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Children
Spur Changes
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JOSEPH KURTZ |
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With six children, the source of motivation for Bruce and Jodi Heim to change their Winona County dairy operation in the mid-1990s was clear. They treasured time together as a family. Heather, their oldest, was heading into junior high, and countless games, concerts, and other school activities lay ahead. Bruce and Jodi wanted the opportunity to attend events and support their children without being tied to milking their cows twice a day, seven days a week. "We wanted to be able to have enough cows to have a full-time hired man so that we could take some time off," says Bruce. "We were really tied down -- we missed only two or three milkings per year. And the kids were getting to the age where they were getting involved in activities." It seemed clear that bringing in full-time help would require upgrading facilities, especially for milking. "Bruce thought it would be easier to have a hired man in a flat-barn parlor, rather than a stanchion barn," Jodi recalls. "Nobody wanted to work in a stanchion barn." The 400-acre Heim farm is located a short distance south of Interstate 90 just west of Fremont. It's the farm where Bruce grew up and where his father grew up, and has been in the family since the 1930s. Bruce has been involved in dairying his whole life, and worked with his father, brothers, and sisters after graduating from high school in 1979. He and Jodi were married in 1980 and started farming on their own in 1991. They bought the farm from Bruce's mother that year, two years after his father died. Bruce and Jodi are the parents of Heather, 18; Holly, 16; Christopher, 14; Leah, 13; and 10-year-old identical twins Brooke and Breana. They were milking 75 cows in 1991, which was the number of stalls in the stanchion barn. They gradually increased cow numbers to 95, which meant the extra work of switching cows in and out of the stanchions for each milking. In addition to the need to change milking systems, the couple also sensed a need to increase cow comfort. "We tried mattresses in the stalls and other things to make the cows more comfortable, but it wasn't working out," says Bruce. "Too many heifers were getting banged up in the stalls. We started thinking about a freestall barn where cows would have more room to move around." Working with Brickl Brothers, a construction firm from West Salem, Wis., the Heims began to look at plans for a new freestall barn. They also worked with Duane Hutton of Agra Advisory in Minnesota City. Hutton developed budgets and cash flow projections. When plans were finalized, he contacted lending institutions to obtain bids for the financing. "At first we looked at building a pit parlor, but the cost was too high," Bruce recalls. "We decided to go with a flat barn step-up parlor." After almost two years of planning, construction on the new 96- by 170-foot freestall barn began in November 1995. The Heims moved their cows into the barn shortly before Christmas that year. The next step was to put in the new parlor and do other remodeling in the old barn. The Heims hired Amish neighbors to do this work, which began as soon as the cows went into the new barn. They put in a 12-stall parlor with a 16-inch step-up. They also tore out the haymow floor in the barn and put in higher ceilings. The rest of the space was used for a holding area, an employee break room and office area, maternity pens, a palpation rail, and pens for cows almost ready to calve. The Heims milked for the first time in the new parlor on New Year's Eve at the end of 1995. After completing the parlor the Amish workers continued with the other remodeling work. "They were all done by the end of February, and their final bill was less than the estimate," says Bruce. With the construction work finished and the new parlor operational, the Heims shifted a part-time employee to full-time status early in 1996. That person recently took a job in another community, and they hired their present full-time employee, Casper Myburgh, in July of this year. Another change the Heims made in 1996 was sending their replacement heifers to a heifer grower once the animals reached 300 pounds. The grower is a partially retired former dairy producer who lives a mile and a half away. The Heims have a contract with the grower, who sends the heifers back when they reach breeding age. Bruce says the arrangement has worked well. The Heims are currently milking 125 Holsteins, and their total herd numbers 150 head. The herd milk production average is about 24,000 pounds per cow, up from 20,000 pounds when the cows were in the stanchion barn. Bruce cites cow comfort as the biggest factor in the production increase. The changes the Heims have made have eased their workload in terms of both time and physical demands. "The work handling the cows is a lot easier than what we used to do," says Bruce. "We clean the barn with a skid-steer loader rather than by hand. We feed with a TMR mixer wagon rather than a feed cart. The cows are healthier, and production has gone up." "We have more time off because of full-time hired help," he adds. "We have three evenings a week to go to games or school plays or other things the kids have going on. And we try to take time off or at least slow down every other weekend." Hutton served as the ag advisor for the Heims throughout the transition process, and continues in that role. "They're great people to work with," he says. "They have a very positive attitude." Hutton says
the changes have made the operation more efficient. "The step-up
parlor has really helped," he says. "It has eased the
tough, physical part of getting up and down to put the milkers on
the cows. And the new barn has really helped with cow comfort. They
now have a very productive herd." "They are a good example of some things that can be done on the farm to stay in the dairy business," says Broadwater. "Producers have to look at their own situation, what their goals and values are, where they want to be in 5 or 10 years, and decide what's best for them. Making changes usually involves planning, talking to people, getting advice, and figuring out finances and long-range goals." Broadwater says the changes the Heims have made "have put them in a position to do a good job now, and also into the future." |
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