Two LaSalle County farm families celebrated the opening of their new cattle barns by hosting an Open House and Ribbon Cutting event on Saturday, June 11. The Alan Adams family and the Gary Dau family welcomed more than 150 people to their farms on a day filled with sunshine, conversation and grilled burgers.

The Adams family cuts the ribbon celebrating the opening of their new 500 head cattle barn and bringing on the sixth generation to farm in LaSalle County. Pictured are (left to right) – Ross, Alan, JoAnn, Jessie and Addie Adams. (Photo: Maiers Ag Consulting)

Gary and his wife Jean recently built a new cattle barn to help bring their son Ken back to their 1,200 acre corn, soybean, wheat and cattle farm. The deep-pit monoslope barn built in spring 2015 will house 850 head of cattle. The 57’ x 520’ barn has rubber mats on the slats. “Animal comfort is first and foremost with this barn,” Dau says. “The cattle stay cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. The cattle’s comfort level is reflected in their performance.”

A few miles down the road, the Adams family has been farming since the 1840’s. Alan and his wife JoAnn farm with their son Ross and his wife Jessie raise 1,160 acres of corn, soybeans and alfalfa. They have 55 cows and finish 1,300 – 1,500 head of cattle per year.

Adams says they use the dry-pack barn, with corn stalk bedding, to start the feeder calves and then move the calves to the deep-pit barn with rubber mats on slats.

“It’s a pleasure to spend time in those barns. We’ve done enough with other barns to have a clear idea of what we wanted to do,” Adams says. “Besides cow comfort, we wanted to make it easier for us. We wanted to design a barn so the person checking the herd wouldn’t think twice about pulling an animal from the pen and putting them in a chute to check them.”

The Dau family celebrates the opening of their new 850 head cattle barn at the Open House. Pictured are (left to right, back row) Jean Dau, Gary Dau, Ken Dau, Crystal Dau, and Tom Kotora - Dau farm hired hand; (front row) Gary and Jean’s granddaughter’s Caylin and Reagan Cantlin. (Photo: Maiers Ag Consulting)

Dau and Adams say producers traveled from as far as Pittsfield and north of Champaign to see if the hoop barn or monoslope barn would fit on their operations. The farmers asked technical questions about the new buildings, from construction to insulation.

Several neighbors also stopped by the event.

“We were able to explain how our cattle operation works,” Dau says. “We feed our cattle with the grain we produce and the liquid manure from the barns is injected in fields for fertilizer. It’s good for everyone to understand the process.”

Adams says he met a couple from the neighboring subdivision; they were curious about the new building. After showing his neighbors around the farm, Adams offered them “free organic cattle manure” as a way to make up for days when the wind blows in their direction.

Adams says they gladly accepted the offer.