Source : Hardie Farms - Innovation Center For US Dairy

“My personal philosophy is that we need to be supportive of ideas that may or may not end up having merit. Different practices work for different farms. But innovation is how you move up the ladder of success." - Skip Hardie

Hardie Farms was an early adopter of:

• Variable speed pumps
• Drag hosing

Philosophy of continuous improvement

Hardie Farms is known for being innovative; as Skip Hardie says, “we’ve tried many different things; some have been ahead of the curve and some weren’t even close to the curve.” He has a few good stories about practices that he adopted earlier than most, including the variable speed vacuum pump, which he installed back in 1998. The pump has saved Hardie Farms a considerable amount of electricity over the last ten years and is a good example of a best management practices that works from both an economic and an environmental perspective.

Another example relates to how Skip applies manure to the land. Early on, Hardie Farms tried irrigation equipment to distribute manure. As he tells the story, it was “smelly, messy, and generally a pain in the posterior.” When the concept of drag hosing emerged, they quickly invested in it; and they find that it uses much less energy, is neighbor-friendly, conserves nutrients, and saves money.