2014 Farm Technology Days Farm Tour Script

Introduction/ History (2:00 min)

Tour guide: Start the introduction/history section of script immediately upon completed loading of the tram. For other sections, announce what will be seen at the next stop about 30 seconds prior to arrival, but wait to read script until at the stop indicated by the signs unless otherwise noted in bold italics before the script.

Welcome to Portage County Farm Technology Days hosted by Blue Top Farms and Feltz Family Farms! We hope you have been enjoying your trip to the show!

Tour Guide- give your brief bio: Name, organization, location

Portage County is excited to be the host of the 2014 Farm Technology Days. Located in the heart of the Central Sands region, agriculture generates $1.11 billion dollars in sales for the county! Portage County is the top ranked county in the state for vegetable production, including sweet corn & potatoes. The sandy soils in the county are ideal for vegetable production,making vegetable production in this part of the state an important food production area, not only on a state level, but nationwide.

Portage County has more than 1,000 farms and over 280,000 acres in agricultural production; that’s over half of the county’s acreage being farmed. In addition to being unsurpassed in vegetable production, milk is also an important commodity in the county with 12,900 cows producing 27 million gallons of milk on an annual basis. In Wisconsin, over 99% of all farms are family farms, no matter the size (compared to 96% nationwide).

Feltz Family Farms began in 1913 by Peter Feltz after his family emigrated from Poland. The farm operation continued with management byPeter’s son, Joe Feltz and later was followed by Joe’s son, George Feltz. The farm is currently in its fourth generation, managed by George’s son Ken and his wife, Jackie Feltz. Their son Jared plans to carry the farming tradition to the fifth generation.

Through the years, the farm has evolved, switching from growing vegetables such as sweet corn, peas, and green beans, to expansion and emphasis on dairy cattle. Strong emphasis is placed on cow comfort to ensure high quality milk and top production. Feltz Family Farms grows alfalfa and corn for silage on 500 acres of owned and rented land. The dairy relies on 11 dedicated full-time, year-round employees to carry out day to day operations.

Stop 1- Freestall Barn (1:45 min)

Nutrition

Milk production starts with a high quality ration consisting of forages, grains, and other agricultural by-products. On average each cow will eat 100 pounds of feed and drink 40 gallons of water per day; that’s an entire bathtub full!

Barn & ventilation

The dairy’s 550 Holstein cows are housed in three spacious free stall barns that surround themilking parlor. The cows are split into 4 milking groups, a dry cow group, and a fresh cow group,meaning that they have just given birth. These naturally ventilated barns are designed for optimum cow comfortand follow the dairy’s belief that “it’s all about the cow”. Over the past two years, insulation has been added to all of the roofs. The one inch thick layer of foam helps to moderate temperature in the barns year round. Curtains also serve to help regulate temperature in the barns, cooling in the summer, retaining heat in the winter.

Animal well-being & hygiene

To help with herd management and to restrain animals in a safe and humane manner, headlocks have been installed throughout the dairy facility. Swinging cow brushes, fans, and rubber mats are all used to promote cow health and comfort here at Feltz Family Farms.

The stalls are sand bedded every week using recycled sand from the dairy’s sand separation system. The sand beds are the ultimate form of bedding for the cow, providing her with a comfortable place to lay and limiting bacterial exposure to the teat end.

A floor auger runs through the center of each freestall barn. The alleys are scraped into the floor auger of each barn.All manure is carried by the auger to the east side of the farm to the manure separator building.

Stop 2- Dry Cows/Calving Pen/Calves (1:15 min)

Tour guide: This is a two part stop. The tram will stop once to look down the freestall area (read script from 2a) and at the calving pen/calves area (read script from 2b).

Stop 2a-Dry Cow Pen

The dairy’s dry cow pen is located here on the southeast corner of the freestall barn. On average, 50-55 cows and heifers will spend approximately 45 days in this pen before calving. The pen provides a low stress environment and a special feedthat allows the animals to prepare for calving. The cows here are checkedevery hour by a farm employee,both day and night. When a cow begins to show signs of calving, she is moved to the straw bedded calving pen. The bedded pen area gives the cow a clean and comfortable area to give birth to her young. Bedding is replaced after each calving. It is important to note that a cow CANNOT produce milk until she gives birth to a calf.

Stop 2b-Calving Pen & Calves

On average, the dairy has one calf born per day; in a month, three of those30 births will produce twins! It is very important that within the first 4 hours of a calf’s life, theyreceive at least 4 quarts of the mother’s first milk, called colostrum. Colostrum provides the calf with important antibodies that help protect the calf from disease. The dairy does not raise any of its own replacements.All calves are sold weekly to local farmers or at auction. As needed, cows are purchased from select farmers in the area. The cows are kept for 4-5 years before being sold. While this is not a “typical” farming calf management practice, this is the one that has been working successfully for Feltz Family Farms.

Stop 3- Milking Parlor (1:45 min)

The double 12 parallel parlor (meaning the parlor holds 2 rows of 12 cows) was constructed in 2004. It takes about five hours to milk the dairy’s 550 cows. The cows are milked 2-4 times per day, depending on their stage of milk production. Employees work in teams of three; two people in the parlor milking while one person is moving cows and cleaning the barns. The cows are grouped according to how long they have been producing milk, so cows that calved near the same time will be in the same group. Groups average between 90 and 110 cows. Overhead sprinklers and fans are used in the holding area during the hot summer months. This helps to cool the cow during the wait to enter the parlor and reduces heat stress as she makes her trip through the parlor.

Milk is stored in stainless steel bulk tanks and picked up twice daily by the farm’s milk hauler. All of the milk is shipped to Dairy State Cheese in Rudolph. The dairy attributes its high production and high quality milk to its diligent management of even the smallest details and to its dedicated team members who believe that cows are the top priority. Currently the dairy’s average milk production is just over 100 pounds of milk per cow per day with the somatic cell count on a one year average below 100,000. The lower this somatic cell count number, the better the milk quality. As a reference,the state average is 70 pounds of milk per day with an average somatic cell count of 255,000.

The 100 pounds of milk per day produced by each cow is the equivalent of about 11.5 gallons of milk and will make about 10 pounds of cheese. That means that each cow’s milk for the day would be worth about $51 in the grocery store (calculated using $4.47/gallon averaged whole milk price in Portage County in July). The farmer however gets less than half that price ($0.23 per pound or $23 for 100 pounds for July) when they are paid for the milk they supply.

Question: How long has Wisconsin been the nation’s leader in cheese production (what year)?

Answer: since 1910 (that’s over 100 years!)

Rolling Stop- High Capacity Well/Center Pivot (1 min)

Tour guide: Start script as soon as seems appropriate after the parlor script. Indicate that to the left off in the distance, attendees can see the pump and to the left nearby, the pipe can be seen that goes under the road to feed the pivot.

Over 50% of Portage County’s harvested cropland is irrigated. The area’s central sands have a reduced ability to hold water in the soil (seven tenths of an inch of water per foot in sand compared to 2 ¼ inches of water per foot in silt loam soil), making water a crucialresource for the county’s valuable vegetable crops. Center pivots, like the one just south of the dairy, give farmers the ability to apply water when the crops need it the most. The pivot is fed by a 1,000 gallon per minute high capacity well. New technology such as GPS-based Variable Rate Irrigation has allowed farmers to become more efficient and more precise when it comes to their watering needs, only using what water is necessary.

Stop 4- Rain Garden (0:45 min)

Tour guide: point to the front left of the tram to indicate where the rain garden is (look for the stop’s sign) as you narrate the first sentence.

The rain garden featured toourleft provides natural beauty and an environmentally friendly solution to rainwater runoff. Thisrecently established rain garden was designed for the naturally low-lying space to help capture some of the runoff from the freestall barn roofs and the surrounding areas. Note the location of the downspouts for the raingutters directly behind the farthest pine tree where captured water starts to collect. The garden provides multiple benefits such as increasing storm water infiltration, providing habitat for birds and plants, adding color and beauty to the space, and creating a buffer in front of the buildings. The plants or “plugs” found in the rain garden have the ability to survive up to a week fully submerged in water.

Stop 5- Sand Separator/Manure Storage (2:00 min)

Tour guide: point to the rear left of the tram to indicate where the liquid portion is separated to (inside the first door), to your left for the sand portion (look for the stop’s sign inside the second door & you will see the sand pile), to the forward left outside the building for the fiber portion (outside & to the north of the building) and to the manure storage off to the far right as you narrate.

Question: Do you smell anything?

On the left of the building is a pile of recycled sand. A sand separator allows the dairy to capture and recycle 95% of its sand! On the right is the manure storage which has a 2.6 million gallon capacity. This gives the dairy roughly six months of storage. This size of storage is approximately the equivalent of 4 Olympic-sized pools! The manure storage is emptied in spring and fall. The liquids are pumped through a hose up to a mile from the farm using a drag line system and are directly incorporated into the soil. The manure serves as a rich nutrient source for the farm’s crops.

Feltz Family Farms follows a nutrient management plan that complies with the Standard 590 established by the Natural Resource Conservation Service. This plan meters the amount of nutrients that can be applied to the dairy’s cropland and is designed to meet the nutrient needs of each crop planted in every field. The plan is developed in conjunction with soil tests, accounting for individual fertility of each field while helping protect groundwater resources and allows the farm to utilize all of the nutrients provided by the manure. Nothing goes to waste here.

On the left is the manure separator. All manure from the dairy is separated into three parts: liquid, sand, and fiber. All of the dairy’s manure is collected in a reception tank on the back side of this building. From the reception tank, the manure is pumped to the sand cannon where sand separation takes place. The heavier sand particles drop to the bottom of the rotating drum while the liquid and fiber portion flow to a holding pit. From the holding pit, manure is pumped up to the manure solid separators. The separators are lined with porous screens that allow water to escape. The remaining manure falls into a roller press where it is reduced to about 70% moisture. The liquid nutrients are then pumped to the dairy’s manure storage while the solids are stored and hauled at a later time.

Stop 6- Feed Storage/Possible Packing Demo (3:30 min)

Tour guide: start script at the end of the bunker so when you get to the “science behind silage”, you are at the official stop point.

Quality feed is emphasized on the farm. The cows are fed a Total Mixed Ration that is balanced according to the nutritional needs of the animal. Energy in the diet is especially important for cows for milk production, digestive health, and for effective utilization of other nutrients in the diet. The farm usescorn bran syrup, a by-product from ethanol production, and whey permeate, a cheese production by-product to supplement nutrients in the cow’s diets. All grains for the farm are purchased. Most of the farm’s forage needs are met growing alfalfa and corn for silage. 180 additional acres of corn for silage are purchasedfrom a local grower.

The science behind making high quality silage for a dairy diet is a two-step process. The first phase is where bacteria that utilize oxygen and some of the carbohydrates from the plant material multiply, producing carbon dioxide and water. Neither of these products helpto preserve the harvested forage, so reducing the length of this phase is desirable. This isthe reason why forage is chopped into small pieces so it can be more readily packed together, reducing the amount of oxygen. This phase is also the reason you see farmers continuing to chop forage through all hours of the day and night, as the oxygen-loving bacteria start workingas soon as the plant iscut. Packing down the foragealso helps force oxygen out of the plant material. After packing is complete, 9 millimeter plastic coverings are weighted down with tires and placed on top of the forage to seal out additional oxygen to reduce chances of spoilage.

Once the bacteria use up the available oxygen in the chopped forage, they die, allowing other bacteria that does not need oxygen to multiply,and fermentor picklethe forage. To help promote the fermentation process, small amounts of lactic acid producing bacteria are added to the forage as it is harvested. These bacteria produce lactic acid that increases the acidity of the forage. The pH of the forage is reduced to a point where no further microbial growth can occur, which preserves the forage as long as oxygen is kept out. This is the same type of fermentation process that is used to make sauerkraut.

The horizontal feed storage allows Feltz Family Farms to manage their feed inventories in the most practical and efficient way. The feed is removed from the piles using a machine called a facer. A smooth face, or edge on the silage, reduces the area of oxygen penetration into the pile, allowing the feed to stay fresh longer.

Stop 7- Bulls (1:00 min)

The dairy uses natural service for all of its breeding needs. While this is not the “typical” reproductive management system for most farms, this is the one that has been working successfully for Feltz Family Farms. 15 to 20 Holstein bulls are kept on hand at all times. Bulls are rotated in and out of the cow pens every two weeks with two or three bulls in a pen. This rotation gives the bulls some much needed rest time away from the girls!

When working with the bulls, safety is top priority. Although the bulls are accustomed to being around humans, all employees are trained how to safely work around the animals and taught to use caution around the animals. Bulls that appear to be aggressive are removed from the cow pens and sold. The bulls are fed left over feed (clean-ups) from the cows. Reusing these leftovers serves as a great way to recycle feed that would be otherwise thrown away!

Return to Loading Area (0:20 min)

Tour guide: start remainder of script after you reach the oak tree on the way back.

We have covered a lot of different topics on today’s tour and many of you probably have more questions. To learn more about any of the topics we have covered, stop by the Applied Technology Center Tent. If you would like to learn more about the farm, stop by the Host Farm Tent and visit with the families.

Thank you for joining us!

Total 15minutetour plus drive time between stops and pickup area. Estimated total 22 minute tour including drive time.