough moisture to keep growing, if not well, at least sufciently to keep the cattle fed there without having to truck some home. Somehow, we’ve gotten into a pattern of storms either breaking up before they get to us or splitting and raining all around us. I’m glad I bought a fair amount of hay last year anticipating a possible dry summer again this year seeing how much moisture was being pulled out of the previously waterlogged soil last summer. We’re going to start cutting second crop hay as soon as we enjoy some Fourth of July parties and take a day to wander a state park with the kids. Time to get the equipment back out of the sheds. It seems I just parked it after an extended rst crop thanks to buying standing hay from other farmers to put up for the dry cows and heifers after we nished all of ours up. As my wife, Emily, likes to say, it seems like I spend all summer doing hay. With the limited rainfall we’ve received, this crop won’t take very long to put up. Our hay elds are a mix of grasses and legumes, mainly alfalfa but some red clover, too, because we mostly do haylage. I’m not worried about drying time. Research I’ve read shows the proteins in clover are broken down differently than alfalfa mak-
I’ glad I’m l dIb bought h a ffair i amount of hay last year anticipating a possible dry summer again ... ing a better ration for grass-fed dairy cows. Grasses and red clover like a lot more rain than the alfalfa, so there’s quite a bit less tonnage out there than there should be for second crop. We’ve also chosen to put up a temporary fence around 36 acres of hay to graze so we don’t overgraze our permanent pastures that are waiting on rain to get them growing again. This morning, we received around one-half inch of rain. Hopefully that will get the shallow rooted grasses in the pastures to come out of dormancy, and we will continue to get some timely rains. Perhaps cutting second crop will attract a shower or two. Need to keep that cow chow growing so we can keep producing high-quality milk to feed all those people who owe their cool glass of milk with their strawberry pie to that 6 inches of topsoil and the rain I wish was falling a bit more often right now. Until next time, don’t forget to enjoy some of those summer delicacies that grow thanks to the soil we steward and rain that falls. It’s wild raspberry season so check out those patches on the edges of the elds and in every fence line. Tim Zweber farms with his wife Emily, their three children and his parents Jon and Lisa by Elko, Minnesota.
Farm help wanted We are looking for some extra help during the summer. This isn’t anything new. It seems every year we need help with chores, lawn mowing, feeding calves, pitching pens, covering the bunkers and other miscellaneous tasks. We have asked all of our helpers if they have any friends or family who would want to do about 20-30 hours a week working on our farm. They didn’t have any luck nding anyone. The crew we have helping us is a few high school kids. One has his driver’s license and recently graduated and is motivated by a nice payBy Tina Hinchley Farmer & Columnist check. The other two are younger and have to be driven to the farm by family members, and they can only work a structured schedule because of the drive time to and from the farm. They like to keep busy and help do farm things. All of them are very into working on our farm. We simply need one more person to cover the times when we all would like to go out together or during summer vacations, so we don’t get too burned out covering all of the shifts. Even with the robotic milking system, we are in the barn many hours pushing through new cows and working the maternity pen. Calf chores are extremely important, and we have an easy system to get calves fed and pens cleaned. We need one more person. Anna put a post on Facebook to search for anyone interested in working at our farm. “Farm help wanted, 20-30 hours, $10-$20 per hour depending on experience. Must have a reliable
Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 35
working vehicle.” She gave our address and a comment to send us a message if interested. Facebook took the ad down. The ad was removed because, Facebook tells us, the job posting violates Facebook’s job policies because they are discriminatory. I don’t understand how wanting help is discriminatory. Perhaps it was the part about a reliable working vehicle? Perhaps someone could bike or walk to
Th world The ld economy would ld not go around without farmers and farm hands. There is nothing discriminatory about working on a farm. work. So, Anna resubmitted an ad. It didn’t take long, and the post was agged again for being discriminatory. So, she re-posted it saying simply, “Help wanted.” Again, the same message from Facebook.
That really threw a wrench into looking for someone through this social media plan. For a last chance, she titled the job as a farm technician, which makes the job position sound as if the person looking is going to have to have highly technical skills; not the case for someone who will be mowing the lawn and cleaning calf pens. The world economy would not go around without farmers and farm hands. There is nothing discriminatory about working on a farm. We have the most important job in the world; feeding, clothing and powering the world. Farming and nding good help are already hard enough; please don’t make it any harder. Facebook is discriminating against agriculturalists by claiming our jobs and titles of work are worthy of being discriminated. I will never be ashamed of my title as a farmer and farm hand. We have put a sign by the road: Farm help wanted. Tina Hinchley, and her husband, Duane, daughter Anna, milk 240 registered Holsteins with robots. They also farm 2300 acres of crops near Cambridge, Wisconsin. The Hinchley’s have been hosting farm tour for over 25 years.
Editorial disclaimer: The views expressed by our columnists are the opinions and thoughts of the author and do not reect the opinions and views of Dairy Star staff and ownership.
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I wish I could Page 36 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
I wish I could Go back in time Work the tobacco elds With Gramma Ike in her prime
I would watch how she raised Seven children, all bullheaded So I would have advice On this path I am headed
Her pants rolled up Kerchief tied tight Sweating alongside the men She was little, but full of might
I wish I could Find a time machine Meet my mom when she was young Oh, the knowledge I could glean
I would help in the kitchen, Learning all her tricks How she made meals stretch Her favorite quick x
I could go with her As she traveled to Wales Teaching and learning Be a part of her tales
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Then see how she managed To balance all ve of us wild ones Ramblings from the Ridge With a farm, her gardens, critters Patience? She had tons I would learn how she kept us From killing each other As summer droned on And boredom began to smother I often wonder Just who I would be Without these strong women Who paved the path for me
By Jacqui Davison Columnist
They taught me so much By their words and their ways I hope I do them proud All of my days Jacqui and her family milk 800 cows and run 1,200 acres of crops in the northeastern corner of Vernon County, Wisconsin. Her children, Ira (14), Dane (12), Henry (7) and Cora (4), help her on the farm while her husband, Keith, works on a grain farm. If she’s not in the barn, she’s probably in the kitchen, trailing after little ones, or sharing her passion of reading with someone. Her life is best described as organized chaos – and if it wasn’t, she’d be bored.
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Pentobarbital residues in rendered animals
Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022 • Page 37
Pentobarbital is a barbiturate drug that causes sedation, induces anesthesia or causes death depending on dosage administered. In veterinary medicine, the most common uses are to induce anesthesia in pets and to euthanize large and small animals. Pentobarbital is administered by intravenous injection. In cattle, it should rarely, if ever, be used for anything other than euthanasia. Pentobarbital has an afnity for fat, so when an animal is euthanized, pentobarbital residues will be found in body fat. For this Veterinary Wisdom reason, any animal euthanized by pentobarbital should not be sent for rendering. Such animals should be composted or buried. States have different requirements for required depth of burials; check with your state for details. Incineration may be allowed; again, check with your state for details. Leaving carcasses in open areas where wildlife or other predators have access is not recommended because of pass through toxicity. Pentobarbital residues in rendered fat have become more common in recent years. For example, according to Kerry Courchaine, director of technical services for Darling International, Darling’s Blue Earth, Minnesota, rendering plant has become the nation’s hot spot By Jim Bennett for pentobarbital residues. This plant accepts cattle and Columnist swine carcasses from southern Minnesota and Iowa. It does not accept horses, sheep or goats. For the period of November 2020 to December 2021, the positivity rate for pentobarbital in vats of rendered fat was over 23%. Each positive vat costs Darling around $10,000. Contaminated fat can be used for biodiesel production, and Darling ships contaminated fat to its biodiesel plant but has to thoroughly clean rail cars after shipping. Darling spent over 2 million dollars cleaning rail cars in the last 12 months. Other Darling rendering plants have been residue hot spots in previous years. Such high positivity rates threaten to make rendering unsustainable, thus risking the loss of a valuable service for livestock producers. Based on interviews with producers that have had pentobarbital residues, Darling is convinced that one of the main causes of residues is the use of pentobarbital for sedation of cattle. However, it is very unlikely that pentobarbital is being used by many veterinarians for sedation because it is a controlled drug, meaning it must be kept under lock and key, and every cc used or disposed of must be accounted for. Furthermore, it is not approved for sedation in cattle, and another sedative, xylazine, is approved, effective and inexpensive. Darling is now asking producers who submit carcasses if their animals have had recent surgery and, if so, what drug was used to sedate the animal. What can one do to prevent pentobarbital residues? First, if you cannot safely compost or bury carcasses, ask your veterinarian to use an alternative method of euthanasia. For example, all the doctors in our practice carry captive bolts for eu-
Congratulations Andrew Caughey
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thanizing animals. A captive bolt is a device that uses a penetrating bolt and blank cartridges to penetrate the skull and cause sufcient brain damage to induce unconsciousness. At least one secondary step must be used to cause death following stunning via captive bolt. One option, pithing, can be accomplished by inserting a rod into the hole and rotating to destroy brain tissue. Another option, IV potassium chloride, a paralytic, can be given following captive bolt stunning to cause death by stopping the heart. Second, any time your veterinarian euthanizes an animal, make sure you know what method was used and if the animal is safe for rendering. Third, even though it is extremely unlikely that a veterinarian would use pentobarbital for sedation, if an animal dies after surgery, it is appropriate to ask your veterinarian what, if anything, was used for sedation and if the animal is safe for rendering. Working together, we can reduce pentobarbital residues in rendered tissues. Bennett is one of four dairy veterinarians at Northern Valley Dairy Production Medicine Center in Plainview, Minnesota. He also consults on dairy farms in other states. He and his wife, Pam, have four children. Jim can be reached at bennettnvac@gmail.com with comments or questions.
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Transition, estate planning Page 38 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
In my June article, I concluded by asking how we separate business and family; how we set priorities of business prots versus a value system and family life. Generational differences will always be a challenge and hopefully a blessing, especially as we begin to transition our farming operation to the next generation. I have had the privilege of working with farm families and their transitions for more than two decades. During that time, I learned this needs to be a team event with team members including outside, non-biased resources. These might be your farm management instructor, banker, tax accountant and lawyer or other trusted individuals you can use to bounce around ideas. First, transition and estate planning are not the same. In a transition plan, we need to look at transitioning some business assets but also the business management – a skill set, decision-making abilities
and a whole new level of responsibility. Being a son or daughter or employee is a whole different ballgame from managing and owning the business. The next generation is always eager to own more, get paid more and feel like they are in charge until one day when stuff hits the fan and they need to show up, because now they are in charge. Remember, transition is a process and not an event. If at all possible, allow 10-plus years to transition a business. Often in transitioning a dairy, for example, an entity is created – perhaps a limited liability company. This is used to transfer a percentage of the business (shares) to the next generation. The shares can be sold or gifted to the next generation, as management and workload are being transferred. Selling of shares is a taxable event for the owner, but in the case of feed or raised cattle, the tax is due when the seller receives payment. So, a 3 to 5-year contract agreement is a likely choice. The
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downside, perhaps, is that the percentage of the sale that is for purchased capital (equipment or cattle) is taxable in the year of the event/gift regardless of the repayment plan. Depending on the size of the sale, this may cause a shortage of cash. Tax law does not allow us to sell selected parts of the LLC; it is a percentage of all the assets. As a result, gifting is often a great method to use and then rent the land to provide funds for the older generation’s needs. Estate planning is a part of the transition planning process but generally is the plan of how to distribute assets upon passing, often times including From My Perspective the real estate ownership. Beneciaries will receive a stepped-up basis on capital assets upon passing (cattle, machinery and land), which may eliminate a lot of capital gains/ recapture tax that would have been incurred if sold before passing. In terms of the real estate, I suggest the younger generaBy Tom Anderson tion realize the difference Columnist between control versus ownership. A growing dairy may need the control more than the ownership. If the second generation will receive land upon the older generation’s passing (allowing for control now and in the future), then let’s worry more about acquiring other land to grow the business and not tie up cash ow for what will be theirs in the future. I would encourage the older generation to consider and reconsider what the plan means to the next generation. Is group ownership in land is a good thing? Will the plan allow the next farming generation to cash ow? Will the non-farming heirs get paid big dollars while the farming heirs have to pay for land they have been renting for the past 30+ years? Is there a difference between fair and equal? Perhaps the older generation could consider what the land was worth when the last child left the nest? This may help determine the value of inheritance for the non-farming heirs while allowing those who have been farming to get credit for their years of work. If there is a generation with no farming heir, or heirs that don’t want to farm in the future, I think some thoughts could be considered. Selling a home generally is a tax-free event. Selling the homestead while maintaining the right to live there may have little tax implications but allow the seller to take some cash out of the estate. Consider a sale agreement with a young producer for a purchase upon the owner’s passing. The sale agreement can set a sale price or a method to determine the price at the time of passing. This is a great tool allowing the older generation the opportunity to make decisions on their estate and reduce disagreements by the heirs, while allowing the heirs to get a stepped-up basis and eliminating the capital gains tax – essentially getting the heirs more money in the end. I suggest planning succession to the next generation and not leaving it to chance. Farmers should surround themselves with trusted, knowledgeable individuals who are not stakeholders in the operation and have their best interest in mind. A few dollars today have the potential to save a lot in the future while allowing farmers to make the choices they want for their estate. Tom Anderson is a Farm Business Management faculty member at Riverland Community College.
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Cow people versus big data
Cow 1440 stood on the straw pack next to where I was feeding a newborn calf and where I could easily observe her. The cow was gaunt with dull eyes and droopy ears and a very slack udder. She had calved with twins about a week ago, had a difcult birth and wasn’t eating despite being drenched. “She has a DA,” I thought, and mentioned it to Mike. The next day I drove to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for the National Holstein Convention and Dairy Innovations Summit, a rst-time added item to the agenda for the week’s activities, contests, tours and Holstein Association business I was attending as a volunteer to help with Junior Come Full Dairy Circle meetings. Holstein activities. When I returned home, 1440 had undergone DA surgery and was recovering. Did it take an expert cow person to observe she needed care? No. Anyone who works with cows knew she did, so she was diagnosed and treated. I thought about the cow people as I sat at the Data and Innovations Summit listening to the many excellent talks about big data and how it can be utilized on dairy farms of any size. It struck me that the conference was set at the Holstein Convention where the people in attendance probably take far more interest in their cows via registrations, pedigrees, cow family development, sire stacks, embryo By Jean Annexstad transfer and all the marketing activities that are involved. Columnist They are true cow people, I thought, as I remembered the stories I used to write about them. But cow people also know when their animals are sick, in heat or off feed. Perhaps as dairies grow in size, and fewer people have the individual cow skills, more data can be very helpful in making management decisions. Capturing, sorting and analyzing data, called big data or data analytics, can help managers to determine what is best for cow health, comfort, reproduction, milk quality, grouping, feeding and many other day-to-day tasks. The conference did a deep dive into the realm of data and all it entails. Dr. Jeffrey Bewley, Holstein Association USA analytics and innovation scientist, who works with the WKU Smart Holstein Lab, walked us through the types of data and how it could be used. The purpose of the new lab is to gure out devices and what the data means. Technological innovations include cloud computing, robots, sensors, drones, image analysis, visual analytics, GPS, articial intelligence, blockchain technology, genomics, metabolomics and advanced data analytics. The history of cow record keeping and dairy technology has unfolded through the decades, and on-farm records have existed from the beginning of cow milking, Bewley said. Cow activity monitors, where data from cow monitors is communicated wirelessly to evaluate the cow’s status through laptops or smartphones, have existed since the 1990s. “Analytics is the next big scientic breakthrough,” Bewley said. “How we statistically look at data is new. There are external drivers.” Interspersed throughout the conference were video technology introductions of data gathering systems and devices, such as iYOTAH Solutions, VES-Artex, CowManager, SomaDetect, FeedVal and many more. The people marketing and supporting these systems could be accessed at the conference during breaks and discussions were enlightening. Another speaker, Dr. Michael Overton, Zoetis, discussed the do’s and don’ts of interpreting farm data. His point was that data equals bits of information, but that it is not information itself. The data needs to be properly processed, organized and interpreted well. I imagine there is a lack of time to evaluate data or a dedicated data manager on many dairies. He cautioned that mistakes can and do happen in data collection and entry. Did cow No. 202 really have 249 pounds of milk? Outliers change averages and perspectives, Overton said. Other conference talks contained salient points about the need to carefully determine which data points are most useful to management tasks: – The more decisions you can make with a piece of data, the better. – Future success depends on anticipating how data can be used across the operation, and the data providers should be challenged to help you do more with, or extract value from, the data. – You must ask for help from data providers. Getting back to our cow 1440. Let’s suppose that according to her genetic data, 1440 perhaps was not likely to have a DA. So then, because of her twinning and calving troubles, management or environmental factors overwhelmed the genetic-based outcomes for her. She needed extra care and was drenched, given special needs space, etc. Still, she had a DA and that is part of dairying. No matter the data you have to work with to shape the management strategies on your dairy, and no matter how many cows you milk, success likely relies in part on the way you treat cows individually. However, I look forward to tapping into the many new technologies that are now here to help make good and useful cow-related decisions. Jean dairy farms with her husband, Rolf, and brother-in-law, Mike, and children Emily, Matthias and Leif. They farm near St. Peter, Minnesota, in Norseland, where she is still trying to t in with the Norwegians and Swedes. They milk 200 cows and farm 650 acres. She can be reached at jeanannexstad@gmail.com.
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Page 40 • Dairy Star • Saturday, July 9, 2022
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