SELECTIONS - Summer 2006
Scheenstra Dairy Tries New Concepts, Products With Select
by Gary Bates, All West/Select Sires
From the outside looking in, it's hard to see where you'd want to change or improve anything at Scheenstra Dairy, Sunnyside, Wash.
Most dairymen would be thrilled to achieve the production and reproduction numbers Bill Scheenstra maintains: 760 milking grade Holsteins with consistent averages of more than 85 pounds of milk per cow per day, a calving interval that’s barely 13 months, and a somatic cell count that has been under 200,000 for more than a year.
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Bill and Susan Scheenstra enjoy some time out at the beach with their children.
(L-R) Nate, Jessica and Drew |
Any way you measure it, this herd of Holsteins is doing extremely well. Yet Bill Scheenstra is constantly looking for ways to improve the herd, making changes and monitoring their results.
About a year ago, Bill decided to incorporate Select BIOCYCLE PLUS™ into his mixed ration. He’s straightforward with his reasons for the addition.
"I wanted to see for myself if it would work in our herd. I just kept hearing about the benefits of BIOCYCLE PLUS and reading the testimonials from satisfied dairymen. A couple other dairymen in our area were using it and I decided I would try it for one year and see for myself."
The results were obvious. "I used it through the hot summer months and the cows definitely showed stronger, better heats," Scheenstra said.
"The calving interval looks really good. Our somatic cell count always ran over 200,000 before we started the product and it has not been over 200,000 since we started, down to 150,000 some months. Basically if I didn’t think it was working, I wouldn’t still be buying it."
Scheenstra also started using the BIOFRESH™ boluses on any cows that looked like they had problems after calving, and giving newborn calves a dose of CONVERT™ Calf Gel.
Bill also made changes in the way he handles fresh cows. The milking herd is milked twice a day, and he milks all fresh cows four times a day for the first three weeks after calving.
"By milking the fresh cows 4X, they clean up better and get off to a better start. I'm not sure I get any more milk, but it really helps get them going and I think they breed back better," he said.
He gives credit to herdsman Pedro Rojas, who has been with him for six years, for the excellent herd health status. The operation doesn't even vet check fresh cows anymore, and Rojas keeps a close watch and infuses any questionable cows, Scheenstra said. "He's really good with the cows and deserves a lot of the credit for the health of our herd," Scheenstra said of Rojas.
The Reproductive Program
Select Sires technicians provide all the operation’s A.I. service, and today's team includes Select Mating Service™ (SMS™) evaluator Bill VandeGraaf and primary technician Mike Schafer.
Scheenstra's breeding setup starts with two pens of breeding eligible cows at about 120 cows per string. They are moved into the breeding strings after about 30 days in milk. Cows are in lockups once a day and are all tail chalked and inseminated by Schafer. As they are diagnosed pregnant, cows get moved out to another string. At around 130 days in milk, cows are moved to a string with a clean-up bull, but an extremely high percentage of them are A.I. pregnant by that time.
All the virgin heifers are also tail chalked and A.I. bred to the sire recommended by VandeGraaf which includes gender SELECTed™ sires.
As far as bull selection goes, Scheenstra says, "I leave that pretty much up to VandeGraaf - leave it to the expert. We sit down and go over some guidelines and the bulls every once in awhile, but basically I don’t worry about that part of the program. VandeGraaf knows what kind of cattle we want so I just leave it up to Bill and Mike to take care of that and things are going really well."
Like most dairymen, Scheenstra is looking for well-balanced service sires with good udders and correct feet and legs.
All heifer calves born on the dairy are raised on the farm and stay on the farm their entire life. The record keeping is meticulous and most heifer pedigrees are easily traced back several generations.
Family Farm
Bill Scheenstra's father, Clarence, purchased the original dairy in eastern Washington in 1961. Clarence had worked on dairies in California and was looking for an opportunity to purchase a dairy of his own. Moving his young family, he bought 40 acres, 40 cows and an old flat barn. He and his wife raised seven children on the dairy. Bill, the sixth child, returned to the dairy from Washington State University in 1989.
Ten years later, in 1999, Bill and his wife, Susan, purchased the farm and took over the operation. They have three future dairy producers in sons Drew and Nate and daughter Jessica.
100 Percent Select Sires
Bill Scheenstra says the dairy has been a 100-percent Select Sires customer for more than 45 years. At first they purchased semen and bred their own cows. As they grew in size the A.I. work was entrusted to area technicians.
Of their decision to stick with Select genetics, Bill Scheenstra says, "… We've never seen any need to look anywhere else. The No. 1 reason I'd say is the bulls. [Select] has always had a strong lineup of good bulls at a good price. There's a whole lineup of good bulls, the hard part is deciding which few to use."
Scheenstra is also impressed with the All West/Select Sires employees he works with.
"We’ve just never had any problems working with the salesmen, technicians or evaluators. They all have our best interest in mind, are knowledgeable and dependable and are doing a good job for us."
The Future
Bill Scheenstra isn't making any bold predictions for the dairy's future.
He believes the dairy is currently maxed out on space but is efficient with the number of cows in the herd. He's had to buy a city business license to continue his farm since the entire dairy is now within city limits.
"I guess we are always open to other opportunities, but open dairies don’t pop up in this area very often. So for now we'll just keep trying to do things better when we can and sort of wait and see what happens down the road."
It's a bet Bill Scheenstra will be in the dairy business somewhere for a long, long time. Scheenstra Farms is an example of a successful dairyman running an exceptionally well managed dairy that is only going to get better.
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| Left: BIOCYCLE PLUS was incorporated into the ration for stronger heats and to lower the somatic cell count. Center: SMS Evaluator Bill VanderGraaf visits with Bill Scheenstra. Right: All West/Select Sires Technician, Mike Schafer, is in charge of all the breeding at Scheenstra Dairy. |
™BIOCYCLE PLUS and CONVERT are registered trademarks of Agrarian Marketing Corporation, Middlebury, Ind.
™Select Mating Service, SMS and gender SELECTed are trademarks of Select Sires Inc.
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