STONY POINT, NC – At Grayhouse Farms, Main Street is the lane which connects the free-stall barns to the parlor.
“That’s a thing of beauty,” Jimmy Gray marveled, watching cows heading to the parlor easily move past the cows returning to the barns. “The cows going in passing the cows going out.”
On Aug. 18, 2018, Grayhouse Farms opened its new dairy facility, comprising two spacious free-stall barns and a double-20 parallel milking parlor, permitting the farm to increase its milking herd from 350 to 700 cows. Two years later, the addition of a third barn permitted the farm to grow to 1,200 cows.
The expansion was a collective effort between parents Reid and Peggy Gray and their sons Andy and Jimmy. Reid passed away in 2022, and today Andy and Jimmy are managing partners.
The design of the new facility was driven by an emphasis on efficiency, conservation and cow comfort.
The Grays visited other dairies to determine which features they wanted to include in their new facility and which features they would leave out.
“We wanted wide barns with plenty of height,” Jimmy said. They also wanted spacious holding pens and an appropriately sized Main Street, easy for cows to move both ways between the barns and parlor.
Most importantly, they wanted a system which was sustainable. They decided to use sand bedding and installed a gravity sand lane and a lagoon system which divides waste in solids, wastewater for irrigating the crop fields and water to flush the barns’ alleyways.
This permits the inputs – sand, water and the nutrients contained in the feed – to be used again and again. The sand, once it dries, is used repeatedly as bedding. The water cycles from the barns through the lagoons and then back to the barns or to the fields to irrigate the next crop. The crops are grown, fertilized with wastewater, fed to the herd to produce milk and recaptured. It’s a virtuous circle – and the cows enjoy the design.
“We’ve got relaxed cows,” Jimmy said. “They last longer, they’re happier, they produce more milk and they have lower cell counts” – so sustainability pays off in numerous ways.
The Grays worked with designer Jake Martin of JGMIII Dairy Design to build their facility, which incorporates other conservation elements such LED lights and multiple zoned fans. To access the new site – in the middle of an old corn field – a road was also built through some of the farm’s 2,000 acres to permit equipment to travel directly to the new facility, rather than take longer routes on public roads, commingling with non-agricultural traffic.
The dairy produces close to two supertankers of milk every day. The parlor was built with extra space to permit a future expansion to double-28. The herd is primarily Holstein, though there are some Jerseys as well. The emphasis of the farm is on production, but both Andy and Jimmy dabble with registered Holsteins as well.
Jimmy in particular likes showing dairy cows. His son John, who currently studies at NC State, showed a Grand Champion Female Holstein at the Carolina Classic Fair while in high school.
While taking John to a show some years ago, Jimmy asked his son, “Do you like showing as much as I do?” Jimmy recalled his son’s answer: “Dad, no one likes showing as much as you do!”
John helps on the farm when not in college. Andy’s daughters Rachel and Laurel have both graduated from college and work on the farm today.

The first day of silage cutting at Grayhouse Farms. This year, due to the summer drought, the yield was lower. Photo by Karl H. Kazaks
When Reid Gray returned home from the Korean War, he worked with two brothers for about a decade, then went on his own, with Peggy, to start their own operation. At first they leased a facility; then they built a double-3, which was the parlor all the way to a 90-cow milking string. From there, improvements were needed to grow the dairy to its old max limit of 350 cows.
His sons still use the old facility, for youngstock, fresh cows and dry cows. They also utilize the barn of another old dairy to raise heifers.
With its growth, the farm has attracted attention. The Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers’ Co-op named Grayhouse the Producer of the Year in 2021. In 2022, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy awarded the farm its Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability Award – the first dairy in the Southeast to receive that award.
Jimmy, like his father before him, is active in conservation efforts. He serves on the Iredell County Soil & Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors and has been active on the state level as well. Beyond the dairy, the Grays also actively manage timberland and wetlands on their farm.
The farm sits in both Iredell and Alexander counties. The crop rotation is typically corn to small grain silage or a cover crop. This year, due to the summer drought, the silage yield is down but the quality is still good. Some of the fields use pivot irrigation which applies the wastewater from the dairy facility.
“We’re very fortunate to have enough ground to grow what we need to feed,” Jimmy said.
One of the challenges of expanding the dairy was finding enough employees to milk. Today the farm has 22 employees. The milkers work three days on and one day off. “That way every eight days they get two days off,” Jimmy said.
Someday, the dairy may add a transition barn and a fourth free-stall barn. They are also actively looking at adding solar to help power the facility.
Both Andy and Jimmy know the pursuit of efficiency and sustainability is not only valuable in its own right and in the present day, but it’s also a strategy to help keep the farm going in future generations for Rachel, Laurel and John.
In that way, the brothers are following the example of their father.
by Karl H. Kazaks
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