This farm is located in northwest Wisconsin and milks 700 cows. The feeding center includes drive over piles for forage storage on a 130,000 square foot (12,077 square meter) area of blacktop, and recently added a monoslope commodity shed to replace an old bin set-up.
General Layout
Commodity Shed/Loading Area
The addition of the new commodity shed and loading area benefited the farm in several ways. It allowed them to better utilize meal ingredients instead of pelleted feed that had to be used in bins, which would not flow with meals in the previous set up. The new shed also reduced feeding time by over an hour per day, while still feeding the same number of cows. This reduced the additional wear and tear on the mixer each day.
Building Details
This monoslope design has a front overhang with 5 ingredient bays and a heated equipment and storage bay. There is also a bin and grinder setup off one side of the building.
Building Measurements
- 25’ (7.6 m) at the front of the shed sloping to 15’ (4.6 m) tall at the back
- 15’ (4.6 m) wide bays
- 8’ (2.4 m) tall concrete walls on bottom and plywood flush with concrete extending the rest of the way to the top of the shed
- Rafters are closed/covered, which adds cost but eliminates areas for birds to perch in the shed
- 18’ (5.5 m) wide heated equipment and storage shed
Entire commodity shed set-up
Close-up of bay
Close-up of rafters and
plywood extension
Front view of bay
Inside view of heated equipment and storage bay, which is utilized to house feeding equipment and
extra ingredients/equipment.
On Farm Grinding Setup
The farm utilizes a Winona hammer mill for grinding and has a Sukup bin that holds up to 10,600 bushels of dried corn that comes from the farms’ grain setup down the road.This hammer mill originally came with a 10-horse motor, but the farm had issues running the mill, so they replaced it with a 25-horse motor.
Through trial and error with different screen sizes, the farm determined that the 7/64” screen size worked best in their system. Screens are changed out every few months as signs of visual wear are noticed.
This hammer mill can process 6,500 lbs (2,950 kg) per day in approximately 4-5 hours, depending on the moisture of the corn. This equates to about 1500 lbs (680 kg) per hour. The farm also built an 11’ (3.4 m) platform for holding the grinder and providing an area to do maintenance on the machine.
Pictures of the grain bin and hammer mill setup
Grain particle size determination
Pest Control
In order to control bird populations around the feed center, the farm utilizes a Zon 4 Noise maker. This creates a loud gunshot-like noise periodically to scare the birds away.
