ESKDALE DAIRY
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A Dairy Oasis in Western Utah
ivers of Milk in the Desert’ - it’s the tagline for EskDale Dairy and one of the truest brand mottos you’ll ever come across. Located in western Utah, only a few miles from the Nevada border, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll find yourself just driving past EskDale on your travels. But, if you love deep-pedigreed, goodlooking, purebred Holsteins, it’s worth the effort to plan a trip. Managed by Dr. John Conrad and his son, Ben, the wellmanaged herd has genetics sourced from across North America as well as a number of prolific homebred cow families. The remote, but beautiful, location is home to the House of Aaron, a Christian non-denominational group, that established a communal settlement in Eskdale in 1955. While the EskDale prefix is now on cattle that have been exported around the world, the initial dairy herd on the property consisted of about ten crossbred dairy cows that John Conrad helped milk by hand. His father, Dr. Robert Conrad, was a leader in the church and re-located his family to the community. While his father never developed a great passion for cattle, John did and set his sights on getting his undergraduate degree from Utah State University, and then graduated from veterinary school at the University of California-Davis.
While at university, the herd changed its commercial scope to milking about 40 grade Holstein in a new parlor. Over the years, John’s interest in dairy genetics kept pace with the expansion of the milking herd, which now numbers about 350 cows and a similar number of young stock. The cows are housed in large dirt/compost paddocks with opensided shelters for shelter from the sun and adverse weather. “The open pens are wonderful for cows until you get bad weather. For about 11 months of the year in the desert, these cows can walk around and it’s comfortable. In late December and January, we can get down to 10 below zero and then it’s miserable for man and beast. We try not to have anything calving in that six weeks or so, just to get past the worst of the weather,” notes John. “We typically have a bit of a breeze, so that makes it nice. The desert climate always cools down at night, and that seems to be the key for getting the cows through the heat of the summer.” With irrigation from the local water source and regular soil amendment, the community has turned a good bit of desert dirt into productive acreage for growing alfalfa and forage for the herd. “The water is good here. We have about
Eskdale, Utah is home to the House of Aaron, a Christian nondenominational communal settlement. a dozen pivots and, of course, need water for the cows and the dairy. We mainly rely on the snowmelt from the nearby mountains, but we also do need some rain each year,” comments John. “The aquifers are drawing down a bit and our water supply is always of interest to areas with more population.” The dairy makes a significant contribution to the financial well-being of the community, so the herd needs to sustain a certain level of production. “We want the cows to make us money in the barn - the herd average is a little over 27,000M and 1,100F with a 4.0%F and 3.3%P. We breed and feed for components as we ship our milk 300 miles away - up to Gossner Foods in Logan, UT. It costs a
Rivers of Milk in the Desert 46 « COWSMOPOLITAN Summer 2022
