Penwood Dairy bigger and better following disastrous 2019 barn fire

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This article was published 12/08/2022 (1008 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The resilience of the farmer in the face of adversity is evident in the day-to-day operations of any agricultural enterprise, which has more than its shares of ups and downs. And for the Penner family, the decision to keep going after a disastrous dairy barn fire, was never in doubt.

Gilmer Penner and his sons, Lyenol, Emery and Ellory, were already planning an expansion of the Pennwood Dairy operation when an electrical fault or spontaneous combustion claimed their barn and 800 registered Holsteins, February 12, 2019.

During a tour of the brand new Pennwood facility, northeast of Steinbach, Gilmer Penner spoke with pride of the family spirit which saw this splendid new barn rise from the ashes.

“Our family is the footing and foundation of the farm, and that cannot be burned. Their spirit cannot be destroyed by fire.”

The expansion in the works was already on the drawing board before the fire and permits to double the size of the Pennwood facility were in place. While the insurance company were having the site cleaned up, the people at Penfor and Penner Farm Services got to work redrawing those plans.

The Pennwood Dairy Rotary project brought in multiple professionals, including three structural engineers, and other professionals to make recommendations for the various systems the building required. Plumbing and electrical; milk management and storage, herd management, chemical flow, manure management, feed systems, compressed air systems, and boiler systems, all were part of the very involved planning process.

Jennefer Waskul, the designer at Penfor, worked closely with Penfor project manager Rudy Dyck, Penner Farm Services project manager Dennis Thiessen, and site supervisor Andrew Wiebe.

Waskul’s design included details from each engineer, while also considering the requirements of the equipment for HVAC, plumbing, electrical and ventilation systems. During the design process, multiple systems were considered, taking into account animal welfare, herd management and efficiency, Waskul said.

She spent many hours with the Penners in the boardroom at Penfor, working on the design, debating details and dreaming up ways to make things work.

“We took the interior design seriously, considering human traffic, comfort, and amenities. An operation this big requires a fair-sized staff. I worked on several options for locker rooms before we all settled on one.”

The most exciting part of the project for the Penfor designer was the opportunity to combine the design of farming systems with considerable architectural design details.

Creating a curtain wall system around the rotary created a necessity to think outside the box, to develop a structure that not only looks amazing, but is functional as well.

The Penners are currently milking over 800 Holsteins in a carousel milking setup, which is itself is an engineering marvel and fascinating to watch in action. The cows walk up to the gate and onto the milking platform. Staff take care of udder cleaning chores and attaching milkers from a walkway below, as the cow moves on in the circle. When it reaches the starting/finishing point of the circle, the cow calmly backs off the carousel and returns to the free stall barn area.

The new barn has more than 305,000 square feet in all, covering almost seven acres, under one roof. Half of the huge barn is completely finished with all necessary equipment installed. The other half is a shell at this point,with a view of a future expansion of the herd.

Gilmer said the barn they built in 2017 was completely destroyed in less than an hour.

“In 45 minutes, there was nothing left, and 800 cows were gone.”

The new barn has all the “bells and whistles”, including the rotary milking system which takes 80 cows around every 11 minutes, and a fire suppression system, which can deliver 1,000 gallons of water a minute anywhere in the facility, should there be a problem.

While 90 percent of the materials used in the new barn are non-flammable, Gilmer explains that because it is considered a commercial building under the building code, the expensive fire suppression system is mandatory.

Milk is picked up twice a day from two 8,000-litre bulk tanks, as Pennwood fills its 32,000-litre quota.

And while the brand new facility is bigger and more modern that the one it replaced, the Penner Brothers partnership continues to hum along, in the same way it has since Lyenol, Emery and Ellory joined their father in a partnership, when Pennwood Dairy was incorporated in 1995.

When the boys are asked to explain their individual roles in making the partnership flourish, their answer is an echo of Lyenol’s comment.

“We do as little as we have to.”

On a serious note, Ellory explains that while the three brothers all have their areas of expertise and departments, so to speak, they all pitch in to help with field work and cropping, and wherever else they are needed.

Emery takes care of land work and cropping, and may be the most mechanically inclined and is the staff mechanic. He also handles the books, dealing with payroll and finance.

Ellory has the feeding department and also is involved with fieldwork, trucking and maintenance to some degree. He makes sure everything is kept running, which is quite a challenge, when a huge herd of registered Holsteins is fed every day and part of the trucking fleet includes a vintage 1989 Freightliner.

Lyenol is the herdsman and takes care of breeding and milking, and does land work as well.

And Gilmer is as retired as most farmers ever get, but still gets into some lively discussions with his sons over day-to-day operations, and certainly had his say when they were planning the new barn.

The 899 milking cows at Pennwood are all registered Holsteins, as were all the animals lost in the fire. The Penners have been milking only registered Holsteins since 1968.

The replacements, after the fire, were mostly brought in from Ontario and Quebec with a few purchased locally, Gilmer said.

Throughout the latest building project, Gilmer Penner attended most meetings and still takes an active role at the farm.

“Operating the forage harvester is the most fun thing to do on the farm. I’d rather do that than take holidays. But we do winter in Phoenix.”

When Gilmer is asked if it is time for him to start slowing down, he says to ask the boys. Their reply is more diplomatic than informative.

“Some things yes, some things no and some things he should.”