Modem dairy
| (Continued from Page 133)
of time, the family and lost a
tobacco shed, a bank barn,
and two dairy extensions
attached to it. One of those
extensions had not been built
more than several months
previous.
That was a year ago -
March 1,1977 - and just last
weekend the Landis’s held
an open house for all those
interested to tour their new
facihties.
“We thought people could
learn from our experiences
and maybe get some ideas of
their own from seeing what
we did,” says Mrs. Landis.
What they did was a
monumental task - they
started over completely as
far as the buildings were
concerned, although Landis
and others had saved the
herd of 135 Holsteins on the
night of the fire.
“That was a shaky
feeling,” remarks Landis.
“You know that what you
build is going to last for quite
some time, so you want to do
it right.” Unfortunately,
Landis was not able to make
up his mind slowly-he had to
decide in a very short time
exactly what he wanted,
which wasn’t always easy.
“Oh, I had some ideas and
knew basically what I
wanted, but some of the
decisions like the height of
the curbs I just wasn’t sure
of. Now I’d know,” he said.
To make the right
decision, he called on N.
Alan Bair, Lancaster County
Extension agent, and Gerald
Bodman, Penn State
assistant professor of ag
engineering. They came to
the Landis farm the day
John Landis works on DHIA records in the newly built office area close to the
milking parlor. In the background is a aerial view of the farm before the buildings
burned.
after the fire and drew up
tentative plans for the new
dairy complex.
According to Bodman, the
main concern was in
utilizing the four existing
tower silos as well as tying
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 4,1978—1«
into the earthen bank
manure storage area
remaining intact after the
fire. The resulting system
was a four-row drive
through free-stall barn
divided into six sections.
Four of these sections house
lactating and dry animals; a
fifth, dairy replacements or
heifers; and still another
section houses a milking
center plus box stalls for
calves and freshening
animals. That same comer
includes stalls for a
hospital/treatment area.
The dairy bam is 88 by 360
feet with a 40 by 52 foot
milking parlor wing. It is
designed for a non
mechanical ventilation with
openings at the eaves and
open ridges for normal
ventilation, plus additional
side wall drop panels for
increased Summer air flow
within the animal zone.
The alleys are roughened
(Turn to Page 136)