Beth Scott | Beacon
Beth Scott | Beacon
DAIRY: Milk prices aff ecting local dairy farms
FROM PAGE 6-B
Part of the reason Bill and Caroline are planning to
expand is to better equip the future generation of the
family farm when their son, Kyle takes over the farming
operations sometime in the future.
“From day one, Kyle has always loved the farm,” said
Caroline. “It’s a passion you have for it. He went to ATI
and learned a lot and travelled all over the country
learning about robotic dairies.”
While preparing for the next generation is important,
it’s also just as important to learn from the previous
generation of farmers.
“Martin [Daugherty] is the fourth generation of dairy
farmers and he still comes over every morning at 6 a.m.
to milk,” said Bill.
Each morning, Bill gets up at 3 a.m. to milk. By 8 a.m.,
the milk truck arrives, and after morning chores are
completed, breakfast is served. Th e Daughertys also
have three part-time high school students who help out
on the farm in the afternoons and one full-time employ-
ee who has been working on the farm for 14 years.
“We feel we need to become
more eff ective, so we are looking
to build a new facility with four
robotic milkers and 220 stalls.
We are hoping to break ground
this spring or summer and
hope to be milking with the new
machines within a year.”
pounds of milk the fi rst few days after giving birth and
about 100 to 130 pounds a day about 80 days after calv-
ing. After 80 days, milk production begins to decline.
Cows should have a calf every 12 to 14 months so that
the milk production cycle is continuous.
Breeding typically starts when the cow is 14 months
and cows typically have their fi rst calf at two years old.
Th e average age of the Daughertys’ cows are four to fi ve
years of age, although they have some that are eight to
nine years old that are still calving.
Th e Daugherty farm produces 75 pounds of milk per
cow per day and approximately 1,000 gallons of milk a
day. All the milk goes to Dairy Farmers of America to
Broughton Foods in Marietta.
- Bill Daugherty
Typically, a dairy cow peaks in production 70 to 90
days after they calve. Th ey produce about 20 to 30
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MARCH 13, 2019
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THE BEACON 7-B