NEW BREMEN — A light winter has made things a little easier on Lou Brown and his host of workers at his dairy farm in rural New Bremen.
Nonetheless, by 6 a.m. each day, they have gotten through milking only half of the 270 cows on his dairy farm on state Route 364.
The cows are hooked up to an automatic milker. The cows have learned the routine, as they funnel in from the line as if they have been doing this forever with little or no coaxing. The udders are cleaned before hooking up the device, and the milk is pumped into a small tank. From the small tank, the milk is pumped to a larger tank, where it waits for transport each morning.
“All of our milk goes to Dannon Yogurt,” Brown said. “A semi comes every day and picks it up.”
During milking, two other workers spend time moving and feeding the cows, bottle-feeding the calves and cleaning manure. After milking, the cows are moved back to their pens. As always, cleanliness is of the utmost importance. The entire facility is wiped down clean after each morning of milking. Everything that milk touches is made of stainless steel.
Brown said after 14 years, there are very few problems that interrupt the process.
“If an air compressor breaks down, it can put a stop to things,” Brown said. “You have to have someone come in and fix it right away.”
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
