mercial dairy. Since we didn't need the space on one side of the parlor we made bleachers for kids during school tours. Recently we built a different shed that is more suitable for the school tours. So now we are reclaiming the area where the bleachers were for more milking space. We are not doing this to milk more cows. We are doing this to milk the cows we have faster. The less time they stay in the milking barn, the more time they can be outside on the pasture or lounging in the shade.
So, how are we doing this? Did we just call a contractor? Who am I kidding? of course we didn't call a contractor. I've told yall before that my dad's favorite saying is "I think we can do that ourselves." I give him a hard time about that, but truthfully I'm very thankful that he instilled a "can do" spirit in all of us. It made me laugh a little inside when I pulled up a few days ago and found my dad mixing concrete for this project with a small tractor-mounted concrete mixer in 95-degree weather. He was filling the mixer with a custom-designed "batch plant" that he build to make loading the mixer easier. Doing all this to install some used milking stantions that he purchased out of state and modified to fit his situation. I didn't laugh inside because it was funny. I laughed a little inside because that is so totally him. He's hard-working, he's dedicated, he's resilient, he doesn't waste anything, he doesn't complain, he's super smart, and to top it off he's humble about it all. There is not another human being that I admire more. I'm looking forward to seeing cows milked in this redesigned facility.
P.S. I should add that my brother Brad works daily with my dad on the dairy. They are working on this project together, and they are cut from the same cloth.
