Herd Data Generates Smarter Management Decisions for Front Range Dairy
For Brian Chapman, information is everything when it comes to managing a dairy operation efficiently.
As herd manager for Front Range Dairy in Fort Lupton, CO, he collects and analyzes everything from feed costs to calf losses to worker effectiveness.
“We keep track of everything,” Brian said. “The computer is a great invention. We record a lot of data and can sort it by cow, milk production, pregnancy, age…whatever parameters we want. We’ve used the data to look at factors contributing to things like losses in calves and cull rates so that we could improve in those areas. We also look at trends. We do weekly and monthly reviews of everything we purchase, and compare it to last year to see what we are doing differently and how we can save money.”
The dairy milks about 2,300 cows and farms approximately 500 acres in central Colorado. At any given time, they have about 350 dry cows, 2,000 youngstock, and 1,000-1,200 pregnant cows. Unlike most dairies, though, they raise all their steer calves to about 500 pounds. Right now they have about 500 of them.
Brian, who grew up in western New York and worked on his uncle’s 200-cow dairy there, supervises the entire Front Range operation—including approximately 30 employees—for David DeHaan and family, the owners.
Brian says one of his biggest challenges is making sure employees are productive and well matched for the tasks they perform. So, that’s another thing he’s used their advanced recordkeeping system for—to analyze worker effectiveness and provide more training or more suitable duties, when appropriate.
They also use their system data to help them keep costs under control.
“Keeping prices in check is another challenge we face,” Brian commented. “Feed costs are a big problem right now. We are such a global economy; you just don’t know how things are going to play out. Increased oil prices affect us, usually as increased freight costs, for example. It makes it hard to plan.”
One of the ways Brian says they have helped keep prices in check is through their use of AgriLabs products, such as Titanium® 5L5, which protects against bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) Type 1 and 2, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), bovine parainfluenza3 (PI3) and respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV), as well as five strains of Lepto bacteria.
“We’ve been using Titanium 5L5 for several years,” Brian explained. “It’s our main vaccine. All our fresh cows get Titanium 5L5, and all our calves get Titanium 5. Calves get three doses; cows get a booster when they are fresh. We were previously using another vaccine, but the price of Titanium is better, and we see no difference in the rate of sickness.”
“We like the product, and the people who sell it are easy to work with,” he added. “Our AgriLabs rep, Todd Grothusen, is in our area quite often, and we meet with him regularly. He keeps us informed about products and what’s new.”
Front Range has also been using estroPLAN® (cloprostenol sodium), a prostaglandin product, as a key part of their reproductive program for 2-3 years. As with Titanium, when they switched to AgriLabs, they found comparable results at a lower price.
“We do some estrous synchronization, but a lot of natural heat detection. The estroPLAN really helps with that,” Brian stated. “It’s just as good as what we were using before, and it’s cheaper.”
It’s all part of Front Range’s efforts to collect data and use it to make “better, more informed management decisions”—and improve the farm’s long-term viability. Switching to AgriLabs products was one of those decisions.
“They do a really good job of keeping prices in check,” Brian said. “And every penny counts when you are buying that many doses.”