Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit the farms of Dave Chapman, Hawkeye Holsteins in Ruthven, IA, and Leroy Eggink, Great-Heritage Holsteins in Sibley, IA. Both visits greeted me with warm hospitality and good cows. A new compost barn on the Chapman farm and a box-stall addition to the Eggink barn showed that the cows of both are living in style.

The compost barn at Dave & Lisa Chapman’s was built last fall and the cows moved in last Thanksgiving. It is built to house the 50-cow herd. Since the cows moved in, Dave has seen an increase in milk production and reproductive success. Also, the herd’s Somatic Cell Count has decreased and is now in the low 100’s. Puffy hocks have also decreased considerably. All in all, the Chapmans are very pleased with the barn and happy with its success.

The Eggink Family of Great-Heritage Holsteins began construction of a box stall addition to their barn this past summer. On the day of my visit it was the first time any animals had been introduced to the new area. The box stall area is divided into three areas that will hold two cows each. Candidates for the new box stall area are those “special treatment” cows in the herd - fresh cows, flush cows or sick cows. Two large fans will keep the air moving and a new pipeline is being installed soon so that cows can be milked in the stall. The Egginks are looking forward to how the cows will respond to this new, deluxe area.
For a look at the cows in each of these herds, visit their websites today! www.holsteinworld.com/hawkeyeholsteins and www.holsteinworld.com/great-heritage

This entry was posted on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 11:11 am by sschmidt and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.