Top Performers: Elijah Mastey of Mastey Farms

How many times a day do you milk, and what is your current herd average, butterfat and protein? We milk three times a day. Our current herd average is 31,375 pounds of milk, 1,341 pounds of fat and 962 pounds of protein. Our April test average was 105 pounds of milk with a 4.1% fat test and a 3.2% protein.

Describe your housing and milking facility. The milking herd is housed in a sand-bedded, tunnel-ventilated, three-row freestall barn, constructed in 2015. We milk in a double-8 parallel parlor that was retrofitted into the tiestall barn. Our heifers are housed in a bedded pack barn, and calves are all raised in hutches until six months of age.

Who is part of your farm team, and what are their roles? Our farm team includes Elijah, who is the herdsman. His role is managing cows, heifers and calves. He is in charge of feeding, breeding and herd health, and he assists with crop decisions. Ashlie and Jamie are the main milkers on the farm and also feed calves and assist where necessary. Dominic helps with chores and does most of the cropping.

What is your herd health program? We have bi-weekly herd health visits with Valley Veterinary Clinic. Cows are given three rounds of J-VAC vaccine. At 21 days fresh, they receive Bovi-Shield, and everyone is poured with Eprinex in the fall. Cows are bred off of CowManager from 65-80 days in milk, then enrolled in an Ovsynch program.

What does your dry cow and transition program consist of? Dry cows have a dry period of 60-70 days and are housed in the freestall barn. Their ration consists of straw, triticale silage, alfalfa haylage, corn silage and a mineral mix. They are moved to a sawdust-bedded pack 14 days prior to their due date and fed the same ration with X-Zelit and a pre-fresh protein mix. They calve on the pack and are given 10 gallons of warm water to drink. From there, they go with the rest of the herd and are monitored for any health issues.

What is the composition of your ration, and how has that changed in recent years? Our ration is comprised of a protein mix, high-oleic soybeans, high-moisture corn, alfalfa and Italian ryegrass haylage, whey permeate and corn silage. Italian ryegrass was implemented into rotation in 2019. Whey permeate was added in 2023 and high-oleic soybeans in 2024.

Tell us about the forages you plant and detail your harvest strategies. Alfalfa is seeded with a forage oat nurse crop. The second year meadow fescue is no-tilled in to the stand and kept for two to three more years. Italian ryegrass is spring-planted with a forage oat nurse crop, harvested four or five times and only kept for one year. Corn silage is split-planted with Dairyland BMR and HiDF seed. Winter triticale is planted when corn silage harvest is early enough and fits into rotation. The goal, weather permitting, is to cut the haylage crops one day and chop the next at 60-65% moisture on a 28-day interval. Our moisture goal for corn silage is 65-68%.

What is your average somatic cell count and how does that affect your production? Our average SCC is between 50-60. Achieving a low SCC is viewed as a benefit for overall health and reproduction, which allows them to reach their production potential.

What change has created the biggest improvement in your herd average? This is a combination of several different things, but the biggest improvement has been building the freestall barn. This provides the cows with a more comfortable and consistent routine. It has taught us how to take better care of our cows, thereby keeping them in the herd longer and increasing our profitability per animal.

What technology do you use to monitor your herd? The herd is monitored with CowManager. Most of our breeding is done using the activity tracking. Health events are treated and monitored with the rumination and temperature monitoring.

What is your breeding program, and what role does genetics play in your production level? Cows and heifers are mated using aAa as a starting point. From there, I look for a bull that is high component percent that compliments the cow’s weaknesses and has a quality pedigree. IVF has been used in recent years to push genetic gains at a faster pace so we can make more replacements out of our best genetics and be more strategic about breeding our bottom production animals to beef.

List three management strategies that have helped you attain your production and component level. Having CowManager has given us the ability to have eyes on the herd 24 hours a day to watch health and rumination, catch sick cows faster and know if they are responding to treatment. We have not had to rely so heavily on Ovsynch and are able to breed timelier off natural heats. From a forage standpoint, focusing on ways to increase haylage digestibility and adding BMR corn silage has allowed for better feed utilization. High-oleic soybeans have provided a higher quality protein source with the right kind of oil to increase butterfat production.

Tell us about your farm and your plans for the dairy in the next year. We have been on our farm since 1994. We started out in a tie-stall barn, with 45 cows and 10 heifers, farming 135 acres. Today we have 160 cows, 140 heifers and 500 acres. Our current facility is a three-row, tunnel-ventilated freestall barn, a bedded pack barn for heifers, super-hutch group housing for weaned calves until six months and young calves in individual hutches. Plans for the dairy in the next year include focusing on calf and heifer care to provide consistent, higher-quality replacements for the herd. We also plan to continue fine-tuning and learning ways to provide higher quality forages, focusing on digestible fiber.