Calming Cows and Maximizing Production

The spray calmed them down. It turned out to be a synthetic analogue of Maternal Bovine Appeasing Substance (mBAS). A natural pheromone, mBAS is produced by sebaceous glands in the skin above where the calf contacts the udder. When the calf smells the pheromone, the vomeronasal organ in its nose detects it and sends a signal to the brain that mitigates the stress response, making the calf feel calmer and safer.

Around March 2025, Darren decided to try using the synthetic mBAS, known as FerAppease, for heifers in the hospital who have just given birth to calm them when they first start training for milking. Workers manually spray it behind the cows’ poll and down the center of their muzzle. The applications continue for a few more days as the cows adjust to the rotary milking system. For the heifers, it’s almost like being with their mother. The result is a smoother, less stressful transition for both cows and crew. “It takes about three milkings for the cows to get used to the rotary, and then they get on by themselves,” Darren says. Before using the bovine appeasing pheromone, as many as 10 heifers per milking would struggle to milk out fully and were sometimes pushed out of the parlor prematurely. That number has dropped to just one or two. Once used to the system, the cows jostle each other to get on the rotary first, because they enjoy it.

“We went from a double-16 parabone parlor to the retrofit carousel completed in February 2013,” Darren says. In the 50-stall rotary system, one cow at a time enters and a worker attaches the automatic milkers. As the rotary platform turns with the cows on it, like a slow, inward-facing merry-go-round, the cows calmly chew their cud while they get milked. According to Darren, this change has improved not only operational efficiency and profitability, but also cow welfare.

The cows are milked twice a day. The day and night shift each lasts about 8.5 hours. When not being milked, the cows enjoy shade and get sprayed with water periodically to keep cool. Waste is flushed from the floor into a separation system at the end of the barn. Some of the wastewater is blended with clean water and used as fertilizer. The rest is composted and then used for bedding.

Each cow has a different number on an orange tag in its ear. A round, white, radio-frequency ID tag in the same ear connects wirelessly to data software that records the cow’s number and how much milk the cow gives. If she is not producing, the staff dry her out or send her to slaughter for meat. Darren is looking into getting an in-ear monitoring system as well to keep track of physiological factors.

Located in Visalia, the Dias’ 3,000-cow herd is managed by Darren with help from dairy manager Kate Carlson. Dias’ brother and business partner, Greg Dias, grows and harvests all the feed that the dairy needs except for a small percentage that they buy from neighboring farmers. They send calves to a calf ranch, “then we do all the rest here when they return,” Darren says.

The brothers switched to Jersey cows in 1998. Darren finds them docile, curious and easy to work with, but the initial reason for the switch was that the market was transitioning more to solids, like cheese. Jersey cow milk has a higher percentage of milk solids and higher feed conversion efficiency than Holsteins. The milk is sold to Saputo, a large, premium mozzarella maker in the U.S. and Canada.

With mBAS, the rotary system, misters, shaded freestall barns, regular flushing of waste from the barn, quality feed and periodic vet visits, the Delta View Farms cows are comfortable and not stressed. Despite keeping the herd as clean and healthy as possible, though, the cows were susceptible to the avian flu when it came around. Darren noticed a drop in production first, followed by cows showing symptoms. The flu spread slowly along each pen and from one pen to another. A few cows died and some aborted their calves, but most of the herd recovered.

Avian flu was one of many storms that the Dias family has weathered over the generations. Darren and Greg’s Portuguese great grandparents migrated here from the Azores Islands. The brothers’ grandfather was a dairy farmer, so they grew up doing dairy work. Now they are passing on the lifestyle to their own offspring. Greg’s three children – two girls and one boy -- show heifers with 4-H and FFA (Future Farmers of America). It’s not clear, however, whether they will be able to take over managing the farm someday even if they would like to. Located in a white area, the farm is allocated less and less water each year. Greg has already reduced the cropping from double to single on some of the land. In the future, they will fallow some fields each year. “Within the next 5-10 years it will change dramatically,” Darren says.

Their area has no infrastructure for bringing in surface water. The areas on both sides of them do, but those farmers do not want to further spread out the limited water. Feed will be in high demand as many dairy producers resort to buying rather than growing it.

As if that were not enough, the cost of labor is a challenge, and their second highest expense after feed. “We run it pretty tight,” Greg says, but “it kicks our butt.” The workers would like to work full days (i.e., more than 8 hours), but the farm cannot afford to pay overtime. “We’re trying to balance all that out,” Darren remarks.

The Dias family is well known in the industry for their strong family values, environmental stewardship and commitment to responsible animal care. Time will tell if the trifecta of water scarcity, expensive labor and onerous regulations impels them to seek greener pastures elsewhere.

Article Courtesy of California Dairy

Nancy Powers. "Calming Cows and Maximizing Production." California Dairy, October 2025, pp. 4–7.

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