Table 1.

Characteristics of sampled dairy farms in high plains U.S. monitored 2007–2011.

	Farm 1	Farm 2	Farm 3	Farm 4	Farm 5	Farm 6	Farm 7	Farm 8	Farm 9	Total
Approximate year farm established	1999	2004	1987	1999	2006	1996	2006	2004	2009
Milking cows	2,200	3,000	680	1,000	2,100	2,400	3,500	791	2,500
Milking stalls	56	70	16	38	40	60	40	34	80
Parlor type	Parallel	Parallel	Herring	Parallel	Herring	Herring	Parallel	Herring	Parallel
Location	WY	CO	CO	CO	CO	CO	CO	CO	CO
Season	Fall	Fall	Spr	Spr-Fall	Spr-Sum	Sum	Sum-Spr	Win	Spr
Year monitored	2008	2008	2009	2009–10	2009–10	2009	2009–10	2011	2011
Total approx. work force	15	40	30	23	26	38	80	21	28	301
No. employees monitored	5	5	4	11	20	8	42	6	14	115
Work shift (hours)	(12)	(10–12)	(8–10)	(8–10)	(2–9)	(10–11)	(8–9)	(8–9)	(7–10)
Tasks monitored
Milking	0	0	2	1	9	1	18	1	6	38 (33.0%)
Medical	0	0	0	3	6	4	12	1	2	28 (24.3%)
Multiple	4	5	2	3	1	0	3	3	1	22 (19.1%)
Rebedding	0	0	0	3	1	2	3	0	0	9 (7.8%)
Feeding	1	0	0	1	2	0	1	0	1	6 (5.2%)
Other	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	2	5 (4.3%)
Moving	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	1	4 (3.5%)
Maintenance	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	3 (2.6%)