48 DOLLARS A TON AND 400 COWS AN HOUR: A FULL TOUR OF STONE RIDGE DAIRY 🇺🇸

A turn every 13 minutes, 400 cows an hour, and corn silage that costs 48 dollars a ton fed. Dr. Mike Hutjens walks Stone Ridge Dairy from the parlor floor to the bottom of the lagoon. Artificial Intelligence: https://ruminants.ai/register?ref=you... Website: https://santafeagroinstituto.com/ Store: https://tienda.santafeagroinstituto.com/ Instagram:   / santafeagroinstituto.us   Facebook:   / santafeagroinstituto.us   The first half is a masterclass in reading a farm without asking anyone anything. He times the lag from stimulation to attachment. He pushes a pen into the bunker face to judge packing density. He balls up silage in his hand and calls the dry matter before checking. He counts the commodity bays, reads the straw particle size, and finds the single hard corn kernel that says the processor rolls want tightening. Then George Kasbergen joins and answers the questions farm tours never ask: what a ton of silage really costs, what the co-op charges for going over base, what a cull cow nets, what he would build differently after 22 years. CHAPTERS 0:00:00 The numbers: 400 cows an hour, 48 dollars a ton 0:01:14 Inside the double-50 parlor: 100 cows at a time 0:02:32 The clock: 13 minutes from walk-in to walk-out 0:03:34 One minute 45 from stimulation to attachment 0:04:54 The sub-sampler: milk certified on the farm 0:06:59 The feed centre: 19 commodity bays 0:09:37 Whey on the TMR, and a triple screw mixer 0:10:10 Reading the straw: everything under an inch 0:14:13 One of the biggest bunkers in the United States 0:15:00 Why there should be no feed left on the face 0:15:46 A year of inventory, and the drought that taught him 0:17:01 Limestone on the edges, tires tied both ways 0:18:05 Five tractors packing, and a crew from Wisconsin 0:19:30 The magic pen check: 18 pounds per cubic foot 0:19:52 Three quarters of an inch, and one hard kernel 0:20:39 The squeeze test: 34 to 35 percent dry matter 0:21:20 A quarter mile barn with an open ridge 0:21:59 Reading the TMR: 42 to 43 percent dry matter 0:24:42 The sand lane, and how the sand comes back 0:25:43 One and a half acres per cow to use the manure 0:27:52 Watching for lameness as the cows walk past 0:30:04 A wall of water: how the flush actually cleans 0:31:11 Recycled water, no odour and almost no flies 0:35:02 George Kasbergen joins: why he left California 0:36:29 111 pounds, 3.75 fat and a protein problem 0:38:32 65,000 tons of silage at 43 to 48 starch 0:40:19 Where the heifers go: seven months, then Colorado 0:42:41 2,300 acres, and manure sold to the neighbours 0:44:47 Sexed semen, Angus, and what happens in the heat 0:45:57 Cull cows at 2,100 dollars, heifers at 3,000 0:48:03 An 89,000 cell count and a 13 minute parlor turn 0:48:40 Base, quota and the 12 dollar penalty 0:53:09 UHT milk, and where the industry is going 0:57:26 Labor: 37 employees at 18 dollars an hour 0:59:40 What it costs to chop and pack a ton 1:03:19 The all-in number: 48 dollars a ton fed 1:04:01 4.8 million dollars sitting in one pile 1:04:53 The Santa Fe dairy nutrition class WHO APPEARS Dr. Mike Hutjens - dairy nutrition specialist, University of Illinois George Kasbergen - owner and operator, Stone Ridge Dairy, Illinois THE NUMBERS Parlor: double 50, 100 cows at a time, a turn every 13 minutes, 400 cows an hour Lag from stimulation to attachment: 1 minute 45 Milk: 111 pounds energy-corrected, 108 fluid. Fat 3.75, protein 3.0 Somatic cell count: 89,000 Base: 355,000 pounds a day, shipping 359,000. Penalty 12 dollars per hundredweight Corn silage: 65,000 tons this year, 3,000 tons a month, 43 to 48 percent starch Packing density: over 18 pounds of dry matter per cubic foot Chop: three quarters of an inch. Dry matter 34 to 35 percent. TMR 42 to 43 Chopping and packing: 14 dollars a ton. All in: 48 dollars a ton fed, 5 percent shrink Silage inventory value: 4.8 million dollars Land: 2,300 acres, plus manure on 1,600 to 1,800 acres of neighbours' ground Pregnancy rate: about 32 percent. Half sexed semen, half beef on dairy Cull cows: about 2,100 dollars. Day old Angus calves: 800 TECHNICAL TOPICS Parlor throughput, prep lag time and milk let-down, on-farm milk sampling, bunker face management, packing density, oxygen barrier film, limestone sealing, silage shrink, cost per ton fed, particle size and Penn State box, kernel processing, dry matter estimation by hand, sand bedding and sand lanes, flush systems and water recycling, lagoon design, manure nutrient value, lameness and body condition, base and quota, UHT milk. Want to cost your own silage the same way? Ruminants.AI can — first link above. Subscribe and leave a like. What does a ton of your silage cost? Tell us below. #StoneRidgeDairy #CornSilage #MikeHutjens #DairyFarming #Illinois