12,000 dairy animals won't wait

No rest for Bobcat loaders working at huge farm

Jason Bateman

Every skid-steer loader owner wants a machine that does its job day after day. It would, however, be difficult to find a business that needs a reliable loader more than Bateman's Mosida Farms.

"This is a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year operation and we cannot afford to have a loader down," says Jason Bateman, who owns the Elberta, Utah, dairy farm with his father, Wayne, and three brothers, Steve, Brad and Lance. "Two of our loaders put in 24-hour shifts, the other two go for 12 hours each. There is no time for breakdowns."

Not with 12,000 dairy animals waiting to be fed and tons of manure to be cleaned up.

Humble beginnings

It hasn't always been this big. Everything was much smaller in 1972 when Wayne moved his herd of 300 cows from West Jordan, Utah, to the current location. The business grew to 1,200 cows by 2001 when they built a twin-forty parallel barn where 160 cows could be milked at a time. At that point they expanded to 5,400 Holstein and Jersey milk cows. In addition to raising all their own heifer calves, the Batemans and their 80 employees farm 3,000 acres of irrigated cropland, mostly corn silage and hay.

While all their field equipment is green, the Batemans prefer Bobcat loaders. "We've tried all the skid-steer loaders on the market, and about a decade ago we began buying Bobcat� machines," Bateman says. "Once we purchased our first Bobcat loader we started to phase out the others."

Today Bateman's Mosida Farms owns two M-Series S630 loaders and two S250 models, all purchased from Intermountain Bobcat in Salt Lake City.

Superior design

"Bobcat loaders are built better, especially for our agriculture operation," Bateman says. "The axle design is superior. Axle bearings on other brands of machines we've tried did not hold up. The airflow cooling system design on the Bobcat units is the best, too.

"The new M-Series loader cabs are very nice," he continues. "Our operators like the cab, especially all the comfort features and the additional space. When you spend 12 hours in a loader, the much quieter cab is a significant benefit. The new machines use less fuel, too."

All the loaders have two-speed travel. "The two-speed feature is a very big deal for us," Bateman says. "The alleys in the barn are 700 feet long and, when cleaning the stalls, the top speed of 12.3 mph saves an enormous amount of time.

"We put more than 5,000 hours on each Bobcat machine � to make sure we get maximum production out of them in order to help us cut the cost of production," he says. "These loaders have done an excellent job."

"The M-Series loader cabs are very nice. When you spend 12 hours in a loader, the much quieter cab is a significant benefit."

� Jason Bateman

Bobcat Company reserves the right to make changes in engineering, design, and specifications; add improvements; or discontinue manufacturing at any time without notice or obligation.

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