In an industry with tight margins, dairy farmers are always looking for ways to improve efficiency and their cost of production. In the Center for Dairy Excellence’s “Cow-Side Conversations” podcast series, Pennsylvania dairy farmers shared how six simple improvements have led to major gains in herd health, labor, and profitability.

• Completed a time budget study to find little areas for improvement. “You can’t fix anything or improve if you don’t know where you’re at to start. We actually did a time budget study. There are cameras that watch the cows and pedometers on their legs to see how much activity they have in the day. When are they walking around, eating, getting milked, laying down, or socializing? It was kind of eye-opening for us. We found they weren’t getting enough lying time or feeding time. It helped us realize we needed to make a change for cow comfort.” – Angela Breneman from Franklin View Farms LLC. Click here to listen to her full interview.

• Installed a unique, three-cell lagoon system to reduce maintenance needs. “We wanted to be on sand but didn’t want to have the maintenance problems that come along with sand. So, we chose a three-cell lagoon system. When you run your sand-laden manure through the sand lane, the sand drops out and goes into cell one. What’s left flows through cell one and into cell two and three. Those two cells act as a big settling pond. It gives you a very non-mechanical system. By having that sand lane, it really saves my manure spreaders. We’re not wearing fans out on the front of the spreaders or hauling that heavy, sand-laden manure. There’s only one pump and a concrete pad back there to break, so there’s also no maintenance involved. It’s as simple as it gets. It turned out to be a huge win.” – Josh Waddell from Apple Shamrock Dairy. Click here to listen to his full interview.

• Started hauling their own milk for cost savings. “We’ve expanded into hauling our own milk. Our three main markets are about an hour away. If you have a good driver, it seemed like a fairly easy way to save money if you’re at a load a day. There can be some hiccups in hauling your own milk, but in the end, it seems to be working out very well as far as cost savings.” – Joe Zug, Zugstead Farm. Click here to listen to his full interview.

• Utilized a lameness camera to be proactive with herd health. “We just installed a camera to detect lameness. There’s a sort gate coming out of the parlor, and the camera is right at the end of the sort gate. It’s supposed to check her walking to make sure her gait is right. It gives a score on how ‘off’ she is and generates a suggested trim list off of those numbers.” – Joe Zug, Zugstead Farm.

• Invested in a robotic feed pusher for their tie-stall barn to capture labor savings. “We didn’t really gain any milk, but we also saved ourselves from pushing up feed five to six times a day. We’re still in the barn a lot, but you don’t have to drop everything and feed at exact times. The pusher is doing that for us. I tend to think of the feed pusher as labor savings.” – Zach Kreger, Kreger Farms. Click here to listen to his full interview.

• Performed a heat audit to find pinch points. “After watching the infrared camera, it showed the holding areas were a big pinch point for us with all that temperature. One of the things I found interesting from the heat audit was a dirty fan. It ran about 20 miles per hour less if that fan was dirty instead of clean. That’s a priority here because it makes such a difference on cows. That’s something we took away from the heat audit, especially when you see it on paper in black and white. It makes it worth taking the time to clean fans.” – Cory Mellott, Molly Pitcher Milk LLC. Click here to listen to his full interview.

“Cow-Side Conversations” is a monthly podcast to share real-time farmer insight, tricks of the trade, and inspiring stories from dairies across Pennsylvania. Click here to listen to the series.