THE DAIRY AT GAR-LIN

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In 1971, when Gary and Linda Allen took over the farm, they had 40 cows. Today GAR-LIN Dairy has over 1,850 milking cows. Gar-Lin Dairy is owned by  Gary and Linda along with their children Dean Allen- Outside Operations Manager and also help with maintenance, and agronomy, and Dana Allen-Tully - Dairy and Nutrition Manager, helping farm the over 4,470 acres consisting of corn, alfalfa, sweet peas and sweet corn, soybeans, and winter rye.

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Dana's position on the farm is as an owner with specific responsibility to manage the dairy herd and

its employees. The dairy operations responsibilities include nutrient management, free-stall barns, reproduction, replacements, transition cows, maternity area including nursery, calves, milking parlor, agronomy, all dairy personnel, and the milk from the dairy.

 

Dana's studies included animal science with a Ph.D. in ruminant nutrition, and her husband Jim Tully serves as Gar-Lin Dairy's nutritionist. Coupling these responsibilities gives Dana a birds eye view of what occurs day-to-day on the dairy and the impact of small changes in DM (dry matter), feed delivery, feed push-ups, transitioning forages, and intentional diet changes. Starch and sugar components in the diet become the largest challenge when forage quality and feeding consistency is not achieved.

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The key to the Gar-Lin team's success is consistency for all aspects of milk harvest: milking protocols, cow handling, feeding, treatment protocols, reproduction

protocols, tracking follow-up treatments, calf and

heifer feeding. At our level of production, even

the slightest change takes days to recover milk

production.