Finding excellence through goals, positive culture

ANTIGO, Wis. — Paying attention to the details has created a culture of excellence at Evergreen Dairy Resort, and that culture is credited as a foundation of the farm’s success.

Evergreen Dairy Resort near Antigo is home to 1,600 Jersey and Jersey-cross cows. The business is a six-person partnership and managed by the team of John Freund, Connie deRoos, and one of the owners, Mark Moss.

“Evergreen has been continually building and working towards getting better every year,” John Freund said. “In the last three years, we have built a new parlor and added a new freestall facility with modern ventilation. Every time we add a new tool or fine-tune our protocols and training, it helps us get a little better.”

Those efforts were rewarded when the farm was one of four recognized by CentralStar Cooperative Inc. with a ReproStar Award, acknowledging excellence in reproduction while exemplifying key practices that drive those reproductive successes.

A multi-tiered reproductive strategy is in place at Evergreen Dairy Resort, allowing the farm to achieve its goals.

The top tier of purebred Jerseys are bred to sexed Jersey semen, while the second tier is bred to sexed Holstein or sexed Holstein-Jersey cross bulls. The bottom of the herd is bred to beef sires. In addition to those parameters, a small percentage of animals are used as donors for in vitro fertilization to capitalize on the best genetics within the herd.

All beef animals and dairy bull calves born on the farm are raised for beef, bringing diversification to the farm.

“We base the numbers on our expected usage and needs,” Freund said. “Our next endeavor will be to build a new hospital and transition barn and to modernize the whole calving facility. That will allow us to grow to 2,000 head of milking females. We have recently stepped-up breeding for females, to support that expansion internally.”

The farm’s reproductive statistics include a 40% pregnancy rate with 63% of animals settling on first service. A double ovsynch protocol is employed for the first breeding. 

“Those numbers are exciting for us, we believe our future looks bright,” Freund said. “Based on our genetic selections, we believe we can achieve having 70% of our cows conceiving on the first breeding within the next three years.”

The double ovsynch protocol is combined with the use of a DeLaval herd monitoring system as the primary tools for estrus detection. The farm has an 80%-82% service rate.

Cows detected open following the first service undergo a GGPG double ovsynch program for re-synchronization. According to Freund, 85% of the herd is confirmed pregnant by 126 days in milk. All A.I., ultrasounds and embryo implantation is done in-house.

“Some might think we’re breeding our cows too early, but that uterus is too valuable to us to wait,” Freund said. “It’s not just about the milk production. Even if that cow could’ve milked a little more, you’re losing that opportunity with that uterus. At 200 days in milk, we quit breeding, no exceptions.”

The reproductive statistics for which the farm staff were lauded are the result of the team’s commitment to achieving the goals set for the herd, Freund said.

“It all starts with the people, and we work hard to create that culture,” Freund said. “Mark, Connie and I work hard to take care of our team, to build that sense of unity. From there we take care of the cattle. Our team takes pride in what they are doing, and it shows. As leadership, we not only set the expectations, but we provide feedback to everyone.”

Freund said he prefers to use weekly huddles over traditional staff meetings to communicate expectations and feedback. The huddles allow team members to voice to leadership what they are seeing, he said, with engagement going both ways.

“We make it public to our entire team how we’re doing,” Freund said. “We have a big dry erase board and write down the most important things happening throughout the month. At the end of the month, we get our ‘grade.’ … We’re Evergreen Dairy — if we have a month where we meet all our goals, all our key performance indicators, we call that a Green Star Month, and we’re all proud when we meet those goals.”

The farm has been in operation for 17 years, and has employees who have worked at the farm since its inception.

“We have great retention; in the last year we have only had one team member leave,” Freund said. “It’s a happy, positive culture. We have fun and enjoy each other’s company.”

The fruits of their labors are found in the bulk tank. The herd is averaging 5.7% butterfat and 3.9% protein on 70 pounds of fluid milk a day.

“We’re getting right around 95 pounds of energy-corrected milk on 45 pounds of dry matter,” Freund said. “When we look at our genetic audits, on paper, it says we didn’t select very well for milk, but what we really selected well for was health and longevity. The reality is we’re an elite milk production herd for Jerseys, getting that kind of milk with that kind of dry matter. Why? Because our cows live a long time and stay productive. We’re getting way more milk than we selected for because our cows are living a long time and that is a real opportunity.”

Lengthening productive life in the herd decreases the number of replacement heifers needed to maintain the herd, allowing more animals to be created for the farm’s beef program, generating revenue Freund said.

“Increasing the productive life of our cows will net us the great gains going forward,” Freund said. “That is how we will keep moving forward, improving the herd by keeping those older cows profitable longer.”