Herondale Holsteins

Calving Facility Project

A 4th generation, multi-enterprise dairy farm, Herondale Holsteins leveraged a Delaware County Farm Enhancement grant to improve their calf rearing system. As a farm that prides itself on animal husbandry, raising healthy vigorous calves is essential to their entire herd management program. Over the years, the farm has made significant investments in facilities for the dairy cows, and the heifers; this grant came at the right time as the farm was turning their attention to the calf facilities and got waylaid when the COVID pandemic hit.

The grant defrayed some of the costs to remove the existing structure and rebuild a new facility from the ground up. The new facility allows for individual stalls for each calf, adequate ventilation, free access to water and an abundance of natural light. While herd health has been a point of pride on the farm, this new facility ensures calves thrive, with enhanced growth rates. Ultimately this will allow Herondale to have a closed herd, not bringing any new cattle into the herd, reducing the risk of disease exposure. Quality animals, producing quality milk, with an added advantage of extra income from merchandising replacement heifers is a much-appreciated benefit of the calf rearing system project supported through a Farm Enhancement Grant.

Last updated July 16, 2025