Cow comfortCow comfort was the goal when Terry Timmons (pictured below) built a new free stall barn on his dairy farm near Loudonville, Ohio. Timmons and his father milk 200 head of registered Holsteins. Larger stalls with more "lunge space" in the front help their cows get up and down easier now, says Timmons. Their old barn, built in the 1970s, had small stalls that were closed in the front. The new stalls were made locally by Stein-Way Equipment fencestretcher in Apple Creek, Ohio. The bedding is sand.The barn was built in August 2001 for $500 a stall, including electricity and water. Timmons says the investment has already paid off in better cow health.

Willis bought the Bobcat and attachments used from his local dealer for about $11,000. Money well spent, he says. He uses it to move pallets of feed, move calf huts, and clean the barn. The green box shown in the photo above is actually a hog hauler Willis picked up at a local auction. It will fencestretcher hold four calves on the front of the skid steer when it comes time to move them from huts to the barn for weaning and processing. His older barn has been remodeled, and the skid steer slides perfectly down the aisles and into the pens for cleaning. Anything bigger wouldn''t fit, says Willis.Some producers cite purchase of a skid steer as their best recent management change.

"Purchasing a Bobcat for general farm use has been a lifesaver -- for loading hay, cleaning out fence rows, hauling rocks, etc.," writes Jeff Suess, Henley, Missouri. The Gehl skid steer saves me time, labor, and my back. I use it more than I thought I would," says Bill Haas, Bellevue, Ohio.ATV ready to rodeoATVs are near the top of the list of products rated by Stockmen''s Survey[TM] respondents. Well over half of participants cite a favorite brand or model. "I''d be lost without my ATVs," says Marty Green of Grand Mound, Iowa (pictured above). He jumps on either his Polaris 300 or 400 4x4 every day April through September to check calves for scours, pinkeye and lameness, to check cows for heat detection, to fix fence, and to move cattle to different paddocks fencestretcher.