Dairyman Jason Nunes’ office at his 1,000-cow dairy in Buhl, Idaho, contains a computer, record books, a calendar and other office supplies typically found in workspaces on dairy farms.

He also has family photos on a shelf and to-do lists on his desk. What sets his office apart are the sayings, written in black permanent marker on 3x5 index cards, taped to various locations throughout the office – the desk, the walls and the door.

One saying in particular describes the farm’s forward-thinking breeding program, says Nunes:

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” – Albert Einstein

“There are so many guys out there that are counting and counting,” Nunes says. “Those numbers mean nothing – just boot them out the door because they monitor old school parameters.”

On Nunes Dairy, every cow is bred after an individual evaluation of previous and current milk production, body condition and multiple signs of observed estrus. Often the dairy’s cows will be bred after 60 days in milk (DIM), bucking many experts’ suggested breeding benchmark. Dale Fontes, Nunes’ breeder and hoof trimmer, says the program requires breeders be thorough in looking at every cow to make the right decision based upon her own individuality and capability.

Timing is everything
“On this dairy, it’s not about working fast and getting it done,” Nunes says. “I try to put out the mentality that we should take our time, work effectively with good commonsense and get it done right the first time because what makes us think we will have time or money to get it right the second time?”

When the cows are evaluated for breeding, they typically fall into one of three categories: persistent, average or old school cow.

Persistent milkers are willed to milk, Nunes says. They gain less body condition and average more than 80 pounds of milk per day through 350 or more DIM. The average cows do just fine if healthy and bred at or near the traditional 60 DIM. The old school milkers gain body condition faster, peak in milk production and then drop off rather fast. They need to be bred as soon as possible with old school parameters, Nunes says, in order to make them more profitable. First-calf heifers and persistent cows need to have decent body condition scores in order to do fairly well into the next lactation, especially when shortening the dry period. Nunes says he extends his voluntary waiting period on these cows, which has led to many cow-health benefits.

Nunes has an extensive dry cow program. He drys cows on an individual basis, based on their DIM, milk production, lactation number and body condition. He uses different protocols in the mechanics of drying the cows based on milk production and SCC test results. The old school cows and a portion of his first-calf heifers usually have a traditional 60-day dry period if milk production permits. But it’s a catch-22 situation because he must find a balance between milk production and body condition.

“I give lower body condition cows more dry time. Heavier cows seem to bag up nicely with fewer days dry,” Nunes says. “I wanted the cows to come dry with more uniform milk production, which led to the entire breeding program.”

The persistent cows and most first-calf heifers have different parameters because they really don’t peak, but stay on an even keel of milk production. Nunes calls them mini-freight trains.

“They can go a lot farther if we let them. Every time we stop them with high milk production and low body condition, they lose their momentum heading into the next lactation. You can count on having a full bag of leaking milk going into dry-off, creating a lot of unnecessary stress for the cows.”

In order to help the old school cows remain on the same playing field as the rest of the herd, Nunes says he has used bST as a crutch. However, by February of next year his milk processor, Glanbia, will no longer be accepting milk produced from bST-supplemented cows. bST is the only thing that keeps these bottom-end cows somewhat competitive with the rest of the herd.

“Once bST is gone, the bottom cows will be, too,” Nunes says. “The persistent cows produce their own plentiful production of natural bST. These are the cows of today and tomorrow. These are the cows that will last, if fed properly and well managed.”

Nunes says it is getting harder and harder to get cows pregnant as an industry because of major milk production causing minimal amounts of estrus at 60 DIM.

“The cows are trying to tell us something very important: Leave me alone a little longer,” Nunes says. “Instead, we make them get pregnant when we want them to with blanket OvSync programs set too low in lactation.”

OvSync and bST are tools to be used properly, and when used too early in lactation, they can damage good, persistent cows, Nunes says. His vet, Jennifer Glass, goes through the herd biweekly, doing status checks and using OvSync as a safety net to prevent cows from going too long on DIM.

The benefits
The benefits of Nunes’ breeding program include longevity, persistence, balanced milk production and cost savings.

To illustrate his point of extending his volunteer waiting period and shortening the dry period, Nunes describes two different scenarios for a healthy, persistent milker.

Under a traditional breeding program, a persistent milker would be pregnant at 60 DIM and have a 60-day dry period over seven lactations, giving her 1,960 milking days with an 80-pound average. That’s 156,800 pounds of milk over a lifetime.

The same cow, in Nunes’ breeding program, gets pregnant at 120 DIM with a 40-day dry period for six lactations, giving her 2,160 milking days at 75-pound average, producing 162,000 pounds over a lifetime, or an increase of 5,200 pounds.

Nunes says the second cow also has other profitable benefits in the long run. For example, she will be one lactation younger, he says.

“That’s a whole lot more milk right there,” Nunes says. “She would transition with better body condition scores, giving her leverage into each lactation, not to mention better components.”

He also believes his breeding program allows the cow to have an extra heifer or two with sexed semen and have one or two less mastitis cases at dry-off because of less milk being produced. By his calculations, the cow will use 14 less services during her lifetime because when she’s bred she’ll be ready.

A whole herd of persistent milkers
At this point, Nunes says his herd is 25 percent persistent milkers, 50 percent average milkers and 25 percent old school milkers. At some point, he hopes to be 50-50 persistent to average milkers. He plans to get to that point using sexed semen on persistent cows and culling old school cows and some springers.

“The reason I felt it was feasible to use sexed semen was our zero percent death loss on calves, 68 percent conception rate on OvSync, 52 percent conception rate on first service and 48 percent conception rate on second service,” Nunes says.

Nunes sees sexed semen conception rates as high as 40 percent, but rates vary widely among sires. He also expects his conception rates to increase across the board due to the construction of new Saudi-style shades, covering his three high-producing breeding pens.

He uses AAA mating on all his cows and heifers, which are evaluated by Bruce Hoeft from Fremont, Wisconsin. Nunes says AAA mating has helped to balance out his Holstein herd with Jersey crosses and different cow types, plus average out any major conformation faults.

As he continues to learn how to read the cows and their natural breeding signals better while transitioning off bST, he thinks his breeding program will continue to evolve.

Nunes recognizes his program may be somewhat radical, compared to industry standards, but he is confident that it is the right move for their operation.

His father, John, started using A.I. back in 1970 at the family’s original dairy in Escalon, California. Jason says his father is a long-time progressive cowman. But, even he thinks Jason is a little ahead of his time, with his crazy ideas.

“My dad always would ask me what our average DIM was to remind me to hold at 180 days,” Nunes says. “Now we are at 200, and all the literature out there is stating that our days open are costing us so much. But I’m not scared about all that. We’re talking about individual capability here and getting the most out of each cow’s true potential, without burning cows out and having high herd turnover.”

Who else can be breeding this way?
Nunes knows this program may be difficult to implement on larger operations because of the individual attention the cows require. He also says having qualified employees who care about the future of the dairy is another prerequisite to making the breeding program a success. However, he thinks any producer owning fewer than 2,000 cows should be considering these protocols, if they are not already.

“Breaking the old school mind-set from the 50s and 60s will probably be the biggest roadblock, but those parameters are outdated for today’s cows, which have changed dramatically in the past 50 years due to advances in genetics, feed conversion and cow comfort,” Nunes says.

‘It’s common sense’
Common sense is how Nunes summarizes his breeding protocols. He says dairymen need to keep an open mind in order to remain at the forefront of the ever-changing dairy industry. He suggests fellow producers not be shackled by “old school” breeding parameters or be at the mercy of extremely volatile feed markets.

“There’s a lot of opportunity out there waiting to be discovered just by thinking outside the box and believing that God is in control of our destiny,” he says. “After all necessity is mother to invention, efficiency is mother to innovation and God is father to them both. This is what I believe, and it helps me to navigate through the rough waters with confidence." PD

Emily Caldwell
Staff Writer
Progressive Dairyman