Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Dairy Intelligent, a podcast by VESR Techs.
Speaker: Together we will meet dairy industry intellects and passionate dairy producers to discuss all things cows and connected technologies.
Speaker: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of VESR Texas podcast, Dairy Intelligent.
Speaker: We're very excited to be joined today by Dennis Spurlock of Western Cow Comfort.
Speaker: So today we're going to discuss an important task on the farm, but one that is often neglected, dairy barn fan maintenance.
Speaker: And Dennis is a true maintenance guru and keeps many ventilation systems on dairies in the Central Valley of California in tip-top shape.
Speaker: So thank you so much for being with us today, Dennis.
Speaker: Let's start by having you introduce yourself and giving us some of your background.
Speaker: Annie, thank you.
Speaker: Yeah, Dennis Furlock, we've been in business here with Western Cow Comfort probably since 2006.
Speaker: We saw a need for some of these facilities to increase their cow comfort issues they had, not only for production, but, you know, we have a little bit of,
Speaker: eyeballs on us from around California all the time as dairy producers have nationwide, but a little more extreme here.
Speaker: We're in the second largest dairy county in the U.S. Five of, well, actually top five of the dairy counties in the nation are within the 100 mile radius of our facility.
Speaker: So we deal with a lot of cows, a lot of dairy, a lot of big dairies.
Speaker: We've been, I've been working with the dairyman myself for about 30 years.
Speaker: And we really started to highlight the cow comfort part in 04-05 and then decided Western cow comfort was something we wanted to
Speaker: go whole hog in in 2006.
Speaker: Myself and my employees really take all this to heart.
Speaker: And when any of us are out on site, we try our best to inform the Darium and the things he's missing or things we could help him do better.
Speaker: But that's kind of where we all started.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Having so many cows around you, I think that's a great place to start.
Speaker: So I'd like to talk a bit about how you saw a need for proper fan maintenance programs in your area.
Speaker: And you really took that idea and ran with it.
Speaker: So how and why did you start focusing on maintenance?
Speaker: kind of funny it all started you know we were we hit it all just right um people started to realize that ventilation was very important on these dairies and we were looking for a non-typical fan something different and i had looked at vds a little bit um
Speaker: And the lubrid fan, I like the idea of it with the ECD fans because you're able to put them right over the top of the cows without a lot of interference inside the barn.
Speaker: So once we did that, we were very successful in installing a lot of these.
Speaker: And then after a while, you go by and you look and there may be a broken belt or something's not running.
Speaker: The fans are filthy.
Speaker: And one day in my office here, the bank requires that I have an IT person come in once a year.
Speaker: So they, every three months I have, I just pay a contract and we send them a check and they come in and take care of all our IT issues.
Speaker: And it kind of hit me in the face that, you know, we should be doing the same thing for these ventilation systems in these dairies because typically a dairyman have
Speaker: On a dairy, they have so many things they have to deal with every day.
Speaker: And maintenance is sometimes gets put on the back burner.
Speaker: So we started going in, washing fans, changing belts, doing whatever, because it does cost the facility if these things aren't working.
Speaker: And we did it with a program at first.
Speaker: and try to do a yearly fee and it just works better if we go out there because once usually we get on site we're doing 20 other things while we're there they've got us there we're a captive audience they utilize it so you know but we'll we have customers that regularly just call us and we're in there not only
Speaker: for preventative maintenance, but for any repairs or anything that has to be done or things aren't running, they just pick up the phone, call us, we're there.
Speaker: Well, so what are some of those potential consequences of neglecting the ventilation system maintenance, both in terms of cow health and overall productivity?
Speaker: California, typically in the middle of summer, I was looking the other day, we had
Speaker: So I think eight days in July last year that were 106 degrees.
Speaker: You know, our humidity levels aren't too bad, but the heat is, it could be, it wears down not only cows, but people.
Speaker: So what I try to educate, especially my employees to realize is you have a fan every 60 feet over a head to head section of cows, you know,
Speaker: if that one fan's not running and those cows drop, say 20% in production, you have the potential of the dairyman losing 150 to $200 a day, just that fan not running.
Speaker: And that's the last thing we want.
Speaker: Not to mention what conception rates or anything else with the cows that we're trying to improve.
Speaker: So we were the ones that talked him into doing this.
Speaker: He knows he needed it.
Speaker: There's a reason why he came to us.
Speaker: So we need to strive and do the best we can to make sure it works.
Speaker: Because, you know, if these things go down, productivity and conception is just, in a 106 degree day, it can fall extremely fast.
Speaker: And believe me, when they do shut down on those hot days like that, the phone rings off the hook.
Speaker: The more customers we get, the more problems you're going to have.
Speaker: It's all machinery.
Speaker: It's all built by human beings.
Speaker: You can't take all the mistakes out of it.
Speaker: So it really can affect the dairy, especially if they've seen the difference.
Speaker: If they've gone, say, from 65 to 75 pounds of milk without fans, we put fans in.
Speaker: Now they're approaching that 100-pound mark.
Speaker: you know, they have to be at that level anymore because the margins are so tight for these dairymen.
Speaker: And if all of a sudden our equipment on site is responsible for them not making that difference, then we got to make sure that we're on top of it and we can get the dairymen and the dairy and the cows back to the level they need to be.
Speaker: So interesting because on dairy farms, it seems like, you know, a maintenance, a proper maintenance routine for, let's say, the farm machinery, the tractors, skid loaders, and I mean, even in any sort of parlor is top of mind.
Speaker: And
Speaker: Something that's so important and critical, like a ventilation system, just seems to not be there.
Speaker: But it's great to know that you have definitely seen the need in your educating a lot of the dairymen in the Central Valley of California.
Speaker: So can you walk us through the typical maintenance checklist for both belt-driven and direct drive fans?
Speaker: Usually one of the first things we like to go in and do is clean them.
Speaker: and our cleaning program involves washing fans so we've got pressure washers on trailers we roll right in there wash the fans they look brand new when we're done i mean guys i think i think some dairymen are happier on the appearance of it more than the functionality of it but i have seen some studies i know joel harner did some from k-state and a few other people have done it to where once those fans are dirty
Speaker: they're 30 to 50% less efficient.
Speaker: So, you know, if you're gonna spend all that money for the electricity, you might as well utilize all the air you can.
Speaker: You know, if you've got a broken belt or anything like that, that motor's still spinning and you're spending the money to buy the power.
Speaker: So you might as well be using it for what you intended, what the intended use was for.
Speaker: So we'll go through, usually wash them,
Speaker: The guys like to wash them first so they don't get all dirty working on the fan.
Speaker: And then a lot of dairymen every two years is a belt driven fan.
Speaker: It's just routine.
Speaker: We change the belts.
Speaker: It's just, just cut them off and change it.
Speaker: Don't even look at them, see if they need changed.
Speaker: That kind of stuff is reasonably priced enough now that we can just change them.
Speaker: You don't even think twice about it.
Speaker: You know, you,
Speaker: As I was saying previously, if that fan goes down, it's pretty easy to justify just changing the belt now and getting it done.
Speaker: Direct drive fans, it's not as bad because you don't have the belt.
Speaker: So basically just cleaning is really what we try to do.
Speaker: Make sure there's no loose bolts, anything like that.
Speaker: Then if there's any grease fittings or anything on the fan, some have them, some don't.
Speaker: We try to go in and grease them
Speaker: the spring and i recommend if the dairy doesn't do it we do it and we go back in maybe in the fall you know or late summer i mean we really our summer here starts in april and we can have 100 degree days in october so you know we it's a real long string so we may be in september october you know just touching things up and getting everything ready for winter so these are obviously services that you're providing to your customers but
Speaker: There's a dairyman who wants to perform these routine maintenance themselves.
Speaker: How often, ideally, should they be performing these maintenance tasks?
Speaker: And what are some key factors that might influence the frequency of maintenance that you recommend?
Speaker: The first thing should be just visual inspection.
Speaker: If you're driving through a bar and a fan's not running, you know you've got to tackle it.
Speaker: That's the first thing they have to do.
Speaker: But I think if they want to do these maintenance programs themselves, just do what we do.
Speaker: You know, maybe every other year clean the fan.
Speaker: No longer than that.
Speaker: I mean, some guys try to do it every year.
Speaker: Parlors, maybe clean your fans once a year.
Speaker: You know, maybe just change the belts just like we do.
Speaker: Go through and visually inspect everything.
Speaker: Usually those maintenance crews are on those dairies every day, all day long.
Speaker: It's real easy for them if they've got a good maintenance person on staff
Speaker: just to say visually look and maybe in the afternoon when it's 100 degrees, they can drive through the fan or drive through the barn, excuse me, and just see which fans aren't operating or maybe a belt squeaking or it could be an electrical issue, something with a VFD, mark it down, get it fixed.
Speaker: That's the biggest thing.
Speaker: We try to, on our end, place ear tags
Speaker: on all these fans and number them.
Speaker: So then that way, if your maintenance people are driving through the barn, they can mark down the number of that number fan and know that that fan needs to be fixed.
Speaker: You're not saying, okay, it's the third fan from the end of the barn on the south side and barn number two or whatever.
Speaker: Then you go out there and it's running.
Speaker: So you don't know if there's a problem with it.
Speaker: At that time, if you know there's an issue, you can shut it down, look at it, see what the problem is.
Speaker: Mike Johnson, You know, sometimes the belt won't squeak until it gets later in the day and the fans are hotter.
Speaker: Mike Johnson, You know, and the herdsman may be out there, and he may hear a squeaky belt and then, by the time the maintenance people get out there it's not squeaking.
Speaker: Mike Johnson, So you know if you can number those those fans and know which ones need that service and that attention.
Speaker: Mike Johnson, That's that makes it a whole lot easier for everybody on staff.
Speaker: No, absolutely.
Speaker: And it's definitely, I'm sure, going to take a little bit of trial and error.
Speaker: Like you said, different time, different day.
Speaker: People are listening.
Speaker: So we've talked a lot about fans, but what about maintenance steps should be taken for maybe soaking lines or high pressure fogging systems?
Speaker: Soaking systems are fairly simple.
Speaker: You know, it's more a volume of water, so you don't have to worry about orifices or anything.
Speaker: The biggest thing with them is
Speaker: we start getting to the warmer times of the year, maybe getting close to 70 degrees, just turn them on and do a visual inspection.
Speaker: Walk through them, see if there's any broken soaker tips that need to be replaced.
Speaker: If the biggest thing really in soaking systems, especially with some of these big barns we do out here is making sure all the plungers and springs are intact inside the soaker.
Speaker: So you don't have water leaking out at the downhill side of the barn.
Speaker: And now you have no ballast in the pipe and it takes longer for the pipe to fill up when it's time to soak the cows.
Speaker: So just those little visual inspections going through doing routine maintenance.
Speaker: And it's gonna be just like anything else with the fans.
Speaker: You're gonna have to do that throughout the season.
Speaker: You're gonna have to just do visual inspections and mark things down and write it down and get your people to fix it.
Speaker: So, blogging is a little more involved.
Speaker: We have a lot of people that we deal with here on the high pressure fog and we just tackle the maintenance ourselves.
Speaker: I've had some of them tell us, no, we'll take care of it.
Speaker: And I say, no, you won't.
Speaker: We're going to have to do it.
Speaker: We recommend changing the oil throughout the summer on the pumps at least three times a year.
Speaker: Constantly changing filters.
Speaker: Water quality at different sites is different for everybody.
Speaker: We try to test the water at least once a year.
Speaker: Somebody could drill a new well or drop their pump deeper into the well and they could totally and completely change the water quality that's going through this high pressure system.
Speaker: We try, you know, take all the emitters out once a year before the season starts, put a new set in, put that set in some vinegar or something and get all the water hardness off of it.
Speaker: fogging systems are very intricate and there's been a lot of times in these dairies in California when I was younger when you know some of these guys wouldn't touch anything they put it in new and then they would just complain about how big a piece of junk it was but they never maintained it and a high pressure fogging system is very intricate and it needs to be maintained and you know it's just something that
Speaker: on our end, yeah, you can have your guys do it, but there's 500 other things they have to do on that dairy.
Speaker: So just let us handle that.
Speaker: We'll take care of it.
Speaker: That makes total sense.
Speaker: And I think, you know, as a dairy farmer, when you're investing your hard-earned money into these systems, you need to take care of them.
Speaker: If you're taking care of your systems, they're going to take care of you, like you said.
Speaker: You're going to be getting that payback because
Speaker: Once heat stress sets in and you're seeing that lost dollars in the bulk tank and in your reproduction, it's very costly.
Speaker: So I think this has been a really great start to our conversation.
Speaker: So I was wondering if you could share maybe some success stories or examples of dairy farms that you guys have had some routine maintenance programs on and seen some notable improvements in cow health and productivity as a result of being really diligent about maintenance.
Speaker: A lot of the people we've had have done it themselves or have us do it.
Speaker: It takes one little thing off their plate.
Speaker: You know, try to get it done.
Speaker: This time of year is perfect for it.
Speaker: You know, go in, it's, you know, we may be 70 degrees tomorrow.
Speaker: It's warm enough to run the fans.
Speaker: So turn them on, see what's not working.
Speaker: And it really eases their mind knowing that tomorrow morning or it may hit 85 degrees, the fans are going to be running.
Speaker: So with the importance of a lot of these ventilation systems now, and a lot of the situations we're putting these cows in, they gotta work.
Speaker: They can't shut down.
Speaker: So, you know, we have people now, I was talking to a producer a couple of days ago, and he's milking 105 pounds consistently throughout the year with a conception rate of 51%.
Speaker: So he knows that he's got to have everything dialed in.
Speaker: And if you do it every day, every barn's the same, you know, it's, they really, they know that these systems have to function every day.
Speaker: So, you know, not just from a production issue, but from a cow longevity issue, conception rate issue, a lameness issue.
Speaker: It just makes the whole facility run easier and smoother.
Speaker: What advice would you give to dairy farmers who are looking to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of their ventilation system with those maintenance routines?
Speaker: Put it on the calendar.
Speaker: Just do it.
Speaker: I mean, that's, and if you can't get it done, call us.
Speaker: We'll do it for you.
Speaker: I mean, that's, it's got to be done.
Speaker: You can't, you can't put those kinds of things off anymore.
Speaker: You know, there was a time you could
Speaker: But now, you know, we're looking at the current situation with the milk price now nationwide, you know, you have to be as efficient as possible.
Speaker: You've made the capital investment, you've hooked everything up, you've got it budgeted in what your power is going to cost you every year to run.
Speaker: So you need to make sure what you've budgeted in, you're going to utilize on the other end.
Speaker: So you really, just do the maintenance.
Speaker: Just get it done.
Speaker: And like I said, if there's no way, even if it's not us, if you have to bring in a third party to come in there and do fan maintenance, where you do it.
Speaker: Keep extra parts on hand.
Speaker: Keep all that stuff available so you don't have those down times.
Speaker: Because there's nothing more disruptive to a dairy than having to go in and repair stuff throughout the year.
Speaker: It's disruptive to your cows and your people and everything else.
Speaker: And when it's 105 degrees like it can get out here sometimes, tempers get short.
Speaker: So, you know, we need to make sure that you're prepared to do your part as well as, you know, as us on our end, if you're having us handled it.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Helping yourself out and helps your cows out before it's too late.
Speaker: So we're now at the end of our conversation.
Speaker: But before we go ahead and wrap up, Dennis, I've been asking everyone who's been on the Dairy Intelligent Podcast this question.
Speaker: So I'd like to know what an animal-centered environment means to you.
Speaker: Well, kind of when we started, I was talking about how life is in California and how many eyeballs are on animal agriculture already here.
Speaker: Even though we're, you know, unfortunate enough to be in the biggest dairy area in the nation, an animal-centered environment is probably more important here than it is anywhere else.
Speaker: You know, the nice thing is I work, everybody I work with, 100% of my customers are all same.
Speaker: And what a lot of people don't realize is these families care just as much about those animals as the general public does, if not more.
Speaker: And they're not, you know, there is always realities to animal agriculture that we can't get around.
Speaker: There's things that happen.
Speaker: But, you know, we really need to let the public know, you know, hey, you know how much this guy spent on fans putting in his barn?
Speaker: You know how much he spends every year keeping his cows cool?
Speaker: You know, yeah, there's a benefit on the production side, but he cares about those animals too.
Speaker: And, you know, their kids are eating dairy products.
Speaker: They want their kids to have the best thing they can get, you know, and the consumer should feel confident in knowing the strides that these California dairymen have taken.
Speaker: And I've been dealing with these guys for 30 years and the dairies I saw 30 years ago aren't even close to what we're seeing today and how much these guys have improved.
Speaker: You know, it's, it's, there's, like I said, they got to be efficient and there's realities to every business.
Speaker: We have to do the same thing, but, um,
Speaker: I think from a producer standpoint, they're the general public just like everybody else.
Speaker: They've got to see those animals every day and they've got to care about those animals every day.
Speaker: Nobody likes to see an animal in a bad situation.
Speaker: So the general public really has to understand how many hurdles these guys have overcome to be basically, I guess,
Speaker: center the entire dairy around the cow environment now.
Speaker: Not so much the farming, not so much procurement of feed.
Speaker: You know, there's always things you have to do as a business, but every single day they're concerned about what those cows are having to go through, just like anybody else that reads the newspaper or watches a news desk.
Speaker: You know, it's not like they're just people that don't care.
Speaker: They care.
Speaker: So, you know, the more we can help them
Speaker: with this animal centered environment that everybody's really around now, the more the general public will be confident that
Speaker: the producers are producing a product that they're going to consume and they're doing it in a humane way and being good stewardship.
Speaker: Really, really well said.
Speaker: So thank you again, Dennis, so much for your time and insights.
Speaker: Proper maintenance is crucial to keeping any piece of equipment running at full capacity.
Speaker: Field equipment is routinely maintained and your ventilation system and fan should not be any different.
Speaker: When you're purchasing any piece of equipment, whether it's a tractor or a fan, it's an investment that needs to be properly taken care of.
Speaker: So thank you everyone so much for listening in and we will see you in our next episode.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us for another Dairy Intelligent episode.
Speaker: We hope you have found some suggestions to improve cow comfort on your farm or simply just learn something new.
Speaker: If you have not already, please be sure to subscribe to our channel on your favorite podcast platform and let your friends know about us.
Speaker: We would love to have them listen and learn.
