Hilltop Dairy LLC

Hilltop Dairy LLC Hilltop is a 1300 cow, family owned and operated dairy farm nestled in the prairie of south, central

Cattle vision! 👀The pictures of this cow shows her using her binocular vision, meaning she is focusing both of her eyes ...
06/18/2025

Cattle vision! 👀

The pictures of this cow shows her using her binocular vision, meaning she is focusing both of her eyes directly in front of her. Cattle’s degree of vision spans over 300-330°, making their vision panoramic! Humans only span about 180°.

Cattle, however, cannot see as many colors as humans can. They can only see shades of blue, yellow, brown, and grey. This can be compared to being red/green color blind in humans.

Cattle’s vision is more sensitive to movement. They can process frame rates much faster than humans, which contributes to being easily startled by quick movements.

Cattle’s vision takes longer to adjust to light changes. In example, if a cow is coming inside from being on pasture all day, and they walk into a dark barn, they may proceed with caution as it takes more time than humans to adjust to the darkness of the barn.

Serum Total Protein (STP) in calves, let’s talk about it! 🩸🐮Blood samples are taken and analyzed to determine the concen...
06/17/2025

Serum Total Protein (STP) in calves, let’s talk about it! 🩸🐮

Blood samples are taken and analyzed to determine the concentration of STP in calves.

Why?
STP concentration can be used as an indicator to determine if passive transfer of immunity successfully occurred. Referring to the post about colostrum, calves are not born with an immune system, so it is our job to monitor their health and growth. If their STP level is between 5.5 g/dl and 8.5 g/dl, we can conclude that the calf is appropriately developing their immune system! If the STP level is above or below that threshold, the calf might be at risk for illness such as diarrhea and pneumonia.

How?
Blood is collected from the jugular vein of the calf. Afterwards, the vials are spun in a centrifuge until the blood components separate. Once separated, the clear/yellow liquid as shown in the second picture is dropped onto a refractometer. The refractometer tells us the STP concentration!

If STP concentrations are consistently varying above or below the threshold between multiple calves, it may be an indicator that the colostrum management is in need of improvement. It can also indicate dehydration, difficultly and stress during birth, or generally failure to thrive.

Cows can smell certain odors from over 6 miles away 🤯Cows have an amazingly sensitive sense of smell. It’s so sensitive ...
06/15/2025

Cows can smell certain odors from over 6 miles away 🤯

Cows have an amazingly sensitive sense of smell. It’s so sensitive to the point where they can smell stress from other cows just from their urine. If a stressed cow entered certain areas in a barn, other cows are less likely to enter that area because of the smell of stress.
Since cattle are prey species, it is important for them to be able to smell food and water from a long distance all while scouting for potential predators.
Another study showed that cows can smell their own social hierarchy. Social behaviors were studied before and after cows were blindfolded, and it was shown that the cows understood who was who based on smell.
Cattle can also smell the pheromones associated with fear, which causes an increase in their stress response and fearful behavior.
Smell is also important for bulls during breeding season. Cattle have an additional organ in the roof of their mouth called the vomeronasal organ which receives and analyzes odors during breeding behaviors. You may notice that bulls exhibit the flehman expression which is then curling their upper lip and tilting their head back to sample the odors that they’ve collected.

Did you know that humans are one of the few mammals that do not lick their offspring clean immediately after birth? Now ...
06/14/2025

Did you know that humans are one of the few mammals that do not lick their offspring clean immediately after birth?

Now that we’ve caught your attention, let’s talk about why cows DO lick their calf off after birth.
1) Removal of the afterbirth and amniotic sac. Sometimes, the sac will be covering the calf’s nose preventing it from breathing. Furthermore, afterbirth tends to draw heat away from the calf which heightens the risk of the calf becoming chilled. A cow cleaning her calf overall promotes the health of her newborn
2) Eating the afterbirth helps the cow to regain energy that was lost through labor, plus delivers extra nutrients to the cow
3) Since cattle are prey animals, they want to protect their calves from predators. They’ll clean the calf and eat the afterbirth to lessen the intense smell of labor from potential predators
4) Licking calves helps to teach the calf how to urinate and defecate by itself through stimulation from the cow. The cow will spend a particularly long time licking around the calf’s a**s to stimulate their first manure, and ultimately kickstarting digestion
5) Licking promotes bonding. For calves that are left with the cow, the cow grows more connected to the calf the longer she is able to lick the calf. Hormones are released during the cleaning process which helps to prevent her from rejecting her calf

99% of today’s Holstein bulls can be traced back to these two bulls, believe it or not 🤯Round Oak Rag Apple Elevation an...
06/12/2025

99% of today’s Holstein bulls can be traced back to these two bulls, believe it or not 🤯

Round Oak Rag Apple Elevation and Pawnee Farm Arlinda Chief were born in the early 1960’s. Not long before their reign, artificial insemination made its way to the cattle world, which was quickly followed by the act of freezing semen for preservation. Their ability to outperform other bulls at the time made them desirable, plus the access to artificial insemination, lead to many farmers choosing their semen.

The concern? Inbreeding. What traits are being impacted? Is this affecting fertility? For now, we don’t know. What we do know is that long term genetic homogeneity is not ideal as the risk of potential disorders rises as time goes on. We also know that our current day Holsteins are healthier and more productive than ever, and it is extremely easy to track flaws in genetics through analyzing their genes. Should any problems arise, we can be confident that genetic professionals can zero in on what characteristics are clashing, and ultimately eliminate the problem by choosing different genetics for the next breeding.

Colostrum 🏆 You’ve probably heard the term ‘liquid gold’ in regards to colostrum, and that is true both literally and fi...
06/11/2025

Colostrum 🏆

You’ve probably heard the term ‘liquid gold’ in regards to colostrum, and that is true both literally and figuratively. Here’s a deeper dive into the importance of colostrum for a newborn calf!

Why do calves need colostrum?
-Calves are born without an acquired immunity because the bovine placenta is impermeableable to antibodies
-Calves must build their immune system through passive immunity, which occurs when colostrum transfers antibodies through the bloodstream

What are the benefits of colostrum?
-Builds their immune system until the calf can produce their own antibodies
-Stimulates digestive activity
- Is packed with fats and nutrients such as vitamins A, D, and E
-Colostrum has 5x the amount of protein as regular whole milk

When is colostrum collected and fed?
-Colostrum is produced for the first 24 hours after birth
-It is recommended to feed 10% of the calves body weight in colostrum within the first hour of life

Bonus fact- bovine colostrum has gained popularity within humans! Humans use colostrum to increase athletic performance, improve gut health, and boost their immune system!

Beef on dairy-how and why? Dairy operations may choose to implement a beef on dairy program on select cows within the he...
06/10/2025

Beef on dairy-how and why?

Dairy operations may choose to implement a beef on dairy program on select cows within the herd. Producers are taking preference to Angus bulls for their Holstein cows because of their calving ease, early maturity, and economic superiority as calves. Angus-Holstein cross calves have been fetching $300 more than a purebred Holstein calf. In terms of feed efficiency, crossbred steers finish out an average of 115 days sooner than their purebred counterparts. Some producers who have raised their Angus-Holstein crosses on a feedlot have reported them grading prime! These benefits are all part of the desirable hybrid vigor within any herd. Pictured below is a spunky Angus-Holstein newborn heifer.

Twins…the good, the bad, the ugly 🐄🐄In Holsteins, the average twinning rate is approximately 4.8%. Twins may potentially...
06/09/2025

Twins…the good, the bad, the ugly 🐄🐄

In Holsteins, the average twinning rate is approximately 4.8%. Twins may potentially be heritable, and the chance of twins increases with each parity.
While double trouble sounds fun in theory, twins increase the chance of abortion, stillbirths, dystocia, retained placenta, displaced absomasum, and ketosis. Furthermore, mixed s*x twins (1 bull, 1 heifer) results in infertility for the heifer (Freemartin) due to abnormalities in the reproductive tract because of the male twins hormones during gestation.
The good news is that heifers born twin to a heifer generally can live a fulfilled and productive life, such as the ones pictured below.

06/08/2025

Ever wonder how frustrating it’d be to have an itch you can’t scratch?

Many dairy farms offer brushes such as the one below! The brush not only scratches those hard to reach itches, but also grooms, aids in shedding, and alleviates stress.

Comfort. Efficiency. Cleanliness. These standards in the parlor will boost a cow’s productivity as a happy cow is a prod...
06/07/2025

Comfort. Efficiency. Cleanliness.

These standards in the parlor will boost a cow’s productivity as a happy cow is a productive cow.
Common cleaning practice includes washing the cows teats before and after milking, as well as washing the milking parlor and all equipment daily.

Speaking of milk…we are excited to announce that the milk giveaway is coming back!! Mark your calendars for Friday, June 27th! 🥳 More details to come.

Have you ever wondered how long cows sleep for? 😴While cows may be lying down for 10-12 hours per day, only about 4 of t...
06/05/2025

Have you ever wondered how long cows sleep for? 😴
While cows may be lying down for 10-12 hours per day, only about 4 of those hours are devoted to sleep. A cows sleep cycle consists of about 1 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) bout for 5-8 minutes, followed by 1 bout of rapid eye movement (REM) for 3-4 minutes.
Cows with mastitis spend less time lying down whereas lame cows spend more time lying down.

Address

N309 County Road Q
Markesan, WI
53946

Telephone

(920) 296-9289

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