2
CapitalPress.com
October 2, 2015
Winter requires preparations on the dairy farm
much to eat out in the pas-
ture, but they still get exer-
cise and get to go out.”
In winter the cows are
kept in a free-stall barn
where they can roam, eat,
drink or lie down at will. The
beds are rubber tires embed-
ded in concrete with sawdust
on top.
“It’s nice and cozy for
them,” his daughter, Darleen
Sichley, said, adding that de-
spite there being close to 100
1,200-pound Guernseys at
large in the open-air enclo-
sure, there’s plenty of room.
Many cows will choose a par-
ticular bed for the duration.
The new arrangements
mean all of their feed must be
delivered twice daily. A nutri-
tionist helps them re-balance
the menu to account for the
lack of grass.
“The biggest preparation
is getting feed for the year
stored,” Alan Mann said. “We
feed about 600 to 700 tons
of cannery waste corn silage,
which is in our bunker silo
now and we try to get 300 to
350 tons of Eastern Oregon
alfalfa hay under a roof before
winter weather comes.”
The cows are eating about
two 1,000-pound bales of hay
a day, the average cow eat-
By BRENNA WIEGAND
For the Capital Press
Alan and Barbara Mann
of Abiqua Acres Dairy out-
side Silverton, Ore., live
a stone’s throw from their
daughter Darleen Sichley,
son-in-law Ben Sichley and
their two young boys. The
younger couple went into
business with Darleen’s par-
ents last year.
They’re also a short
walk from the 90 registered
Guernseys they milk twice
a day. The young stock they
raise adds 100 animals.
Working six cows at a
time, each milking takes
about three hours.
“We do all the milking
ourselves, which is pretty
rare for dairy farmers,” Alan
Mann said. “My wife and I
and Darleen and Ben are the
entire crew.”
Though their day-to-
day lives maintain the same
rhythm, the cows’ lives
change with the season and
that takes planning, provision
— and extra work.
“Making sure the barns
are ready for them is a big
part of what we make time
for right now,” Alan Mann
said. “Right now there isn’t
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ing 100 pounds in return for
about 53 pounds of milk, or
about 6 gallons.
“We also increase our in-
surance coverage once all the
feed is stored to avoid a cata-
strophic loss should a fire start
in our hay barn,” he said.
Manure handling becomes
a much bigger deal when the
cows are confined, and when
it gets real cold they need to
keep ahead of the pipes so
they don’t freeze.
Should the electricity go
out a tractor-powered genera-
tor means the milking sched-
ule is not disrupted.
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“We really appreciate the
power company when we see
the amount of diesel it takes
to get through just one milk-
ing,” Barbara Mann said.
Once in a while weather
prevents the milk truck from
making it to all the farms on
the route.
“We are only allowed to
hold milk in our own stor-
age tank for 48 hours, so
there have been times when
we have had to dump milk,”
Alan Mann said. “Generally
our co-op covers that loss for
us if it is through no fault of
our own.”
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Photos by Brenna Wiegand/For the Capital Press
Darleen Sichley, left, and her mother, Barbara Mann, of Abiqua Acres Dairy tackle the twice-daily milking detail. They and their husbands,
Ben Sichley and Alan Mann, carry out all the milking themselves.
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Darleen Sichley, left, and her father, Alan Mann, handle feeding
time at Abiqua Acres Dairy. Last year Darleen and her husband,
Ben, joined her parents, Barbara and Alan Mann, in the business.