Ethan Haywood
Hello and welcome back to The Select Sires Podcast and webinar series. Today I'm very excited to be joined by Kevin Jorgensen, senior sire analyst for Select Sires as well as Matt Hendel owner and operator of Hendel Farms, to talk about breeding for mastitis resistance. Matt, Kevin, thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us today.
Kevin Jorgensen
Glad to be here Ethan.
Matt Hendel
No problem.
Ethan Haywood
Matt, coming to us from up in Minnesota, will you share a little bit about the herd that you own and operate there and what the herd is made up of and how long you guys have been dairying up in Minnesota?
Matt Hendel
Well, we're a multi-generational farm. My great grandfather started here in 1869. My grandfather started with Brown Swiss, Registered Brown Swiss in 1922. We took over the farm from my father and his brother in 1991 and still have about the same number of Brown Swiss, which is 35 with a herd average of 24,000 pounds of milk and we also have about 400 Holstein cows that average 29,000 pounds of milk on twice a day. Our yearly average cell count ranges from 43,000 to 54,000 this last year.
Ethan Haywood
And because of your milk quality, it's not uncommon for you guys to receive National Mastitis Council awards. That's why we sought you out today to speak on this topic, because the proof is really in your bulk tank that both your management and your selection assist with mastitis resistance and milk quality. What kind of facilities are you working within with your herd?
Matt Hendel
We have sand bedded free stalls. We use bluff sand that's local. A great sand; it's finer, so it really doesn't work to separate. With our herd size, we put it back on the fields because it's part of our soil structure and we haven't seen any issues with sand in our fields at this point. We've been doing it for 35 years, so we're pretty confident we're not changing our soil structure with this use of sand bedding and not recycling. The downside is we have to haul more sand out and it's a little harder on the equipment, but the upside is the low cell count and the cow health. That's one of the main things we see. And the parlor is a double-15. We have two people that work together in the parlor, I think it assists us in our milk quality. We've got two people that pay attention and work together as a team to get the cows milked properly, not pushed, but get the cows through. We have holding area times under an hour. To kind of sum it up, I consider mastitis and somatic cell count, mastitis resistance. It's like many spokes on a wheel. All the spokes are all the individual management decisions you make on a daily basis, but they're integral in the overall effect of having a low somatic cell count. So we start with genetics, as the Somatic Cell Count trait became available we started looking at that and as we've added CDCB Mastitis Resistance and Zoetis traits we are always cognizant of them through the use of genetics and genomics. We eliminate the bad, so the extreme bulls we try to weed out, we have access to so many bulls now and they change regularly so there's no use of using extremely poor sires for the Somatic Cell Count trait or mastitis resistance. But then it goes to parlor maintenance. We have changing inflations on time, watching for slips, having a yearly maintenance plan where every takeoff, every hose is examined and replaced, and that's a big factor. The sand bedding, of course, is crucial, but managing the stalls on a daily basis. Regrading the stalls, when the cows come back, we want them to have access to feed right away before they lay in the stalls, but the stalls have to be clean when they lay down again. The dips that we use are critical. You have to find the right balance for your operation. We've been successful with what we've found, but it's also a critical step and then training employees and using cloth towels and it all works hand in hand. Each step is important. Keep a new washing machine on hand, using the right soap and keeping those cloth towels fresh, not poor, the towel maintenance is critical too. So you really have to watch all your Ps and Qs, but I'm pretty confident in the last 20 years. I've studied our herd averages and the last study I did was about two years ago. 22 years ago, we were at a 147,000 Somatic Cell Count average and two years ago we got as low as 43,000, which was extremely low for a total year average. We keep it in the 50,000s right now in the winter. January here, we're typically running 30,000 Somatic Cell Count.
Ethan Haywood
Wow. It's a lot of very fine details that you and your management team are working to try and keep on top of to get to that elite tier of management and quality. We appreciate the work that you do, and it's really cool to see a place where genetics can really express themselves when they're in the optimal environment. How long have you had the pleasure of working with Kevin as far as your genetic program? And tell us a little bit about what you focus on there.
Matt Hendel
Kevin and I have worked together a long time. I've known him since before he was on the sire team as he was regional manager, right Kevin? When we were looking at 7HO6758 MR SAM daughters.
Kevin Jorgensen
Back in the East Central Select Sires days when I was here in Southern Wisconsin exclusively, yeah.
Matt Hendel
First time I met Kevin, I thought, this guy knows cattle. I've got to keep an eye on him and use him as my reference. So luckily, as the years went by, he became the sire analyst I work with as we're trying to create the next generation on our dairy to compete in, basically, across the country. We're trying to create genetics that are going to work in everybody's herds. We want a balanced cow with adequate strength, a great udder and really good feet and legs with high mobility. Kevin and I discuss bulls, what's working out there, what I see, what he sees, and he has contacts with a lot more people, and gets to see cattle. I don't get out into different herds as much as I used to. Pre-genomic days, we had more opportunities, but I can study how the bulls work in my herds. Udder quality has a part to play within this somatic cell count issue also. If we have a bull like 7HO15348 PAYLOAD that we discover has super udder quality we'll go back and use that bull and we know how to use them better within the herd so it's kind of balancing opinions and ideas off of each other that helps me choose the bulls more wisely I would say.
Ethan Haywood
Within selection for mastitis resistance, Kevin, our Mastitis ResistantPRO®
designation includes when the sire team and the marketing team are looking at their CDCB Mastitis Resistance, their Zoetis Mastitis Resistance, and their Somatic Cell Score. How do you look at all three of those traits when you're selecting for bulls to use within the Hendel herd?
Kevin Jorgensen
Well, I think, the whole genre of mastitis resistance has been something that we at Select Sires have played a large role in for a very long period of time. We've been looking at these multiple measures that you just mentioned of CDCB, Zoetis and Somatic Cell since 2017. And we think that there's power in numbers and there's power in getting a better read by utilizing the combination of those three traits because they look at things just slightly different. CDCB Mastitis and Zoetis Mastitis are looking more at the clinical signs, Somatic Cell Score maybe has more opportunity to find subclinical mastitis that we don't maybe talk about near enough. So we've built that Mastitis ResistantPRO designation for those bulls that excel in all three of those different traits. It's the top 25% of our lineup that gets designated as a Mastitis ResistantPRO bull. And so it's been really effective for us to make massive progress in relation to the rest of the industry. And in a herd like Matt's, whereas he just mentioned, it's the cleanest sand that I go to of any dairy in North America. They just do a marvelous job with how they manage the stalls, the cleanliness of the sand, and the cleanliness of the cows in general. We want to be able to utilize the great management that Matt and his team put together in the dairy. And they've got those genetics that we can utilize and make a bull like 7HO16835 LOGIC that has been very, very popular for us. And his mother, sired by 7HO15112 TAOS, just is a standout in the herd. It's a great collaboration in those respects. But utilizing these three different traits, I think, has given us a big advantage. Just looking strictly at CDCB Mastitis, we've got about a point difference amongst the rest of the industry because of that long-term commitment to it that we have. And the reason. I’ll speak quickly, is that why did we go down this mastitis resistance trail? I wish every dairy that had the opportunity to get sand as clean as what Matt has and still be able to utilize sand that's directly put in, not reclaimed. We know that the industry is changing and we saw this back there in 2017. That as more and more herds were maybe transitioning because of several reasons part of what Matt said about soil tilth. The other side of it is as more and more people are putting gas systems in to utilize a methane digester and those kind of things that are the cows are going to live in a different environment. A natural resistance to mastitis, I think, is something that was just very logical for us to put a lot of emphasis on. In addition to that is, you know, I talk about this all the time, but as we have fewer and fewer replacement numbers, we have more and more older cows that are going to reside on a lot of the dairies that we travel to, those cows are going to become more resistant to mastitis with each subsequent lactation. So it's been just sort of a natural progression for us at Select Sires to put a lot of emphasis on mastitis resistance. It's probably the number one tiebreaker. We just had a bull pickup meeting this morning for the April bull pickup and several of the bulls that maybe didn't get chosen to get health tested here for April, they really excelled in a lot of traits, but it was probably the number one tiebreaker was either their CDCB Mastitis traits or Zoetis Mastitis traits. For us, the combination of strength and numbers of those three has been really important.
Ethan Haywood
As we continue to do more genetic selection and try and improve herds, Matt, you've got a really good genetic base that you're working with and some really cool cows. What other traits are you looking at in addition to mastitis resistance to try and improve your herd and focus on different traits?
Matt Hendel
We select for a lot of traits nowadays, and I'd have to say the first thing I do is try to reduce the bulls that are really negative in an area that is critical. So, you have to look at Daughter Pregnancy Rate (DPR), Cow Conception Rate and heifer fertility (Heifer Conception Rate) to determine if a bull's bad, because if it's just minus on DPR and it's 90 pounds of Protein, you have to go a little further and you don't want to miss out on a bull that's really super in one trait as far as production goes but he's kind of bad in another one. My approach is I take a balance of bulls. Say it's April, the day after the April run I've got access to all the bulls I want to use and I'll put together a group of bulls that give me what I call a bulk tank average. I don't want to reduce my health and fertility traits. I want to see where my progress is. If I'm using these 10 bulls and I don't want to see a loss in type. I don't want to see a problem with feet and legs. I can maximize my production and keep my functionality of the animals in the right line without losing cow livability too. You don't get yourself in a bad place. That's the beauty of using a balance of bulls. You're always going to have a bull that goes up or down and might disappoint you. But if you're using a group of bulls that are putting you in the right direction, you're always going to win. And that's the end goal.
Ethan Haywood
It's nice to have that balanced approach and it's worked very well for you for many generations of cattle. And that's very evident with the really cool and high quality of genetics that we're getting to work with coming out of your herd. Kevin, you have a few bulls who are favorites and being used across the country right now that are especially standouts for mastitis resistance and milk quality. Who are a few of those superstars that you are using in herds right now?
Kevin Jorgensen
Well, one of the bulls that has been, again, a multi-trait, multiple opportunity bull that Matt talked about that's very balanced is bull, 14HO17371 Winstar ALPAZO-ET. He's just an absolute rock star when it comes to mastitis resistance, being incredibly low somatic cell. He's +5.5 on CDCB Mastitis, but 111 on Zoetis Mastitis. So he's a full two standard deviations above. That also translates into that he's the number one
HHP$® (Herd Health Profit Dollars) bull that we're marketing right now within the GForce™ lineup. So he's been a star. We're getting some of his earliest calves being born here in sire development and since his release, he's been one of our most in-demand bulls. A bull that kind of started us on this trek of mastitis resistance, and it kind of fits in with Matt's philosophy as well, is 7HO15807 GEORGE MILLER, a bull that was a TAOS son. TAOS is a bull that works so well for Matt and their team at Hendel Farms. But he's one of our lowest Somatic Cell Score bulls. He's +5.1 in CDCB Mastitis and 109 in Zoetis Mastitis. So he's a bull that as those daughters are starting to calve now, he's probably going to hopefully graduate back to the proven lineup in April, that he's a bull through his sons and the ALPAZO sons. Another bull that's been a rock star has been 7HO16644 RIMBOT. Just an exceptional bull when it comes to high production along with good mastitis. I agree with what Matt said in the sense that we can't just look at one trait, but we can't ignore a bull that's extreme in other traits. When you get a bull like RIMBOT that was over a ton of milk and still incredibly low in his fitness traits, because sometimes those two things don't go hand in hand. Sometimes the really high production bulls need to compensate for the fact they're maybe not as good in some of those fitness traits. It's great when you can get a bull that has both. RIMBOT is that way, and some of his best sons are now beginning to make semen and using them as a next generation sire father. In the Jersey lineup, because this emphasis that we place on mastitis resistance isn't just in the Holstein lineup. A bull like 14JE1929 JX SKALSKI {5}-P, fits all those same types of metrics in terms of low Somatic Cell Count, high CDCB Mastitis, and high Zoetis Mastitis. And then finally, we look at this in all sectors of our product lines. You take a bull even like 7HO15325 HANANS in our Showcase™ lineup is a Mastitis ResistantPRO bull. Because even in the high-Type genre, I want those bulls to be able to excel in fitness traits and not just PTAT. So everywhere you look within our lineup, you're going to find the fruits of the labor that we've put into trying to really focus on these three traits for mastitis resistance.
Ethan Haywood
It's really cool to see that success across all of our lineups, and the proof is really in the bulk tank and in the pens, just like the ones there at Hendel Farms. As we look forward to this upcoming proof, Matt, there's a large base change coming, so we'll have to do some mental gymnastics to try and get around those numbers and continue to compare sires. Any advice to producers as they crack open the April list and get ready to look at who they should be using within their herds and what traits they should be looking towards?
Matt Hendel
Well, I think every five years when we make the base adjustment, it's always an eye-opener to see how much progress we've made in the last five years. This time, the amount of Fat progress we've made is phenomenal. And the Holstein breed, as a general rule, I mean, it just has a tremendous ability to adapt as we see where we need to go with the breed and make it more efficient and friendlier to the environment to keep us competitive in the world marketplace. It’s amazing to me to see where we've come with it. And genomics has had a huge impact on that, but we're going to see about a 770 pound increase in Milk over the last five years. So when the base adjustment hits, we're going to see some different numbers to look at. It always takes about two weeks. It takes longer to get used to these new numbers, but you just have to get rankings of the bulls, and over time you can adjust to the changes that are made.
Ethan Haywood
Fantastic insight. Kevin, do you have anything to add?
Kevin Jorgensen
Well, I was just going to say I agree 100% with Matt and maybe even more importantly, it's just looking at the changes from the 2014 base change to the 2020 base change to this now 2025 base change. It's almost double on Milk progress that we've made in the last five year period than we did in those first five years of genomics. And in addition, it's going to be 73 pounds adjusted on Combined Fat and Protein. That's a big adjustment, and it'll take some time for people to understand that a bull that is +200 pounds of Combined Fat and Protein today in April will be +127. He's the same bull. Analogy that I've given is when I was growing up at home, my mom worked in town and where she worked, the clocks were eight minutes ahead. So our clocks were 10 minutes ahead and it works for about five days once you look at the clock. But eventually you say if the clock says six o'clock, you know it's 10 till. Your brain just readjusts. And all we're doing is taking that clock, we're just turning it back to 10 till what the actual time is versus where it's set for other reasons. So I think that's really where we're going to see once we get adjusted to it like that said, we just use the best bulls. Relative rank is still what matters and those bulls will probably without the data changes of the individual bulls that are getting new information, the relative rank will be the same, the numbers are just slightly different.
Matt Hendel
There's always a few bulls that I look at and say, why was I using that bull? So you just have to take the adjustment and move forward. Something I always noticed years ago, before we had mastitis resistance and before genomics, bulls would have come out with a high Somatic Cell Count once they were proven. And I'd always try to figure out, why is this bull high for Somatic Cell Count? And a lot of times there were differences for why. Sometimes it was just a bull sired really bad teat ends or teats that weren't good to work with. And then other times it was just the immunity of the cows themselves. They had poor immunity and resistance to mastitis. When you think about using mastitis resistance along with cell count, it totally makes sense because you're combining the two reasons together. And that's why we're seeing more progress in the trait.
Ethan Haywood
The progress is really fantastic to see and we appreciate the work both of you are doing to help us push our lineup further and give our breeders opportunities to use bulls that are going to have a very large impact between now and the next base change. It'll be really cool to see the progress that is made in mastitis resistance as the industry continues to evolve. For both of you, thank you so much for your time and your insights here today. Breeders always look forward to learning more from people who are at the top of the game and making a very large impact on the industry and the genetic pool. We appreciate the hard work that both your teams are putting together on a day-to-day basis. So thank you very much for your time here today.
Matt Hendel
Glad I could be a part. Thank you.
Kevin Jorgensen
Always a pleasure, Ethan. Thanks.
Ethan Haywood
Thanks to our listeners. Be sure to check out that