I didn't want to hijack the Forks and Knives Thread (and honestly I should just stay out of there) and a few questions came up.... So I figured I would take FOFC on a virtual tour of a real live working dairy farm.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-QHsNI8nusrI/T_sassnjLaI/AAAAAAAAAlk/xI2P08t3qCY/s912/DSCN0530.JPG
View from the Road.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-3kwHvmv_0X4/T_saUKbKzlI/AAAAAAAAAiE/7bE2ZgZAsGs/s912/DSCN0502.JPG
This is where all the milking gets done. It's called a milking parlor. There are ten units on each side (20 total). 450 cows come through here three times a day.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zauXMJQdC6s/T_saV7ZkFNI/AAAAAAAAAiU/EEzxlgaVQ7Q/s912/DSCN0504.JPG
Cow being milked.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-DHe0nU4FbLc/T_saWlj-FUI/AAAAAAAAAic/oMLpwrw-rJs/s912/DSCN0505.JPG
Cows waiting to be milked. The fat white one is happy because she was found to be pregnant today.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-n7z1AzzLoro/T_sa7woAbxI/AAAAAAAAAnU/Zbi1S-o-q20/s912/DSCN0545.JPG
This is where our milk ends up. We fill one every 30 hours, which is over 5000 gallons.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-TxQFeC6_sEU/T_saXVcwsFI/AAAAAAAAAik/mzoCYAJfY-c/s912/DSCN0506.JPG
Newest baby calves, less than a week old.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-J8X-Sk1WJOw/T_saZW4CJpI/AAAAAAAAAi0/ajzaqb9SzSg/s912/DSCN0508.JPG
After the calves are off to a good start at about a week old they move into one of these hutches where they will stay until about two months old. They stay in groups of 5.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xxFUbPPuKOU/T_sajq9Rw6I/AAAAAAAAAkU/F3qRZdIxKs0/s912/DSCN0520.JPG
This tank contains what will eventually be hundreds of cows. We artificially inseminate our cows and store straws of bull semen in this tank which is filled with liquid nitrogen.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ZNvQNviBU74/T_sakl8Lv-I/AAAAAAAAAkc/vyZBPK03MQI/s912/DSCN0521.JPG
A used straw of bull semen.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-nHRD-OL6g6I/T_satYu4q0I/AAAAAAAAAls/aqAkcUM2YHE/s912/DSCN0531.JPG
Silos that are filled with corn.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-LzYpU5_Wdu4/T_sazgRx96I/AAAAAAAAAmU/NBGDtMVcrhk/s912/DSCN0536.JPG
We put alfalfa into these bags so they can ferment. The reason we ferment is so we can store and feed cows over winter.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-gyEO-ufUSLQ/T_sa4UzB2kI/AAAAAAAAAm0/RKtW0bERf9s/s912/DSCN0540.JPG
Thank you to everybody that drinks beer. This stuff is a byproduct of the brewing process and our cows absolutely LOVE to eat it.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dHVmBxX_0to/T_sa16oknZI/AAAAAAAAAmc/GyOKuARPVRA/s912/DSCN0537.JPG
A mixture of corn, minerals, soy products that we make daily.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-vQfX7fPuCm4/T_safD3affI/AAAAAAAAAjk/tzJgnNAEwsk/s912/DSCN0514.JPG
The finished product. This is what my cows eat and turn into milk.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-JqQDxDFj5y4/T_saqjP-a7I/AAAAAAAAAlU/0tE86gjG8ns/s912/DSCN0528.JPG
No significant amount of rain since May. Our corn is looking pretty bad. We have some irrigated so we aren't completely screwed.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-elm58HcGQLs/T_sarmxYF7I/AAAAAAAAAlc/TxPeiuE2kZo/s912/DSCN0529.JPG
Alfalfa field. Was harvested last week. We usually get four harvests of alfalfa per year. The first two harvests were pretty decent but the one last week was next to nothing. If we get some rain soon, we may be able to get a fifth harvest. Alfalfa is the staple of the cows' diet on our farm.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-NKG19A2TG78/T_saaAJsuSI/AAAAAAAAAi8/4ojm7h61sSI/s912/DSCN0509.JPG
I built this barn last summer. It was made especially for cows with special needs. They might be sick, they might have a sore foot, or their milk might not be the quality I want to sell. Instead of discarding the cow, I'll put them in here and try to fix them.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-c4cHgeLs1tQ/T_sabvQe-SI/AAAAAAAAAjE/zA1O_Igse4k/s912/DSCN0510.JPG
The inside of the above barn. I also have a chute where I can work on cow's feet if they get sore.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-m7ztthy_uf4/T_sacU6HnrI/AAAAAAAAAjM/10cSjwS9OTI/s912/DSCN0511.JPG
It's kind of hard to see, but we have sprinklers that spray water on the cows to keep them more comfortable when it's hot out.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-iETvLyK5y4Q/T_sag8CDoVI/AAAAAAAAAj0/6al36Uqn4ko/s912/DSCN0516.JPG
You can see it better here. It's only in the 80s today but cows become stressed from the heat when it's 70 degrees out. So these sprinklers pretty much run throughout the summer.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-kNO2ys5RakQ/T_salgRasrI/AAAAAAAAAkk/FcgHHKVtlo4/s912/DSCN0522.JPG
It's only about a 100 yard walk for the cows to get milked but it's important that we have water for them on their walk back to their pen.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-w_x4QbYb3zA/T_saeINQ_DI/AAAAAAAAAjc/ydotOc2A7pM/s912/DSCN0513.JPG
Enjoying a meal before they get milked.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-xcN-7I7i_UM/T_sanZ79-II/AAAAAAAAAk0/_D8iMOe0V4o/s912/DSCN0524.JPG
1033, the oldest cow on my farm. She is 11 years old and has produced almost 300,000 lbs of milk in her lifetime, which is almost 35,000 gallons.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-06-itXk8bTU/T_sadGzrH9I/AAAAAAAAAjU/cNcLcSURY88/s912/DSCN0512.JPG
These cows here will all be having a calf within the next few weeks. Notice the empty stalls. Overcrowding this pen is like shooting myself in the foot.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-13EsQPK6jEg/T_sagN2fg1I/AAAAAAAAAjs/NGlpK2Ufcm8/s912/DSCN0515.JPG
Very happy to get this cow through last week's scorching heat alive and in one piece. She's had a lot of things go wrong with her, but she's still standing.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Q9ML__jKBCU/T_saoDWDX-I/AAAAAAAAAk8/K1ysU5NMTPw/s912/DSCN0525.JPG
All the oldest cows are in this pen. There are 70 cows in this pen and most are older than five years old, with the oldest being the aforementioned 11 year old.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f0UFITP4sB0/T_sahs9hF-I/AAAAAAAAAj8/m0Gx8Vpdnbs/s912/DSCN0517.JPG
This is the cow's bed. A lot of work has been done finding the ideal size and surface for a cow to lay on and be economical at the same time. This stall is pretty much the gold standard these days. Sand is extremely important. We groom and clean every single stall three times per day. A cow needs to be laying down 12-14 hours per day for her to be happy.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-70g79VTBa00/T_saYTWhlgI/AAAAAAAAAis/h8ZIqiJ6us0/s912/DSCN0507.JPG
These ladies are on a 60 day paid vacation. When a cow becomes pregnant, we pull her out of the milking string 60 days before she has a calf to allow her mammary tissue to regenerate.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-jaHXdNWps7g/T_sap9kzMeI/AAAAAAAAAlM/a-L6ZmQX5CI/s912/DSCN0527.JPG
Public perception says that cows need to be outside. Yet when given the choice, this pasture is empty today. That's because my cooling systems (sprinklers, fans) inside are more comfortable than being outside. They love coming out here in the middle of the night though.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-UijCcCXpLPg/T_sa6DgI4dI/AAAAAAAAAnE/h5wXDvHVcTM/s912/DSCN0542.JPG
My control center. Don't tell anybody FOFC is in the open window.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-qXS4GJJsP5c/T_sa68xvgHI/AAAAAAAAAnM/8C7REu6qMtE/s912/DSCN0544.JPG
What is a farm without a few dogs?

Heh. Completely and totally awesome.

That is pretty awesome, IMO.

Thanks for sharing.

Awesome!!

Forks n Knives blah. I could never live without my cheese, or my yogurt.

That was cool. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the tour which I have to admit is very cool. I have been meaning to take a field trip to a dairy farm for our three home schooled kids so they can get an idea where milk and other dairy products come from.

Fantastic thread, lungs. Really neat pictures.

That was great. Thanks for sharing! It's obvious you care about your animals and take great pride in your job.

Very cool, lungs. May have to find a local farm to take the kids to one day. A good field trip for a day with dad.

You can really tell from this pictures that you love your cows and have put a lot of thought into this. I love that you have a barn for the sick and otherwise "messed up" ones to work on them, and I love seeing the sprinklers and fans.

Is 1033 still productive? Is there an age when productivity in general starts to drop and they "retire?"

If "retired" from milking - you don't sell them on to become beef do you?

The financial stuff is really fascinating too - how much of that can you go into (without getting into any private info, of course). Do you own the farm? Do you sell surplus crops? What are the expenses like? HOW EXPENSIVE IS BULL SEMEN?

These ARE scratch-n-sniff pics, right? 'Cause it's not working for me.

Epic.

You can really tell from this pictures that you love your cows and have put a lot of thought into this. I love that you have a barn for the sick and otherwise "messed up" ones to work on them, and I love seeing the sprinklers and fans.

Is 1033 still productive? Is there an age when productivity in general starts to drop and they "retire?"

If "retired" from milking - you don't sell them on to become beef do you?

She's still one of the best on the farm for production. Mature cows are the highest producers, though they might taper off some as they get around 10 years old. 1033 hasn't. 4-8 years old are the prime production years.

Retired from milking usually does mean beef. But also when they get to a certain age their bodies start to go and it's almost cruel to keep them alive if they can't get around. I had a 12 year old last summer whose hips were giving out on her, so there really wasn't much of a choice as keeping her alive to be in pain just didn't make sense.

Thanks for sharing Lungs! Can my family please just drink YOUR cow's milk so I know where it's coming from?? ;)

Thanks for sharing Lungs! Can my family please just drink YOUR cow's milk so I know where it's coming from?? ;)

This.

I think lungs has said that most of his is going to make swiss cheese these days though.

lungs - what are your feelings on raw milk?

Great read. Thanks for posting.

Very cool lungs!

I'm curious - to what extent do you get "attached" to them, versus just seeing them as producers/$$-signs?

The financial stuff is really fascinating too - how much of that can you go into (without getting into any private info, of course). Do you own the farm? Do you sell surplus crops? What are the expenses like? HOW EXPENSIVE IS BULL SEMEN?

The farm is organized as a corporation. I own 20% and my father owns 80%. This fall I will be buying 30% for $125,000 (dad is undervaluing to help me out). The 20% I currently own has been part of my salary the past few years. None of that includes the actual land. That's where the REAL big money is going to come in. The corporation owns the cows and some equipment.

We don't have enough land for surplus crops, so all of our crops go into the cows. Especially this year.

Expenses are very close to what we get paid for the milk :) Labor, feed we don't/can't grow, improvements, etc.... Making huge profits is never in the cards but cash flowing and building the value of the farm itself is the goal. I'm paid a reasonable salary to manage the farm. With my skillsets, I could probably go out and work for somebody else and get $80K+ per year but I also wouldn't be building any equity. I don't have any family to take care of, and don't live an extravagant lifestyle so I'm fine with a modest salary now where the payoff will be bigger when I'm ready to hang it up.

edit: bull semen can range anywhere from $3 to $1000 per straw for something rare. I usually pay in the $20-25 range per straw since I'm enamored with imported European genetics.

Thanks for sharing Lungs! Can my family please just drink YOUR cow's milk so I know where it's coming from?? ;)

Honestly, I'm not that much different than a lot of farms. I've been on some of these 10,000+ cow dairies that operate in the same manner that I do just on a much larger scale.

This.

I think lungs has said that most of his is going to make swiss cheese these days though.

lungs - what are your feelings on raw milk?

Correct, we just signed another contract so my milk will continue to be made into Swiss cheese.

I'm for legal sales of raw milk but would not consume it myself. I like my 1% (blasphemy, I know). I don't necessarily believe in the benefits and there are some real risks that I demonstrated in this (http://operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=83960&highlight=antibiotics) thread.

I'm curious - to what extent do you get "attached" to them, versus just seeing them as producers/$$-signs?

There is a line that needs to be drawn. I have my pet cows that you could consider myself attached to. Economics still need to play a role though. A farm that makes decisions completely based on emotion is not going to be in business for very long. I try to find middle ground between economics and having a connection with my animals.

Dude thanks for this!!Awesome post!

Thanks for sharing lungs. Always enjoy reading about your farming and good to have a chance to see your farm.

edit: bull semen can range anywhere from $3 to $1000 per straw for something rare. I usually pay in the $20-25 range per straw since I'm enamored with imported European genetics.

What is the typical pregnancy rate?

I'm only a few hours away. Send me cheese. :)

Really cool, lungs. May have to do something like this with the winery thread just to show some of the areas that people may or may not see on a daily basis. Quite an operation you have there. My grandfathers would have both loved those photos. They both ran cow and horse farms for many years.

What is the typical pregnancy rate?

We're running 41% right now, which is a big improvement for me. We were at 25% a few years ago. Some can get upwards of 70%. Higher producing cows won't get pregnant as easy. That's why some of the rhetoric that we force cows to get pregnant every year is confusing to me. A cow's body won't allow her to get pregnant if it's not ready. High producing cows not getting pregnant makes sense no? If she's producing loads of milk, her body thinks she's taking care of a calf and she won't get pregnant.

I imagine it'd be hard to track, but do you know where your cheese is sold? It'd be neat to get some around my area of WI and say I know where it came from :)

... they move into one of these hutches where they will stay until about two months old. They stay in groups of 5.

That hutch (and the group of 5 mention) looks bigger than what I'm accustomed to seeing at the operations I regularly drive past/have driven past.

Is that more likely a matter of faulty perception on my part (i.e. yours are pretty much normal/standard) or are yours uncommonly large? And if so, what's behind your preference for the cattle condo size versus the one bedroom bachelor pads that I think I usually see?

I'm only a few hours away. Send me cheese. :)

Drive over to Stockton and get it :) That's where my milk get processed.

I imagine it'd be hard to track, but do you know where your cheese is sold? It'd be neat to get some around my area of WI and say I know where it came from :)

The company that processes my milk makes Swiss cheese and then resells it to other companies to package. So it's hard to definitively say. But if you've had any amount of Swiss cheese in the past few years, there's a good chance it came from my processor as they are the largest in the United States for Swiss cheese.

lungs - if you do (or if you start to) sell any of your milk to any artisinal-type cheesemakers, let me know. Would love to get my hands on some, and I imagine that that's the likelest way of getting my hands on some that is relatively "pure" to your farm (to some degree) rather than a big commingled vat of milk that the big cheesemakers use.

That hutch (and the group of 5 mention) looks bigger than what I'm accustomed to seeing at the operations I regularly drive past/have driven past.

Is that more likely a matter of faulty perception on my part (i.e. yours are pretty much normal/standard) or are yours uncommonly large? And if so, what's behind your preference for the cattle condo size versus the one bedroom bachelor pads that I think I usually see?

You're right, mine are bigger. Most only put one calf in a hutch for reasons of spreading disease. I take the opposite approach and put 5 in a bigger hutch. Feeding them is more efficient and the fact is cows are social animals and I feel it benefits them to socialize from day 1. I've got an awesome lady that takes care of my calves so the whole disease thing isn't an issue, demonstrated by the fact that we only lose 1% of our calves.

lungs - if you do (or if you start to) sell any of your milk to any artisinal-type cheesemakers, let me know. Would love to get my hands on some, and I imagine that that's the likelest way of getting my hands on some that is relatively "pure" to your farm (to some degree) rather than a big commingled vat of milk that the big cheesemakers use.

Does Mexican bath tub cheese count? :)

Best thread I've seen all day. Thanks for sharing...

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-DHe0nU4FbLc/T_saWlj-FUI/AAAAAAAAAic/oMLpwrw-rJs/s912/DSCN0505.JPG
Cows waiting to be milked. The fat white one is happy because she was found to be pregnant today.

It's a WITCH! Kill it (and cook it).

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. It is nice to see the effort you put into taking care of your Cows.

I have to admit, I would not do good in this business though, I get way too attached to animals. :)

cows that shoot lasers

happy cows! good stuff lungs.

That's good stuff there. I have a farm behind my house that I buy my beef from (well until the prices went crazy this year), and they are pretty much free range. Cool to see a bit of what goes into the dairy side of it. Great work and effort lungs.

So cool that you shared these pictures!

Way cool, lungs. Thanks for sharing. I haven't been to the old roommate's farm yet (it's out around Ironton MO if I'm not mistaken), but I hope it's as nice as yours!

This is really great. You should be very proud of what you've got going on.

Very awesome thread.

Thanks for sharing!

Awesome thread!

I really enjoyed that. Thanks for posting, lungs.

Great thread, Lungs!

Great stuff, lungs. Some of the pictures of landscape and sky make me miss being in Wisconsin in the summertime.

http://i.imgur.com/ig3qR.jpg
Cows waiting to be milked. The fat white one is happy because she was found to be pregnant today.


Harsh.

Very cool! And the cows seem to be treated superbly. Thanks for sharing!

Very cool. Just don't let lungs bring the straws if we have an FOFC get together.

Time for some steak and eggs.

Excellent, excellent thread, lungs! Thanks for sharing!

SI

Cool stuff lungs!

Awesome pics lungs. 5000 gallons every 30 hours, damn that's a lot of milk.

Also, LOL @ M GO BLUE

What a terrific thread. Thanks, lungs. This is awesome. :)

Awesome pics lungs. 5000 gallons every 30 hours, damn that's a lot of milk.

Also, LOL @ M GO BLUE

Someone want to try the 5,000 Gallon Challenge?

Here's a serious question:

I grew up around family farms in central/north-central Illinois as a kid. I have no desire to be a farmer (entirely too damned much hard work). But I love it when lungs posts info about his farm, and a small part of me always thinks, "Man, I wish I was doing something that cool with my life."

Why is that?

(Thanks for sharing, lungs!)

Here's a serious question:

I grew up around family farms in central/north-central Illinois as a kid. I have no desire to be a farmer (entirely too damned much hard work). But I love it when lungs posts info about his farm, and a small part of me always thinks, "Man, I wish I was doing something that cool with my life."

Why is that?

(Thanks for sharing, lungs!)
Had the same reaction. Even felt that way when I visited my brother in law's turkey farm...and that was way less cool than the dairy farm.

Me too. My wife's family has a corn and bean farm in Southern Illinois. Getting to drive their huge combine was a total thrill for me.

Thanks to everybody for the kind comments....

Everybody loves visiting a farm, but just like anything else there are lots of daily stuff that can really get to people. Working with living and breathing animals can be frustrating as sometimes they have their own ideas about how things should be done! There are so many moving parts. Luck and mother nature can bite you in the ass pretty fast and there's really nowhere that blame can be placed. Commodity markets are constantly messing with the bottom line, but really, that's not an unusual thing for a business owner that produces a tangible product in any field.

Yet I wouldn't change a thing. I'm not going to get filthy rich doing this and would never expect to. Men in my family have historically been loggers, farmers or into construction. I'm now the last farmer in my immediate family and extended family has only one sheep farmer. The rest are in construction now. There's a lot of older people in the dairy industry that try to preach doom and gloom to younger people like me, but I just tend to ignore them. Most have run their farms very poorly over the years and spun their wheels. My goal is to keep my head above water during the rough times and make progress when things are good.

http://i.imgur.com/HDPCv.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/FCZva.jpg

Saw this video today and thought of you, lungs.

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/e3kwdue5XS0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe>

Yeah that's been making the rounds between all the Agvocates....
I can't support anything with John Deere in it :)

LOL. My old roomie works for Farm Credit Services and he's a Deere fan. My godfather worked for Deere down in Jonesboro, AR.

Edit: He worked there all his life. Had something to do with service of the tractors.

My grandfather had a John Deere back in the 1940s or early 50s that was a lemon so that turned our family on John Deere for generations....

Awesome pics - thanks for sharing :D

Neat. Thanks for sharing.

What do you do with the Bulls? Has to be frustrating to work hard to get a cow pregnant, and then it shits out a boy.

What do you do with the Bulls? Has to be frustrating to work hard to get a cow pregnant, and then it shits out a boy.

We sell them at a few weeks old. I've got three farmers that buy the bulls off me and raise them up to beef age. It's a decent secondary source of income. The bull calf market is way down due to the drought but I still can get around $75 for each bull calf. When the market was up, I'd get over $250 for some calves.

Dola

Some of the animal rights groups claim we kill bull calves at birth. While a small amount of people will do that, with a minimal amount of work you can raise the value of those calves. It'd be foolish to do so. I'd be losing out on $2500 worth of revenue per month.

Do larger firms implant female embryos? Is something like that even possible?

It's possible but the easier method is to use sex-sorted bull semen which will yield 90% heifer calves. That stuff was all the rage a few years ago. We were growing are cow numbers so it was useful then. But now that we aren't growing having a female birth rate of less than 50% is fine. There was an idea of using sexed semen and then selling excess heifers but the problem with that is the investment it takes to raise the heifers (feed) won't match the return we get when selling them. Selling the bull calves at a few weeks old is profitable because we feed them waste milk. The only investment I have in the bull calves is labor.

There's also an argument to be made that sexed semen has helped the overproduction that's driven prices down.

I wonder what the mechanism is to derive sexed semen. In my mind, semen has a 50/50 chance of being male or female so you'd have to sort on a cellular level, right?

SI

Purified sperm is sex sorted at Sexing Technologies into X-bearing chromosome (female) and Y-bearing chromosome (male) populations. These purified subpopulations are frozen for future use in artificial breeding.

Sperm is sorted by identifying differences between the X- and Y- bearing sperm. The X- chromosome (female) contains about 3.8% more DNA than the Y- chromosome in cattle. This DNA difference in DNA content can be used to sort the X- from the Y- bearing sperm.
http://www.sexingtechnologies.com/uploads/images/moflo_anim.gif

The X- chromosome (female) contains about 3.8% more DNA than the Y- chromosome.
Proving that women are more complicated than men.
(Sorry, continue on with the thread.)

just going through this thread again I have to compliment you on the way you treat your animals. I pass a dairy farm every day and from the outside at least it the conditions don't even come close to yours.

The pens I see have a tin roof, but are filthy and no sprinklers ever going, even when it is in the 110+ plus range here.

Wisconsin just rocks!

just going through this thread again I have to compliment you on the way you treat your animals. I pass a dairy farm every day and from the outside at least it the conditions don't even come close to yours.

The pens I see have a tin roof, but are filthy and no sprinklers ever going, even when it is in the 110+ plus range here.

Probably an older setup... We've learned so much in the last 15 years about housing cows that a lot of these older setups are just terrible for cow comfort. And renovating everything isn't exactly cheap.

I was at a dairy farm recently that had a lot off really cool technology. But the main one that stuck out was auto milking stalls. Like cows over the course of a day would walk into this stall on their own and this machine would automatically affix and milk her. It was damn cool.

Now this was a video of the technology, I didn't see it in practice live, I wonder how many of the cows actually utilize it?

That's awesome. Robot-milkers!

I was at a dairy farm recently that had a lot off really cool technology. But the main one that stuck out was auto milking stalls. Like cows over the course of a day would walk into this stall on their own and this machine would automatically affix and milk her. It was damn cool.

Now this was a video of the technology, I didn't see it in practice live, I wonder how many of the cows actually utilize it?

A guy I'm acquainted with online installed some of these robots earlier this year. Once a cow is trained, if she doesn't go to the robot to be milked it's a pretty big red flag that something is wrong with her. I think he said each cow averages 2.7 visits to the robot per day which is close to what he was doing before, milking 3 times per day.

I like robotics in theory but they need to come a little further to where I can use them. I'm right at the threshold where it's economically impractical to spend $3 million on robots when I could spend half of that and double my herd size and hire somebody to milk for me. Robots are good options for people that can't/won't deal with hired help.

Here's a good video of a robot:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1Vo4NJU5wTk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

But if I built something new, it'd be more like this:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pjx0EgXflPM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Lungs, ever seen this happen? Farmer in this area drove around on the roads and got a salty layer on the truck. Parked it in the pasture and the cows are using it as a salt lick.

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/538506_10200375164484943_1037705211_n.jpg

LOL

Hah, that's not a bad idea. They'd probably lick the truck even if it didn't have salt.

So what is this $250 app to track cows? I'm curious now.

Link to the Company (http://vas.com/index.jsp)

The main program (DairyComp 305) is something I couldn't live without. It basically keeps track of all my cows and everything I've ever done with them. Milk production, vaccinations, reproduction, etc... With antibiotics being a public concern, I have records of every single administration of antibiotics too. Basically anything I can imagine, and the customizability of the program allows me to create anything I want.

The app is basically transferring all the data over to a smart phone so I can access it while I'm out in the barn. If I see cow #2309 looking like she is about to have a calf, I can pull out my phone and see when her due date is and what bull she is bred to along with pretty much everything else she's ever done in her life.

This thread once again makes me go :thumbsup:

SI

And we didn't even get into the $40,000 hardware/computer program that I have to tell me when I have a horny cow :)

Basically, all my cows that are not pregnant wear an accelerometer on on their necks that beams a blue tooth signal to my computer that gives me hourly activity levels of each cow. Increase activity is associated with being in heat. Theoretically, low activity will show me sick cows but I still use my own eyes for that.

Wow. I was away when this thread first came up, so I missed it. Very nice operation. This all takes me back to my childhood living in the dairy region of Upstate New York and visiting a few of my relatives that were dairy farmers.

A question though. That handful of cow food - what's all in it? It looks like some of it shouldn't be edible from appearances but besides the corn/soy/minerals added for flavoring and probably alfafa hay, I don't know what the other stuff is.

Wow. I was away when this thread first came up, so I missed it. Very nice operation. This all takes me back to my childhood living in the dairy region of Upstate New York and visiting a few of my relatives that were dairy farmers.

A question though. That handful of cow food - what's all in it? It looks like some of it shouldn't be edible from appearances but besides the corn/soy/minerals added for flavoring and probably alfafa hay, I don't know what the other stuff is.

Sometimes the diet can vary depending on availability. But that handful I had was Alfalfa haylage, corn silage, brewer's grain (spent grain from the brewing process), and our "mixture" that I showed a few pictures before which contains corn, cotton seed, soybean meal, and sugar beet pulp.

Needless to say, I hire somebody to put the diets together for me. One of my more valued consultants.

This thread is awesome! I'm sorry I missed it the first time around!!

I was just in Wisconsin last week for a few days. There are definitely a few farms here and there... :)

So what is this $250 app to track cows? I'm curious now.

thanks for resurrecting this thread.

What are your thoughts on the new FDA regulations on antibiotics for healthy animals?

What are your thoughts on the new FDA regulations on antibiotics for healthy animals?

As I went to resurrect this thread I realized I missed this question. As far as I know, it won't affect me. We do feed an ionophore (which is considered an antibiotic) to healthy animals but they aren't covered. Probably 90+% of my antiobiotic usage is a variant of Ceftiofur. There have been concerns raised with its usage but mostly in terms of residues in slaughtered animals. I know in the past they were lax on testing for ceftiofur, but now that is not the case. Anybody that sells an animal with residuals will find themselves on "The List". If you find yourself on the list, you'll be lucky if anybody would be willing to take your animals for slaughter.

On another note, we've added a new piece of technology to the farm. Computerized calf feeders. In the past we would feed calves twice per day but in reality that does not mimic nature very well. Calves will drink several smaller feedings per day when given the option. These computerized feeders give them that option:
http://www.dairyxbred.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Photo-Feb-06-9-37-54-AM-e1423511321328-480x640.jpg
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There was an adjustment period after starting out but we're shooting for as near as 0% mortality we can get for our baby calves now. Much easier to catch a sick one now before it's too late as the computers measure drinking speed and the first sign of a sick calf is decreased drinking speed. Of course there will always be some mortality but if I can get near what developed countries have for human infant mortality rates, I think I'll be doing OK :)

But if you get the rate to zero, where will the tasty veal come from?

But if you get the rate to zero, where will the tasty veal come from?

Same place it always does. If one of my calves dies, my dog gets it :)

Awesome thread... How close to a closed system do you have with your crops? Offsite sources provide cotton seed soybean meal and sugar beet pulp? Do you own all of the cultivating and harvesting machinery as well?

My family was in the fur business in Wisconsin... I often wish I would have stayed with the family business but you are right about the hours and dedication.

Awesome thread... How close to a closed system do you have with your crops? Offsite sources provide cotton seed soybean meal and sugar beet pulp? Do you own all of the cultivating and harvesting machinery as well?

My family was in the fur business in Wisconsin... I often wish I would have stayed with the family business but you are right about the hours and dedication.

Alfalfa and corn we are mostly self sufficient so long as we don't have a drought like 2012. We do grow some soybeans in a crop rotation but don't feed/process them ourselves. We sell the soybeans which essentially cancels out some money spent on the soy products we use.

We do some of our own crop work but hire a large percentage of it out. It just doesn't make sense to have millions of dollars in equipment for our sized herd unless we did crop work for other farmers. Being that there is a guy in the neighborhood that has the equipment, we work with him to fill in the gaps that we don't have equipment for. A combine is a $300,000 piece of equipment that it wouldn't pencil out to be viable on our ~1000 acres so the guy we hire spreads the costs of that combine over tens of thousands of acres. There are some people that like shiny new equipment that go out and buy it for not enough acres but those are the people you tend to see bankruptcy auctions happening with.

Great thread!

I read an article about milk prices going bust in asia...does this affect you at all? I never really thought of Milk as an international commodity.

I read an article about milk prices going bust in asia...does this affect you at all? I never really thought of Milk as an international commodity.

Definitely. Less of an export market this year. Last year was great, this year is tight. China isn't as strong of a buyer this year. Sanctions against Russia have an impact too. Europe has dropped production quotas so there is some added supply there. Farmers in the UK are really taking it on the chin right now.

There's a definite oversupply in the Midwest, milk being dumped into manure lagoons. My processor decided to cut my premiums paid over the mandated lows. Checked out some other processors which would love to have me (and pay me more) but everybody is maxed out for processing capacity.

Lungs somehow I had never seen this original thread - but it's very cool!

milk being dumped into manure lagoons.

That is perhaps the least appetizing series of words I've ever had the displeasure to read.

Glad to see business is alive and kicking, lungs!