Blue Sky Farms, a multisite dairy based in the Texas Panhandle, officially cut the ribbon on its newest dairy farm, Twin Circle Dairy, on June 2 in Lewis, Kan.
This $250 million dairy features state-of-the-art measures for animal comfort and efficiency, including two 120-cow rotary dairy parlors, cross-ventilated freestall barns, and animal-monitoring collars and sorting gates that help the dairy capture data on each cow 24 hours a day.
K.R. Averhoff, chief operations officer at Blue Sky, said the dairy milks 19,300 cows each day — about 1,750 head of cows milked every hour in the two rotary parlors. With another 4,400 head of dry cows and springers, that makes a total of about 23,700 cows on the Lewis farm. The farm estimates its cows make about 1 million pounds of milk a day, or as Averhoff explained, enough milk to make dairy products to feed about 800,000 people a year.
Josh McDonald, Blue Sky CFO, said once the company had a milk contract with Hilmar Cheese, it began looking at different areas in Kansas to put a new dairy. In selecting a site, Blue Sky looked for open land, water, good feed supply and proximity to haul milk to a plant — Hilmar Cheese in Dodge City is just 46 miles away.
He said the welcoming atmosphere in Edwards County was a large factor in selecting the Lewis location.
Water has been one concern for many in the community, and McDonald said that when the company applies for livestock permits, it is required to implement measures that will reduce its water use about 15% from what the land would have used as a row crop farm.
Blue Sky recycles water used on the farm to cool milk in tanks, McDonald explained, and lagoon water will be put through a methane digestor being constructed on-site. That will not only reduce odors from the farm, but it also will capture methane that can be used for local energy needs, and the water and solids will be separated and applied to crops for feeding the dairy herd.
“So, we’re producing milk, we’re making natural gas, and we’re still producing crops off the same water,” McDonald said. “And consider that historically, Edwards County has been an exporting county, shipping grain elsewhere to be used. Now there is a market for those crops here, and that’s raising the basis in this county, which puts more money in the pocket of farmers who grow it.”
Harry DeWit, CEO of Blue Sky, said the scope may turn heads, but efficiency is the key to building a dairy from the ground up.
“It’s got to be efficient for cows, for people, equipment, all of it together,” DeWit said.