Longevity in your milking system is about more than just buying a quality product. How you manage your dairy along the way is going to determine how long your system lasts.

With the average U.S. dairy herd sizes more than doubling in the last two decades, producers nationwide face a critical question: When does herd growth demand parlor expansion?

The milking parlor is the heart of any dairy. But like any hardworking system, it needs the right care at the right time to deliver peak performance over the long haul. When you skip maintenance or use low-quality replacement parts, problems build up fast.

Milking parlors are the drumbeat of a dairy – fast-paced, dynamic environments where small changes make a big difference.

When you consider that milk is a dairy’s top revenue source, milking technicians have a huge impact on the operation’s profitability. If parlor performance lags or procedures drift, the entire enterprise may be at risk.

Efficiency is the key to success in the dairy industry. There are never enough hours in the day to do everything you want to do, so maximizing those hours, minutes and even seconds is the hallmark of a good operation.

It might seem counterintuitive to work on something that isn’t broken, but a small amount of effort can prevent major disruptions down the line. By dedicating a small amount of time to maintenance tasks now, you can avoid costly downtimes and ensure your dairy operation runs smoothly and efficiently.

Since the late 1800s, South Dakota State University (SDSU) has played a pivotal role in the advancement of dairy farming, and it would be remiss not to mention the thousands of undergraduate students who have gone on to develop a career as dairy producers or industry allies along the I-29 Corridor and across the nation.

When it is time to consider new equipment or a new facility project, these three key principles will help provide clarity of purpose and ease of process.

Recently, Tom Wegner was named the recipient of the 2023 Boehringer Ingelheim Dairy First Award. “It was pretty cool for Rebecca Gotham, my BI rep, to recognize me, our farm and my employees for all the hard work we do,” Wegner says.