AGRICULTURE


has a new look


BOBCAT M-SERIES SKID-STEER LOADER AMONG WAYS YOUNG FAMILY MOVES FORWARD


The farm, owned by Lad and Brenda Hastings, is a unique combination of what you will fi nd on the typical Midwest family dairy farm: milking, feeding, growing crops, etc. — and the non-traditional — tours, events and an Internet blog.


And one more traditional item: a Bobcat® skid-steer loader, a popular fi xture on farms for the past 50 years. The Hastings, who both come from a dairy background, met in California. Seven years ago they moved to Ohio to start their own farm enterprise.


TOP: The Hastings’ Bobcat skid-steer loader is just the right size to remove manure from its dairy barns. ABOVE: Garrett, Brenda, Lad and Jack Hastings.


They purchased a dairy farm near Burton, Ohio, that had been built in the late 1990s


8 WorkSaver | SPRING 2012


and was operated for about three years. It had not been used for two years when the couple bought it.


“Some of the facilities were in place, but we had to do a lot of remodeling to the barn and build a large lagoon for manure,” Lad says. “It took more work than we imagined.”


Focus on milk production


They purchased a couple of herds and, by focusing on the cows instead of on farming, were able to increase milk production to a satisfactory level within six to eight months. Today the 530 Holstein cows, which are milked three times a day in a double-12 herringbone parlor, produce an average of 75 pounds of milk each.


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