Eye-opening experience

Kentuckiana Dairy Exchange visits Star City dairy farm

by Denise Massie

STAR CITY — A group of dairy producers and agricultural experts from Kentucky stood watching a cow being milked by a robotic milker through a glass window at Jones Robotic Dairy Farm.

Farm co-owner Pam Jones sat in a chair explaining the operation to the visitors.

“The robots are for us,” she said. “I would never want to switch back to manual milking. They are cow friendly.”

The Jones Robotic Dairy Farm, which is owned by Pam and her husband, Sammy Jones, was one fo four stops on a dairy farm tour for the Kentuckiana Dairy Exchange program on Wednesday morning.

The only robotic dairy farm in the state, Jones Robotic Dairy installed automatic milking stalls six and a half years ago and upgraded this spring. The farm also produces grain and forage and sells breeding age bulls to local dairy farms.

Sammy Jones thought it was important to participate in the tour.

“I think it’s good for the industry and I wanted to help enlighten people of the technology available,” he said. “I’m also hoping to prove you don’t have to be a mega-dairy to make it. A small guy can farm.”

Sammy said it’s been fun having the public visit. The farm draws in anywhere between 600 and 800 visitors each year, from infants to 90 year olds.

Purdue University and University of Kentucky joined efforts for a second year to showcase innovative practices in the dairy industry. Last year’s tour took place in Kentucky and will continue to rotate between the two states from year to year.

“It’s great to bring them up here and show them the unique things we have in Indiana,” said Purdue University’s Tamilee Nennich, who helped organize the event.

She said the purpose of the Kentuckiana Dairy Exchange is to offer dairy producers from other states a view of different operations.

“It’s an exchange of thoughts and ideas of daily management,” she added.

Sammy Jones explained since the visitors were dairy farmers, or already involved with the dairy industry, he knew the experience wouldn’t be as educational as it is for others. His goal during the visit was to simply fill in perceptions for them.

While he believed the tour members liked what they saw, Jones felt it would take at least three hours for them to fully understand the concept of his milking process.

He answered questions about the farm after the presentations.

“I think it opened their eyes of what might be or what could be,” Sammy said.

Nennich thought it was important to have several diverse dairy operations, since every farmer has a different way of operating their dairy farms. She said visitors could learn from the different farms in Indiana.

“They were able to see four different styles and sizes of dairy operations,” Nennich said.

Ricky Hines and Chris DePew were two of the participants from Kentucky this year and participated during the tour last year in Kentucky.

“The big thing for us is to get exposed to different things like robotic milking and new manure handling practices to take back to us,” DePew said. “It’s a lot of good info.”

Hines added both men work for a feed company and would be able to share the information.

“It’s something we can take back to our producers,” he said.

Tuesday’s farm stops included La Fontaine’s New Schoonebeek Dairy, which began in 2004 and by 2006 expanded its herd to 2,100 cows; and Deardorff Farms, which manages 500 cows and 2,900 acres of forage and grain near Roann.

On Wednesday, participants visited Riverview Dairy, which featured grazing practices.

Participants on the tour also had the opportunity to listen to three guest speaker Tuesday evening. All of the guest speakers were dairy Extension specialists from the University of Kentucky.

According to Nennich, Tuesday’s visits brought out 120 participant and 70 on Wednesday. She was pleased with the turnout.

“It’s been a nice mixture of producers and ag industry professionals, including sales people, bankers, seed corn sales and equipment dealers,” she said.

Hines said the stop at Jones Robotic Farm was the most different, but the grazing practices at Riverview Dairy was the most economical with the use of land.

The two Kentucky men also had the opportunity to network with other dairy farmers and representatives.

Overall, DePew said the trip was an important learning experience for everyone involved.

“As the old saying goes, ‘Knowledge is power,’” he said.

• Denise Massie is a staff writer at the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at (574) 732-5151 or denise.massie@pharostribune.com

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