Huls Dairy by Misty Gottsch
Since the start of the Huls dairy farm in 1908, cows have been milked there everyday in one form or the other. That includes holidays and even times when the Huls suffer from a death in the family said Dan Huls who is the great-grandson of the founder of the Huls Dairy Farm.
The Huls Dairy Farm has been owned and operated from generation to generation in the Huls family for 100 years. “It’s a blessing that the family gets to work so closely together,” said Tim Huls, “but it can also be challenging.” When the Huls first began operation they started out with 40 acres that have now grown to 600.
The farm has become quite a bit more advanced since 1908 when everything was done by hand. They’ve invested in a milking carousel that milks 20 cows at a time. With the carousel Huls Dairy can produce an average of 80 lbs. of milk a cow each day said Dan. Each cow has identification in the system that helps maintain each cows output. This identification system keeps track of the productivity of each cow and if any production goes out of the cows range the computer will flag that cow. It also can establish the cows stress and help the monitors of the system to catch it before the stress level becomes clinical Dan said.
There are always 800 cows on the farm at any given time said Dan. The cows are all artificially inseminated by semen that has been controlled so all their calves have a low birth weight. All the female cows are kept on the farm and the male cows are sold in the spring. If the supply of the male cows exceeds the demand then those cows are given away said Dan, “we just don’t have the heart to clunk them in the head.” The cows are born with bobbed tails, which helps keep them clean and healthy and helps prevent injury to the cow when they are strapped in the carousel. The bobbed tails also help with convenience and cleanliness for the crew.
Around 2002-03 Huls Dairy started growing corn to provide lots of energy and nutrition to the cows said Dan. The Dairy farm has a small 160 acres of corn and gets help from the Speery family to harvest it. The Speery family helps harvest corn for five other people in the Bitterroot area.
Because Huls Dairy farm has been growing so much since it first got started in 1908 the Huls family have been adding new systems to help improve the well being of their farm and also the neighbors around them.
Recently a methane digester has been incorporated in with the rest of the farm. The methane digester is not yet in full use because there are still some technicalities that need to be worked out said Dan. In the end the methane digester will be able to digest the feces of the cows and turn it into methane gas. That gas will be used to generate electricity, which will be more economically reasonable for them, Dan said. The digester will also help eliminate the smell in the area. All their neighbors are really supportive as of now, but they want to be environmentally friendly for future residence said Dan.