Central Plains Dairy Expo

Dairy St rMarch 13, 2010

Special Edition 1st Section

Central Plains Dairy Expo Preview

March 18 (Tuesday) Arena and Sheraton Hotel Free to producers, their families and employees. Others $30 per person. Must RSVP or order tickets by March 10 to guarantee seating. Call Kathy at 218-236-8420 or email [email protected]

5 p.m. Welcome Reception and Scholarship Silent Auction,

6 p.m. Banquet “Good times for Dairy — Let’s Make Them Last.” — David Kohl, Professor emeritus, Virginia Tech Entertainment: Williams and Ree Sponsored by Davisco Foods, Land O’ Lakes, First Bank and Trust and Valley Queen Cheese

8 p.m. Expo Hospitality, Sheraton, Fontelle I and II. Sponsored by Bank of the West

March 19 (Wednesday) Sioux Falls Convention Center and Sheraton Hotel Free admission

8 a.m. “Expanding Your Dairy: How To Make It Happen.” — Panel members: Roland Larson, Larson Construction, Webster, S.D. Larson Construction, Mark Blackwelder, producer, Chokio, Minn., and Keith Eichacker, First Bank & Trust, Sioux Falls, S.D. Meeting Rooms 1–2

9 a.m. Trade show opens

9:30–10:15 a.m. “Dairy Strategies To Make Good Times Great.” — David Kohl, professor emeritus, Virginia Tech. Meeting Rooms 11–14

11 a.m. Company sponsored and presented breakout sessions (Sessions run simultaneously)

1) “Improving Calf Survival Through Proper Colostrum Management,” — Brian Miller, DVM, Fort Dodge Animal Health. Sponsored by Fort Dodge Animal Health. Meeting Rooms 1–2

2) “Roadblocks to Profit: Do You Know Your Efficiency Range?” — Randy Cragoe, Cragoe Consulting Services. Sponsored by Alltech. Meeting Rooms 6–7

3) Milk Quality: Evaluation Techniques For Improvement On Your Dairy.” — Jeffery Reneau, University ofMinnesota assistant professor, dairy science. Sponsored byPfizer Animal Health. Meeting Rooms 11–14

Noon Lunch. ($10 per person beef and wild game slider buffet in trade show. Concession stand also open.)

2–2:45 p.m. “Lenders’ Views of Best Management Practices For Dairies.” — David Kohl, Professor emeritus, Virginia Tech. Meeting Rooms 11–14

4 p.m. Company sponsored and presented breakout sessions (Sessions run simultaneously)

1) “International Dairy Markets And How They Are AffectingYou.” — Deborah Perkins, managing director, Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory, Rabobank International,New York, N.Y. Sponsored by Rabobank. Meeting Rooms 1–2.

2) “Waste Milk: Love It Or Leave It.” — Don Reichert, Land ‘O Lakes. Sponsored by Land ‘O Lakes. Meeting Rooms 6–7

3) “How To Increase Profitability Through Reproductive Efficiency.” — Kevin L. Hill, DVM, ScheringPlough Animal Health. Sponsored by Schering‑Plough Animal Health. Meeting Room 11–14

5 p.m. Wine and cheese social in trade show Cheese provided by DairiConcepts, Pollock; Dimock Cheese, Dimock, Lake Norden Cheese Co., Lake Norden; Land O’Lakes, Brookings; Saputo Cheese, Big Stone; South Dakota State University Dairy Plant Brookings; and Valley Queen Cheese, Milbank; all of South Dakota.

6:30 p.m. Trade show closes

8 p.m. Expo Hospitality, Sheraton, Fontanelle 1 and II. Sponsored by SoyBest and Green Meadows Dairy, whey and cheese plant, Hull, Iowa

March 20 (Thursday) Sioux Falls Convention Center Free admission

8 a.m. “Opportunities in growing heifers.” — Panel members: Nathan Jensen, Bank of the West Sioux Falls, S.D.; Marty Lau, Holsen Quality Calf, Quimby, Iowa; Suzette Vander Veen, Westview, Inc. Meeting Rooms 1–2

9 a.m. Trade show opens

9:30–10:15 a.m. “The Top 10 Stupid Things Families Do To Break Up Their Dairies. — Part I.” — Jolene Brown. Meeting Rooms 11–14

11 a.m. Company sponsored and presented breakout sessions (Sessions run simultaneously)

1) “Improving Calf Survival Through Proper Colostrum Management.” — Brian Miller, DVM, Fort Dodge Animal Health. Sponsored by Fort Dodge Animal Health. Meeting Rooms 1–2

2) “Anything That Can Go Wrong With Using Distillers Grains Will Go Wrong.” — Alvaro Garcia, DVM, Phd, South Dakota State University Extension dairy specialist. Sponsored by Alltech. Meeting Rooms 6–7

3) “International Dairy Markets And How They Are Affecting You.” — Deborah Perkins, managing director, Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory, Rabobank International, New York, N.Y. Sponsored by Rabobank. Meeting Rooms 11–14

Noon Lunch. ($10 per ticket. Assorted bistro sandwhich buffet. Concession stand also open.)

2 p.m. Company sponsored and presented breakout sessions (These sessions run simultaneously)

1) “How To Increase Profitability Through Reproductive Efficiency.” — Kevin L. Hill, DVM, Schering‑Plough Animal Health. Sponsored by Schering‑Plough Animal Health. Meeting Rooms 1–2

2) “Waste Milk — Love It Or Leave It.” — Don Reichert, Land ‘O Lakes. Sponsored by Land ‘O Lakes. Meeting Rooms 6–7

3) “Heifer Mastitis: What Do We Know. What Can We Do?” — Gary Neubauer, senior veterinarian, Pfizer Animal Health, Sponsored by PfizerAnimal Health Company. Meeting Rooms 11–14

4 p.m. “The Top 10 Stupid Things Families Do To Break Up Their Dairies — Part II.” — Jolene Brown. Meeting Rooms 11–14

4 p.m. Trade show closes

Schedule of Events

Schedule and session topics subject to change.

For more information, call 218-236-8420 or see www.centralplainsdairyexpo.com

March 19-20, 2008

Central PlainsDairy Expo

S i o u x F a l l s , S DC o n v e n t i o n C e n t e r

450701_kp2.indd 1 2/15/08 9:30:34 AM

Central PlainsDairy Expo

March 31-April 1, 2010Sioux Falls, SD • Convention Center

Dairy star File photo by Krista M. sheehanShane Fey (middle) and his dad, Doug Fey (right), both of Woodstock, Minn., visited the Central Plains Dairy Expo last year. They walked through exhibitor booths and stopped to talk to Tom Barron (left) of Ruthton, Minn., about his handcrafted feeders.

10th Annual Central Plains Dairy Expo, March 31-April 1

By Sadie FrericksStaff Writer

Sioux Falls, S.D. – For many dairy farmers, 2009 was like an amusement park ride that finds you asking, as you step off at the end, “Whoa! What just happened?” now that the ride is over, many dairy producers are asking, “What do we do now?” a team of speakers at the Central plains Dairy expo will answer those questions. Gary sipiorski, business development manager for Vita plus Corporation and Hoard’s Dairyman columnist, and Jim Dickrell, editor and associate publisher of Dairy today, are joining forces for two presen-

Sipiorski, Dickrell team up to answer the big questionstations on March 31: “how the economic tsunami Got to My Milking parlor” at 9:30 a.m. and “Moving on, Milking on

in a new economy” at 2:15 p.m. af te r h e a r i n g sipiorski and Dick-rell, dairy producers will have a better u n d e r -s t a n d i n g

of what happened during the 2009 dairy price collapse and why. “a lot of people are blam-

ing a lot of factors for last year’s crash and slow recovery – the CMe (Chicago Mercan-tile exchange), milk protein

c o n c e n -t r a t e s , dairy lead-ers who were slow to react, sexed se-men, etc. the list is e n d l e s s . While all of these might have impacted things on

the edges, it was the global recession and the precipitous drop in dairy exports that

caused this price crash,” Dick-rell said. “last year was a very fi-nancially rough year for all producers in the dairy industry. they were smacked with the lowest inflation-adjusted price on record. producers need to understand what caused the U.s. and world recessions. they also need to understand how a one- to two-percent swing in consumption of a per-ishable product like milk can have huge ramifications,” sipi-orski said. During the presentations, sipiorski will explain the world export and domestic consumer markets. Dickrell will help producers understand the micro-economics of what

is happening at the farm level. “the combination between us should give the audience a current and real perspective of what is happening in the indus-try and what they need to do to make intelligent decisions,” sipiorski said. Dickrell will also discuss the dairy industry’s new pol-icy options – everything from the national Milk producers Federation’s multi-pronged proposal to the prospects of a national supply management program. he’ll also answer the question, “What should i, as a dairy farmer, be doing as these policy options are debated?”

Gary SipiorskiVita Plus Corporation

Jim DickrellEditor, associate publisher of Dairy Today

Turn to Big questions/ Page 3

By Sadie FrericksStaff Writer

Sioux Falls, S.D. – although he didn't grow up on a farm, author and speaker V.J. smith has always admired people with farm backgrounds. as a student at south Dakota state University, smith had an opportunity to get to know students who grew up on farms.

"they have a great work ethic, they re-spect the land and they can fix stuff. i'm seri-ous about that last one," smith said. smith will bring his admiration – and his sense of humor – with him to the Central plains Dairy expo when he presents "simple Choices, big rewards" (11 a.m.) and "the richest Man in town" (4 p.m.) on april 1. "in our personal lives and our business lives, we are faced with simple choices on how we interact with the people around us," smith said. Using humor and reflection, "simple

Choices, big rewards" will focus on the five major choices we face each day. "the richest Man in town" is a story about much more than financial riches. smith will show what happens when you take the time to be kind and compassionate and help audience mem-

A chance to reflectsmith brings admiration, humor to expo

V.J. SmithMotivational speaker

Turn to Smith/ Page 3

Page 2 • Dairy Star Special Edition • Saturday, March 13, 2010

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“this recovery is going to be slow,” Dickrell said. “Until the world economy starts revving back up to pre-2009 lev-els, dairy markets are going to remain tepid and dicey. but, hopefully dairy producers will leave these presentations with a better understanding of the cause of the collapse and the prospects for re-covery.” as a former ag lender and member of the Federal reserve bank of Chi-cago’s ag and industry advisory Com-mittee, sipiorski will offer his perspec-tive on what dairy farmers’ lenders are thinking about during a recovery year like 2010. “We’ll talk about how other dairy producers in other regions of the Unit-ed states are dealing with the last 18 months and what could be over the ho-rizon, how the industry and the markets will respond to seeing 49.7 heifers per 100 milk cows in inventory, and what producers should be thinking about regarding milk futures and managing their margins,” sipiorski said. Following their presentations, sipiorski and Dickrell will also host a discussion to gather feedback from pro-ducers. “every time i give a presentation, i learn a lot from the discussion. in the end, everyone has a better understand-ing of what the issues are and what the prospects for change really are,” Dick-rell said. sipiorski grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, was a state FFa officer and graduated from the University of Wisconsin – river Falls with a degree in animal science. he worked in the

dairy nutrition business for 18 years be-fore joining the Citizens state bank of loyola in 1991 as an agricultural loan officer. he served at president and Ceo of the bank during his last four years. in 2008, sipiorski joined Vita plus Cor-poration as its business development manager. in this role, sipiorski works closely with dairy producers on finan-cial issues and speaks frequently about dairy finances and markets to agricul-tural audiences across the United states and internationally. he also writes a dairy finances column for Hoard’s Dairyman. Dickrell, too, grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin – river Falls. he operated his family’s dairy farm for three years after college. in 1989, Dickrell was named editor of Dairy today. he travels extensively throughout the United states covering dairy industry news and has visited eu-rope, Canada and Mexico on numerous assignments. his daily connection to the dairy industry, reporting on news and markets and writing feature articles and columns, keeps him on top of in-dustry happenings. Drawing from their upbringings on dairy farms and their combined 60-plus years of experience working in the dairy industry, sipiorski and Dickrell bring unparalleled knowledge and wis-dom of dairy finances, policy and mar-kets to the Central plains Dairy expo. if you’re still trying to figure out what ride you were on in 2009, you won’t want to miss their presentations!

Continued from Big questions/ Page 1

bers see that "all that you give, you get back, and more." "both presentations will give audience members a chance to reflect on rela-tionships in their lives and to take a moment to think about what is truly important in life," smith said. before founding life's Greatest Moments, his speaking business, smith worked as a bill collector, salesman, and as a fundraiser. his experience also in-cludes serving as assistant athletic Director of the sDsU athletic program and executive Director of the sDsU alumni association. “being a child of the early ‘70s, it took me a little while to figure out what i wanted to do with my life,” smith said. smith's ability to reach audiences started at an early age. "Growing up with three brothers and four sisters, you had to learn to talk loud and fast or you didn’t get much to eat," smith said. smith's audiences in the past ten years have included Cenex/harvest states, national 4-h leaders, national Women in agriculture, pfizer, Citibank, Us bank, Wells Fargo and hundreds of other groups. he travels throughout the United states and Canada with his messages. spend two hours with smith at expo and you'll be sure to laugh, learn and leave with a renewed outlook on life.

Continued from Smith/ Page 1


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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Forages are an instrumental part of all dairy cattle diets. ongoing research will make feed-ing these ingredients more efficient for both the animal nutrition and the pro-ducer economics. on March 31 and april 1, randy Welch, alfalfa and forage specialist with Croplan GenetiCs, will present the latest in forage research during his presentations at the Central plains Dairy expo in sioux Falls, s.D. his presenta-tions, titled “Future Forages,” will take place at 1 p.m. both days of the expo. While there are many different for-ages fed in dairy diets, the speaker’s focal point will be on alfalfa, and more specifically on one certain type of alfal-fa – reduced/low lignin alfalfa, a prod-uct that is currently being evaluated in actual feeding trials. “When talking about ‘Future For-ages’ and what producers feed their cows, the goal is to help producers think about how feed will change in the future years,” Welch said. one of the changes concerning al-falfa will be the development of a re-duced/low lignin alfalfa product. lignin is a complex compound found in the vascular systems of all plants. it is a non-digestible portion of the alfalfa plant, Welch said, compa-rable – as an example – to the stringy portion of celery. While, in theory, lig-nin helps support alfalfa as it grows, it is not required in animal diets. the bottom line, Welch said, is that lignin reduces

overall forage digestibility and provides no nutritional value. “What i want people to think about is we grow lignin, we feed lignin, cows eat lignin but lignin is not digested by the rumen microbes. rumen microbes

simply work around lignin, leaving the lignin behind. in addition, a portion of the digestible dry matter is lost with the lignin,” Welch said. “es-sentially, the plant is manufacturing something the ani-mal cannot digest and ties up digest-ible nutrients.” For the last

several years, researchers have been working on developing genetically modified strains of alfalfa containing less lignin. the benefits of feeding these types of alfalfa to dairy cattle would be three-fold for producers, Welch said. not only would they (1) increase feed efficiency by improving the digestibility of the fiber fed to the animals and (2) decrease the amount of end waste prod-uct so manure production per pound of milk produced would be reduced, they would (3) reduce harvest frequency of alfalfa as well. it is generally recommended pro-ducers cut alfalfa every 28 days to keep lignin production within the plant to a minimum. by planting reduced/low lignin alfalfa, producers could add on a few days between cuttings with no loss

in feed quality. “this is an exciting concept,” Welch said. “in many regions of the country this would potentially shift our four-cut system back to a three-cut system.” “a lot of dairy farm activity is cut-ting hay and manure disposal, which can be huge expenses to dairy produc-ers,” Welch said. “reducing cutting frequency may be a cost reduction strat-egy. also, a large percentage of manure is lignin, so if we can reduce the amount of lignin [being fed], we can reduce the amount of manure being produced.”

What plant developers are doing, Welch said, is changing or modifying the way plants produce lignin, resulting in low lignin strains of alfalfa. the hope is that these products will be ready to market in 2015-2016. “reduced/low lignin alfalfa is an additional tool that potentially will be available to dairy and hay producers,” Welch said. “it will eventually poten-tially reduce the cost of feeding animals and will help producers plan for future feeding programs.” Welch’s session is geared towards all dairy and hay producers. While the bulk of it will focus on low lignin al-falfa, Welch will recognize some pub-

The future of feeding dairy cattleWelch talks forages at Central Plains Dairy Expo

Randy WelchAlfalfa and forage specialist

“The bottom line is, lignin modification and other plant traits will be important to meeting future feed efficiency requirements in high producing dairy cattle.” - Randy Welch, alfalfa and forage specialist with CROPLAN GENETICS

lic and private agencies that have made this research possible, such as the Unit-ed states Department of agriculture (UsDa), noble Foundation (an inde-pendent, nonprofit institute) and Forage Genetics international (FGi), a subsid-iary of land o lakes inc. “the bottom line is, lignin modifi-cation and other plant traits will be im-portant to meeting future feed efficiency requirements in high producing dairy cattle,” Welch said. “i believe the future of dairy nutrition will be greatly influ-enced with understanding plant growth

and development.” in addition to the reduced/low lig-nin alfalfa topic, Welch will discuss ad-ditional alfalfa products under develop-ment: bypass protein (tannin) alfalfa, delayed flowering alfalfa and drought gene development.

Randy Welch randy Welch has been working with Croplan GenetiCs for the last 10 years as an alfalfa and forage product specialist and alfalfa agrono-mist. prior to joining Croplan Ge-netiCs, Welch spent 10 years at a crop scouting and consulting service and 10 years in the seed industry.



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How many years have you attended the Central Plains Dairy Expo? Four years.

What do you enjoy most about attending the Central Plains Dairy Expo? socializ-ing with our colleagues.

How do you spend your time while at the CPDE? brows-ing booths, checking out new products and developments and going to seminars.

What seminars or booths are you especially interest-ed in seeing this year? Gary

“We like socializing with our colleagues.”

Dairy Star asks: What do you enjoy about the Central Plains Dairy Expo?

Jeremy VanEsssanborn, iowa, 3,400 cows

How many years have you attended the Central Plains Dairy Expo? i have gone every year since i have lived here, which is the last two years.

What do you enjoy most about attending the Central Plains Dairy Expo? i enjoy seeing and visiting with all the different vendors and look-ing at the machinery.

How do you spend your time while at the CPDE? i have spent all my time looking and talking with people at the booths and looking at the ma-chinery.

What seminars or booths are you especially interested in seeing this year? i am mostly looking forward to checking out the booths and trying to find something new or improved that we could use or get ideas for our dairy. i am also planning on going to some of the seminars this year.

What have you learned from a previous CPDE that you've taken back and incorporated into your farm? being new to the area, i have used the CpDe to meet vendors and learn about them and what they have to offer. Tell us about your farm. our family relocated our dairy from idaho to iowa in 2007. My mom, lisa, dad, harvey and my four brothers, Josh, Chad, tyler and todd are all involved in the dairy. We milk 3,400 total cows in a double-50 parallel. the cows are housed in a cross ventilated freestall barn. We own 360 acres, of which 260 is corn silage. the rest of our feed needs are purchased.

“...about vendors and what they have to offer.”

Dairy Star asks: What have you learned from previous

Central Plains Dairy Expos?

sipiorski and Jim Dickrell and V.J. smith.

What have you learned from a previous CPDE that you've taken back and incorporated into your farm? We’ve learned a lot. For example, we purchased an ultrasound-scan-device for our herdsmen.

Tell us about your farm. hilltop Dairy was started in 1997. We moved to south Dakota from the netherlands and purchased the farm in 2006, with 1,400 milking cows. Currently we’re milking around 2,100 registered hol-steins and raise 1,600 heifers. We grow about 1,400 acres of bMr-corn and 1,200 acres of alfalfa. herd health is our main focus at CpDe.


“Attending the breakout sessions and visiting vendors.”

Dairy Star asks: How do you spend your time at the Central Plains Dairy Expo?

Gary and Barb SchlauderaffDetroit lakes, Minn., 550 cows

How many years have you attended the Central Plains Dairy Expo? three years. last year we didn't make it be-cause of snow.

What do you enjoy most about attending the Central Plains Dairy Expo? We enjoy mingling with other dairy producers.

How do you spend your time while at the CPDE? our time is spent attending the breakout sessions and visiting the vendors.

What seminars or booths are you especially interested in seeing this year? We haven't studied the flyer yet for this year's expo, but usually all the sessions are good.

What have you learned from a previous CPDE that you've taken back and incorporated into your farm? We have enjoyed the motivational speakers and the positive outlooks they present, and we share this with our family. Tell us about your farm. We farm with our four grown sons: Chad, Casey, Kelly and Kory. our farm is located on two sites, one in Detroit lakes, Minn., where we have all our heifers, and the second is in Vergas, Minn., where the 550 holsteins are housed and milked three times daily. We also grow 1,700 acres of corn, corn silage and hay for feed.


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FLUORESCENT LIGHTING

“We learned a lot from the hoof health seminar last year.”

Dairy Star asks: What have you learned from a previous Central Plains Dairy Expo?

Remiger Dairy, Steve and Jane, Pat, Becky, Cole and Tate RemigerFrom left: becky, pat with tate (19 months old), steve and Cole (3) on plow, and JaneWood lake, Minn., 150 cows

How many years have you attended the Central Plains Dairy Expo? six years.

What do you enjoy most about attending the Central Plains Dairy Expo? Mainly the booths to learn what is new and up and coming, and networking with other farmers.

How do you spend your time while at the CPDE? away from the kids and attending seminars.

What seminars or booths are you especially interested in see-ing this year? We started an llC to slowly hand over the op-eration, so the estate planning seminar will be good to learn a few more tricks, also the calf raising and reproduction seminars always help improve an operation.

What have you learned from a previous CPDE that you've taken back and incorporated into your farm? We learned a lot from the hoof health seminar last year and have incorporated many aspects of what we learned there; also there are many new gadgets and feed additives we got samples of that have made a difference in saving time or improving animal health.

Tell us about your farm. We milk 150 head of holsteins in a swing-six parlor retrofitted into our old tiestall barn. We have four sand-bedded freestall barns for the milking cows, and loose housing for the dry cows and heifers. We raise our own calves and heifers and sell the steers at 500 pounds to a few neighbors. it is a family-run farm with one full-time employee, and everyone has their certain areas of expertise.


Environment Control Systems ...................................... 293

191



By Jennifer BurggraffStaff writer

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – For years, omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to benefit human health by reducing the risk of various chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and arthritis. they have also been shown to be vital in the normal function and growth of the human brain. but what about in other species? What about for dairy cows? Do omega

fatty acids benefit animals as they do humans? according to University research supported by Virtus nutrition, a technology leader and marketer of strategic Fatty acid products, omega-3 fatty acids do benefit cows in both production and reproduction. on March 31 and april 1 at the Central plains Dairy expo in sioux Falls, s.D., Kevin Murphy of Virtus nutrition will discuss the findings on adding omega-3 fatty acid as a supplement in the bo-vine diet. “how to Use omega Fatty acids to Make More Money” will be presented at 1 p.m. both days. “the whole concept [of omega fatty acids] is extreme-ly confusing,” Murphy said. “but what i am trying to do is get producers back on the topic of omega fatty acids.”

the two omega fatty acids Murphy will refer to during his sessions are omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids. on a basic level, one – omega-6 fatty acids – promotes inflammation, among other things, while the other – omega-3 fatty acid – helps reduce inflammation. “on the human side, omega-3 fatty acids are very prominent,” Murphy said. “everything has omega-3 fatty acids in it. nobody knows what it does, but everything has it in it.” on the bovine side, Murphy said omega-3 fatty acids can take cows to a level of nutrition that they never knew before. “When you put a diet into balance, it improves the productivity in cattle,” he said. throughout his sessions, Murphy will discuss how adding omega-3 fatty acids will affect a cow’s health and production, and how it will balance the omega status – the equilibrium between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids – in the animal.

“balancing for omega fatty acids can improve production and increase pregnancy in your herd,” Murphy said his main message to producers will be. one way omega-3 fatty acids increase pregnancy rate in dairy cows is by reducing the number of early embryonic losses, he said. “producers used to think their cows were just not pregnant. now [with the use of ultrasound technology] we can see the dead embryos,” Murphy said. “this becomes a big issue for producers.” Much of the decline in conception and pregnancy rates within dairy cattle has come from years of breeding for higher production traits. “nobody has ever selected for pregnancy hormones, just production. ev-erything we do is anti-selecting for pregnancy at the hormonal level for the cow,” Murphy said. “the bottom line is the cows are not getting pregnant.” balancing a cow’s diet with omega-3 fatty acids has been shown to im-prove pregnancy rate by increasing the initial conception rate through better fertility and by preparing the uterus to accept the embryo. initially, Murphy said the impact of adding an omega-3 fatty acids supple-ment to a dairy herd’s diet may be hard to see, especially in small herds. “in a 100-cow herd, you can’t see the [shift] so you have to rely on good research. in larger dairies, however, you will notice a shift in the records,” Murphy said. “[adding omega-3 fatty acids] changes cow flow [by improving pregnancy rate]. it really works.” Murphy said producers who attend his session will get a better understand-ing about a part of the bovine diet many have not heard of before. “people look at fat but not fatty acids,” he said. “they need to realize that under fat is a fatty acid.”

Kevin Murphy Kevin Murphy obtained his bs, Ms and phD in dairy nutrition from the University of Minnesota-twin Cities. While he currently lives in pennsylva-nia, Murphy travels from coast to coast as a global technical director for Virtus nutrition, based out of Corcoran, Calif. For nearly nine years, Murphy and his team have been researching omega fatty acids, from both a nutritional standpoint for dairy cattle and from a manu-facturing standpoint. Currently, they are working on a process to make calcium salts out of omega-3 fatty acids, which could be fed to dairy cattle as a dry supplement under the name strata G.

Omega fatty acids: A bovine perspectiveMurphy reveals benefits of fatty acids as a supplement

Kevin MurphyVirtus Nutrition


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“We will be talking with vendors about variable speed vacuum pumps.”

Dairy Star asks: What booths are you interested in seeing at the Central Plains Dairy Expo?

Corey and Laura Rasmussen, shown with children, Cassie and Ryle harlan, iowa, 300 cows

How many years have you attended the Central Plains Dairy Expo? We have attended the expo off and on for seven years. What do you enjoy most about attending the Central Plains Dairy Expo? We enjoy looking at the new products the vendors have on display. We also enjoy getting to talk to other people who we don't see very often. How do you spend your time while at the CPDE? We spend our time with the vendors instead of the break-out sessions. We have to go there and back the same day, so we try to make the most of our time at the expo. What seminars or booths are you especially interested in seeing this year? one thing we will be talking with vendors about is variable speed vacuum pumps. We are looking at putting a new pump in and using our current one for a back up. What have you learned from a previous CPDE that you've taken back and incorporated into your farm? Udder Comfort. We found this product a few years ago and we really like it. Tell us about your farm. We started with nine cows seven years ago on a rented facility. We quickly added 40 cows milking in a single-three parlor. We had the chance to buy the farm in 2004, so we did and started plans to expand. We first built a double-18 parallel parlor. it took us almost a year to build it as we did almost all of the work ourselves. We milked 40 cows on one side of the parlor for a year. the next year we added a freestall barn, holding area and installed the equipment on the other half of the parlor. We increased our herd at that time to the current size.


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- Olga and Wilfried ReuvekampHilltop Dairy, Elkton, SD

By Andrea BorgerdingStaff Writer

“it’s not a wonder that reproduc-tion sometimes fails but rather a mir-acle that so many pregnancies result in the birth of a live calf.” to this day, Dr. Charlie elrod is driven by this quote that appeared in a college textbook many years ago. re-production is a complex process that requires many things to be coordinat-ed to result in the birth of a calf. this complexity has many farm managers searching for the key component to fix all of the problems that come with dairy reproduction. instead of focusing on which spe-cific programs are best for successful reproduction, elrod emphasizes the overall management of the dairy cow. “as humans, we grasp at that silver bullet that will fix everything,” elrod said. “but when we are talking about reproduction, we need to think about all the potential pitfalls of the system, both the biology and the management, and prevent those things from going wrong.” elrod will discuss all of the fac-tors affecting reproduction during his presentation at the Central plains Dairy expo, “piecing together reproduc-tion,” at 11 a.m. on March 31.

elrod has been working within the dairy industry for 30 years as a dairy operator, herdsman, nutritionist, exten-sion educator, consultant and a faculty member and researcher at Cornell Uni-versity. he has degrees in dairy science

from berry College in rome, Ga. and Cornell Univer-sity. elrod has been working for Vi-Cor for the past two months as a tech-nology deployment manager. Working with reproduction for many years, elrod wants farm manag-

ers to focus on the dry cow – nutrition-ally, metabolically, immunologically and environmentally. “is the dry cow well fed, vaccinated and provided access to a clean calving environment?” elrod said. since there are so many factors to consider for reproduction to be success-ful, elrod suggests that producers con-sider the overall management system that fosters healthy reproduction. the factors that can be controlled – the calv-

Elrod pieces together the complexities of reproduction

Dr. Charlie ElrodVi-Cor

Turn to Reproduction / Page 15

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ing facility, dry and fresh cow nutrition, the heat detection system, a low stress environment and vaccinations – will all contribute to a successful reproduction program. “i won’t be addressing specific pro-grams,” elrod said. “but i will be talk-ing about the overall management and how reproduction components such as heat detection, breeding and nutri-tion best fit into the farm manager’s system.” a successful system can be achieved with the right management.“if you think of the reproductive program as a symphony, the dairy farm manager has to be a great conductor to achieve that goal of successful reproduction,” elrod said.

So many records, so little time Dairy producers are deluged with data. Daily, weekly, monthly and annual reports flood desks and offices but often times the data included in the reports is not used to the benefit of the dairy op-eration. elrod plans to inform produc-ers on how they can best utilize data and focus on the information that will prevent problems later on. “not a lot of information comes to producers in a usable form, or there’s just too much of it” elrod said. “i want to help producers understand how to look at reports and records and find the key components. What can we look at to make improvements or prevent train wrecks?” elrod will present, “Using records to best advantage on the Dairy,” at 2:30 p.m. on april 1. the presentation will help producers focus on key indi-cators within production, herd health, udder health and reproduction, to de-velop benchmarks for controlling the dairy operation.

“by using their records, producers can select a manageable range of indi-cators that when they glance at them, they know if the range is acceptable,” elrod said. “taking just four to five measures a week will allow a producer to determine if he is operating within an acceptable range to achieve their goals.” a plan should be developed to ad-dress a problem if records show opera-tions are below or above the acceptable range of numbers. “Focusing on that set of numbers and knowing you are within the norms you’ve selected allows you to focus on other parts of a dairy operation,” elrod said. elrod calls his records monitoring a dashboard perspective. For example, if weekly heat detection reports are within a set range – 60 to 80 percent – a quick glance will show whether a farm manager can move on or address a situ-ation immediately. “the goal here is to distill all of this incoming data down to a manageable level that the manager can use to keep the dairy on track”.

Continued from Reproduction / Page 14

“Focusing on that set of numbers and knowing you are within the norms you’ve selected allows you to focus on other parts of a dairy operation.” - Dr. Charlie Elrod, Vi-Cor

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