Milk in the Valley

Huls Dairy Incorporated of Montana is an excellent example of a family dairy operation creating the future. Presently, Huls Dairy Incorporated is operating the most current state-of the- art dairy facility in the State of Montana.

"About 10 years ago we became an incorporated company and started planning to update our facilities for future expansions," says Dan Huls. "Our goal was to be as efficient as possible within a clean environment and to get maximum milk production. We designed the barn to create a natural ventilation system which helps to eliminate operating costs," says Huls. Down the center of the 360 foot long Cover-All is a two foot wide ridge vent. "The center ridge vent combined with ten foot side walls, roll up curtains and large end wall entrance-way allows the building to self ventilate. We don't require fans or misters to keep our cows comfortable,” says Huls. “We get really warm days and then very cool nights, which at times created moisture problems in our conventional barns. This building ventilates very well so excessive moisture is not a problem. The Cover-All® free-stall barn provides a huge natural shade effect, it's like being under a tree on a hot day,” says Huls.

Cow comfort is provided by the green and white 120' wide x 360' long Cover-All® TITAN® building. "After eight years of research we decided on a Cover-All fabric building," says Huls. "There is no comparison in natural light and air quality between a Cover-All free-stall barn and a conventional free-stall barn. The environment in the Cover-All is much more natural.” The six row free-stall barn has a feed alley down the center and contains Artex Y2K stall dividers over Pasture mat mattresses. A Dairy Master alley scraper system and gravity flow manure channel keep the alleys clean with minimal effort. Inside the milking center you will find white silicone covered walls, a Westfalia Surge 24 stall rotary milking system with computer cow ID, metatron milk meters and stimopulse pulsation. Vacuum is provided by a variable speed vacuum pump. An automatic sort gate in the exit alley segregates cows that need special attention.

"People were amazed at the speed which the barn went up. It took a crew of four men only ten days to completely install the 43,200 square foot free-stall barn! We were doing the inspection on the eleventh day, that's impressive," says Huls.

“We are extremely pleased with the results we are now getting. We are now milking 350 cows as quickly as we were milking 175 cows a year ago, with less production costs. The natural light transmission we have in the Cover-All free-stall barn provides a pleasant year-round environment. The cows are not fidgety and they are spending more time in the stalls. Everyone who walks into this facility is impressed, it's completely state-of-the-art," says Huls.