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Truttmann Dairy LLC Blanchardville, Wisconsin Truttmann Dairy LLC is operated by owners Dan and Shelly Truttmann along with Dan’s father Dwight, brother Doug and nine full-time employees. The family began farming in the early 90s, utilizing rotational grazing while growing cow numbers. By 2012, the herd outgrew the grazing acreage, and the Truttmanns turned their focus to cow comfort and production within a freestall facility. Today, the dairy consists of 410 milk cows, mostly Jerseys with a few Holsteins. The herd averages 69 pounds of milk, 4.9% fat and 3.8% protein.
REPRODUCTION The dairy excels with a 37% pregnancy rate, 56% pregnant at first service and 85% bred by 150 days in milk (DIM). The breeding protocol includes an 80 DIM voluntary wait period with cows bred, on average, at 92 DIM.
Excellence in Genetics & Reproduction Platinum Award Winner
Cows are bred on a natural heat with activity information provided through the SCR Heatime® system (now known as an Allflex Livestock
Intelligence system). If a cow hasn’t “From the healthy happy cows to the come into heat by 100 DIM, they owners, employees, nutritionist John double lute her and watch for heat. If Binversie with Quality Liquid Feeds, necessary, the process is repeated veterinarian Tim Bruns, and the 14 days later and in rare instances GENEX team, including reproductive followed with Ovsynch. consultant Adam Koppes, sales manager Scott Schultz, it’s a team The top 50% of cows receive up effort.” to two services of sexed semen. If needed, that is followed by two Dan enjoys working with GENEX services of conventional beef because of the bull lineup (the semen. It equates to 40% sexed positive DPR Jersey sires) and semen use with a 48% sexed because he can trust GENEX semen conception rate for Jersey representatives to have the dairy’s GenChoice™ sexed semen. best interest at heart. In 2019, the dairy started using “Lindsey and Scott take great care male-sexed beef semen. The of us and our herd,” notes Dan. bottom 50% of the herd receives “Lindsey is the best! Her personality up to two services of sexed male is bigger than even the Jerseys, semen, followed by two services of and she does an amazing job of conventional beef semen, as needed. knowing the herd and not missing a thing. I never have to think about whether the job is done right. TEAMWORK It always is.” “It has taken a team to get where we are repro-wise and to keep it consistent to win the Platinum award two years in a row,” explains Lindsey Geddes, GENEX Reproductive Program Senior Technician who provides the breeding service.
TOOLS Four years ago, the dairy’s reproduction program changed after Dan put in the SCR system with activity and rumination monitoring collars. He wanted the system for health monitoring the pre- and post-fresh cows and wasn’t certain it would do a better job at heat detection than tail chalk. “However, after two weeks, we let the collars do the work and our conception rate improved soon after,” notes Dan. “Our preg rate went up 10 points, all while cutting hormone use to near zero and significantly increasing the use of sexed semen.”
Reproduction success is the result of team effort! Pictured (right to left) are Doug Truttmann, Allie (the dog), Collin Legler, Dwight Truttmann, Dan Truttmann, veterinarian Tim Bruns, and GENEX representatives Lindsey Geddes and Scott Schultz.
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HORIZONS
Dan adds, “We don’t miss heats like before. The system is great at detecting estrus and showing how strong a heat is. It has forced us to wait a bit longer before breeding, knowing the optimal time to breed.
