Dialed In
Efficiency From Every Angle.
At four farms in two states, Tuls Dairies produces 260,000 gallons of milk per day from 24,000 cows. Todd Tuls and his son T.J. own the operation and explain that their purpose is simple: Make more milk to help feed the world and positively impact the lives and communities we live in.
How they achieve that mission is far from simple. From meticulous animal care to nutrient management to financial analysis, the Tuls are constantly evaluating each piece of the puzzle to create a sustainable system.
"We know exactly what it costs us to produce a gallon or a pound of milk — to the penny. We measure, measure, measure, measure and measure. What you measure is what you achieve."
As a third-generation dairy farmer, Todd Tuls has seen colossal change in the industry. He grew up bottle-feeding calves on his family’s 400-head dairy farm in Chino, California. He later moved to the Midwest to build several large-scale dairy operations.
In 2000, he formed Double Dutch Dairy in Shelby, Nebraska. Today, he has a second dairy in Nebraska, Butler County Dairy in Surprise, and two in Wisconsin, Pinnacle Dairy in Sylvester and Rock Prairie Dairy in Avalon. Across the four dairies, he employs 400 people. A dairy operation at this scale requires a lot of out-of-the-box thinking. Tuls divides his efforts into four key management categories: waste, nutrients, genetics and finances.
"Our process is all about long-term sustainability — conserving water, recycling resources and preserving the land for future generations."
Waste Not, Want Not.
Tuls added covered lagoon anaerobic digesters at all of his dairy farms in 2023. He partnered with Maas Energy Works and Roeslein Energies to plan and build the digesters. FCSAmerica provided financing.
Large high-density polyethylene (HDPE) covers over the lagoons capture the methane gas from the manure and allow bacteria to break down the organic matter in the absence of oxygen. The captured biogas is then processed and refined into renewable natural gas.
“We’re keeping that methane gas and other contaminants from being out there in the atmosphere,” Tuls says. “I interviewed four different companies that do methane capturing, and we chose this system because it doesn’t disrupt what we were already doing operationally.”
The covered-lagoon system offered other advantages, including lower capital costs, reduced risk of manure leaks and greater storage capacity. Unlike some systems that store a few hours’ worth of gas production, Tuls says, the covers can store two to three days of methane gas production.
The renewable natural gas produced at the multiple lagoons is transferred to the nearest natural gas lines. Tuls is paid for the green energy source, creating additional revenue for the farm and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.
"Year to date, we have heated the equivalent of 3,500 homes for a year — and we’re not even at full production."
Manage Resources Wisely.
Tuls is systematic about managing every aspect of his operation to maximize resources. The operation, for example, has created a regenerative cycle for water and nutrients.
“Water is so important to us,” Tuls says. “After washing the milking parlor, we use that water to rinse our barns. It’s then filtered and used to irrigate local crops. We take water out of the ground — we use it, then put it back on the ground.”
As on-staff nutritionists develop their nutrient diets for the cows, they also are thinking about Tuls’ crop acres. Agronomists analyze the nutrient profile of manure from the dairies to ensure just the right amount is applied as fertilizer, reducing waste and controlling nutrient runoff.
“We’ve replaced a lot of petroleum-based fertilizers with the organic fertilizer off our cows on the farm acres surrounding our dairies,” Tuls says.
Many of the dairies’ neighboring farms also benefit. As he has expanded his operations, Tuls began partnering with local farmers. They receive some of his manure to fertilize their fields and he buys their feed, his teams often handling harvest and grain storage.
“Basically, I’m a fertilizer factory and feed consumer within five miles of these guys’ farms,” Tuls says. “It’s really a win-win. Altogether, we are utilizing the waste and nutrients off our farms on about 40,000 acres.”
Cows Bred for Efficiency.
About a decade ago, Tuls switched from the traditional Holstein genetics to ProCROSS genetics, a three-breed rotational crossbreeding system that combines VikingHolstein, VikingRed and Coopex Montbéliarde.
Tuls researched the breed for six months and interviewed several other farmers who use the genetics. Overall, he says, it has been a successful switch.
“We now produce a milk that is higher in butterfat and protein,” he says. “There’s a lower volume, but it is more of a concentrated milk. So, we’ve reduced our freight costs by doing this and enhanced the value of our milk.”
Additionally, these genetics allow the Tuls Dairies team to milk cows for about four years versus the traditional three years, lower death and cull rates and reduce time between breeding.
“These ProCROSS cows have just become a really huge asset to us that creates great efficiency,” Tuls says.
Financial Base Hits.
All these changes contribute to the bottom line, a key element of sustainability, Tuls says.
“Base hits are the way to win a baseball game; getting more RBIs is my philosophy,” he says. “I don’t need to hit the grand slams every day, although some years we still knock it out of the park. We just really focus on ensuring that we’re profitable each year.”
To do that, Tuls and his team use risk management whenever possible. They do all of their own milk hedging, grain hedging, beef cattle hedging and fuel hedging, for example.
“We know exactly what it costs us to produce a gallon or a pound of milk — to the penny,” he says. “We measure, measure, measure, measure and measure. What you measure is what you achieve.”
For more on how we and our customer-owners support a more sustainable agriculture industry, read our 2024 Sustainability Report.
5 Core Values for Tuls Dairies:
Todd Tuls knows growth in the dairy industry takes commitment, smart business management and integrity. Since he was a young boy on his family’s dairy farm in California, Todd has been a student of the industry. When he was 19, he made a list of the best dairymen within 100 miles of his home. He would invite them to lunch and ask them a list of questions about how they found success. “It was just about trying to get to another level,” he says.
Decades later, some of those same lessons he learned from his dad and those fellow farmers appear in his core values that drive his operation.
- Do it now. You don’t have tomorrow, because tomorrow has its own challenges.
- Make no assumptions.
- Trust but verify.
- Ask more questions. When you ask more questions, you listen more often.
- Pray more often. That means you are talking to God, and God will then talk to you.
