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Biography

Cathy Speirs

Cathy Speirs - Shiloh Dairy LLC.

I am an owner, along with my husband, Gordon, and our son,Travis, of Shiloh Dairy LLC. Our dairy originated in Calgary, AB, and was relocated to Olds, AB in 1986. In 2003, we moved our dairy from Olds to Brillion, WI. We are currently milking 2,100 cows three times a day. I am a veterinary technician, which has served me very well in working with the herd health, maternity, and baby calf programs on the dairy. I have developed an excellent calf-care program that has resulted in a death loss of less than one percent annually. This has given us the luxury of maintaining a high cull rate in the milking herd, as well as using beef semen in our older cows to produce more valuable calves to sell. In addition, we use Dairy Comp to identify the bottom half of our virgin heifers, and we implant embryos in them. The rest of the heifers are bred with sexed semen so we perpetuate the better genetics. In the dairy business, one must always be looking for ways to increase profitability. Over the years, I have been invited to speak at many conferences in the United States, and also in Canada, Spain, France, and the Czech Republic. My pet project is our small herd of 125 Brown Swiss cows. We are the home of Shiloh Brookings Cadence ET, the number one proven genomic Brown Swiss bull in the world. We work with a tremendous team at Shiloh Dairy, and we have made it our focus to develop a strong culture of respect, diligence, and safety. We work for the cows, and they work for us.