Neil Broadwater, Regional Extension Educator-Dairy

June 9, 2007

Dairy farm managers recognize the importance of adopting and implementing management practices and techniques in order to be profitable in today’s competitive dairy industry. Well, there is nothing like getting on someone else’s dairy farm, hearing and seeing first hand what that dairy family is doing to be successful and how they are doing it.

The University of Minnesota Extension Dairy Team will be holding ten Successful Dairy Systems Field Days this summer around the state (see map, below). The main objective of these summer Field Days is to visit successful dairy operations, hear about the host family’s decision making process and changes they made or are making to assure their future in dairying.

The following is the list of farm locations for the Dairy Field Days. The cost is $5.00 per person per location to cover the need to wear plastic boots and for handout materials. No pre-registration is required. Registration begins 30 minutes before the program time. Agenda at each farm will include a discussion on topics related to the featured item on the farm and a tour of the dairy facilities.

• June 19, 10:00 am to 12 noon, Houston County – Blue View Dairy (Maynard Welscher and sons Jay, John and Jim), Caledonia. Features: A new freestall sand bedded facility (232 ft x 46 ft) constructed last fall for 180 heifers and dry cows, 3 rows with drive-by feeding, a 224 ft x 96 ft 4-row center feed freestall barn and a double 9 parallel parlor.
• June 20, 10:00 am to 12 noon, Winona County – Prime Pastures Organic Dairy (Dale and Carmen Pangrac, daughter Kim and husband Andy Olson), Lewiston. Features: This is an organic dairy operation with 140 crossbred cows, mostly seasonal milking. Have marketed milk as organic for two years. The farm has 450 acres of which 300 is in grazing/hay. In Dec, 2006, built a 60 ft x 200 ft dairy compost hoop barn to house the herd in winter. A step-up double 8 parlor is retrofitted into a former stanchion barn.
• July 6, 10:00 am to 12 noon, Pipestone County – Randy and Priscilla Pater, Pipestone. Features: A 530-stall, 8-row, cross ventilated, sand bedded freestall barn finished in 2007. Double 12 parlor. Manure handled using a flush flume system with sand lane to recycle the sand.
• July 16, 1:00 to 2:30 pm, Brown County – Loran and Heidi Sellner Dairy, Sleepy Eye. Features: In 1999, built a 148-freestall barn and double 6 parlor (expandable to double 10). A 24 ft x 72 ft calf barn built in 2006. Barn has curtain side walls and a raised ridge cap. For additional ventilation, a positive air pressure tube will be added this summer.
• July 18, 10:30 am to 12 noon, Polk County – Mark and Joan Lee, McIntosh. Features: Family recently converted to organic production. The 42-cow herd is milked in a tie stall barn.
• July 18, 1:30 to 3:00 pm, Clearwater County – Arne and Carole Kleppe, Gonvick. Features: Farm will be certified and shipping organic milk this fall. Their 120-cow crossbred herd is rotationally grazed, housed in a compost barn during winter, and milked in a flat parlor. Most of their 900 acres are devoted to forages.
• July 30, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, Todd County – Clasemann Dairy Farm, Long Prairie. Features: The farm has a 100-cow freestall barn with sand bedding. Concrete manure pit with a liquid drain-off system to facilitate use of sand bedding. Their plan is to build a parlor.
• August 1, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, McLeod County – Kraig, Rachelle and Roger Krienke Dairy, Lester Prairie. Features: Milking 190 cows in a parlor in old barn, RHA of 29,700 lb and SCC between 130,000-180,000. Animals over 12 months of age are housed in sand freestalls. In process of expanding to about 260 milking cows.
• August 14, 10:00 am to 12 noon, Goodhue County – Brent Lexvold Farm, Goodhue. Features: Hoop barn with stalls built to fit larger Holstein cows. Added a Jersey herd to better fit the stalls in the older freestall barn. Has started some crossbreeding. Currently milking 300 cows.
• August 20, 10:00 am to 12 noon, Rice County – Randy and Kathleen Bauer Farm, Faribault. Retrofitted a 9 place swing parlor and holding area into an older tie stall barn. Mixed Holstein and Jersey Herd. Constructed a new 80-cow free stall barn in 2006 with a special needs cow area and an extra pen. Currently using washed lime bedding.

For a more complete description of each farm, directions and a brochure, visit the check the Dairy Extension web site Successful Systems Field Days page, or contact Neil Broadwater, Jim Paulson, Jim Salfer, or Chuck Schwartau [contact info page].

Map showing dates and locations of 2007 Field Days.