The
farm:
Lenkaitis Holsteins is a family farm operation that started
in St. Charles, Illinois in 1983. It began as a mere five animal herd
and now consists of 60 animals housed on-site. The farm was updated
after purchase by completely renovating the milking barn, as well
as adding a manure pit and manure auger. The original interest for
the farm began with Albert Lenkaitis
Sr. who was raised on a dairy farm. He purchased the farm as a
way to raise his children, Al Jr., Elizabeth, Victoria, and Andrew.
Now that the children are grown, the grandchildren are learning how
to milk the cows and are showing their animals at the county fair.
Nestled in a suburb of Chicago and surrounded by urban sprawl, it
is one of the few remaining dairy farms in the county. The small rural
community that once housed the farm has since incorporated. It is
now located in the Village of Campton Hills.
The Family:
Our herd is run by Albert Jr. who has been the farm manager since
1996. He attended the University of Illinois and received a bachelor
degree in Agricultural Mechanization, minoring in Animal Sciences.
Al Jr. and his wife Rhonda now have four children: Briley (10),
AJ (8), Caden (6), and Denver (9 months). Briley and AJ are actively
involved in 4-H and show their prize holsteins at the local fairs.
Al serves on several local
advisory boards, and is a director for the Kane County Farm Bureau.
In April 2007 when the Village of Campton was formed Al became a
Village Trustee.
Elizabeth
also attended the University of Illinois and obtained a degree in
Agricultural Communications with an emphasis in advertising. She
is now VP of Dorn Marketing in Geneva, IL. She and her husband,
James Dorn, have three children: JT (6), Katelyn (4), and Ella (2).
Victoria
graduated from Cornell with a major in Animal Science and is now
working on their farm in Popular Grove, IL. Vicky married Ryan Stohlquist
and they now breed and sell award winning show pigs. They have two
children: Ethan (5), and Isabel (3).
Andrew
is a graduate of University of Illinois with degrees in Ag Engineering
and Ag Sciences. Currently he lives in Wasco and works for GEA Houle.
Andy was newly married in the fall of 2011 to Sarah Gahldi.
Our
breeding philosophy:
The farm's breeding program starts with breeding all
of our animals from the top ten bulls in the Red and White and Holstein
breed. We combine breeding for protein and production. Bulls are
also chosen for PTAP and PTAF.
We aim to produce VG and Excellent mammary systems. 50% of our herd
are P9's (top 10% of the Holstein breed) while one percent is in
the top one percent of the breed for CTPI. To complement our breeding
program an intensive flush program has been implemented. This program
was started in 1992 and 95% of the flushing is done on the home
farm.
Our
feeding program:
Sixteen years ago, a Rissler self-contained in-barn Total Mixed
Rations (TMR) cart was purchased and proved very beneficial for
increased milk production. Currently, the herd is fed six times
a day with a production level goal of 85# of milk, 4.0% fat, and
3.6% of protein. The TMR cart mix includes corn silage, haylage,
cottonseed, and brewers grain. Twenty-three percent protein hay
is also fed twice daily to the cows.
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