Upgrading for the better

FARGO, N.D. — Students are spending less time in the parlor at North Dakota State University.

Up until earlier this year, the dairy unit at NDSU was milking their cows in a double-3 tandem parlor. Now, the cows are getting milked in a double-7 herringbone parlor.

“Dairy is an important part of our education here at our animal science department and it’s nice that (the administration) sees that,” said Todd Molden, NDSU dairy unit manager.

The NDSU dairy barn milks 95 cows, which are housed in a freestall barn. At the beginning of the process, Molden and the Department of Animal Sciences at NDSU worked to get legislative funds to upgrade the parlor at the dairy unit, which they have not received at this time. When working with their administration, Molden said there were extra funds that could be allocated toward an upgrade to the parlor.

“We’re very grateful that (the administration) saw there was definitely a need here and that we were doing some good things,” Molden said. “We were milking in a parlor that hadn’t been upgraded in a really long time and we’re very grateful that they saw that as a priority and made it happen.”

Prior to the installation process, the department had to obtain at least three proposals from various businesses. The proposals they received ranged from a double-6 to a double-8, Molden said, but evidently contractors learned the existing parlor space could only fit a double-7 parlor.

Once Molden received the proposals, he brought the bids to administration to decide if the needed funding could be allocated for the project and decide which proposal to pursue.

“We’re very happy with what was done,” Molden said. “We knew we were going to get a good parlor when I saw the bids that came in and knew that I was going to be happy with any of them.”

During construction, the contactors ripped out one side at a time, which allowed the dairy to continue daily operation. Construction began at the end of February and completed about a month later.

“This whole process started probably close to a year before that, talking to administration and figuring out if this was even something that was a possibility,” Molden said.

Molden said after the upgrade, they have been able to shave off at least an hour of time per chore shift, so roughly two hours per day.

“It was taking us almost three and a half hours to milk in the old parlor,” Molden said. “It was just so slow. Then you take that time, at least (by) two people on for every chore shift, so you’re looking at between four- and six-man hours a day.”

Since the cows are used to being handled, Molden said the amount of hands-on contact made the cows more docile and adaptable to the new parlor.

“(I’m) super grateful to all the students that we had working at the time and my assistant manager, Bob,” Molden said. “He was awesome. We all spent a lot of hours here the last couple of weeks (of construction).”

Shane Paasch, farm manager, and Guillermo Scaglia, professor and animal science department head, started advocating for the dairy unit and advocating that an upgrade was needed, which helped give the campus a push to enhance the milking facility.

Molden also said from a safety perspective, the new parlor is better for employees.

“This is a billion times better than reaching across all the cows and getting kicked,” Molden said. “We’ve had no injuries since we’ve installed this parlor.”

Molden hopes to be able to use the upgrade to not only be efficient, but to educate students what a more modern dairy operation looks like.

“What we had before, there were so few dairies that were like that,” Molden said. “(It is nice) to be able to teach them what’s normal.”

The dairy unit gets class visits throughout the school year, ranging from tours to hands-on learning.

“We’re happy to have students that want to be on a campus that has a dairy,” Molden said. “It’s nice to feel like dairy is still a very important part of North Dakota.”

In the future, Molden hopes to be able to increase cow numbers on the dairy.

“If there are other improvements made (to the dairy) we feel like we could be a tremendous research facility for all kinds of different things,” Molden said.