Marti as a cow and decided to try to buy her back. “Unfortunately, it was a two day sale and they only had someone that could milk the one night. Of course, Marti ended up selling on the second day of the sale. Not being able to stay, dad left what ended up being the winning bid with Harry Weier and Marti came back to Stone-Front,” says Andy. Andy was four years old at the time and said the only reason he liked her was because she had a fancy neck chain that Elam had left on her after the sale. Regardless, she was his favorite cow. Her Elevation daughter had a Starwars daughter who later had a Cleitus. The Cleitus and her Pontiac heifer moved to the dairy in Lancaster. Pontiac Pella had a heifer the first December at the new farm, Stone-Front Jed Polly, who would score 92-points and become the dam of Stone-Front Iron Pasta. Mike Duckett and George Kasbergen bought Pasta as a 5-year-old cow the day after the Buttles showed her at Spring Show in 2008. Under their care and devotion, Pasta became a major player on the tanbark trail. Over her years as a show cow, she racked up an impressive record of show accolades, All-American and All-Canadian honors and nominations. Pasta’s influence at Stone-Front is far reaching and a good portion of the herd comes from the same family. Sherwyn Merrill Inga has also had great impact on the herd. She was a granddaughter of Odyssey Chief Mark Ina, VG-89 DOM GMD, that was purchased from the UW-Platteville sale as a just fresh two-year-old the first fall after they moved to Lancaster. “She was one of the first cows in the ring that day and we were sitting next to Eric Armbruster who said ‘What’s wrong with that one, she’s pretty good’ so we bought her,” Andy says. She went on to score EX-92 3E and produce a number of exceptional offspring. That same year, the granddam of Stone-Front Advent Laverne EX-95 was purchased from the UW-Platteville sale. The breeding philosophy has always been to breed for a balanced cow. According to Andy, to breed for longevity, both type and production need to be considered. “When we pick bulls, we tend to pick the high production bulls off of the type list, or the high type bulls off of the production list,” he says. “DPR, SCS, sire stack and cow family are also looked at when we are picking bulls. We then try to do the best job we can at making great matings.” Currently King Doc is the favorite sire at the farm. They are milking more than 60 of his daughters. Andy says he sires the combination of type and production that they are looking for. “Early on, before we had any milking daughters, I had told Kevin Jorgensen that I was concerned because our first Doc calves were kind of small and not very hard across their topline,” Andy notes. “Now that I have said that he is our current favorite bull, combined with the fact that we have had one named All-Wisconsin and nominated All-American, I guess I should take this opportunity to tell Kevin that I am not concerned about them anymore!” Christina Buttles had a good run this past summer with Stone-Front Doc Amberly, a Doc summer yearling from a VG-88 Crush. Her second dam is TJR Arieta McCut 2256-ET EX-95, the dam of Stone-Front Artist-ET at St. Jacobs. Amberly was the All-Wisconsin and Junior AllWisconsin Summer Yearling, Reserve Junior All-American and High Honorable Mention All-American Summer Yearling. In the future Andy and Lyn want to improve on their genetics marketing plan. Finding the right mix of cattle numbers and marketing opportunities is a goal moving forward. Part of this involves developing show animals. Herd manager Levi heads up all of the show efforts. StoneFront is also appreciative of the help they have had from Ben Wallace and his team at the shows.
A step towards reaching this goal is by having two hot sires in stud, Stone-Front Artist-ET and Stone-Front Reeve-Red. “We partnered with Dr. John Schneller on Reeve’s family and with Bill Rauen and Kyle Demmer on Artist’s family and could not ask for better partners,” Andy says. “We really enjoy watching daughters of both bulls develop and perform well for Holstein breeders around the world.” Another goal for the team at Stone-Front is to focus on efficiency. They are pleased with their current herd size and overall just want to get better at every aspect of the operation. “On the genetics side, we are focusing on making fewer heifers. We have decided to be very intentional with our matings and really focus on making high quality animals,” he says. “If we are going to invest the money on raising a heifer, we are going to try our best to make sure that she is from the top half of our herd.” In addition, farm sustainability is a key goal moving forward. With these goals and a strong team of owners and employees, the Stone-Front Farm is set up for a sound future.
Hilda – the new National Record Holder for Lifetime Milk
Stone-Front Leader Hilda is a good example of the type of cows Andy and Lyn Buttles breed for. Cows that are balanced, last in the herd and milk well. Hilda became the new lifetime milk record holder after completing her lactation in 2020 with 460,720 pounds of lifetime milk. Another Wisconsin cow, Koepke K0017229-160 “Granny” was the lifetime milk record holder with 458,616 pounds of milk before Hilda surpassed that record. Hilda’s granddam was part of one of the first group of heifers that the Buttles bought from Cliff Wachter the first fall they milked in Lancaster. “We feel that this sire stack really set her up well for her lifetime production record,” Andy says. This Comestar Leader daughter is backed by sires like Iv-Ann Mark Tesk, Winken, Blackstar, Mark and Bell. Her family was one that always performed well but didn’t always have udders that wore well. Andy explains that this is why her dam was bred to Leader. Hilda received the same high level of care that the rest of the StoneFront herd receives. For her first 11 lactations she lived in the sand bedded freestall barn, and seven of these lactations were made on twice per day milking before they switched to three times per day. Her best lactation was made at 9 years and 7 months of age on her first full three time a day milking lactation: 356 days and 48,200 pounds of milk. “Hilda always preferred to keep her distance from people and spent a lot of time at the feed bunk,” Andy says. “She was a creature of habit and usually would lie in the same freestall and eat at the same headlock.” As Hilda aged and entered her twelfth and final lactation, she moved to a bedded pack next to the parlor. She had eight natural daughters with many of these daughters and granddaughters following in Hilda’s footsteps of good production. “Hilda’s success again goes back to the great group of employees that we have. They really do an exceptional job of taking care of cows,” Andy says. “They make sure that every cow is taken care of in such a way as to fully express their genetic potential. We could not be more proud of the team of people that work here and they are the key to all of the herd’s success through the years.” June/July 2021 – Wisconsin Holstein News – 9
