Precision Technology to Fuel a Growing Dairy
Pat Reisinger found a passion for farming when he joined his father-in-law’s operation 20 years ago. He runs Rolinda Acres along with his wife, Kara; mother-in-law, Linda; three sons; and herdsman Sam Schwartz. The team has grown the operation, driven by a persistent passion for what they do.
“I love watching that semi leave with a load of milk or a load of hogs,” Pat says. “There are people starving in this world and we produce a lot of protein, whether it be milk or pork. And that is very rewarding to me.”
Growing operation, growing technology
As the Iowa operation grew, barriers in management and efficiency grew too. “The bigger you get, the more you have to rely on technology,” Pat says.
In 2019, Rolinda Acres started more heavily investing in technology, like robots and cow health monitors for its 800-plus head dairy.
On the feed side of their dairy operation, Pat and Sam added Performance Beef™ to their toolbox. The software helps them feed precisely and accurately, saving time along the way.
“Performance Beef is a much better way, where we can make adjustments on the fly and then track things,” says Pat.
Sam oversees day-to-day feeding at Rolinda Acres. Before Performance Beef, he would use spreadsheets from a nutritionist to create feed rations. Adjusting every load took 15 to 20 minutes daily. Performance Beef simplifies the process, gaining Sam more time in his day.
The dairy also has a few employees feeding for them at any given time.
“It just made us really efficient. It’s easy to train people with it. Having one source of truth to track each load and delivery helps us find mistakes and correct them,” Sam says.
Accuracy to better manage cost
Feed cost is one of the biggest inputs on any operation. Mistakes or miscalculations are costly, especially to a dairy operation like Rolinda Acres that relies on a precise ration to fuel high-performing cows.
Performance Beef gives the team a better handle on feed costs.
“The accuracy means more today than it ever has,” Pat says. “I think when you look at the amount of dollars of feed that it is tracking, Performance Beef is just such a huge item.”
Preparing for future growth
What’s next for Rolinda Acres? It’s adding more robots and cows on the dairy side, plus venturing into the beef cattle business. Growth and improvement continue thanks to help from technologies like Performance Beef.
“I certainly would recommend Performance Beef to a lot of people,” Sam says. “It’s simple and easy to use, and it has solved a lot of problems for us.”
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