AIRVILLE (York Co.) A
calf-housing greenhouse is the
latest housing addition at
Airvue Farm, located on the
edge of the southern York
County village of Airville. The
bright, airy dairy herd nursery
jg one of the two most recent
expansions to the David Druck
family’s operation, which will
host the annual York County
Holstein summer picnic on
Friday, August 14.
Airvue Farm is owned and
operation by the David Druck
family, which includes David,
his wife Chris, and their two
sons, Jesse, 18, and Mike, 16.
The farm consists of a milking
herd of 85 registered and grade
Holsteins, plus young stock, and
600 acres of owned and rented
cropland.
In 1968, David went to work
for his uncle, Robert, former
owner of the Airville farm.
David and his uncle formed a
partnership in 1972, the same
year he and Chris were married.
Six years later, the couple
bought the farm from Robert.
The original milking facility
had 24 stalls, expanded over the
years to the current 32 stalls.
Later improvements included
pipeline installation and free
stalls “stuck here and there to
make do.”
“Four years ago, after the
really hard winter, we decided
we had to do something about
expansion. We just had too
many cows for our space,” David
recalls.
That expansion began two
years ago, with the construction
of a 6 lx 196-feet freestall facility
with 97 stalls in three rows. The
open-sided, truss-type bam is
fitted with split plastic sidewall
curtains for quick and variable
ventilation in changing weather
conditions, Three-feet-wide roof
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Druck Family to Host York Holstein Picnic
overhangs shelter the open sides
from all but the worst blowing
rainstorms.
A 40-feet-wide pen at one end
is maintained as a calving area.
Three large waterers provide
plentiful access for the dairy
herd to drink. And the barn’s
location on a flat, open area pro
vides almost constant free-flow
ing air movement for ventila
tion.
Sand was the original - and
still preferred - bedding materi
al, but cost is prohibitive.
“The cows loved it; they
would just lay on the sand and
not want to go anywhere else,”
recall the Druck'- But they dis
covered that the sand deposits
which clung to the teats were
hard on equipment and the
cows’ muzzle whiskers dragged
enough sand into the waterers
to create constant deposits
which had to be removed.
Chopped straw is their alter
nate bedding choice. David runs
the bedding straw through the
forage harvester, storing it in
bulk in a barn and bedding
weekly by driving through with
a wagon.
Cows are moved from the
freestall barn to the head-lock
rows in the original barn for
milking, which is handled with
six automatic take-off units. As
cows on one side of the bam are
being milked, the next group is
being rotated into the opposite
side, providing nearly continu
ous and efficient movement of
cows,
“OurTierd average production
jumped between 3,000 and 4,000
pounds of milk when we moved
the herd into the new housing
facility,” relates a pleased Chris.
Today, the herd average is at
21,800 milk.
Construction of the freestall
facility was planned from the
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Dave Druck and his family are hosts for the York Holstein Association’s annual
summer picnic. Their Airville dairy operation features two new housing facilities,
including this greenhouse calf nursery.
beginning for future possible
expansion. Both Jesse and Mike
are interesting in fanning, so
David and (Juris anticipate
adding- a milk parlor and
expanding the herd numbers.
There are no real changes the
Drucks would make to their
well-planned barn after two
years of use, but there have been
a couple of interesting surprises.
One is the method in which their
herd utilizes the three large
drinking waterers, one located
at each end, and a third in the
center, with a through-walkway
for easy accessibility to the cows
in all rows.
“The center waterer is the
one the cows use the most,”
explains David. “They will come
from milking into the barn, walk
right by the first waterer at the
Hours
Mon -Fn 7-5
Sat. 7-11
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 8, 1998-A29
end and go to the one in the mid
dle.”
Dan McFarland, Penn State
facility engineering specialist,
has been monitoring the Druck’s
watering setup since the begin
ning of the barn’s use, so the sta
tistical data backs up the obser
vation with solid numbers.
David says the cows drink at
least one-third more of their
needs from the center waterer
then from either of the two end
ones.
The monitoring project has
also shown that, contrary to the
long-held theory that a mature
dairy cow drinks some 40 gal
lons of water each day, the
Druck herd averages 25-27 gal
lons, per day, year round.
They are also extremely
pleased with their split-sections
wall curtaining, which can be
rolled up or down within seconds
when sudden weather changes,
like blowing thunderstorms,
rumble in over the Airville hills
The split sectioning also allows
greater flexibility for achieving
maximum ventilation for cow
comfort,
Just a few yards across a
neatly-mown stretch of lawn
from the freestall barn is an ever
newer addition, the 30x60-feet
calf-greenhouse nursery. Nearly
spotlessly-clean calves lounge in
individual pens made of hog
panel wire and bedded with
wood shavings. Intended popu
lation is for about 21 calves,
though they are occasionally
doubled up if a calf boom occurs.
The plastic is 2-ply, with a layer
of insulating air kept pumped
between the double plastic
sheets.
Shadecloth covers both ends,
though during summer weather
the cloth is mostly removed for
ventilation and air flow A
garage door at one end provides
easy access for skid loader
cleanout. Pens are limed
between calf occupants to fur
ther limit bacterial growth
“We’ve had great results with
our calves in this,” says Chris,
(Turn to Page A3l)