Handy Hints

Do you have an idea you’d like to share with other dairy producers? Send it our way! We pay $50 for Handy Hints printed in the magazine.

To be considered, all submitted hints must include a clear, print quality photo (at least 240 dpi and approximately 4" by 6” in size). Please send items to Hoard’s Dairyman, Handy Hints Department, P.O. Box 801, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538. You can also email your Handy Hints to editors@hoards.com. Please include your name, full mailing address and a short description of the handy hint with each submission.


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a collection of Handy Hints from our readers.



Here are a few Handy Hints from fellow readers.

Watch out for the alley scraper
Oct. 10 2021
To ensure no cows are locked in the headlocks when the manure scraper cleans the alley, we hung the times of the day when the scraper comes by on the post by the headlock lever. That way, we don’t...
A quick mix for milk replacer
Sept. 17 2021
To stir milk replacer, we got ourselves a paint mixer for a cordless drill. It’s a fast and very effective way to mix the milk replacer for our calves
Carting calves around the farm
Sept. 2 2021
Rather than hauling newborn calves on my cold truck bed, I built this calf cart. I made a metal cradle that a tote fit into. I added some wheels and a hitch and made a sliding door on the back
No more burnt samples
Aug. 15 2021
Sometimes our hay and silage samples were getting burned because we forgot to turn the moisture tester off after the allotted time was up
A tank on the move
July 19 2021
To keep our semen tank off of the concrete, we set it on a mover’s dolly. This makes it very easy for the tank to be rolled out to the truck when filling it with nitrogen
A recycled heifer feeder
June 10 2021
For heifer feed troughs, we use half of a ditch culvert. We make metal brackets for them and use wooden half circles to close up the ends
Move multiple bales at once
June 10 2021
We use this cart for hauling small square bales inside our barn. It is 5 feet long and 3 feet wide, and it is made of stainless steel so it doesn’t rust
Easy access to the water
June 10 2021
To teach our calves to drink from the water trough, we take one ball completely out so they can easily access water on one side and learn how to operate the ball in the other
Calves can’t chew on this hose
May 10 2021
Our calves kept chewing through the hose that supplied water to our waterer. We took a piece of cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) tubing and slid it over the hose. Now the calves can’t chew on it
An easy way to build a fence
April 25 2021
I came up with an idea to unroll three rolls of barbed wire at once to build a fence. I took a piece of metal long enough to fit three rolls of wire
Each tool has a place
April 10 2021
My tools were getting unorganized, and I would not know where the last person put them. So, I came up with a simple idea. I hung all my tools in the right place and traced them with a permanent marker
Keep teat dip in the cup
March 10 2021
Do you need a handy way to hold your dipper when milking cows?
Leave germs at the door
Feb. 8 2021
We always have shoe booties (shoe covers) for visitors at the entrance door of our barn for biosecurity reasons. We made a wooden box that is 2 feet long, 1-foot wide, and 1-foot deep
Tracking the feed supply
Jan. 13 2021
I routinely paint measurements on forage and feed bags and piles to track disappearance of feeds and help monitor forage inventories
An easy ride to the calf barn
Dec. 29 2020
To move the newborn calves to the calf barn, I built this wagon. I used an old wagon and welded four corner posts to it
Keep pellets dry and fresh
Dec. 11 2020
We buy calf pellets in bags and transfer the pellets into 32 gallon garbage barrels for storage. Each barrel easily holds 100 pounds of pellets. The lid securely snaps on, keeping the pellets fresher
A rack to dry pails
Nov. 13 2020
We use this homemade bucket holder made from 1-inch PVC pipes on our dairy. The shorter PVC pipes coming out of the main pipe structure hold all sorts of things. On ours, we store buckets and bottles
Calves stay in the pen
Oct. 25 2020
At our dairy farm, recently weaned calves would jump out of their pen through the feedbunk. We hooked a gate to the bunk that keeps the calves from jumping out, and the feed can still be put in
Keep calf starter dry
Oct. 10 2020
We had problems with our calf feed getting wet when it rained. We got a 15-gallon drum, put an auger in the bottom, and put it up on metal legs
An economical towel dispenser
Sept. 25 2020
When we needed an additional paper towel dispenser in our milking parlor, instead of spending money on a new one, we used an old daily newspaper box
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