Lloyd Gloe and wife of 36 years, Donna, reside in Webster County, near Marshfield, Mo., doing business as D & L Farms, running 1,200 head of cattle.
A veterinarian for 31 years, Lloyd sold his practice 4 years ago and now concentrates on his Holstein heifers. He deals with Fair Oaks Dairy in Fair Oaks, Ind. He said, “It’s a contract deal with a very reputable dairy. It’s been steady over the last 15 years.”
The Holstein heifer calves arrive at Lloyd’s farm weighing between 200 and 210 pounds. He purchases the calves from the dairy and keeps them 18 months to 2 years before selling them back to the same dairy. When they return to the dairy, they have been bred for seven months and should weigh at least 1,150 pounds. Lloyd stated, “I’m just a small cog in this wheel. Fair Oaks milks about 30,000 cows. So they have heifers scattered over many states.”
When Lloyd ventured into the Holstein heifer business there was “less tax on breeding stock if you kept them for 18 months.” He explained, “I bought small Holstein heifers and kept them until they were springers, which was more than 18 months, and there was less tax on the profit. That was the only way I could see to get ahead.”
Lloyd has continued to look for ways to cut costs in today’s economy. “I contracted some feed early in the year and it was a considerable savings,” he stated.
His cattle are fed commodity grains. Those consist of “wet distillers, which are by-products from ethanol productions, and corn gluten meal, which is the by-product from the production of soft drinks,” he explained, and added, “I also feed soy hull pellets. It’s the skin and fines from the soybeans.”
Lloyd explained the benefits of feeding commodity grains. “Traditionally, it’s cheaper, and you’d need a protein source if you didn’t use the by-products. All the products have gotten high, but it’s still cheaper than feeding corn and soybean meal mix.”
The most important element in maintaining a healthy herd, in Lloyd’s opinion, is, “Good nutrition. Forage. Forage. Forage. It takes a lot of concentrate grain, and so forth, to offset poor forage. I consider forage to be silage, baleage baled hay and pasture.”
He said, “I can get by with anything in silos normally better than if it was put up as dry hay. That’s true for older cattle. For young cattle, you can’t feed a lot of wet feed because they don’t have the capacity to handle all that bulk and water. So we do feed dry feed to the little cattle.”
Lloyd concluded, “If I’ve accomplished anything in this life, I give credit to God who is above me, my wife who is beside me and keeps me in line, my banker who keeps me afloat and a little hard work that keeps me moving forward.”
