Shamrock dairy Arizona

Chris English · Sep 18, 2016

Anyone ever take the farm tour at Shamrock dairy in Stansfeild Arizona?
Going in late October and looking forward to it!

Rons b · Sep 18, 2016

No didn't know they had tours. Do they have a web site you can go to make reservations?

Chris English · Sep 18, 2016

Yes,

https://www.shamrockfarms.net/farm-tour/

Requesting reservations just opened up Sept 15th

Tom OConnor · Sep 18, 2016

Chris, There is another large dairy operation east of Tuson and south of Wilcox, Arizona that I was at last winter that is just getting underway. I think that they will also have capacity of milking 10,000 cows when they are at full production. If I remember correctly there headquarters is in Minnesota.

Hoofer B · Sep 19, 2016

Yes, It is a well run dairy.

INCase · Sep 19, 2016

where do they get enough hay and Forage in Arizona? are they in a location to raise corn and hay??

Tom OConnor · Sep 19, 2016

There is a lot of prime irrigated farm land in the state of Arizona and with the heat units and water they cut alfalfa about every thirty days. I will try to bring up some pictures that I took last winter out there.They will sometimes double crop wheat after silage corn and chop the wheat in the dough stage. After crop farming most of my life I would begrudge that old cow every mouthful of that chopped wheat silage that she ate. I milked cows for many years and I know that their is nothing that will come back to haunt you quicker than to let a good dairy cow get hungry but when you see 200 bu plus corn and 100 bu plus wheat chopped up for cow feed you wonder. I think that I was more of a farmer than a dairyman. Maybee I enjoyed running a combine but then again running one of those new choppers would be enjoyable.

INCase · Sep 19, 2016

didn't realize they did flood irrigation like they do in the imperial valley in Calif.

used to test hay tools in Imp valley when i was at Gehl 20 years ago. VERY hot place to work in July.

do they use misters to keep the cows "cool"?

IA Roy · Sep 19, 2016

They are still paying 1930's prices for water thanks to congress. That is a lot different than the price of anything else from that era! As with anything that the government controls, it distorts the true cost!!!!!!

Eldon (WA) · Sep 19, 2016

(quoted from post at 09:05:51 09/19/16) where do they get enough hay and Forage in Arizona? are they in a location to raise corn and hay??

Go to any of those areas and look at them on google earth....you will be amazed at all the green circles in some of the valleys.

Tom OConnor · Sep 19, 2016

Roy,

I was told that they are paying about $300.00 per acre per year depending how much they use and it was comparable to the San Joaquin Valley in California. The source is the Colorado River and it comes through the Central Arizona Aqueduct System. I don't know what the price was in the thritys but I would think that you could have bought the entire valley in the thritys for $300.00 per acre.

Richard from SE AZ · Sep 20, 2016

The place South of Wilcox you are talking about is no longer called Faria Dairy. It is now Coronado. They still milk quite a few cows ( don't know how many ). Now they mainly raise dairy cattle for sale. At this time they have about 84,000 head. They grow almost all of their own silage. I live about 20 miles from there.

Richard from SE AZ · Sep 20, 2016

There are hundreds of farms in the valley I live in. All irrigated by pivots(those circles you see on Google Earth}. They grow primarily corn for silage or for ethanol. They also grow a LOT of clover hay, grass hay, and alfalfa. Beans and cotton are also grown as well as maize. A big thing now are pecan and pistachio groves. Vineyards and wineries are becoming a big thing also. The problem now is that most homes get their water from private wells and most domestic wells are from 300 to 350 feet deep. The farmers have drilled thousands of wells anywhere from 700 to 1400 feet deep and some deeper. As a result, a lot of the domestic wells are going dry and people have to haul water from wherever they can get it.

Tom OConnor · Sep 20, 2016

Richard, You are so right about all the different crops grown in your area. I was so surprised to see the vineyards and nut production. If I remember the story the large dairy operation was started by one of the Portugese farmers who was originally from Oarnge County, California and sold to a large operation from Minnesota. I don't think that anything would grow with out the water. It looks like the life blood of the area. It is certainly a very beautiful area that you live in. I wasn't able to spend much time there but I was very impressed. Tom

Shamrock dairy Arizona

Chris English

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IA Roy

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