DAIRY HEIFER DEVELOPMENT IN GALLIA COUNTY
Extension Education
C Richard Stephens
Extension Educator
OSU EXTENSION
GALLIPOLIS
Abstract
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\r\n Ohio’s dairy industry has expanded greatly in the last 10 years as Dutch immigrants are building new confinement facilities. These facilities want to specialize in the milk production process. The dairies are having their heifers custom raised from birth to parturition. Throughout modern history, Gallia County has been a large burley tobacco producing county until the Master Settlement Agreement took place in 2004. Now many farm families are lacking farm income and have empty barn facilities and have transitioned into a predominantly into beef cow/calf operations. The agricultural leaders in Gallia County set out to capture a piece of the custom dairy heifer raising market by using the counties existing tobacco barns and the animal husbandry skills of the county farmers. In 2009 the leaders formed a committee and procured $170,000 in grant monies from the Southern Ohio Agriculture and Community Development Foundation, The Gallia County Agricultural Center Board Inc., and the Ohio Department of Agriculture to develop an educational program for new growers & facility renovation. The committee contracted with OSU Extension to develop and implement the program. With two custom dairy heifers growers in existence, the extension educator procured contracts for four additional growers in the county. Over the two years of the program, the four farm families developed 1,497 head of dairy heifers for contracted dairies and added an estimated gross farm income of $745,000 to their operation, all while keeping a death/cull rate below 2%.
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Poster has NOT been presented at any previous NACAA AM/PIC
This poster is being submitted for judging. It will be displayed at the AM/PIC if not selected as a State winner. The abstract will be published in the proceedings.
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Authors: C.D. Penrose, C.R. Stephens
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Penrose, C. Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension, Ohio, 43756
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Stephens, C. Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension, Ohio, 45631