Norm gave us an interesting family history. Being of Portuguese roots, his dad moved the family to Wiggins from suburban Toronto in 1982. They started in a 50 cow partnership and quickly grew to 500 cows in 1988. In 1988, Norm returned from the Tulare farm show with plans to build a Dbl 25 parallel parlor.The basic growth driver was the size of the parlor. So the dairy continued to expand using dry lots and then moved into Freestall barns. Today at 4800 cows they now milk in a Dbl 60 parallel and a Dbl 30 parallel for special needs cows. The Dbl 30 was unique in that the cows entered in the center and the milkers were on the sides of the barn.
The farm recently received a 20000 hd permit and plan to build a new Dbl 80 parlor to allow for future growth.
The farm has about 80 employees (about 95 pct hispanic). They do all the aspects of the dairy (milking, crops and hfrs). Their labor efficiency is 62.5 cows per full time equiv.
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