MENOMONIE, Wis. – Partners in the recently expanded 2,250-cow Alfalawn Farm say they’re still a family farm. Fourth-generation farmer-brothers Randy, Dave and Dale Styer, their wives and children pitch in just as they did when the Dunn County, Wisconsin, dairy was far smaller.
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Alfalawn Farm
Expanded dairy still family farm
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Dunn County dairy farmer Karen Styer is no stranger to giving farm tours of Alfalawn Farm's new cross-ventilated milking-herd barn. Alfalawn will host an Agricultural Community Engagement twilight meeting Aug. 25 and the Chippewa Valley Farm-City Day Sept. 10.
The Styer family says their 2,250-cow dairy is still a family farm. Members of the family-farm team are: Karen Styer, front left; her sister-in-law, Heather Styer, front right; Karen and Heather's brother-in-law, Dale Styer, back left; and Heather's husband, Randy Styer, back right. Not pictured are Karen's husband, Dave Styer, and Dale's wife, Shannon Styer.
Menomonie, Wisconsin, dairy farmer Dave Styer is concerned about what he sees as the non-farm public's disconnect with agriculture. That's why he welcomes school groups and other visitors to Alfalawn Farm.
Alfalawn Farm has a facility so milk tankers can be housed under roof. Co-owner Randy Styer shows the size of the room.
Alfalawn Farm's cows chew their cuds while riding in a new 60-cow rotary parlor.
Six automatic calf feeders at Alfalawn Farm have the capacity to feed 240 calves in 12 pens.
The sand-reclamation facility at Alfalawn Farm reuses milking-parlor water to reclaim 98 percent of the sand used to bed freestalls.
Two slope screens in a sand-reclamation facility at Alfalawn Farm remove fibrous organic material from the liquid portion of manure. The screens are pressure-washed daily.
Alfalawn's cross-ventilated facility features lots of fans and a low roof to keep air flow at cow level. Snow load isn't an issue, the Styers say, because wind blows the snow off the large expanse of roof. The Styers did not add baffles to the inside of the barn.
Heifers at Alfalawn Farm are housed in a new tunnel-ventilated facility finished earlier in 2016.
Calves at Alfalawn Farm are bottle-fed their first week of life and housed separately from older calves fed with automatic feeders. The area features a heated floor.
Family tradition is strong at Alfalawn Farm, where it's anticipated multiple members of the fifth generation will join the recently expanded operation. Co-owner Randy Styer shows off his late grandfather's farm truck, a 1946 Chevy, inside the farm shop.
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