16 Calves Bring in the New Year
Published: Friday, January 10, 2025
Sixteen calves arrived on New Year's Day at Homestead Dairy in Plymouth, with the first being born at 1 a.m., Jan. 1. Eight of the calves were Holsteins and eight were Angus-cross.
Fourth-generation farmer Brian Houin reported that all 16 calves were born without complications, and all calves appear to be well. He said it is important to closely monitor their health, especially in the first two weeks, when they are more prone to sickness.
Last Friday, all calves appeared happy and healthy, with many of them curling up in their bedding together and others prancing around. They are kept in a pen with unlimited access to milkers, allowing farm hands to keep a better eye on their health and adjust as needed.
The Holstein calves will be added to the herd and the Angus-crosses will be sold to a feeder calf operation near Fort Wayne before being sold to a feedlot in Colorado.
Homestead Dairy averages 18 calvings per day.
Looking ahead to 2025, Houin said, "We expect to still be milking cows. We don't have any major projects for this coming year. We're getting close to finishing up a new commodity barn."
He expects the barn to become operational in a month.
"Hope that herd health and calf health stays as good as it has been and hope that the milk price stays kind of where it has been, and keep doing our thing," Houin said, describing his plan for 2025.
"The last couple years we have done a lot of dairy revenue protection (DRP) to protect ourselves from any big fluctuations or big events, so right now we've got half of our milk protected. The first half of the year, our milk is protected at a certain price."
Houin said he is keeping an eye on the bird flu, although he is confident that Homestead Dairy is well-protected against the illness.
"We're not in a large dairy area and we don't move cattle that much. Our Holstein herd stays pretty close; they don't go out of state," he said. "But it's always in the back of your mind and you hear the stories, so we're trying to stay pretty vigilant. It will be interesting to see once Indiana starts doing its testing."
Homestead Dairy has also been maintaining herd size internally since 2007, which Houin expects to help protect against potential bird flu outbreaks.
Looking further into the future, Homestead Dairy is working to make its operation viable for the next generation. Houin has six children and three nephews who could potentially take an interest in the dairy.
"We are taking advantage of technology the next generation would be attracted to," he said.
He added that he expects artificial intelligence to play a bigger role in dairy farming as time goes on.
"The amount of data that we collect on each cow every day allows for AI to really help us manage cows better than we could 20-30 years ago. There's definitely going to be a place for that," he said. "Not only on the cow side, but even on the crop side. I think there's going to be some things that are going to be developed that's really going to take crops and dairy to the next level."
In the meantime, Houin plans to keep an eye on the new technologies and continue to raise happy, healthy calves for his herd.
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