Peake progress

Waukon dairy farmer builds his own parlor

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WAUKON, Iowa — Jeremy Peake has taken boosting cow comfort into his own hands. Peake transitioned from milking cows in a stanchion barn to a swing parlor, pouring concrete and using his stick welder to build the facility himself with the help of friends and family.

Peake operates a grass-fed organic dairy near Waukon. Peake’s herd of 40 Jerseys and Jersey crossbreds are pastured on 80 acres. His transition project started in May 2022 and was operational by March 2023.

“I had thought about making the switch for a long time,” Peake said. “When our buyer decided to stop purchasing from cows housed in stanchion barns , we knew we had to make a change.”

The transition presented two options: remodel the barn to tie stalls or build a parlor.

“I thought the parlor would make more sense,” Peake said. “I thought it would work well right outside the milkhouse. We didn’t have to change much with the pipeline either, and that’s partly why it worked so well.”

Everything in the milkhouse stayed the same including the milking units. For now, Peake continues to take units back to the milk house for washing.

Peake milks with six units, so his setup is like a double swing, with units moved twice on each side to get all the cows milked.

The parlor has the potential to be 10 units. If Peake upgrades, there are plans to add a wash in place for the units and automatic takeoffs.

“I wanted it simple to start out,” Peake said. “There’s a blueprint in place to milk cows faster as the herd grows.”

Peake, in conjunction with Larry Tranel, an extension specialist with Iowa State University, came up with the plan for the parlor. Peake toured several parlors, taking ideas from each to configure his model.

“I knew what I wanted to make,” Peake said. “Knowing that from the beginning was important.”

Peake gathered the materials he needed and went to work to bring a new milking style to the farm he had been working on for the past 24 years. He used scrap steel he had on the farm already and made trips to the local scrapyard and TJ’s Fencing Company Inc. in Harpers Ferry to gather the rest of the materials.

Using a stick welder, Peake went to work to make his parlor a reality. He also needed to pour concrete, so he recruited friends to help him.

“I did most of the forming myself, with help from our summer intern, Shaundra, and my kids,” Peake said. “My dad helped me with some of it too. I helped other people pour concrete before, so I had a good background in it. It’s not perfect, but I’m happy with it and we learned more along the way.”

Lang’s Dairy Equipment in Decorah assisted with the pipeline transformation.

With the change in the milking barn, came a change in cow housing. Peake used Tranel’s Cow Tell design  to create an open-air free stall area outside the milking barn, with a sand-pack bedding and straw cover during the winter.

This was not Peake’s first time taking on a renovation. He has a background in home remodeling from helping his dad at his dad’s floor covering and decorating business in Decorah.

“I helped Dad with somewhere around 10 different house projects, anything from light cosmetic changes to gutting and renovating the majority of the house,” Peake said. “Helping with these projects as a kid really gave me an eye for seeing what is possible in a space.”

As a child, Peake made trips to his grandpa’s farm to help with the dairy and orchard there. Peake Orchards is now owned by Peake’s father.

Working with his grandpa on the farm ultimately led Peake to a life in dairy and bringing cows back to the farm.

“Grandpa had to sell the cows in 1995,” Peake said. “I was 15 at the time, so when we’d come over here, I’d miss the animals.”

A neighbor began renting the land, but the barns stood empty. In 2001, Peake decided to quit his job as a herdsman and start milking on his own. As part of his dairy science program at Northeast Iowa Community College in Calmar, he had completed a 3-month internship with Dan and Bonnie Beard on their grazing dairy near Decorah, which turned into two and a half years of employment.

“My internship really helped me learn more about grazing and grass management,” Peake said. “Learning from Dan and Bonnie and my uncle, who also had a grazing herd, was really helpful.”

With the barn sitting empty for six years, Peake needed to make changes before bringing back a milking herd.

“I made some upgrades,” Peake said. “We got rid of the older 1.5-inch pipeline and changed to a 2-inch line. We wanted to be set up to produce Grade A milk.”

Using what he learned at NICC, along with family advice, Peake transitioned from a conventional herd to organic. 

After a few years of buying grain for the herd’s ration, Peake decided to become grass-fed. This allowed him to produce organic milk without having to invest in as much equipment and labor.

“I’m not a crop farmer,” Peake said. “I like making hay, but I don’t like to grow crops. That’s why it worked out so well for us to be a grass-fed dairy.”

Experience with change has helped Peake continue to build up his dairy.

“My end goal is to put up a greenhouse  barn,” Peake said. “That way we can get the cows inside during the winter too.” 

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