The farmer that owns the new milk production record producing Holstein was a bit surprised by the achievement. Scott Pralle says the fourth-lactation cow known as Selz-Pralle Aftershock 3918 doesn’t need a lot of management, she just quietly makes milk. “We knew she was a good cow but we never expected her to overachieve, really, is the way to look at it, I guess. She’s just a cow that is as consistent as the day is long and I call her the blue-collar worker of the farm. Basically, that’s just how she is.”
Aftershock “3918” produced 78,170 lb of milk, four percent or 3,094 pounds of butterfat and 2,393 lb of protein in her last lactation.
Pralle tells Brownfield 3918’s success is based on consistency, with consistent time at the bunk, time laying in the sand free stall, and feed. “Fifty-five to sixty pounds of corn silage a day in a TMR with about twenty pounds of haylage. Then, there’s a grain mix, we call it, which has dry corn in it, and then she also gets some soy hulls in that ration as well as some canola meal.” Pralle’s nutritionist also uses something called burger fat, which is actually comes from palm trees and helps the whole herd improve butterfat and protein levels.
Pralle says Aftershock 3918 is now in the maternity barn expecting her fifth calf around the first week of December. “I’d be happy if she could make 75-80 percent of what she did this last year.”
Even with a record setter in the herd, Pralle says they still manage their 425 milk cows with an emphasis on milk components over volume, since that’s what makes a better milk check.
Source: Brownfield
