New Dairy

   / New Dairy
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#51  
Since I had to design a rather large septic system to handle our waste water, I have been working on a spray irrigation design that will take all of our wash water to irrigate the fields. Since we do not use any radical cleaning chemicals (acids and caustics), if the water is given time to buffer itself in a 10k tank, it neutralizes itself. Since we have below freezing conditions part of the air, sending water to sprinklers will not work. To solve the problem, I am going to send the water to a fan snow gun. That big hill behind the building will make a mean sledding hill. I did mention we like to have fun right??? And yes, the town thinks I have gone crazy!
 

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   / New Dairy
  • Thread Starter
#54  
whitedogone said:
I'm getting the vibe that you may not be up to speed on ground planes. It can be a very important issue, especially in Dairy farms. Prehaps some research is in order.

http://www.egr.msu.edu/age/documents/news_archives/et/construction.pdf

Your vibe is correct. In looking at the documentation it seems like it would be more of a problem with older structures and installations. Right now my grounding plane is my foundation. I welded a piece of rebar to the footings to give the electrician something to work with. In addition, no animals are allowed to come in the building per USDA/FDA..... Am I still missing the big picture? If so any help is appreciated
 
   / New Dairy #55  
I think what is confusing some folks is that you are building a Dairy. Essentially a precessing plant turning raw milk into a dairy product. You are not building a Dairy Farm, which is generally associated with the collection of raw milk.

Buuuuuuuut you do talk of cows and a robotic milking machine and robotic gutter cleaner. So I may be a bit confused too. Maybe you need to explain exactly what will be going on in this barn that, NO Dairy farmer in his right mind would think he could pay for milking cows, would think of building. :laughing:
 
   / New Dairy
  • Thread Starter
#56  
I think what is confusing some folks is that you are building a Dairy. Essentially a precessing plant turning raw milk into a dairy product. You are not building a Dairy Farm, which is generally associated with the collection of raw milk.

Buuuuuuuut you do talk of cows and a robotic milking machine and robotic gutter cleaner. So I may be a bit confused too. Maybe you need to explain exactly what will be going on in this barn that, NO Dairy farmer in his right mind would think he could pay for milking cows, would think of building. :laughing:

I will it give it my best shot. My folks started the business 35 years ago in the home we grew up in as a way for my mom to make an income while being home. As our parents, they made the commitment to make sure one of them was there when we left for school and got home from school. In addition, it was important that we sat down as a family every evening to eat and to discuss what was going on in our daily lives. Fast forward to today, there is three of us boys that are involved at different levels. I have an older brother is that has built a career around real estate and sales. I have a younger brother that is involved in the day to day production. Then there is me who is the engineer of the outfit. The big barn that is being built now is strictly for processing raw milk. Right now we focus on butter and real buttermilk. It is interesting to note that we are the only company in the country that is a producing a "real" buttermilk. Every other buttermilk you see in the store is a cultured skim, lowfat, or whole milk.

As I mentioned, it is truly a family business and it is important that we all have a voice. My younger brother, a phenomenal dairy scientist, spent two years in Europe running an Austrian Alpine farm where he learned the art of making cheese. Somehow, we were able to lure him back here to help with the business under one condition.... When we built the new facility he wanted to import a herd of Normande Cattle from Europe. So that is where the cattle come in. As soon as the manufacturing plant is finished the builders will transition to making another barn for the cattle. Right now it will be 25 head. The cattle barn will most likely be an R&D facility containing robotic milkers and robotic manure scraping machines. It is my hopes that I can attract industry suppliers that are willing to work with me on pricing if I allow them to show future customers how the equipment works in the real world. The milk that we produce from the cows will then be transported across the parking lot to the big barn for processing into cheese, butter, ice cream, milk, etc...

I hope the above clarifies the confusion. In the end, we will have a milking barn and a separate processing barn...
 
   / New Dairy
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#57  
and to think, it started as this... and that was all trees at one point
 

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   / New Dairy #59  
Your vibe is correct. In looking at the documentation it seems like it would be more of a problem with older structures and installations. Right now my grounding plane is my foundation. I welded a piece of rebar to the footings to give the electrician something to work with. In addition, no animals are allowed to come in the building per USDA/FDA..... Am I still missing the big picture? If so any help is appreciated

Not necessarily.

Is it required? No, not it's it's not for confinment/milking.
 
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   / New Dairy
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#60  
Of course the view is limited, but that photo of land clearing looks a lot flatter than your aerial photo.

Here is the topo of the original site and the development impact. I can say I had the original topo generated by flying the site and I would not say it is 100% accurate. Another big challenge of the site is that one corner of the building sits on ledge and the opposite corner sits on 21' of clay.
 

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