Veteran dairyman finds niche for quality cows 119064
Although veteran Mississippi dairyman and university professor Bill McGee sold off his milking operation several years ago, he and family members continue to raise high quality Holstein cows for a north Mississippi dairy operation. At any given time, the McGee farm near Starkville, Miss., will have about 400 animals, ranging from young calves to two-year-old heifers.
When Bill McGee retired in 1991 as professor of dairy science at Mississippi State University, he kept right on doing what he’d done all his life — working with dairy animals.
“My hobby has always been work,” he says. “I still love getting up every day and looking after the calves and cows.”
On his scenic Mactoc Farm in the rolling hills of the Oktoc community near Starkville, Miss., not that far from his alma mater, an average 400 Holstein dairy animals are in a continuous management rotation from calfhood to two years.
Until a few years ago, Bill and his eldest son, David, who earned a dairy science degree at Mississippi State University, operated a dairy on the farm here. Their top quality registered Holstein herd consistently led the state in annual average milk production per cow (rolling herd average). They were able to increase production by more than 10,000 pounds of milk per cow, to 28,000 pounds rolling herd average.
“An emphasis on good genetics, herd health/nutrition, and doing everything possible to keep cows in tip-top condition really paid off for us,” Bill says.
His other son, Darren, who had earned dairy science and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degrees at MSU, did the veterinary work for the herd, and contributed heavily to its financial management and development of feeding programs.
In 2005, the remnants of Hurricane Katrina took down about a third of the shade cloth over a 200-cow lockup barn. That was replaced with a permanent roof, and shortly afterward, a straight-line windstorm collapsed the roof.
“We were facing a $100,000 expenditure to make repairs,” Bill says. “In addition to that, an large upscale housing development had gone in nearby, and there had already been a lot of opposition by local citizens to a hog farm in the area.
“Rather than face complaints by neighbors and potential environmental battles over our operation, and make the costly building repairs that would be required, we decided to get out of the dairy business. We sold our herd and milking equipment, and the proceeds from that allowed us to wipe out our debt.
“Several years earlier, Darren, who had a veterinary practice here and had been doing large herd consulting work all over Mississippi, formed a partnership with Grandy Ladner in Heritage Dairy at Wyatte, Miss., not far from Memphis, milking about 500 cows, all Holsteins.”
Darren later took a position with a Monsanto division that was spun off to Eli Lilly Co., and moved to Indianapolis, where he now coordinates dairy research programs nationwide.
Raises cows for dairy partnership
“The acreage at Heritage Dairy wasn’t really large enough to support a herd that size,” Bill says, “and Darren was now limited in the time he could devote to the dairy. So, after David and I sold our dairy operation, we divided the 700 acres of land here and later worked out an agreement to raise dairy animals for the partnership dairy.
“When baby calves are born at Heritage Dairy, they are brought to our farm and put in individual pens. David and his daughter, Kelli, who are now both enrolled in nursing school, care for the penned calves until they’re approximately three months old, after which they go on ryegrass pasture, with some supplemental grain.”
At about 15 months of age, they are bred via artificial insemination, and when they’re two years old, just prior to calving, they’re moved back to Heritage Dairy. When their calves are born, they’re returned to the McGee farm to continue the cycle.
The system results in a constant turnover, Bill says, and there will be about 400 animals on Mactoc Farm at any given time.
“The heavy calving season starts in September, and we usually have ryegrass available when the calves are taken out of their pens, but because of the unusually dry fall we’ve had this year, the grass still wasn’t up to a stand at mid-October.”
He plants Marshall ryegrass, which he says is an excellent forage producer, with a longer season than Gulf ryegrass.
When heifers are old enough to breed, they are segregated out and put on hay and supplemental feed until they’re pregnant, after which they’re turned onto ryegrass.
Most of their hay is grown on the farm, and Bill says they will put up about 1,000 bales in a season. “We use a Claas round baler, which has an attachment that covers bales in plastic wrap. This prevents weather deterioration and helps preserve the quality and nutritional value of the hay.”
“Heritage Dairy does a certain amount of culling to improve herd genetics,” Bill says. “Surplus animals are sold to other dairies for production purposes — hopefully, that can occur when when prices are good.”
With sexed semen now available, he notes, it’s possible to breed for better than 90 percent females.
“In the past, bulls were selected for their pedigree, but that didn’t necessarily mean their daughters would be good milk producers. Of every 20 bulls sampled, only about one was adequate for AI service.
Genetic markers help select top milk producers
“Now, bulls can be tested in the lab to determine if their genetic profile contains markers for producing daughters that will have high milk production. With these genetic marker profiles, bulls can be more accurately selected, reducing the number of bulls that need to be sampled.”
During his decades in the dairy sector, Bill has seen what was once a thriving industry continually decline.
“When I came to Mississippi State University in 1954, this county had over 100 Grade A dairies and was known as the ‘Dairy Center of the South.’ The university had a dairy herd and operated an extensive dairy breeding and research program. They also had a processing plant where they made all kinds of products, including cheese and ice cream.
“There was a huge Borden plant not far from the campus that bought Grade C milk — all the sweetened condensed milk for the South was processed there.
“Almost every farm in this area had a dairy and there were hundreds of them around the state. Today, there’s only one commercial dairy left in this county, plus the university’s dairy herd and processing plant, and statewide there are now probably well under 200 dairies. As was the case with us, quite a few operations didn’t start back up after Hurricane Katrina.