A week in the Netherlands, visiting outstanding dairy farms, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the “aAa” Breeding Guide (Weeks’ Analysis)

“aAa” was the first of what are called “mating services”, begun 25 years before the AI industry developed linear mating and indexed ranking to assist in semen sales.   It remains an independent program, without subsidy from the AI industry, Breed associations, or University extension.  “aAa” survives because it is totally based in the biology of physical traits gene transmission, and considers your cows will give half their genetics equally into each mating with any bull, thus matter in mating.

Travelling with three other USA, one New Zealand and twelve European analyzers, we visited six outstanding Dutch dairy farms  (Jersey, Fleckveih, and Holstein)  to practice the “aAa” techniques and provide extended training to newer analyzers.   I am now the second-longest tenure “aAa” approved analyzer.

How often does any product or service in modern agriculture last this long unless it has proven its value?     If you have not tried it yet, it is not too late to ask for a demonstration of what it can do and how easily you make it work.

K I Samen --  the highlight visit at the end of our week

K I Samen  is the second largest of four AI centers based in the Netherlands.   The Triple Hil Sires organization is their USA distributor.    Unique to “Samen” was their own commercial dairy farm, in which they tested all their bulls and maintained a few cow lines to produce AI sons.    In the Triple Hil Sires bull book you will find the Samen bulls  (Holstein, Red and White, Lineback and one Jersey)  available here.

To me, the highlight sires were VDS Slash  (aAa 153= Dairy, Smooth, Open)  who is a grandson of their famous  “Big Malki”  bull;   Mostwanted Red  (aAa 651= Style, Smooth, Dairy) who is complete outcross to American Red & White lines;  Plataan Florus  (aAa 156= Dairy, Smooth, Style)  their first proven “Slash” son.   All three of these living bulls are both A2A2 for “Beta Casein”  and BB for “Kappa Casein”, the best possible Casein combinations;  all three are  “plus”  for both butterfat % and protein %.    “Slash”  is perhaps their best choice for ease of calving on heifers.   KI Samen bulls  as a group  had some of the best rear legs and rumps we see in AI.

Dairy AI studs keep evolving

  Mich Livestock Service, Inc    “For the Best in Bulls”   “High Energy Forage Seeds”
PO Box 661  (110 N Main St)  Ovid,  MI  48866   ph (989) 834-2661  9:30 am–3:30 pm
www.michiganlivestock.com     email: greg@michiganlivestock.com 

Introducing  A G 3  to the world of Holstein and Jersey breeding

David Dyment of Dundas, Ontario (Canada) who has a lifetime of experience in Holstein dairying and showing, began to acquire interesting bulls five years ago.   This began with a proven Jersey sire, Avonlea Chip’s Chocolatier, a “Joel” son of the EX 96 “Chocolate Chip” cow from Canada -- and gained momentum with a young Red & White bull Avant-Garde-I Latenite P Red, combining polled, A2A2 Beta Casein, Red and complete outcross to the famous “Apple Red”.    Now that his oldest daughters are milking, David’s confidence in this Red Holstein bull has been justified.

Evolution of  No Bull Solutions  focusing on the truly “elite” performance cows

No Bull Sires has not one, but two sons of the amazing world record cow bred by Selz- Pralle Dairy in Wisconsin, the only cow in world history to make two mature-age lactations with over 70,000 pounds of milk (carrying calf, with only 55 days dry between).    There are now milking daughters from the oldest of these --  Joliam DR Gamechanger (aAa 615) -- doing well from exceptional udders, and bred heifers who look promising from the younger, Joliam Galaxy ET (aAa 432) one of the fanciest “Delta Lambda” sons, and who is also rarer today in that he is of 100% registered Holstein USA ancestry (almost turns him into an “outcross” today).

We now stock and feature bulls from these unique newer genetic sources.    This enhances our AI lines from Triple-Hil Sires,  Masterpiece Genetics,  AI Total,  Blondin Sires, New Generation Genetics (Brown Swiss), Sustainable Genetics (Jersey) and CRV (Fleckveih) focused     on polled sires, A2A2 and BB sires, higher B’fat% and Protein% sires, and aAa variety.

 

Soil is easily degraded, but also easily rebuilt

The “Dust Bowl” of the 1930s is a part of American farming folklore, when we first realized we were squandering an irreplaceable resource of fertility.
Millions of tons of topsoil flow down the continental river systems as a result of an emphasis on row crop yield maximization over crop and animal yield optimization and integration of grassland pastures within farming zones.

You can do your part to preserve soil, increase its fertility, and preserve affordable future yield capacity by rotating row crops with hay and pasture crops, allowing your animals to access your fields, and managing residues to the benefit of water and nutrient utilization.

If you need help with these concepts, give us a call.

Mich Livestock Service, Inc      “For the Best in Bulls and Energy Dense Forages”      since 1978
phone (989) 834- 2661         email: greg@michiganlivestock.com        

Building soil structure using bale grazing

Many years ago, Joe Bontrager of Holton, MI did a demonstration of winter bale grazing on his organic dairy farm.     Instead of piling up manure in his barns, the cattle will fed mostly outside on round bales unrolled in strips across pastures.

While cows were out there, it just seemed to many of us that a lot of hay waste went on doing this.    Cows ate most of the hay, slept on the rest, and litter from manuring and urination was scattered over hay as they moved about.

But Joe’s farm, like so many in Michigan, had sandier soils that could dry out if it did not rain regularly in the grazing season.      How did the bale grazing affect this?

On a return visit to Joe’s the following spring, we noted that the pasture where he had unrolled bales had darker green strips where the hay had lain in the winter, vs a “normal” light green between the strips.     Obviously, hay not consumed by the cows was “consumed” by soil biology which drew it into the topsoil and added to beneficial organic matter content.

The biggest benefits to higher organic matter soils is (1) they hold water better, as a capture of both snow melt and rain;  (2) the topsoil can “feed” more microbial life, which provides nutrient transport from soil into the plant root zones (to feed the root systems);  (3) the topsoil will attract more worms and will have more root channels, which aid in maintaining aerobic (air feed) activity in the soil.

Because you have cattle, you have many options to build up lighter soils.

Seven keys to profitability (an interview with Jim Gerrish)

Jim Gerrish besides his ranching operation is a prolific writer and popular speaker.    He was the 2025 Plant and Soil Sciences “Distinguished Alumni” Award winner from University of Kentucky.  In accepting this award he mentioned that the average cow-calf operation only returns 1.5% on investment.    To do better than this, he said the emphasis on individual animal performance is not as important as overall land management.     

His summary points are:
Ranching is a land-based business. 
Find your optimum point between stocking rate and individual rates of gain.
You can have too many cattle.
Excess forage creates opportunities;  carrying too many cattle can stunt future pasture yields.
Do not calve in the winter.
Winter calving creates the highest feed energy demand when feed is the most expensive.
Water makes grass grow.
It is funny how crop farmers will spend thousands to irrigate $900 per acre of grain corn, but cattle farmers will hardly spend anything to irrigate $4000 per acre of carcass beef.
Time management matters more than spatial management.
Overgrazing is a function of poor time management.    It will happen when grazing periods are too long or when recovery periods are too short.    Grass benefits from optimal photosynthesis.
Focus on what you can control.
Manage your grass harvest.    Manage your cow reproduction.    Manage your beef marketing.
Have no fear of wasting grass.
Residual grass left in a pasture is never wasted.    A four inch tall residue can regrow a ton of feed in 40 days.    A two inch stubble will take 64 days.    This is huge by the time grazing ends.  

Kudos to Don Nevill and Son of Clare, Michigan

Michigan Cattleman’s Association was pleased to announce that beef from a well- known Michigan cattleman was fed in the “White House” during the last 4^th of July celebration in our nation’s capital.

Don Nevill began his Angus herd with the family dairy farm when he was 14 years old (he won’t tell us how many years ago that was).    After he started Nevill Fence Supply, their dairy was closed down and the beef cow herd began ramping up.

Don is a past board member of Michigan Cattleman’s Association, which many of us feel is the most effective farm producer support organization in the state.    We decided to join MCA after our second year as an exhibitor at Spring Beef Expo and meeting their dynamic manager, George Quackenbush, who explained to us ways that MCA coordinates with efforts of the national beef checkoff run by USDA.

We were also influenced by Earl Souva of Great Lakes Sire Service (Bronson MI), which is one of the leading custom semen collection and bull housing facilities in the Midwest.    Earl is a recent past president of MCA who originally invited us to participate in Spring Beef Expo.     His business is qualified to ship semen around the world, which is a potential support benefit to Michigan purebred breeders.