Derecho Damage Forces Dairy Farmer to Relocate 1,700 Cows Overnight – A Not-So-Easy Feat
The damage that hit eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota after last week’s derecho – a large-scale windstorm with 90-to 100-mph straight winds, blasted the area. Unfortunately, the damage is still being felt by many farmers throughout the region.
Todd Heitkamp, meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said that the most severe damage hit parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota.
"The damage is extensive, but it could have been a lot worse," Heitkamp said.
In Estelline, Global Dairy can’t really imagine it being much worse after they received a gut punch when the derecho plowed through its farm. The storm’s impact took out their main parallel parlor that milks 1,700 cows after its roof collapsed. Altogether, Global Dairy milks 2,800 cows in one of two milking parlors. No injuries were reported, but the dairy’s main parlor was immediately put out of service.
Meanwhile, those 1,700 cows still needed a place to be milked twice daily.
Victory Farms to the Rescue
Kevin Souza, owner of Victory Farms in Milbank, says the storm just produced wind and rain and didn’t impact his farm very much. Souza and his family milked on an older facility until November 2015, when they built a new farm nine miles away. Today, Victory Farms milks 5,500 cows.
After the storm came through, Souza received some text messages that showed pictures of the damage at Global Dairy. He then immediately reached out to Arjan Blok, one of Global Dairy’s owners to see if there was anything they could do to help.
“They told me, ‘Yeah, we need a place to milk 1,700 cows,’” Souza said.
The duo has had a longstanding relationship and Souza had a double-30 parallel milking parlor and free stall barn that once milked 3,000 cows sitting empty.
“We had some heifers housed there, but the parlor wasn’t being used,” he says. “We ran the wash cycle weekly for two years after we stopped milking at the old parlor to keep it in good shape.”
Good Odds
The odds of finding one location to house and milk 1,700 cows were slim, but Global Dairy was immensely grateful that they found a location big enough to take in all the cows impacted by the storm.
Souza reports their dairies are located 48 miles apart. “So, not super close. It’s kind of a haul.”
Twenty semis showed up after Suzanne Souza, Kevin’s wife, began asking on social media if anyone could help haul cows. And help they did.
“It took about 40 semi loads to get all the cattle hauled from Global Dairy to our old farm,” Souza reports.
The cows were a bit noisy coming off their trailers and took some time to adjust to their temporary new home. Souza said the first few milkings took a bit of work to get the cows through the parlor, even though they both milk in parallel parlors.
“They have been through a lot,” he shared. “It took a few milkings of having to push cows through the parlors, but they’ve adjusted fine.”
Souza couldn’t just flip a switch to begin milking in a parlor that had been vacant for six and half years. He got in contact with their dairy equipment dealer, Valley Dairy Supply and asked if it was possible to start milking again.
“We hadn’t got rid of any of the equipment in the parlor,” Souza reports. “Everything was intact.”
Within six hours, the parlor was up and running and soon Global Dairy’s cows were milked at Victory Farms' original farm.
Victory Farms moved their heifers into empty corrals to free up space to house Global Dairy’s cows.
Global Dairy brought their own employees down to Millbank to begin milking cows.
Souza reports that trucks are racking up miles, as Global Dairy hauls feed up to Millbank to feed their cows.
“They’re loading silage and haylage and stuff and getting it trucked here,” Souza adds.
Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Not sure of an exact timeframe, Souza says it could take six to eight months, or maybe a year before Global Dairy’s parlor is back up and running.
“It doesn’t matter how long,” Souza says. “Arjan is one of those guys that is always willing to help others out. So, when he called needing help, it was a pretty easy decision to help him out because he’s that type of person to everyone else.”
In the meantime, Victory Farms is helping mix feed to ensure Global Dairy’s cattle are fed, but shares that once they get an employee trained to feed, they’ll take over from there.
“It takes a team of people to make it all work. My employees, my son-in-law, our hoof trimmer and our manager all spent about two days helping them out,” he says.
Souza reports that Global Dairy has started hauling feeding equipment in.
Global Dairy’s milk goes to Valley Queen, located seven miles away from the vacant dairy that now houses their cows.
Souza reports that additional dairies were also impacted by the storm, stating Hammink Dairy located in Bruce, S.D., also lost its rotary parlor's roof.
Souza asks for no praise; just say this is what neighbors do. Global Dairy also thanked everyone for helping out and realizes it truly takes a team to run a dairy, especially after losing its milking parlor unexpectedly after the storm.
Evan Grong the transportation and milk procurement manager with Valley Queen said while there were no interruptions to processing or milk hauling at Valley Queen, storm damage across the region did cause interruptions at the farm level that required a couple of their producers to relocate cows or make alternative arrangements, and some of that milk was not able to be sold.
“In spite of the destruction some producers faced, they worked incredibly quickly to find solutions for their herds,” Grong says. “All cows on our supplying dairy farms were being milked within 24 hours after the storm.”
