When Louie and George Kieler’s father, Lawrence, first started milking 16 cows in a stanchion barn in 1947, nobody talked about genomics, beef-on-dairy programs or raising crossbred calves to finish. But nearly 80 years later, all three have become part of Kieler Farms’ business strategy.
Today, the southwest Wisconsin dairy milks about 2,100 cows in a rotary parlor, farms close to 4,000 acres and finishes roughly 1,300 beef-on-dairy cattle each year.
The scale has changed dramatically over the years, but the decision-making has stayed steady: Build on what works, improve where it makes sense and stay focused on the long game.
When Growth Required a Move
For Louie Kieler, the second-generation part-owner, growth came through a series of expansions and facility upgrades that gradually transformed the dairy.
“My dad started the farm with his brother in the late 1940s and then went out on his own in 1967,” Louie says. “I don’t think he ever imagined it would grow into what it is today.”
The herd grew from 16 cows to 60, and by the late 1990s, the family needed a more efficient way to milk.
“Due to the landscape of this area, there wasn’t anywhere to build at the home farm,” says Renee Clark, Louie’s daughter and third-generation owner. “So, then we went to the top of the hill to build our first parlor.”
In 2001, the family built a double-8 parlor, later expanding it to a double-11 as the herd grew to about 400 cows. They added more housing at the parlor site in 2012, but within a few years, that expansion had also reached its limit.
“When we got to around 400 cows, we knew if we wanted to get bigger, we were going to have to move,” Clark says.
That decision ultimately set the stage for the next phase of the business.
Designing the Dairy at Scale
The family built a new dairy site in 2018 at a different location, giving them the opportunity to design around a target herd size. The Kielers built a rotary parlor designed for efficiency and sized to handle about 2,000 cows.
“When we moved here, we had to decide what size we wanted to be,” Clark says. “This number of cows worked well with the rotary.”
Today, herd expansion is no longer the priority. The focus has shifted to fine-tuning the system they already built.
“The big things now are improvements, efficiency and dialing it in,” Clark says. “Going from what we were to what we are today was a huge project. The goal now is to get more out of what’s already in place — better use of our facilities, improving our herd and capitalizing on beef-on-dairy.”
All-In on Beef-on-Dairy
Beef-on-dairy entered the picture for the Kielers roughly a decade ago, when the family embraced genomic testing, which opened new doors for their breeding program.
“We genomic test the cows and use that information to identify which animals have the best genetic potential,” Louie explains. “Those top cows, along with heifers, are bred to sexed Holstein semen to produce replacement females. The remaining 60% to 70% of the herd is typically bred to beef.”
With a need for only 600 replacement heifers each year, the family can be highly selective.
“Using beef semen on the bottom end allows us to focus on the top end,” Louie says. “It lets us identify the cows and genetics that move the herd forward. We’re building the next generation from the very best animals we have.”
In the early years of their beef-on-dairy program, the focus was just on producing a black calf. Today, the approach reaches much further down the supply chain.
Matings are now selected for carcass merit, including ribeye area, yield and overall performance. Most cows are bred to SimAngus sires chosen for terminal traits, while Angus semen is used on lower-genomic cows and repeat breeders, aligning genetics with the kind of cattle they ultimately want to put on feed.
“At first we just wanted a black calf that would bring more money than a straight dairy bull calf,” Louie says. “Now we’re looking a lot more at what those calves actually do on feed and how they finish. If we’re going to keep them, we want them to perform all the way through.”
As beef-on-dairy became a larger part of the operation, the family had to decide whether to sell calves shortly after birth or feed them through to finish. They chose the latter, retaining ownership and raising the cattle themselves, which led to them building a dedicated finishing barn designed to handle consistent groups of cattle and keep them moving on a steady feedout system.
“Rather than selling them as calves, we felt there was more value in feeding them out ourselves and taking them all the way to finish,” Louie says. “We had the feed and the space, so we built a barn specifically for how we wanted to manage them.”
Beef-on-Dairy From Calf to Finish
Management begins at birth, where beef-on-dairy calves receive the same early care as replacement heifers before eventually moving into the finishing program. Each calf receives quality-tested colostrum shortly after calving, and only colostrum that meets the farm’s standards is fed.
“If it doesn’t test right, it doesn’t get fed,” says George Kieler, veterinarian and part-owner of Kieler Farms.
After receiving colostrum, calves are vaccinated and moved into individual hutches where they remain through weaning at about 8 weeks of age. During that time, the focus is on maintaining calf health and preparing animals for the next stage of the program.
“You only get one chance to start them right,” George says. “If you do the little things well early, they usually keep moving in the right direction.”
Once weaned, beef-on-dairy calves move to a contract grower about 10 miles from the home farm, where they are developed to roughly 600 lb. to 700 lb. before returning to Kieler Farms. From there, they enter the finishing phase in a freestall barn and two monoslope sheds designed to handle steady, year-round feeding and daily observation.
Consistency Drives Performance
When the cattle are moved to the finishing phase, they are fed a total mixed ration centered on homegrown corn silage and high-moisture corn, with ground corn and distillers grains used to help drive gains. The goal is steady growth rather than pushing for short-term spikes in performance.
From start to finish, the system is designed to keep cattle moving forward, with most animals reaching a market weight near 1,400 lb. after a 14- to 15-month feeding period.
“We’re not trying to push them too hard at any one stage,” Louie says. “It’s about steady feed intake and keeping them on track so they stay consistent all the way to finish.”
Throughout the system, bovine respiratory disease (BRD) remains the primary health challenge. Cases are most common during seasonal weather changes and after cattle transitions. To combat this, the farm focuses on daily observation and prompt treatment. Cattle showing early signs of illness are pulled and treated, while ventilation, careful handling and minimizing stress help reduce respiratory problems.
“The sooner you find one that’s off, the better chance you’ve got of keeping it on track,” George says.
Selling Finished Cattle
From the beginning, the family opted to retain ownership and finish cattle rather than sell them as feeders. With a strong supply of homegrown feed built into their cropping system, they saw an opportunity to keep more value on-farm by carrying cattle all the way through harvest instead of letting that margin shift downstream. Today, their market outlet is primarily through Tyson located about 100 miles away. While they don’t operate under a long-term contract, they do line up cattle in advance with a trusted local buyer.
“We work with a buyer who helps us coordinate the timing so cattle are ready when they need to move,” Louie says. “It’s a pretty straightforward system on our end once they leave here. They’re sorted, hauled and delivered, and from there they go through the normal grading process for quality and yield. Right now, about one-third of them are hitting Certified Angus Beef specs.”
Retaining ownership through finishing can boost potential returns, but it also ties up capital for more than a year and adds additional risk and management along the way. Louie says those trade-offs have been part of the decision-making process from the start.
“You always wonder if you could be making more,” Louie says. “Do you sell them as day-old calves when they’re bringing $1,700 or $2,000, or do you hold onto them for 15 months and aim for about $3,000 to $4,000? It’s a gamble either way, but it’s worked well for us overall.”
Despite strong calf markets that can make early sales tempting, the family has remained committed to running the full beef-on-dairy system from calf through harvest.
Balancing Replacements
Like many dairies running a heavy beef-on-dairy program, the family keeps a close eye on replacement numbers and how today’s breeding decisions will shape the herd several years out.
“Maybe beef-on-dairy will back off a little if we have to create more heifers,” Louie says. “Our cows are getting older, so we need to think more about raising replacements. We’re already starting to breed a few more cows to dairy semen so we don’t come up short.”
The family has bought replacements in the past, especially during expansion when bringing in ready-to-calve heifers helped them grow to today’s herd number. But Louie says that pencil doesn’t quite work the same way anymore.
“We bought replacement heifers ready to have a calf in six weeks for $1,500 to $1,600 several years ago,” he recalls. “You can’t do that anymore with today’s prices. So if we need more replacements, we’ll have to back off on the beef-on-dairy and raise our own.”
With both replacement heifers and beef-on-dairy calves bringing strong prices, breeding decisions get a closer look than they used to. More cows get sorted for dairy semen, and the plan gets adjusted as they watch where herd numbers are headed. Even so, Louie expects beef-on-dairy will stay a big part of the system.
Built for the Long Haul
For the Kielers, beef-on-dairy has become part of the dairy’s long-term business strategy. Genomic testing determines which cows produce the next generation of replacements, while the rest of the herd helps supply a steady flow of cattle for the finishing barn. Every decision, from calf care and nutrition to genetics and marketing, is made with the next stage of the system in mind.
“It all has to connect,” Louie says. “If one part doesn’t work, the rest of it doesn’t either.”
As replacement needs shift and genetics continue to improve, the breeding plan will keep getting refined. The family expects to adjust the balance between dairy and beef semen as needed, but they see retained ownership and finishing cattle as an important part of the farm’s future. Rather than expanding cow numbers, their focus is on making each part of the operation work more efficiently together.
“We’re not chasing size anymore,” Louie says. “We’re chasing consistency.”
For a farm that began with 16 cows in a stanchion barn nearly 80 years ago, the next chapter isn’t about getting bigger. It’s about building a system that can stay profitable, adaptable and sustainable for the next generation — and one where beef-on-dairy continues to strengthen the business from calf to carcass.
For more on beef-on-dairy, read:
- The $4,000 Heifer: Why Beef-on-Dairy is Driving Record Replacement Prices
- Beef-on-Dairy Revenue Has Quadrupled in Four Years. Is It the Saving Grace for Today’s Soft Milk Prices?
- The Balancing Act Behind Beef-on-Dairy Carcass Size
- The Future of Beef-on-Dairy: What Happens When $1,200 Calf Prices Drop?
- The New Age of Beef-on-Dairy is Here
