Excitement, passion for the next generation

NEW RICHMOND, Wis. — Each newborn calf at Crisdhome Holsteins represents the careful consideration Jack Kruschke put into creating that particular mating, and his hope for what the future may bring.

Kruschke, along with his wife, Jade, and their two sons, Brantley and Beckett, milks 65 registered Holstein cows on his family’s St. Croix County dairy farm near New Richmond.

“My passion is trying to breed the kind of cows I like,” Kruschke said. “I like cows with balanced frames, cows that are functional and don’t have obvious faults. Some people call what I like show ring type, but it’s really functional type, too.”

Kruschke said he prefers a somewhat smaller cow.

“I’m definitely leaning more towards a 59- to 60-inch young cow and mature cows around 62 inches,” Kruschke said. “They really don’t need to be much bigger than that.”

To create those cows, Kruschke’s focus starts on the cow family, then moves to choosing complementary sires.

“I really like those families with the long string of Excellent cows in the pedigree,” Kruschke said. “I pay attention to sire stacks, but I would rather take a cow family over the sire stack, even when choosing bulls.”

Kruschke said this pattern has held true throughout his career as a registered Holstein breeder.

“The four bulls I’ve used the heaviest in my life — Durham, Doorman, Lambda and Sidekick — are all sired by bulls that aren’t typically show bulls,” Kruschke said. “On the bottom side, they all have deep pedigrees.”

Kruschke prefers to use proven bulls rather than relying on genomic young sires.

“I like seeing daughters, at least heifers, of at least 80% of the bulls I used,” Kruschke said. “I want to see daughters I like, with at least one specific trait I think will work on my cows. If I pick a young bull, I go with my gut — does it make sense, am I excited to use him? Would I want him as a female in my herd?”

There are a few lessons Kruschke said he has learned the hard way.

“Never use a bull with an obvious fault,” Kruschke said. “I had always promised myself to never use a bull that sired bad legs, but I broke down and used (one). … Once you use a bad-traited bull like that, it can consistently transmit that bad trait.”

Kruschke said he used the bull because he was an outcross, and he had saw good animals out of him at World Dairy Expo. He said he thought he maybe could get away with it because he had focused on good legs for so long. However, out of around 15 animals sired by that bull, only two scored Excellent.

“Both were out of 94-point cows, and neither was nearly as good as her dam,” he said.

Kruschke said he tries to avoid the extremes when selecting bulls, instead concentrating on selecting complementary traits and keeping his selection simple. Kruschke aims to limit the number of service sires he uses to 8-10 at any given time.

“I think the udders in the Holstein breed have gotten so consistently good I don’t necessarily place emphasis there because the differences in the top bulls are minimal,” Kruschke said. “I try to avoid traits like extreme rump angle, and I look at flex to the hock. Those are areas where there is a large degree of difference among bulls. It’s an old school way of thinking about it, but if you pick the right bulls, it should work.”

Kruschke is a proponent of beef-on-dairy breeding.

“It’s done exactly what we needed it to do,” Kruschke said. “It’s shrunk down heifer inventories to make our heifers worth more. … We can make great genetic progress in the Holstein breed in 10 years by consistently breeding the worst third of our cows to beef.”

Kruschke utilizes beef-on-dairy breeding differently than many.

“I use sexed semen on my older cows that I love, the ones I want heifer calves out of,” Kruschke said. “I either put an embryo or use Angus semen on the bottom third of my heifers.”

Pursuing his passion of breeding a herd of high-quality registered Holsteins has not been easy for Kruschke. Questions about how to continue his family’s tradition of dairying into the future required Kruschke to move his cows off the farm in November 2023, housing them at four nearby farms, while the remainder of the cows were sold.

The experience caused Kruschke to re-evaluate and refocus his efforts before his cows slowly began returning to the home farm in June 2024. He said reducing the herd was a difficult task, with decisions based largely on the completeness of the pedigree. He retained older high-scoring cows he could continue to breed from.

“It is good to feel uncomfortable when it comes time to sell one,” Kruschke said. “If you think she’s at the bottom of your herd, and it’s still uncomfortable to sell her, that means the cow that is one above her, that’s a really good cow you’re keeping.”

Kruschke said at any time he could face further reduction or a dispersal, causing him to think more about the marketability of his herd.

“I think in terms of ‘If I have to sell the cows,’ which is probably a good way to always think,” Kruschke said. “What bulls can I use to make them the most valuable? I think about who would be Lot 1 if I had a dispersal. She should be the cow that you need to focus on, to flush to increase her influence.”

The past two years have impacted Kruschke.

“The whole process has taught me an immense amount of patience,” Kruschke said. “I was so excited to get the cows home, but with the transitions, they all really just needed to calve back in. I’ve felt so many times like it’s been one step forward and two back. I can see where I want to be, and I know I’ll get there, but I want it to happen faster. I’m excited to calve my next group of heifers in, and I’m excited at what the future might hold.”