FALL 2025 NEWSLETTER
Van Der Geest Dairy has been a part of this community for over 50 years and is proud to support local organizations and businesses. We strive to have an open-door policy allowing the community to see we are good neighbors while supplying nutritious dairy products needed to feed our great country!
We continue to care for the environment while constantly upgrading our facilities to maintain the best feed, and best environment for our cattle and employees.
Below is a review of some things we have been working on at the dairy over this past year.
CATTLE HOUSING
We are in the process of building an addition onto our free stall barn. The addition is being constructed on the north side of the dairy. There are several reasons for this addition. In the past we would send our calves to other facilities to be raised, we now bring them back to our facility at 6 months of age and raise them here until they have their first calf. This created the need for more room to house these animals.
Another reason for the addition is to allow us to update the ventilation in our older facility. The new addition is being built next to our 25 years old facility. The addition will have 60 plus, 72 inch fans that will pull the air through the barn from south to north. Cattle enjoy a temperature of 65 degrees, much like we do. The fans will create a 7 mph breeze, as the temperature rises more fans will automatically turn on keeping the cattle comfortable. As temperatures drop in colder weather, less fans will run keeping the barn warmer. The fans are controlled by sensors in the barn.
Finally, the new addition will allow us to make updates to our 25 year old barn, such as updating the steel roof, the cow beds, and updating their drinking system so more water is available.
We are extremely excited about this project which will always keep our cattle comfortable. This project should be completed by fall.
MANURE DRYER
After much research, we are finally in the process of updating our manure separation and manure drying system. The new system will create bedding that is less dusty in the cattle stalls while saving electricity and natural gas through the drying process.
Spring weather started out great, allowing us to apply manure and plant crops in a timely manner. Once this was completed the rain came and did not give us a break! Some crops drowned out, some fields look great while others are struggling. It looks like it will be an average yield in the fields, and we are thankful for what we have. It is better to have too much rain than not enough.
This fall Feddick Farms will be helping us harvest approximately 50,000 tons of corn for silage. We hope to have a dry fall for a timely harvest. This will allow us to apply our fall nutrients as well as plant cover crops like winter wheat.
We always try to keep roads and entrances to fields clean. Please be patient if there is mud on the road, we will do our best to keep the roads cleaned up.
Safety is our number one priority. All our drivers are expected to be courteous, law-abiding drivers. Please let us know if you see anything that does not look right. Also, if you have any events or activities planned during our harvesting and manure application period, please contact us and we will try to adjust our activity to accommodate your event.
As a reminder, our trucks and implements are large and slow moving, please be patient, we are trying to harvest high quality feed in a short period of time. Once fall harvesting is complete, we will begin transporting our organic manure to the fields to prepare for the next growing season. We haul the manure by semitruck to the fields farthest away from our facility so that we do not have to haul in the spring when the roads are soft from the frost.
When preparing the soil for the next growing season, each field is tested in 2.5 acre increments to determine the amount of organic or commercial fertilizer to apply to ensure the proper nutrients will be available for the plants. When applying organic fertilizer there is a meter on the tractor that allows the operator to monitor how many gallons are applied, this is done while following all DNR regulations for setbacks on wells, waterways, creeks, ponds, and wetlands. A lot of effort is put into this process to ensure it is done accurately. Thank you in advance for your patience with us during harvesting and fertilizing!
We are always looking for productive cropland to produce feed for our cattle. If you own agricultural land within 15 miles of the dairy and are not already renting to us, but are interested in doing so, please give us a call! We pay a competitive rental rate. Our policy is to take care of the land, leaving it better than when we started using it. We carry liability insurance on all the land we utilize, and we follow Natural Resource Conservation Service guidelines as well as the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources standards.
You will be able to view the milking process from our observation room as well as view a video of the milking process and other operations at our facility. Cows are milked continuously throughout the day except between 2-4pm when the facility is sanitized. Check our website for information on scheduling a visit to see the parlor!
All of us at the dairy appreciate the community support. We wish everyone a safe and happy remainder of 2025! Thank you again!
