Mark Harrison
of Harrison Dairy
Who: Steve and Mark Harrison
What: Harrison Dairy
Where: Loudon, TN
Managing heat in the heat: Harrison Dairy has plenty of pregnant cows. Steve Harrison with the help of his son Mark, herdsman Jimmy Strange, and breeding technician Ruben Gutierrez have figured out how to get cows in their 1200-cow herd pregnant. Being located in the Southeast makes the task more difficult. The heat and humidity make it a challenge just to keep production at a high level much less maintain an efficient reproduction program. Steve says, "There are six keys that have helped evolve the herd's reproduction program: Mark managing it daily following protocols, pregnancy checking weekly, the use of high conception-rate sires, proper nutrition, good technicians, and cow comfort."
Being as cool as possible: The Harrisons understand that cow cooling and cow comfort are priorities, especially being in the South. The majority of the herd is housed in compost-bedded barns. They also have one free stall barn that has waterbeds with compost bedding in the stalls. The lactating cows have sprinkler systems with fans over the feed bunks and 24-ft. diameter ceiling fans over the bedded packs, which move a considerable amount of air to initiate evaporative cooling when the cows return from the feed lanes. The holding pen and parlor are enclosed on three sides and they utilize polar cooling fans to cool the air so the cows are comfortable and they can minimize water usage. The dry cows are currently housed in an older loose housing barn. Construction of a new compost bedded barn is under way so that the dry cows can be better cooled for cow and calf health. This will allow for the cows to be more comfortable and transition smoothly so they are ready to enter the reproduction program and achieve higher peak milk production. As you can see, cow comfort is a major component of their program. If the cows are not cool and comfortable they will not perform. Another herd strategy is to double the feeding rate of Diamond V Original XP to help with heat stress conditions by maintaining DMI and rumen consistency and digestibility.
Programs and protocols: As Steve mentioned, Mark is managing the reproduction of the herd and not letting it manage him. It takes persistency and consistency to have results like they experience. The farm utilizes double ov-sync and re-sync programs to help them achieve the reproductive status in their herd they desire. Mark says, "It is not hard to implement program, it just takes the commitment to follow through." Their program is set up so that there are four groups in the process at all times: two cow groups and two heifer groups.
Here's how it works: Monday is for pregnancy checking and giving morning shots; Tuesday is chalking tails and heat detection; Wednesday they give afternoon shots; Thursday is when 80% of the breeding is done; Friday they give morning shots and heat detect, and that leaves Saturday and Sunday to heat detect. Jimmy says, "With less labor on the farm on the weekend, there is only heat detection taking place and no shots given".
Cows that are open at pregnancy check enter the re-sync program. Heifers are pregnancy checked at 32 days and cows at 36 - 42 days post breeding. Another thing Mark has implemented is re-checking all pregnant barns every 9 weeks. They pregnancy check them on Monday and if they are open, they roll over into the re-sync program to try and get them pregnant again. Only about 1.5% of the cows fall into this situation
The numbers show it: The Harrisons have achieved some pretty impressive results from their commitment to the reproductive status of the herd. The average days to first service for the herd is 76 days with an average days open of 112. The herd's yearly average days in milk is 165. The first service conception rate is 51%, second is 34%, and third is 32%. The herd's pregnancy rate averages 31% for the year. It will drop to 24% in the summer months and get as high as 36% through the cooler months. Mark says, "At any given time there is 51 - 52% of the herd pregnant." These results are accomplished even with only 21.3% of the cows leaving the herd. The cull rate is 15.3% and 6% are sold for dairy. High reproductive numbers can be accomplished if you cull heavy but the Harrisons have achieved these results while keeping their cull rate low. This allows the opportunity to sell more animals for dairy, which is another income center for the farm, or the ability to grow and expand the herd without purchasing
Any way you look at the Harrison's herd, the reproductive status of the herd shows that the commitment of persistency and paying attention to detail are paying dividends for them. They have tailored the program over the last couple of years to help their herd become one of the elite herds in the Southeast.
