Consistency Important to Horsens Family

By Ron Johnson Dairy Editor
Thursday, October 16, 2008 7:53 AM CDT

A key to achieving high milk production is consistency, believe Jeff and Connie Horsens. This dairy farm couple from Cecil, in northeast Wisconsin, talked about maintaining consistent procedures during a virtual farm tour of their operation at World Dairy Expo last week.

The Horsenses milk 283 cows three times a day and have built their herd average to 31,074 pounds of milk, 1,215 pounds of butterfat, and 930 pounds of protein. Those numbers have gone consistently higher since the couple took over management of the family’s Shawano County farm in 1993. Then, the average stood at 14,500 pounds of milk.

Jeff Horsens noted that the farm was founded in 1879. His parents began using artificial insemination in 1952 and all the cows have been bred AI since n another bit of consistency.

“…We possibly have a little bit of a genetic advantage that way,” he remarked.

The Horsenses want their cows to be consistently comfortable. That’s why they bed with sand, figuring its comfort benefits outweigh its disadvantages. They sprinkle new sand into stalls twice weekly, instead of waiting a week or more to add larger quantities.

To aid in cow comfort, the Horsens freestall barn uses natural ventilation and is equipped with curtain sidewalls. Sprinklers and fans provide cool relief during hot, humid conditions. The fans switch on when the barn’s temperature hits approximately 64 degrees. The sprinklers are also set to switch on automatically.

Summing up, the Horsenses have a very clear definition of “cow comfort.” It means that cows are either lying in stalls or are at the bunk, eating, when they are in the barn.

Consistency carries over to milking, too. Several employees are trained to milk in the 12-year-old, double-eight, parallel parlor n as they are to do other work, such as mixing feed.

“We don’t want a cow to know who’s milking her,” Connie Horsens noted.

This cross training extends to other aspects of the dairy. The Horsens family n which includes children Curtis, Ryan, and Abbey n likes to have at least two of its five employees skilled at delivering calves, giving intravenous treatments, and handling other areas of herd health.

“It really helps to have two people trained in all areas,” Connie Horsens emphasized.

Each person who is milking tends four cows at a time, said Jeff Horsens. Milkers are taught to consistently use proper procedures, such a predipping and postdipping.

Two people are in the parlor for each milking. They alternate between milking and scraping alleys.

Feed mixing is also done with consistency in mind. Although they feed their cows only once a day, the Horsenses make sure feed is pushed up where the cows can reach it six times a day.

That attention to consistency extends to calf care. For example, the Horsenses want the temperature of the milk replacer to be the same from feeding to feeding and from day to day.

Calves are fed at the same time each day, too. And, calf feeding equipment gets sanitized the same way each time.

Consistency tracked

Its one thing to aim for consistency, but quite another to achieve it and figure out whether or not it’s being achieved. To help them keep track of how their cows are performing, the Horsenses use a transition cow index (TCI) developed by AgSource Cooperative. Using a cow’s previous lactation’s numbers and 14 factors in all, the index predicts how she will do at 305 days into her next lactation.

If she does not achieve that mark, the Horsenses know something must be amiss. Maybe the feed was inconsistent. Maybe they were not able to keep conditions in the freestall barns consistent enough. Maybe a cow encountered some sort of unexpected stress during her dry period.

The transition cow index helps Horsens Homestead Farms “make corrections ASAP,” said Connie Horsens. “You can’t tell that (something is wrong) just by looking (at a cow).”

A few months ago the Horsens herd had an extremely high TCI score of 1,400. It’s down to 943 now, but that still places it among the top herds of those using the tool.

As might be expected, the Horsenses aim to better their transition cow index score and keep it there n consistently.

The couple also makes a point of continually setting new goals and evaluating their progress toward them. They try to get away from the farm, its work, and other distractions for a day when they want to set new goals.

Connie Horsens explained that they make both business and personal goals. They make goals to achieve over more than one time period, too, such as five years and 10 years.

All their attention to detail and consistency has yielded dividends. Horsens Homestead Farms has achieved the highest per-cow milk production in Shawano County. It’s a feat they’ve accomplished for the past 15 years n consistently.

Comments »

Comment on this story

Comments will be approved within 48 hours

Name:

Email: (optional)

Comments:

Image Verification: (Case sensitive)