Landwehrs are doing lots of things right on dairy farm
By Carol Stender
cstender@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 08/04/2011 9:20 AM
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WATKINS, Minn. — Landwehr Dairy's attention to cleanliness and cow comfort was highlighted on a tour of the Watkins area farm.
Regional Extension educator Jim Salfer said the clean conditions around and in each barn are part of the farm's everyday routine.
"The farm you see today is not like this because a dairy tour is taking place," Salfer said. "It looks like this everyday."
The farm has a 140,000 somatic cell count.
"Some start-up operations may purchase different loads of calves as they build their herds," Salfer said. "A closed herd like this one, however, has fewer issues."
Dennis and Marlene Landwehr built a new dairy barn with parlor and free-stall in 2000. Six years later they added a fresh pen and compost barn.
Along with their son, Mike, and herdsman, Isaac Miller, they manage a 730 to 750 milking cow herd.
The cows are milked in a double-14 herringbone parlor.
Their new construction took place on land next to the original farmsite. The barn houses dry cows and heifers. Newborn calves born at the site are fed colostrum four times. When they are five to seven days old, they are moved to another site with a barn renovated for calves. Bull calves are housed in huts until they are sold to a Hutchinson area operation.
The calf barn is on a location that once was operated as a farm museum, Mike said. The Landwehr's purchased the barn in 2009 and renovated it and began using it. The barn has two Lely Calm Calf Feeders. Milk high in SCC and milk from special-needs cows is put in a bulk tank housed on a trailer. The trailer is brought to the calf facility where it is emptied into a continuous flow pasteurize. Once pasteurized, the milk is cooled in a tank and pumped to each calf feeder machine. The milk is warmed for the calve's consumption. Milk that isn't used by the machines goes back to the storage tank.
Each calf wears an RFID tag, which is read by the feeder. As the calves age, they are given less milk and eventually weaned. There are four pens in the barn with each pen holding around 25 calves. After the calves are weaned, the heifers are taken to a custom raiser until they are two months pregnant.
Once heifers calve and are brought into the milking herd, they are placed in the free-stall barn with its mattresses and sawdust bedding. The floors are also slatted. A combination of fans and sprinklers help abate heat. The special needs barn includes a bedded pack. Pens in the fresh pen area are wider and give the cows ample room.
The Landwehr's dairy is one of several featured during a series of summer tours on success dairy systems.
The next tour in the Extension series is on Aug. 18 at Twin Eagle Dairy near Clarissa. Pat and Jody Lunemann operate the farm, which features a deep bedding system in a six-row free-stall barn; a compost bedding barn for post-fresh and problem cows; pasteurizing of waste milk for newborn calves; and an average SCC of 200,000.
To register, call (320) 255-6169 or 1-800-450-6171 by Aug. 15.