Bench Marking

In this episode of AK Podcasts, Mike Donaldson discusses the advancements in dairy farming with Hannah Lansing. They explore the importance of data and technology in managing dairy farms, the key performance indicators that determine farm success, and the future trends in dairy technology. The conversation emphasizes the need for accurate record-keeping and the role of nutrition consulting in improving farm productivity. Hannah shares her experiences and insights on how data can transform dairy farming practices, leading to healthier cows and more profitable operations.

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Transcript

Chris Radke (00:01)
Welcome to AK Podcasts, where we explore science and nutrition behind livestock care and management with the best and the brightest in the business. I'm your host, Chris Radke, part of the sales department here at Agri-King. And with me today is the director of field services and a member of the sales management team, Mr. Mike Donaldson. Mike, how you doing buddy?

Mike Donaldson (00:19)
Very well, Chris, very well indeed.

Chris Radke (00:22)
Good, good, good, good. How's the weather up in Michigan?

Mike Donaldson (00:25)
Of course, we never know when someone's gonna be watching these. I'm a bigger fan of hot weather than cold weather. So we're having what passes for hot weather in Michigan. It's up in the 80s, maybe 90. I've lived here 20 years and we've never gotten to 100. So the locals all think it's really hot. And I'm kinda like, yeah, give me a call when it gets warm, because this ain't too bad.

Chris Radke (00:32)
really?

good for you. Hey, Mike, who's with us and what are we talking about today?

Mike Donaldson (00:53)
Well, Chris, in some ways, I think we're actually living in what might someday be called the golden age of information on dairy farms. We have so many tools today to monitor what's happening. I think at times it almost gets overwhelming. I sometimes tell people that, you know, 50, 60 years ago, I knew farmers that ran their whole business out of this pocket and they had a seed corn book that they wrote their crop information in.

And they had a seed corn book. wrote some cow notes in and they had a checkbook and a pen. And that was, that was their whole office. Their office went wherever they were. And in some ways we're kind of getting back to that with what you can do on your phone or the way you can access information. But along the way we have picked up an amazing amount of information that we can use to manage a farm more productively and more profitably. So today on the Agri-King podcast, we've got Hannah Lansing.

Hannah works with our nutrition consultants and our clients to help them analyze dairy records, to really find out what's going on, and especially trying to find where those next opportunities might be. So Hannah, please give us a little bit about your background and fill in whatever I just got wrong about what you do at Agri-King.

Hannah Lansing (02:11)
Yeah, hi guys, thanks for having me. Like Mike said, this is my second year here at Agri-King. My official title is Dairy Data and Research Specialist.

which that basically means I work with farms to help consult and understand the technology that's on their farm while also doing any research trials on with some of our products that we have here in our Agri-King portfolio. But a little bit about me is I grew up on my family's dairy farm in Iowa and then went to Iowa State where I majored in animal science and then minored in agronomy. And then right out of school, I actually worked in research and development for a dairy hydration company.

spent some time there and then moved to animal health sales, again, mainly focusing in the dairy sector, and then came to Agri-King where I actually live now in Sunnyside, Washington on a dairy farm that my husband manages, a 4,000 cow dairy. So that's a little bit about me.

Mike Donaldson (03:13)
That's great. Let's talk a little bit. What are some of the systems and programs that you're working with on a constant basis?

Hannah Lansing (03:21)
Yeah, so there's a lot of systems that I work with on a daily basis just because every farm is a little bit different in the technology that they like to use. But some of the main players that I work with in terms of herd software are going to be your DairyComp, your PC Dart and BoviSynk. When we start looking at those activity monitors or, you know, collars or ear tags, some of the popular ones that I'm working with specifically are CowManager and then SCR and then more

recently smaXtec is coming into play as well with the boluses. And then when it comes to feed software, some of the main ones that I'm working with today are Easy Feed, ⁓ TMR Tracker, OneMilk, and then FeedWatch.

Mike Donaldson (04:07)
And maybe back up just a step, you're coming out of college, you're a young professional and where some people look at these kinds of records and see themselves as being tethered to a computer in a way that they don't like. You've selected this, you've gotten great at it. What's wrong with you that this seemed to be such a great thing to go into when other people don't like it?

Hannah Lansing (04:35)
Yeah, I think when we hear the words data or technology, it can be a little bit scary. And I definitely was in that boat when I started, but what I found in working on my family's dairy farm or even some of the dairy farms that I worked with through, know, internships, really the beauty of it is,

What separates a good and a great dairy farm is in the details. And you find the details in these systems. That's what they were designed to do is, you know, kind of take some of the guesswork out of our day to day, things like that. So that's really why I've kind of been drawn to these systems is, you know, helping farms get to be the best. Because again, I'm just a very competitive person. I want everybody to be the best. And working with these systems really helps farms do that. And then, you

⁓ again, it's in those little details we don't think about day to day. You might not think of, what were my serum total proteins on the calves that I fed today? I mean, some farms feed hundreds of calves, colostrum in one day. Well, what was the average score of that? You probably don't know just sitting there and looking at those animals, but if we're pulling bloods, putting this into a system, those are all things that we can mine out and then produce to the farm and show them how things are going.

Mike Donaldson (05:50)
I think one of the things that, and I try not to talk like an old, old person, but there's been so many great tools that come along and you you go back far enough, someone got called a good cow man or a good cow woman. she's great at taking care of her calves. just always look great. And he just does a wonderful job with what he's watching. And

I feel like a lot of these programs actually make it easier for people who may not be great cow men and women to get those kinds of results because it codifies and delivers in a usable form some information that otherwise doesn't even get looked at. Talking first about animal information, not feeding information.

What are, and I know I've watched you do, I've watched you teach classes for our people and been able to work with you on the training side. Um, we want to do a half hour podcast. could do a 300 hour dissertation on all the intricacies of this. get that. But what are a few of the benchmarks that you find yourself consistently going to first is a farm doing well, or are they having troubles?

What are some of your go-to things to pay attention to?

Hannah Lansing (07:14)
Yeah, so what I typically like to do when I start working with, you know, some of our nutrition consultants and start working with a farm, I really like to ask, like ask them what's important to them. Because again, what's important to those farmers and you know, those herds people and the people that are boots on the ground is what we should be tracking and understanding. Because once we start understanding the information that's there, then we typically want to add to it and build upon it. However, if I'm coming into a situation and they don't know where to begin, they don't

know where to start and they say hey we know we want reports because we want to be better we want to you know empower our people to make better decisions things like that. A couple of the things that I like to start with are obviously milk production and components this is essentially what pays the bills so again we need to understand you know what's going on there as well as if we have good production we have good components we have happy healthy cows and you know that's every farmer's goal at the end of the day is to have happy healthy cows.

And then, know, feeding into that, next step would be also looking at health events on the farm. And why typically typically like to look at this is, you know, we can start looking at protocols, you know, what drugs are working, which drugs are not. But then again, this kind of feeds right back into the production. If we don't have a lot of health events on farms, we've got those healthy, happy cows that are producing well. You know, then kind of getting into some of the reproduction as well. Reproduction costs farms lots of money. Days open cost farmers a

of money and typically people don't think about that because you just say oh you know that cow is sitting open what's she really costing me um but i really like to look here too because if we're if we're maximizing our reproduction we're again then getting you know good milk peaks out of these cows good production curves things like that so it's all feeding back into the bottom dollar here for that farmer um but then i do also like to take a step obviously Agri-King we're a nutrition company I want to look at things of dry matter intakes on pen

You know, where are those at? Are they too high? Are they too low? Are there things, you know, that's where we come in to help understand what's going on there. And then also really focusing on component efficiency. I'm not sure if all farmers are aware of what that term is. You know, that's we've done a couple podcasts on that. But, know, just really looking at how hard are cows working to produce the components that are being put in the tank today. That's really important, again, to making sure we're maximizing every bite of food that the cow

was

consuming, know, making sure that every dollar is going to producing, you know, high quality milk there for that animal. And then I always kind of throw in a caveat here, like heifers, don't forget about your heifers. A lot of dairy producers, unfortunately, you know, these are born on farm or, know, maybe they're born someplace else and they go off to a raisor and they're kind of out of sight, out of mind. These are going to be the most profitable animals on your farm. They should be the most, you know, up to date.

genetics, things like that. Let's not forget about them. We need to keep in mind, you know, what are the health events going on with these animals? You know, if you're taking weights on these animals, let's, you know, keep in mind, you know, where are those average daily gains? Are group to group? we seeing variations? Things like that. So that's kind of a quick overview of where I start with people without getting bogged down by the numbers. Because obviously like Agri-King is across the U.S. We're going to get different numbers in different regions. ⁓

but these are kind of just some of the main areas of focus that I like to look at.

Mike Donaldson (10:45)
Let's for an example, let's take something like the reproductive side. And, and I'm a, I'm an Agri-King Nutrition Consultant. And I think one of the things that needs said, we work with 50 cow herds and we work with 5,000 cow herds. These are, these problems are challenges are everywhere. So I don't care what size it is, but I've got a client's farm.

I'm monitoring some things on the farm, but I want you to take a look at things quarterly. So I'm sending you backup information and I've made the observation to you that boy, our repro just isn't really where it ought to be. What, and then forsake argument because you've lived in the Midwest and I've never lived in the Northwest. So we're a Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan herd.

What would you say constitutes a good preg rate or a conception rate, even to the point of what goes into those numbers? I think sometimes the terms get thrown around and the understanding isn't there to explain it.

Hannah Lansing (11:56)
Right, definitely, and I think that's kind of the thing that gets...

screwed up with reproduction because I say reproduction is a beast on its own. So typically what I like to do with people at the end of the day, we are a nutrition company. So I might say, hey, this is where things are at, but definitely talk to your repro people. We are not repro people. We don't pretend to be, but I think it's important for producers to understand some of these numbers. And what I mean by numbers is I'm talking pregnancy rates. So pregnancy rate is taking into account your heat detection rate and your conception rate. And if you have inverses of either of those numbers,

you will actually get the same pregnancy rate. again, I try to not get bogged down by just one because if again, it's taking into account both of those things, the heat detection rate. So, you know, are we getting animal serviced of, know, the subset of group that's available? Are we getting all of those animals? If not, why? And then looking at conception rates because yeah, we might've got that animal serviced, but did she really conceive? So those are just kind of some of the little details that we start to spin off of.

Mike Donaldson (12:33)
Mm-hmm.

Hannah Lansing (13:00)
once we start digging deeper into a farm and understanding what's going on there. But typically what I like to do to start is, you know, just get a base understanding of the herd, understanding, you know, what they're doing, where things are going, and then kind of start to dig down layer by layer, peeling it back kind of like an onion.

Mike Donaldson (13:17)
Okay, so I'm going to give you a chance to get up on a soapbox now and speak to dairy farmers across the country. Because it does, and I've been on, say, we'll call it your home farm. I've been on your home farm. And maybe it's your influence. I'm not 100 % sure if it would be your dad's, but everything is entered in. You've got DairyComp running and all tuned up. If you want to know a number, it's probably there.

Hannah Lansing (13:24)
Yep. ⁓

Mike Donaldson (13:47)
And I've been on bigger farms and if it wasn't being automatically entered by the parlor automation or something, the gaps were basically making the whole record keeping program irrelevant because they just didn't have, nobody was taking the time to enter the things that would then let you know, preg grade or any of these things. So.

from your soapbox, how would you explain the value of taking that relatively small amount of time on a daily or whatever you'd like it to be basis to get this stuff written down, get this stuff entered in the program?

Hannah Lansing (14:37)
No, definitely. And I think that's always the hard part and where where to begin, you know, because dairy data is not something that you just decide on the farm tomorrow. Okay, we're going to do it and we're going to be the best. You know, we're going to record.

Everything that happens on this farm. We're gonna take colostrum scores and serum total proteins And you know every time that calf looks at us funny. It's gonna be in the computer It doesn't start like that. You know it's baby steps there's farms that I've been working with for two years now on the DairyComp side and Every six months we add one more protocol so typically what I tell people is yes, it can be overwhelming to start I don't disagree with that statement how at all however we have to start it's kind of probably

like walking. You don't just one day wake up and decide okay I'm gonna walk and today's I'm gonna do it or we'll run a marathon. You know you're gonna train and there's gonna be steps along the way and there's gonna be setbacks and there's gonna be things that motivate you to keep going. Dairy Day does the same way you know I like to start with

on today on that farm, what's important to you is understanding milk fevers or you have fresh cow issues and we want to look at metritis. Perfect. Let's get those two protocols in the computer and then let's make sure whoever's entering things in the computer knows how to do that and how to code that properly. Because sometimes the owner might have an idea, but then the herdsman has a totally different one. So I typically like to go down, you know, work with the owners, but then also work with, you know, the boots on the ground.

making sure they understand how things are being entered into the computer and say, Hey, let's try this for a week. If you hate it, give me a call. We'll change it. And then if we're effectively monitoring things for a month, great, let's add another and let's add another. But in order to be great again, we've got to go back to those details and we've got to go back to the things, you know, once we start getting those details honed in, it's all going to become second nature. And you're not going to think twice about, that calf looked at me funny. You know, maybe we should treat her or maybe we should do this. It's like, Nope. She looked at me funny.

⁓ she's got pneumonia, she's got to go in the computer. It'll just become something that keeps occurring. ⁓ But again, the hardest part is to get started. But I think, you know, that's really where we come in as an Agri-King team. Like our whole goal is to provide extra value on the farm. It's not just to show up and look at the cows. It's like, no, hey, we want to be here to help. And that's what we're doing through this.

Mike Donaldson (17:00)
Perfect. That's, you did just fine on the soapbox. That was good deal. Nicely done. Moving over to feeding programs. What are some, what's an example of some of the brands that you're using? And what do you see as being the advantage over a clipboard with a piece of paper on there when you're actually using some of these designated for your more accurate feeding programs?

Hannah Lansing (17:26)
Yeah, so again, when it comes to feeding programs, there's gonna be different softwares in different regions. And then obviously like those regions have different support pockets. So it just kind of depends on where you're at. But some of the ones that I work with the most are going to be FeedWatch, Easy Feed, OneMilk or TMR Tracker. ⁓ And definitely the benefits of having these systems are, again, it's gonna give us those little details. We can get inventories out of this. We can get down to the dollars and cents of the amount of feed that's left or what's consumed.

on farm that day, we can understand if we're taking weighbacks on the farm, we can understand exactly how many dry matter pounds that animal's eating that day versus batch sheets to me are just, there's a lot of feelings there. We don't know what was left over. We don't know, did we really use that amount? know, if the recipe, there's all these different recipes, you know, what's actually in front of the cow, what's mixed and what was formulated. ⁓ Again, with these software systems, when we start syncing things up to a scale,

like that. know exactly many pounds of corn silage went in. We know exactly how many pounds were over. I have farms every week. We're looking at mixer reports and you know what was actually mixed. How far off a deviation were we from the ration and then how far off are we in the terms of amount you know of feed that was dropped in front of those animals too because especially on these large farms we're mixing batches that are going to you know a thousand cows like they're going across multiple pens. It's not just hey we're mixing a small batch here and it's going to all the

cows and everything's fine. It's, hey, no, we're mixing a batch. It's going to two or three pens and then we're going back and we're doing it again and again and again. And, know, throughout the week, we might have 200 different loads of feed that were mixed on farm. Okay. Where were the variations and then how do we get better from there? ⁓ So I think to these systems also help remove the feeling from it because we're all full of feelings. We're all full of, think this happened. I think that happened. I think, you know, the cows didn't eat that much today. ⁓

Mike Donaldson (19:18)
Ha ha.

Hannah Lansing (19:26)
And again, those systems will tell us exactly what's going on. So I'm definitely all in for technology. I mean, it's no different than we have all this technology that we wear today. Why not use it on the farm as well?

Mike Donaldson (19:39)
It's fun for me. I get to help out with some of the different collegiate dairy challenges. I mean, it's not always, if you're a feed person, you usually pay attention to the feed that's being put out, how it's being mixed. And it's fun for me to walk through these farms with a bunch of college kids and they're watching the guy, we were in California last year.

and we were watching a guy load the mixer and every single ingredient, he took something back to the bunker, back to the commodity shed. It wasn't just dump the whole bucket and run. And I said to them, said, well, what does that mean to you? And they're like, I don't know. And I said, it means he's really paying attention because you want to pay it. If you're on a farm doing the job that we do,

and it always comes out to an even bucket, you don't even have to take a sample of the TMR to know it's nowhere as close because nobody's that good. And, and yeah, it's easy for that not to get caught along.

Hannah Lansing (20:45)
Right.

Exactly.

Mike Donaldson (20:55)
What do you think, I you mentioned some of the different monitoring, ear tags, collars. Where do you think you're going what are you gonna be talking about in five years as being the new and trendy aspect of data acquisition on farms?

Hannah Lansing (21:16)
wow, that's a tough one. Because I think the dairy industry is so far ahead when it comes to technology. I think there's probably things in the works that were

I don't even think is going to be possible. like what I mean by that is they've talked about AI goggles that you wear in the farm and you know, is scoring a cow, body condition scoring a cow. And my brain just can't even fathom that, that there's glasses and things that can do that. But I mean, even on the farm that we live today, we use AI every day. AI is locomotion scoring our cows outside every minute ⁓ on both sites here. Those are things that I wouldn't, you know, wouldn't have thought of probably five, 10 years ago. But I think

it's doing it because as we start to transition generations we want to make sure that our whole lives are not devoted to the farm. We want to make sure we're still getting out and enjoying time with our families so who knows what's next but I'm excited for it is all I know.

Mike Donaldson (22:13)
Well, as we wrap things up and you did a great job explaining this, but I'd like you, any thoughts you want to add, that's fine. But make a final pitch for just deciding that, okay, I listened to this podcast and I heard you say two different times. I just have to embrace the idea.

These things need written down and trying to remember to do it monthly isn't getting it done. I need to commit daily once a week, whatever you've seen work. Put a final little push on me that I'm actually going to go do that.

Hannah Lansing (22:59)
Yeah, well Rome wasn't built in a day, so start small. know, take baby steps, move forward. But if there's areas that you want to improve on your farm, this is a place to begin.

is to understand, know, what is the biggest bottleneck on my farm and how can we tackle that tomorrow? ⁓ And we can help you find that out and work with your consultants. Even if there's a team of people on the farm, I love working with other consultants on farms, you know, whether it's the vet, things like that. love working as a team. You know, the more eyes on something, the better things are going to be in the end. ⁓ So ask your consultants and together as a group, you know, they can help you move forward as well. But again, I just

go

back to the difference between good and great is in the details. So the more details that we can collect, the better we can be in the end.

Mike Donaldson (23:48)
Well, I think I'm really happy to have someone like you on our team, Hannah. I think it helps our people. We've got people who are very, very good on these programs all by themselves. They can sit down at a desk and do a great job. And in some cases with some of our newer hires, you're one of the reasons they become able to do that as well. Cause you do work on the training side, but I think at times that aspect of another set of eyes.

something that maybe I got used to looking at and accept. And then you look at it go, Mike, you, you realized what this shows? This is, I, yeah, I guess it slowly has crept. I guess preg rate has crept down into a level that isn't really very good. And I just wasn't paying close enough attention. So the best way for someone listening to this podcast to access your expertise is going to be through their Agri-King nutrition consultant locally.

or they could get in touch with you through the website as well, couldn't they?

Hannah Lansing (24:54)
I actually don't know if my stuff's on the website. Sorry, that probably you're gonna have to edit that out, Chris. But yes, working with your Agri-King nutrition consultant is probably the best way to get a hold of me. And then from there we can build upon, know, what our Agri-King team looks like on that farm. And then kind of go from there.

Mike Donaldson (24:57)
Okay.

That's perfect. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Hannah. Chris, what'd you learn today,

Chris Radke (25:21)
Hey, I've got kind of a follow-up question for Hannah. What would be like an amazing or just a aha moment that you've seen in somebody else's you started showing them the data? If you don't have one, that's alright.

Hannah Lansing (25:33)
I think.

Yeah, I think one of the things for me is like I said, there's a farm that I've been working on for two years and we've slowly been adding, you know, little bits and pieces to DairyComp every quarter, just to give the producer and that herd manager more information because they know they want to grow. They know they have areas and improvement. And the last time I was on this farm, cause I tried to get out there two times a year cause they are in the Midwest, so away from me now. And the owner came up to me and gave me a hug and said,

you have changed how we looked at things on this farm. And so to me, is kind of like, it fuels you to keep going. Not that you need like a congratulations every day, but you know, like you changed how we look at things, you changed how we view this number, or to even have herd managers call you and, you know, ask for help and understanding how to run a command and DairyComp. And they're like, Oh, wow, I got so close. I just forgot, you know, one backslash or one this. But just to understand that they're learning through the process, because I don't

everything either. Like there's times where I have to call and ask for help. ⁓

But just to get like their stories and understand like you are making a difference is a huge like, aha. Um, cause I'm not a numbers person. I know I work with numbers all the time. So people are like, there's no way you are not a numbers person, but I love working with farmers. I love being on farm. Um, I love dairy cattle. Like it's in my blood. I it's all I've ever known. Um, so just to know you're making a difference is like my aha moment. And you know, it's why I do what I do.

Mike Donaldson (26:53)
Ha

Chris Radke (27:11)
That's cool, that's cool. What I really appreciate about you, Hannah, is your, you said at the beginning, your competitiveness, and I think even though you say you're not numbers, that competitiveness drives you to find and help other people do better, and I think that pushes the team, and like Mike said earlier, get in touch with her however you can. If you like what you heard, if you like what we were talking about, you can hit us up on any of our socials. If you'd like to ask us a specific question, you can email us at podcast @ agriking.com.

All right, Hannah, Mike, thank you very much.

Mike Donaldson (27:42)
Thank you both. Thank you, Hannah.

Hannah Lansing (27:44)
Yeah, thank you guys. I appreciate it.