The dairy industry is rapidly growing in South Dakota, specifically along the I-29 corridor. Not only has production increased, but technology has advanced along with it.
Wim Hammink immigrated from the Netherlands to Bruce, South Dakota, 25 years ago to start his dairy operation.
“As a student, I spent about a half year in Wisconsin, and I really liked the way dairying was in the United States,” said Hammink. “In the Netherlands, it was getting really difficult; there was so many people and just not enough room for farming.”
What began as just 300 cows has grown into a multi-farm operation with around 4,500 dairy cows producing 200,000 pounds of milk per day.
“We are really happy we moved here. There’s a lot of room here, and it’s just been getting worse in the Netherlands,” Hammink said. “The farmers are demonstrating for environmental rules, or they just want to take land away for city expansion, and it’s really difficult to be in dairy farming anymore in the Netherlands, so we are happy to be here.”
Technology has taken off on the farm, from having robots who brush feed to cattle, to tagging systems that track each individual animal.
“In the Netherlands we milked like 50 cows and I think we have more information now on all the cows — the 4,500 — than I have over the 50 cows that I had back in the Netherlands,” Hammink said.
Source: agweek.com
Photo Credit: gettyimages-peopleimages
Categories: South Dakota, Livestock, Dairy Cattle