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CapitalPress.com
June 2, 2017
Dairy family adds innovation to operation
Roger Bajema
• 350-1600 Cubic Ft.
• Low Horse Power
• Vertical Mix
• Many Discharge & Wheel Options
EQUIPMENT INC.
Lynden, WA
360-354-4546
Cell 360-815-1383
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
ROYAL CITY, Wash. —
This large dairy the Columbia
D17-2/#8
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D17-1/#13
Basin 30 miles southwest of
Moses Lake, Wash., is owned
and operated by Austin Allred
and family, who farm nearby.
The facility was original-
ly built in 2000 by the Smith
Brothers, who also ran a bot-
tling plant.
“They sold it to Nelson
Faria, who ran it a few years
then started farming in Texas
in 2008. That’s when my dad
and I got involved. In 2016 I
bought Nelson’s portion so
now it’s just our family. We
are potato farmers and grow
row crops and apples, but I
branched out into dairying,”
Allred said.
“I was fortunate to be able
to work with him for several
years before he moved to Tex-
as,” Allred said.
Most of the cows are Hol-
stein-Jersey crosses. Faria uti-
lized the best of both breeds.
“I have 1,000 purebred
Holsteins and some purebred
Jerseys but most of our cows
are crossbred. We are going
toward Jerseys; that’s what
the market dictates,” he said.
“I spend all my days milk-
ing cows and loving it,” he said.
On average of 20 calves
are born each day.
“We use sexed semen
to ensure plenty of heifer
calves,” he said. At this point
they don’t sell surplus heifers
because they are still expand-
ing cow numbers.
The family farm grows
most of the feed. Rotation
crops such as alfalfa and si-
lage work well with potatoes.
Austin and his wife, Ca-
mille, have a 3-year-old boy
named Porter and a 1-year-old
girl named Adaline.
“Their favorite thing every
morning is go check the cows.
Porter just got his first bat-
tery-powered 4-wheeler and
loves to drive back and forth
between home and the office.
My favorite thing is to have
my kids at work with me,” he
said.
“I am new in the dairy
world. I grew up growing
potatoes and apples with my
Courtesy of the Allred family
Austin Allred, his wife, Camille, and their kids, Porter and Adaline.
Royal Dairy in Washington state raises mostly Holstein-Jersey
crosses and uses a unique bio-filter that cleans its waste water.
dad. This is a new adventure,
but I have an advantage re-
garding regulations and chal-
lenges that dairies are facing
right now because I don’t
know much about the past,”
he said.
The dairy is up to date and
doesn’t have to try to change
traditional ways of doing
things, he added.
One innovation Allred has
installed is a bio-filter.
“The dairy industry has a
challenge with manure, and
liquid manure management is
the biggest challenge. We al-
ready process our green water
through a centrifuge and are
now taking it one step farther
and processing it through a
bio-flow-through system in-
stalled by BioFiltro,” Allred
said.
It utilizes large, concrete
structures that hold layers of
rocks, wood chips and shav-
ings and a top layer of earth-
worms and bacteria.
“We apply the green water
on top of that with sprinklers
and within four hours it per-
colates through and comes
out significantly cleaner. This
natural filter removes most of
the nitrogen and phosphorus,
and much of the potassium,”
he said.
The water can be put back
onto the land via pivot irriga-
tion.
They also have a valuable
by-product in worm cast-
ings. The worms consume a
lot of the wood chips along
with the nitrogen and some
of the other nutrients, he
said.
“We harvest the worm
castings, which are used as
a nutrient-dense fertilizer by
greenhouses, orchards and
gardeners,” Allred said.
“The goal is to manage
our water in a system that is
environmentally helpful rath-
er than harmful. If we have
clean water to utilize on the
dairy and farm, we use less to-
tal water, plus have the benefit
of fertilizers from solids in the
manure.”