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Veblen Dairy Has Grand Opening
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Tours of Veblen East Dairy were part of the grand opening celebration of the new facility on Friday. This group is visiting one of two 324,375 square foot barns which measures 415 by 781 feet.
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The numbers are mind-boggling.
Try a 1,002,920 square foot dairy facility on for size with a total of 23 acres covered under roof. Two barns measure 415x781 and are 324,375 square feet each. Yes, one million square feet designed with one thing in mind - to keep dairy cattle comfortable.
Visitors had a chance to see for themselves the state of the art Veblen East Dairy when the facility held a grand opening on Friday. Located one and a half miles east and a quarter mile south of Veblen, the dairy will milk 4,900 cows when in full operation this fall.
The dairy is one of five dairies under the umbrella of Prairie Ridge Management Company headquartered in Veblen. Other dairies include Veblen West (formerly MCC Dairy), located just west of Veblen, and operations in Milnor, ND, Hoffman, MN, and Thief River Falls, MN.
A total of 8,700 cows will be milked between the two Veblen dairies with a total of about 14,000 animals housed in the Veblen area. The two dairies will make up 15 percent of the dairy industry in the entire state of South Dakota and together gross over $100 million per year.
The two Veblen facilities will employ a total of 150 workers - 105 at Veblen East and 45 at MCC. That equates to a $550,000 per month payroll.
One of the primary purposes of the project was to create a central calving operation for all five dairies. Veblen East is capable of handling 43,000 calves per year. Currently, 80 calves are being born daily.
The facility includes 20 calving pens right now with the ability to go to 40. To Prairie Ridge Manager Rick Millner's knowledge, there is no other calving facility quite like Veblen East.
"We've been able to take the social needs of the cow into consideration," said Millner. "Cows don't like change, and they don't like to leave the cows they've been living with. With our layout, the calving pens are right next to the maternity pens where they've been living for three weeks. That reduces the stress at calving time."
Having a centralized calving area also improves efficiency.
"Our goal is to maximize the amount of cows milked per skilled employee, and with our system we have six people doing all the calving. As a result, we've been able to hire better people and more efficiently utilize their time."
Cow comfort is the overriding theme of the dairy. The facility uses a power ventilation system to keep cows comfortable year-round. Large fans pull water-cooled air through the barns at about six miles per hour. The unique ventilation system allows the barn to stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter. On a 90 degree summer day the barns remain at 70-74 degrees.
Cows also lay in sand-bedded free-stalls that are specially designed for optimal cow comfort. Up to 90 percent of the sand is recycled and used again.
"The barns take the stress away from the cows," said Veblen East employee Mike Stavick. "When you take away stress, you have healthier cows."
Barns at Veblen East are an expansion of the new barns built at MCC that put the local dairy on the national and international map. The barns feature a flattened roof, increased insulation, and the cross ventilation system with a series of baffles to promote air flow.
The new $50 million facility also gives the area an economic shot in the arm.
"The lesson that needs to be learned here is what animal operations can do for South Dakota," said Millner when the project began a year ago. "It all boils down to economic development for rural communities in the Midwest."
Millner also predicts that the Midwest is on the verge of becoming a much bigger player in the dairy industry. Currently, the west and southwest sections of the country are the primary dairy areas.
"With the price of corn and the price of transportation, it doesn't make sense to ship corn to the west, and then to ship cheese back to the east coast," said Millner. "The Midwest has also always been a net exporter of alfalfa and corn, but I don't know how much alfalfa is going to leave here this year. A total of 15 percent fewer alfalfa acres were planted because of the increase in corn prices.
"I see a lot of potential for expansion. Our advantages have never played bigger than they do today, and the increase in energy costs is a big one."
Millner has said that eventually he would like to see a cheese plant locate once again in the Veblen area. That would require an additional 16,000 cows to be milked among the five dairies, but for now, he's just trying to get the new dairy on its feet.
"We have to get our arms around this for a little while before we think about doing anything else," concluded Millner. "But this project has turned out better than expected, and things are working better than expected. We're really tickled."
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©Marshall County Journal 2009
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