What pays and what does not ?

 From:

CONCEPTIONS      Beef Cow-calf route newsletter              June-July 2023

 

Andy and Angus Arthur of Laingsburg have developed a successful grassfed beef marketing production system utilizing Angus, Hereford and “black baldy” crosses.
On a recent breeding visit, Andy mentioned that they tried some fly-repellent ear tags on cattle last year.    The feeder cattle going into winter hay feeding were 50# heavier with the fly tags than without.     They are thinking of trying them again.
 

How much does creep feeding and winter silage exaggerate EPDs?

As many of you are active grain farmers, the temptation to divert some of your corn crop into a corn silage supply for your cows for winter feeding is great.    You will of course be encouraged by most seed salesmen to do exactly that.   However, while corn (and soybean) prices still hold at record high price levels historically, and after the pandemic’s severe runup in fertilizer prices, we have to ask if this is a wise practice.

Most beef breeds were developed on grasslands grazing and winter hay feeding

The genetic instinct of animals is to live on what they were programmed to eat in mature.    For cattle, especially the English base breeds  (Angus, Red Angus, Hereford, Polled Hereford, Scotch Shorthorn, Murray Grey, and most “heritage” breeds of Highlander, Red Poll, Galloway, Dexter), corn was never part of their instinctual diets.     Thus when fed corn, it usually was metabolized as stored body fat, over muscle surfaces (not marbled), in mammary tissue, and around internal organs (kidneys, liver, uterine tract).     This fat has negative reproductive and health effects if too much accumulates, and in a broader sense, given it is just trimmed away in butchering, has no human food value—thus is a waste of your land and farming inputs compared to an effective pasturage and forage harvesting system.

High quality pasture that is treated like a crop  (ie, receiving some nitrogen fertilization after each grazing pass)  will not only regrow perennially but yield economically competitive volumes of feed.    No more than 2 acres per cow-calf unit of good, high energy variety perennial grasses in central Michigan will provide winter hay and spring/summer/fall feed, properly rotated.    The cows will rebreed more easily without being fat around the ovaries, and the heifers you save will calve much easier by not having excess fat packed into their pelvic structures pressing around the birthing canal.     

It seems to have developed primarily in the “continental breed” and “club calf” herds to believe that, either to produce higher EPDs for breeding stock sales, or fleshier calves for showing, that the cow herd has to be as “conditioned” as the sale and show stock.    This is not sound cattle breeding selection and has had many negative consequences, first in slower reproduction.
 

How early is it safe to preg check?

 With today’s ultrasound technology, pregnancies as early as 28 days can be seen on the monitor of the machine in the hands of a skilled operator (most vet clinics serving large animals may have one).      This is much earlier than safe times for a physical palpation (to avoid slipped membranes, vets prefer to wait 42 days).

If you follow a practice of early checks with ultrasound, the most economical way to fully confirm early pregnancies is to use a P Test strip from Emlabs.    Catch the urine stream under any cow bred 60+ days and you have a confirmation of status that is 99% accurate.     Should any cow have lost her pregnancy after the earlier (28- 42 day) ultrasound, the P Test will catch it.

Catch those repeat services

 By now most of you are either breeding or have completed a first round of AI>   
To have an idea of how you did, and if you desire to get another chance at some of your momma cows, consider applying Estrutech patches on the rumps of any you have serviced, or have not yet seen in heat.   

These have a gray surface that will rub off when a cow is persistently mounted, so a bright color (Red, Green, Yellow, several choices) will show.     If you check your herd every day, these will help you catch heats in a timely manner.
Another economical alternative is AI Paint, which we stock in yellow and green.

Mich Livestock Service, Inc     “For the Best in Bulls”   and   “High Energy forages”
110 N Main St   (PO Box 661)   Ovid,  MI  48866                          ph  (989) 834- 2661
www.michiganlivestock.com      email: greg@michiganlivestock.com       fax: (989) 834- 2914

What does it take to make pasture forages to enhance fertility ?

 

Start with the soil.    A pasture should be given the same fertilization care that you give to any row crop.    In fact, deep green colored pastures with a variety of plant species (grasses, legumes, forbs and brassicas) rotated so that they are vegetative (ie, not making seed heads and drying out) will produce as much harvestable feed nutrition as you can get from virtually any other crop (including corn silage).

The best pastures have “aerobic” soil—ie, there is enough root mass and organic structure to the soil that air can enter and rainfall can penetrate, keeping all the beneficial soil biology alive.    The best stimulant to soil biology also happens to be grazing animals across the surface, leaving behind saliva, urine and manure that is the natural food for the sort of soil life that transports nutrients into the root zone of whatever you are growing.

Consider the value of legumes in feeding atmospheric nitrogen into the root zone as well.    Clover (which starts fixing nitrogen in the year of seeding) is particularly good at this, as well as cows see clover as a tasty delicacy.   Alfalfa is less palatable in pastures, tends to lignify in summer heat, and does not produce nitrogen until the second year;  however, as alfalfa stands run out, interseeding grass and clover into them can transition a hay field into a pasture without tillage.    

Forbs are beneficial herbs that cows will eat selectively as their systems crave the minerals they are known to scavenge from the subsoil.    Likewise brassicas with their heavy top growth and often edible bulbs can be interseeded in late summer into existing pastures to provide an extra feed punch for a final fall pass.

The most vital grass seed breeding has been ongoing in Europe (where grass is used for hay, rather than alfalfa) and the varieties Byron Seeds brings from there have nutrient energy and protein profiles that exceed the best of alfalfas grown here.     As the alfalfa seed industry has peaked here, you will find grasses ready to take its place for either hay or haylage or balage harvesting systems as well as for pasturage.    

As all forage crops remove calcium, you can enhance soil fertility by using gypsum (sulfur) lime as a periodic fertilizer (perhaps every five years).

Fertility aids discovered

  CONCEPTIONS   Beef cow-calf newsletter            April May 2023

In Iowa there is a company called Em Labs which produces three products we stock:  P Test (strips to catch urine to detect pregnancy after six weeks post-breeding), Heifer Plus and its companion Bull Plus  which are enzymatic additives that influence the sex of the calf when using conventional (non-sorted) frozen semen.

Heifer Plus and Bull Plus have in various trials produced calf crops of 75% or more the desired sex – IF you do everything strictly according to the instructions.    If you go over the incubation times recommended, calf sex will go the other way from what you desired.    So these work, but are not guaranteed to work without an exact replication of the steps recommended.

However
It seems that, whether or not you get the sex desired in the calf, you do get a calf.    Fertility of semen seems to be enhanced by use of this product, and that is a consistent result.

Given many of you are shooting for a narrow calving window, a chance of improved conception is valuable.     Clitoral stimulation (page one) seems to add 10% to conception rates.   Using the sheath protectors (we stock two kinds) seems to gain another 5% at a minimal cost.    Now with the Em Lab “heifer plus” and “bull plus” options we might gain still another 10%.

For those of you using synchronization, which has never matched the conception rates that are possible from natural heats, these aids to conception are well worth considering.

 

We stock  C I D R s

They come in packages of ten, but if you only need a few, we will accommodate you.

We stock  “Estru Tech”  strips

They come in packages of 50, which are ten sheets with five strips on each sheet. 
Again, if you only need a few, we will sell individual sheets.

We stock  “tail paint”  in a variety of colors

Another economical tool, especially if you wish to catch repeats after a group breeding session.    Tail paint usually lasts the length of a heat cycle (three weeks) unless you get a hard rainfall.

 

Having trouble budgeting all the technological breeding expense ?

 

There have always been more than one successful approach to breeding a herd of cows that gets more productive and profitable in each generation.   But only the approaches that are covered by patents generate enough money to advertise…

More tried and true methods that can be self-managed and achieved at a lower operating cost may only come your way by word of mouth.     Do you need sexed semen, Genomic testing, IVF- ET generated service sires at the highest rankings, Ov-Synch control over cycling, OR do you just need semen from “good bulls” at a reasonable cost and a bit of guidance on which bulls match the physical qualities of your cows?     (Which can get your cows bred $100 per cow cheaper than when you swallow all the patented technologies and their associated genetic theories.)

Dairying today remains a high overhead, low profit margin commodity production business.    We provide a low cost, practical and sustainable approach to creating profitable long-life herd replacements and preparing for premium market opportunities.    Give us consideration!

 

MIch Livestock Service, Inc.               ph (989) 834- 2661                www.michiganlivestock.com

Planning a breeding approach that makes sense and conserves cash

 

How should we define “Genetic Value” anyway, on an imputed index from pedigree and DNA, or from the actual, realized performance of our cows over their lifetime of production?   

I recently updated analyzation for a thoughtful career dairyman in west central Michigan, who had recently bought cows from a nearby herd dispersal.    Of the four cows he brought home, two have already left his herd within months of their purchase.    In spite of eyeballing them at the farm of origin, they proved unable to adapt to his environment  (and it is a well-managed, cow-friendly environment).     Lack of adaptation to an environmental change is a key reason auction barn cows only last an average 1.5 lactations in their new home.

This dairyman has cows within his herd that have achieved seven lactations and do not show any signs of impending failure.     These are the cows he would most like to be dams of future herd replacements.    He believes strongly that “cows with longevity survival produce heifers with the same ability”  [especially when care is taken in mating as in his use of “aAa” analysis]

What he particularly likes about these successful matured cows is that, as the ME tables always predicted, they tend to milk 30% more in fourth, fifth, & sixth lactations than they did with first lactation (20% more than second lactation, 10% more than third lactation).

This brings up the key fallacy in the various Genomic mating concepts built around use of sexed semen to produce all your future replacements from “unproven” virgin heifers, on the basis of their higher Genomic (DNA + pedigree) rankings.     The common weakness with ALL such sales promotions is that your cows are treated as having no “breeding” value whatsoever.   All the progress your herd needs to make then has to come from selection of sires on indexes… which is a blatant contradiction of the known biology, in which 50% of the genes in your calves’ genotype come from the dam – a gene contribution equal to what is received from her sire.

Genetic progress on pedigree index is illusory if cows are turning over (leaving the herd) in the third lactation, as is the national average.    The genetic selection for high peaks in first lactation and an acceleration of the growth of heifers has had the effect of shortening herdlife—ie, cows are ”matured” in second lactation and “aging” (physically failing) in third lactation.     The sort of heifer that proves to be a more regular-breeding, long-term high lifetime cow will have a flatter and more persistent lactation curve than the “accelerated” herdmate…  and she has inherited that from her longer lifetime, successfully adapted mother who preserved that from her own ancestry based in earlier generations of more broadly-based selection approaches.   These are the only animals that live up to the “ME” predictions given to the records of all tested heifers.

It appears to take all the first lactation and part of the second lactation production to pay back costs of raising heifers.     To be a profitable dairy, it takes lots of mature and maturing cows…   

What is the “PTA” value of realized maturity?

So you might get 20,000 pounds of milk in the first lactation from a typical TMR-fed nutritionist balanced ration.     30% more at maturity is 6000 pounds more…    This is twice the PTA milk value of the very highest sires in AI today.    

Thus the matching of cows to sires under the “aAa” system which is proven to provide longer herdlife replacements, has a PTA Milk “value” equal to the highest of Genomic imputations… in other words, you want to see all that paper progress realized in your future herd performance.

The average USA cow on DHIA test produces milk for 2.5 lactations (this varies by geography).    This means the average cow leaving during third lactation has overstated her sire’s PTA value by its calculation from Mature Equivalent (ME) factors by 15%.     

For an AI sire to live up to the imputed ME production levels in his genetic evaluation across all his offspring, he would need to have a PTA- PL (Productive Life) value of + 7.0.    I am unaware of any current progeny evaluated sires exceeding a PL value of +3.5.    

While there are plenty of young Genomic sires with imputed PTA values well in excess of those achieved once sires have progeny in production for evaluation, the industry must come to grips with the biological reality:   Possession of desired “marker” genes associated with PTA traits has no direct causation to the complex physiological and metabolic processes which any cow brings to her “real world” environment within a physique that must be capable of all desired cow functions  (even feed consumption-- production—component synthesis—reproduction and calving recovery—completion of physical growth— immune function --stamina and sustained vigor—mobility – social herd adaptation – human interaction).     Most of this list has no direct link to any traits measured in PTA form.     

Why is it so hard for realized generational progress  (as documented in the five-year step-up of “the genetic base” from national herd averages)  which has been no more than 100 pounds of milk yearly (500 PTA pounds per five-year “base change”) all through the PTA calculation era—to approach the expectations of sire PTA values of 1000 to 2000 pounds milk deviations?

Actually, data from AI sired cows in the Netherlands shows that the highest ranking of USA milk bulls only provide their PTA estimates in their first lactation deviations:  typically only half as much deviation in second lactation; and then deviation disappears in third lactations.    Milk production over their lifetime is not increasing:  it is merely accelerated in their first lactations at the expense of a longer-life productivity.    [Data sourced from CRV dutch DHI dairy database]

It must be admitted that “genetic value” as currently calculated only answers maybe one third of what is required in selection of economic genes, matching cows to bulls on characteristics of the desired physique, and creating the rearing environment to harvest quality replacements.

Startling presentation at Michigan Hay & Forage Council Annual Meeting

  CONCEPTIONS   Dairy Route Newsletter               April-May 2023 

Daniel Olson of Lena, Wisconsin, active dairy farmer, owner of “Forage Innovations LLC” and a founding member of the ”Grassworks” initiative, was the keynote speaker for this years MHGFC annual meeting.     In his afternoon presentation he reported on an ongoing research project of University of Wisconsin, in which over ten years replacement heifers for the University herd are split between “confinement TMR” and “rotational grazing” until they freshen.    Those heifers who were raised outside on pasturage and winter fed mixed-grass hay are producing more milk (as much as 1900 pounds more!) in first lactations than the confined, bunk fed contemporaries.    Key reasons:   the grazed heifers develop more ruminant capacity, have more muscle tone at calving (thus calve easier), and less foot and leg trouble.    

One-sided research:  how it misleads us

There is a report in “Journal of Dairy Science” on another recent research in which Holstein heifers bred to Angus sires for their first calves were compared to heifers bred calving-ease Holstein sires.   There was NO loss of production or other economically negative results.

It has been part of the “sales pitch” for use of sexed semen on heifers from high genomic value sires that these heifers would somehow milk more from that service than if lower genetic value mating sires had been used.     The object here?    Clearly, to help justify the premium price for the sexed semen (and downplay the reduced conception rates from sexed product).

Ultimately, this same genetic acceleration theory would have you breed your matured cows to [sexed male] beef semen to produce a salable deacon calf, generally bringing a higher price at auction than a pure dairy blood deacon.    The sales pitch:  “these old cows have lower genomic value, so focus producing replacements from your newest generation of heifers”.   

Maybe the beef semen should go into the “unproven” heifers instead?    And raise them out on pasture, so they milk more on first lactation?     Thus suggests the most recent researches

 

Cover crops and double cropping with animals is a winning choice

 

The NRCS has worked hard to convince people that ”No Til” will save some soil structure and reduce erosion from runoff of rainfall on compacted soils.    High costs of no-till equipment, however, has led many farmers to crop monocultures.
Over time, monocultural row cropping still leads to compaction (compared to a planned crop rotation) but more damage to soil fertility is being done by removing cattle from the land.    

Periodic growth of cover crops can be harvested by animals cheaper than they can be tilled or terminated prior to growing a cash crop.    Animals aid the growth of soil biology, helping to keep the balance needed between bacteria and fungi.

The productivity of your animals and your cost of raising them to market (either for meat or breeding or show stock) improves when you give them access to all your land at some time in the growing season (and maybe after as well).

Mich Livestock Service, Inc    “For the Best in Bulls”   AND  “For the most useful forage Seeds”
At your service since 1952…    strategies to  synergistically  combine cattle and seed genetics

Soil Compaction -- cattle will help to heal it!

  CONCEPTIONS Beef Cow-calf newsletter                  Jan-Feb 2023 

A recent (January 2023) article in Stockman Grass Farmer carries an article by Mississippi beef, pork and poultry rancher Ben Simmons entitled “Biology supersedes Chemistry.”

His lead paragraph says “You can have mineral nutrition perfectly balanced on a soil analysis and yet will not grow healthy plants on that soil, as long as you have poor biology.”

Soil biology is essentially three forms.    We are all familiar with worms; nematodes and dung beetles perform related recycling functions.   There are also bacteria and fungi.    The optimal proportion of bacteria to fungi is 1 to 1.    These soil biology forms transport nutrients into the growing plant roots.

Compacted soils have little effect on bacteria (which are anerobic) but can seriously harm the fungi (which are aerobic, ie, they need oxygen) as well as worms and nematodes.    The better soil will have “structure” (air pockets and water infiltration channels) which is built up by root masses (alive and growing or dead and decomposing) and incorporated manure and crop fiber residues.   These are called “high organic matter” soils which capture rain, whereas a tighter, compacted soil (even if the surface is tilled) will allow rain to runoff, often eroding topsoil with it as it flows into your drains and out to streams.

While chemical fertilization and weed suppression generally insures us a crop harvest, these practices can inhibit soil biology and thus lower the residual fertility of your soil.    Over history the use of chemical herbicides and pesticides has grown in tandem with longer-maturity crop varieties, leaving no time for the planting of “green manure” cover crops.    Leaving harvested fields bare of growth over the winter can starve and even freeze soil biology of all forms, while free carbon breathes out from the soil and enters the atmosphere.    (Ten times as much green house gases are released by open soils as are produced by all our ruminant livestock!)    If we analyze crops grown on soil treated this way, you find the nutrient density to be lower as our yields have gotten greater. 

When you hear that term “empty calories” being applied to our modern grain production, the key ingredient in most processed consumer foods, the losses of soil biology are the most direct explanation; plants lack the nutrients they bring to the root zone, especially from fungi.    (Both animal and human health suffered from monocultural crop production dependent on chemical fertilization and propogation.     Look at how the “Covid” situation drags on!)

What our animals can contribute to improved soil biology and resulting fertility

Because you have animals, some of your land benefits from incorporation of their manures.    However, to get the “whole enchilada” of soil stimulation and health from animals, you need to graze every field at some time of the year;  not just manure, but urine, enzymes, nasal drizzles, even shedded hair, pass microscopic bacteriology onto (and if not compacted, into) the soil and contribute humic substances that stimulate the growth of mychorrizal fungi.    Short periods of intense grazing (spring cool-season green vegetation, or fall planted covers including some that regrow in spring) can provide some cheap feed for your animals at times when the soil is most receptive to animal effluents.    These same fall and spring covers keep root masses growing in winter, thus helping to keep soil bacteria and “companion livestock” alive.    In some synergistic way, the animals’ total biological exchange aids soil health.    All that is required are permanent corner posts and temporary fence you can roll out and retract between crop growing seasons.

Mob grazing large numbers of animals on degraded soils in places like Africa and the USA deep south where monocultural cotton and tobacco depleted soil fertility, has proven able to bring those acreages “back to life” able to support desired plant growth, sequester carbon, and most importantly, capture rainfall into the root zone.  ( Refer to Allan Savory, whose Holistic Resource Management has guided noted USA cattlemen like Greg Judy to increased cattle production.)

Soil compaction occurs in many ways:  from driving across wet soils in cool seasons;  from over- application of anhydrous;  from deep plowing that turns furrows completely over, burying any green growth or crop residue into an anerobic layer that does not decompose;   from hard rains onto barren or tilled ground, promoting runoff;  from continual growing of row crops that leave large bare spaces between rows subject to evaporation and excessive warming from the sun; from not growing a cover crop in the winter to replace organic structure consumed by each row crop.

As for pastures, the overgrazing of the more desired species by “set grazing” (instead of regular rotation of paddocks to prevent chewing the green growth below a 4” to 6” height that insures photosynthesis for regrowth) not only will degrade the pasture plant mix (opening up space for weeds to enter) but also leads to compaction from the warming of the soil similar to the effect in row crops.    Studies prove that your animals can harvest 50% more plant growth across the grazing season if paddock divisions are established and frequently rotated.

It used to be common to see beef cows gleaning the wasted corn and residue stalks after corn harvest.     Combining usually leaves 2 bushels or more per acre on the field surface.    Even if all you do is roll round baled hay out across crop residues for winter feeding, you will note greener color under the path of the bales the following spring, and a healthier crop that summer.    Let your animals work harder for you.     It will save you  $$  and increase both calf and crop yields.
             

Breeding for the most milk value insures your future

 

Is anyone making any money on skim milk these days?     Recent data shows that the consumption of skim milk products continues to fall, while “whole” milk sales have grown.    Likewise, cheese and yogurt have market shares the “experts” did not predict when the Federal Milk Order system and its companion Sire summary formulas were developed.

The best advice in breeding for the future is to resist being hidebound by the system designed for the past.    The cow of the future needs to be adaptable to whatever premium opportunity eventually comes your way.     The beginning tools to create this cow include “aAa” Breeding Guide, polled heads, A2A2 Beta Casein, and AB/BB Kappa Casein, with positive deviations for butterfat % or protein %.     The tools to harvest this yield profitably come from forages that have superiority in rumen digestibility.   Our current sire offerings are compatible with Byron Seeds forage varieties, and the net result is Profit =  greater income without greater cost. 

Skeptical?    Ask for a demonstration.      Talk to Mark:    or     Call  Greg  at (989) 277- 6031
Mich Livestock Service, Inc      “For the Best in Bulls” since 1952.     Forage seeds since 2007.
**  The first AI system in Michigan to offer on-farm nitrogen service to semen tanks, in 1960.

Is your farm producing generic volume or premium value ?

 

Starting as my Dad’s part-time office boy, ad writer and assistant bookkeeper, I am closing in on fifty years working in and observing the evolution of dairy cow breeding.   In this period, I have seen the exodus of my peers from farming to city jobs, or the changeover of dairy farms to crop farming and steer feeding.    All of us have seen the rise of environmentalism, now facing the first generation of the consumer public that does not see us as “the stewards of the land” but often as despoilers of the environment.    Many of you are jumping through extra “hoops” as more milk product handlers want to impact on the way in which we produce the milk they sell.   (My largest “aAa” customer in Ohio agreed to go “GMO free” in order to earn a premium on milk from Dannon yogurt.  With 2800 cows this adds up to thousands in extra income without added cost!)    

Are there opportunities for the majority of us?     There will be.    If you look at the sales made by Michigan’s largest on-farm bottlers (Country Dairy/ New Era, Moo-ville Creamery/ Nashville, Calder Dairy/ Carleton) all involve rBST-free, GMO free, and/or A2A2 Beta Casein labelling.    There are a couple successful local Amish-built dairies that are selling “creamline” premium milk and finding a ready market.

In Europe, the animal rights’ oversight on dairy farms has made note of how the “aAa” system for mating the cow physique produces “happier” (easier moving, more trouble free) cows.   In contrast, most dairymen suffering outsider inspection of cow lots find themselves written up for “lameness” – the majority of which is based on poor leg structure caused genetically and thus cannot be solved by any management intervention short of a higher culling rate.

Generic cows result from genetic indexes designed to produce commodity milk

Did anyone ever suggest this to you?    “Index” was designed from the beginning to satisfy the data-driven scientist focused on chemistry, rather than living biology.    Scientists do not trust “observational” knowledge, will follow a reductionist path to focus on data points that shorten the time of evaluation.    Genomics—a look at new-born DNA under a microscope—is the final step in this evolution away  from animal husbandry, which was always driven by interpretation of observed behavior and accumulated experience over animal lifetimes and intergenerational (rather than contemporary) comparison.

This focus on data points (the irony of trying to predict gene transmission when comparing a set of unrelated animals—ignoring the “mating effects” resulting from choice of sire and dam) has allowed undesirable behavior to propogate, and among this is the various mutations that effect milk composition in negative ways…    “blending” good and bad milk on the same milk route.  

Everyone suffers under milk market “pooling” when bad genes are allowed to proliferate

An example of this is when a major Michigan milk cooperative lost a lucrative volume market supplying milk to a cheese plant—and having three loads in a row fail to “set” curds in the set processing time.    What caused this?    OK, possibly too much fermented feed leading to too acid a milk produced;  but also, the proliferation of the “E”  Kappa Casein gene, a recently identified milk protein mutation that refuses to set curds.     This has multiplied in Holsteins as a result of widespread usage of a high Genomic value sire line dominating the “sire of sons” lists.     “Accelerating the generations” has meant that three generations of that sire line could be used in your herds before the first drop of milk was produced by the oldest generation of offspring having calved from that line.     By then, how many “outcross” (clean) cows do you have left?   

Traits not driven by data points have no impact on Genomic sire rankings.    Bulls with the “E” Kappa Casein gene should receive “Cheese Merit” indexes of zero – but their “cheese” indexes are still within the same range as the basic fluid milk “Net Merit” ranking.   Likewise, polled has no impact on any index, even though it has a clear multi-generation positive impact on heifer raising costs.    Data for Daughter Pregnancy Rates is not affected negatively when OvSynch has to be used to get cows pregnant (an increasing percentage of cows generated from IVF-ET sires will not cycle naturally) because DHIA does not record that data.    The relentless focus on more milk regardless of cost has you raising replacements that will require ever more intervention from external inputs raising costs.   In this, the $50 million that the dairy industry has invested in Genomic tests so far, to decide if a heifer deserves to be raised into a future cow, has not raised the net income of any dairyman who sells milk (instead of breeding stock) for his living.               

The 40% of dairymen who still use “matrix” trait selection are best positioned for the future

Genomics to date is calibrated simply on the male DNA side of the genotype.   The observable differences in female RNA (which pass from cow to her heifers) some of which affect milkiness are not considered.    Depending on Genomics for your total genetic decisions is to breed for bulls—and in fifty years I have yet to see any bull give a drop of milk!!

This might explain why we are happy to assist those dairymen who are increasingly selecting in favor of traits outside the data points—polled, A2A2 Beta Casein, AB or BB Kappa Casein, plus percents of butterfat and/or protein, depth of maternal line performance, and managing cow conformation with the “aAa” breeding guide (rather than following advice that has you mating your matured, most successfully adapted, more fertile, high productivity cows to “beef” bulls just because their DNA came from older thus “obsolete” bulls…)

So much of what the genetics industry is promoting reminds me of the children’s fairy tale, do you remember “The Emperor’s New Clothes” from the Brothers Grimm?   Just ‘cause everyone says this invisible cloth is lovely and therefore valuable, the fat old emperor is all I can see … it is still important we breed real cows with the capability of a long life of low-cost productivity.

Turmoil in the alfalfa seed industry reflects the changing Dairy farm dynamic

  CONCEPTIONS   Dairy Route newsletter                   Jan-Feb 2023 

Two of the three largest corporate entities in the breeding and production of alfalfa seed are currently for sale, with no “takers” in sight.     Corteva, the corporate spinoff that holds all the prior agricultural divisions of Dow Chemical, has drastically reduced staff in the alfalfa division.    A major competitor has similarly downsized its investment in alfalfa breeding, while it has been a couple years since Monsanto (during its sale to Bayer AG) spun off its “round up ready” alfalfa project to a division of Land Of Lakes.

What does this all mean?    Simply that, since the run-up in corn and soybean commodity prices the industry saw thousands of acres of alfalfa tilled up to plant row crops.    Those big chemical companies who have been buying up seed production in recent years are focusing down on the crops that require the most chemicals under the current monocultural farming models.

This does not mean that alfalfa seed will not be available, because it is.   At Byron Seeds we are expanding the reach of the “Synergy” concept alfalfa blends, which draw seed from several of the independent seed breeding companies.     If you have not looked at “Synergy” there is this opportunity to jump-start your alfalfa production in the face of the decline of seed propogation programs which will just keep selling the older varieties already in the marketplace.

BUT at the same time, crop reports are showing that the future for hay and haylage is moving in favor of mixed alfalfa/grass (the greatest tonnage and stand life) and grass/clover (the greatest nutritional density) if not the “three way” of grass, alfalfa and clover.     If you look up “synergy” in a dictionary, it will tell you “the result when the new ‘whole’ is greater than its parts.”
 

Mich Livestock Service, Inc   “For the Best in Bulls”    “High Digestible Forages”
P O Box 661   (110 N Main St)   Ovid,  MI  48866     phone (989) 834- 2661     fax (989) 834- 2914
www.michiganlivestock.com     email to: greg@michiganlivestock.com

WEIRD TRENDS IN HOLSTEIN CATTLE that are causing trouble

  CONCEPTIONS  Dairy Route Newsletter               May-June 2022

Many of you have never asked why I keep promoting the “aAa” Breeding Guide.   I also know that the typical AI stud salesman calls what we do “voodoo” as if it had no basis in the biology of gene transmission and genotype repairing.    In fact, aAa has always had the most provable explanation of why linear-based matings can go wrong and produce early-age culls from what were supposed to be the “best” sires (and for which you probably paid a premium price).

Here are some examples:

DISAPPEARING  REAR  TEATS

Many of the “elite” sire lines based on both the “Net Merit $” index and Holstein “TPI” index have been “erasing” the rear teat on your replacements, frequently producing udders lacking enough rear teat to seal a teat cup for milking   

Biological cause:  lack of aAa quality #1 “Dairy”  
Selection cause:  as Genomics accelerates sire generations in favor of “health” it has reduced the hormone production in heifers that would complete developing a full capacity udder.    

 

REAR TEATS TOO TIGHT TOGETHER FOR EASY MILKING
AI studs have dreamed up “robot ready” designations to indicate the handful of sires that usually still have space between two rear teats.     The problem begins when the udder lacks any rear udder width.    Teats just ride on the outer skin of the udder; they will only be spaced when a rear udder has adequate “room”.     

Biological cause:   lack of aAa quality #5 “Smooth”
Selection cause:  as Genomic selection has tied faster adolescent growth rates and earlier-age maturity of production together, animals do not develop width or spring of rib that assists the rumen in full utilization; they just grow excessively tall and the stretched muscling flattens against the skeleton.    Narrowness results.

CHRONICALLY LAME FRONT FEET
Often seen on the heifer who is narrow in her front end.    When you look at the way she stands at rest, her front feet “toe out” to the extent her lower leg turns.   You will see most of her weight is carried on the inner toes, allowing uneven hoof wear.   Outer toes grow out requiring frequent trimming.    She goes lame.

Biological cause:   lack of aAa quality #5 “Smooth”
Selection cause:   linear type for decades has confused “angularity” with “dairy”.    This has produced narrower front ends over time, until the frame can no longer anchor legs squarely at four corners of a physically balanced body core.

 

COWS STRUGGLE TO RISE FROM FREE STALLS
The hind leg position on such cows does not support the full rear end weight, due to a thurl position that thrusts the hind leg out partially behind the rump.   Loins flatten out, spines bend, and locomotion declines as spinal nerves get pinched.

Biological cause:   lack of aAa quality #6 “Style”
Selection cause:   linear type for decades has wavered between preference for a “set” hock and a “straight” hock, often ending up with extremes of each.    This is an added consequence of “angularity” selection, which reduces muscle mass the cow needs to hold the thurl central to the rump and fully control the foot.

   

UDDERS SQUEEZED FORWARD BY HIND LEGS
If hind legs are too close to the udder, the maturing of the mammary gland will force it outside the housing provided by the pelvis.

Biological cause:    lack of aAa quality #3 “Open”  AND  lack of quality #1 “Dairy”
Selection cause:   linear type focuses more upon the rib cage, less on the pelvic dimensions, starting at the hip (hooks downward) and proceeding through thurl and pins.    Fancy snug young udders end up either deep or tilted forward, each of which reduces milkability of the udder with each added calving.

 

I COULD GO ON …  my point is, sound matings would PREVENT making such cows.