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WC DAIRY NEWS  CHRISTMAS 2024 13
celebrating Longevity HOLST
Holstein Canada - promoting Longevity, Profitability & Efficiency!
Slomp Farms, home to Springbutte Redesign Judy EX-4E
'Redesigning' the Trouble-Free Cow
Tars Cheema
Everyone respects the oldest cows that
defy the odds and just keep coming
back year after year. So it is with 14-year
old SPRINGBUTTE REDESIGN JUDY
EX-4E in the herd of Slomp Farms
of Picture Butte, AB. Now in her 11th
lactation, she has surpassed 150,000
kg of milk and could top 6000 kg of
butterfat by end of this lactation!
following a tough time in lactation nine.
“She calved with twins, had a couple
bouts of mastitis, but she bounced
back,” William shares. Then she calved
for the 12th time at 13-10 and had to
adapt to robot milking! “She is not a
bossy cow – she’s quiet, but she was
always in the first set going into the
parlour.” William describes her as a cow
that minds her own business and prefers
Slomp Farms
to visit the robot when there’s no activity
around it. She remains with the straw
Ten years ago, brothers Gerald, Randy
pack TLC group now.
and William took over the farm started
by their father in the early 1970’s. Gerald
handles much of the business, crops
and their 1500 head finishing feedlot.
His sons Bo and Kurt are full time on
the farm as is William’s son Ethan and
longtime employee Burt Tanis. Randy
focuses on the dairy herd, primarily
breeding and calves, while William
works with the cows, robots and some
field work.
The entire herd gets hoof trimmed
twice a year and uses a regular copper
sulphate footbath and again, Judy rarely
shows any hoof problems. “She’s always
had pretty good feet,” William confirms.
Calving (especially twins) can also be a
risky time for cows. While most of Judy’s
calves have been bulls, this has not set
her back. “She is not a cow that gets
sick after calving – just that one time
Milking 260 cows today, they switched
after twins she got mastitis a couple
to Lely robotic milking in February
times. But she always bounces back.”
of this year. While always a high
Her scorecard shows ideal rump angle
production herd, the robots have helped
with a strong loin.
them reach BCAs of 270-285-280 on
250 records. “It was a really big change
at first, but it’s been good and the cows
really seem to like it – production is
coming up,” William explains. One robot
is situated with the straw-pack group
which includes the fresh cows, TLC
cows and fresh heifers until they are
robot-settled.
“Judy is more on the small size,” William
makes an excellent point. Most often,
the real big cows are the ones that
struggle to ‘bounce back’ after a rough
calving or a health hurdle. That said,
she scores 94 points on Dairy Strength
– with lots of chest width and body
depth. Beyond that, her scorecard
gives her high marks for suspensory
The herd has been registering,
ligament, texture, ideal teat placement
classifying, milk recording and using
and locomotion. A small cow built with
AI since they began. “We use about half
balance, correct parts and functionality
sexed semen, and some beef on the
where it really counts – capacity, udder
lower end. We’ve talked about doing
texture and mobility.
genomic testing, but haven’t decided
how we would use the information to
manage differently,” admits William.
Peeking into the Pedigree
Judy Bounces Back
Judy’s sire, Regancrest Design, an Eland
son from Dellia’s Encore Darel daughter,
Calving first at 1-10, Judy averages 14.2
left good conformation. They were
months between 10 calvings so far. “She
persistent but not always high milkers
took 3-4 services to catch sometimes,
and they held their condition (which
but we never worried because she just
probably helped his daughter fertility
kept milking,” William says. Indeed, her
rating). This piece of the pedigree
10-year old lactation ran 415 days, but
brings in the survivor genes of Starbuck,
she tallied over 18,700kg which equals
Blackstar and Chief Mark which have
100 pounds per day over the entire time!
been frequent in the Longevity cows
At almost 14.5 years old now, she is
we have featured.
short-bred to sexed Holstein.
Judy lived in the freestall group all
her life until the last two lactations,
In digging back into Judy’s family,
William discovers her eighth dam was
STARDELL CHAMPION RHONDA VG 3*, a
young, purchased cow that the boys recall
well in the 1970’s for being a standout. She
made 12 good lactations, calving last at 16
years, with over 126,000 kg lifetime!
Judy’s maternal line includes her 83 point
Spirte dam with five lactations, 82 point
Inquirer with five lactations, a VG 85 Black
King with six lactations and an Aerostar
with 10 lactations.
These dams brought multiple crosses again
with Starbuck, Chief Mark and Blackstar.
Traits of toughness, excellent udder
texture, fertility and good feet/legs seem
to be in ample concentration in Judy.
Even when excellent management yields
high herd averages, some cows excel
unexpectedly. The Slomps hope using
sexed semen in recent years might bring
another extraordinary longevity cow
down the road.
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TOBY KLEINSASSER
FSBP, Western Provinces
tkleinsasser@holstein.ca
519-865-4367
Western Field Rep – Toby Kleinsasser
tkleinsasser@holstein.ca • 519-865-4367 WWW.HOLSTEIN.CA