A large driveway runs down the barn Cattle are in four separate areas on either side. Huge laminated beams, covered with aluminum, Latest in Free Stall Housing Draws Dozens Huge New Dairy Barn Toured Some 75 to 100 aiea farmeis attended the open house tom of the new barn at the Triple G farm at Stevens RDI lecently Designed for 270 mllX cows, the main section of the huge barn which houses the animals is shaped like a culveit cut in half length-wise It’s 300 feet long—as long as a football field —and 86 feet wide Connected to the middle of one side of the bam like the bottom of a T is a 114 bv 45 foot section foi milking, bleeding and milk piocessing, functions outside the cattle living aiea Wouldn’t Change livm Giaybill, who opeiates the dauy, said he has been milk ing with the new set-up foi a yeai now and if he could stait over, theie’s “veiy little I would change ” He would have made the build ing four feet widei to allow a little more drive down space in Irvin Graybill (right) discusses his new dair y operation with some visitors recently, the cattle aieas foi cleaning pro poses, he said But oveiall, he’s veiy satisfied “I've nevei had cleanei cows,” he said And he milks the 150 Holstems now in the bam in an hour and a halt, the same amount of time it pieviously took him to milk hm 37 cows befoie he and two bi others pooled then resouices to build the new bam “It took me longei to get used to that (milking so many cows so fast) than it did the cows,” Giay bill said He has 25 heifeis and is giadu ally incieasing the size of the held to the bain’s capacity To Meet Demand “I’m developing the held to meet the demand as it glows at the stoie,” he explained The stoie, opeiated by his bio thei Donald, is the outlet foi the faim’s milk It’s sold foi 45 cents a half gallon and 90 cents a gallon out of the stoie located neai the Reamstown Denvei in tei section on Route 222 just north of Ephrata The stoie is about a half mile fiom the new bai n Giaybill said the entae pio dnetion of the 150 cows is sold at the stoie Sometimes theie’s some exha milk that has to be sold elsewheie and sometimes it’s necessaij to buy some milk to meet customei needs, he said The biotheis staited selling milk in the tall ot 1966 A thud biothei, Aithiu, mns a layei opeiation of about 10 000 to 12,000 buds The eggs aie also sold at the stoie Income For ’ r hree Asked why the Giaj bills de cided to letail then pioduce, livm confiimed theie’s a good income from the letailing end T was necessaiy to bianch out to give all thiee bi others a good in come fiom fanning, he said “I wouldn’t recommend it (both pioduction and letailing) form the half-circle shell foi one man,” he said He said the dairy operation alone is plenty for one man Altogethei ‘‘thiee fellows can run” the milk mg opeiation, including hueci help, he said This includes growing most ot the feed for the animals He buys some corn Each animal consum es six pounds of hay and eight pounds of high moistuie com a day, plus com silage The hay is fed once a day, sil age twice and corn is fed in the parlor and to certain groups in the bam Just outside the bam, a 24 feet diameter sealed silo for haylage is under constuction It's 76 feet high Nearby, a 150 bv 40 foot bunk ei silo still has some coi n silage in it aftei being used ovei the winter Giaybill said he would have to build three standing silos to hold as much material as the one bunkei silo and it costs onl\ a fi action as much to build the bunker silo Rogei Giout, Penn State agu culluie engineer, who supplied Giaybill with some technical in foimation on the new bain, said the facility is “one of only a few in the state with a drive down centei ” The dnveway enables a ti actor to drive in one end of the Within the four individual building and out the othei end pens, the animals are free to In addition, there’s an open lest in two lows of stalls, move aiea at the top of the leg of the m the cuculai walkway or eat T. The perpendicular open spac- (Continued on Page 36) Lancaster Farming. Saturday. April 25,1970 THIRD SECTION Bunker Silo es actually divide the cow area into four sepaiate pens Animals Grouped Giaybill makes several uses of this split up of the herd. He groups the animals according to production Now, for instance, he keeps the non-pioducmg heif exs to themselves in one pen The grouping also assists milk ing. He milks 18 animals at a time The icmainder of the am mals in a pen, up to 57, can be enclosed in an area just outside. As the animals are milked, they are routed back into the pen, providing a continous flow of animals that makes an uninter rupted milking operation possi ble The smoothness of the oper ation helps explain how all 150 animals can be milked in aa houi and a half. Giaybill said Grout said the drive down the ccntei “has a lot of possibilities" and can be used ioi “any number ot feed aiiangements ” Victoi Plastow associate coun t\ agent, noted the bunkei feed ing can be done in four or five minuies The feeding by chuck v agon eliminates the costly in stallation of an augei system, he said Plastow also noted that the dnve aiea makes possible view ing of the animals without wear ing boots Enclose Free Stall 29
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