6—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 29, 1966
THREE-INCH PLASTIC TUBES connect the oven
head, out-of-sight, feed conveyor with the feed troughs
Sn the milking parlor at the farm of Melvin Stoitzfus,
Honks R 2. Frank Barker (left) and Donald Bucks
(right), salesmen for Big Dutchman, examine the auto
matic stop switch. L. P. Photo
'• Melvin Stoitzfus must an additional two
hours,” he said.
(Continued from Page 1) Stoitzfus uses sawdust in
placed between the 40x95 ft the free-stalls, and needs to
free-sball bam, and the spaci- a dd bedding only about every
oos, well-lighted milk house, two weeks Cleaning and
An eight-ton, Big Dutchman sweeping the regular stable
bulk feed bin was erected to are eliminated
supply the chain conveyed One of the unique features
(feeders placed overhead, out- here is the sloped floor under
oif-sdght, in the milking parlor, the free-stalls. When a cow
Three-inch plastic tubes con- rests on a hillside in the
oneoted to the feed conveyor meadow she always lays with
drop the chop into the feeders her back up the MU. This bo-
Big Dutchman’s feed system vine characteristic is used to
works automatically when the make the cows aU lay in the
last feeder is filled. some direction when they are
Also, a liquid manure pit in their stalls It also funnels
was installed to handle all of the liquids into the manure
the wastes from the free-StaU pit
operation Silage stays in nice condition
“The first-costs are about when it comes directly from
equal between the free-stall the silo into the feed bunk
and the conventional systems,” Stoitzfus thinks he gets more
Stoitzfus said, “and I like to feed into his cows because
see cows in a regular stall they have to compete for the
barn. My reason for going silage “Cows have a better
into free-stalls was to save la- appetite in this system,” he
bor ” said.
And save labor he does In However, the real pioof of
the farmer set-up, Melvin the new method is in the m
could run thiee milking units dividual pioduction records
with the aid of an assistant For example Cherrycrest Nero
Now he can operate foui units Beaulty, last year in the con
and still “do a better job ” ventoonal barn, had a produc-
He thinks he saves at least taon record of 313 d, 15,676 m,
one and one-half hours’ chore 620 f Now, under the new
time each day duung the sum- system, she has just completed
mer season. “In winter we (Continued on Page 7)
THIS EIGHT-TON bulk feed bin on the Cherry
crest Farm of Melvin Stoltzfus at Honks R 2, supplies
the chain-conveyed feeders which carry feed into the
milking parlor.
There
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