Everyone loves a bargain. No surprise there, but there can be many unpleasant surprises when purchasing equipment at auction. Being “surprised” by your recent barn find is never the object of the buyer’s affection, so let’s take a few minutes to talk about some common ways to reduce the stress or increase the success rate of bidding on that “new to you” piece of equipment.

The Martin family of Milky Way Dairy in New Paris, Indiana, robotically bed their freestall barn with sand.

What started as an idea for three brothers to combine their dairy herds and build a new facility has led to one of the most automated precision dairies in the country, with robotic milking, cow monitoring, sand-bedded flush system, flexible stalls and a robot that delivers sand bedding to the freestalls.

While wooden hutches – consisting of a base, flooring and hutch system – are relatively inexpensive to build, they may not be the cheapest calf housing option available on the market today.

Belt-tracking issues have several causes. The most common belt-tracking problem I have seen stems from poor operating habits. During core formation, it is important to get hay under all the belts as soon as possible.

You’re ready to trade off a piece of farm equipment, or trade for another farmer’s iron. You’ve looked at the “blue book” value and searched similar sales on various internet sites. You think you are fully prepared to make a bid. But you’d be wrong. You’re not prepared until you’ve made some inspection of and determined value for the tires.

At Farm Credit East, we are often asked about equipment purchases – what constitutes a “major” equipment purchase, how to plan for them and whether to buy new or used. Paul VanDenburgh, an experienced credit officer and tax specialist, recently provided his insight on some of these frequently asked questions.

Lighting often represents one of the best opportunities to reduce electricity use on dairy farms, and lighting retrofits typically have shorter paybacks than other energy-efficiency upgrades.

If you go tractor shopping, you soon find out there are a bunch of choices to make. Even among tractors of the same manufacturer, you need to know what your present needs are and what your future needs might be to select the best tractor for your operation.

The typical dairy farm uses a large amount of energy during milking activities. This is due to the frequency of milking and the energy-intensive nature of harvesting milk, keeping it cool and cleaning the equipment with hot water.