UNITED DAIRIES

Union Dairy is the “mother farm” of United Dairies, LLP. It consists of three separate areas, a dairy and milking facility, a springing heifer and dry cow facility, and a calf growing facility. It is where we freshen in all the heifers and dry cows for the sister dairies (Westland, Alpha, and Cottonwood). Over 8,000 calves are born each year on the farm. About 50 percent are Holstein and 50 percent are crossbred to Angus. We are currently transitioning to sending all heifers to Lakin Feedyard. All fresh animals stay at Union for 14 to 30 days where they are monitored and given extra care. At our dairy and milking facility, we house and milk the older cows and any cows that have lameness issues. Because we take care of all fresh animals and older cows, our employee to cow ratio is higher here than at our other sites. Our goals include providing optimum care to our young calves before they go to the grower and ensuring all fresh animals are healthy and ready to start their lactation.

Westland is our oldest dairy farm site and most diversified. Along with operating the dairy, our team handles the heifer raising, cropping, and manure management for all United’s dairies.

Westland Dairy houses 1,020 lactating cows in three freestall barns. We milk three times a day using a double-15 parallel parlor. We focus on maximizing cow comfort and animal care to ensure cows get pregnant in a timely manner.

Westland Heiferyard raises about 20 percent of United’s heifers from weaning to springing. The breeding and feeding is handled by the Westland Dairy operation and the team on site handles the animal care.

Westland Cropping and Custom's team handles the planting, spraying, tillage, and harvesting for all the dairy sites. On average we harvest about 2,600 acres of alfalfa four times per year, 1,000 acres of dry corn, and 5,400 acres of corn silage. During Spring and Fall, the custom manure team manages manure applications for each dairy as well, which amounts to 90-million gallons of run-off water, leachate from feed pads, and collected manure from dairy barns.

Our goals are to maintain healthy cows who will have longevity throughout many lactations, to raise quality beef for the finisher market, to grow sustainable crops – utilizing nutrients from our animals while promoting soil health, and to harvest quality and safe feed for our animals.

Alpha Foods was built in the mid 1990’s under previous ownership and has been expanded and modernized with cow comfort enhancements in the mid 2000’s to handle the current 1,400 lactating cows. This dairy operates as a satellite dairy to Union Dairy. We focus on maximizing cow comfort and animal care to ensure cows get pregnant in a timely manner. At Alpha Foods we procure our silage, haylage, and feed commodities for the year from our neighbors and other partner operations. We milk 1,400 cows using a double 24-parallel parlor three times a day. Our goal is to maintain a high productive cow, while averaging a 30 percent preg rate and 150 somatic cell count.

Cottonwood was built in 1999, under previous ownership and has been expanded and modernized with cow comfort enhancements in 2008, to handle the current 1,400 lactating cows. This dairy operates almost identical to Alpha Foods, as a satellite dairy to Union Dairy. We ensure cows get pregnant in a timely manner and aim for each one to reach their full potential during lactation. At Cottonwood we procure our silage, haylage, and feed commodities for the year from our neighbors and other partner operations. We milk 1,400 cows using a double 24 parallel parlor three times a day. Our goal is to maintain a productive cow, while averaging a 30 percent preg rate and 150 somatic cell count.