Recently the Nebraska 4-H Ambassadors took a tour of Prairieland Dairy in Firth, NE.
One of the first things I learned was that it was a family farm, but it was actually a group of families that got together and formed the company, so that was something that I hadn't known before!
We walked through the barns, and then saw their milking barn.
A few fun facts about Prairieland are:
There is 600 gallons of milk produced each hour
They milk 220 cows per hour, 48 stalls (24 each side)
Dairy cows drink 25 - 50 gallons of water every day
A full grown Holstein cow weighs between 1,100 and 1,500 pounds
Each Dairy cow can eat 90 pounds of food every day
12,500 gallons of milk is shipped every day
And they have a computer system that identifies:
- individual cows
- milk production & lactation
- activity to monitor illness & estrus
- conductivity to monitor mastitis
- sorts cows that need attention
This was an awesome tour, because as you know, we have a few dairy experts on our ambassador team, as well as some who don't know as much about the dairy industry! Prairieland is a forward-thinking company- they think and talked to us a lot about sustainability. It's a word that is increasingly important in the agriculture world; how do we produce more with using less?
Thanks for having us, Prarieland! We learned a lot and it was nice to see a great example of Ag ingenuity in our "backyard"!
