A34-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 29, 2003 Ariz. Dairy Makes Heat Stress Management A (Cool) Breeze (Continued from Page A 1) temperature during the day, according to Thompson, never dropped below 100 degrees. At night, he said, the temperature “seldom went below 90 degrees.” Thompson pointed out that, like the saying, it’s not the heat, it's the humidity that can be cru cial. Thompson said, “I’d rather have 115 degrees at 6 percent hu midity than 80 degrees at 90 per cent humidity.” Heat stress on the milking herd results in less food intake, crip pling production. From a Power Point presenta tion, Thompson showed evidence of cows standing near misters from a commercial supplier that included a marquee-like digital thermometer. The thermometer was clear to everyone who saw; shade temperature at the time was 111 degrees, but cooling tem perature stood at 59 degrees. Thompson said he spent $960,000 on equipment to cool cows. The equipment has sophis ticated monitors on ambient tem perature, humidity, and wind ve locity, including date and time of day. Using the commercial mister, despite the swirling vapor, the manure pack remains dry. “About 750 gallons per minute evaporate without ever touching the ground,” said Thompson. The key term is “evaporative cooling,” noted Thompson. Enough moisture is applied so the natural, evaporative cooling from the cow’s hide provides re lief for the cows. Cooling helps maintain feed intake, increases milk produc tion, improves reproduction, helps the cow maintain body con dition, decreases illness, and de creases mortality. All lactating pens are cooled. As a result, the current herd average is 28,900 pounds of milk at 3.5 percent fat. The herd is milked three times per day. According to the University of Arizona, Stotz Dairy has been the highest producing herd in Arizo- na for 15 of the last 18 years. Thompson, who grew up in California (near Disneyland), learned a lot of dairying from his uncle, who operated a 60-cow Guernsey herd in Minnesota in the early 19705. The uncle, who never took vacation, “lived and loved those cows,” Thompson said. Thompson’s father was an aer ospace engineer with North American Rockwell who took early retirement and wanted to partner with a dairy near Alexan dria, Minn. Tom Thompson, who obtained a degree from California Poly technic State University in San Luis Obispo, Calif., decided on Arizona as the place to be for the dairy. He purchased the land 23 years ago and began, in 1981, with 539 springers from Wiscon sin. Land value was about $6OO per acre in 1980. Now, the same land is valued at $25,000 per acre. Needless to say, Thompson noted, “nobody is building a dairy with less than 2,500 milk ing cows.” Stotz current milking herd size is 3,676. Back in the early 1980 s, herd average was about 19,800 pounds milking three times a day. The first expansion was to 800 cows with a 24-stall polygon. In 1988, the dairy began a 4X per day milking over a two-year period. At the same time, the herd w<s under a pre-approved BST test. Though with the 4X per day milking the rolling herd average soared to 25,000 pounds, the stress from several factors, in cluding heating, was an issue. The farm returned to a 3X a day milking. In 1990, the herd was expand ed to 1,000 cows. In 1993, a 34-stall, polygon, parabone-milk ing parlor was built. A second milking parlor a double-30 parallel parlor was added in 1995. The bams are equipped with automatic detach ers, clean-in-place wash-up sys tem, cow wash sprinklers, air crowd gate, air-operated cow in dexing stalls, and automatic cow movement system. The parlors are cooled in the summer by the evaporative cool ing system Milk is cooled through a precooler and a rapid plate cooler, which combine to bring the temperature down to 38 de grees before it enters the silo. Water used in the precooler, vacuum pump, and refrigeration system is recycled for the cow wash and barn flush system. Heat recovery units are used to conserve electricity. The newer parlor uses a com puter chip attached to each cow. This transponder automatically records when the cows comes to the parlor, how much milk she produced for that milking, and how long it takes to milk her. The computer utilizes pedome ters and conductivity to aid in the detection of sick cows and cows in heat. The computer also uses a sort gate system to catch cows as needed. In September 1995, the herd was expanded to 3,600 cows. Stotz Dairy went from 18 to 38 employees “overnight,” said Thompson. Stotz Farm employs 43 full time, including six lead milkers, six assistant milkers, six trainee/ cow pushers, four relief milkers, six outside and relief workers, four feeders, four calf feeders, three herdsmen, two assistant managers, office manager, and a general manager. About 80 percent of the work force lives on the dairy. Most of the workers are Hispanic. At the conference, Thompson reviewed the more than two dozen complex protocols em ployed at Stotz Dairy for nutri tion, calving procedures, fresh pen management, reproductive palpations, heat stress, replace ment heifers, and milking management. A key area, nutrition, in volves a true TMR three times a day. After milking, cows get a fresh feed. A nutritionist formulates the Tom Thompson, Stotz Dairy, right, spoke at the PDMP meeting Tuesday in Grantville. Introducing him was Dave Hileman, PDMP president. Photo by by Andy Andrews, editor rations. Shade is provided to 50 percent of the length of the man ger. Each scraping from the feed areas is weighed to see how much, exactly, the cows eat. The manger scraping measurements include detail on cows in pen, what fed, percent ration, total leftover, and a computer pro gram provides recommendations to improve the ration. “We try to cater to the cows and do what they’d like us to do,” said Thompson. The farm has used BST since the beginning. Thompson mea sured a 14.8 percent increase in total pounds milked, about 10 pounds increase per treated cow. That equates, over a 10-11 day injection cycle, of a 5.2 percent GROWTH POTENTIAL | • Dennis Keefer v 1 Sr. Agricultural Lender Own 32 gsqse*4€Hce k. »*. The family farm Is a .valuable tradition. To keep it growingstrong, you need a sound financial plan. That’s why we offer product# designed with the farmer’s bestfnterest In mlndlncfuding: • working capital lines of credit • equipment loans • agricultural mortgages . Contact OennlsKeefer, our dr. Agricultural Lender, to help pliant your seeds for tomorrow. He’ll work with you to ensure that the family farm is a tradition that keeps oil growing. rail Dennis at our Rt. 45, Miffilnburg office. (570) 96642555 iliieefer@westmilfonstatebaiik.coin . [WZn WE S T tsr L/ 7aK] MILTON L/L/U State Bank fdic w \\ wcslinilloiistaU'hank.rom increase in feed intake and a 7.5 percent increase in feed expense, he noted. Despite some talk of “corpo rate farms” and the size of large scale farms, Thompson believes in the American farm enterprise system. ‘We still think of ourselves as a family dairy,” Thompson said. Tammy, his wife, is office man ager. His oldest daughter, Jenni fer, a senior at Cal Poly, accom panied him to the Grantville conference. The protocols are being revised steadily to improve the herd. Arizona is still a “milk-defi cient state,” said Thompson. The state relies on imports, especially (Turn to Page A 35)
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