Oakridge-Bahler Farm is one of the top-producing and most successful dairies in the Eastern U.S. The third-generation dairy owned by Vern, Dave and Dan Bahler has earned numerous awards for its progressive practices, including Connecticut’s ‘Dairy of Distinction’ award and the New England Green Pastures Award.

Under the direction of Dave Hartford, dairy operations manager, Oakridge-Bahler Farm has doubled in size over the last ten years. The herd currently stands at 1,875 cows with 1,600 in the milking string. Hartford attributes much of the dairy’s success to its colostrum harvest management program designed to reduce calf scours. “We’ve been involved for a number of years with a product called Scour Bos, marketed through Novartis, we’ve been using it about 12 years,” Dave said during an interview at World Dairy Expo. “We vaccinate the mothers before they calve and the immunity for scours comes through their colostrum.”

They harvest the colostrum, refrigerate it within ten minutes, and throw it out if it is not used within three days. “We just have general commonsense animal husbandry, things that work good for us,” Dave says. He adds that Oakridge-Bahler is up to 800 female calves a year and last year they only lost five.

Listen to my interview with Dave from World Dairy Expo here. Dave Hartford Interview

2010 World Dairy Expo Photo Album

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