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Dairy goat farm plans expansion Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Agri News staff writer
MILAN, Minn. -- The goats are by the barn door waiting as Mark and Wendy Lange ready equipment for another milking.
The twice-a-day milkings have become routine.
The Langes are among a growing number of Minnesota farmers milking dairy goats.
The parlor's stanchions are smaller and the milking machines have two cups instead of four, but the pre- and post- milking procedures are almost identical to dairy cow procedures.
Each udder is thoroughly washed before the milkers are put on, Wendy said. They milk 70 goats in under 60 minutes. Milking time will take two hours once they expand to 200 milking goats later this summer.
Their venture started in 2001 when they purchased meat goats. They wanted to work on the farm, but they needed more income before they could do it.
The Langes received a Heifer International Livestock Loan in 2002 and built the meat goat herd to 120, Wendy said.
Then they decided to build a barn and milk goats. The couple started the dairy in April 2006. Two months later they were milking in their parlor.
Building the barn was similar to the construction of a dairy cow barn and parlor, Mark said. D and D Ag in Pennock installed the equipment and worked with the Langes on parlor design.
D and D had never built a dairy facility for goats before.
One of the Langes' Saannen goats produces 12 pounds of milk, but most of the herd averages seven, Mark said.
The milk parlor, office, nursery and milk room combined are 1,960 square feet and an adjacent area where the goats are housed measures 36 feet by 128 feet.
They plan to graze the goats in spring, summer and fall and continue to feed a ration, Mark said. The herd is a mixture of all dairy breeds, but they hope to build up the Saanen numbers.
The Langes' Grade B dairy goat farm is part of the Dairy Herd Improvement Association. They hope to move to Grade A production sometime this year.
They sell the milk to Stickney Hill, where it's processed into cheese. |
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