From our side of the fence

Walker Rynes, Hawk High Dairy LLC

Norwalk, Wisconsin

Monroe County

900 cows

What does your hoof trimming schedule look like? We trim every Wednesday. Cows are trimmed every four months. It seems like a lot, but for how overcrowded we are, we feel like it has helped with our hoof problems.

What are the most common hoof problems you see on your dairy? White line abscesses, since we are overcrowded, along with some slipping. Since we’ve been trimming them closer to every four months, it has helped a bit.

How do you deal with lame cows between hoof care visits? The hoof trimmer comes on a routine basis, so we don’t really deal with lame cows very often. However, if we have a lame cow and it’s an emergency, the first thing we do is call our hoof trimmer. He will come out and work on the hoof that has foot rot. Then, the cow gets treated with Excenel RTU EZ for three days after to help with any complications that arise from foot rot.

What are your preventative measures for hoof care? We use a footbath three times a week. The mix we use in the footbath is copper sulfate and Booster, and we’ve seen great results while using this combination. The footbath is 2 feet by 4 feet, and it is located at the end of the holding area, where cows return to their pen after milking.

In what other ways do you manage hoof health on your farm? We feed chelated trace minerals, which come in our vitamin mineral pack from our nutritionist. We try do a great job of making it very comfortable for the cows in the barn. We make sure stalls are in proper condition, limit standing time in the pen to the best of our ability and regroove the lanes when needed to reduce slipping.

Describe a time when lameness levels on your farm were higher than you wanted and what you did to reduce lameness in your herd. It was right before we regrooved the lanes a couple of years ago. We were dealing with lots of slipping and foot injuries, but once we regrooved the lanes, it was like a light switch flipped on, and we were having fewer hoof problems.

Tell us about your farm. My grandparents, Bob and Connie Radke, started the dairy in 1989, and their hard work laid the foundation for everything we do today. We now milk 900 cows three times a day, sending our milk to Grassland Dairy Products Inc. We farm about 1,500 acres, which includes 550 acres of alfalfa, 650 acres of corn silage and 300 acres of dry corn that comes back to us as fine ground feed. My sister, Zoey Rynes, plays a huge role here. As our herdsman, she manages the cows and calves with a level of care that shows just how much this farm means to her. My mom and her husband are always there for us, too, stepping in wherever they’re needed and keeping everything moving during the busiest times. As for me, I handle day to day operations, behind the scenes work, problem-solving and whatever needs to get done to keep the farm running smoothly.

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Spruce Grove Dairy LLC (pictured are Kenny (from left), Jeremy and Arnie (holding Jasmin) Martin)

Brooten Minnesota

Stearns County

180 cows

What does your hoof trimming schedule look like? We trim our cows every 60 days. Cows get trimmed once during the dry period and then 150-200 days in lactation.

What are the most common hoof problems you see on your dairy? The problems we see most frequently would be abscesses or warts.

How do you deal with lame cows between hoof care visits? If a hoof problem arises between trimmings, the cow gets moved to our sick pen closer to the parlor. Depending on the case and severity, we will treat with an antibiotic.

What are your preventative measures for hoof care? We use two 3- by 8-foot baths once every three weeks for 4-5 days. For each foot bath, we use a 50-pound bag of copper sulfate and one gallon of muriatic acid in 40 gallons of water. The foot baths are in the return alleys after the cows leave the parlor from milking.

In what other ways do you manage hoof health on your farm? We regrooved all the alleys in the freestall barn to improve traction.

Describe a time when lameness levels on your farm were higher than you wanted, and what did you do to reduce lameness in your herd. There has not been a time specifically that we had a lot of trouble with our hoof care. Our protocol has been basically the same for the past 20 years and seems to keep working for us. One change that we made about five years ago was when we switched from sand bedding to chopped straw bedding in our freestall beds. At that point we added the second trimming during the lactation because we had trouble with long hooves.

Tell us about your farm. Spruce Grove Dairy is a partnership between brothers Kenrick and Arnold Martin and their families. They both grew up helping on the family farm. In January 2024, Ernest was ready for semi-retirement, and so the farm was transitioned to the next generation. Besides dairy, we raise around 400 steers and grow all our own crops for the livestock. We are blessed to be able to farm.

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William Malecha, Malecha Enterprises

Villard, Minnesota

Pope County

1,200 milking cows

What does your hoof trimming schedule look like? We trim one day a week. Heifers are trimmed at 220 days carried calf. Lactating cows get trimmed twice per lactation — first at 100 days in milk and again at 190 days carried calf.

What are the most common hoof problems you see on your dairy? We see some warts and abscesses.

How do you deal with lame cows between hoof care visits? We check for lame cows the day prior to hoof trimming.

What are your preventative measures for hoof care? We use the foot bath four days a week in the return lane. It is 2 feet wide by 16 feet long. Day one, we use copper sulfate; day two is formaldehyde; day three is copper sulfate; and day four is formaldehyde.

In what other ways do you manage hoof health on your farm? We scrape pens, have rubber mats in the parlor, deep bed with recycled bedding, and use proper nutrients, with no added foo-foo dust.

Describe a time when lameness levels on your farm were higher than you wanted, and what did you do to reduce lameness in your herd. Warts used to be a problem that we cleaned up in the growing heifers. We cleaned lots better, did some foot baths for heifers, and used proper nutrition, leading to healthier animals. All played a part.

Tell us about your farm. Malecha Enterprises is a third-generation family dairy. Roman and Pat Malecha started the family business, and Todd and Louise grew it from just 13 milk cows in 1989. It has evolved into a dynamic agricultural operation built on innovation, integrity and hard work. Today, the third generation, William and Jonathan Malecha, alongside William’s wife, Emily, brother, Robert, brother-in-law, Brandon, and sister, Katelynn, carry the legacy forward with a focus on technology, efficiency and sustainability. The farm milks 1,200 cows three times a day, with a total herd of about 2,800 head, including beef cross feeders. We farm 2,400 acres to feed our herd and operate several complementary businesses that grew out of our own on-farm needs, including custom manure pumping, forage chopping, square baling, straw sales and aggregate production from our gravel pit.

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Roerview Dairy LLC

(pictured are Stephen, Roger and Craig Roerick)

Swanville, Minnesota

Morrison County

230 cows

What does your hoof trimming schedule look like? Our hoof trimmer is at the farm every six weeks. We are trimming all the dry cows, heifers that are confirmed pregnant and lame cows and doing some maintenance trims in the lactating herd. All heifers are trimmed twice before calving. We average around 55 head between those groups with every appointment.

What are the most common hoof problems you see on your dairy? The most common issues that we see for lame cows are bruising and abscesses from those bruises. We will also get some breakouts from time to time with digital dermatitis, more commonly known as hairy heel warts.

How do you deal with lame cows between hoof care visits? Depending on the severity of the case, the cow will be put into the intensive care unit if deemed bad enough. We have had the hoof trimmer back between visits for the really lame cows, but we have had the vet look at a cow or two over the years between trimming visits.

What are your preventative measures for hoof care? We try to run a foot bath on a regular schedule, but that schedule is very dependent on how things are looking in the barn. If I had to put a number on it, 1-2 times a month. We feel most of that has to do with how clean we can keep the scrape alleys with the robotic cleaning systems. The footbaths are located at the exit of each robot and are roughly 6 feet long. We are using a liquid copper sulfate and formaldehyde product that mixes in easily and works well for us in controlling the warts and sore feet.       

In what other ways do you manage hoof health on your farm? The only other item that I am aware of is that we are feeding an additional ingredient in our mineral pack to help with hoof health. Besides that, we try to keep the alleys clean and lots as dry as Mother Nature will allow to minimize the amount of moisture around the cows' feet.

Describe a time when lameness levels on your farm were higher than you wanted, and what did you do to reduce lameness in your herd? Some of our higher levels of lameness tend to follow the extreme heat when cows are standing more and for longer periods of time to try and stay cool. We try to combat this by running higher speeds on the fans in the cross-ventilation barn and just trying to cool cows so they will lie down and rest. That doesn't always work, so we just have to manage through it.

Tell us about your farm. Roerview Dairy LLC is owned and operated by Roger and Diane, Craig and Sarah, Stephen and Amanda Roerick and their families. We milk 230 cows with robots and raise all the supporting youngstock, along with running a broiler chicken barn for Pilgrim’s Pride. The cropping enterprise is primarily used to support the dairy.

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Mitchell Reitsma, Reit-Way Dairy

Sauk Centre, Minnesota

Stearns County

350 cows

What does your hoof trimming schedule look like? We trim everything — milk cows, dry cows and springing heifers to calve in the near future — every six months.

What are the most common hoof problems that you see on your dairy? The few problems that we see on older cows when hoof trimming are abscesses and ulcers. We have the occasional digital dermatitis. Throughout the year, I'll have to treat an occasional foot rot as well.

How do you deal with lame cows between hoof care visits? If a cow has a bad ulcer or an abscess, we put her on the maternity bed pack until she is walking better. For foot rot, I lock them in the footbath for a couple of minutes every day to let their hooves soak and only use antibiotics when needed.

What are your preventative measures for hoof care? We run our cows through a footbath once every other day. We fill the footbath water level so that it reaches the cow's pastern and add 40 hand pumps, about six gallons, of ULTRA 2n1 four times. We have two footbaths, one for each side of the barn. The footbaths are cement walled, 12 feet long by 3 feet wide. We change them after running the cows through them twice. When we hoof trim, we set it up so the cows exit the hoof trimming chute and walk through the footbath before returning to their pen. Another preventive measure we do is trimming springing heifers before they calve. Our hoof trimmers say it is the best money you can spend, and I agree. We usually have around 20 wraps total on approximately 400 head every time we trim. I believe that to achieve and maintain our goal of less than 5% wraps, it starts with a fresh heifer coming into the milking herd on trimmed feet. Also, we have two of the best hoof trimmers, Bill Boyer and Renn Hartshorn, working with our cattle.

In what other ways do you manage hoof health on your farm? I feel genetics play a factor in hoof health. I breed for good feet and legs, and any chronically lame cows will get bred to beef or culled to eliminate those genetics from the herd. We have alley scrapers that run every other hour, so that allows our alleys to be constantly cleaned. During the summer we turn our cross-ventilation fans on high to help with heat stress. When cows go under heat stress, hoof problems usually follow.  Also, our nutritionist will monitor and document any foot health concerns on his monthly visit.

Describe a time when lameness levels on your farm were higher than you wanted, and what did you do to reduce lameness in your herd. When we first moved into our freestall barn, we were not running cows through the footbath. With the summer heat, we started seeing an increase in foot rot cases. Bill Boyer told us to start running the cows through the footbath. Once we started doing this, the foot rot cases greatly declined, so we never stopped.

Tell us about your farm. I farm with my parents, Paul and Carolyn, and my brother, Joe. We milk 295 cows with four DeLaval VMS V300s. We raise all our dairy replacements on site. We grow corn, soybeans and alfalfa to feed the cattle.

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Mark (left) and Steve King

King’s Dairy Farm LLC

Muskego, Wisconsin

Waukesha County

125 cows

What does your hoof trimming schedule look like? We trim all the cows twice a year —spring and fall — or about every six months.

What are the most common hoof problems you see on your dairy? We normally see heel warts/hairy warts, but not like we did in the old barn. The new milking barn and hoof cleaning mat have greatly improved our cows’ hoof health.

How do you deal with lame cows between hoof care visits? We have our own hoof trimming stall where we can do trimming or any other maintenance that is needed.

What are your preventative measures for hoof care? We use the MS Schippers AutoHoofClean mattress system. It is an automated system that runs 24/7. The mattress is located at the exit gate of our holding pen. It’s a very simple system that is easy to set up, run, and maintain. We just make sure the chemical barrels are full. We use MS Schippers hoof clean solution and formaldehyde.  The mattress measures 2 feet by 6 feet.  The cows don’t seem to mind it versus a traditional footbath.

In what other ways do you manage hoof health on your farm? We do have some additives in our feed to help the cows’ feet. The cows definitely have plenty of space in our new barn and are not overcrowded like the old barn. The new barn is much cleaner as well.

Describe a time when lameness levels on your farm were higher than you wanted, and what did you do to reduce lameness in your herd. Lameness was the highest for us just before we built our new robotic milking facility and was definitely a main reason for doing so.  We were overcrowded in the old barn, and it was more difficult to keep it clean for the cows. Therefore, we built a new barn with cow comfort and health as the main goals. The cows have done much better and continue to improve.

Tell us about your farm. Our farm is a family farm that has been passed down for more than 100 years. It is currently owned and run by Mark and Gina King.  Our oldest son, Steve, works on the farm alongside his dad. We have about 225 head of Holsteins. We put up a new milking barn with two DeLaval robot milkers in 2023. Our old barn houses our calves, heifers and dry cows.  We own 250 acres and rent another 400. We grow corn, soybeans and hay. We do have help from other family members during planting, haying and harvesting; otherwise, our part-time help consists of three high school students who lend a hand after school.

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Connie Loehr, Summit Farms LLC

Plymouth, Wisconsin

Sheboygan County

700 cows

What does your hoof trimming schedule look like? We trim every other week. Cows get trimmed at about 100-150 days in milk and again when they are dry. Heifers get trimmed when they are springing and at 100-150 days in milk.

What are the most common hoof problems you see on your dairy? Abscesses along the hoof wall and toe abscesses.

How do you deal with lame cows between hoof care visits? They receive pain relief and antibiotics if necessary. We usually wait for the trimmer since he is here every other week, but if a cow needs to be worked on, we have a chute we can put her in to look at her feet.

What are your preventative measures for hoof care? We use a footbath for one milking per day, five times a week. We switch between formaldehyde and copper sulfate. The footbath gets changed mid-milking and is located in the return alley right outside of the parlor. The dimensions of the bath are approximately 3 feet by 6 feet.

In what other ways do you manage hoof health on your farm? We use rubber mats in the parlor and return alley and keep the alleys in the barns grooved well. We limit overcrowding as much as possible.

Describe a time when lameness levels on your farm were higher than you wanted, and what did you do to reduce lameness in your herd. We seldom have any big issues with cows, but we do have problems with our heifers. They are out on 70 acres of pasture, but when the weather has a lot of freezing and thawing or a lot of rain, we will see foot rot in heifers. Usually twice a year, we get about 8-12 heifers with foot rot.  We don’t have any good ways to prevent this. We treat it with Bio-Mycin 200 and Banamine transdermal. We try to catch them early so it’s easily treatable.

Tell us about your farm. I have worked at Summit Farms for more than 34 years. The owners, Robert and Peggy Webb, have been great to work for. We have a BouMatic herringbone parlor that gets used 24 hours a day, and we ship our milk to Sargento. The cows are housed in freestall barns with sand bedding. We calve between 900 and 1,000 animals every year to sell replacements to other dairies. We raise all our own heifers, and crop about 1,300 acres, which provides us with plenty of forage most years.

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Kenneth and Anita Martin

Colby, Wisconsin

Marathon County

72 cows

What does your hoof trimming schedule look like? All milking and dry cows get trimmed every six months.

What are the most common hoof problems you see on your dairy? We find some foot rot cases when we trim. These get wrapped according to our trimmer’s protocol. There has been an occasional case of white line disease. I think we have mostly been able to eliminate that now, with improved dry cow facilities. Our old dry cow barn was a loafing shed with a bedded pack and a concrete yard for feeding. The concrete was getting cracked and broken, which likely caused some tweaked hooves.

How do you deal with lame cows between hoof care visits? Our vet service has a chute they take out for emergency hoof care on farms, but with our 6-month trimming schedule and our trimmer, Brubacker’s Hoof Care, doing an excellent job, that is something we rarely need to deal with.

What are your preventative measures for hoof care? We feed a high-forage ration to promote cow health and, in turn, healthy hooves. I give a lot of credit to our nutritionist for putting dry cows on a Goldilocks-style negative dietary cation-anion difference dry cow ration in recent years. That helps with fresh cow health and prevents large body condition swings during the dry and transition periods. It seems that trouble-free transitions mean fewer hoof problems. I also watch Zoetis and Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding lameness traits and try to avoid genetics that score poorly for those traits.

In what other ways do you manage hoof health on your farm? All our scrape alleys are grooved and cross-grooved on an angle for hooves to have maximum grip. The center walkway in the tie-stall barn has rubber flooring to prevent slippage and injuries. Using sand bedding in the dry cow barn gives good traction in the scrape alleys.

Describe a time when lameness levels on your farm were higher than you wanted, and what did you do to reduce lameness in your herd. When I started milking cows we had too many digital dermatitis cases. Our vet had something to spray on them and we eventually eliminated the problem.

Tell us about your farm. My brother, Jonathan, and I have farms right across the road from each other and we work together on a daily basis. We have made a limited liability company cropping partnership that rents the land from both owners. The LLC owns the equipment, does all the cropping inputs and sells feed to each of us, charging monthly use records by the ton. Our calves are housed in a climate-controlled calf barn with automated fans and curtains. Our heifers have activity tags for breeding management and are housed in a freestall barn. The dry cows are housed at Jonathan’s farm in a sand-bedded freestall barn, with a bedded-pack maternity pen that is monitored by live cameras. Our milking cows are housed in a tiestall barn and average 93 pounds of milk with a 4.55% butterfat test, a 3.31% protein test and a 40,000 somatic cell count. We sell 40-50 dairy cows per year for an additional revenue stream.