Ripley 4-H Dairy Club visits Ikendale Farms in Walkerton

The weather was perfect for the first official meeting of the Ripley 4-H Dairy Club, Saturday, as the group enjoyed its first barn tour, at Ikendale Farms in Walkerton.

The meeting began in the milk house where the club welcomed a few new faces and president Molly opened the meeting with the 4-H Pledge and proceeded with Roll Call – What is one factor that affects how much milk a cow gives? After hearing a variety of great answers, secretary Julia read a summary of the organizational meeting.

Leader Alec launched into the first topic of discussion, one of the most important parts of the cow, the udder. He started with the basic anatomy of the udder being composed of four quarters and explained the internal workings comprised of alveoli, ducts and cisterns.

He went on to ask the members what they thought triggers the start of milk production or lactation in cows and what causes the milk to start to flow.

The third topic for discussion was the actual milking procedure. While each farm tweaks how it conducts this process, there are several basic steps which are typically followed in every dairy barn. Members learned the importance of pre- and post-dipping the cow’s teats in sanitizing solutions and examined one of each of the Ikendale dip cups. Various methods of drying the cow’s teat after the pre-dip were discussed (reusable cloths, paper towels, etc.) and that this is a producer preference.

One of the important steps involves staff members squirting a few streams of milk from each quarter and looking for any problems. They are trained to watch for signs of infections to eliminate any contamination of the milk going to market.

Ikendale’s Tyler Kuntz was able to join the group and explain the claw or milker and how it’s vacuum operates, and the importance of timing both when the milker goes on and when it comes off, which can interfere with the cow’s milk production. He also shared with the members that the back and front quarters differ in milk production. Do you know which one gives more?

Kuntz then took the members into the ‘barn’ where the 30-stall rotary milking parlour is housed and they watched the milking process. Each cow stands in a stall and begins her slow spin on the parlour, first to a staff member who cleans her teats with pre-dip and then to another who puts on the milker and does the post-dip. The trip around takes 15 minutes and while the cows walk forward onto the rotary they actually back off to exit. The cows are very content and quiet during their ride.



Ikendale’s Tyler Kuntz (right) shows Ripley 4-H Dairy Club members the holding area where the cows gather prior to entering the rotary parlour, during a tour of the barn in Walkerton, Saturday; photos by Sharon Martin

Kuntz shared some interesting farm facts with the club, including that Ikendale has 878 animals on the farm (all females, of course), with the average age of their 375 lactating cows being six years and their oldest approximately nine years. The cows lay in a very comfortable bedding mixture of spelt hulls and wood shavings – cow comfort is extremely important.

The meeting concluded with a quick recap of everything the members had seen and an even quicker snack.

Thank you to tour guide Kuntz and Ikendale Farms for allowing the club to visit your operation and witness rotary parlour milking. The members will be visiting other producers to watch their milking procedures.

One final note – the hind quarters produce more milk than the front ones.



Tyler Kuntz (right) of Ikendale Farms in Walkerton, answers questions about the rotary parlour, Ikendale cows and the farm's milking procedures