This week, we join the Bossard Family (Farmers Brett, Brynley, Johanna, and Raegan) as they give us a tour of their farm, Barbland Dairy, and show us the sustainable practices they use on their farm to ensure that the land and the farm are around for generations to come.
The Bossard Family milks 2300 cows daily at their farm. To make sure that their cows have a healthy, balanced, diet, they feed them TMR (or a Total Mixed Ration) each day.
The TMR at Barbland Dairy consists of:
- Haylage
- Grain Mix
- Corn Silage
The Grain Mix used at Barbland Dairy includes leftovers from grocery stores that would otherwise be headed to a landfill. By giving these food scraps another life as cow feed, the Bossards are removing waste from the landfill while giving their cows the nutrition that they need to produce fresh, local milk each day. They also use leftover whey from local milk plants as part of the grain mix.
The technology that is used on the farm allows them to only feed the cows what they need on a daily basis and eliminates waste. Did you know that on average, a cow will eat 125 pounds of feed per day? That’s equal to a large, 55-gallon garbage can’s worth of food!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s tour! Tune in next week as we head over to Dry Creek Farm. We’ll see you then!
