Cloudy skies, showers, and a chilly breeze Friday afternoon didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of scores of well-wishers touring “Rainy Acre,” the Herman and Annie Krahn family farm in Dawson Township, just east of Rainy River.
It was just over a year ago that the Krahns’ dairy operation was wiped out by a devastating fire which destroyed not only the barn, but most of his herd.
Today, it’s been replaced with a million-dollar-plus investment in the latest in dairy farm technology.
Herman and sons Daniel, Calvin, and Bennet were busy demonstrating and explaining the technology used while his wife, Annie, and the rest of the family were busy welcoming guests and preparing hotdogs and hamburgers.
From the milking machines to waste handling, a great deal of thought has gone into design and construction of this ultra-modern operation to provide an exceptional environment not only for the animals, but also their keepers.
The plywood used in the walls and ceiling has an exterior laminated plastic surface to ease cleaning and provide moisture proofing. The fasteners are stainless steel screws to prevent corrosion, Krahn explained.
The climate of the barn is computer-controlled, with fans and ventilation channels operating in sync to keep the air fresh and comfortable. The floors are covered with three-quarter inch thick rubber matting to provide comfortable, slip-resistance footing for cattle and humans alike.
The cow stalls have an additional under rubber foam pad to provide the ultimate in comfort for those hooves. Comfortable cows produce more milk, and remain productive for more years, Krahn noted.
And if you still think things are simple down on the farm, think again. The milk-handling system boasts the latest in energy efficient heating and cooling.
Milk coming in from the pipeline first passes though a fine filter and then a heat exchanger, where its temperature is dropped to 10 degrees C before entering the bulk storage tank.
The water, already softened and now warmed, is stored in conventional hot water tanks.
The refrigeration compressors reduce the temperature of the milk in the bulk tank to three C, transferring the heat and further warming the water. The water then is superheated to more than 75 C (a temperature required for sanitizing the milking equipment and pipelines) by the outdoor furnace.
This attention to detail not only saves on energy costs, it helps ensure top-quality milk by rapidly reducing its temperature to an optimum storage state.
While computerized systems and technology help to produce the very best of farm products, it is the knowledge and the care of the farmer for his animals that is the major factor.
“We wash each cow’s udder individually, sanitize, and wipe them with these single-service, microfibre cloths,” Krahn said. “The cloths are then laundered after each use to make sure they are 100 percent clean.”
The housing system for the livestock is divided into calf barn, dry-stock loose housing, and milking cow stanchions.
“I guess I was born a tie-stall person,” laughed Krahn, explaining his choice of tie-stalls over loose housing/milking parlour combinations.
“It takes more labour this way, but we can give cows individual attention, and it allows the younger members of the family to contribute to running the operation,” Krahn said, stressing the strong family commitment necessary for the successful operation of a dairy farm.
Krahn replaced his lost herd with two complete herds purchased in Manitoba, along with a number of individual and groups of cows from other producers in Manitoba as well as locally.
The 76-stall barn has a complement of registered Ayrshires, red-and-white Holsteins, black-and-white Holsteins, and one Jersey—a pet named “Gertrude.”
With a 66-kg butterfat quota, the dairy pumps out more than 1,800 litres (close to two tonnes) of whole milk per day.
The herd is fed what is referred to as TMR, or Total Mixed Ration—a combination of haylage, silage, grain, vitamins, and minerals. All components are formulated, balanced, weighed, and mixed to ensure an optimum diet for a healthy, productive herd.
Livestock operations produce a lot of byproduct: manure. As such, nutrient management has become an integral part of modern farms.
At the Krahn farm, all manure and straw bedding is chopped into a slurry and, along with waste water from washing operations, is pumped into a leak-proof lagoon where it is stored until it can be recycled onto crop land as organic fertilizer.
Under Ontario regulations, a 240-day storage capacity is mandated. Krahn calculates they have closer to 360 days’ storage, allowing them a more flexible application timetable if inclement weather delays field work.
“We would like to apply it to our corn land, but with a wet spring like this, we can wait and put it on either grassed fields or land we are going to work up for next year’s crops,” he explained.
With only about a dozen dairy farms left in Rainy River District, down from 40 in the mid-1970s, the Krahns’ investment in their new expanded operation is a substantial boost to the local agricultural community.
Most district milk produced is shipped to Grunthal, Man. or Thunder Bay.
For their beef and dairy operations, the Krahns now farm about 2,500 acres around the Town of Rainy River—up from their previous 1,500.
“We would sincerely like to express our appreciation to the community for all the help, support, and good wishes we have received,” said Krahn near the end of a busy day acknowledging his neighbours near and far.
“We were certainly blessed in the midst of a calamity.”
The operation was destroyed on April 19, 2007, with only a portion of the loss covered through the Mennonite Mutual Aid Association.
The first cow was milked in the new barn on Nov. 1 of last year.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
