The Circle of Life on Horning Farms
This beautiful calf, just a few hours old, is inside “the box” (the door is currently open). There is bedding and a heat lamp to keep the calf warm, dry, and isolated from any potential illness in the rest of the herd. When born, calves have no immune system.
A calf was born during the night last Friday. Three more were expected within the next 24 hours. It’s just another day at Horning Farms.
When I arrived in the morning to tour the farm on Pleasant Lake Road, my gracious hosts, Lynda and Mason Horning, took me to meet the newborn in the “calf box”. The box is filled with bedding and is equipped with a heat lamp to keep the little one warm. Lynda explains that it is like being in an incubator. Calves are moved into the box almost immediately after birth to maintain body temperature and limit the risk of exposure to potential disease from the rest of the herd. I am introduced to the newest member of the herd. At just a few hours old, the little one shakily gets to its feet and loudly protests my intrusion. Camera in hand, I snap a picture and let the adorable baby rest.
With 360 milking cows, there is a calf or two born almost every day. As with any newborn, they are labor intensive. A calf is ideally bottle-fed the mother’s colostrum within an hour of being born. The colostrum is the mother’s first milk and contains natural antibodies that are passed on to the calf to boost immunity and help protect from disease. Being born in the middle of the night could prolong the first feeding a little bit, but it is never more than five or six hours after being born. On this farm, the last caregiver to leave for the night does so around 10:30pm and the first one in the morning arrives a mere five hours later at 3:30am.
Young calves outside of their hutches. In the first few days, they will be fed by bottle and only have water in the red pail. After a few days, they will have milk in the pail and dry pellets in a bin inside of the hutch.
After a couple of hours in the calf box, the calf will be moved into its own “hutch”, where it will remain for the next 40 days. (For the agriculturally-challenged like me, a hutch looks very similar to a big plastic dog-house!) The hutch provides warmth, shelter, and a bit of isolation. Though the hutches are located next to each other in rows, the animals can not touch, again limiting potential disease exposure. The hutch also facilitates the monitoring of food intake and the overall health of each calf. When a calf slows or stops eating, it may be the first indication that something is wrong with a calf, so they’re watched carefully. Communication between caregivers is accomplished with the help of a special dry-erase board in the barn, tracking food intake, immunizations, and any other concerns for each calf.
Heifers are kept in pens like these after leaving their hutches. They are grouped together by age.
The newborn calves are hand-fed by bottle for about three days. After that, they are switched to pails and will be given water and feed pellets, as well as milk. The calves will stay in the hutch for about 40 days. At that point, the heifers are moved into a nearby pen where they are no longer segregated. The heifers will travel through different pens on the Horning’s properties as they progress in age, but the same group of heifers will generally stay together throughout their life cycle. Lynda likens it to being with a graduating class. Heifers are grouped together with others that are near the same age and moved together from pen to pen. And just like our kids, each group of calves develops its leaders. “There’s definitely a pecking order,” she says.
All of the cows at Horning Farms have identification tags in their ears. The larger yellow tags have three items: birthdate, sire, and a number they are assigned at birth which will be used throughout their lives. If the cow is papered, one of her two yellow tags will show her name instead of her birthdate. The picture of Maya below, has one of each. This means that she is papered. (Again, for the agriculturally challenged, this is similar to the American Kennel Association for a dog.) The Hornings will only register a cow if her parent has papers. Additionally, in the picture of Maya, there is also a smaller, round tag in her left ear. This is a RFID (Radio-frequency identification) tag. The spur of mad cow disease forced the US government to implement the use of electronic identification ear tags on their livestock. In Michigan, this tag has been required since March 1, 2007. It verifies the identity of the animal and gives information on the origin of the animal. Every animal that leaves the farm to be sold or transported to show is required to have one.
This is Maya, a show cow. The tag in her right ear identifies her name (which means she has papers), her sire, and her identification number. The tag in her left ear is similar, but displays her birthday, sire, and identification number. The round tag in her left ear is the RFID which is required by law for all animals leaving their home premises.
The ideal time for a heifer to have the first calf is around two years old. With a nine month gestation period, it means that most are inseminated a few months after turning one year old. After having the first calf, it is customary for a cow to have a calf once a year. Mason indicated that maintaining this routine, “restarts the lactation process” and the cows will continue to produce an optimal amount of milk. They will continue until the cow cannot have any more calves, milk production substantially declines, or the health of the animal declines. On average, cows last eight years on Horning farms.
The Hornings have been farmers for six generations on this property. Over the years, the farm has grown and the technology, facilities, and government regulations have changed immensely. The reality of the jolly farmer, sitting on a stool, singing to the cows as he milks them by hand is long gone.
While the farmer doesn’t milk the cows by hand, a caregiver is indeed still needed to prepare the cow for milking. This involves washing the teats in an iodine mixture and then rinsing it off, a method they call “dip and strip”. That individual will also release a little bit of milk onto the floor from each cow. If the milk appears lumpy or clear, it could mean mastitis, which would require treatment. (Note that in that case, the milk is NOT sold for human consumption until the treatment is complete.) However, the rest of the milking process is machine-assisted. Each cow is tracked by an electronic mechanism around their neck, called an actuator. The actuator is scanned as it enters the milking parlor, identifying the cow. The cow’s milk production is automatically logged and records are kept to monitor the activity and overall health of each animal.
Milking parlor at Horning Farms. The digital component near the top tracks the milk quantity and the hoses, etc below gather the milk and transport it to the holding tank. Automatic wash cycle too!
The milk is pumped by machine through long tubes to the holding tank, also known as a bulk tank. The Hornings have upgraded in this aspect of the farm as well. They now have a tank that will hold 7,000 gallons of milk at one time! With a holding tank that large, they only need the milk to be picked up every other day to be taken to the processing plant.
One last improvement that I will mention is the Milk Taxi. The Milk Taxi is an amazing tool. Recall that calves are given milk from a bucket for the first 40 days. With this piece of equipment the feeding process for calves is simplified and it has reduced some of the physical strain on the caregivers. The Milk Taxi is a feeding system that can be used with milk or milk replacement. It heats it, pasteurizes, and stores it safely until use. The best part is that it is on wheels. Twice a day, the caregiver rolls the Milk Taxi out to the hutches and pushes a button to dispense the proper amount to fulfill the calf’s diet based on age. No more carrying buckets back and forth from the barn!
A Milk Taxi is used to feed the calves.
(farmersguardian stock photo)
The Hornings have three farm locations and have to utilize all of it to sustain the herd of 950. That large number includes the milking cows, currently maxed out at 360, as well as 590 additional animals that are in different stages in the life cycle. Last year they farmed 750 acres just to feed the herd, and are in the process of purchasing 50 more acres.
Six generations of Hornings have worked this farm. It began with Gottlieb and Barbara Horning. Their son, Gottlieb and his wife Bertha Horning then took over operations. Alton and Eleanor Horning were the third generation. Three generations of Hornings are currently working on the farm. They are Earl and Diane Horning, Jeff and Lynda Horning, and their children, Mason, Katelyn, and Natalie. There is work to be done all day, every day. Time away from the farm, even a day, requires planning. Fortunately, they have a great crew of employees who treat this farm as if it were their own. For the Hornings, this is not just their day job. They are dairy farmers. This is their life, their passion, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.
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