DAIRY NEWS – Curious about new technologies to make your dairy farm more efficient and productive? See firsthand some of the newest innovations in feeding, rumination and activity tracking, and sand-separation systems at two forward-thinking Wisconsin dairy farms.
The 2023 PDPW Innovation & Technology Farm Tours will be held on August 23 and August 24 in Dorchester, Wis., and Deer Park, Wis., respectively. Join dairy producers and industry professionals for conversations and behind-the-scenes tours to understand the technologies and management practices to successfully implement them.
“Investing in new technologies and innovations are some of the biggest decisions we can make on our dairy farms today,” John Haag, Dane, Wis., dairy producer and PDPW board president. “Having the opportunity to see new ideas at work and speak candidly with fellow dairy managers to understand how we can make operations more efficient and productive is incredibly valuable.”
Tours will be held at two Wisconsin dairy farms:
JTP Dairy, owned and operated by Jake and Tolea Peissig family, W1202 County Road A, Dorchester, Wis., will open their doors from 1 to 4pm on Wednesday, August 23. The dairy features innovations in both the milking parlor and feeding systems. They have used a guided flow, DeLaval VMS system for more than a decade and have recently added robots for increased availability. An MFR Lely Vector System for feeding has allowed them to reduce feed shrink and waste, and a haylage block cutter allows for a cleaner face and reduced heating in the silage.
Minglewood Inc, owned and operated by Kevin and Roxann Solum and Jacob and Kristin Quist, 60 105th St., Deer Park, Wis., will host the event from 9am to 12pm on Thursday, August 24. Minglewood Inc is the first dairy in the U.S. to install Stjernholm Sand Separation system from Denmark that delivers cleaner, finer sand that is ready for rebedding in 21 days. They utilize smaXtec rumination and activity system as well as a combination of parlor and robotic barn to milk 1,200 cows, including 8 DeLaval classic robots.
Tours will begin and end at each farm location; attendees are encouraged to carpool to each event. Registration information and more details are available at www.pdpw.org. Or contact PDPW at 800-947-7379. Up to three Continuing Education Units (CEUs) per tour are available from Dairy AdvanCE.
Professional Dairy Producers (PDPW) is the nation’s largest dairy producer-led organization of its kind, focusing on producer professionalism, stakeholder engagement and unified outreach to share ideas, solutions, resources and experiences that help dairy producers succeed.
