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Replacements and Milking. . .
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The holding area, here, can hold 150 cows at a time and there are 9' curtains for ventilation along with sprinklers and fans for cooling. We added animats to the return lanes from the parlor and through the breezeway. After each milking, the area is flushed with recycled water and goes to the lagoon.
(click on images to enlarge)
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The two calf barns pictured were built in 2003 and 2005. They are both 28' by 138' by 10' and will hold up to 66 calves. They consist of BSM Comfy Calf Suites.
We milk in a SCR double 16, parallel parlor three times a day. There are two 6,000 Mueller Bulk Milk Coolers and an Mueller-Matic Auto Wash System. Milk is shipped daily 1 mile to Foremost Farms where it is made into cheddar cheese. The basement contains the metering devices, pulsating equipment along with a receiver jar that transfers milk back up to the plate cooler and bulk tanks. We are a fully SCR (Allflex), integrated farm. The dairy has the Allflex parlor, sort gate and collar system.
All heifer calves are raised at Majestic View. We started out in 1999 by raising all the calves in our old remodeled dairy barn. In 2003, when we added the additional cows, we built a 28’ x 138’ x 10’ calf barn. We then built an identical one just next to it in 2005 and this allowed us to move out of the old dairy barn. All bull calves are sold locally and picked up twice a week. They are raised in calf hutches separate from the heifer calf barns. When heifer calves are weaned they are moved to a pole shed at the dairy that accommodates 120 head up to 4 months of age. Then moved to our heifer farm 3 miles from the dairy. They eventually will get to pasture 6 to 7 months of the year. In 2015 we built a 500 head heifer facility for wintering those pastured heifers.
