How many times a day do you milk, and what is your current herd average, butterfat and protein? We milk with two milking robots, averaging 2.8 milkings. Our herd average is 29,660 pounds of milk with 1,335 pounds of butterfat and 1,019 pounds of protein. That equates to 95 pounds per day, with tests of 4.45% butterfat and 3.35% protein.
Describe your housing and milking facility. We have a 3-row freestall barn with a slatted floor and natural ventilation. We have two Lely robots with a toll booth layout. We have pasture mat mattresses that are bedded with sawdust. Fans and sprinklers are located along the feed lane for the warmer months.
Who is part of your farm team, and what are their roles? Carl is the crops manager, Dennis is the herd manager, Phil is in charge of animal health, and Jake helps with crops when needed.
What is your herd health program? We focus on prevention. We have herd health checks with our vet every other week. We vaccinate our animals as needed.
What does your dry cow and transition program consist of? We dry off at 60 days for first-lactation animals and 45 days for second-plus lactation animals. We use selective dry off using robot somatic cell count data if they have had a case of mastitis during that lactation. We use AHV StopLac to help ease the transition to dry off. We have a single dry-off group on a bedded pack, where they stay until they calve. When they freshen, we move them right into the milking herd.
How long is your voluntary waiting period? Our voluntary waiting period is 80 days. We use double ovsynch and breed cows every Thursday.
What is your average days in milk? 160.
What percentage of your herd is in their first lactation? 35%.
What is the composition of your ration, and how has that changed in recent years? We average around 60% forage in the ration. The biggest change we have had is feeding with the robots.
Tell us about the forages you plant and detail your harvest strategies. We plant HarvXtra alfalfa and Enogen corn for corn silage. We have oversized equipment for our size of operation. This allows us to harvest in the optimal harvest window. The milking robots have also allowed us to stay in the field and get done with everything in a timely manner.
What is your average somatic cell count and how does that affect your production? We average around 65,000. We believe it is a good indicator of overall herd health and performance.
What change has created the biggest improvement in your herd average? Robots have definitely helped with that in a variety of ways. It allows the cows to get milked more frequently. The robots also free us up to be flexible with time to harvest forages in a timely manner.
What technology do you use to monitor your herd? We get so much data on the herd health of our animals from the milk data we get from the robots. The Nedap collars also show eating and rumination minutes, along with activity level.
What is your breeding program, and what role does genetics play in your production level? Our breeding program consists of using double ovsynch for the first breeding. Then, if the cow shows heat after that, she is bred off of activity and having the vet ultrasound her. Genetics play a big part for our dairy. We genomic test every animal at birth. We use those numbers to determine what animals to breed to sexed male beef semen or sexed female Holstein semen, and to determine recipients for embryos from one of the top heifers that we in vitro fertilize.
List three management strategies that have helped you attain your production and component level. Calf health has really helped with creating quality first-lactation animals that come into our herd ready to milk. A good support team around us, including the vet and the nutritionist, has helped, along with producing quality forages. We are also very willing to try new things and technologies to see if they will benefit our dairy.
Tell us about your farm and your plans for the dairy in the next year. Reuter Farms is currently a second-generation dairy with Carl and Dennis and the third generation, Jake and Phil, who are Dennis’ sons. We are changing the ventilation in our free stall barn with additional air flow and recently added feeding software (FeedComp) to help with our changing rations. We also added a fourth feed type in the robots aimed at helping the fresh cows achieve optimal performance and create more peak milk.
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