Holt Creek Jerseys

Semen Available Now

2011-12-24T14:28:00.000-06:00

I currently have semen available on two bulls. Both are sons of The Balladeer of Holt Creek, out of very good cows from Branched Oak Farm, where I worked as herdsman.

SEMEN AVAILABLE NOW: Branched Oak JAZZ Ballad

SIRE: The BALLADEER of Holt Creek

DAM: JAZZY Rasmus

MGS: Yosemite Lemvig Brook RASMUS

Branched Oak JAZZ Ballad, pictured at 18 months.

JAZZY Rasmus, Dam of Branched Oak JAZZ Ballad

Branched Oak JAZZ Ballad, pictured at one year old.

Yosemite Lemvig Brook RASMUS, sire of JAZZY and Grandsire of JAZZ.

SEMEN AVAILABLE NOW:

Branched Oak Balladeer BRUNO, pictured November 2011

Sire: The Balladeer of Holt Creek

Dam: Branched Oak Brunhild

MGS: Williams Minstrel

CALL 417-293-3328

EMAIL ben@holtcreekjerseys.com

Branched Oak Balladeer BRUNO, pictured May 2011

Breeding Age Bull For Sale

2011-11-27T11:37:00.001-06:00

FOR SALE: One breeding-age bull. We have used this bull extensively at Holt Creek Jerseys and Clover Cove Ranch Dairy. We are pleased with the resulting offspring, but due to the large number of his daughters in the herd, it's time for him to go:

Branched Oak Balladeer BRUNO

Born May 2009

Pictured November 2011 at 30 months old

Sire: The BALLADEER of Holt Creek

Maternal AND Paternal Grandsire: Williams Minstrel

I raised BRUNO as a calf when I was herdsman at Branched Oak Farm, then acquired him through a trade. His mother, Branched Oak Brunhild, is the top producing cow at Branched Oak Farm.

If interested or for more information, please call:

Ben Gotschall 417-293-3328

or email ben@holtcreekjerseys.com

Breeding for A2 Beta Casein May Add Value to Your Herd

2011-11-24T11:41:00.002-06:00

I’d like to start out by stating that I do not support any claims regarding the purported health benefits of A2 milk. Do not take that to mean that I don’t think those claims may have some validity. I happen to believe that organic, grass-fed milk from A2 cows is one of the healthiest foods on the planet, but I also acknowledge that such beliefs have been disputed. Even so, there are many compelling sources of information regarding the nutritional qualities of A2 milk, most notably a book entitled The Devil in the Milk by Dr. Keith Woodford. If you haven’t read it and are interested in learning more, I suggest you take a look at it so you can make up your own mind about this controversial subject. Although we grass dairy producers are responsible for producing the healthiest products available for our customers, I will be approaching the subject of A2 Beta Casein from the perspective of the cattle breeding business. After all, cattle breeding, at the very least, is a business endeavor, and as grass dairy producers our cattle are our most important business partners. By focusing on their genetics, we can sometimes take advantage of beneficial opportunities.

Growing Demand

Over the past few years, and even more so in the past few months, many people have contacted me with questions about where to find A2A2 milk, and more importantly, where to find A2A2 cows. No, I’m not sneezing—“A2A2” is the designation of a particular genetic combination of a specific milk protein, Beta Casein (or BCN). Other common designations are A1A1, and A1A2, but there are others that are less common. According to Dr. Woodford’s book, the type of Beta Casein found in milk may have profound influences on the milk’s digestibility and could influence other metabolic functions. I’m not going to say that A1A2 milk is healthier than A1A1 milk, or that A2A2 milk is healthier than both of them. What I will say is that almost everyone who contacts me wants milk from A2 cows, or they want A2 cows to milk, or they want A2A2 bulls to breed to their cows to increase their chances of having A2 calves. In some parts of the U.S. and in other parts of the world, A2 milk sells at a premium, although I doubt the dominant conventional dairy industry would acknowledge that those premiums are due to any qualitative difference, as has been the case with “organic” and “grass-fed” qualifiers, to name a couple. This begs the question, though: what would happen if a leading milk brand or co-op such as Horizon or Organic Valley decided to market a line of A2 milk? What if Starbucks or Wal-Mart jumped on board? I don’t know if either of those situations will ever happen, but I do know that an increasing number of folks who direct market their products, whether raw or otherwise, want to be able to say, sometimes on a label, that their products “came from A2 cows.” In fact, some of these people report that their customers are demanding milk from A2 cows, in some cases avoiding milk from non-A2 cows and searching for producers that can provide them milk from A2 cows. That kind of consumer momentum can be ignored and dismissed, or it can be recognized and capitalized upon. It’s a business decision, not without costs, and, once again, it all comes down to genetics. The only way to get milk from an A2 cow is, well, to milk an A2 cow, and the only way to get more A2 cows is by using A2 bulls.

The Devil is in the Details

If, as Dr. Woodford’s book suggests, the devil really is in the milk, then the devil is in the DNA of the cattle, and that is something that we as breeders can somewhat control through genetic testing and selective breeding. I must admit that a couple of my above statements are oversimplified. It is possible to get A2 cows without using A2 bulls, genetic testing, or even selective breeding. In fact, it can happen totally by accident. Here is an explanation of what I mean: In every mating, a calf gets half of its BCN genes from each of its parents, and, depending on the genetic makeup of the parents, the calf can inherit either of the two “halves” of the BCN gene from either of its parents. The probability of a calf inheriting two halves of the A2 gene depends upon how many halves of the A2 gene each parent carries. The kicker here is that a cow has to be homozygous (possessing identical halves) for the A2 gene in order to produce A2 milk: an A1A2 cow does not produce “half-A2” milk. Furthermore, a homozygous A1 parent will never have an A2A2 calf, and, conversely, a homozygous A2 parent, if bred to another A2A2 parent will always have an A2A2 calf. There are a few other possibilities and probabilities that can occur (see Fig. 1).

Figure 1: Some possible mating results. % = Probability of genetic combination(s)

		Bull				Bull
		A1	A1			A1	A1
Cow	A1	A1A1	A1A1	Cow	A1	A1A1	A1A1
Cow	A1	A1A1	A1A1	Cow	A2	A1A2	A1A2

Offspring:		100% A1A1		Offspring:		50% A1A1
						50% A1A2


		Bull				Bull
		A1	A2			A1	A2
Cow	A1	A1A1	A1A2	Cow	A2	A1A2	A2A2
Cow	A2	A1A2	A2A2	Cow	A2	A1A2	A2A2

Offspring:		25% A1A1		Offspring:		50% A1A2
		50% A1A2				50% A2A2
		25% A2A2

In many sources that I have seen floating around on the Internet, the breed of cow is often given as an indicator that the animal will be A2. Many of these sources make such generalizations that “Holsteins are an A1 breed” and “Jerseys are an A2 breed.” This is a misconception. Although it may have been historically true that a higher percentage of Jersey cattle are A2, the fact that the higher population of Holstein cattle greatly outnumbers the population of Jersey cattle would suggest that there are probably more A2 Holsteins in the world than there are A2 Jerseys! Indeed, there are many A1 jerseys out there, as well as many A2 Holsteins. There are also A2 Ayrshire, Guernsey, even Red Angus and Hereford. All cattle contain some variant of the Beta Casein gene, and some of those variants will be A2. So, if you’re thinking of making a cattle purchase, don’t buy into the hype that the color of the cow determines her A2 status. Indeed, the only way to know with certainty that an animal carries the A2 gene is to send a sample of the animal’s genetic material to a laboratory that does such testing. Depending on the lab, this is usually a hair follicle sample, but it may also be a button of skin from the ear, blood, or even semen. You will need to do some research to find a lab that can do this testing. Costs can range from $20 to $45 per test, sometimes depending on the type, and results can be obtained in as soon as 10 days, up to a period of weeks. If you don’t want to know, or if you don’t think that knowing the A2 status of your animals is worth the cost, it is easy enough to increase the percentage of A2 cows in your herd simply by using A2 bulls and semen. Doing so repeatedly over multiple generations will result in an increasing percentage of the calf crop becoming A2 each year, provided that you raise your own replacements and don’t sell them, which brings me to the problem (if it can be perceived as such) with developing confirmed A2 cattle: keeping them around.

Marketing Opportunity

As I mentioned earlier, there is a growing demand for A2 cattle. In a few cases I have heard that, like milk from A2 cows, the A2 cows themselves have sold at a premium above non-A2 cattle. Although this hasn’t always been true in my experience, I have found it to sometimes be much easier to sell confirmed A2 cattle than it has been to sell non-A2 cattle or cattle of unknown BCN status, and the same goes for bulls and semen. In other words, your A2 cattle might not be worth more money on average, but they may command more of a share in the market. Their A2 status might mean the difference between a confirmed sale and an “I’ll have to think about it.” Time will tell whether this trend will cause a shortage of A2 cattle on the market or a surplus, but it doesn’t seem like an overwhelming percentage of cattle breeders are scrambling to increase the prevalence of A2 cattle in their herds. Those who do focus on the trait and genetically manage their cowherds for A2 Beta Casein may be adding value not only to the products produced, but also to the animals themselves. Those who add that value sooner rather than later may be positioning themselves to benefit if and when the time comes to do so.

Cows and Calves, Spring 2011

2011-11-15T19:30:00.002-06:00

Here's a short video I took of cows and calves back in May. Finally got around to posting it!

2011 Bull Calves At Weaning

2011-11-15T13:57:00.006-06:00

November is weaning time, when bull calves are initially evaluated for their use as future breeding stock. Those that stand out at weaning are put with the bull herd and evaluated again in the spring, based on how they fare through the winter. Pictured below are some of the standouts from this year. These bulls are currently for sale. Call or email for more information:

Ben Gotschall

417-293-3328

ben@holtcreekjerseys.com

11/72

11/85

11/99

11/221

11/69

Yearling Heifers For Sale Fall 2011

2011-10-01T18:33:00.002-05:00

I have two yearling heifers for sale. Hera is a purebred jersey, Flora is 3/4 jersey, 1/4 Normande.

See video below:

If interested, email me at ben@holtcreekjerseys.com or call 417-293-3328.

Summer 2011: New Semen Available

2011-06-06T17:37:00.012-05:00

SEMEN AVAILABLE NOW:

Branched Oak Balladeer BRUNO, pictured November 2011

Sire: The Balladeer of Holt Creek

Dam: Branched Oak Brunhild

MGS: Williams Minstrel

CALL 417-293-3328

EMAIL ben@holtcreekjerseys.com

Branched Oak Balladeer BRUNO, pictured May 2011

Milking Daughters of The Balladeer of Holt Creek

2010-11-25T11:10:00.003-06:00

Here are some photos of a couple of Balladeer daughters currently milking at Clover Cove Ranch Dairy. Both heifers were born 2008 and are 2 1/2 years old in these photos. They are fall-calving heifers milking through the winter on no grain, with their calves on them. Photos taken in the holding pen before milking Thanksgiving morning, temperatures in the Sandhills at 4 degrees above zero, wind chill well below zero.

Daughters of The Balladeer of Holt Creek

2010-11-24T22:07:00.006-06:00

Holt Creek Karaoke Ballad. "Kara" is a 2009 heifer calf sired by The Balladeer of Holt Creek.

Kara's mother is Holt Creek Kalona Landy, a daughter of Beledene Dukes Landy

2008 Daughter of The Balladeer. Rare genetic combination: 1/8 Holstein, 1/8 Scottish Highland, 3/4 Jersey.

This composite heifer is owned by Clover Cove Ranch Dairy, bred by Jerry Gotschall to be a true dual-purpose cow that fleshes easy AND milks well on grass.

Annabelle of Terra Benedicta. Fall 2008 calf sired by The Balladeer.

Annabelle's mother is Holt Creek Blacktop Britney, a daughter of Holt Creek Blacktop Blister (photos of both available on the website)

Recent Balladeer photos

2010-11-24T15:48:00.006-06:00

I recently visited Chisholm Family Farm near Alvo, Nebraska and was able to take some more recent photos of The Balladeer of Holt Creek at his new home with their herd of Jersey cows.

The Balladeer is now 4 years old and going strong.

Photos of Holt Creek Baxter Bitsy 221, Dam of The Balladeer of Holt Creek, taken at 8 yrs. old:

Bitsy is still milking and shows no sign of stopping soon!

Sons of The Balladeer of Holt Creek

2010-11-22T14:41:00.006-06:00

2010 son of the Balladeer, out of a Williams Minstrel daughter.

Branched Oak Balladeer Bruno, 2009 son of the Balladeer out of a Williams Minstrel daughter.

Branched Oak Jazz Ballad, 2009 son of the Balladeer out of a daughter of Yosemite Lemvig Brook Rasmus.

The Balladeer of Holt Creek

2010-02-28T10:06:00.012-06:00

As you can see on the Holt Creek Jerseys website, I now have semen available from my own pasture-raised, totally grassfed Jersey bull, The Balladeer of Holt Creek (pictured above at 3 years old). I thought I'd write a few notes here on the blog about how this bull is bred, why I saved him for use as a sire, and some other information that might be interesting regarding this bull.

Balladeer was born in April 2006, and was the third calf out of Holt Creek Baxter Bitsy 221 (pictured above at 3 years old). He was grafted onto a nurse cow, because his mother was such a nice milk cow. She had a nice soft, pink udder with long hand-milking teats. She let her milk down quickly, and milked out very fast and evenly, usually giving between 22-30 lbs. and peaking between 32-35 lbs. on once a day milking with no grain. She was not a large cow--hence the name "Bitsy." In fact, when she was a first-calf heifer, we had quite a time keeping her in our milking parlor, because she was so small she could pull her head out of the headlock, turn around in the stall, and walk under the rump chain. But, once she got used to it, she was very nice to milk. Her sire was one of the first bulls of my own that I ever saved and used, Holt Creek Select Baxter, who was sired by Altheas Select, out of the Greenridge FW Chief Althea cow that was an influential mother of American Jersey sires in the '90's. Bitsy has since had 3 more calves, has bred back every year on time, and continues to display desireable milking traits and a sound, functional udder. She is now a family milk cow at the Chisholm Family Farm, which supplies products for customers in the Lincoln area.

The Balladeer's sire is the New Zealand bull Williams Minstrel, who is now dead and no longer available. Minstrel was used heavily at Clover Cove Ranch Dairy, for many reasons, including: He was a bull that was homozygous (A2A2) for the A2 gene; he had an excellent "farmer traits" rating, which includes disposition and milking speed; his daughters had high average butterfat test; and he was one of the only bulls in the LIC catalog that scored in the positive for rump angle (sloping) and rump width (wide)--most of the other bulls in the catalog scored for high pins and narrow rumps. The reasons we used Minstrel on Bitsy was because, although she was a capacious cow with a nice spring to her ribs, she was also small in stature and a little on the "dairy," or angular, side. We wanted to improve her overall strength, widen the rump and keep its slope, and we wanted to make sure we kept her fast milk letdown and udder traits.

As said before, the Balladeer, or "the 221 bull" as we called him then, was grafted onto a Shorthorn nurse cow and raised with the beef herd at Clover Cove Ranch Dairy. Dad and I were immediately impressed by this young bull because of his early development of masculine traits. He just looked like a miniature mature bull, with a short, thick neck, wide shoulders, deep chest, and large, balanced scrotum. We decided that he was the pick of the bull crop that year, registered him through the AJCA, and eagerly awaited the time when we could begin using him on heifers.

We didn't have long to wait. As a yearling, Balladeer was already as big as some of the 2-year old bulls in the bull pen, although as a mature 3-year old, he was not as large as some of the other mature bulls--I wouldn't call him a "large" bull, but he's not "small," either. One noticeable trait that he exemplified was that his rump was wider than that of other bulls his age--He was very square in the rear. He displayed the confidence and masculinity of an older bull, so we turned him in with a pen of heifers. While he was in with the heifers, we could see that he had an excellent disposition. He was never high-headed, aggressive, or protective when people were around. He mostly ignored anyone who was out there, instead staying with the herd and following them around, grazing.

The next summer we used Balladeer as a clean-up bull on Branched Oak Farm, where he successfuly bred 88%, or 31 of 35 cows. Of the four that he didn't breed, one was cystic, one was an old cow in such poor condition that I don't think any bull could have bred her, and one was a heifer that he was exposed to for only two weeks, during which time she may or may not have cycled. One cow he didn't settle and I don't know why. If we take out the two that he didn't settle and probably couldn't, he actually bred 31 of 33 cows, which is a 94% conception rate, in 45 days. Doug Dittman at Branched Oak was happy enough with those results, and with the bull's disposition that he brought the bull back down the following season, last summer (2009) to breed his nurse cow herd.

This coming spring (2010), there will be mature 2-year old Balladeer daughters milking at both Branched Oak Farm and Clover Cove Ranch Dairy, and there will also be yearling heifers and baby calves sired by him at both places. Of his offspring that I have seen, I can say that they are consistent in displaying positive characteristics that I was hoping for. I have been most impressed with the calves that have come as a result of mating Balladeer to daughters of Beledene Dukes Landy. The females are small, strong and feminine, and the males are short-necked, wide-shouldered, deep-bodied and straight-backed. Hopefully others who make this type of mating will have similar positive results.

The Balladeer of Holt Creek now belongs to Andy and Laura Chisholm of Chisholm Family Farm near Alvo, Nebraska. His semen is available now, details are on my website, and I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing the results of his use in other herds.

Spring Calving and Nurse Cow Training

2009-04-13T12:59:00.005-05:00

Calving season is underway here at Branched Oak Farm, and that means training calves onto nurse cows and training the nurse cows to adopt them. This season we are pleased to be using our new calving shed/nursery barn, which is a simple 12'x36' steel structure that has three 12'x12' stalls, with the middle stall being divided in half by a walk-through stanchion with nursing gates. This barn has been very helpful in keeping calves clean, warm and dry while adopting them.

Unfortunately, we lost one heifer calf during a late spring snowstorm, but we have been able to adopt two other heifer calves onto the mother, who was slated to be a nurse cow this season. This was accomplished by skinning the dead calf, cutting the hide into two pieces, and tying those pieces to the new calves. This stimulates the mothering instinct and breaks down resistance in the nurse cow, as she smells her own calf on the new ones and more readily accepts them.

PHOTO ABOVE: Using the nursing stanchion, nursing gates in raised position, hide tied to calf to promote adoption by nurse cow.

Solar Cows and Solar Collecting Farms

2008-12-27T12:06:00.003-06:00

For anyone interested in the possible future of American agriculture, especially regarding the way grass-based dairy could fit into the larger picture of sustainable food production, check out this article by Michael Pollan:

http://www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=97

Pay special attention to the section entitled "Resolarizing the American Farm."

Nature Versus Nurture

2008-12-20T14:37:00.010-06:00

In other posts, I've discussed the hereditary nature of grazing ability and the importance of selecting for animals that possess desireable foraging characteristics for use as breeding stock. On my website I also promote raising bull calves on nurse cows as a way to increase docility and ease of handling. One question these things brings up is the age old chicken/egg argument of Nature vs. Nurture. Are these bulls truly born with desireable foraging ability or do they in effect "learn" to graze from their mothers? My answer to that would be that it is a little bit of both.

Here at Branched Oak Farm, where most of my Holt Creek cows live, we've switched to a more natural calf-rearing program. In short, our on-farm calf raising specialists are the cows. The cow herd is divided into two groups during the grazing season. The "A-team" consists of the top-string milk cows. They go first in the rotation and have access to the best grass (I know there are critics of dual- and multi-group grazing out there, Joel Salatin being perhaps the most prolific. But for me the benefits outweight the drawbacks--see Andre Voisin's Grass Productivity). The next group that follows is the B-team. These are all the other animals: dry cows, heifers, steers, calves, and--you guessed it--nurse cows.

The nurse cows are usually cows that, for whatever reason ( high somatic cell count, shed temperament, production, teat injury) don't belong in the milking string. Instead of these cows being an income-losing liability, they are perhaps our greatest income-generating asset. Some of you may be familiar with articles written in the Stockman Grass Farmer about nurse cows on grazing dairies. If not, you should check them out. Basically, by using nurse cows to raise our calves, we gain from multiple advantages:

Less time and labor involved in preparing milk (or milk replacer), feeding calves, cleaning hutches, etc. For the most part, it's pretty hands-off.
Less stress on calves. They much prefer being with their mothers or on a nurse cow to being cooped up in a hutch. They get fed when they're hungry--not when it's "time to feed calves."
Increased condition on calves. I've never hand-raised or even seen a hand-raised calf that looks as good or displays as much vigor and intelligence as a cow-raised calf.
Increased expression of grazing ability in calves.

That last reason is perhaps the most important when it comes to building a successful herd of grazing cattle. Although I've said in other posts that grazing ability is hereditary, it is also something that can be learned, or more appropriately, refined. Cattle, and especially calves, are extremely capable of adaptation and learning. The problem with education on most dairies is that they're hiring the wrong teachers! When a calf is raised cowside, she learns at a very young age many things important to a grazing dairy, such as herd behavior, forage selection, terrain/paddock navigation, response to handling, and the list goes on. She learns these things from Old Bossy who's been on the farm for years and has a Master's Degree in the Fine Art of Grazing. None of those things can be taught by the hired hand who fills the buckets in the hutches. In fact, most of his time is spent cleaning out those buckets and hutches--time that could be spent doing something much more productive (and not to mention enjoyable)!

I was first turned on to this idea by Gearld Fry, who recommended leaving the top calves from my top cows on their mothers for no less than 8 months. What I found out, though, was that I wanted to milk my best cows, and that after about 8 weeks that calf was drinking all the milk that cow could produce--sometimes up to 5 gallons a day! My dad back at Clover Cove Ranch had been using nurse cows for years--usually some sloppy-bagged, 3-quartered old Holstein that we didn't want to mess with milking. He would put as many as 3 or 4 calves on a cow, and she would raise them, and then he'd cull the cow, thinking she had paid for herself. Now, I take it another step further and keep those nurse cows around. After a couple of seasons they will pay for themselves many times over. Think about it: You could take a cull cow to a sale barn and get $400 tops for her, or she could raise her calf and at least one other. If you figure labor and expenses on a calf to be about $1.50/calf/day (which is probably low, considering the costs of milk replacer, calf starter, bedding, and wages) that's a value of $360, if you're leaving the calves on for 8 months and giving the cow 4 months off. That amount times two is over $700, per year, that cow is generating, and this is also not including the other benefits I listed earlier. Of course, she has to breed back in order to merit retention, but if you've got a solid AI program or a good bull, that shouldn't be a problem.

So, when it comes to raising calves on a grazing dairy, we need to revisit the idea of Nature Versus Nurture. On a grass-based system, it's often advantageous to try to mimick, learn from, or at the very least observe nature. What I've found out through observation is that there is no opposition between those two terms. Simply put, Nature is Nurture, and nurse cows are a natural way to raise healthier, stronger, smarter calves to be your future milk cows or herd bulls.

Why is Efficiency so important?

2008-12-14T01:01:00.007-06:00

Traditionally, production efficiency has been measured by pounds of milk (or fat, or protein) produced per cow (or per pound of cow). On a grazing dairy, however, the nature of this equation changes. When we milk cows on grass, a much more important and telling number to look at is the number of pounds of milk produced per acre. Assume the following are equal: the number of acres, the quality of the pasture, the number of pounds of milk produced per pound of cow. The only remaining variable to determine efficiency, then, is the number of cows per acre. If this number is increasing in your herd, then you must be doing something, and more likely a number of things, effectively.

Jerseys have long been renown as the most efficient of the dairy breeds for their ability to produce more units of milk, fat and protein per unit of bodyweight. Jerseys are also the smallest of the dairy breeds. I would call this more of a correlation than a coincidence.

Does size matter? Given our above efficiency equation factoring production per acre, wouldn't it follow that the more cows per acre we can manage, the more our efficiency would increase? If I can milk, on one acre, 25 small, 800-lb. cows that each produce an average of 2 gallons of milk per day, that's 50 gallons per acre. On that same acre, I would only be able to milk about 15 larger, 1300-lb. cows. They would have to average over 3 gallons per head per day to be as efficent as the smaller cows, which they might be able to do; however, the herd of 25 smaller cows will produce 10 more calves than the herd of 15 larger cows. This means a much quicker ability for the herd of smaller cows to either expand herd size or market surplus animals, either way offering an opportunity to generate income. It also means that there will be more bulls to select from for breeding and more heifers to choose from to replace troublesome cows.

Overall, both potential herd profitability and potential herd quality increase when efficiency increases.

Is foraging ability hereditary?

2008-12-13T23:12:00.007-06:00

If you've looked around on my website and some of the others linked thereupon, you'll see some variation of the term "foraging ability" pop up from time to time, usually as one of the desired traits in a bull.

So what is this ability, and how can our cows obtain it? More interestingly--is it hereditary?

In his book Grass Productivity, which Allan Savory calls "the best basic pasture management book available" (xvii) Andre Voisin discusses grazing ability, which he defines as "the time spent in grazing" (72). The more time a cow spends grazing, according to Voisin, the more grass she is capable of harvesting, and, usually, the more milk she will yield. Voisin cites a study done at the Ruakara Animal Research Station in New Zealand, which showed that "the time in which an animal devotes to grazing is a distinctly hereditary characteristic" (71). In a section entitled "Good grazers must be selected," Voisin states, "we must select bulls which procreate cows with the highest grazing qualities: that is, capable of harvesting very large quantities of grass while, of course, possessing the best possible milking qualities." This idea, Voisin emphasizes, "is the more important now that artificial insemination is multiplying the defects or qualities transmitted by a bull." According to Voisin, then, as pasture managers with cattle as our main pasture management tool, it is "essential" for us "to select, above all, cows capable of utilising efficiently the grass on which they graze." It is this efficiency which is most important to the grazing dairy, and, by extension, to the selection of grazing dairy bulls.

Are you selecting the right bull for the job?

2008-12-13T21:40:00.014-06:00

When we seedstock breeders say we're "selecting" for certain traits, what is it that we mean? How do we decide which bull calves will stay to breed cattle in the future and which ones won't? We are familiar with the term "natural selection," but what does this mean? Often times this phrase is associated with another, "survival of the fittest." What this means on a basic, primal level, is that all animals possess all the characteristics necessary for survival (and thriving) in a variety of environments, but that only some, due to a combination of environmental factors and expression of certain traits will survive and thrive. Expression of traits, as we all know, is hereditary (and can also be learned behavior, but I'll get to that later), but environment, in the context of a cattle breeding and raising program, can be manipulated.

I'm not saying we can control the weather, but we can, as livestock producers, influence (or not influence, as the case may be) which traits will be selected for in our herds, mostly due to the type of management we use. If we allow the expression of desireable as well as undesireable characteristics, our choices for selection, then, "naturally" become easier.

Why would it not be in your best interest, as a livestock producer, to choose sires based on the management style under which they were raised? Even more, why would you not choose sires whose upbringing most resembled the upbringing their future offspring are bound to experience? In my case, I milk cows on grass with no grain, from April to December. The cattle are wintered outdoors. When I first switched to no-grain ten years ago, we were still milking year-round, and I soon found out that not all cows were capable of surviving, let alone thriving, in this system. Some of the cows did not fare well at all. Some quit giving milk, some lost so much condition they wouldn't breed back, some aborted, some got sick and eventually became coyote food. Other cows, however, did fine without grain. They were usually the first ones to the barn in the morning, they dug through snow to get to the dried grass underneath, they bellied up to the hay feeder, and they held their condition through the winter months and quickly became slick and shiny upon the onset of the grazing season. At this time, I was in college, so Dad was home on the ranch doing most of the work. We made management decisions over the phone, and one of them was to start saving the bull calves out of the cows who did well on the new no-grain program.

Now, after breeding the daughters of some of those bulls back to their half-brothers, I am starting to see more consistency--not only in the way the animals look, but also in the way they act. I have also bred daughters back to their fathers as well as mothers to their sons, and I've found out that the old adage is true: like begets like. So, if you like what you've got and you want to get more, be gettin' it. Use the best bull on the best cow and more often than not, the results will be favorable, at least for you.

Which brings us back to where I was going with this whole ramble earlier. In my sire selection, I want to choose a bull that most fits my management program, so why wouldn't I choose a bull that came out of that program? This is something already recognized in Great Britain, according to the website at this link. I know of hardly any seedstock producers who are raising and managing Jersey cattle the way I raise and manage them. If you're reading this and you're one of them, let me know so we can compare notes. If you're curious about starting up a grazing dairy or you're already milking cows and are thinking about going grainless, you need to also seriously think about the type of cattle, and more importantly, the type of bull, you will use to help you become successful. I would argue that out of all the factors important to having a successful grainless grazing dairy, the cows are the most important. You can have the newest, most efficient parlor, the best paddock layout, fencing and watering system, the best pastures, but if you don't have the cows that will bring it all together it will be more difficult to be profitable. You will not have the right kind of cows if you don't use the right kind of bulls, so be sure to do your homework. They're out there . . .

Winter Setting In . . .

2008-11-18T01:58:00.000-06:00

It is now the week before Thanksgiving and winter is beginning to creep in. The cows are starting to drop in production and some are drying off. I'm taking the herd on their last grazing rotation through the paddocks, getting ready to start the hay feeding season. This winter I'm going to try rotational hay feeding. With the use of a hay spinner, I plan to spin hay off in the paddocks, and then rotate the herd to a new paddock after they've cleaned up the hay in the paddock they're on. Hopefully this will increase the organic matter in the soil and increase fertility, with the manure being dispersed throughout the paddocks. With the bale spinner, I can choose where and how much hay I feed, so I can focus on worn or bare spots that need more vegetative cover. One disadvantage to this is that it requires fuel to run the tractor.

Some of the spring calves are still on their mothers or on nurse cows. I plan to leave them on for 8 months, which for the oldest ones would mean a December weaning, but I might wait until January or even February, depending on the due dates of the cows. I have really been impressed with the results of leaving calves on their mothers or nurse cows. It requires much less labor, and the calves look great.

I'm interested in stockpiling forages, as well as other alternatives to hay and grain feeding in the winter, as well as any other information about low-maintenance, affordable cattle housing and protection, if anyone has any ideas. Right now I rely mostly on trees for windbreaks, but would like to hear how other people do things in other areas of the country. Here in Nebraska where the ground freezes, we can drive tractors and let cows out on paddocks without much risk of tearing up soggy ground.

That's about all I have for now. Hopefully I'll hear from some folks soon.

Ready for Blogging

2008-11-18T01:48:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the companion blog to the Holt Creek Jerseys Website. This will be a forum for discussion about all things pertaining to the grass dairy business, including grazing practices, breeding/genetics, animal care, and other talk relating to cows and bulls, milk and milk products.

If you're a past or potential customer or just an interested observer, feel free to ask questions and post comments. Hopefully through the sharing of ideas in an open atmosphere, we'll be able to help each other learn more about how to produce nutritious food in environmentally-responsible, humane and sustainable ways.