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In this episode of Cow-Side Conversations, we welcome our first-ever dairy producer from outside of Pennsylvania. Dee Shafer of Shafdon Farms in Jefferson, Maryland describes her family’s 10-year journey of trying to turn things around financially – moving from a place of being financially strapped with lenders turning them away to financially strong and profitable. Some of their most significant adjustments involved bringing in a Profit Team, revamping their cropping strategy, increasing their herd size to maximize their facilities and boost production, and always remembering their faith. Since 2017, they have added about 200 cows to their herd, lowered their breakeven cost by close to $3 per hundredweight, and officially hit over 30,000 pounds of milk per day for their now 400-cow herd. While Dee says they still don’t have it all figured out, she shares the little things they focus on to save time, boost cash flow, reduce equipment costs, tighten their breeding strategies, and lower their breakeven cost.

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In this episode of Cow-Side Conversations, Jennifer Metzler of Pleasant View Farms in Blair County, Pennsylvania opens up about an unexpected parlor fire and describes the aftermath – and recovery – for their 3,700-cow herd. Jennifer describes the on-the-spot decisions her family had to make and how humbled they were by the way their community showed up to support them. A total of 13 farms across Blair, Bedford and Huntingdon Counties took their cows in, and thanks to their community, they had all of their cows moved out to these different farms by 10:30am that morning, only a couple hours after the fire started. Jennifer also reflects on new opportunities that came from the fire, steps they’ve taken to prevent this type of emergency from happening again, and how a satellite dairy that’s four miles away from their home farm helped speed up the recovery process.

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In this episode of Cow-Side Conversations, Zach Kreger of Kreger Farms in Tioga County, Pennsylvania describes how he and his wife, Heidi, have made slow and steady progress over the last 11 years on his family’s 75-cow dairy farm. From simple improvements like implementing a TMR mixer and tunnel ventilation to steady progress with transition planning and herd health, the Kregers have almost doubled production in a short amount of time. Zach focuses on finding bottlenecks that are holding the cows back and making everyday improvements to set the herd up for success. As a small dairy operation with no other outside income, Zach also shares ways they hold themselves accountable and inventive ideas they’ve found to achieve labor savings – such as installing a robotic feed pusher in their tie-stall barn.