Not everyone rushing to loose housing
BYDONCUNNION
LITITZ Not all Pennsylvania
dairymen rush to put in loose
housing the minute their herds
approach 100 milkers. Some prefer
to stay with tie stalls. Others opt
for a combination of the two
systems, utilizing what they feel
are the best points of each.
Those sticking with tie stalls give
several reasons:
• Fewer health problems
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because individual animals can be
watched more closely.
• Fewer injuries.
• Closer control of feeding for
maximum production.
• Animals stay cleaner.
• Better economics. They say it
makes more sense these days of
rampaging inflation and high
interest rates to stick with the
setup they’ve got even if some
improvements have to be made to
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handle a few more cows rather
than make the extensive and costly
changes necessary for loose
housing.
• Personal preference.
At the Castrogiovanm farm,
Susquehanna County, John and
son, David stick with tie stalls for
their 100 milkers because they feel
they can more closely regulate
feeding and watch individual
animal health. It’s hard to argue
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JAMES E. NOLL GRAIN
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 14,1981—D1l
with the fact that their herd
averages better than 19,000
pounds.
Eugene Purdy, another
Susquehanna County dairyman,
keeps 130 head in stanchions in two
bams. He says he stays with the
confinement system out of habit
and because of the high costs of
switching to free stalls. He can see
advantages to both systems. If
inflation eases off, however, he
might consider taking another look
at loose housing.
Alpheus Ruth, chairman of the
board of Lehigh Co-op, whose
Berks County spread now is
operated by his son, Joe, and son
in-law, Dave Bitter, remains a
strong believer in tie stalls.
“In stalls you can give cows
more individual attention and
more closely monitor their feed,”
he says.
“Better cows often get lost in a
loose housing arrangement. ’ ’
He believes cows maintain
maximum production levels longer
m stalls.
Alpheus strongly advocates that
dairymen consider getting
maximum milk production out of
their present size herd before
expanding.
“It may sound corny to say it,
but I am convinced it is more
profitable to get better before
getting bigger. Many of the large
herds in Berks County have more
problems than we do holding to
about 80 milkers and tie stalls ”
Others agree with Alpheus about
holding back on herd size these
days. You read recently in Lan
caster Farming (January 31 page
2B) how Dick Denison, farm
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management services director for
PFA, and Glenn Shirk, Lancaster
County dairy specialist, have come
up with pretty good figures to show
that the best way to beat inflation
is to increase output per cow.
Burd Schantz, Berks County,
milks 150 head and utilizes both tie
stalls and loose housing. He says
he finds the animals seem happier
when he moves them around oc
casionally from one arrangement
to the other.
“Some prefer roaming, others
like to stay in the stalls,” he said.
“Where I put them largely
depends on their individual
behavior.”
He groups his animals by
production levels for feeding
purposes. The herd average is
about 17,000 pounds.
Bill Fallon, Susquehanna
County, splits his herd of over 100
milkers between stalls and loose
housing and rotates them for
milking in the stalls. But he says he
may some day go all the way to
loose housing, figuring it will be
less work than called for by his
present setup.
At Loudon Hill Farm,
Susquehanna County, Hank Swartz
keeps 250 head in tie stalls, but
milks them in a double-three Ross
Holm parlor. It takes seven hours
to run the herd through the one
man parlor, which operates two
shifts a day
“I feel we have better control
over the animals than we would
have with loose housing,” Hank
says
“We can get more cattle in less
floor space and keep injuries to a
minimum.”
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