Tag Archives: calf

Meet Bobby Maass, Cattle Producer.

Bobby grew up in Dinwiddie County and has been cultivating an affinity for farming since his childhood. Like many young farmers who start their own operations, he built his vision from scratch starting with just one Hereford cow in 2004. Today, alongside his wife Alicia, he manages a high-quality commercial herd of about sixty cow-calf pairs on his farm in McKenney.

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What sets Bobby apart from some of his peers, young and old, is his exceptional ability to manage the forages on his farm. When Bobby started the farm, much of the acreage that is now in pasture was unimproved or full of unproductive broomstraw. On the land he owns and rents, Bobby made improvements, built fences, and applied nutrients to fix fertility issues in the soil, using management to shift pasture composition in favor of tall fescue for his animals to graze.

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Establishing grass can be challenging, but keeping a pasture healthy is a battle of its own. Livestock owners who overstock animals, run out of pasture, or allow too many animals to continuously graze one area can wear out their fields in no time. To combat this, many cattle producers including Bobby enact “controlled grazing” plans to maximize forage production, grazing efficiency, and plant longevity. Bobby subdivides his pastures into small sections with temporary fencing and rotates his herd to a new section of grass every few days in accordance with the speed at which the cows utilize the space given to them. “There’s no formula to tell you how often to move them,” he says. “How often I move them depends on the lay of the land, water sources, and other factors. You put something up, get a feel for how long it lasts, and go from there.”

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Bobby rotates the herd to new ground frequently to allow grazed sections to recover. “I hate to overgraze,” he says. Plants that are overgrazed have limited opportunities to photosynthesize and rebuild energy reserves in their roots, and each time leaves are repeatedly clipped off by an animal, the plant expends more of its energy reserves to push out new foliage.

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While Extension specialists recommend moving animals to a new field when the grass is grazed down to a height of about four inches, visitors to Bobby’s farm in the fall will see that the spent sections in his pasture rotation have nearly a foot of leaf area left behind, sometimes more. A closer look reveals acres of uniform grazing, even manure distribution, and a manageable number of weeds. “Sometimes I think we like fescue a whole lot more than the cows do,” he jokes, noting that his cows plunder any green weeds that they find palatable in the midst of all the grass.

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The strip of grass to the left of the white post has already been grazed and is recovering. In the next strip to the right of the temporary fence, a cow grazes fresh grass.

Bobby employs the practice of “stockpiling” his tall fescue—in essence, leaving some sections ungrazed from late summer to late fall—so that there is a bank full of grass available for him to use as winter approaches. Cattlemen who are unable to stockpile forages must feed large quantities of hay to get their animals through the winter, and hay feeding is one of the most costly inputs that cattle farms in Virginia encounter. In good years, Bobby rarely feeds hay because his stockpile lasts throughout the entire winter. However, he maintains an insurance policy in the form of a barn full of round bales. “If you’ve got it and you need it, you’ve still got it. If you need it and you don’t have it, you’re in trouble. I think of hay like money in the bank,” he says.

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Although Bobby minimizes his dependence on hay in order to control costs for his cowherd, he maintains a reputation as a producer of high-quality horse hay, a skill he honed in his early days starting the farm.

Prior to obtaining his cows, Bobby earned a bachelor’s degree in Fire Protection and a master’s in Loss Prevention and Safety at Eastern Kentucky University. Around 2004 when he graduated, he went home and met his wife Alicia who had returned to the area after graduating from Virginia Tech and who had grown up nearly next door. To feed his small but growing herd and Alicia’s horse, Bobby started borrowing hay equipment from a neighbor. “What I was making for my cows was better than what she was buying for her horse. Next thing you know, I’m making eight thousand to ten thousand bales of horse hay a year,” he says.

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Bobby and Alicia have twin daughters and a newborn baby girl, so for now, the cows take priority over the hay side of the operation. Bobby still likes to make hay, but coordinating haymaking days with his other full-time job as a captain in the Richmond Fire Department can be challenging. “I always wanted to farm, but wasn’t sure how to make a living doing it,” he says. “I figured if I was a firefighter, I’d have time to farm.” To effectively juggle both worlds, Bobby employs the help of his “right hand man on the farm,” retired crane operator Charles Wells, to check the herd and move animals from pasture to pasture.

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Because the farm is spread out over several unconnected parcels of land, Bobby hauls a portable cattle handling facility to the herd when animals need to be bred, tagged, or treated. Bobby’s herd is docile and accustomed to handling thanks to frequent exposure to people when animals are moved from pasture to pasture. Mike Henry, fellow cattleman and manager of the Amelia Area Cattlemen of which Bobby is a member, agrees that controlled grazing systems help cattle become calm. “One huge benefit is socialization of the cow herds to humans—cows can be handled with ease,” he says. He believes that a management system reliant upon grazing also keeps aggressive behavior in check within the herd. “With controlled grazing you can offset the ‘boss cow syndrome’ since all the animals have equal access to feed. With hay the cows on the high end of the social structure get the best and most,” he notes.

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No matter how docile a cow is, however, she can become aggressive if she feels she must protect her newborn calf. Bobby had several close calls with defensive cows when trying to catch calves to tag them for identification or to treat illnesses. “I said, ‘We can’t do this anymore,’” Bobby recalls. He searched for alternative options, stumbled upon a “calf catcher” system, and gave it a try. The system consists of a box-like enclosure which attaches to his ATV and has gates on both ends. When he approaches a calf, he can whisk it into the box, which is too large for the cow to access, and he can treat or handle the calf safely within the confines of the enclosure while the mother is allowed to stand nearby and watch. “As far as safety goes, it was money well spent. I wish I had bought it years ago,” he says.

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Bobby Maass demonstrates his calf catcher which is attached to his ATV.

Bobby aims to have all his calves born within a defined season so that his cow-calf pairs can be managed together as one cohort. “It’s all fall calving,” he says. “We typically breed the first week of December artificially, and then we turn the bulls in.” To develop an effective artificial insemination program, Bobby has consulted in the past with Select Sires to develop sound pre-breeding nutrition, health, and management protocols that promote higher chances of breeding success. The A.I. program enables Bobby to diversity his herd and import genetics that meet his production goals. Having watched Bobby’s operation grow through the years, Mike Henry believes that the choice to focus on genetics is a progressive one. “In using A.I. breeding on the first cycle each year, Bobby has developed excellent pedigrees especially when you consider the A.I. influence in the heifers he buys—a number of them have several generations of A.I.,” he says. “In addition, his herd reflects a lot of Knoll Crest Farm pedigrees which has resulted in a tremendous phenotypic uniformity,” Mike notes.

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Bobby Maas (right) discusses forage management strategies with Mike Henry (left), manger of the Amelia Area Cattlemen of which Bobby is a member.

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In his role as manager of the Amelia Area Cattlemen, Mike Henry has a big-picture view of the growth and changes cattle producers have undergone in the past few decades across Southside Virginia. Mike coordinates heifer development programs for members of the Amelia group and plans an annual Virginia Premium Assured bred heifer sale which takes place each year at Knoll Crest Farm in Red House, Virginia during the Bennett family’s spring bull sale. Over the years, Mike has seen the development of “phenotypic uniformity” within herds and even between herds across the region thanks to a sustained influx of front-line genetics from purchased Knoll Crest Farm bulls and Amelia Area Cattleman heifer consignments.

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James Bennett (right) of Knoll Crest Farm joins Bobby Maass (left) and Charles Wells (center) to take a look at the herd.

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Bobby Maass himself became intrigued by the Virginia Premium Assured Heifer program and Knoll Crest Farm bull sales in the early years of his farm’s development. He purchased his first heifers from the spring sale in 2005 and now returns regularly to buy Knoll Crest bulls or bred heifers consigned by his peers from the Amelia Area Cattlemen. “He can purchase the type of heifer he wants, he can buy heifers with bull fetuses to be able to turn the money around, he can buy heifers that will calve before mid-September in order to breed them back in early December with A.I., and he can concentrate on buying the best bull genetics without having to consider birth weight EPDs since he will be breeding cows, not heifers,” Mike Henry says. Furthermore, “He can save on the additional expenses of developing his own heifers,” he notes.

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Bobby Maass (left), James Bennett (middle), Mike Henry (middle), and Charles Wells (right) take a trip out to the field to visit Bobby’s herd.

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Cattle operations, specifically cow-calf operations like Bobby’s, are an integral part of Dinwiddie’s agricultural economy. Just ask Mike Parrish, senior agriculture and natural resources Extension agent for the county. “These operations we have help diversify many full-time and part-time farm operations,” Mike Parrish says. However, land resources can sometimes be difficult to access. “Availability of productive pasture and hay ground a big challenge. Competition with cash crop production acres and residential growth has limited acres for livestock operations to start or expand,” he says. “But, there is a mindset of change with some landowners favoring pasture and hay land production. Hopefully our producers can benefit in future from this potential change,” he says.

Many cattle producers turn to the Dinwiddie Extension office for assistance. “A majority of our calls from current and new producers are related to forage management,” Mike says. When cattle producers need help managing their land resources, he connects them with programs and services to help them succeed. “Our office conducts farm tours and pasture walks in conjunction with Extension and Soil and Water Conservation District programming with our beef and forage specialists. Our office also works with Extension specialists to recommend area beef and forage programming at the nearby Southern Piedmont Agricultural Research and Extension Center,” he says.

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Mike Parrish has served as an agent for twenty-two years and thus is well acquainted with the ups and downs that cattle producers like Bobby face. “When Bobby was starting his expansion of the family farm, he did a great job in thinking though his plan to make it work. He spent a lot of time getting information from several sources—both from Extension and from members of the Amelia Area Cattlemen. He was very determined to make it work and didn’t let a few setbacks deter him,” he says. “He had several challenges to overcome with turning forest land into highly productive pasture ground in such a short time. His hard work and willingness to try new techniques has helped him be successful,” Mike notes.

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Mike Henry echoes the words of Mike Parrish in describing Bobby’s business growth and success. “He has developed a sound management system—he has sought out information, asked good questions, stayed with the program, and evaluated costs and benefits,” he says. Mike, who retired from Extension before managing the Amelia Area Cattlemen, is forever an agent at heart and thus applauds great cattle management when he sees it, adding, “Bobby developed an excellent forage based system—he strip grazes almost year round, maximizes forage quality, has a sound vaccination program, and uses mineral supplementation. He keeps good production records.”

Bobby himself may have his hands full balancing his firefighting career, a long commute, and his family, but the vision he had for the farm when he and Alicia purchased their first few heifers is now a reality, and by all accounts, he is doing what he loves with great proficiency. After all, he says, “The cows have always been where I want to be.”

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Photo by Bobby Maass of his wife Alicia Maass and his daughters out on the farm.

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Photo by Bobby Maass

Additional Resources for Readers:

Amelia Area Cattlemen

Virginia Cattlemens Association

Virginia Forage and Grassland Council

Virginia Cooperative Extension Beef Resources

Meet Ameva Farm.

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Jimmy and Donna Kerr stand in their freestall barn where the milking herd lives. The barn is built for cow comfort: fans and sprinklers keep cows cool, and the cows can rest on sand bedding, socialize, or get up to eat as they please.

Jimmy and Donna Kerr run the Amelia County dairy operation today, but it was originally established several generations ago as a crop and tobacco farm. In 1948, Jimmy’s grandfather drove to Wisconsin and returned with thirteen registered Guernseys, the start of the first dairy herd at the operation. The herd soon moved across the road, where a milking facility and barns were constructed.

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The dairy herd at Ameva Farm was founded with Guernseys, but today it consists of black-and-white Holsteins. Holsteins are a highly productive dairy breed and are used on most milking herds in the U.S.

Several decades after his grandfather set the foundation for the dairy farm and the herd eventually shifted in favor of Holsteins, Jimmy went to study at Virginia Tech and met his wife Donna in the Dairy Science program. After graduating in 1982 and returning to the farm to start a family, they helped their son Alex and their daughter Jamie develop a passion for showing dairy animals at a young age. Donna recounts the story of Jamie watching her big brother prepare calves for shows and earnestly anticipating her turn to be old enough to participate, only to fall off of a gate the day before the show. She was determined to have her turn in the show ring despite the setback. “She broke her arm, but the next day she was showing!” Donna and Jimmy remark. Both Jamie and Alex continued to raise and show cattle throughout their youth and remained active in the Virginia Junior Holstein Association for a number of years. Today, Alex helps manage the operation alongside his father.

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Ameva Farm operates much like other family dairy farms in the state. The 200-head milking herd goes to the parlor twice each day, once at 3:30 in the morning and again at 2:00 in the afternoon. Farm employees Homer Neese and Lane Staten help Jimmy with milking. When they are not being milked, the cows live in a freestall barn where they can come and go from feed to sand bedding as they please. Keeping the cows content and comfortable requires someone willing to mix feed, bed up the barn, and scrape manure out of the aisles daily. “These cows are our livelihood,” Donna says, noting that cow welfare directly affects the farm’s bottom line. “If they are not in good health and well fed, we don’t make money.” To help with the chores, Jimmy and Donna enlist the help of assistant herdsman Chief Moore, Joel Linthicum and part-time help John Sloan and Tommy Glover. Chief’s wife Donna also helps feed calves. “It takes a village to raise a cow,” Donna jokes.

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The calves on the farm require special care of their own. Like any newborns, they can become sick if they are stressed or malnourished, so they are fed four doses of colostrum in the first two days after birth to ensure good transfer of disease immunity from their dams. The calves are then fed a milk replacer which functions akin to baby formula to provide calves with the nutrition they need. Calves are kept in a special barn to protect them from contact with diseases, and as they grow older, they are put in a larger group to help them learn to socialize with a herd.

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Calves at Ameva Farm receive special care after birth to ensure a good start. As they grow older, they learn to eat pelleted feed and hay.

Throughout their time in the calf barn, calves have access to a pelleted feed. As calves grow, they choose to consume more of this feed in preparation for weaning at seven weeks of age. Older calves become heifers—the teenagers of the cattle world—and when they approach maturity, they are bred and eventually enter the milking herd. Cows in the milking herd give birth to calves, produce milk for several months, and enjoy a “dry period” of rest before the next calf arrives.

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Like most dairy farmers, the Kerrs grow much of their feed right on the farm including small grains and corn for silage and grain. They also grow brown midrib sudangrass which turns into an easily-digestible silage for the cows after it is chopped and stored. Jimmy uses modern soil conservation practices on his farm for his crop production program. “My grandfather was big into soil conservation. We carried those practices on,” he says. “Conservation is a big thing for us.” On Ameva, improved practices include contour strips and no-till farming to promote healthy soil. “You can’t buy topsoil at Wal-Mart,” Donna notes.

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The Kerrs grow most of their feed right on the farm. Some of their crops are grown for silage and some are used for grain. Small grains grow in the fall through spring. Corn and sudgangrass grow during the spring and summer. Both can be chopped and ensiled at harvest time and fed to the milking herd.

Jimmy’s son Alex helps with the field work and crop management, which occurs year-round since small grains grow in the fall through spring and corn grows in the summer. And, of course, the cows need to be milked and fed year-round.

The Kerr family dedicates a considerable amount of each day to farm work. “We have 9-10 hour days, and that’s typical,” Donna says. “Milking cows is almost an 8-hour day, and that’s just milking.” Nonetheless, Jimmy and Donna place a high value on taking time to educate others about agriculture. Donna recounts one particular youth education program years ago that motivated her to take action. “My first question to the kids was, ‘Where does milk come from?’ I kept hearing, ‘The grocery store! The grocery store!’” she says. “I came home and said, ‘We have to do something!’ These are our future regulators and legislators.”

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Agricultural education has been a keystone of the farm since the day the Kerrs first hosted schoolchildren on a field trip when their son Alex entered kindergarten. “We’ve had lots of different tour groups from boy scouts to school children,” Jimmy says. In recent years, schools like Spring Run Elementary have chosen to return annually. Donna notes that well over half of the U.S. population is three or more generations removed from farming, so naturally many children and adults have misunderstandings about how their food is produced. The tours and question-and-answer sessions seem to have made an impact over the years. “Sometimes there’s a lightbulb moment for them,” Jimmy says.

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Cows are brought to the milking parlor twice each day. Each cow is milked for several minutes, and afterwards, she is able to return to the barn to eat, rest, or socialize. Meanwhile, the Kerrs and their employees clean and sanitize the parlor equipment after every milking.

Donna and Jimmy’s roles in the community have given them ample opportunities to share their farm with adults, too. They have given dairy tours to representatives of several government agencies. Donna also believes that the teachers who tour the farm with their classes can go home armed with knowledge to teach many more children about farming.

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Not all students and adults have the opportunity to visit the operation in Amelia, but that does not deter Donna from sharing her message outside of the farm, especially to the state’s decision-makers. In her role as past President of Amelia County Farm Bureau and her time serving on the state Forestry and Natural Resources Committee, Donna has developed rapport with legislators and their aides who sometimes contact her to ask questions about agricultural issues raised by the public. “You never know who you can affect,” Donna says.

When they are not busy on the farm or performing agricultural outreach, Jimmy and Donna still find time to engage with industry groups. Donna is on the board of the Piedmont Soil and Water Conservation District and was an advisor to the Virginia Junior Holstein Association for too many years to count. Meanwhile, Jimmy is the president of Cooperative Milk Producers and was also involved with the Virginia Holstein Association.

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Back at Ameva Farm, Jimmy and Donna want consumers to know that they raise a product that they believe in. Even though farm life is busy, they are happy to help others learn about their occupation. To instill confidence in the dairy industry as she tells her farm story, Donna relates that her family is committed to their own product. “We’re consumers too. I think people forget that perspective. We believe in dealing with our customers,” she says. To the Kerrs, producing a good product and sharing it with others is not simply a business—it is a lifelong passion.

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Additional Resources for Readers:

Learn about Dairy Farming from Virginia Cooperative Extension

National Dairy Council

Virginia State Dairymen’s Association

Virginia Holstein Association