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Morningview Holsteins has huge impact on dairy industry Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Agri News staff writer
DURANGO, Iowa -- Morningview Holsteins of Durango recently hosted groups from Japan and Ireland in between getting ready for a major on-farm genetics sale, chopping haylage and taking care of dairy chores.
Morningview was recently named a Herd of Excellence by Holstein Association USA for the second time. Eleven herds qualified for the 2009 award. Other herds are from Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New York.
Morningview has consisted of Paul and Kay Schmitt and their sons Tom and his wife, Donna, and their children Ana, Josh and Cael, and Tim and his wife, Kim, and their children Keeley, Kiersten and Katelyn. After Morningview's Tribute to Converse Judy Sale on June 5, Tim left the operation to go on his own. He has a farm and will keep some heifers.
The sale grossed $647,825. De-Su Holsteins of New Albin bought the top seller, Morningview Tstory Amaya-ET for $75,000.
"This was our fourth sale since 2001," Tom Schmitt said. "We do a lot of embryo transfer work so our numbers build up pretty fast."
Morningview has 100 milk cows and 100 recipient heifers. The recipients are sold as fresh heifers when they calve. The operation has 200 registered Holstein heifers and grows 200 acres of corn and hay.
"For three families to make a living on this operation, we've always done a lot of marketing of embryos, heifers and bulls to AI studs, Tom said. "We've been able to make a very good living without milking a lot of cows."
About 90 percent of the embryos are international sales with the majority of customers from Japan and European Union countries.
The Schmitts started buying registered Holsteins in the mid-1980s. When Tom graduated from Iowa State University, he went to work for Granada Biosciences in Madison, Wis., which housed flush cows and did embryo transfer work. There were a lot of foreign visitors, and it's there that Tom started building contacts.
"When I came back home, we started buying and developing cow families for the genetics market," Tom said. "That's how we got started exporting embryos."
Having the genetics business makes things so much easier right now, Tom said.
"You have another source of income to fall back on," he said. "When the milk check can't cover the bills, it's nice to have registered cattle to market."
The Schmitts breed for cows that naturally give a lot of milk, do it easily and hopefully will develop into Excellent classifying cows. All pregnancies are sexed by ultra sound so that they know what each cow is carrying.
The Schmitts' most popular bull in an AI stud is Ashlar, the number 2 LPI bull in Canada. Another bull, Legend, is 17th on the International TPI list.
"You need to stay on top of what is changing in the industry," Tom said. "The customers dictate the market. You need to supply them with the genetics they're looking for."
Tom said that taking good care of the cattle -- something that is important to all operations -- is what makes their operation successful.
"You have to keep the cattle comfortable and well cared for," Tom said. "The cattle pay the bills."
The Converse Judy family was the original family that put Morningview on the map. Other families that have done well are the Lead Mae, August and Raven cow families. |
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