Walnut Hill: VanPelt Farm

The Van Pelt Dairy Farm is located on Highway 97 in the Walnut Hill community.

Hundreds of acres of feed corn are grown along Highway 97.

In between corn fields there are pastures were the dairy cows graze.

Corn fields front Highway 97 for several miles.

The south end of the Van Pelt Dairy Farm is bordered by Gobbler Road. There are approximately three miles of corn fields along Gobbler Road which end to the east on Sandy Hollow Road.

The heifer barn is on the right. The milking barn is in the center of the frame.

The cows are leaving the milking barn. They are milked in shifts of 16 cows. The entire herd is processed between 1:40 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. and again in the afternoon beginning at 1:00 p.m. finishing around 5:30 p.m..

There are three milkers who work in two shifts every day.

Jan McCune places the milking machine on the cow’s udders. The machine pulls a 30 pound pressure to complete the evacuation process in 5 to 15 minutes depending on the quanitity of milk.

Jan gets a “kiss” from her favorite Mama cow, No. 62. Cows wear collars and are named by number.

No. 62 is a friendly cow. The cows are in a holding pen, waiting to be called into the milking barn.

Cleaning the milking barn floor during shifts is a continous task.

Jan explains the gestation tabulator. The cycles and pregnancy of each cow is plotted.

George Van Pelt demonstrates the process of artificial insemination.