University of Minnesota Extension will be hosting a summer field day at Green Waves Farm, 7776 County Road 37 NE, St. Michael, Minn., Friday, June 30. Registration begins at 10 a.m. with the program running from
10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., concluding with a lunch.
Green Waves farm is owned and managed by brothers Mark and Paul Berning, along with their wives Stacy and Julie. David, Mark?Äôs son, and his wife Sara recently graduated from college and joined the dairy.
Their farm is highly automated, featuring eight Lely A4 milking robots with post milking sort gates. Cows are housed in a six-row, cross-ventilated freestall barn, with waterbeds and an automatic manure removal system. Manure solids are separated and liquid is stored in a Slurrystore system. In 2010, they built a new calf barn containing automatic calf feeders.
The field day will highlight their management strategies used to achieve high production per cow and excellent labor efficiency. This includes the barn design, use of sort gates and pretraining heifers for the robot. Other pertinent dairy topics will also be addressed.
There is no charge and lunch is provided. Pre-registration is not required, but would be appreciated for an accurate lunch count. Register at https://z.umn.edu/dairyfieldday, or by calling (763) 682-7394. The field day is sponsored by AgStar, Leedstone, Federated Coop and Munson Lakes Nutrition. For more information, contact Jim Salfer at (320) 203-6093 or salfe001@umn.edu.