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DAIRY ST R “All dairy, all the time”™
Volume 23, No. 2
Respect is key at Mill Creek Dairy Gregory keeps employee management simple By Krista Kuzma
krista.k@dairystar.com
KIMBALL, Minn. – When it comes to employees, Tom Gregory starts with a basic concept. “One thing we always try to do is treat our employees with respect,” Gregory said. “We get to know them … work with them, listen to them and help them talk through their problems. It has seemed to work well, and they seem to really enjoy working with us.” Gregory, who is a dairy farmer near Kimball, spoke about how his farm manages employees during the Feb. 26 webinar “Finding (and keeping!) Farm Employees,” which was hosted by the University of Minnesota Extension and Minnesota Dairy Initiatives-South Central Region. Phil Durst from Michigan State University also spoke during the webinar. Gregory spoke about how his family’s dairy changed over the years. In 1997, Gregory started Mill Creek Dairy with his family along with his brother, Ed, and his family, and their neighbor, Frank, and his family. Two herds of cattle and adjoining land came together to form the partnership and move into a new facility. Two employees from one of the 80-cow herds came along. “This whole thing was a huge learning curve,” Gregory said. “We went from individual smaller herds to one large herd and made many mistakes along the way.” In 1998, the farm started hiring high school employees, and at the end of that year, their current herdsman joined the farm after leaving his herdsman position at another dairy. “All of us were trying to do the same thing – bringing up cows, taking care of the health of the cows,” Gregory said. “Myron (the herdsman) could see we were running into a problem. He had experience with being a herdsperson so he slowly worked into it and slowly took over the health, breeding the cattle as necessary. The dairy started improvTurn to EMPLOYEES | Page 5
March 13, 2021
Innovation under one roof Rolfs build automated facility for all animals By Jennifer Coyne jenn@dairystar.com
MCINTOSH, Minn. – From a newborn calf to a cow completing her lactation, every animal on Golden Sunrise Dairy Inc. is housed under one roof in a barn equipped with the latest feeding and milking technology. “I didn’t have any hesitation,” said Tim Rolf of the new construction. “I knew I needed the younger generation to help, and Derek studied a lot about what would be JENNIFER COYNE/DAIRY STAR best for us.” On Feb. 18, 2020, Derek Rolf, Tim Rolf and Jesse Moan operate Golden Sunrise Dairy Inc. in Polk County near Tim and his son, Der- McIntosh, Minnesota. In 2018, the Rolfs began construcƟon on housing faciliƟes for calves to ek, began milking their cows that incorporates the industry’s latest automated technologies. 140-cow herd with three Lely Astronaut A5 robots on their farm pens. from within. We have 195 head of in Polk County near McIntosh. “We put in three robots with a calves and heifers, and should reach In 2018, the partners began con- planned expansion to four,” Tim said. full capacity around 2022.” struction on their housing facilities, “When we started this, we also started Turn to ROLFS | Page 10 which include an automated calf barn using sexed semen to build our herd attached to a cross-ventilated freestall barn that houses weaned youngstock, dry and lactating cows in addition to a kitchen for the Lely Vector. The barn stands 562 feet long with the width varying from 138 feet for the cow groups and 148 feet for the heifers and the kitchen. To the south of the facility is a short walkway that opens to a 106-by-70 calf barn. Calves are housed in individual pens and bottle fed for the rst three days of life. They then transition to a pen of 20 calves on an automatic feeder until weaned. At 5 months, the heifers are relocated to the far east side of the freestall barn and move throughout a series of pens until three weeks precalving. A section of pens dividing the youngstock and lactating herds is allocated for far-off and close-up dry cows, JENNIFER COYNE/DAIRY STAR including a maternity pen. A Lely Vector mixing and feeding robot delivers feed to a group of lactaƟng cows Once in lactation, the cows can be March 4 at Golden Sunrise Dairy Inc. near McIntosh, Minnesota. The Rolfs use moved into one of two pens based on lactation and stall availability in the the automated feeding system for their heifers, dry cows and lactaƟng cows.