Visiting With John Andersen, Double A Dairy
Visiting John Andersen, manager Double A Dairy near Jerome, Idaho filled the day as we started early and walked through the process of managing this large commercial herd. Averaging 82 lbs per day on the 13,000 commercial cow operation with 45 to 50 fresh cows everyday and 3,000 calves in wooden calf huts, we started with the fresh pen and ended up in the free stall barns that extended ¼ mile long housing nearly 1400 cows per barn. Dave was amazed at the lack of fans in the barn and John told us that the wind in Idaho keeps the high ceiling barns comfortable for the cows as fans were not needed. Double A Dairy looked at every angle to maximize efficiency with a bio-digester and a flush system in the free stalls along with a vaccum system. The cows were amazingly clean and comfortable. These rows of free stall barns each ¼ mile long were an impressive display of modern dairy technology.
The Perfect Size Cow in a 13,000 Cow Dairy
John Andersen is no stranger to the dairy industry . . . any size or part of it. Walking through the impressive fine tuned commercial Double A Dairy we saw cows of all shapes and sizes. From his 67” RC September Storm daughter from the Raven Cow Family. . . to a cow that John stopped behind and said, “If I could clone a cow and make my entire 13,000 cow herd all clones of this cow I would be happy.” John had stopped by TCG Jeeves Milley, a 57” Jeeves daughter with great feet and legs and a perfect udder. John says she is an extremely balanced cow with strength and is trouble free. A Jeeves from a Loudon (88) x BW Marshall (86) x Manfred (86) x the Celsius Minnow (90) she has a solid pedigree but certainly nothing that would headline a sale. The ideal commercial cow according to John is a cow that when she is 5 or 6 years old she is a 86 or 87 point cow. John does appreciate the good show cows and hasn’t missed Madison in 15 years. He continues to flush the big, tall front ended show cows to make show calves . He will use an extreme type bull to make a show calf for his children but would not use him on his commercial cows.
Triple Crown Genetics
Combining the management of the large commercial herd with both high genomic individuals along with the world famous type cow families in the breed. John has concentrated on combining as many of the high profile cow families in the breed as possible featuring both genomic and type individuals.
Heifer Ranch
John’s brother, Brandon Andersen(above) is the manager of the impressive heifer raising facility located only a few miles from the dairy. Dairy heifer management with a concentrated effort at raising the replacements as efficiently as possible while producing the best replacements possible, Brandon is a student that is quickly becoming the master. Always alert to the trends and new developments of heifer growing, Brandon is yet another son of Alan Andersen to carry forward the interest of this family in both large dairy and top genetics .
Another brother, Greg, manager of Seagull Bay will be the focus of Thursdays visit.