David and Dawn Windle
Wisconsin Dairy Producers
Published in Hoard’s Dairyman (August 25, 2007)

This is in response to all of those who have written in about bST. My husband and I just chuckle when we read what people have to say.

If you know anything about dairying, there are plenty of options to gaining more milk. If you are able to look on the inside cover of the January 19 issue, you will see that Mycogen Seeds are advertising a gain of 4.8 pounds of milk with their seed. Why not complain about that? If you are to look under the Young Dairymen’s page, they are talking about cow comfort…another TOOL to gain milk. Anything that you do on the farm in everyday routine is a TOOL.

If we want want to make less milk, we should not be allowed to use TMRs, long-day lighting, sand bedding, comfort stalls, top-quality feeds, proven A.I. sires, A.I. services, ration balancing, flushing of cows (Embryo Transfer), milking 3x per day, fertilizing fields, and so on. I am sure there are some more I missed. These are all TOOLS of farming. These all contribute to more milk.

People say cows get burned out on bST. If it used correctly and you feed your cows accordingly, your cows will live as long as you want them to. We have cows that are 8, 9, 10, and 11 years old. And, oh my gosh, they are bST! Do you really think that, when there was a shortage of bST, the farmers who use it were not getting enough of it? Think again.

If we can milk 47 cows and make a living and not have to kill ourselves at it, and it works for you, I say go for it, use bST. Use all the other TOOLS of farming, also. That is…unless you want to sit back and blame everyone else for you not being able to make a living.