Johnson Rolling Acres is a family farm that has been in business since 1979. After starting out milking 36 cows, the farm has steadily milked more cows to support a growing family. The most recent expansion was in 2012 when the Johnson’s built a cross-ventilated freestall barn and expanded to 1,200 milking cows.
As a long-time GMS customer, Mark Johnson sees the value of mating the right bull to the right cow. To take advantage of the genetic potential of his herd, Johnson wanted the GMS program to create the most valuable calf out of each cow, regardless of breed.
The new breeding program at Johnson’s Rolling Acres includes Sexcel® sexed genetics on the top 30% of the herd and Beef InFocus™ on the bottom 40% of the herd. Not only does this program raise the genetic level of the herd, but the Johnsons are getting a premium for the beef crossbred calves compared to a Holstein bull calf.
“We’re trying to take advantage of the genetic potential all of our cows have through the GMS mating and we are trying to eliminate the worst by getting rid of those genetics with the beef and also the time same time we’re producing a calf that we’re getting a really nice premium on compared to our regular Holstein bull calf.”
Mark Johnson
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