Professional Barn Meeting
Held At Kreiders Dairy
MANHEIM (Lancaster Co.)
A professional daily bam meeting
was held Wednesday at the Kidd
er Dairy Farms, near Manheim, as
an educational event design**! to
show the latest in daily bam facili
ties. In addition, industry experts
stationed at seven key areas of the
dairy operation highlighted im
portant management practices.
With 1,116 stalls in six rows
and an 850-foot long feed alley
down the center, the new daily
bam at Kreidcr Farms boasts more
than two acres under roof. At 112
feet in width, it’s easily wide
enough to accommodate an ocean
liner.
The openness of the bam con
tributes a lot to the cow comfort,
since lots of fresh air can flow
through naturally. But just in case
you want a little more of a breeze,
you can turn on as many as 116
fans. And there's a misting system
100 for extra hot days.
The sides of the bam have two
sets of curtains. The lower ones
arc cranked up manually during
cool weather; the upper ones are
controlled fay temperature sensors.
Alley scrapes keep die alleys
clean around the clock. Manure
drops into a pit at the center of the
bam and is pumped from there to
one of die old 400-cow frec-stall
bams that has manure storage
underneath it.
When they’re eating, the cows
stand on rubber belting. When
they’re resting, they’re on mat
tresses covered with wood shav
ings.
Triple-H Construction, builders
of the new complex, along with
Fisher & Thompson, Inc., who put
in the parlor, ana the Kreider
Family and Phil and Julian, have
kept efficiency and cow comfort
concepts in mind wherever they
could. The lighting in the
95,200-squarc- foot bam, for ex
ample, is controlled fay sensors as
well as times. “We want to have
certain periods of darkness, or at
least reduced lighting for the cows
at night,” PJ. explained.
Even the holding area includes
some special considerations. As
the cows approach the parlor, for
example, a flush system goes into
action to clean their feet. And al
though the capacity of the bidding
area is 350 cows, they spend less
time waiting there than 100 cows
did in the old set-up.
A 54-stall Westfalia carousel
parlor the biggest rotary in ex
istence this side of the Mississippi
River is the milking center’s
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main attraction. Westfalia engi
neers have audited its perform
ance here at Kreiders’ and rated it
at 3 IS cows per hour. "It’ll do bet
ter than that," PJ. announced con
fidently. He chose the rotaiy milk
ing system because cow flow is
never a problem, people don’t
have to keep running from one end
of die parlor to the other, as they
do with linear parlors, and it’s no
catastrophe if several units be
come inoperable for some reason.
The next stall will come around
within seconds and you just keep
going.
Compared to the first rotaiy
parlors, today’s parlors are of
much stronger construction and
the mechanical considerations
have been really improved. While
the old carousels had steel plat
forms for the cows to stand on,
which ended up rusting, warping
and bending, the new platforms
are made of concrete that is sever
al indies thick. Mote rollcis are
underneath to support die weight
two underneath each stall.
They’re made of a super tough
plastic, as opposed to metal, be
cause they tun smoother and qui
eter. It’s estimated that each stall,
with cow, weighs about a ton,
meaning that the 54-stall parlor
and cows weighs approximately
108,000 pounds.
Heavy? Sure. But a one-and-a
half horsepower motor can turn
the whole thing with ease.
One revolution of the carousel
currently takes eight minutes, dur
ing which 54 cows can be milked.
But, on average, it takes only five
minutes for any of the cows to be
milked out. So there’s room for
rmnlring up die speed consider
ably, PJ. explains. It’s basically
just a matter of cow flow and the
labor situation.
A unique feature of this carous
el is that a stainless steel water
trough is at the head end of every
cow. The Krciders and P.J.
thought it would be a good idea to
give the cows a chance to drink
while they’re in the parlor, and
they do.
Every cow has a transponder on
the left front leg. Aside from auto
matically identifying her every
time she steps onto the carousel,
which is three times a day, the
transponder will also send an alert
of possible health problems or cs- '
trus, measuring her activity.
A set of gates in the big lam are
of particular interest because they
operate at the touch of a button.
They arc designed to work in all
At Kreider Dairy Farms, Manheim, a dairy seminar on Wednesday, attracted top dairy
farmers and industry leaders. Above, these attendees meet early in the day to be assigned to
one of seven meeting points around the farm designated as places of interest to learn about
the management of large dairy operations. Below, a section of the rotary milking parlor is
shown.
directions of t square “inter
change,’’ meaning that they close
in the (north-south) position,
while opening in the (east-west)
position. This allows vehicles
such as tractors and mixer wagons
to pass down through the feed al
ley without the chance of cows
getting out of their housing area.
Hie cows are offered fresh feed
twice a day. The radon currently
consists of com silage, soybean
meal, cottonseed, high-moisture
ear com, rye straw, wet brewers’
grains, and a mineral blend mix.
Ultimate responsibility of
Kreidcr Farms* overall manage
ment falls to Ron Kreider, who is
following in die footsteps of his
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 30, 1999-A23
father, Noah Kreider.
Commercial sponsors of the
event - included: Aerotech Inc.;
Albers Manuf. Co.; Cargill; Bom
berger’s Store (Tile); J. Steven
Burkhart, Excavator; Emmert
Farm Distributing; Fabtal; First
Union Agri-Finance Department;
Fisher & Thompson, Inc.; Cenex/
CRT, E.H. Gochnauer & Sons,
Inc.; Groffdale Concrete Walls,
Inc.; C.M. High Company, Inc.;
Growing Your Dairy Facility
EBENSBURG (Cambria Co.)
Penn State Cooperative
Extension, in collaboration with
dairy industry leaders, will be
conducting a dairy producers’
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Hoffman Seeds, Inc.; Keystone
Concrete Products, Inc.; Lancaster
Veterinary Associates; Lapp’s
Bam Equipment; McNcss; Mid-
Atlantic Agri-Systems; Monsanto
Dairy Business; Park Myers Dairy
Cows; Norbco, Inc.; Northbrook
Farms, Inc.; Penn State Coop. Ex
tension; Purina Mills; Rigidply
Rafters, Inc.; Rohrer’s Quarry,
Inc.; Shank Door Company; and
Triple H Construction.
workshop titled; “Growing Your
Dairy - Facility and Financial
Planning for the 21st Century”
on Tuesday, Nov. 9.
The program will
be held at the Holiday
Inn in Altoona.
Registration will
begin at 9 a.m. The
program which
includes lunch, will
begin at 10 a m and
conclude around 5 30
p.m Deadline to regis
ter is Nov. 1.
To register, mail a
$35 check payable to
Extension Special
Account to:
Huntingdon County
Cooperative Exten
sion, R. 4 Box 16786,
Fairgrounds Road,
Huntingdon, PA
16652, or call your
local Penn State
Cooperative Extension
Office for more details.
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