No day is ever the same on a dairy farm, something Travis Ties knows well, but that’s the reason he loves his job at Holdgrafer Dairy located near Bellevue, Iowa.
“I start every morning at 6 o’clock. I go right to feeding cows. I am usually done with that, about 8:30 or 9:00,” Ties says. “And then it’s, from there, it’s anything. It can be shop work in the wintertime or selling corn.”
Ties serves many roles, including the head of feed operations for the 400-cow dairy. He mixes feed stuffs, does the feeding and related management and strives for high milk components and production.
Ties says he tries to get the most of the cows.
“I check the milk chart every single day,” he says. “You know, when we go in and punch in or punch out, I look at the milk chart, and I guess that’s kind of a goal of mine, too, you know, to see if I keep them up there.”
To accomplish that, he works closely with herd nutritionist Samantha Reighard, who has been at the dairy for four years now.
“So Travis is the feeder, and I almost would say he’s more than just the feeder,” Reighard says. “He’s almost the herdsman and the main guy I go to. When I ask him questions, he knows everything. When it comes to inventories, feed, the cows, he’s my go-to.”
She says Ties makes her job as a nutritionist easy because he pays attention to the details, like changes in feed and performance from the ration.
“That’s my job when I come the dairy and look at how the cow’s eating,” Reighard says. “He always tells me in advance, and then I can take those samples and redo the diets.”
Ties also manages the custom harvesting business and plays a big role in crop production, conducting tillage, planting and harvesting operations for forage production, including corn silage and alfalfa.
Scott Holdgrafer co-owns Holdgrafer Dairy, Inc. with his wife, Tricia, and they involve Ties in all of the day-to-day operations, plus their plans for the future of the dairy from facilities to feed and forage production.
“What alfalfa fields are we going to tear up two years from now, three years from now, you know, to keep the haylage and the forages where they should be,” Scott says.
Tricia says Ties is a huge part of their success at the dairy.
“We’ve kind of grown together,” Scott adds. “He’s always looking out for the farm and for everyone and the animals too.”
Ties helps the Holdgrafers plan for the future of the dairy by offering new ideas and ways to be more productive and efficient.
“I’ve been on this farm for 25 years now, and I guess it’s evolved just as things got bigger and better, I’ve just picked up more responsibility and tried just to keep the flow going as normal,” Ties says.
Tricia says as an employee, Ties is a self-starter, with a strong work ethic.
“He’s very passionate about what he does,” she says. “I mean, he’s here every day and does what he needs to do regardless of how long it takes, and everything he does, he does it well.”
Scott agrees that Ties goes above and beyond.
“And he doesn’t seem like he’s a complainer,” he says. “No, oh, no, he just digs right in and does what’s needed. His work habit is unbelievable.”
To the Holdgrafers, Ties is more than employee, he’s family, and Tricia says he’s provided guidance for their five sons, but especially Dominic.
“They’ve evolved together, and there’s a great deal of respect; all the boys respect Travis,” she says.
Dominic has nothing but respect and admiration for Ties: “I would call Travis like a mentor, older brother, you know. Yeah, he’s been here forever.”
After over a quarter century at the farm, Ties has watched all five of the boys grow up.
“Dominic was always in the skid loader with me from 2 years old on up,” he says. “And he was out every morning with me doing chores and the other boys, you know, too.”
Today, Dominic works side by side with Ties every day and says Ties leads by example and is helping him build for the future of the dairy.
“And like what could we do here to make this more efficient, and even with the feed carts and skid loaders, doing the feed work, just trying to figure out what’s the best for the cows and the farm and the labor force, too,” Dominic says.
Ties is invested in the future of the dairy because it is more than a job, it’s his life.
“I like doing it so much that, you know, what would I do without it?” he says.
