Caledonia Argus

Dairy operation will open its doors to the public Saturday

Posted: 9/2/03

by Jane Palen
Managing editor

Itís not the simple life anymore. Farming, like other businesses, is getting more technical and more complicated with every passing year. Advances in the industry have made it possible for farmers to expand their herds and track each cowís progress more closely than ever before.

Between Eitzen and New Albin, on Wheatland Ridge, the Dean and Sue Meyer dairy operation is an example of how far farming has advanced. Their double 18 parallel milking parlor runs 24 hours a day, milking between 750 and 800 Holstein cows. On each of three shifts, between 850 and 900 cows are milked. They moved into his facility last November after milking in a in a step-up parlor.

It takes a lot of people to make the operation run smoothly, said Meyer. Sue takes care of between 100 and 150 calves every day. There are 10 milkers on three eight-hour shifts, a full-time mechanic, a full-time feed mixer, and one person who takes care of the heifers. Two custom feeders raise most of the heifers. Sons Darin and Dustin are involved in the business, and in fact Darin is the one who designed the parlor. All the milking equipment is stainless steel.

Total production from the facility is about 70,000 lbs. per day, enough to fill a tanker truck every 17-18 hours.

When a cow enters a stall in the parlor, a computer chip on her leg identifies her and tracks her milk output and somatic cell count.

ìWe know as soon as a cow has mastitis,î said Meyer. The milk is tested every 2 1/2 lbs., and the information is stored in a computer.

The milk flows through a pipeline to a chiller. Meyer said it takes about two minutes to chill the milk from about 100 degrees to 37 degrees.

The cows eat about 20 tons of dry matter each day. Meyer grows hay on about 600 acres, has 300 acres of corn and 100 of oats. He buys all his high moisture corn.

In addition to the milking operation, the Meyers are also involved in embryo work and their genetics can be found in nearly every country in the world.

Meyer said that ever since he built the new facility, he has had many requests for tours. In fact, tour Scenic Hawkeye Stages does stop there for tours. But the Meyers decided to open the dairy to the public on September 6 so that folks from around the area could get an close-up look at the operation. An open house is planned for Saturday, September 6, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Visitors will have the opportunity to watch the cows being milked and to enjoy a variety of dairy products, including milk shakes served by the ADA, cheese and milk. There will be crackers and doughnuts as well. Food will be served in the spacious employee lunch room, and a tent will be set up outside. Weather permitting, there will be hay rides through the barns.

ìI encourage town families to watch the milking,î said Meyer. ìItís safe and clean in the parlor.î Twice a day, the parlor is power-washed. He believes that people not involved with farming will be surprised at what they see.

ìThereís a lot more to this than people realize,î he commented.

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