Day in the Life of a Dairy Farmer (126)

Dairy Farmer Day in the Life - This week, I'm taking you through part of my day as a dairy farmer in North Dakota.
*COWS & CO CREAMERY* If you're interested in placing a CHEESE or GELATO order, the link is included below:
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If you have any questions about this week's video, leave them in the comments, and I will post a Q&A video on Sunday if needed. As always, thanks for watching!
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My name is Piet van Bedaf, together with my wife and my parents, we own and operate a family dairy farm in North Dakota. We are originally from the Netherlands, and immigrated to Canada first and then the United States in 2008. Subscribe and follow along to see the ins and outs of a modern day dairy farm!
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[@alisciamarotta3888]

Thank you for the tag along, Piet.... Really enjoyed the video.

[@user-zu2bw7ig5v]

Great video you should do one of these every couple months!

[@keithvanpolen9049]

Farm is looking good.

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Thank you!

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Thank you!

[@tquick3321]

Pete I been watching you for several months. I have never commented on your videos. I just wanna say I appreciate you here in the U.S. and doing the right things. Both as you lead the farm by example you still find time with your family and find the little things in life. I am so excited to see all your future videos% keep swinging for the fences.

[@tquick3321]

Apology on name my phone wouldn’t let me type it correct

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Thanks for watching!

[@vincentdevos8982]

Thats what you should do , put yourself in the buyers shoes when you sell your stock unless it 'burger ' time !

[@johnfarmer1691]

good clean farm

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Thank you!

[@Michael-8903]

The front gates you ordered were not the right length, but it looks like they fit nicely against the existing posts

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Yes, it seems to be working fairly well so far!

[@mikebrooks6126]

Curious about the number of employees you have? Are they on separate teams? Do you have a hard time recruiting local workers?

[@keithvanpolen9049]

Good questions , I have wondered the same things.

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

We have 23 full time employees. For the most part everyone works a specific job on the farm, including milking, herd health, feeding and calf care. We've had fairly good success retaining employees, if we're looking to hire someone it's typically through our current employees.

[@mikebrooks6126]

Thanks@@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047

[@ryanmcguire9262]

Maybe i missed in another video are you working towards a % of replacement and breeding to angus for calving ease?

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Yes, we know roughly how many heifer calves we need per month so we're breeding a certain amount of heifers and cows to sorted holstein semen and all other cows to limousine and other heifers to Angus.

[@ellenl.5581]

I just found your tube channel. I scanned your vids and watched a couple. I did not see what you do with your bull calves. I know that can be a difficult subject.

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Our bull calves are raised for beef by two local farms. They are picked up from our farm and raised up to about 1400 lbs, similar to a beef steer.

[@chrisdillon4164]

Hi, can you show us the difference in production, health and fertility between the highest heifers for genomics from the ones you are milking and how much financial benefits and time savings from the most healthy, fertility and high production cattle so far in your experience with just selecting on data to pick out and sell the lowest ones on numbers as I am sure you have a good eye for cattle and a big change to select this way now.

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Yes, I can talk about this in a future video! The top 25% produces about 15 lbs more milk per day, has 10% higher conceptions rates and almost 50% lower incidence of disease compared to the bottom 25%.

[@Fem1989]

Heb je een herdmanager voor de koeien? Hoe hou je overzicht op zon groot bedrijf? De boerderij ziet er heel netjes uit. Hoe hoog is het vervangingspercentage bij de koeien?

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Yes, we have a team of 4 herdsman that do all of our herd health work and breeding. Thank you, my dad likes to keep everything in order and our guys know that as well. Our replacement rate is around 30%.

[@sehamhart8750]

😊

[@BenWaldner-x4t]

How much bypass fat do you feed your milk cows and what kind THANKS

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

We're feeding 0.1 lbs of magna palm to our cows and add an additional 0.1 lbs of megalac to our fresh pen load.

[@BenWaldner-x4t]

Do you feed anything else to help with butter fat we feed .6lbs of magna palm per cow ? if it is worth it Thanks @@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047

[@Rob-zx8lm]

How do yo confirm pregnancy & due date? Ultrasound?

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

We confirm pregnancy by palpitation and know due date based on the day the cow or heifer was bred.

[@timjorden8329]

What is your favourite thing to watch on KZbin?

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Other dairy farmers haha. I like to watch 10th generation dairy farmer and saskdutchkid.

[@timjorden8329]

I watch them as well

[@jerseyscows8553]

Salut, très belle vidéo de ta ferme ! Est ce qu'il serait possible de la visiter si je viens un jour aux Etats Unis ? Bonne journée

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Yes, no problem.

[@jerseyscows8553]

@@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047 Merci beaucoup, j'aimerais visiter les États Unis et quelques fermes laitières après mon séjour au Canada. Je vous tiendrais informé si je viens vous voir ! Bonne continuation !

[@JulianZach-w4i]

Hello Piet, im Julian a Farmingstudent from Germany. This Juli i finish my education and for August to September im searching a intership on a big dairy farm in the USA. Do you take Students for intership on your Farm? Can we contakt with E-Mail? Best greets from germany!

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Hi Julian, we are not accepting students for internships currently.

[@boertjejanvh3696]

Boer en vader zijn tegelijkertijd.... uitdagende opdracht. 😂

[@edelm6062]

Do you use sexed semen? I haven't been subscribed to the channel very long, so it's good to see you walk through your barns. Your overall herd numbers must be pretty high. Mighty impressive farm.

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Yes, we do use sorted semen. We use holstein sorted semen and beef semen, no conventional holstein semen.

[@scottpugh1439]

How many cows are you milking ?

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

We're milking 1600 cows.

[@mikesfarmmikesfarm3977]

I understand your position, but its a sad day to start collecting data that will surely be used in the next couple years by govt to shut you down and other similar farms. No reply requested.

[@pietvanbedaf-nddairyfarmer9047]

Personally, I believe the opposite is more likely. At some point in the future we will be required show what we're doing to be more efficient and more sustainable.