The Select Sires Podcast

Breeding for the Future: Cow Longevity, Reproductive Success and Genetic Strategy at Maier Farms

• Select Sires • Season 2 • Episode 23

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In this episode of The Select Sires Podcast, host Ethan Haywood sits down with Patrick Maier and Max Shenkenberg of Maier Farms, and Susie Martin from CentralStar Cooperative to take a deep dive into how strategic genetics, disciplined reproductive protocols, and a strong team culture have positioned Maier Farms as a leader in reproductive performance, earning them a CentralStar ReproStar Award in 2025. With insights on fertility management, bull selection, data-driven decisions, and the importance of patience in genetic progress, this episode is packed with practical takeaways for any producer looking to improve cow longevity and herd performance.

Welcome to The Select Sires Podcast, talking Your Success, Our Passion. Starting in three, two, one.

Ethan Haywood

Hello and welcome back to The Select Sires Podcast and webinar series focused on cow longevity and farm success. I'm your host, Ethan Haywood, and today I'm very excited to be joined by a great group of folks. Patrick Maier, partner at Maier Farms. Max Schenkenberg, herd manager at Maier Farms. Susie Martin, regional consulting manager for CentralStar in Wisconsin. And to all three of you, thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us today. 

Patrick Maier and Max Shenkenberg

Thanks for having us. 

Ethan Haywood

As we've gone through different areas of cow longevity, fertility is one that continues to pop up, especially as we get in these warmer weather months, as we were talking about earlier, facing some challenges. And as the shrinking amount of replacements within our industry continues to be a problem we really have to focus on longevity and reproduction to keep cows into the herd and to make sure heifers are entering in the herd and so we want to talk with the three of you about some of your successes and challenges that you've experienced, daughter fertility is certainly a two-pronged approach with both the genetics of the females themselves, as well as the environment and the management that you provide to make sure that you're making as much success within your reproductive program as possible. Patrick and Max, let's start out by describing a little bit what Maier Farms looks like today so we can imagine that environment that you're providing for your cows in order to maximize your repro. 

Patrick Maier

Yeah, thanks, Ethan. We are a multi-generational dairy farm. My grandpa would have started the farm in the late seventies, early eighties. My dad and uncle became partners in nineteen ninety eight. They formed an LLC and I came back in twenty seventeen. We are right about sixty thousand feet north of the state's capital. So we're really close to Madison. We are in Waunakee, Wisconsin. And we like to do a lot in-house. We really hang our hats heavy on our team. We've got a really good team of people out here. We do our own cropping. Our heifers are all grown within the state here. And we really try to focus on longevity, keeping animals around as we can, making a healthy cow a profitable cow, and just keeping them around in our herd as long as we can. 

Ethan Haywood

And reproduction is something that you've actually recently won the ReproStar Award for from Central Star with some really, really impressive numbers. An annual forty two percent pregnancy rate, a seventy three percent submission rate and a fifty seven percent first service conception rate, which are all just fantastic numbers to be coupled with your high production and everything else you've got going on. Who leads the breeding programs and tells us a little bit about what it look like a setup wise for a repro program? 

Max Shenkenberg

Yeah. So, uh, I kind of had up the reproduction program on, uh, at Myers here, but, uh, as, as far as having fertility goes, um, we really make sure these girls hit the ground running on day one. Um, we dip the navels, get a gallon of colostrum in them. And, uh, as long as we do that, we really set ourselves up for success. Um, Most of the young stock is raised off site, but once they come into the breeding pens just down the road, we really get aggressive breeding as long as they're the correct size. Last year, we were at a thirteen month VWP with all our numbers. Honestly, what I do to kind of set up our girls for success is at three hundred ninety three days, they'll get their first shot of prostaglandin. We got a really good shot response to that prostaglandin. So I would say, you know, seventy to seventy five percent of our first services are off that first prostaglandin. And Honestly, in the last three months, we actually backed off our VWP one month just to get a little bit better growth out of our virgin heifers. And honestly, our numbers have gone up at least service rate wise and bread rate wise backing off. So we can always get a little bit better, but just making sure we get these girls pregnant, get them into the milking herd, start paying their way. 

Ethan Haywood

Absolutely, and it's fun to be able to turn the fine screws in a program like your team's to really hone in and continue to work towards that improvement. Susie, how long have you had the pleasure of working with this operation, and what is your role as far as helping making some decisions here in the reproductive process? 

Susie Martin

Yes, thanks. I've been working with them for approximately the past three years using a lot of the great tools that we have in our toolbox. working with them with developing a genetic strategy so they can make those precision breeding decisions and inventory management. We do use the OGB calculator for inventory management. In addition, providing them with genetic audits and repro audits, and furthermore, monitoring the data. making sure that they're reaching their targets, reviewing the repro reviews monthly to monitor repro, and just keeping an eye on their repro performance. 

Ethan Haywood

You mentioned the OGP program and anyone on the team here, what do you focus on as far as your goals for making replacements? Who within the population are you making those out of? Are you using any beef semen in that process? What does the decision tree look like? 

Max Shenkenberg

I guess I could start it out. I guess a little bit of background on the farm. We did go through an expansion a few years ago. And with that, you know, anyone who has gone through the growth process knows there's going to, I guess the easiest way to grow would be from within. But obviously when you make that step, it does take some buying cattle from outside herds most of the time. So what we ran ourselves into was a little bit of a slug of calvings because we purchased a lot of animals within the same cohort of days and milk. So a lot of those animals, they just created peaks and valleys. When the dust settled from our growth period, we sat down with Susie and honestly, after that first slug of calvings came through our system, we're like, we really need to tighten this up. So I would say just having a consistent amount of freshenings throughout the year. And obviously you have to plant that seed almost two years in advance before you see those animals come into the milking herd. We see a light at the end of the tunnel. We're still working through it, but Susie's been a giant help getting us to flatten those peaks and valleys. 

Patrick Maier

And I'd agree with that. On the standpoint of you got to be proactive and not reactive and repro a lot, your results are going to be down the road. They're not instantaneous. And just having some of these reports and stuff in your inbox when you get up in the morning, pour a cup of coffee, you can see that there. It gives you time to review. I think that works really well. Everybody kind of gets to review the data. And then if they have questions, whether it's text email phone calls I I really like how the team communicates back and forth 

Ethan Haywood

And it's a variety of sire selection that you guys use to really try and customize to what your overall genetic goals are. What does that process look like as far as picking out what bulls are in the tank and what are you looking at in that process?

Max Shenkenberg

So, the way I kind of start out with sire selection is just looking at the NxGEN lineup Select Sires has to offer. We were early adapters to the NxGEN lineup. LEGACY was one of the first sires there and he was in our tank. But since that program's expanded, it's really given our farm a ton of options to look at because we ship all of our milk towards cheese production. High components are extremely important to our operation. So we typically rank off of NM$ starting. That's just what we kind of decided as a farm was most important to us. So high combined fat and protein and preferably fairly positive on milk. But then going down the line, you could hit that filter and just see all your high net merit bulls. But at the end of the day, we need longevity out of these animals. So my tiebreaker at the moment would be DPR. So the highest bull in the lineup could be super negative on DPR. That's how he kind of filters himself out. So we still want to make sure these daughters breed back. If we only get one lactation out of these animals, it doesn't really pay for the investment we put into them. So we need lots of lactations out of our girls. 

Susie Martin

I would just like to add that in sire selection, Max does a great job selecting bulls that meet the goals for the Meijer Farms. We walked pens a couple of weeks ago. Many of the GAMEDAYs are now in their second lactation, performing really well. And then shifting over to the two-year-old pen, we saw daughters of HAYK and LETCHWORTH, just a beautiful group of daughters. It's just very exciting and rewarding to see the NxGEN daughters in production.

Ethan Hawyood

It's exciting to see them out and displaying their genetics in a really good environment. And that's probably the most rewarding part of breeding cows is to be able to see those daughters and see them get out there and get to work. As you guys go through and cows reenter reproductive protocols, what does that look like for a cow at the farm? 

Max Shenkenberg

We've done a few tweaks recently, kind of going off of pushing our virgin heifers back. We have pushed our first lactation VWP back to eighty-four days, and then our second and greater lactation would be at seventy days. But everything is enrolled in a double opsync for first service. And then coming off that, each cow, we'll do a re-sync at twenty-five, so they'll all get a shot of GnRH twenty-five days after that first service. And then at thirty-two days, I'll go in and I'll check for pregnancy. If they're pregnant, we did our job. And then if they're open with a CL, we'll go ahead and keep enrolling them in that re-sync. Or if there's no presence of the CL, I'll go ahead and stick a seeder in that animal. So we like to stay really aggressive. is keeping this submission rate really drives, drives up the success of our program. 

Ethan Haywood

And to Patrick and Max, what do you guys feel is the key parts in achieving reproductive success within your program? And then when we move over to Susie, what do you see maybe a little bit different at Maier farms compared to some of the other operations that you've seen there in the state that you think helps them become successful? 

Patrick Maier

I think one of the key things that I contributed to, obviously good genetics, but you have to have decent facilities. So we've invested quite a bit in our facilities, mechanical ventilating our barns. We got a cross vent, a tunnel vent barn. We really try to keep our facilities up and let the animals be animals. I mean, we really want that genetic expression to come through. We want them to be able to healthy calves. I think the other thing is our our team we can really have a good team of people out here matt max has got a really good uh staff underneath them um and they get it done you know shot compliance is there it's just consistency over time um they're not doing anything special you know as as I said there's no you know uh silver bullet by any means but they just do a lot of things right consistently 

Max Shenkenberg

yep yeah attention to detail just not really cutting corners um Yeah. No shortcuts really. I mean, we're still a daily heat detection with a tail paint herd. So, and it's something I enjoy. It's a few hours in the barn, you know, just to myself. But with that, you know, with the team I'm currently building up underneath me, training them and taking the time to kind of build them up and give them the confidence to perform to the farm standard. So yeah, it's fun, but yeah, it's a labor of love for sure. 

Susie Martin

And I would echo the comments. It's a great team and they are a pleasure to work with. And one of the advantages that they have and their repro is outstanding. It's just fun to evaluate month to month and just watch it excel. They have detailed farm data, ideal for overall performance. You never really see any real hiccups with it. They have great compliance, just phenomenal compliance, which makes a big difference. They have an ideal cull rate. And when I recently updated their OGP calculator, I was looking at their non-completion rate. They are now at six percent, which is excellent. They do an outstanding job from start to finish with cow-calf management. And these are key areas that are adding to their success. Once again, a great team. But one more thing that I would add is communication. just great communicators they ask questions when they do run into something they reach out and they ask a question if I don't have the answer then I'll find somebody that can get the answer for us.

Ethan Haywood

Yeah, that's an incredible non-completion rate number. And I think something that a lot of dairy farms are striving to in this changing dairy environment. But I love that you are all concerned about turning the screws and continuing to make adjustments. What do you guys see on the horizon for your reproductive protocols or your program? What are you chasing or what do you want to achieve in the future? 

Max Shenkenberg

I think there's always room for improvement. Like we can say higher conception rates, higher pregnancy rates, but I think as far as growth as a team, really getting that. So I have two other breeders that, that only helped me on the sink days. So, and, and one is a little bit more experienced than the other, but yeah, You know, as I'm breeding, seventy five percent of these animals and ultrasounding, one hundred percent of them, you know, I understand that even though I'm still young, at least I turned thirty last week. So I'm not I'm not that old, but I'd like to prolong my career as long as possible. And I think, you know, being able to spread spread the wealth to the other guys and just have those work together as a team and just really kind of duplicating the success. And honestly, as they grow, we can bring more guys on and really get this thing cranking. So for me, at least my goal, as far as reproduction goes, is just having a solid team of breeders. 

Patrick Maier

And I'd echo that. I think we do that on all aspects of the farm. Who's the next up and comer? You know, on the cropping side, I use Max as an example all the time. Hey, who's going to take the lead on that and who's going to really, really push that? Because it is, it is full circle. I mean, we raise all of our own crops and stuff, as I said, and putting quality forages in front of the cow. Well, you know, I've had Max, you know, been out with the field crew, jumped into silent trying to help out when rain's coming, stuff like that, because he knows the importance of that forage in front of those animals and the feed in front of those animals. So it's just full circle. So to build on that team where everybody's willing to help everybody and everybody knows enough about everything to be dangerous to see, hey, that guy's job affects mine or that person's job affects mine. Just keeping that team and scalability, how to keep that camaraderie and continue to grow. 

Ethan Haywood

Well, you have some excellent numbers and excellent growth ahead of you. The question I'd like to close out with for the three of you are there are a lot of operations out there that are going to see these numbers up on the screen and say, man, I would love to be right there doing that. And so as someone tries to make improvements within their reproductive success, whether it's genetics or management, what piece of advice would you give them to get started to try and turn the screws up and make some improvements? 

Max Shenkenberg

I would say when it comes to just genetics and reproduction in general, you need to be patient. The bulls we put in today, we are not going to see the true expression of their potential for two to three years. Even when you're in reproductively, when you're breeding, you don't have a good idea if that service is going to stick until, you know, three weeks when they repeat or, you know, one month when you actually go into check. So there's not that instant gratification with that. And especially when you bring on new people, you know, I, the guys that train under me, they're chomping at the bit to know their conception rates. And I just tell them, Hey, you gotta wait. And, and they're usually small groups. It's a small data set, but, uh, uh, patience is, is key. And, and you're going to run into challenges. Uh, my, uh, I myself, when I was starting out, I didn't by any means blow the world away. I had to take my lumps. So be patient, be resilient, stick with it. If it's something you truly want to improve on, just be intentional and the results will come. 

Patrick Maier

Yeah, I think just having good people around you, building that team. know what might work for our dairy might not work for another dairy but just having good people around um I mean everybody feels we had a intern last summer that came on immediately you know felt like part of the family part of the team um and give people give people responsibility I mean that's always one way I was brought up I got a lot of responsibility at a young age max was fresh out of the gate he had a lot of responsibility and and we knew he was a rock star. We knew he could get the job done. And he showed that time and time again. And we do that from a lot of aspects on the farm. And I think that was just some generations before me gave me opportunity as well. And people rise to the occasion. So find a good team of people and let them swing the bat. 

Susie Martin

And I would echo those comments, we have the teams available, especially here at central star to assist producers to improve performance and profitability. We have many great tools in our toolbox that are available, so in my advice would be reach out and ask questions and ask for our assistance.

Ethan Haywood

Fantastic. Well, thank you very much to all three of you. We really appreciate you taking the time to discuss with us and it's a pleasure to watch your success as you continue to grow and improve your operation. Thank you very much to our listeners for tuning in and we'll talk to you next time on the Select Sires podcast.