meet your neighbors
Photos by Julie Turner-Crawford
Enjoying the Dairy Life By Julie Turner-Crawford
Mike Calton continues his family’s legacy on his Grovespring, Mo., dairy Dairy farming is more than making a living for Mike Calton. It’s been his way of life his entire life. “I was born and raised on a dairy farm; this dairy farm,” Mike said, adding that his family settled the original farm in 1857. Mike and Gail milk 70 Holsteins, with an additional 70 replacement heifers of various ages. The dairy is pasture-based, meaning cows only get grain twice a day inside the milk barn. The 400-acre farm can pasture all of the cows, as well as supply the majority of the grass hay needed. “We don’t get record setting production like some of the TMR (total mixed ration) guys, but we have a lot of pasture and hay ground, so that works for us,” Mike said. “We try to keep the labor to a minimum and round bales are about as good as it gets for us. We could do silage and a TMR, but it’s not something we have ever gone to.” Their herd averages about 50 pounds daily, and it climbing to 60 or 70 pounds in the spring. For a few years, Mike did plant green graze and wheat. “We used to plow up and disk a lot of land,” Mike said. “It would take quite a bit now to plow up a good stand of grass.” The cows at Calton Dairy graze on fescue, orchardgrass, clover and other na-
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tive grasses. There is a rotational system today. Mike and Gail sell several breed in place, but Mike said it is not meant to heifers to fellow dairy producers. be an intensive grazing system. “AI has immensely added to the genet“We can move our cattle around the ics of our cattle,” Mike said. “We’ve been way we want to,” he said. “Right now we doing it so long now that we can sell our have everything off the bottoms because bulls. My neighbor up the road, I’ve been we’re going to hay it. Keeping them off selling him bulls for 30 years and all of his the hay ground messes things up a little, cows are out of my bulls. When you drive but those Holsteins eat a lot of hay.” out and look at his herd they are just As a forage-based dairy, Mike feels his as nice as ours. We usually sell a group cows are productive longer and it’s a of springers or milk cows a year, but we more economic way to operate. haven’t the last couple of years because “I could go for higher (milk) averages, of the price. We have sold a lot of catbut it costs more to do that,” he said. tle right off the farm; we kind of have a Mike’s father Wallace Calton began name for that. People can come in, pick milking in the early 1950s and was the out the cows they want and we have had first farm in the area to incorporate an AI good luck with that. I always tell the loprogram, which Mike continues today. cal dairymen I sell to if they aren’t happy “My dad was a big Holstein man and they can bring her back and get a differwas really the first man to bring top-qual- ent cow; I guarantee them. I usually try to ity Holsteins into the area, and we’ve sell the best I’ve got because they are all been doing it for 70 years,” Mike said. good. I don’t have any problem parting “I’ve stuck with Holsteins because it with any cow.” would be a shame to change that now.” He hasn’t had a single cow returned. “If you go to the sale barn, “People are happy with the cows if you have the big, fancy they have gotten,” Gail added. Holstein springer heifers, Mike has a set pattern he likes they bring the most. Mixed to follow with his cattle. little Jersey or crosses will sell “We want a cow with good well, but the top ones are the udder support, good feet and big, fancy Holsteins.” legs, and I like mediumThe Calton reputation for Grovespring, Mo. sized cows that are good quality Holsteins continues grazers,” he explained. “If Ozarks Farm & Neighbor • www.ozarksfn.com
they don’t have a good udder, they aren’t going to be around for long; a few years and they are done.” If the quality or health of the cow is low or subpar, so is the quality of the milk, which is why Mike is committed to quality above all. Last year, Calton Dairy was eighth in the region for milk quality out of 410 dairies. “We are usually in the top 10 for milk quality,” Mike said. “Our most recent (somatic) cell count was 118,000. The top one in the state was right at that.” Overall health can also be attributed to a close relationship with the veterinarians at Marshfield Vet. “They have improved the profitability on our farm. It can be expensive when you call them, but it’s worth it,” Mike said. “If (cows) don’t clean after calving, I hate to call them out for that, but getting that cow cleaned up, taken care of and on the right track is so important.” The Caltons also utilize the service to preg check cows, as well as for overall herd health, including vaccinations. They also believe in giving all calves a healthy start. “We put the calf in a pen right by the milk barn, so the calf has its mother’s milk for three to five days,” Gail said. “Three years from now, that heifer will be milking with her momma.” JUNE 8, 2020
