(Lewis) Corn harvest moved at a brisk pace on Monday afternoon at Milk Unlimited near Lewis in Cass County. Two large machines cruised through the cornfield chopping corn for the dairy operation in production since the late 1990s.
Kelly and Christy Cunningham, owner-operators and their 35-employees milk three times per day, 24-hours per day, 365 days a year, in a parallel-style parlor.
The Cunningham’s chop around 35,000 tons of corn silage and Kelly is hopeful this year’s crop yields around 24-tons per acre. Although Kelly admits this year’s crop isn’t a record-breaker, it certainly isn’t a crop failure considering the drought conditions. “The crop is really good considering what it’s been through,” said Cunningham.
The corn silage is part of a diet that helps fuel the milk production of around 2,800 dairy cows out of the 3,400 in the operation. “We put out a little over seven-million pounds of milk per month, and the majority of milk goes to Cheddar Cheese,” explained Cunningham.
Milk unlimited is a member of a COOP selling to Associated Milk Producers. The milk goes to a cheese plant in Sanborn, Iowa, located in the northwest portion of the state. The Cheese is sold to various companies in the United States.
COVID-19 brought numerous challenges to all public and private sectors, and Milk Unlimited is no exception. “We’ve done a lot of educating and talked to the employees about avoiding large crowds, or interacting with people they’re not familiar with,” said Kelly Cunningham. “We’ve laid low for a while, and we been fortunate no one has tested positive here at the dairy.
Besides, his passion for the dairy industry, for fun-Kelly is a mountain climber, having scaled three of the seven largest mountain peaks in the world. We will have more on Kelly’s adventures coming in the near future.
