Redrock View Farms

The STgenetics® Marketing Team had the privilege to tour Redrock View Farms, a progressive dairy just outside the small town of Darlington in Southwest Wisconsin. Cody Carpenter the Herd Manager along with his STgenetics® Rep, Rich Coulthard showed us around their operation while we learned more about their farm and long-term goals.

Cody, along with his parents Steve and Lisa, brothers Colton and Carson and sister, Cora, own and operate their 650 head dairy consisting mainly of Holsteins and a few Jerseys. Shipping all their milk to a local cheese plant, they have a large focus on CM$ and components. Redrock View Farms currently averages about 92 lbs per cow per day, they also have a 4.4% Fat and a 3.3% Protein.

When we asked Cody about some of their accomplishments he stated, “Redrock View Farms has always pride itself on sustainability, being a family owned business, one of our main goals is to pass the farm along to the next generation better than when we received it, production has always been a key part of that, but another aspect that we have now focused on is our genetics." 

With this newer venture they have determined they have two types of cows they will be breeding for. The first is for cows that will be entering their main production herd. For these individuals they are selecting for CM$, components and more recently for A2A2 as well as Beta Casein to help produce a more effective product for cheese production.

Another area of focus for Redrock View Farms is elite individuals with higher GTPI and NM$ numbers. Through STgenetics® lab, Genetic Vision-ST™, the Carpenters utilize genomic testing to pinpoint their donor population and incorporate them into their IVF and conventional flushing programs with the goal to produce higher individuals.

Keeping this goal in mind, they strive to increase their elite genetic pool as quickly and efficiently as possible by utilizing their top 5% of their herd, they use CM$ and GTPI to identify the individuals who make up this top tier of their herd. This elite genetic pool is created through genomic testing, Redrock View Farms currently uses Parent Average as a guide to decide which youngstock get genomic tested, they focus on getting genomic results on the top 30% of their herd.

After discussing their elite bloodlines, we were curious as to what their strategy is with the other sectors of their herd. Carpenter stated that, “Sexed semen has revolutionized how we look at our female population in our herd. It allows us to increase the efficiency for the top 50% of our herd while we utilize the bottom 50% as recipes or by breeding them to beef. Sexed semen has allowed us to get the most out of our heifer population.”

 

As our genetic discussion continued, one bull in particular was brought up that we felt needed to be mentioned. Redrock View Farms is home to STgenetics® sire, Redrock, an A2A2 sire in our lineup that is also +2637 GTPI, +5.2 PL, +3.2 DPR and +2.7 FI. Redrock is a Jedi out of VG-88 Kingboy from an EX-90 Numero Uno out of the household brood cow, Kamps-Hollow Altitude EX-95. Redrock View Farms was able to partner with some other dairymen to bring Altitude’s genetics into their breeding program which created a strong foundation to amplify new influential bloodlines.

While we continued to walk through their free-stall our conversation turned towards the future and what Cody thought would be coming next for his family’s farm.

“We believe the next step in our breeding program is feed efficiency and we believe EcoFeed® is going to be the vehicle that is going to get us there effectively. If I can efficiently raise the same exact animal that has +900NM$ for a $1 a day less, that’s a no brainer.” He stated boldly. He went on to give a bit more detail into other traits he uses in his breeding decisions that he believes will help them stay the course in developing good, well producing cows. “Like I said before, we heavily use CM$ and components because we ship to a cheese plant, but we also rely on DPR and PL to assist us in developing healthy animals. GTPI also comes into this equation, we have some guidelines of the type of sires we want to use that Rich has and every proof run he brings to me a group of sires he thinks would fit our operation and together we narrow it down to the right sires for us.”

Rich was able to give some insight into all the programs Cody and his family have been utilizing in their herd through STgenetics®. We learned that the Carpenters regularly are genomic testing the top 30% of their youngstock based off PA, they work with Rich on the Chromosomal Mating® Program to create the right mating’s for their herd and like stated before, every proof run they work with Rich on which sires they will be using next.

Going further into Redrock View Farms relationship with STgenetics®, Cody mentioned, “STgenetics® has always been a leader in innovation and technology and always on the cutting edge of genetic traits and programs through the use of their lab, Genetic Visions-ST™ as well as their genetic programs such as EcoFeed® and Chromosomal Mating®, we are really able to get the most out of our partnership with STgenetics®.”

As our tour came to an we were leaving the free-stall barn, we were able to see Redrock’s Dam, Redrock-View Kingboy 367-ET VG-88 in her working clothes, we noted the strong, well legged and impressive uddered cow was just one of many impressive cows to notice throughout the herd. Our tour of Redrock View Farms truly showed the care the Carpenters give to their cows individually as well as the dedication and hard work they give to their genetic program to produce impressive individuals from calves to cows.