„Our grandpa started with 20 cows. My dad and uncle purchased that herd and grew it to a larger tie-stall barn. We purchased our current 500-cow operation from them in 2001. We\u2019ve been continuously growing ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think you can quit. I think you have to keep continually growing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today Ulrich Farms, Inc. milks 1,200 cows three times a day in their modern double-18 parlor. They also have 1,200 head of young stock on the farm and crop about 3,000 acres.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner is_fullwidth_content=“false“][vc_column_inner][mk_gallery images=“347″ column=“1″ image_size=“full“ hover_scenarios=“slow_zoom“][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner is_fullwidth_content=“false“ el_class=“shift-up-small“][vc_column_inner width=“1\/2″][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner el_class=“white-point“ width=“1\/2″ css=“.vc_custom_1529010323506{background-color: #ffffff !important;}“][vc_column_text css=“.vc_custom_1529010352651{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}“]\u201cI just felt like we spent more time working on technology and data issues that were going on\u2026 more than we paid attention to the cow.\u201d<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner is_fullwidth_content=“false“][vc_column_inner width=“1\/2″][vc_column_text css=“.vc_custom_1528738950077{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}“]As the dairy continues to grow, one thing has remained consistent: The company has relied on ParlorWatch from VAS to continually monitor milk production, productivity and wash processes. While quantities change, the consistency of information provided by ParlorWatch has helped make that growth relatively seamless. The farm originally relied on milking meters through the 1990s, but Ulrich and his family quickly tired of the consistent changes and updates those systems required.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=“1\/2″][mk_blockquote style=“line-style“ font_family=“none“ el_class=“pullquote“]The ParlorWatch software has ultimately given the family a consistent perspective of how the dairy is performing \u2014 even when they\u2019re not present.[\/mk_blockquote][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner is_fullwidth_content=“false“][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text css=“.vc_custom_1528738987940{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}“]As Ulrich and his family switched over to ParlorWatch, some of the advantages became evident immediately. This included saving time with better management of labor and more streamlined washing processes. \u201cWe were milking so many cows and so many times per hour that it was really critical for us at that time to keep an eye on it, so we wouldn’t fall behind and keep guys on task. There just wasn’t much down time at all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe were able to monitor our wash and how long it takes to wash the parlor between milking, and we did some different things\u2026 and we cut 30 minutes off our wash time. When you’re multiplying that by three times a day, it sounds like not much, but we were able to milk another 100 cows in a facility, so we just kept pushing that parlor, kept getting more efficient. It helped us monitor a lot of that stuff that is important.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt gave us a really good way to manage the parlor when we\u2019re not there. It provides useful basic information at a price we like. It allows us to handle pen groups that fits our management style. It\u2019s helped us to be very successful with our call rates, and our breeding and milk direction. When you monitor milk weight by pen you know right away if there\u2019s something off. Either the cows went up on milk a lot or I’ve got some cows in the wrong pen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnother thing I like about ParlorWatch is that it\u2019s accurate,\u201d says Ulrich. \u201cThe data matches what\u2019s going across our scale. If the numbers don\u2019t agree, then we have to ask, \u2018Oh, did the guys dump some milk somewhere? Did a hose break in the milk room? Or it didn’t get into the tank?\u2019 It’s just another way to monitor your milk and another way of managing the parlor. It\u2019s another way to have some checks and balances.\u201d<\/p>\n Another important aspect of ParlorWatch is that it helps Ulrich ensure compliance and the quality of his washing operations. He\u2019s able to identify potential issues in the washing system that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’ve got a couple water heaters at the farm that, from time to time, a gas pilot will go out or if you lose power, or something goes on, you can catch a wash [in ParlorWatch], and all of a sudden you’ll see that wash temperature isn’t where it was a couple weeks ago. Or you walk into the utility room and find that you have a water heater that’s not working properly or the pilot is out.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, ParlorWatch has given Ulrich and his family peace of mind and consistency as their business continues to grow.<\/p>\n \u201c[With ParlorWatch] we’ve managed the parlor pretty similar from when we were 600 cows to when we are 1,200 cows.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/mk_page_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [mk_page_section bg_position=“center center“ bg_repeat=“no-repeat“ full_width=“true“ padding_top=“50″ padding_bottom=“50″ el_class=“content“ sidebar=“sidebar-1″][vc_column][vc_row_inner is_fullwidth_content=“false“][vc_column_inner][mk_fancy_title tag_name=“h6″ color=“#84a23d“ size=““ letter_spacing=““ margin_top=““ margin_bottom=““ font_family=“none“]Dresser, Wisconsin[\/mk_fancy_title][vc_column_text css=“.vc_custom_1528738794933{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}“]As the third generation helping run the family farm, Justin Ulrich (along with brother Jake Ulrich and cousin Corey Ulrich) has seen a lot of changes on his Dresser, WI, dairy farm through the years. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/global.vas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/global.vas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/global.vas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global.vas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global.vas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/global.vas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global.vas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/global.vas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global.vas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global.vas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}