|
Calves Save the Farm
|
Article
and photos by Rick Mooney
|
When
health problems forced this family to give up dairying,
replacement calves were the answer.
Four years ago, Norm Busse found himself smack
dab in the middle of one of life’s agonizing crossroads.
At age 65, he needed knee replacement surgery, the possible
result of more than 30 years milking cows in a concrete
floor stanchion barn near Barron, Wisconsin.
Busse realized the surgery likely meant the end of his
dairying career. He, his wife Judy, and their daughter and business
partner, Sherry Arnold, weren’t interested in making the huge
capital investment that would have been required to convert their
dairy to a parlor/freestall operation, even though it would have eliminated
the bending and squatting that must be done when milking cows in a
stall barn.
|
|
The Busse family, Judy, Norm, and their daughter,
Sherry Arnold, had to quit milking cows but have remained
close to dairy farming by raising replacement calves
on contract.
|
|
A lifelong farmer, Busse wasn’t ready to give up
on livestock agriculture altogether. “I had worked with animals
my entire life,” he said. “It would have been hard for me
to just walk away. Besides, it had taken me a long time to get this
place going.”
So the family sold their 100-cow herd and milking equipment
and began looking for alternatives that would enable them to continue
making use of their facilities and land base.
The Calf Answer
Initially, they raised Holstein bull calves up to feeder
weight, setting up shop with the purchase of 50 calves and hutches.
“We figured it would be a good way to make use of all the feed
we produce,” Busse said.
Little did they realize what they had started. One of
their bull calf suppliers, a neighboring dairy in the process of expanding
to 1,200 cows, asked if they would consider raising heifer calves
on a contract basis.
They soon began hearing the same thing from other dairies
that needed replacement calves but couldn’t provide the special
care calves require. As a result, the Busses and their new partner,
Micah Halverson, now work with six dairies, raising heifer calves
from one day old to about five months. “It was all word of mouth,”
said Sherry. “We’ve never done any advertising.”
Over 2,000 Calves a Year
Their calf operation today has a capacity for 520 hutch
calves (one to 60 days old) and 400 older calves (two to five months
old) which are housed in a 150 X 80-foot group pen barn built three
years ago. They have also continued buying and raising Holstein bull
calves which are kept to feeder steer weight. Last year a total of
2,140 calves were moved through their facility.
|
|
More than 500 calf hutches now cover the landscape
of the Busse farm in Wisconsin.
|
|
“Steep” is the word Busse uses to describe
the learning curve for the transition from dairying to custom-calf
rearing. “It takes some getting used to. The calves have to be
fed whether it’s 20 degrees below zero or pouring buckets of
rain. The winter is bad, but the rain is the worst.”
On the flip side, the new calf enterprise lends itself
to a daily work schedule that most people would find more desirable
than the schedule kept by dairy producers. Calves in hutches are fed
twice a day, 4 A.M. and 2 P.M. When the farm is filled to capacity
with calves, two people can complete the feeding chores in about three
hours per feeding.
|
Calves in the group pen barn are fed a total mixed ration
once a day. Other necessary chores include washing and moving hutches,
treating sick calves, and checking in the new ones. The family picks
up calves at dairies located nearby, while animals coming from a greater
distance are delivered to the farm.
Reasonable Hours
“We still work a lot of hours,” Sherry said,
“but we’re finished at five o’clock every afternoon.
With the dairy, we wouldn’t go into the barn to start the evening
milking until after seven.”
Dealing with customers has also required some adjustments
on the family’s part. “When you’re a dairy farmer,
you’re kind of independent,” Sherry said. “But in this
kind of business, you’re accountable to everybody.”
|
The family enters into a written contract with each
customer. Along with financial terms, on a per-head, per-day basis,
the contract spells out each party’s responsibilities for animal
health. The customer agrees to deliver calves from vaccinated cows,
calves that have received at least one gallon of colostrums within
24 hours of birth. The customer also must apply identification tags
before delivering calves. Each customer dairy is then assigned a different
color.
Low Loss Rate
For their part, the Busses agree to provide milk replacer,
feed, dehorning, and vaccinations. But the key to success in
the custom calf business, they emphasize, is holding death losses
to a minimum. Their calf death loss last year was two percent,
which they say compares to a five to seven percent rate in some
large dairy operations.
“One customer told us he was losing about 10 percent
of his calves when he was raising them himself,” Sherry said.
“So at our rate of two percent, he figures he’s saving quite
a bit of money.”
“You have to have a good eye for spotting a sick
calf,” said Norm, “and Sherry is one of the best. When she
sees a sick calf, she gets on it right away and starts treating it.” |
|
Sherry Arnold feeds a newly arrived calf, with
the help of her niece, Sara Gonske.
|
|
Fat and Jackets
Always on the lookout for new management practices that
will enable them to do a better job for their customers, they have
started using a fat additive with the milk replacer fed to the youngest
calves during the winter months. They also put wool “jackets”
on calves in hutches, the extra cost split 50:50 with the customer.
“Both of those things are worthwhile from a health
standpoint,” explained Sherry. “The young calves don’t
have enough fat to maintain their body heat in cold weather.”
As calves move out of the hutches into group pen housing
at 60 days of age, the Busses take additional steps to reduce potential
disease risks. Each hutch is cleaned with a power washer, then dried
outside in the sun for a day or two. Clean hutches are then moved
to a different site before new calves are placed in them. “We
don’t want to put hutches right back on the same ground they’ve
just come off,” explained Norm. “We like to let the fresh
air and sunlight bake any diseases or bugs out of the soil. They’re
the best disinfectants you can get.”
With calves coming onto the farm from other farms, biosecurity
is an ongoing concern. Newborn calf protocols to be followed by the
dairies supplying calves have been worked out by a consulting veterinarian.
“It gets everybody working on the same page,” Norm said.
Initial Investment
|
|
Calves on the Busse farm are clean and healthy,
with an exceptional survival rate. They are fed twice
a day, a task that requires two people working three hours
each time.
|
|
He also advised that anyone considering launching a
calf business push the pencil carefully when figuring initial investment
costs. Getting started requires the purchase of individual hutches,
mixing equipment for milk replacer, a four-wheel-drive tractor that
can negotiate muddy travel lanes between rows of hutches, and several
golf carts for hauling milk replacer, water, feed, and veterinarian
supplies to the calves.
“It’s pretty capital intensive,” Norm
said. He estimates the initial cost of the group pen at over $200,000.
“Like any other business, startup costs are likely to be more
than you anticipate.”
He advised that expectations be kept on the modest side.
“The margins are pretty small,” he said. “We’re
not going to get rich, but we are making a living doing something
we enjoy. Not everybody gets to say that.” |
