Faces of Food & Fitness

Rapson Dairy - Dave Rapson Family, Hawkeye, IA

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David Rapson, his wife, five children and golden lab, Shelby, live just outside of Hawkeye, Iowa on a 70-acre dairy farm.  David grew up in Michigan, started milking at 17, and purchased his own operation in northeast Iowa nine years ago.  David, two of his sons, along with hired help, manage the herd of 300 Holsteins and one big, sweet Jersey cow.
 
Like most farms, the Rapson's cows have personalities— there are bossy cows, tame cows, and shy cows.  Their oldest cow is 14 years old.
 
The herd is milked three times a day -- before sunrise, at noon and in the evening.  Each cow wears an electronic tag in its ear which transmits a signal to a computer in the milking stall.  With this technology, the Rapson's can track how much milk each cow produces.  And, the cows produce a lot of milk – they average is 92 pounds of milk a day.  That is almost 11 gallons from each cow everyday!  

The cows have big appetites to produce so much milk.  Each cow will eat about 100 pounds of feed and drink a bathtub-full of water each day. The Rapson's also grow corn which his harvested for silage to feed the cows.  

The milk is picked up at the farm and is taken to Waterloo.  From there it's shipped across the Midwest.  

Currently, the Rapson's are building a processing facility on their farm.  They plan to make their own yogurt and sell it to local markets.     

David stresses you have to enjoy dairy, because the job is seven days a week and early hours.  He appreciates working at home with family.  David also enjoys husbandry— keeping his cows comfortable and healthy so they reward him with high quality milk.  In 2007, the Rapson's had the Top Herd in Iowa according to the Dairy Herd Improvement Association!

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