■■'.6—Lancaster Farming. Saturda
Dairying—
IS years old. He looks for
dime If, and he thinks work
•xperience is worth a lot
nore than schooling.
D’Avanzo said he puts in
vote hours than any of his
nen, and he hasn’t had a day
iff in months. Sounds
mspiciously like a small
lairy farmer.
The annual rolling herd
iverage at Bryncoed is
(4,680 pounds of milk from a
250<0w herd of Registered
Holsteins. Milkings begin at
j a.m. and 5 p.m., and it
udces eight to nine hours to
complete milking. An
automated Surge milking
parlor with automatic take
.off and preparation for six
cows at a time, makes
milking a one-man chore,
but the man in the parlor is
replaced after he’s been
there about four hours.
D’Avanzo said they’ve got
enough help to keep mostly
to a 7 a jn. to 5 p.m. schedule,
with one day off every week
for each man. The early and
late milking shifts are
rotated so-that the burden
falls equally to everyone.
The Bryncoed cows are
divided into four milking
groups, and fed and milked
as groups. Group one con
sists of cows milking 70
pounds a day and over,
group two consists of those in
the .50 to 69 pound category,
group three are milking 35 to
49 pounds and group four put
June 1. 1974
out less than 35. All groups
get 45 pounds of com silage,
six pounds of- 14 percent
pellets in the parlor, and six
pounds of hay. Protein
supplement and high
moisture com rations are
varied according to
production. Group one, for
example, gets 10 pounds of 38
percent pellets daily, and 15
pounds of high moisture
com. Group three gets only
five pounds of 38 percent
pellets and eight pounds of
high moisture com.
Dry cows are fed three to
five pounds of 38 percent
pellets daily, plus free choice
timothy hay and that’s all. “I
don’t believe in feeding com
silage to dry cows because
they don’t need it, D’Avanzo
said. “I have very little milk
fever or congested udders,
no displaced stomachs and
hardly any acenemia with
my dry cow feeding
program.”
All the Bryncoed cows are
Registered Holsteins, and all
are on DHIA test Both bulls
and AI are used for breeding,
but the bulls are used mostly
for the young heifers. When
they’re milking, the cows are
always confined to the free
stall bam. They’re never on
pasture except when they’re
dry.
Alfalfa hay and haylage,
high moisture com and com
silage are all grown on the
farm. All grain supplies are
purchased, and D’Avanzo
said the price of feed is
making it more and more
difficult to show a profit for
his operation, and he feels
it’s got to be worse for small
dairymen. He feels it’s been
that way for a long time, and
it’s going to get worse. “Last
year alone,” he said, “over
100 dairy farmers dropped
out in Pennsylvania. They
sold their cows for beef, u
this trend continues, dairy
cows will soon be as scarce
as buffalo. USDA says we’ll
have higher feed prices this
year and throughout 1975,
yet milk prices just don’t
keep up. This is going to hurf
an awful lot of small far*
mers, and I think a lot more.
will be giving up."
The Bryncoed name was
once familiar at area dairy
shows, but that’s a thing of
the past, D’Avanzo said.
“There’s no profit ih the
showring. You’ve got labor
and trucking costs piled up
just to earn a lot of ribbons.
It doesn’t matter anymore
what -a cow does in the
showring. •We care about
classification and produc
tion. We want all the milk we
can get, and we only care
about a cow’s performance
in the milking parlor,”
Jacob Dienner -
“I make a good living
milking 30 cows.”
The Bryncoed Farms
interview took place in a
glassed-in office looking out
over the milking parlor and
the 250-cow freestall bam.
From there we went to the
comfortable kitchen of Jacob
Diermer, Gordonville RDI,
who has been a dairy farmer
since 1959. Dienner is
milking 29 Registered
Holsteins, and last year had
a herd average of 17,100
pounds of milk, 604 pounds of
fat for a 3.5 percent test.
Dienner recalled that last
year productionpeaked at an
average of 60 pounds per day
and stayed that way for a
month. This year, production
went up to 70 pounds and
stayed there for two months.
It’s fallen back a bit now, but
is still up over 60 pounds
daily.
Can a farmer make a
living with a small herd?
“Yes, you 'cah,” Dienner
said, “but you don’t want a
lot of culls in your herd. You
• MORE PROFIT
MADISON SILOS
Div. Chromalloy American
Corp.
1070SteinmetzRd.
Ephrata, Henna. 17522
Ph. 733*1206
LOCAL DEALERS
Frank Snyder
Akron
Caleb Wenger
Quarryville 548-2116
Landis Bros. Inc.
Lancaster 393-3906
Carl L. Shirk
867-3741
Lebanon
Sollenberger Farm Supply
Centerport, Pa.
Ph. 215-926-7671
This cow in the Jacob Dienner herd
is milking over 100 pounds a day
right now. Dienner is a small dairy
farmer, with 29 head milking, and he
need high producing cows,
and you’ve got to treat them
well.”
Individual attention,
Dienner feels, is the im
portant ingredient a small
Milk tastes good. No other food offers so much nutrition for
everyone. Every glass of milk you drink is brimming with
vitamins, minerals, protein and energy ... at a real bargain
price.
Make milk your healthy drink
isureel surge is happy to Promote
1- 7 MILK AND lIS PRODUCTS
859-2688
dairyman adds to the care he
gives his cows. Dienner’s
cows are fed individually
according to production, and
they’re fed in small amounts
six times a day. Hus is a
v y
>
Groff Equipment
2 W. State St.
Quarry ville, Pa.
Ph. 717-786-7225
Lester B. 801 l
RDI, Lititz, Fa.
Ph. 717-626-6198
believes that the small farmer can
make a good living if he's a good
manager.
luxury large operations can’t
afford, Dienner feels. He
also likes top quality alfalfa
hay for his animals. His
grain ration consists mostly
[Continued on Page 21]
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, . *'»?■*«* '*».
W S * A
v./- « *
INK
ILK
Brandt's Farm
Supply, Inc.
601 E. High St.
Elizabethtown, Pa
Ph. 717-267-1221
Glenn E. Hurst
RD2, East Earl, Pa
Ph. 215-445-(!Bfis
✓ < ✓
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