dairy design career bio
In January of 2001 after completing Engineering Design studies at Paris Junior College, I went to work for Five-G Consulting having zero understanding of how a dairy operated. At the time of my hire, I had no clue how passionate I would become on the matter of dairy farming. My intrigue was fueled by realizing very few in the whole world could sit down with a farmer and properly design a large-scale operation tying in all the key elements such as cow movements, cow cooling, and waste management. I am one of the very few people on earth who had the opportunity to learn from Joe Gribble, PE. Who most say, along with Mr. Schaffer, are the fathers of flushing and cow cooling in confinement housing.
His story was laid out in a book “Almost Patented.” After learning of what a unique situation I had found myself in, I only had a desire to learn more.
Over the last twenty plus years, I have had the opportunity to learn not only from Joe, but also several of his protégé including Rick Perry and of course his brilliant-minded sons, Ted, and Donald. As Joe got older and less involved in the business, Rick, Ted, and Donald would take center stage with Ted leading the charge to expand Five-G’s business into international lands. These efforts resulted in landing large scale dairy developments in the Middle East, Asia, Malaysia, Africa and all over Europe. In 2008 after years of learning and designing civil, structural, and architectural concepts related to agriculture facilities I had an opportunity to continue my education by learning mechanical, electrical, and plumbing drafting conventions.
In the years that followed, because of the absolute lack of information provided by most parlor equipment suppliers with regards to parlor equipment integration on any given dairy. I set out on a journey to have a complete understanding of all systems within all parlor types, so that no matter how small or large the dairy parlor barn was or who the equipment supplier would end up being; all systems would be accounted for from dirt to the last light bulb. All to be able to produce some of the best laid out dairy construction documents ever presented.
Even though I love designing confinement barns & parlors that help keep cows at low stress and healthy. Nothing has interested me more than working on systems to fight off the damage sand can do to equipment. Because of this desire, I have expanded my knowledge on this matter by attending multiple lectures on the subject and continued education at university to glean into where we as an industry can do better with sand collection designs. It is my belief that this is the primary problem that the developing dairy industries across the planet are facing. It is such a unique issue because sand is the best bedding, but more times than not, the design for what happens to the sand she kicks out of her stall is very poor. Hopefully in the coming decade I can help find more solutions to this grainy issue.
Over the course of my career, I have benefited not only Five-G Consulting with my own ingenuity but dairy laborers, farm managers, and hundreds of thousands of milk-producing cows all over the world. I am forever indebted to the Gribble family for the knowledge they passed on and allowed me to learn in my continued time with them. Even now, it still amazes me how few people on earth can address every design need that a dairy facility requires. To be one of those few is an honor.