Family-sized dairy success in the US (Sept 25)

One US-based family-run dairy unit is taking steps to future-proof its herd and business by adopting crossbreeding and robotic milking. And it’s on course to build a resilient set-up for the next generation of producers.

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Running a UK-sized dairy herd in the vast and intensive landscape of American agriculture may seem like swimming against the tide—but one US-based operation is proving that small can be successful and progressive.

Dornacker Prairies is a 360-cow unit in Wisconsin, which is owned and managed by fifth-generation producer Allen Dornacker and his wife, Nancy, in partnership with Allen’s parents, Ralph and Arlene.

Like an increasing number of UK dairy units, the family-run business has embraced technology in a bid to improve efficiency and long-term sustainability and profitability. In 2018, the Dornackers invested in robotic milking, installing three Lely A5 robots inside a purpose-built cubicle shed. This set-up partially replaced or ‘supported’ the unit’s existing conventional 6:6 herringbone parlour. The herd was milked through this twice a day and the family wanted to make the switch to free up more time for other day-to-day herd management tasks.

Average size

Despite the perception that most dairy herds in the US are closer to four figures in size, the Dornacker’s is actually typical for the US, where the average dairy milks 350 cows. But it is still somewhat larger than the UK average herd size, which has edged to 219. The State of Wisconsin ranks second only to California for milk production, with more than one million cows milked across 6,500 farms.

Unlike Californian dairies, which rely heavily on importing grain and forage from the Midwest Corn Belt thousands of miles away, Wisconsin’s climate allows producers to grow the majority of their own feed.

The Dornackers farm more than 400 hectares, owning 150 hectares and renting the rest. This allows the business to be 90% self-sufficient in feed. The family grows 90 hectares of soybeans, 115 hectares of alfalfa, 145 hectares of maize, and 60 hectares of winter wheat.

In 2022, they expanded again, installing three more robots to fully replace the unit’s conventional parlour. The old system was finally ‘decommissioned’ and the family hasn’t looked back since. Robotic milking has revolutionised the way the unit is run and time previously spent in the parlour is now used to work more closely with the cows and heifers, and fine-tune both herd and business management.

Soil health

As part of the expansion, slurry storage was also increased to hold a full year’s worth of dairy waste. And by composting some of the muck produced by the herd and incorporating it into green cover crops, has reduced nitrogen requirements by 80%. Improving soil health, which supports better uptake of trace elements, has also resulted in crops that are more disease resistant and helped to decrease the business’ reliance on fungicides.

The business employs four full-time and four part-time staff across its dairy, arable and beef enterprises, with dairy-cross beef calves also reared to 18 month old. While the summer climate provides the ideal growing environment for soya and maize, Wisconsin’s weather means dairy housing must be designed to maximise cow comfort and maintain herd performance all year round.

They invested £3.16 million in a 400-cubicle house, which has an insulated roof, automated side curtains and high-speed fans. It’s designed to withstand freezing winters as well as hot temperatures and high humidity levels in the summer when the temperature heat index can quickly climb to between 70 and 80.

Allen says the temperature varies between -17OC and 37OC from winter through to the height of summer. Automated scrapers are used to keep passageways clean, while robotic feeders operate seven times daily to keep the herd’s TMR pushed up along the central feed fence. On either side of the feed passageway are a double row and a single row of deep-bedded sand cubicles, with a strawbedded area for close-up calvers and a fresh-cow pen.

CowLocator technology, combined with Nedap tags and Lely Horizon software, allows real-time location of cows via a smartphone.

Feed rate

Cows are fed up to 6.3kg of feed inside the robots, with visits averaging between 2.7 and three times a day. The rest of the ration is supplied via a TMR with the feed rate averaging 0.33kg of concentrate per litre of milk. Herd average yield is 13,725 litres, at 3.25% protein and 4.18% butterfat, with a somatic cell count of 120,000 cells/ ml and a Bactoscan of 4. Milk is supplied to Cedar Valley Cheese, a Wisconsin-based family-owned processor.

Unhappy with poor cow longevity, the Dornackers began crossbreeding in 2016. “We made the switch because the Holsteins simply were not staying in the herd for long enough, and we were seeing too many metabolic issues and an excessive number of cows ‘doing the splits’.

“This may have been due to our tired dairy housing and facilities, but many ProCROSS breeders say the crossbreds are more robust and they have fewer downer cows. I’d agree with them,” adds Allen.

Holsteins were bred to VikingRed, and the resultant progeny were served with Coopex Montbeliarde semen to create a three-way cross.

Within one year, dead-on-arrival rates fell from 8% to 2.5%, and metabolic disease incidence has halved to less than 1%, according to Allen.

Calf vigour

“The first thing we noticed was improved calf vigour – it was phenomenal,” he says.

Herd average pregnancy rate is 38% and this has been boosted by crossbreeding and the introduction of the Lely heat-time detection system. Conception rates average 50%, with ov-synch only used on between 10% and 20% of cows – the ones that are more than 140 days in milk and still open.

Cows are served 75 days after calving, or sometimes 90 days for higher production animals.

Sexed semen is used on maiden heifers, which achieves a 60% conception-to-first-service rate. Highproduction, first-lactation heifers are also served using sexed semen, as well as the best-ranked cows. The rest of the herd is served using Aberdeen-Angus sires.

“We use Lely’s production efficiency index, which produces a minimum herd value based on health, production and reproduction. A value of between 700 and 800 is a good cow, and anything scoring less than 400 is bred to an Angus sire,” explains Allen,

Cows are largely voluntarily culled for poor milking speed or production, and the herd has an annual cull rate of 30%.“Our cull value with the crossbreds is higher compared to the Holsteins, due to better carcase conformation,” he says.

Beef steers

Typically, all steers are reared to 18 months old, but the business has changed tack due to the US’s current high beef prices. “We have been seeing prices as high as £736 for a day-old calf, so we have been selling them before weaning.”

A decline in the US beef cattle herd to 28.2 million, down by 700,000 head since January 2023, has pushed up prices, with drought and high input costs also resulting in many cattle ranchers selling their breeding females.

Allen says he is receiving $1.75/lb (£2.87/kg) for Holstein-bred calves, plus an additional 10c/lb for ProCROSS-sired progeny, and $2/lb (£3.27/kg) for Angus-sired dairy crosses.

This all contributes to better business profitability and is set to ensure that the herd can support the family’s next – sixth – generation of eager dairy producers. The unit has capacity for up to nine robots, futureproofing the business for the couple’s four children – Kate (17), Jack (15), Adam (14), and Anna (12) – should they want to continue dairying.

“With Jack already playing an active role in helping to run the herd and business, we think that’s highly likely,” adds Allen.