Bequeathing a Brown Swiss legacy

AUSTIN, Minn. — Brown Swiss cattle have been on Roger and Lori Read’s dairy farm since 1953.

“It’s a family legacy,” Lori said.

Now, the Reads will be sharing their family legacy, via a calf, 1692 Reads Telsa Meteor, with one lucky Midwestern dairy farm kid who will win her through Dairy Star’s Great Christmas Giveaway.

“Hopefully, that calf will become a buddy,” Lori said.

Roger and Lori milk 125 Brown Swiss cows near Austin. They have been genomic testing 100% of their females since 2013 and have seen an average, herd-wide Net Merit increase of 43 points per year.

“I grew up with (Brown Swiss),” Roger said. “My folks had them, and then we took over, and we have them.”

Meteor was born Sept. 19, and she will be going to her new home in December. Her sire is Hilltop Acres J Telsa ET, and her dam is Reads Jonmar Molly.

The Reads have had four sires go to stud and have had an honorable mention All-American, Reads Biver Havanna, through their partnership in Rival Genetics. They are also four-time Brown Swiss Protein Genetic Herd winners and have been a National Brown Swiss Genetic Honor herd for 20 years running. In 2019, they received the Minnesota Purebred Dairy Cattle Association’s Distinguished Breeder Award.

Meteor’s granddam had two production records, one for 23,000 pounds of milk and 25,000 pounds of milk for the other.

Her dam has a genetic evaluation that is +0.01% for butterfat and +0.02% for protein and is also positive for milk yield. Lori said that, though these numbers may not appear high, they reflect the August genetic base changes the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding made.

“(For) 2025, everything got shook up,” Lori said.

Meteor’s dam is also A2A2, kappa casein BB, has good calving ease and daughter calving ease, and has positive health and wellness traits.

“All of those things are very representative of what you would need,” Lori said. “(Meteor) should have good livability and a good, productive life.”

Though Meteor’s family has not been shown, Lori said she should be ready to hit the ring.

“The dam of this calf is a little higher in type than our average,” she said. “Telsa is too. … It should be a little bit showier (calf).”

Roger said he hopes whoever receives the calf will take it to their local fair or show it through 4-H.

“Hopefully, the kid has a good experience raising it,” he said.

The Reads regularly lease members of their Brown Swiss herd to 4-H students for showing.

Overall, Roger said the members of Meteor’s family are good cows.

“(They are) just trouble-free cows,” he said. “They do their job, and you just don’t know they’re here.”

The Reads said they appreciate the Brown Swiss breed for their docile and curious personalities, high components and overall ease of keeping.

For their genetics, Lori takes the lead on choosing the bulls, while Roger does the matings based on previous breedings, milk records and classification scores.

To choose bulls, the first thing the Reads look at is Net Merit, a trait they have been following for around 15 years.

“It’s (not) really rocket science or anything like that, but we’ve stuck with Net Merit for a long, long time,” Lori said.

Then, the Reads look at components and milk, followed by feet and legs and, later, udders.

Outside of daily farming chores, the Reads open their farm regularly to visitors. Each year, they host their local high school students, 4-H and FFA tours and adult farm tours through the Austin Area Chamber of Commerce. They also have served on the state and national Brown Swiss breed associations and other industry positions.

“We usually don’t say no,” Roger said.

Roger and Lori have been farming since 1989. Their son, Greg, and his wife, Heather, and their three children are active on the farm, however, both Greg and Heather have off-farm jobs. Roger said they are unsure of the future of the farm, but he enjoys his work and being his own boss.

“(I like that) every day is different a little bit,” he said. “Cows have been good to us.”