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DAIRY ST R “All dairy, all the time”™
Volume 20, No. 10
July 14, 2018
A drive for Quals install 60-stall quality geneƟcs robotic rotary parlor
“When this became an option, we thought it was the best t for us.” - Jon Qual
Peters family continues dairying goals By Abby Hopp Staff Intern
EDITORS NOTE: Ten years ago, Dairy Star published an article titled, ‘Ready or not, here they come’ about young adults starting in dairy farming. The article highlighted Wayne Peters, who is still dairy farming today. LAKE CITY, Minn. – There is one aspect that has really kept Wayne Peters dairy farming 10 years after he got his start in the industry. “Genetics really drives me,” Wayne said. “The industry is changing so fast.” Wayne and his wife, Josie, milk 140 cows on the farm Wayne grew up on near Lake City, Minn. The Peterses also have a full-time and a part-time employee to help out on the farm when needed. With the additional help, Wayne is able to put more focus on developing his herd through genetics. “When I breed a cow and get a nice heifer calf, I like to watch her grow and mature to produce milk,” Wayne said. “Seeing her milk pounds grow really drives me.” When Wayne started farming, he used conventional semen. Today, the Peterses use sexed semen and beef semen to focus on Turn to PETERS | Page 5
MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR
The Quals – (front, from leŌ) Mark, Alan, Rodney and Tyler; (back, from leŌ) Jon and Nathan – milk 1,350 cows with a 60-stall roboƟc rotary parlor on their dairy near Lisbon, N.D.
Labor, family drive decision for upgrade By Jennifer Coyne jenn@dairystar.com
KRISTA KUZMA/DAIRY STAR
Wayne Peters and his children, Ruth and John Wayne, check on the herd in the freestall barn on their dairy near Lake City, Minn.
LISBON, N.D. – A year and a half ago, the Qual family was at a crossroads many families in agriculture face. They had to decide what was next for their dairy operation. Over the course of a year, the Quals made plans and constructed a GEA DairyProQ 60-stall robotic rotary parlor – one of the rst in the United States. “Five years ago when robotic milking systems were becoming more mainstream, we looked at them to see how we could use them on a larger scale,” Jon Qual said. “When this became an option, we thought it was the best t for us.” Jon is a junior partner at Qual Dairy in Ransom County
near Lisbon, N.D. The 1,350cow dairy enterprise is comprised of two generations of Quals – Alan and his sons, Jon and Mark, as well as Alan’s brother, Rodney, and his sons, Tyler and Nathan. The parlor became operational April 5 – one year after the Quals toured farms in Canada. Beginning at 6 a.m., the rst group of milking cows is brought to the parlor and start loading into the individual robotic stalls. Within nine seconds, the system starts attaching and then cleans the teats, following the same process of a GEA Monobox robotic milking system. One turn of the parlor allows ample time for cows to be prepped, milked and postdipped prior to leaving the parlor. Before another cow enters
the stall, the milking unit runs through a quick sanitation cycle. Each rotation of the parlor is set at nine minutes in length. “Cows hit peak milk letdown around ve minutes,” Mark said. “We’re pleased with the amount of milk we’re able to get in a nine-minute turn.” Once the entire milking shift is complete, the individual robot arms stretch out of the stalls and receive a deep clean. At the same time, water is used to ush the parlor deck. With the Quals running eight pens of cows, at about 170 animals in each pen, the two milking shifts are six hours in length. The cow ow onto the rotary is nearly constant, with only a few stalls empty in Turn to QUALS | Page 6