A2O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 15, 1990
Dairyman’s Herd
(Continued from Page A 1)
The dairy operation is under the
guidance of James and, within
three years, the dairy has gone
from being the new boy on the
block to leading producer in the
county.
End-of-year records from the
Pennsylvania Dairy Herd
Improvement Association (Pa.
DHIA) attest to the determination
of the young dairyman to create a
strong business.
Dunn has 58 animals on
test 35 registered Holstcins and
23 grade. From 1989 to 1990, the
herd has gone from a rolling herd
average of 18,571 pounds of milk
to 24,220 pounds of milk. That’s
an average increase of 5,649
pounds of milk per cow.
The protein average has gone
from 594 pounds to 796 pounds.
That’s an average increase of 202
pounds of protein per cow.
And almost as out-of-the-norm
as is the location of the farm, Dunn
didn’t grow up with a dairy
backround.
Instead, James Dunn’s agricul
tural backround shows a predilec
tion toward non-dairy farming.
Even though a fan of dairy cattle
since he was 12 years old, in high
school his 4-H projects were beef
animals. His high school vo-ag
teacher even tried to talk him out of
considering dairying as a business.
His father, Robert C. Dunn,
advised him to be sure it was what
he wanted, what his eventual wife
would want, if he were to marry.
Which he did.
Although the elder Dunn was
involved in the fruit and vegetable
business, he told his son that dairy
ing involves perhaps more of a
commitment mentally, physi
cally and financially than other
vocations.
Robert Dunn told his son that
getting in dairying, especially
today, isn’t something that can be
done half-heartedly.
But eventually, James con
vinced his family that his commit
ment to running a dairy farm was
real. His desire to have a dairy farm
did not go away between 12 and
21.
“Ever since I was 12,1 wanted a
dairy farm. I just always wanted
cows,” James said.
To make it all possible, Seven
years ago, the family business
bought a deteriorating farmstead.
Year End r
INVENTORY
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Closed Dec. 25th & Jan. Ist
UL B. ZIMMERMAN, INC.
295 Wood Corner Rd. Lititz, PA 17543
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Like many others in the locale,
the previous owner had dabbled in
various types of agriculture. He
sold potatoes and garden crops
door-to-door.
The landowner was and is a
friend of the Dunns and retained a
portion of the property, onto which
he built and lives in a new home.
He make frequent trips to see what
James Dunn has done to his old
place.
The farmhouse was completely
stripped to the frame and rebuilt.
Several building were kept, 13
were demolished. A patch of
woodland was removed from the
middle of some fields, fence lines
changed and contour planting
started.
A modem stanchion bam was
built. Three silos erected .. .
Prior to actually starting any
milk production on the farm,
James bought a number of heifer
calves and raised them for two
years. They were about to freshen
when he also bought a milking
herd of about 21 cows.
All the cows he bought were
supposed to have been about to
freshen, but six were not yet bred.
With these begmmgs, the Dunns
were in the dairy business.
Milk production that first year
was pretty low due to the youth of
more than half of the herd and the
delay in freshening on a third of the
older cows.
According to James, herd pro
duction had been down to just a
little more than 16,000 pounds of
milk.
The herd he bought had aver
aged a little more than 18,000
pounds of milk.
But after thc.Jjrst year, gains
started coming fapidly.
Wilh top feeds, better breeding,
and lots of bam time, the herd
started making big increases in
milk.
Then Richard Hire, a herdsman,
came along. He has more of a dairy
backround, but he also helps the
Dunns with the fruit and vegetable
business.
Just as others do, to keep cows
semi-alert and eating, a radio and
two lights stay on in the bam
throughout the night.
Breeding is monitored in the
bam and in the back exercise lot.
He doesn’t really pasture his herd
per se.
He selects bulls for production
and keeps one of his own clean-up
Details To Follow
Check Dec. 22nd
Issue
bulls for occassional use. Howev
er, he said he’ll try artificial inse
mination up to four times on a cow
before sending her to the? clean-up
bull.
The heifers and dry cows are
kept together in a front lot with
loose stall housing underneath the
original bank bam.
When he first started, he kept
the calves in the bam, but quickly
built a six-hutch, calf-raising shed.
It has three sides and an open front.
He hasn’t lost a calf in the past 2'A
years.
Considering that he raises all his
calves the males for steers, the
heifers for replacement he said
he is doing well.
He keeps the calves separated
for 4 to 6 weeks in the hutches and
tries to get them on grain quickly.
Then they arc put into groups of
about five.
But more than just the dairy,
James Dunn is responsible for
other aspects of the Dunn Farms
Inc. business.
The family operation farms
about 400 acres and rents another
200. It is actually four farms
combined.
They have about 75 acres of
peaches and apples; 25 acres of
sweet com; 50 acres of soybeans
that are roasted and fed to the
cows; 125 acres of field com (100
to 125 bushels per acre); 100 acres
of alfalfa; 30 to 40 acres of rye; 30
to 40 acres of oats; 75 acres of mix
ed timothy and clover; and the rest
in vegetables, from cantalopes and
crenshaws to tomatoes.
The family also sells home
pressed apple cider and runs a
market stand six days a week.
The two sons and father, the
wives, and some hired help all
pitch in, whenever and wherever
feed all the time and a fermented
feed all the rime,” he said.
He gives them the best of the
hay that he, his brother and father
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But in addition to the traditional
alfalfa, clover and timothy hays,
Dunn has been growing and feed
ing Reeds Canary grass with excel
lent results.
He said the green leafy grass
provides several cuttings, is thick,
and the cows seem to enjoy it
greatly.
He gets one cutting from a field
of timothy, and getting cows to eat
well is one of Dunn’s emphases, he
said.
“One of the biggest things is
body condition. When drying a
cow, don’t be afraid to feed her.
My biggest thing is getting the
proper condition on a cow and to
keep it there,” he said.
And to make sure his cows eat,
he said the high moisture com is
great and the cows eat heartedly.
Plus, he tests the protein content of
his forages.
At presstime, it wasn’t in place
yet, buttoeven better the diet of his
cows, Dunn was in the process of
installing a total mixed ration
(TMR) system. This past week he
was awaiting the installation of a
TMR muter.
“Only top quality forages come
into here for these animals. And
we feed lesser amounts and more
often,” he said.
Three times a day the cows get
their silage or high moisture com
meals. Four times a day they are
fed some type of hay.
About 4:30 to 5 a.m„ before
milking, each cow gets a ration of
second cutting Reeds Canary grass
or a timothy mix. They get that
same meal again before the even
ing milking.
At 10 a.m„ the herd gets a meal
of second cutting clover and before
Dunn goes to bed, he feeds second
cutting alfalfa.
Dunn has a total mixture of all
his hay forages analysed and tests
Evenings
show a combined result of 18 per
cent protein in the feed.
Together, and with information
gleaned wherever possible, the
two implemented changes that
made the Dunn herd start making
herd production gains of 800 to
900 pounds of milk per cow each
month.
So far, the least amount of aver
age milk production realized has
been about 200 pounds in one
month.
James’ prediction is that the
herd should start slowing down
when it reaches an average milk
production of aroflnd 26,000
pounds. But he’s working for more
than that His goal is to have the
highest averaging dairy herd in the
state, and, of course, the most
profitable.
What happened for Dunn’s herd
to increase milk production so dra
matically seems to be a combina
tion of several changes.
He credits the majority of the
increase to his self-professed
emphasis on top quality feed
out of all the hay the business pro
duces, James gets to pick what the
cows will get and what will go to
market.
“I have some good genetics,”
Dunn said. “But I have some
(cows) that do not have good gene
tics. I brought in some heifers from
12,000-pound herds and with feed
ing they make 24,000 to 26,000
pounds of milk,” he said.
He said he sees some farmers
with herds that far outshine his as
far as bloodlines, but they don’t
pay as much attention to nutrition.
“If nutrition would equal gene
tics today there would be a lot of
30,000-pound cows," Dunn’said.
Dunn’s tools of preference in
milk production include a 50-stall
stanchion bam with a scraper gut
ter and a 2- to 3-month storage
manure pit That was builtin 1987.
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