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DAIRY ST R “All dairy, all the time”™
Volume 19, No. 17
October 28, 2017
“She just does her thing, and I guess she does it pretty well.” – Scott Pralle
Producers cope with discontinued Blue-collar work cow breaks the glass ceiling use of rbST Heightened management tactics may alleviate impact By Jennifer Coyne jenn@dairystar.com
PINE CITY, Minn. – Cows at J.M Peterson Farms have not been administered a dose of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) for the past ve months, and the Petersons have yet to recoup the loss in production. “A piece of technology has been taken away that was a protable part of our operation. This next year, we will continue making management changes that we think will soften the blow of the loss of production,” said Marianne Peterson, noting a 10-pound decrease in milk production a month after rbST was no longer used. Peterson and her husband, Jeff, along with their son, Jacob, manage a 400-cow dairy near Pine City, Minn. The Petersons’ other son, Nick, is an employee on the farm. The Peterson family is one of several dairy farmers who were notied last spring of the ban on the synthetic growth hormone by milk processors across the Midwest. By Jan. 1, 2018, those processors will no longer accept milk from dairy animals treated with rbST. “We were notied that we needed to discontinue rbST before June 1,” said Peterson, who is a part of the Burnett Dairy Cooperative in Grantsburg, Wis. “We made the decision to keep all cows on it until May 30, and six weeks before that deadline not enroll any new cows.” When the herd no longer received a dose of rbST, the Petersons immediately noticed a drop in milk production. “Within the rst three weeks, we saw a 5-8-pound drop, and by the end of June, it was nearly 10 pounds lost,” Peterson said. Dr. Jim Bennett, with the Northern Valley Dairy Production Medicine Center in Plainview, Minn., anticipates milk production loss being the greatest setback to this industry change. “Farmers can expect to see a 10-pound decrease with every cow treated,” Bennett said. “It’s not going to affect much else, but it will put a wrinkle in how reproduction is managed.” To accommodate the change, farmers will have to reevaluate their reproduction strategy to maintain production, while eliminating animals that may hinder the farm’s protability. “Most farmers have already begun to make reproductive decisions for no rbST in the herd. If they haven’t, the time to do so is now,” Bennett said. “These strategies will force farmers to be more aggressive as the importance of culling or do-not-breed will become greater.” Before the Petersons eliminated rbST, they implemented changes to their breeding protocol. Previously with rbST, a cow could be bred up to 260 days in milk (DIM) and milking 100 pounds per day. Now, cows are bred up to 230 DIM and milking 100 pounds per day. “The greatest challenge we’ve had is culling cows earlier that we felt were protable, but without rbST, they became unprotable,” Peterson said. Like many farmers, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rst approved the synthetic growth hormone for use in 1993, the Petersons incorporated it into their herd management as a way to increase protability. “We used rbST very close to label directions,” Peterson said. “We would start most cows on it after 63 DIM, and would make sure they were off it two weeks before dry off. This was for our Turn to RBST | Page 5
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Selz-Pralle AŌershock 3918 VG-88 is the new holder of the NaƟonal Single-LactaƟon Milk Record, having produced 78,170 pounds of milk with 3,094 pounds of fat and 2,393 pounds of protein in 365 days. The cow is owned by the Pralle family, who milks 425 cow on their dairy near Humbird, Wis.
Clark County bovine sets national production record By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
HUMBIRD, Wis. – A regular blue-collar working girl has broken the glass ceilings, setting the new national milk production record for a single lactation. Selz-Pralle Aftershock 3918 VG-88 broke the previous record during the lactation she just completed at Selz-Pralle Dairy, owned by the Pralle family, where they milk 425 cows near Humbird, Wis. 3918 is a Holstein cow that began her record-breaking milk record at 5 years and 11 months of age, calving Sept. 26, 2016. She is a daughter of MS Atlees Sht Aftershock-ET and produced 78,170 pounds of milk with 3,094 pounds of fat and 2,393 pounds of protein in 365 days. This broke the previous standing record of 77,480 pounds of milk, which was held by Ever-Green-View My Gold-ET, owned by the Kestell
family of Waldo, Wis. As a comparison, the average production for all U.S. Holstein herds that participate in production testing programs was 25,558 pounds of milk, 946 pounds of fat and 790 pounds of protein. “3918 is a testament to
the outstanding production capabilities of the Holstein breed. Not only did she set the national record for milk production, she also tested 4 percent for butterfat,” said Daren Shefeld, production records specialist. “She is an
Turn to SELZ-PRALLE | Page 6
DANIELLE NAUMAN/ DAIRY STAR
ScoƩ Pralle takes Ɵme to admire a few cows on the farm, from leŌ an Excellent Atwood, a Very Good AŌershock and an Excellent Braxton.