Tour of the High-Tech 10,000 Head Waukon Dairy Facility

Kevin Kochmann October 31, 2022 Farm News News -- KRJB-KRJM-KKCQ 0

Waukon Township, MN — This past week the Waukon Dairy, located along Highway 200 east of Gary and Twin Valley, invited R & J Broadcasting Inc for a tour of their new 10,500 head dairy facility. The dairy has been milking cows since June and was at full capacity a few months after that and has recently been welcoming community groups, businesses, and others to come take a look at the high-tech facility. The biggest highlight of the tour is the milking carousel, which runs almost nonstop milking cows twice a day, 120 or so at a time, according to Waukon Dairy Operations Manager Ron Visser.

Cows enjoying their turn on the carousel.

Visser says getting the cows to the carousel is pretty easy. All it takes is to open a few gates and they know the drill after that.

Roughly 700 cows eagerly wait in line for their turn to be milked.

Just over 9,000 of the cows at the facility are milked and another 1,000 are considered dry cows. In addition, roughly another 25 calves are born every day.

This calf, which was likely born just a few hours before this photo was taken, has gotten his feet underneath him and is enjoying his time in the nursery.

At the “back-end” of the tour is something that shows off the efficiency and ingenuity of the Waukon Dairy facility. Visser talks about how the manure is processed into both bedding for cows and fertilizer, which can be sold back to other farmers in the area.