Grazing scene on Biltmore Dairy Farms.
Biltmore
Dairy Farms
They constitute one of I he out¬
standing projects of their kind in
the world. More than 1. 000 regis¬
tered Jerseys are in the various
herds on the farms.
WE were sitting in Judge
Junius G. Adams’ office in
Asheville. The Judge is one
of the leading lawyers of western
North Carolina. He also is the
managing trustee and President of
The Biltmore Company and presi¬
dent of The American Jersey Cat¬
tle Club.
“I phoned George Wallis just a
little while ago,” said Judge
Adams, “and he’ll be here any
minute. He’s our farm director
and as he has held that job success¬
fully for nineteen years, he’ll be
able to tell you anything you want
to know about the farm. I am
sorry that the general manager,
Mr. Mitchell, is in Raleigh attend¬
ing a dairy meeting.”
We chatted a few minutes longer,
and then Mr. Wallis appeared. The
Judge said he’d see us later.
“You've been on the estate be¬
fore, haven’t you?” inquired Mr.
Wallis as we drove out toward
Biltmore.
"Several times,” we told him,
"but not in the last four or five
years.”
"I think you’ll be interested in
seeing the farms,” he continued.
“Our herd of Jerseys has increased
ie
considerably and we’ve also made
a number of improvements. We
now have the second largest herd
of registered Jerseys in the United
States, which means in the world."
"How many?" we asked.
"Over a thousand. I believe
that Knolle Brothers, out in Texas,
have a few more than we have.”
We passed through the Biltmore
Lodge Gate and entered the
grounds of the estate. Everything
was just as lovely and just as well-
kept as we had last seen it. Each
year thousands of people have
visited Biltmore but at the present
time, due to war conditions, the
estate has been closed to the pub¬
lic. The only folks who are allowed
to visit Biltmore House and other
parts of the estate are service-men
and their families. Almost every
day, three or four army or navy
bus-loads pass through the gate
and tour the grounds. They get
a big kick out of it.
Mr. Wallis stopped the car in
front of the main cattle and feed
barn. The right wing of the struc¬
ture is devoted to the storage of
feeds. Here are housed vast quan¬
tities of hay and such grains as
corn, barley, oats and rye — all
home-grown on the 12,000-
acre estate. Here, too, are
four tremendous silos, each
holding 400 tons of ensi¬
lage. In the left foreground
is the certified milk cooling
and bottling plant, and be¬
yond this are the living
quarters of the Jerseys and
in close proximity is the
veterinarian’s laboratory
where the health of the
herd is constantly safe¬
guarded.
Everything is kept metic¬
ulously clean. A total of
187 cows are housed in the
main barn. A visitors' gal¬
lery has been provided so
that a portion of the herd
and the automatic milking
operations may be observed.
"Don’t you have a lot of trouble
getting the cows in and out of the
milking room and back to their
right stalls?” we inquired.
"Not a bit," replied Mr. Wallis.
"After a little while, each cow
knows exactly which stanchion
she’s supposed to occupy. Oc¬
casionally, however, one of them
will get absent-minded, or some¬
thing, and will get into the wrong
place. When that happens, some
of the other cows immediately
start bellowing to call our atten¬
tion to what has occurred. It's
just a plain case of tattling.”
Until our visit to Biltmore re¬
cently, we had an idea that farm¬
ing operations were carried on in
one tremendous unit, but Mr. Wal¬
lis informed us that this isn't true.
There really are eleven different
units. Each of these has its own
herd, its own barn, its own pastures
and its own individual herd man¬
agement and is operated under ac¬
curate cost systems. Every day
trucks pick up the milk and take
it to the main dairy plant, which
is located just across the road
from the main barn. Here more
than 25,000 square feet of floor
space is devoted exclusively to the
processing of Biltmore Dairy prod¬
ucts. No expense is spared to pro¬
vide such equipment and facilities
as will assure the finest and purest
of dairy products for every Bilt¬
more customer. And in every de¬
partment. scrupulous sanitation
practices prevail.
The regard for cleanliness that
is a vital part of Biltmore Dairy
Farms tradition also extends to the
grounds. Visitors are always im¬
pressed with the carefully kept
lawns, the inviting flower plots
and the pleasing landscape effects
