Tag Archives: livestock

Meet Maple Dell Farm.

Posted on January 9, 2015 by laurab08

Introduction: We normally feature Virginia farms, but rules can be broken! I recently visited my hometown and met with the Patrick family at their nearby farm. I also have a bit of a personal connection to their story—Caitlin and Derek Patrick were in the same 4-H program that I was, and I saw the family at the Howard County Fair each year where we all exhibited our livestock.–Laura Siegle

The 160-cow dairy, a fixture in the Howard County farm landscape, is one of the last of its kind in Howard County, Maryland. Nonetheless, a typical day on the farm for the Patrick family at Maple Dell is much like life on any of the many family-run dairies scattered across the state. The cows walk to the milking parlor twice each day, and each cow’s udder is cleaned and milked over the course of several minutes.

Unlike cows, who eat a mixed ration, calves on dairies like Maple Dell drink milk or milk replacer and are slowly transitioned to a diet of “calf starter” and hay as they grow so that they can develop healthy rumens.

In between trips to the parlor and judicious equipment cleanup after each milking, there is no shortage of chores. Each day, the family must blend a ration consisting of farm-grown silage, hay, grain, and minerals and deliver it to the barns. This dairy ration, calculated with precision according to the needs of the cows and the nutrient makeup of each ingredient, consists largely of forages like hay and silage to keep each cow’s digestive tract and rumen microbes healthy.

Manure is cleaned out of the barn regularly to create a clean, comfortable environment for the milking herd. In fact, in one barn, the cows have free access to enter and leave a set of “free stalls” bedded deeply with sand. In another barn, the “pack barn,” cows can lie down as they please on a thick layer of shavings. The Patrick family knows that good housing that enhances “cow comfort,” as the industry calls it, leads to happy, healthy, and productive cows.

Like most dairies, the Patrick family raises their calves in hutches that provide shelter and enable individualized feeding and monitoring of each animal. Heifer calves which have been weaned live together as they grow to breeding and calving age. Aside from caring for the animals, the family also must manage the crops they grow which include corn, soybeans, barley, wheat, triticale, alfalfa, timothy hay, and orchard grass hay.

Maple Dell certainly looks a typical dairy in its day-to-day functions, but its tradition of exhibiting top-notch cattle and supporting the Howard County 4-H program is rather extraordinary. Although most of the herd consists of Holsteins, one of the most common dairy breeds, one third of the cattle are red-and-white Ayrshires. The family exhibits both breeds. In fact, the Patrick family has been showing cattle for the past seventy years ever since David and James Patrick began taking their Ayrshires to fairs. Most recently, Maple Dell cattle have gone locally to the Howard County Fair, the Maryland Spring Show, and the Maryland State Fair. At the State Fair, the family has brought the Holstein Senior Best Three Females for two years in a row.

The Patricks have also traveled to the prestigious All-American Dairy Show and the World Dairy Expo. Their cattle have undergone the “classification” process which objectively appraises animals for a variety of traits on a 1-100 point scale. The outstanding EX-95 classification that has been assigned to three Holsteins and one Ayrshire bred by Maple Dell is a testament to the quality of the cattle the family produces.

Calf hutches provide shelter during cold winter weather.

It would be remiss to look at the farm’s breeding and showing achievements without acknowledging its contribution to the county’s 4-H program. The 4-H program in Howard County has long been a standout opportunity for youth to gain skills ranging from robotics to livestock judging. Farms in the county have dwindled and dairy farms are far more rare, but thanks to the Patrick family, youth with or without farming backgrounds have the opportunity to lease dairy heifers and exhibit them in the Howard County Fair, an event where the 4-H program shines and youth showcase their skills and projects over the course of a week in front of thousands of attendees from the community.

This cow and her herd mates are lying down on a bed of sand. Cows can enter and exit these bedded “free stalls” as they please to go eat, drink, or socialize.

For many years the Patricks have organized a dairy club education and showing program. Youth who join can keep their leased heifer at the farm if they do not have their own facilities. Twenty or thirty heifers from Maple Dell are leased out to children through this program each year. 4-H members who lease a heifer must keep detailed “project records” on their animal, including notes on care and reports on expenditures, and preparing the heifers for the fair is certainly is nothing short of a project. Heifers must first learn to be handled and walk quietly when led. They must also be brushed, bathed, and clipped, among other tasks. The process instills responsibility, confidence, and character in youth who participate in the process from start to finish.

The Patrick family is deeply rooted in their passion for excelling in their business, serving the industry, and engaging youth in agricultural production. This tradition was built by the dedication of parents and grandparents who had high expectations for their cattle and appreciated the value of 4-H programs, and today, the Patrick children and grandchildren carry on the tradition. Walk through the Howard County Fair in August, and you just might spot a barn aisle full of Maple Dell calves napping in the straw after a bath and waiting on their turn in the show ring.

Additional Resources for Readers:

Article about the 4-H leasing program at Maple Dell here

Article about Ayrshires at Maple Dell here

Dairy cattle resource from Virginia Cooperative Extension here

University of Maryland 4-H Program here

Meet Robert Harper, Cattle Producer.

Posted on January 24, 2014 by laurab08

Robert manages cattle as part of a partnership called Cross River Farms, LLC. Robert’s operation is located at Dungeness Farm, which has fascinating roots in early American history. Dungeness was built by Isham Randolph in the early 1700s, and Thomas Jefferson’s mother was raised there. Today at the Goochland farm, Robert specializes in several aspects of cattle production. In addition to running a cow-calf operation that includes Red Angus cattle, he custom-raises Holstein heifers for a nearby dairy farm. He also manages a group of females for the Amelia Area Cattlemen Heifer Development Program. Heifers in this program are produced and owned by individual livestock producers from across the region, but they are brought together to live at Cross River after they are weaned. They are bred in December and undergo further development through the winter. In the spring, most return to the herds on their home farms where they were born. A few are sold in April to buyers looking for high-quality females for their cow-calf herds.

To keep up with so many cattle, Robert must carefully manage his feeding program to ensure that he has adequate pasture and hay available to the cattle throughout the year. Because each set of cattle on his farm has a unique purpose, Robert must tailor his feeding and management to suit the needs of each particular group. His brood cows in his cow-calf herd need enough energy and protein from feed to produce milk for their calves from birth until weaning. The calves, in turn, need to grow steadily before and after weaning so that they will perform well at a finishing operation later in life and provide high-quality beef for consumers.

However, the young female calves in the heifer development herd require a different approach. Unlike their counterparts that will not remain in a herd for many years and must instead reach a robust “finished” weight in a timely fashion, the heifers need to grow at a more moderate pace. The young heifers must build bone, fat, and muscle tissue at a rate that promotes longevity and sound reproductive traits in preparation for a future career living on pasture and raising their own calves on a cow-calf breeding operation. To meet this goal, the heifers are run on pasture and receive a daily ration of silage, commodity feeds, hay and grain to grow and mature in preparation for breeding. Robert periodically weighs the Cross River heifers to gauge their growth and make management decisions.

Once the heifers reach an appropriate age and body size and undergo a reproductive soundness check from a veterinarian, they are ready to be bred. Robert Harper and the rest of his fellow cattle producers in Virginia have the option to use a live bull for breeding or rely on artificial insemination. Both options follow the natural cycle for cattle reproduction, allowing females to produce one calf each year as they would do if left to their own devices. After breeding, cows remain pregnant for nine months before calving, and the calf nurses the cow on pasture for several months before it is weaned.

Unlike most horses and sheep which only can be bred during certain seasons, cattle cycle naturally throughout the entire year. However, instead of leaving the bull with the herd full-time and allowing heifers and cows to get pregnant and calve sporadically, producers aim to confine calving to a single season, often the fall, so that calves within a herd are all of approximately the same age and can receive the same health treatments such as vaccinations at the same time. This practice reduces stress on the animals by limiting the number of times that the herd must be brought in close proximity to humans for handling. For these reasons, Robert and the Amelia Area Cattlemen choose to breed the heifers at Cross River in December so that they will calve during the following fall season. To ensure that the animals can all be bred around the same time, they follow a heat synchronization program that causes all of the heifers to cycle on the same schedule. Once the group of heifers collectively comes into heat, they are bred. This herd is first bred using artificial insemination. This advanced, well-studied reproductive method puts little stress on the heifers and allows herd managers to bring cutting-edge genetics into the herd from bulls all over the country.

The heifers at Cross River wear heat detection patches. When the silver surface of the patch is rubbed off, the heifer is ready to be bred.

If a producer wants to use a live bull, he or she will not have to spend time synchronizing cow and heifer cycles or watching animals for signs of heat—the bull takes on this job himself. However, a locally-purchased bull’s genetic traits may not always be predictable, and the producer will need to rotate a new bull into the herd every few years to ensure that the quality of the herd and its collective genetic potential continue to progress. If producers choose instead to buy units of semen from a company that offers a catalog of bulls available for artificial insemination, they can select semen from bulls with well-documented performance traits that match their goals to improve traits like mothering ability, meat quality, animal build, or a plethora of other factors.

Bulls that are selected for use in an artificial insemination program are considered the “top of the line” in the industry and are subject to extensive performance testing and offspring data collection. Hence, producers like Robert Harper and members of the Amelia Area Cattlemen who choose to breed via artificial insemination have the means to improve their herds far more quickly and increase their genetic diversity far more easily than they could with a live bull. However, old-fashioned bulls still have their place and there are still many high-quality bulls sold locally that may never be featured in a semen company catalog. These animals are useful even to a herd that relies on artificial insemination, as not every heifer will successfully conceive through this means. Hence, the “cleanup bull” is turned out with the artificially-inseminated heifers so those that do not “catch,” or get pregnant, come back into heat and have the opportunity to get bred by the bull.

Like many producers, Robert likes to stay on top of the curve and adopt progressive practices that improve the health, performance, and longevity of his animals and the animals he custom-raises for fellow cattlemen across the region. His creative edge has allowed him to increase the scope of his operation over the years, but anyone who visits the Cross River Farms partnership at Dungeness can easily sense that Robert’s passion for working hard to raise high-quality cattle has been the ultimate force driving his success.

Additional Resources for Readers:

Getting Started in the Cattle Business in Virginia

Replacement Heifer Development Steps

Ten Steps to Buying the Right Bull

Artificial Insemination vs Natural Bull Service-Where are the Economic Benefits?

Meet Windy Springs Farm.

Posted on November 21, 2013 by laurab08

Operated by the Roberts family of Amelia, this farm is home to a herd of beef heifers, cows, and their calves. It is one of the many “cow-calf” operations that contribute to Virginia’s inventory of nearly 1.5 million cattle and calves. In fact, the cattle industry is ranked second-highest in the state, standing just behind broilers which bring the highest value in receipts. What many people do not know, however, is that not all beef producers in this area make a living raising cattle all the way from birth to harvest. In fact, cattle production is often divided into stages, and in the conventional industry different types of farms may specialize in different stages of cattle management.

All beef animals start out as calves, but before the calf comes the brood cow. Left to her own devices, a good female can raise a healthy calf if she is provided with pasture or hay that meets her nutritional demands while she is pregnant and when the calf is nursing. In fact, raising heifers and cows that subsist on grass and hay is by far the most efficient management system. Furthermore, a forage-based system where cows graze year-round in the field promotes healthy rumens in cows, provides a clean calving environment, and mitigates contagious diseases that can worsen when very young animals are kept in tight quarters. Contrary to some misconceptions, most cows in a conventional commercial production system are only given some feed when nutritional needs cannot be completely met by forage, and calves spend seven or more months with their mothers in the field consuming milk and pasture before they are weaned. This is the calf production step of the beef industry; farms that specialize in maintaining cows for breeding and raising calves from birth to weaning are generalized as “cow-calf operations.”

Weaned calves, now known as feeder cattle, may then go to a “backgrounder” or “stocker” operation. They may weigh several hundred pounds at weaning time on the cow-calf operation, but they may undergo a period of additional weight gain and adjustment to peer groups on a stocker operation. The final step is finishing, where cattle are fed to an appropriate weight and then processed for the wholesale and retail market. Virginia feeder cattle are often sent to states like Pennsylvania, Kansas, Iowa, and Ohio for finishing because these states offer an advantage in feed availability and processing.

Although the commercial cow-calf, stocker, and finishing operation sequence is most common, there are exceptions. Farmers who sell directly to consumers at farmers markets and other venues may choose to raise animals from start to finish and take responsibility for processing and marketing. This system is most common on small direct-market operations located in proximity to large numbers of urban consumers. Other farms may specialize in producing purebred animals for high-quality breeding stock, and some may specialize in raising show cattle, heritage breeds, or hobby animals. These operations are far less common than conventional commercial operations due to the nature of their production and marketing needs.

Virginia is fortunate to experience adequate rainfall during average years, and producers who manage their pastures diligently are capable of maintaining medium to high-quality forage for their animals nearly year-round. Amelia County, where Windy Springs Farm is situated, is no exception. In fact, crop production and cattle production overlap in Central Virginia where land is suitable for either use. Hence, Virginia has a reputation primarily as a cow-calf state and Windy Springs is one of many cow-calf operations in the region. Producers in this area often time breeding so that calves will be born in the fall of the year. However, some operations choose a spring calving season.

The Roberts family aims to have all of their heifers and cows calve around the same time so that each calf is at the same stage of growth as its peers. Why is this important? Cows and calves need treatments like vaccination and parasite control in order to remain healthy, grow properly, and prevent disease outbreaks. Windy Springs calves must also be tagged so that they can be identified and records can be made each time they are handled in the future. The herd must be brought through the farm’s handling facility for these tasks to be performed with minimal stress. If all calves within a group are approximately the same age, the whole group can receive certain health treatments at once. This allows the farm to be more efficient and reduces the number of times the animals must be handled.

Windy Springs has a handling facility designed to minimize stress. Animals start in a group pen and are walked down an alley towards a chute and a head gate, which humanely stabilizes the animal while it is treated. Good handlers like Johnny and Lawson Roberts rarely keep animals in the head gate for more than a minute even when completing multi-step tasks, and some chores performed at certain times of the year can be completed in just seconds per animal. Cows have a herd mentality, so they follow their peers in line as they walk towards the chute and they rejoin the herd immediately in the pasture after they are treated. The end result is a vigorous crop of calves that will remain healthy later in life when they are transported to another operation or comingled with new peers. Windy Springs Farm, like many cow-calf operations, takes pride in maintaining a high-quality herd of cows and working long hours to raise calves that excel on the farm and provide a top-notch product for the consumer.

Additional Resources for Readers:

Getting Started in the Cattle Business in VA

Beef Cow/Calf Herd Health Program and Calendar

Beef Cattle Management Publications

Meet the Alexanders.

Posted on August 16, 2013 by laurab08

They operate Avery’s Branch Farms, a dairy, pork, and poultry operation in Amelia County. The Alexanders started their farm business about six years ago and moved to their current location in 2009. They are primarily milk producers who interact with local consumers via a cow shareholding system, but they also raise poultry and pigs in order to offer chicken, turkey, pork, and eggs for sale. The family has made it their goal to feed their milking herd a pasture-based diet and to build healthy soil that can sustain pasture plants. Tim, his wife Joy, and their children run the operation together.

The Avery’s Branch milking herd is composed of about fifty head of Jerseys and crossbred animals. Why Jerseys? This breed does not produce the same volume of milk per day as the Holstein does, but Jersey milk tends to be high in butterfat and protein and is excellent for making cheese. Jersey cattle also perform well in the outdoor conditions on grazing operations and are widely used in many parts of the country.

The milking herd relies primarily on forages to meet their needs. The cows receive a small amount of grain to meet their remaining nutritional requirements because lactating animals naturally require a high-energy diet in order to produce milk.

Like any grazing operation, Avery’s Branch strives to manage their pastures in such a way that forage is available for the majority of the year. Any farmer who runs out of pasture by the winter or faces a slump during a hot summer must resort to feeding hay, which can become costly. To reduce the number of hay-feeding days per year on the farm, Tim utilizes a diverse mix of annual and perennial forages in his pasture. Some of his pasture consists of tall fescue and clover, both of which are cool-season grasses that thrive in fall and spring and can be “stockpiled,” or saved up in the fall for grazing during the winter. The clover also “fixes” nitrogen from the air and adds it back into the soil, making it available for plants to use. Since cool-season grasses typically do not grow well during the hottest months, Tim plants warm-season annuals such as sudangrass, sorghum-sudangrass, and crabgrass, all of which thrive during the summer months when cool-season grasses have gone dormant. Keeping crabgrass as a desirable pasture plant may come as a surprise to people who despise seeing it in their lawns and gardens, but crabgrass is actually a higher-quality forage than many of its warm-season counterparts and contains about 15% crude protein and 60% total digestible energy when it is grown in fertile soil. The Alexanders have also planted winter annuals like ryegrass and oats to help get through the coming months.

Weeds, weather, and soil factors all play a role in the quality of the forages that are available to the cows. This year, wet weather has allowed cool-season forages like tall fescue to keep on growing all summer long. Weeds are also a concern on the farm, as they are for all producers, but the Alexanders combat them by clipping them to weaken them and rotating animals between pastures. Pasture rotation reduces the stress on desirable plants and allows them to recover quickly and choke out undesirable plants.

The Alexanders have continued to grow their farm to further meet the needs of their customers and shareholders. Their willingness to try new practices and evaluate their successes and failures objectively has allowed them to take their farming operation from an idea to a real-life success.

Additional Resources for Readers:

Warm-Season Annual Grass For Summer Forage

Forage Establishment: Getting Off to a Good Start

Information about Direct Marketing for Farm Products

Avery’s Branch Farms Website

Central Virginia Ag Spotlight

Connecting communities to agriculture

Tag Archives: livestock

Meet Maple Dell Farm.

Meet Robert Harper, Cattle Producer.

Meet Windy Springs Farm.

Meet the Alexanders.