Justin Risser Talks About Transition, Herd Health and Treating Each Animal, Field and Employee as an Individual

Listen to Our Latest “Cow-Side Conversations” Podcast

January on the farm can be rough for everyone: you, your employees, and your herd. In this episode of Cow-Side Conversations, Justin Risser of Meadow Vista Dairy in northern Lancaster County shares how his team takes it one day, one decision, and one individual at a time. He describes how they try to manage the dairy operation with an individualized approach – from caring for their crops and their cows to making reproduction decisions, managing employees and allowing change to happen between generations. Justin discusses some unique approaches they have taken with dry cow management and the impact those decisions have had on metabolic illnesses. He also opens up about his family’s recent transition process, giving an honest look at the farm-level, financial and relationship-driven decisions that went into it.

Listen to the podcast episode.

Podcast Highlights: Dry cow management. “Our dry cows are on a low calcium diet that’s very low energy. We switched to this approach back in 2017. I had the hardest time understanding this kind of dry cow ration, but we’ve now been on it 7 years. Every year that goes by, it seems like the health gets better in our dry cows. I didn’t think the cows would milk on this kind of ration because it’s a very cheap ration, and it can separate easily if it’s not mixed well. But it prevents them from becoming too heavy or sluggish. When they come in [to the milking herd] with the right body condition, which is what we’re seeing, they just take off.”

Business transition between generations. “When I came back from college, my family gave me a place on the farm and allowed me to take stuff on almost right away. I’m thinking about myself and how I could make that happen in a number of years with my kids or whoever is going to help transition the farm. That seems fairly daunting to me because I don’t know how I’m going to do that. But my dad and the senior generation did it for me, so I’m pretty appreciative of that. I always felt encouragement from the senior generation to allow change to happen. They let me take over the herd almost right away and do things that were a little different. They also let me buy in as a small share owner after I was married a few years. Even though I was a small percentage owner, when it came to making decisions, we always looked at each other with equal weight and opinions.”