Four Leaf Clover Facts:
- We have about 2000 cows
- About 1700 of these cows get milked 3 times a day
- Every day we will have between 2 - 10 baby calves
Twins!
- One of our cows gives usually 76 pounds of milk every day
- We measure every step that our cows take
- The cows are on our farm for 3 or 4 years
- When our cows are pregnant, and they are 2 months before
calving they go to a different farm, where they can run outside,
play in the mud and stand in the rain.
- We can milk 72 cows at one time
The cows in the parlor
- We have different breeds of cows, Holstein cows, Jersey
cows, Brown Swiss, and crosses (Holstein with a different
breed mixed)
- Our cows eat a lot of feed, corn silage, hay, haylage, grain,
ground corn, but also brewers grain, distillers and gluten
(which are by-products of grain and corn) and the girls like
them a lot!
Feeding the cows
- Once a week we have a hoof trimmer that gives our girls
a pedicure! He will take care of 80 - 100 cows a day. This
normally happens on a Monday. They also will get 3 times
a week a footbath...
A cow getting her pedicure
- Tuesday our veterinarian comes and checks if the girls
that we bred true AI (Artificial Insemination) are pregnant
- Wednesday we bring our pregnant ladies to the other farm
to have a "Holiday" and bring the some other ladies back
- Thursday we put new sand in the free stalls (the beds for the
cows) and make sure they are conferable
Nice and comfortable
- Friday we breed all the cows that didn't show heat true-out the
week and that are on our program.
- We have 21 employees that help run our farm
- The farm is build on 80 acres and we have 2 concrete pits (for
manure and 2 big lagoons (one for waste water and one for
some more manure)
A nice sunset at the farm
I will try to blog about our
farm more in 2011 and with that i hope to sent out a better
understanding on what it all is that we do and why we do it at
our LARGE dairy...
If you want a little preview you can watch our video at YouTube!
