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Volume 19, No. 3
“I can’t explain it, but all I could think about was getting our boys out.” - Josh Altendahl
Awakened by smoke alarms
March 25, 2017
A flush of potential
Altendahl rescues children from burning home By Jennifer Coyne jenn@dairystar.com
FREEPORT, Minn. – While feeding TMR to his milking herd, Josh Altendahl’s charred house stands in the background – a daunting reminder of the fire that displaced his family earlier this month. In the late hours of March 3, Josh awoke to the sound of a smoke alarm, and within minutes, his home was engulfed in flames. “I remember running downstairs, opening the doorway and seeing smoke. I peered down the hallway and there was an orange glow,” Josh said. Josh and his three sons – Mathias, 6, Liam, 4, and Emmett, 2 – had gone to bed a short time before on their 70-cow dairy near Freeport, Minn. That weekend, Josh’s wife, Kate, was at a work function 1.5 hours away. Seeing the flames grow before him, Josh rushed upstairs to the bedrooms, where Mathias lied awake, terrified of the noise and the chaos that was happening below. After grabbing his eldest son, Josh made his way back downstairs toward a window near ground level. Turn to ALTENDAHL | Page 7
MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR
The Altendahls – (from le�) Kate, Mathias, Emme�, Josh and Liam – are in the planning stages of rebuilding their home a�er a house fire March 3. The family milks 70 cows near Freeport, Minn.
JENNIFER COYNE/DAIRY STAR
Kris and Arnie Gruenes manage an on-farm IVF facility at their 1,575-cow dairy near Richmond, Minn. The facility is located in a freestall barn, and includes group pens for the donors and an enclosed room for the IVF work.
On-farm IVF facility advances Twin Spruce Farms By Jennifer Coyne jenn@dairystar.com
RICHMOND, Minn. – March 15 was an important day for Arnie and Kris Gruenes. While the cows were milked and calves were fed at the Grueneses main farm site, across the road Dr. Brett Kroeze prepared his workstation to flush 17 donor heifers. The Gruenes family milks 1,575 cows at Twin Spruce Farms near Richmond, Minn., and operates an on-farm in vitro fertilization (IVF) facility, which they built last March. Every Wednesday, donor cattle are gathered, and Kroeze collects oocytes for maturation and fertilization. “It’s not that we need to do this to be a productive dairy – this has been a passion of ours,” Arnie Gruenes said. In partitioned pens, 40 donors are housed behind the IVF room, with those scheduled for flushing in a group of their own. “We have a few milking cows for IVF, but most of our donors are in this barn,” Gruenes said. Kroeze agreed.
“You can flush an animal at essentially any time – from as young as 7 months old and then up to 100 days pregnant, depending on the cow,” he said.
On the day of, Kroeze arrives at 8 a.m. to prepare the facility for several hours of work ahead – making sure all Turn to IVF | Page 5
JENNIFER COYNE/DAIRY STAR
Dr. Bre� Kroeze and his assistant, Crystal Demuth, aspirate the oocytes from a cow March 15 using an ultrasound probe and needle.