The Moos Room™

00;00;11;03 - 00;00;33;21
Brad
And welcome to The Moos Room. Today, a nice February day. It's actually getting warm out. I'm getting maybe excited for spring. Hopefully. But I'm sure we'll get some more snow here in the Midwest and spring will go on. But who knows what will happen on Groundhog Day if we'll have more. Winter or spring will come early, but it's Minnesota.

00;00;33;25 - 00;01;06;12
Brad
Lots of seasons. Things change really fast. Today I wanted to talk about a couple things. One was an interesting study I saw that just came out on Cal preferences for grooming brushes and what they all found by looking at different brushes. But first I wanted to discuss maybe some herd size statistics here in Minnesota, maybe Wisconsin, because I was at a dry meeting and kind of tried to figure out how many herds are on DHEA, and that got me thinking.

00;01;06;12 - 00;01;34;15
Brad
How many dairy herds are in Minnesota and Wisconsin and where might the industry be going? So here's just a few summary. I'm just going to summarize a few things and not say much more, but it kind of gives you a statistic about what's happening in the dairy industry here in Minnesota and in maybe Wisconsin. So in July 1st, 2019, in Minnesota, there were 2567 dairy farms six and a half years later.

00;01;34;19 - 00;02;10;25
Brad
So as of January 7th, 2026, 1622 dairy farms in Minnesota. Now these are dairy farms. Nothing about herd size yet, but in six and a half years, Minnesota lost 945 dairy farms. That's about 37% in just six and a half years. That's a huge reduction in dairy farms here in Minnesota. That's about 145 dairy farms a year. And what what will happen with milk price being a little low now?

00;02;10;25 - 00;02;33;08
Brad
And, you know, talking to farmers, will they decide to quit or will they hang on through these low milk prices again? I'm not sure. But even the 1600 dairy farms in Minnesota is quite alarming. That's not many. So what? What do those herds look like? Well, they're kind of categorized in a few ways. So 0 to 50 cow herds.

00;02;33;08 - 00;03;05;29
Brad
There's 345 of them, 50 to 99 cows. It's about 618. So a little over a third of the dairy farms in Minnesota are 50 to 100 cows, 100 to 200 cows, 294 farms. If you look 200 to 2, 99, there's 129 farms, 300 to 3, 99, there's 59 dairy farms, 400 cows to 499. There's 47 500 to 1000 cows.

00;03;05;29 - 00;03;42;05
Brad
There's 58 dairies, and there's 64 dairy farms in Minnesota that over a thousand cows. So 64 over a thousand. But the largest number of farms make up 50 to 100 cows. So albeit Minnesota, still a predominantly small herd state. But we're gaining you know, we think about ten, 15 years ago, there certainly weren't that many herds that were over a thousand cows, but there's still we're gaining but losing the small farms, you know, 50 cows or less, 350 dairy farms.

00;03;42;08 - 00;04;05;18
Brad
So it's kind of interesting to see where, where those are. But where are those farms located? Well, the number one dairy county in Minnesota is still Stearns County. So that Saint Cloud area 318 farms beats most of their counties out of the water. Second is Morrison County. So right next door, 115 dairy farms, Todd County, 109 dairy farms.

00;04;05;18 - 00;04;32;09
Brad
And those are in central Minnesota, Winona, southeast Minnesota 92 dairy farms. Otter tail. So that's back up here along the North Dakota border near Fergus Falls. 75 dairy farms. Wabasha County is number 664 dairy farms, the county that I grew up in and the county next door. Good. You County has 63 dairy farms in southeast Minnesota. Few others.

00;04;32;09 - 00;04;56;26
Brad
Kind of Houston County, Benton and Wright kind of make up the top ten. If I think about the county that I live in, Stevens County and western Minnesota, there's seven total dairy farms, which is quite a few kind of into interesting facts. So Hennepin County so that's Minneapolis, county seat is Minneapolis. There's three dairy farms in Hennepin County, Ramsey County, which is Saint Paul, big city.

00;04;56;28 - 00;05;23;17
Brad
It's one dairy farm in Ramsey County. That's the University of Minnesota. Saint Paul heard a couple other interesting things. So Roseau County, near the Canadian border, has two dairy farms yet there's quite a few counties that just have one dairy farm. There's 11 counties that still have one dairy farm, but overall there are dairy farms in 80 counties in Minnesota.

00;05;23;19 - 00;05;49;05
Brad
So Minnesota has 87 counties. So there's seven counties in Minnesota that do not have any dairy farms. But some of these counties with just one are near the Canadian border or in the western part of the state or in the south. So kind of interesting facts about Minnesota dairy farms and what that might be. So you can also get the information on Wisconsin dairy farms is all public information.

00;05;49;05 - 00;06;29;23
Brad
You can go to websites and and find the dairy permits. So Wisconsin has 5119 dairy farms. So that's a lot more than Minnesota 1622 before we kind of figure out where those herds are located in Wisconsin, interestingly enough, there are 398 goat dairies in Wisconsin. That's a lot. Top counties are Monroe County, so, of central Wisconsin near Toma, Jackson County, which is the county north of Monroe, and then Eau Claire County north of that.

00;06;29;25 - 00;06;59;11
Brad
So kind of 398 Goat Dairy. So a lot of goat dairies in Wisconsin. More interestingly, there's 11 sheep dairies in Wisconsin that are licensed, and the most are in Vernon County. So it's in southwest County near Veronica. But what about these little over 5000 dairy farms in Wisconsin? Where are they actually located? So if I look at the top seven dairy farm counties in Wisconsin, number one, Clark County.

00;06;59;16 - 00;07;39;01
Brad
So at central Wisconsin, near Neal's Ville, 617 farms, they kind of blow the rest of the counties out of the water. Second is Marathon County 334. That's Wausau in third, Grant County, it's 224 dairy farms. So that's kind of southwest Wisconsin along the Illinois border, kind of just north of Dubuque, Iowa, kind of. Platteville is the largest city in Grant County, and number four is Vernon County, so famous county of Gene of Vernon, who started the brown Swiss breed, foster mother of the brown Swiss breed 175 dairy farms.

00;07;39;01 - 00;08;06;06
Brad
And that's Veronica. It's the county seat there. Next county is Lafayette County again, near Platteville, southern Wisconsin, southwest Wisconsin along the Illinois border. The sixth county is Dane County, Wisconsin. So that's Madison and number seven, top county in Wisconsin, 154 herds in that Shawano County. So that kind of borders Marathon County, almost a green Bay. So you kind of have these pockets.

00;08;06;06 - 00;08;26;20
Brad
You have southwest Wisconsin. And then near green Bay is where a lot of the cows are in Wisconsin, and then some centered centered around Madison in southern south central Wisconsin. So I thought it was kind of interesting to see, you know, have this in my mind where all the dairy farms were in Minnesota. And then it kind of got me thinking.

00;08;26;20 - 00;08;47;14
Brad
And down some rabbit holes where the the herds are located in Wisconsin as well. But and we know that those numbers have disappeared. I don't know what those numbers are for Wisconsin, but we know that those numbers have been going down quite a bit as well. But still, over 5000 dairy farms in Wisconsin, a little over 1600 dairy farms in Minnesota.

00;08;47;16 - 00;09;11;04
Brad
So what about the research? What what sort of intrigues Brad's mind lately? Well, there was an interesting study that just came out from Purdue University where they wanted they looked at the preference of dairy cows for different types of grooming brushes. So we talk about grooming brushes. Maybe some people have them, some people don't have them. I have a grooming brush for calves in our auto mated calf feeder.

00;09;11;07 - 00;09;32;19
Brad
The calves love it. You can also all see them. It's a swinging and a rotating brush so the calves are in there playing with it all the time. It's kind of interesting to to watch the calves with the brush. I have a cow brush still in the box. It didn't get put up this year. Hopefully this summer I'll be able to put that brush out and kind of see what's going on.

00;09;32;21 - 00;09;58;10
Brad
I'm always intrigued. I go to a lot of dairy farms, and all these farms have different types of brushes. And what might they do for for farm? So this study just kind of hot off the presses, looked at the mechanics of cow comfort and how swing ability or rotation influenced the environment and grooming behavior of Holstein dairy cows.

00;09;58;13 - 00;10;21;05
Brad
So this study looked at three brushes. They were identical bristles, but they were distinct in their mechanics. So the first one was a swinging and rotating brush. So it was kind of free swinging. So it it swings back and forth. And then the brush also rotates from a motor. So does two things swings. And then the brush rotates.

00;10;21;08 - 00;10;49;14
Brad
Sometimes you more than likely have to have power for that. The second brush was a swinging only. So basically the brush does not rotate. It swings for the cows but no rotation. And then the third was kind of a fixed position. So stationary didn't do anything and the cows had to go up and maybe scratch on it. So these cows had kind of a testing area where they could see what happened.

00;10;49;14 - 00;11;09;22
Brad
So they basically they had free access to all of these, all three of the brushes for five days. And then they were exposed to one type of brush at a time. So they kind of had a learning phase. And then they did a test phase where there was simultaneous access to all three of the brushes to kind of measure preference.

00;11;09;22 - 00;11;42;26
Brad
So it was kind of a preference study to what cows, what were they going to prefer. So that 14 cows in the study, albeit a little bit small for a number of cows, but interestingly enough, ten cows preferred the swinging and rotating brush. So ten cows, three cows preferred the swinging only brush. And yes, there was one cow that preferred a stationary brush but didn't move, didn't swing, didn't rotate nothing.

00;11;42;28 - 00;12;09;02
Brad
So one cow. So there's a lot of different preferences. Cows, just like humans, have different preferences on what they might want to choose, but ten out of 14 chose the swinging and rotating brush. So if you look at kind of grooming time, how much time did these animals spend there? So on average, 103 seconds for a swinging rotating brush.

00;12;09;02 - 00;12;41;16
Brad
So not quite two minutes, almost two minutes. They're swinging only 113 seconds. So a little bit more time a little less than two minutes. And the stationary they used it for 100 and 20s. So about two minutes. And the stationary brush was almost used exclusively for the head, not really scratching the rest of their body, but on average cows were using the brushes for about two minutes, maybe not quite two minutes, but around two minutes of time for grooming in the head.

00;12;41;19 - 00;13;08;08
Brad
And that was on their head. If you look at brush usage on their backs or their rump, kind of those hard to reach spots on a cow, they're using about 92 seconds for grooming time on the back. So it's about a minute and a half. And on their rump, 144 seconds. So two minutes. So two minutes on their rump and a minute and a half on their back.

00;13;08;08 - 00;13;34;19
Brad
So these cows, you know, spending three minutes, 4 or 5 minutes scratching their head, scratching their back and scratching their rump. So kind of trying to reach that. So kind of interesting that they want to be scratched in the head and the rump. And you've seen that you go into freestyle barns or other places that have these and yep, they're, they're using their head, but more often than not they're using the brushes on their back or on their room.

00;13;34;19 - 00;13;58;15
Brad
So kind of an interesting study really. No difference that they found between the neck or the back or the rump as far as usage duration in the swinging or rotating, and really no difference in the swinging, only kind of both of them, whether they were swinging and rotating or swinging. Only cows spent about the same amount of time kind of grooming themselves.

00;13;58;17 - 00;14;47;17
Brad
So the verdict really was the rotating brush was the absolute favor in over 75% of the cows. And why might that be? Well, the rotation likely provided increased stimulation and interactivity, which enhanced the reward for the grooming event. So, you know, getting your back scratched or your rump scratched. Obviously, they really like that stimulation for the rotating and the swinging brush, kind of being able to get to those hard to reach places really, on average 100 and 80s for the swinging rotating brush and about six seconds for the stationary brush that didn't do anything for the cow must do all of the physical work.

00;14;47;20 - 00;15;17;26
Brad
So really it shows that motorized brushes offer a unique category of enrichment. It's relaxing for the cows, something that a stationary brush really can't provide. So kind of to summarize, the gold standard is a swinging rotating brush. It offered the highest engagement, covers the most body parts, and allows for passive relaxation. So kind of doing nothing, kind of just hanging out by the brush.

00;15;17;26 - 00;15;53;27
Brad
Maybe the brush is just on them and and not doing anything. Basically the stationary brush was really only viable for the head grooming, maybe good for tight spaces or areas without electricity, but really insufficient for kind of full body animal welfare. However, the study kind of concluded and said maybe the farms could provide a variety. So providing a mix of different brushes, certainly giving the cow control over her environment and choosing the grooming experience that she wants.

00;15;53;27 - 00;16;11;26
Brad
Maybe she wants to go scratch your head at the stationary brush. Maybe she wants to go use her rump in her back for a different brush. So giving them the kind of choice that they really need. So it's kind of an interesting study just to see what would happen here. So again we're going to put a brush in.

00;16;11;26 - 00;16;37;16
Brad
There's lots of different brushes out there. Swinging and rotating are the best. Those are the ones that the cows preferred. Stationary one might not be but can be useful for scratching the head. So maybe providing all different brush types. Certainly you're up for a positive experience for the cow. And maybe, maybe, just maybe, I'll get that brush in for my cows and see how that works.

00;16;37;16 - 00;16;57;09
Brad
It is a swinging, rotating one, so I'm now a more curious to see what's going to happen. And if our cows are actually going to use it. And maybe I'll go out there and see what they're doing. So hopefully you learned a little bit today about where the dairy farms are in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and we're losing dairy farm numbers.

00;16;57;12 - 00;17;23;02
Brad
I don't know, that's another debate to do. How we can increase those or what's going to happen into the future. And then learned a little bit about cow brushes, kind of an interesting new study that just came out and see what will happen. Obviously, providing the the benefits to the cow is always a good thing. So with that, if you have any comments, questions or scathing rebuttals, I'd be happy to hear them.

00;17;23;04 - 00;17;41;24
Brad
That's, at the newsroom. That's m o s r o m at UMD. Edu. Or find us on the web at University of Minnesota Livestock Extension or myself on the web. University of Minnesota, WC, Rock dairy. And with that, I hope you have a great February 5th.