From humble roots with nine cows in 1945, Homestead Dairy is now home to the family’s fourth generation, milking 4,800 cows managed in part by Brian and Jill Houin. The farm’s mission is to supply the highest quality agricultural products in a sustainable way, while creating a positive impact for the cows, business and community.
During a Virtual Farm Tour at World Dairy Expo, Brian explained, “The reason we adopt new technology on the farm is: what can it help us do? Can it help us solve a problem, can it help us find a problem faster? Ultimately, it’s about cow comfort and how these things can help us provide a better life for the cows.”
The farm consists of three sites, blending conventional parlor milking with new robotic milking facilities. With robotic calf feeding systems, herd health monitoring and manure management, it takes more than finding the right blend of technologies to achieve their goals. The Houins also work hard to find and apply the right data from each piece of technology that will specifically contribute to reduced SCC, increased longevity, and improved overall wellness.
Automatic Calf Feeders
It was a change in Indiana state environmental regulations that resulted in Homestead Dairy moving their calves from hutches into a barn, but Brian said it has worked out well. In addition to collecting data on how much the calves are eating, how often and how quickly, he said, “We’ve now got the same number of employees taking care of an extra 1,000 calves. It’s a lot more efficient labor-wise.”
Herd Health
Homestead Dairy combines data from the SCR system (used with the robots) and the AfiFarm and AfiLab systems in the conventional parlors. “It’s nice that we’re able to track – without being there on the night shift – our employees’ milking procedures and whether they’re following the protocols we’ve laid out,” Brian said.
They have also implemented a weighing system for each cow after calving. “Knowing the actual weight of each animal, we are using a lot less antibiotics – we found you can have a 900-pound difference in weights in first calf heifers, and that changes the dose by quite a bit,” he said. Brian was also able to apply the weight data to find that the animals were performing best when they weighed at least 1,370 lbs. after calving and has adjusted the timing of the first breeding to sync up with the optimal weight.
Robotic Milking
“It was a dream of mine to build a barn from scratch and take advantage of new technologies and efficiencies,” Brian said. Upon visiting a robot barn, he was amazed at how differently the cows acted, and decided robots were for them. Their barn now houses the maternity group and 36 robots that milk 2,200 cows.
In the first three years with the robots, Brian said he was focused on comparing his conventional parlors to the robots and finding individual factors that were making a difference. It was later that he realized the difference was in overall herd health and cow comfort. He found that reproduction was better in the robot barn than any other and noted that both the cows and employees acted differently.
Manure Management
In addition to a methane digester installed in 2012, a manure dryer was added to the operation in 2018 to recycle manure into bedding. It’s dialed in and working well now, but it didn’t come without its challenges in SCC and mastitis spikes. Brian said it was like night and day after getting the dryer fixed: SCC dropped to 100,000 within a month. He said, “If you’re choosing to use manure bedding, the dryer is the way to go. We like it because it’s reusable, renewable.”
Jill concluded, “Homestead dairy truly is a family farm. I think the keys to our success are the passion that each individual family member has, and knowing that we can always improve, always find a new technology. We have the opportunity to always find a better thing for our team, for the cows and for the land.”
