Conversation with Don Chalack, Wendon Holsteins

Martin:
Don, thanks so much for taking time with me today. I’m looking forward to getting your customer feedback and perspectives on the Advanced Reproduction Centre (ARC) services and the results you’ve achieved from the ARC.

Don:
Thanks Martin, I would like to go a little further back, and this is going back about 10 years in fact, we had a cow named Wendon Triump Alaska who was a Renaissance Triumphant daughter that turned out to be a major force in our herd today through her offspring. At that time, Alaska was getting to the end of her reproductive viability of having natural calves and even getting her pregnant, so we sent her to Boviteq in Quebec which triggered some tremendous success. One IVF session resulted in 10 heifer calves by Goldwyn. At least three of them went on to be very prominent cows in North America, and in Canada for sure.

From that time, we lagged a bit for a few years. Then, with the knowledge and experience I had gained working with Dr. Rob Stables, when he was working in Alberta, it seemed like a good fit. When Bow Valley Genetics (BVG) started up, both working with Rob and his team, and the Brooks location was very attractive.

Martin:
When did you start working with Dr. Rob Stables and his team?

Don:
It’s been at least two years. At any one time we’ve had up to five donor cows at Brooks, probably averaging two or three at any one time. The nice thing of course is that they have the facility there, they do everything and that’s an advantage for us.

Martin:
Sounds like that’s one of the differentiators for you, the ability to do everything in one location which is great.
What specific services have you used with the ARC?

Don:
With the guidance from their team, we work a lot with Justin who manages the donors, they monitor those cows for us and make suggestions as to whether they think it’s a good time to try an IVF session or sometimes alter to a conventional flush. It’s communication between Bow Valley and myself, along with Scott and Egbert. We talk about what looks like the best approach as a team.

Martin:
By using the ARC services in Brooks, what donor challenges are you overcoming?

Don:
We take donor cows that we believe, when we get results, we will get a good return on investment. At one time, four cows in particular, were at the Brooks location that all had been to Madison and the Royal and had that track record. As well, these animals represented deep Wendon Holstein cow families. Some of those cows were either not producing, not getting pregnant or getting age on them -where it was time to try to get some offspring before it was too late.

Martin:
Communication and monitoring of the animals appear to be an important benefit of the ARC services for you to achieve the return on investment you are looking for?

Don:
Absolutely, that’s key.  Also, there’s no pressure from the ARC team.  I understand that cows can be IVF’d every two weeks.  Honestly, they don’t push that.  They’ll ask: “do we feel comfortable with trying them every two weeks?”  It’s just a good arrangement that way.

Martin:
Could you share some recent IVF results?

Don:
From the recent Fall Fantasy Sale that we hosted with Lone Pine Jerseys last month, it was extremely fruitful and it was a tremendous event not only for Wendon Holsteins but for Lone Pine Jerseys as well. Our high seller was a calf resulting from IVF from ARC and she was sold to Jacobs Farms in Quebec, probably one of the greatest herds in the world, so that’s a real privilege to have them buy that IVF heifer out of Diode. In addition, her other daughter by Diamondback was sold locally to Darcor Holsteins in Alberta. That was great to see young Damien Rasmuson, who has joined the family farm there, very excited to get that heifer and so were we for them. Those were two special results due to ARC’s participation.

Martin:
Great results for you and the new owners, congratulations!
Are there other results you would like to share?

Don:
The full sister to the high seller was shown at the Westerner Dairy Showcase in Red Deer. She placed third in class and although she didn’t win, we now have a contract for embryos for her to Japan and so once she gets old enough that contract will hopefully be filled by ARC services.

We are also excited about what’s coming in the next few weeks. We have three IVF calves, two coming from Wendon Goldwyn Alberta which we can hopefully build on for Wendon Holsteins; the other IVF calf is from Tolamika Goldwyn Mercedes who, in her career, was really a tremendous cow for Wendon, Orville Schmidt, Dale Bienert and Dardel Holsteins. So that’s what we’re looking forward to in the near future.

Martin:
Looking forward to seeing results from Alberta and Mercedes.
What aspects of the ARC services have had the biggest impact on your results?

Don:
I would say it’s a combination of things including communication, collaboration and coordination. An example is coordinating the recipient program to be in line with when those embryos need to be implanted. There’s a fair bit of communication needed to coordinate everything.

The odd time we’ll use semen that is not sexed that has to be sorted. We need good lead time which has been accomplished so communication is crucial.

Martin:
In terms of recipients, does ARC help you coordinate?

Don:
So far it has worked well for us to get the recipients prepared here at the farm and then transport them to Bow Valley the day of the implant session. We have a lot of heifers of our own that we can use and have a good nutrition and heat detection program. This way we save some costs on purchasing recipients as well. It’s a 3 Hour drive but we generally take 6 to 7 recipients down.

Martin:
Will you continue to use ARC services?

Don:
Yes, for sure. It’s not a guaranteed science, we know that, but when you get those good successes, it certainly makes you want to continue and get some more of those offspring off of those great old cows. There are some younger animals that we would also consider doing IVF on in the future.