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.


Click here to order our Handy Hints Book,
a collection of Handy Hints from our readers.



Here are a few Handy Hints from fellow readers.

Two of a kind
Sept. 10 2018
I do a lot of maintenance around the farm and some of it requires PVC pipe repair. To keep the PVC primer and glue together, since they are both used at the same time, I took duct tape and taped both
Everything within reach
Aug. 25 2018
Jumping onto the bed of my pickup truck to get a different hitch, chain, or whatever I might have on there gets harder as I get older. To make that easier and prevent me from having to climb up, I mad
Calf identification that sticks
Aug. 10 2018
When a newborn calf is moved into its individual pen in the calf barn at Endres Jazzy Jerseys, it is not ear tagged immediately. In order to keep calves correctly identified at the Lodi, Wis., farm, a
Recycled pail makes a great towel holder
July 15 2018
At Migliazzo and Sons Dairy of Atwater, Calif., milking towels are kept close by in these handy towel holders. The farm took 3-1/2-gallon plastic pails and cut a hole out of the bottom. Clean towels a
Red light, green light
June 15 2018
After having valuable saleable milk poured down the drain due to a simple error of not paying attention to overflowing bulk tanks, we decided to go back to the basics. We recalled the game “red ligh
Feed calves on pasture
May 25 2018
At Cook Dairy in Pewamo, Mich., calves on pasture are fed grain using a homemade feeder. The feeder was constructed by slicing plastic barrels in half and securing them with a bolt. The feeder can be
Protect Colostrum Bags
May 10 2018
Goma Dairy in Marlette, Mich., found that storing and freezing colostrum in plastic bags leads to a faster defrosting period
A curb with the right angles
April 25 2018
Wallman Dairy asked builders to pour the curbs with a curved top, rather than a flat one, so that feed and moisture will roll off of the curbs rather than settle on top of it
A bin for everything
April 10 2018
We bought this shelving unit from Sam’s Club that had bins of varying sizes. I labeled and organized all the boxes according to what they would be holding
A Portable Pressure Washer
March 25 2018
I wanted to make our pressure washer more portable, so I put it on a wagon and added a 55-gallon drum and hose reel. I drilled a hole 2 inches from the bottom of the drum and installed a bulkhead fitt
Traction makes for a safer trip
March 10 2018
Adding these welding strips of metal grating onto our skid loader attachments greatly improved traction and reduced the risk of falls
Cleaner tails in the parlor
Feb. 25 2018
We had a problem with our cows’ tails falling into our manure pan in the parlor, especially in the summer months when it’s warm and flies are present. Looking for a solution, I cut the botto
Clean water for calves
Feb. 10 2018
We have calves that always want to step up into the water fountains and make them filthy. To prevent that, we cut off the bottom of a 55-gallon drum and notched slits into the sides that slip onto the
A cure for milking machine squawks
Jan. 25 2018
Every once in awhile we will get a cow that comes into the milking parlor with an uneven udder. No matter how hard you try to position the milking machine properly, it will squawk. My boss simp
Homemade Group Feeder
Jan. 10 2018
At Hidden View Farm in Cambridge, N.Y., a mob feeder was constructed to meet the needs of the farm’s group-housed calves. Four holes were drilled on the lower portion of the side of a 5-gallon
A bale hauler and saver
Dec. 12 2017
We developed a bale mover out of pallets to keep bales from sitting on the dirty ground. This also helped to keep the bale supported on one side so it wouldn’t fall apart while we took what we neede
A cozy colostrum feeder
Nov. 15 2017
Dave Endres of Endres Jazzy Jerseys in Lodi, Wis., came up with a solution to keep newborn calves clean and well fed. Rather than struggle to keep a newborn calf still and off the dirty floor while tr
This is a trunk saver
Oct. 25 2017
I have a handy hint every person is going to love. It involves keeping your vehicle clean when transporting animals, feed, or other supplies
Carry calf buckets to their destination
Oct. 10 2017
We made this bucket carrier to easily transport our calf feeding pails to our calf hutches. The carrier holds 24, 2-gallon pails and six, 5-gallon pails. It can also hold 18 bottles between the pails
Cleaner water for all
Sept. 25 2017
We came up with a new way to clean water tanks. We put an old propane tank on a buggy to hold the water. We attached a used surge vacuum pump that is run by a Honda motor. The pump builds up vacuum in
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