Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
They bought their first cow and her calf before they had land and held her at a friend's farm.
They leased land for a couple of years before buying their own farm. As their farm grows,
Dennis Stoltzfoos is always thinking of ways to make the farm more efficient. He wants to
compost manure that collects near the barn, and make his milk parlor portable, which would
eliminate the need to bring his cows into the barn from a half mile away. Portable parlors are
not a new idea — other farmers use variations — but his version would be unique. He would
model it after a poultry schooner, which is a chicken house that can be moved across pas-
ture.
“I want to take what we have and put it in a hoop structure, like a 14-by-28 poultry schooner,
and scoot it around on the pasture every day. Or move the whole thing once a week and
never have to bring the cows into the barn.
Our portable milking parlor would be very small. That is what I am attracted to: Instead of
getting peanuts for your milk, get a good price and have fewer cows. Small is beautiful, and
life cannot get any better than on a small family farm.”
Water Troughs
Water troughs are a good way to ensure clean drinking water for your animals and to prevent
pollution in streams and ponds. Portable water troughs are an inexpensive way to ensure your
animals can quench their thirst from any paddock. You can get portable tanks at farm stores in
various sizes, from 15 gallons to more than 900 gallons. You might pay between $100 and
$300 a tank. Two companies that ship plastic troughs are Go-To-Tanks (
www.gototanks.com
)
and Plastic-Mart (
www.plastic-mart.com
)
. Some farmers do not like portable water tanks be-
cause they must be moved each time you rotate your herd, but this should not be a problem if
you rotate your troughs the same time you rotate your paddock. Each has a drain plug that you
can pull to empty the tank before you move it. You can buy insulated troughs or heaters to
prevent them from freezing in winter. The water to fill these tanks can come from many
sources, including wells, streams, ponds, or public water systems. Using public water systems
provides a reliable source of clean water, but this could be expensive, depending on your local
rates.
You can be creative and save money on troughs; for example, you could cut a plastic drum in
half to make two troughs. You can supply water to these tanks with a simple irrigation pipe,
which is available at farm supply stores. You can plan your paddocks so that several paddocks
can share pipes. Leave slack in the pipes when you lay them across pasture to give the joints
