A22-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 22, 2003
Lebanon Tiestall Operations
(Continued from Page A2l)
said. “She loves cows.”
The rest of the milking chores
are divided so that no person
milks more than twice a day, and
hired workers get every other
weekend off.
According to Dan Card, local
BST supplier, at least one pro
ducer in the area is even milking
six times a day.
The tour group also visited the
farms of Karl and Daniel Brandt,
Vincent and Juliet Wagner, and
Bruce and Bev Bollinger.
The Bollingers have a unique
situation in that their herd of
some 70 Holsteins is housed in a
tiestall barn and milked in a dou
ble-6 parlor. The setup was built
in 1981 when Bruce Bollinger
and his brother planned a herd
expansion. But the brother later
“changed his career plans,”
Bruce said.
The herd is notable for a high
conception rate, with most of the
heifers calving at 2 years of age
or less,
The main goal of his breeding
program, Bruce said, is to pro
duce “cows that last.”
All replacements are raised on
the farm, and the herd has been
closed for a number of years.
The Bollingers have supple-
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mented the milk check by selling
a number of bulls for stud serv
ice, as well as females to other
farms.
Last year, the Bollingers sold
25 Holsteins for dairy purposes.
Two cows in the herd are con
tracted to stud providers one
for a Convincer calf, another for
an Emerson. The contracted
calves will be born naturally.
The Bollingers maintain an in
voluntary cull rate of between 16
and 18 percent, with a herd aver
age of 24,228 pounds of milk, 877
of fat, and 749 of protein with
out using BST.
After trying the hormone sev
eral years ago, Bollinger said he
has since opted to focus on cow
longevity, preferring the financial
benefits of selling young stock
over the extra milk production.
Bruce’s parents, Robert and
Edith, originally bought the
135-acre dairy farm in 1971. Rob
ert still helps with the fieldwork
in growing corn silage, hay, and
protein sources for the milking
herd and replacements on a total
of 260 acres, including rented
land.
Now Bruce and Bev’s children
are also beginning to help on the
dairy. They are Becky, 10; Brad
ley. 8; Brenda, 6; and Bethany, 4.
“We’re a unit,” Bruce said
Cows bedded with sand on the Nolt farm have premium-level somatic cell counts, av'
eraging 120,000 or less.
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