Eastern Iowa Farmer Spring 2021

mother nature
“I talked about how
we are a family, and
we do hold each
other up. We are
all together as one
dairy farm.”
— Hillary burken
He knew the Burkens operated Blue Hyll
Dairy, just outside the city limits of Clinton.
Taking on 250 head of cows is no small
matter. Blue Hyll owner Marty Burken told
Franck his dairy simply did not have the space
to house all the cows, but they could probably
accommodate 50 head. The conversation
wrapped up with Franck telling Burken he
appreciated it and would see what he needed
moving forward.
At 2 a.m. the phone rang again. This time it
was a pair of semi drivers wondering where
they could drop off the cows.
“We were confused,” said Hillary Burken,
Marty’s daughter who is a junior at Clinton
High School and also is the Clinton County
Dairy Princess. “We didn’t realize they had
planned to bring the cows to the farm that
night.”
Burken, who has been involved in the
dairy’s operation her whole life, said while
this was not the first time the farm has fostered
cows, it is the largest number of fosters she
remembers.
The Burkens were among many farmers in
Iowa who answered the call to house animals
displaced by the Aug. 10 storm that damaged
or destroyed more than 8,300 buildings in
Iowa, including livestock barns, and sent calf
huts and other structures hurling through the
air.
The first thing the Burkens did was get the
newly arrived cows into the parlor to get them
milked. After taking care of their immediate
needs, Burken and her father worked until daylight
moving their own cows around to create
pens to house the new animals.
These new cows could not be mixed in with
Burken’s own herd at first because it posed a
biosecurity risk, so they were separated out
and underwent a veterinary check the very
next day. The next morning also brought a
call to the farm’s nutritionist at Agri-King in
Fulton.
“We couldn’t just start feeding the cows our
feed ration,” Burken said. “When you switch
feed on an animal it can cause them to get
sick.”
In the case of dairy cows, the added stress of
new feed on top of a new environment could
also cause a drop in milk production.
“Eventually the farmer from Cedar Rapids
We added a new member to our crew.
What can our Grandpa fix for you?
oil Change, lube & Filter •
tire Sales, Repair •
Wheel alignment •
Engines, transmission Repair •
tune up for Cars and trucks •
auto Sales •
J&S Auto
Specialists
Jeff & Sherry Baker, OwnerS
563-652-6100
401 E. Platt • MaquokEta, Ia
Pictured: J&S Auto owners’
grandkids left to right,
william kirk, addilynn kirk,
Milo Baker and Jackson Baker.
74 Eastern Iowa Farmer | Spring 2021 eifarmer.com