twX'W' 1 * rKimwiiniif -m** MMfc Part of the milking herd at Coldsprings Farms. The Hoffs milk 570 cows at their farm near New Windsor. Coldsprings Farms To Host Maryland Holstein Picnic (Continued from Page A 1) the years, you might want to at tend this picnic. Marlin and Kathy Hoff, along with their sons lan and Matt, and Matt’s wife, Debbie, have graciously opened their farm up for tours during the early part of the day, and tour leaders will be on hand to take visitors around to see the operation up-close. Marlin Hoff has contributed a great deal to the Holstein breed both through his breeding pro gram and through his involvement with the breed Association. He has been classifying cows since 1957. His involvement with the Holstein Association has in the past led him to hold the presidency of the or ganization at both the county and state levels, and he was general chairman of the convention when Maryland hosted the national con vention in Baltimore in the early 1980 s. In 1989 he was elected to LEBANON VALLEY ENTERPRISES, INC. Manufacturing • Powder Coating • Precast *he National Board, where he served an 8-year term that just re cently ended. He is an honorary member of the Board of the state Association. The Hoffs’ operation is unique because although they are rela tively quite large for a dairy in this area, they have consistently main tained die kind of quality among their animals that could easily be sacrificed for sheer cow numbers. Mr. Hoff says maintaining the bal ance between quality and herd size is a challenge. “But we’ve managed to maintain pretty good quality even though the larger you get, the more difficult that be comes,” he said. The farm’s num bers speak for themselves in black and white that it is a challenge he is able to meet. Mr. Hoff and his family have grown the herd of 80 cows and 80 heifers he purchased from his fa ther in 1963 into an operation that X Adjustable neck opening for calf to cow X Auto Release for downed cows X Baked on high gloss, high impact and acid resistant TGIC polyester powder coating rivals many in terms of numbers of cows and quality of cows milked. With a herd of 670, with 370 milking right now, the farm’s average is 24,128 pounds of milk, 898 of fat, and 769 of protein. “From the beginning I had registered cows,” he said, “and even though my herd has grown, we’re still 90 percent registered.” The grade cows and lower end re gistered cows are used primarily as recipients for the 200 or more embryos that Coldsprings Farms puts in each year. Approximately 40 cows are currently classified as excellent, and another 120 are classified very good, according to Mr. Hoff. The herd expansion basically took place in 5 steps over the years, with each jump in cow numbers pretty much correspond ing to the addition of a building. It starting with a doubling of the herd to 180 in 1966 when the MEMtER Serving The Agriculture Industry For Over 30 Years 151 E. Farmersville Road, Ephrata, PA 17522 • (717) 354-4271 if » *&*■ *A!% * FREE STALL BARN INTER! Site layout, building design & construction. • Dairy complexes and replacement stock facilities • Horse stall barns and riding arenas • Workshop and machinery storage buildings • Timber column buildings for light commercial AGRI-INC. /A \* * Hoffs added a loading bam, and wound up at the current herd size with the building 3 years ago of a 36.000- bam. “And basically, we don’t plan to get any bigger, at least at this time,” ex plained Mr. Hoff. Cows are milked starting at 12:30, and it takes about 5 and 'A hours to get the herd through the double 20 parallel parlor. There are 6 groups of cows. “We have a rotation that we milk in, and the groups are numbered according to the way they’re milked,” ex plained Mr. Hoff. Group 1 is the fresh cows, and there are about 40 of them. Group 2 is the special cows, consisting of about 80-90 head. Group 3 is a group of about 140 2-year-olds. Group 4 is the high lot, with 164 head. Group S is the low lot, and it ranges from 120-150 head. The last group, group 6, is the sick lot. Although Mr. Hoff says he likes to have 0 in that group, he says realistically it ranges from 10-15 head. There are also 2 other groups: group 7 is the springer lot, which varies from 15-55 head, and group 8 are the dry cows, housed at another farm, that range from 20-80 head. Milk is picked up daily from a 5.000- and a 1,500-gallon tank. expand or update? ic. where quality is our standard. The Construction Professionals **' "ft £ The herd is fed a TMR consist ing of com silage, haylage, alfalfa hay, distiller’s grains, com, bar ley, roasted soybeans, and miner als. “We basically raise all our own roughage and a fair amount of grain” on the farm’s approxi mately 2,300 tillable acres, said Mr. Hoff, “I guess our goal is just basically to make sure we have enough roughage.” All manure is handled as a liq uid. “We store it and haul it,” said Mr. Hoff. They have the capacity to hold 2 million gallons. In a nor mal situation, that will last about 6 months. A stream runs through the farm, and the Hoffs have made a big effort to keep any runoff out of it by piping the stream through. “We have worked real hard at try ing to keep anything from getting into the water supply,” explained Mr. Hoff. Another facet of the Hoffs’ operation is the bulls. “I’ve prob ably put at least 80 bulls into A. 1.,” estimates Mr. Hoff, “And probably a dozen to IS have been well proven bulls that wound up having a lot of daughters.” Anyone who wants more in formation on the upcoming picnic can call Anita Hill at (301) 447-6473 or call the farm office at (410) 635-2181. r? DAIRY COMPLEX
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