Embracing growth

WAUPACA, Wis. — Josh and Amy Karpinski are paving the path for a bright future at Sheridan Flats Dairy. After completing an expansion this year that included building a new freestall barn and adding 125 cows, the couple has entered a new phase of their farming career.

“It’s been a big year of changes,” Amy said. “We were at 200 cows for a long time, and now we’ve grown to a number that fits our farm well.”

Amy is the fourth generation on her family’s farm near Waupaca where they milk 320 cows and farm 300 acres. She and Josh formed an LLC with her parents, Mark and Dawn Anderson, two years ago.

“My parents are mostly retired now, so it’s Josh and me doing the day-to-day work with help from one part-time and three full-time employees,” Amy said.

Growth was inevitable for the family who had come to a crossroads.

“We were at the point that we either had to grow in some capacity or get out, and getting out wasn’t an option,” Amy said. “Things were not cash flowing with 200 cows. My parents still take a paycheck, and three years ago, Josh quit his full-time job in town.
We had more expenses on the family side since he was no longer providing our health insurance.”

Furthermore, their barns were at capacity, not properly ventilated and in need of maintenance.

“We used to have bad crowding in the summer,” Amy said. “Hoof health would deteriorate from standing, and milk production would drop.”

Since Jan. 31, cows live in spacious accommodations that accentuate comfort while easing the workload for the Karpinskis and their staff. The barn’s features have benefitted cow health and reproduction. The herd, which is primarily Holsteins, also includes 10 Brown Swiss along with Holstein-Brown Swiss crosses, Holstein-Normande crosses and Holstein-Jersey crosses.

Putting all their milk cows under one roof, the tunnel-ventilated barn is 330 feet by 125 feet with a 21-foot-high ceiling. The 280-stall barn includes a pre-fresh pen, maternity pen and calf warming room.

“Cow comfort is our first priority,” Amy said. “Ventilation in the new barn is a big upgrade from what we had. In the old barns, we just had fans above the free stalls.”

In addition to a wall of fans on the end of the new barn, fans are also placed strategically throughout the building to maximize airflow. Fifty-five-inch cyclone fans are located above the inside rows of stalls while 36-inch fans keep cows on the outside rows cool. Automatic curtains are located on the intake end of the barn. Eleven fans in the ridge continuously push the air out.

A complete air exchange occurs throughout the barn every 90 seconds. The fans are variable speed and adjust according to temperature. In addition, Josh said tunnel ventilation keeps pests like birds and flies out of the barn.

“We have had no dip in milk production this year,” Amy said. “We used to struggle a lot with conception rates too, but now they keep going up.”

Rising more than 10 points, their conception rate is now at 47%.

“Our conception rate skyrocketed since moving into the new barn,” Amy said. “Before, cows were heat-stressed in summer and cold-stressed in winter, which had a negative impact on conception. Now, we’re getting more cows pregnant sooner. We also used to have a lot of retained placentas, but that stopped like a light switch since moving into the new barn.”

The barn features alley scrapers to provide continuous cleaning, replacing the need to clean via skid loader. Removing tasks like this from the to-do list has given employees more time to properly move cows, Amy said.

The barn runs on automation, ensuring ventilation and cleaning systems operate without the need for human intervention.

“Once the ventilation system and alley scrapers are set, you don’t have to touch them,” Josh said.

A better manure system was also part of the design. A pit within the barn agitates the manure, and once it is full, manure is sent out to the lagoon.

“In the old barns, I had to pump out the pit, and we were doing a lot of daily hauling,” Josh said.

LED lighting illuminates the barn, creating a bright workspace. Amy said they received rebates from Focus On Energy for the fans and lighting.

Headlocks are another feature of the new barn that was missing from the old barns. They also installed a footbath cows walk through when coming back from the parlor.

The new barn is connected to the old barns and milking parlor. Milking about 50% more cows with the same amount of resources, the Karpinskis continue to milk twice a day in their double-9 parallel parlor built by Amy’s dad 25 years ago.

“We can still push a lot of cows through it,” Amy said. “We changed the routine in the new barn, and we can milk those extra 120 cows in the same amount of time that we milked 200. We have no downtime in the parlor anymore. It’s much more efficient.”

Better cow flow is a primary reason for the increased productivity. The Karpinskis made changes to the exit of the parlor and begin fetching the next group before one group is done. After they are milked, cows are sent to a holding area off the exit until the next group is in the parlor. Removing the footbath from the exit has also eliminated bottlenecks in the parlor.

“The setup is easier on employees, and we did not have to add any new people,” Amy said. “It’s nice having the same payroll cost.”

The Karpinskis still utilize their older facilities, with the best of the old barns serving as housing for far-off dry cows.

“Dry cows were stressed before, but post-calving illnesses have dropped right off,” Amy said.

The Karpinskis use their old calving area as a fresh pen/hospital pen, which is located next to the parlor.

“One of the ways we were able to expand was by increasing our feed inventory, but we didn’t need that much more land to feed these added cows,” Amy said. “We feed a high-corn silage diet and very little alfalfa. With corn silage, you get so much more from one crop tonnage-wise.”

The Karpinskis plan to grow again. Phase two of the expansion will include another manure pit, a new milking parlor and more free stalls.

“We’re not afraid to grow,” Amy said. “You have to do what you have to do to pay the bills, as long as you can take care of your cows.”