Involved in the dairy industry from day one, Lars Sivesind grew up on his family’s Prairie Moon Guernsey dairy in northeast Iowa. Active in dairy judging and showing cattle at the county, state, and national levels, Sivesind attended Iowa State University, earning a degree in dairy science in 2016. He began his career with Prairie State/Select Sires, now Select Sires Member Cooperative, immediately after college. Sivesind started out in what he calls a utility role, relief breeding and filling in as needed, and then transitioned into full-time SMS work the fall of 2016.
Sivesind sees his role as a piece of the total package that Select Sires provides producers. “When we cold-call on new customers and they ask us, ‘why should we switch to you?', I tell them there are three or four of us that work as a team. We want to do more than just drop off semen. I honestly think that no other company has what we can offer. We have the total package.”
As the needs and goals of dairy producers change, Sivesind has seen a significant shift from the usage of conventional Holstein semen to the usage of female sexed and beef semen based on genomic ranking of females. “When I first started, I didn’t have any farms doing that. Within my first year or two, there were a couple herds, and now I don’t think I have a herd that is over 200 cows that isn’t evaluating herd inventories and utilizing mostly sexed and beef semen.”
Utilizing the genomic information and herd inventory calculator tools has allowed Sivesind’s customers to breed a more efficient and profitable cow while maintaining heifer inventories. “Cows are making more genetic gains. They’re having fewer health events, lasting longer and making more milk,” says Sivesind. “The price of milk hasn’t significantly changed in a while, so we are helping farmers improve genetics to get more out of each cow while managing replacement costs.”
Foresight Farms of Decorah, Iowa is one of Sivesind’s customers who have prioritized herd metrics for management decisions. “When I started, Foresight Farms was buying a small percentage of their semen from Select Sires. We had a chance to sit down with them, explain what we could provide, and they made the decision to go all in on Select Sires,” recalls Sivesind. “Seeing the gains they have made in production and the improvement in pregnancy rates is rewarding.”
Sivesind takes pride in the relationships he has built with his customers. “A lot of the herds I work with now, when I ask the criteria for the sires we’re selecting for new matings, they say ‘that’s up to you; we trust you.’ We’ve built those relationships. They’ve put their trust in me, and it’s a rewarding feeling.”
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