Not your ordinary cows

In the Feb. 24 Dairy Star, Minnesota DHIA highlighted top lifetime production cows. Within the list were these five cows that are all older than 12 years old and within their respective dairy herds.

No. 912
14 years old
10th lactation
Owners: Loren & Keith Schumacher of Schumacher Dairy Inc.  
Comfrey, Minnesota

Where is this cow housed, and does she receive any special attention? She is housed in the freestall barn with the others and does not receive any special attention.

Tell us about the lifetime production of the cow. She is at 254,180 pounds of milk with a fat of 10,534 and protein of 8,271.

What has been the key to the longevity of her in your herd? Just keeping her healthy and treating her if she ever got sick.

Tell us more about this cow family. She has healthy offspring; we are not sure on the production of the offspring in the herd.

What are your future plans with this cow? To keep her in the herd as long as she remains healthy and comfortable.

Tell us about the oldest cow you have ever had. This is the oldest cow we have had on the farm.

Tell us about your farm. We milk 140 cows in a double-8 parlor with three part-time employees. Our milk is shipped to First District Association. We have 550 tillable acres planted between corn, soybeans and alfalfa.

Carrot
13 years old
Ninth lactation
Owners: Jeremy Holst of Holst Family Farms  
Lake City, Minnesota

Where is this cow housed, and does she receive any special attention? She is housed in a sand-bedded free stall and on pasture in the summer.

Tell us about the lifetime production of the cow. She has produced 228,940 pounds of milk.

What has been the key to the longevity of her in your herd? She is a solid cow, gentle and friendly. She is also a Red & White, which is fun.

Tell us more about this cow family. She currently has two milking daughters, Kaycee and Orange Crush, and another heifer calf, Christmas, who is 14 months. Overall, she has three daughters, five granddaughters and two great-granddaughters.

What are your future plans with this cow? She will retire in the pasture when not milking.

Tell us about the oldest cow you have ever had. No. 65 Carmel was one of our oldest cows. We have had a handful of 15-year-old cows over the years.

Tell us about your farm. I farm with my mom, Maren. My wife, Jessi, and I have two kids, Adalida and Lane. We milk 120 cows and grow corn and alfalfa. We pasture our cows outside of winter.

No. 10128
Grandma
13 years old
11th lactation
Owners: Matt and 
Tony Berktold 
Lake City, Minnesota

Where is this cow housed, and does she receive any special attention? She stays in the free stalls with the rest of the herd.

Tell us about the lifetime production of the cow. She is at about 358,000 pounds of milk in her lifetime with 11,918 fat and 9,866 protein.

What has been the key to the longevity of her in your herd? She continues to breed back and remains fairly healthy.

Tell us more about this cow family. She has two daughters, a granddaughter and two great-granddaughters that are in the herd.

What are your future plans with this cow? We will keep her as long as she’s healthy and productive.

Tell us about the oldest cow you have ever had. This is the oldest cow we have had on the farm.

Tell us about your farm. My father and I milk 150 cows. We grow alfalfa, corn and soybeans.

No. 1025
12 years old
Ninth lactation
Owners: Josh Wright of Wright Farms 
Lake City, Minnesota

Where is this cow housed, and does she receive any special attention? She is housed in one of our pole sheds with our other aged cows. Most cows in that group are 7 to 9 years old. She was shown at the county fair for five years.

Tell us about the lifetime production of the cow. She has produced 117,000 pounds of milk in her life.

What has been the key to the longevity of her in your herd? She has never had any major health problems. We always keep feed in front of our animals and get the hoof trimmer out on a regular basis. We feed all of our cows calcium pills when they calve.

Tell us more about this cow family. She did have three daughters in milk on the farm, but now, we are down to one daughter and two granddaughters in the barn. No. 1025 was shown for five years, and her two granddaughters were shown at the county fair as well. The two granddaughters had bull calves, so showing that family has stopped for now.

What are your future plans with this cow? To keep her as long as possible. She just calved in January, so it is too soon to breed her back. We plan to when the time comes. She is a solid cow and is in good health.

Tell us about the oldest cow you have ever had. The oldest cow we ever had was No. 612, and she was 16 years old. Her last calf would have been her 12th lactation, but she didn’t keep the calf that time.

Tell us about your farm. We are milking 200 cows in a double-4 step-up parlor. My cousin, Devon, and I milk the cows. My dad, Jim, mixes all the feed and feeds the cows and heifers. My grandparents, Lyle and Rose, feed the calves. I am the fourth generation on our farm. Together, we farm 900 acres to grow our own feed.

No. 128
12 years, 5 months
10th lactation
Owners: Marvin and Mary Kuhn of Kuhn Dairy Farms  
Mabel, Minnesota

Where is this cow housed, and does she receive any special attention? She doesn’t receive any special attention. She is in with the rest of the cows in the pregnant pen in the sand-bedded freestall barn. We try to care for all of them in the best manner we can. We have our own sand pit on our other farm, 1.5 mile away. We have dump trucks that we haul our own sand with, so we use an abundance of sand. That really helps our cows. She will need a little TLC when she calves in, a little extra calcium bolus to get her going and keep her going. That is going to be her tough time. Her last calving was a tougher comeback.

Tell us about the lifetime production of the cow. She has 309,120 pounds of milk, 10,555 pounds of fat and 9,326 pounds of protein. At her last test, she was giving 82 pounds of milk.

What has been the key to the longevity of her in your herd? She has good feet and legs. We are very faithful on hoof trimming on all of our cows and making sure their health is as good as it can be. She walks like a Rockstar, and she’s not a runner. She’s a little slow, but she’s good on her feet. Her udder is very strong and tucked up for her age. Maybe part of the reason she has lasted is that she is slower.

Tell us more about this cow family. She has two daughters in the herd. One is probably approximately 6 years old, and the other is probably approximately 4 years old. We do not know if she has granddaughters in the herd or not.

What are your future plans with this cow? Hopefully she calves in, has her little heifer calf and does well. She’ll stay here as long as she is capable. More than likely, we will breed her again. If she is looking good, we will start her up again.

Tell us about the oldest cow you have ever had. I think she is the oldest one we have ever had.

Tell us about your farm. We both work full time on the farm. We milk 329 cows three times a day. We have three full-time employees and one part-time employee. Our son, Mitchell, is a lineman, and when he gets done with work, he comes to help us. Our son, Ryan, is a plumber, and if we need help, he comes. They are lifesavers. We have a heated shop. That has been crucial. On a cold day, the equipment is inside where it is warm. The shop has been a major problem solver. We do the majority of our repairs. We have 520 acres where we raise corn and alfalfa. We raise 95% of our feed on the farm. We try to be aggressive on the cropping side, because we need every acre to count. We sell our milk to Foremost Farms Inc.