Wisconsin 8-6-2023

This am we visited a working dairy farm. Soooo interesting! Our host was super nice and knowledgeable as she is the owner. Family started in dairy in 1918 with 2 cows. Has grown to multi million $ farm with 12,000 cows and 6000 acres. Ultra modern. Everything is recycled and reused. Milking carousel hold 80 cows. Some are milked 2x per day some 3x. Robots clean the teats 2 times, a worker attaches the unit which automatically releases when done, another worker cleans the teats and applies a barrier to guard against bacteria. Farm is tightly regulated by state and feds. Heifers are inseminated at 12-14 months and after birth, 9 months, begin producing milk. Average milking life is 5-7 years. Then cows are sold for beef. Male babies are sold for beef. Farm employs 80 people. They are very involved in 4H. All milk goes to Mullins Cheese Company. Cow nutrition is monitored by vet. Airgas tanks contain liquid manure which is circulated to harvest the methane gas which is the piped to California. Cows are constantly monitored for health. Picture shows one getting his hooves trimmed.