Kroeck’s Advice: Keep Up With The Change, Dollars Will Follow
(Continued from Page D 2) lates the feed radons and deter-
The 44’x324’ free stall bam mines the proportions of crops
added last year holds 210 cows needed to meet their herd’s feed
comfortably. requirements.
The milking parlor, currently Growing all their own forage
under construction, is expected to and grain, the Kroecks only purch
be finished sometime this ase proteins and minerals that
summer. need to be added to the mix. To
In the meantime, the cows are
being rotated in three milking
shifts from the free stall to the
84-stall stanchion.
“We could do the milking in
two shifts, but it would get confus
ing because our cows are grouped
according to their feed intake. To
keep things simpler, we milk each
group separately,” Mike said.
The Kroecks feed their herd
using a computerized ration
balancing program which is
updated on a monthly basis.
The four groups; fresh, high,
medium, and dry, are fed a totally
mixed ration (TMR) determined
by their milk output. A minimum
of three pounds of baled hay per
cow is added to the mix last.
“We believe in utilizing what
we have,” said Karl who calcu
milking parlor. Here he’s busy milking one of the 160 Hols
teins they run through the stanchion barn twice a day.
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determine the mix, Karl also takes
into consideration the levels of
minerals such as potash, magne
sium, and calcium in the feed.
“If they are not correct, you end
up with a lot of cow problems,” he
said. ‘The purpose of the com
puterized mixed ration system is
to put in various ingredients avail
able, along with the costs, to get a
balance that is the least costly. It
may not necessarily be the best
alternative to feed, but then you
can add what you need to up the
grade of protein.”
Regarding the feeding system,
Karl said, “There’s no question of
the benefits we’ve gained. The
occurrence of twisted stomachs
has been greatly reduced.”
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fields with poor drainage, the
Kroecks plant 700 acres of com,
200 of alfalfa, 300 of mixed for
age, and 200 of wetter grasses.
One hundred acres are reserved
for pasturing. Five hundred acres
are rented because some of the
land they own consists of wood
lands and brush, or resides in the
conservation reserve program.
The feed is stored in a variety of
ways on the Kroeck farm.
First to be filled with com sil
age and haylage are two bunker
silos measuring 30’xl21’ and
55’x121’.
Karl explained the advantages
of bunkers: “It’s easier. You don’t
have to fight with silo unloaders.
Besides, the weather’s not always
favorable to drying hay.”
For this reason, they also have a
35,000 bushel grain storage and
drying system. Other silos are a
16’x60’ concrete and two Harves
tores at 20’x30’ and 20’x50’.
Goal setting is an important part
of the Kroeck operation. When the
new milking parlor is completed,
they plan to increase their milking
herd to 215, with a long range goal
of 250 to 260 head.
‘Theoretically,” Karl said, “we
should have 82 to 84 percent of
our cows (total milking herd,
including dry cows) milking."
Pulling a credit-card size calcula
tor from his pocket, he punched in
some figures to reaffirm his
statement
Karl said, “Our goal is to keep
the purchased feed costs at 15 per
cent of the milk payment. That’s
been tough to do these last couple
of years, particularly with the
uncooperative weather we’ve
been having. But we’re always
optimistic.”
With the addition of the free
stall bam last year, the Kroecks
added 100 heifers to their herd.
Currently their herd average is
15,700 pounds of milk. They are
now striving for 17,500. “We have
a very young herd,” he said.
Mike cites that as one of the
problems that they will overcome
with time. As the herd gets older,
not only will their milk production
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Getting to the fields before dawn, Karl Kroeck spends
his entire day plowing, discing, and planting. Depending
on the field’s location and type of soil involved, Karl may
employ different planting styles. On this particular knoll,
Karl is no-tlll planting corn. Prior to planting, however, last
year’s corn still had to be picked because wet weather had
prevented him from harvesting it earlier.
increase, but they will be easier to
manage.
“Right now they require a lot of
energy on our part as they are
moved from the free stalls to the
stanchions for milking.”
The young cows have not
grasped the total routine to the
point of knowing exactly where
they should go, so more time and
hands are needed to guide them to
and from the bams.
“Once the new parlor is operat
ing, it should only take one person
to milk, with another to help,” said
Mike.
Praising the free stall set-up, he
said, “The cows are cleaner,
healthier and happier; and the
milk average has been on the rise
ever since.”
Breeding practices, too, are
likely to change on the Kroeck
farm. While they sometimes use a
technician, Karl said they mostly
scout the area for good registered
bulls which are brought to the
farm. Once the milking parlor is
set up, the stanchion barn will be
converted to a dry cow facility,
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 5,1993-D3
making it easier to use artificial
breeding.
When Karl is not busy in the
fields, he’s serving the fanning
community as president of the
Potter-Tioga Chapter of the Pen
nsylvania Farmers Association,
chairman of the Pennsylvania
Dairy Promotion Board, and as
board member of the Tioga Coun
ty Development Corporation, a
volunteer group of county resi
dents whose goals are to create
employment opportunities, raise
wage scales, and provide adequate
housing, health care, transporta
tion, and communication systems
within the county. He’s also a
member of the Grange and the
Pennsylvania Farmers Union.
To Karl, promoting the farmer
and dairy products is as important
as farming itself.
“One of the things we do at the
Dairy Promotion Board is to try to
sell more milk products, either as
fluid or yogurt, whatever. A lot of
the farmers don’t believe that
dairy promotion is doing them any
(Turn to Page D 4)
100,000 Acres
ANNAPOLIS, Md.
Maryland Secretary
of Agriculture Robert L.
Walker has announced
that the state has just
passed the 100,000-acre
mark in purchasing the
development rights
easements on agricul
tural land in Maryland
guaranteeing that this
land will continue to
remain in permanent
agricultural use.
The state made ease
ment offers covering
4,205 acres over the past
two months which
pushed the total to
102,738 acres under
easement or with con
tract status. Overall, the
Foundation currently
has a total of 255,231
acres in the program.
"The Agricultural
Land Preservation
Foundation has done an
outstanding job of keep
ing our farm preserva
tion efforts going during
the last few years of dif
ficult budgetary times. I
(Turn to Pago D 4)
Md. Land
Preservation
Passes