Lima ranch

The Farm:

• Located in the USA
• Owners: Jack and Patti Hamm
• 1300 dairy cows (Holstein)
• Housing: Loose-housing
• 2x30 Endurance parallel parlour
• 2 milkings per day

Farm Management:

“This dairy has been at this location and in my wife’s family since 1938. When we took over we started expanding. This dairy started with 100 acres. In the 1960’s and 1970’s we bought the land for the heifers and silage pits, then over 200 acres more in the 1990’s.”

Jack admits it has been “hard work” getting Lima Ranch to its current capacity but says it has been a rewarding experience. Jack's average day starts at about 6am. “I come and meet with my key people to discuss the day and then do some office work. Around 7.30 to 8am we check the cows, then we spend the day making improvements plus farming the 1500 acres we have, before next milking.”

Nutritient Management:

“We are proud that our dairy is dairy quality assurance certified. The inspectors have checked that our waste management is above and beyond compliance with the law. We use a flush system with recycled water in the alleys. The solids go to settling pounds, then holding ponds. We fertilise our corn and Alfalfa with the manure and spread it over 500 acres. It goes from being a waste to a nutrient.” Forage is also harvested by the Lima Ranch team.

Feeding:

Lima Ranch uses a TMR feeding system with home grown forages of corn silage, oat silage and alfalfa hay. This is then mixed with grain purchased off the farm – including rolled corn, rolled barley, beet pulp and whole cotton seed, which is then mixed into a single TMR.

“We feed once a day and push-up six times a day.  We raise our own replacement stock on this dairy and we’ve been fortunate enough to grow from this.

Milking:

Jack looked at many parlours throughout the western United States before buying his parallel parlour and says he made his choice based on the parlour’s unique features. “What caught my eye was the strength of the exit gates and the dependability of the milking system because all of the components are efficiently combined. We were interested in the integrated herd management system, activity meters and cow identification too,” says Jack.

Lima Ranch has been using the EnDurance™ parallel parlour for 18 months as of June 2004. They have used cow identification and daily milk weights to increase milk yield milk and do a better job culling cows, to increase herd productivity.

The combination of parlor and herd management software gives Jack the “flexibility to milk our fresh cows four times a day and then put them back to two times a day” because the cows can be milked so quickly.

Herd management:

ALPRO™ herd management software has made a large and positive difference in managing the dairy herd at Lima Ranch, particularly regarding milk quality. “ALPRO™ is working extremely well for us and we really enjoy its features. We use it so we know the right time to move each cow to a different string. We look at the dry list once a week, cull potential twice a week and two to three times per week we check on fresh cows, breeding cows and bulls. It’s very important to keep info current so the system works to its potential.

Jack plans to implement a “shortened dry period” and says that while the farm’s current dry period is a low 60 days - he wants it to be less.

The barn’s technology is “extremely useful” according to Jack. “Once we learned the technology, we were able to take time to look at individual cows and make accurate individual cow decisions much more rapidly. We are making progress in every category.”

Lima Ranch has a team approach to daily herd management and other farm matters, utilising 15 employees. Jack has the overall management power but he employs “a certain number of key people” who are responsible for different farm areas.

Future:

Urban overflow is infringing on one part of the farm’s acreage, with an 18-hole golf course right beside it and the city beside that. Jack is unsure of this land’s future use because the family currently leases it annually and local housing developers are keen to take over the land.

We (Patti and Jack) feel we’ll finish our careers here and pass the whole operation on to our children in a smooth transition, if that’s what they want to do.”

But Jack believes in a bright future for Lima ranch and is keen to see his children remain there once he and Patti retire. “My wife, my son Mike and I work on the dairy fulltime right now. Hopefully my children will continue dairying on the farm if that’s their choice.