Posted: 10/11/05
Dairy visit a foreign affair
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
The heads of the 330 Hendel dairy cows might still be spinning.
They faced flashing cameras and video cameras, and heard the chatter of a score of foreign languages on October 6.
Thatís when 138 people from 22 countries visited the farm in section 34 of Caledonia Township. They were farmers and dairy-related workers that do business with World Wide Sires.
The group and its three huge tour buses had stopped at a bull stud farm in Westby, Wisconsin, first, then were headed to the World Dairy Expo in Madison.
Pam Hendel, who with her husband, Matt, and his brother, Karl, run the dairy farm, arranged for the visit through Accelerated Genetics, for whom she works. She called it a ìfarm study tour.î
Matt started the group off by explaining some of the approaches the Hendels use on their farm. They had 35 cows in 1991, and have expanded about 10 percent a year. They have four full-time employees, use sand bedding and sell about 35 cows a year for dairy purposes, Hendel said. Several people translated his comments into different languages while he spoke.
Some of the countries represented were Poland, Romania, Italy, France, Korea, and Japan.
Dr. Robert Pakula brought a group of the visitors from Poland, where he lives. He works for World Wide Sires.
America is the number one dairy producer in the world, he said while pausing during the chilly visit through the huge free stall barns. ìSo itís the best good example.î
He makes three to four trips to the United States a year. Minnesota and Wisconsin farms are excellent places for his customers to see for several reasons. For one thing, the climate is similar to that of Poland. Plus the farms are successful. He repeated some of the facts that Matt Hendel had stated earlier. ìYour herds are getting bigger and bigger,î Pakula told this reporter.
Cows here have healthy legs and udders, and low somatic cell counts, he said.
Poland still has farms with six cows, a few horses, and some swine, Pakula said. But more modern ones are emerging, family operations with 50-60 head herds. The smaller ones with 20-25 cows wonít survive, he said.
Pakula noted that in 1940, the United States had 25 million cows that averaged 1,800 liters per year. Now the country has about 9.7 million cows that averaging 9,000 liters of milk per year. That shows genetic progress, he said.
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