We feed our cows a total mixed ration. This ration includes hay, hay-lage, barley silage, brewers grain, rolled barley, and custom pellets. Our milk cows are fed once a day.
Diets are balanced and meticulously made by a nutritionist from Cargill. We use a Supreme feed wagon mixer. Dry matters get tested on a regular basis so we can feed the cows as precisely as possible. The diet for our young stock consists of hay, straw, barley silage, brewers grain and minerals.
The silage is stored in concrete silage bunks. Grain, hay and straw are stored in a commodity shed. The hay and straw gets tub grinded by Vogelaar Custom Tub Grinding.
By the laws of nature, what goes in the cows will come out so we also have to deal with the clean up of a lot of manure. All of the manure goes down into a massive cellar underneath the barn. From there the solids are separated from the liquids by the Beddingmaster. The solids are recycled into bedding for milk cows and young stock. The liquid is pumped out into a manure lagoon and injected into the fields as fertilizer twice a year.
