January 14, 2023 Dairy Star - 1st section - Zone 1

DAIRY ST R

Volume 24, No. 22

Youngs receive third award from Dairy Cattle Reproductive Council

By Grace Jeurissen grace.j@star-pub.com

PLAINVIEW, Minn. –

Centering the farm around quality milk and cattle has been a focus for Emerald Spring Dairy since Maurie and Rita Young started dairy farming with 40 cows in a tiestall barn in 1984.

As the years have marched on so has the growth and progression of the Young family’s dairy farm.

“I continue being impressed with the advancements dairy has made,” Maurie said. “It’s amazing what you can accomplish with good nutrition and cow comfort.”

Emerald Spring Dairy and ve other dairies were

Tauers named Brown County Farm Family of the Year

By Jan Lefebvre jan.l@star-pub.com

“All dairy, all the time”™

Maintaining excellence

January 14, 2023

erald Spring Dairy has been recognized by the council.

“It was great to be nominated again,” Darrin Young said. “We put a lot of work into our breeding program.”

Darrin, a son of Maurie and Rita’s, joins his brothers Brandon and Ed and parents as they milk 1,300 cows and farm 2,000 acres on their farm near Plainview. The farm’s milk is marketed through Agropur in Le Sueur.

The Youngs work closely with the team from Select Sires Inc. to choose matings, do heat detection and A.I. their cattle.

given platinum recognition as part of the 2022 Excellence in Dairy Cattle Reproduction

Awards from the Dairy Cattle Reproductive Council.

The winners were recog-

nized Nov. 16, 2022, in Middleton, Wisconsin. This is the third year Em-

Brian Dick, an A.I. technician with Select Sires, visits Emerald Spring Dairy daily to perform reproductive services. He performs routine heat detection on cows and on Thursday of each week works with Darrin to complete the double ovsynch program with timed A.I.

Connec ng with community

feeling,” Angie Tauer said.

The Tauers milk 250 Holsteins in a double-6 herringbone parlor and house cows in a freestall barn on their farm near Hanska. The family also farms 450 acres of corn, rye, alfalfa and a variety of cover crop and double cropping rotations.

HANSKA, Minn. – Thirty trainees from a variety of countries have interned at the Tauer family’s dairy farm near Hanska throughout the years. Currently, two men from India, one woman from Columbia and one woman from Japan are living and working on the farm.

Outreach efforts such a this by the Tauers have earned them special recognition.

The call from the University of Minnesota caught Angie and David Tauer off guard when they were asked if they would accept the honor of being Brown County’s 2022 Farm Family of the Year.

“It was a really good

Their children, Ruby and Adam, and David’s parents, Robert and Darlene, accompanied them to accept the award Aug. 4, 2022, during Farm Fest in Redwood Falls. Along with them, 84 other families selected from their counties were recognized at the event.

One of many reasons the Tauers were recognized is for their fostering of dairy farming on a global scale. They have worked with the University of Minnesota for years through the Minnesota Agricultural Student Trainee (MAST) program, hosting interns from many countries. The farm has also begun hosting interns from

Dec. 30, 2022,

in 2021

Japan through a program offered at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, Washington. Angie said benets and

learning can be found on both sides of the host-intern relationships.

“Our labor pool has

changed drastically since we started faming,” Angie said.

JAN LEFEBVRE/DAIRY STAR

David and Angie Tauer with their children, Adam and Ruby, gather at their heifer-raising facility

on their dairy farm near Hanska, Minnesota. The Tauers built the monoslope barn

and have 225 head housed there.

“You always wonder if what you do matters.”

GRACE JEURISSEN/DAIRY STAR

Javier Prieto Mar nez (from le ), Darrin Young, Rita Young, Brandon Young and Maurie Young gather in their cross-ven lated freestall barn Jan. 7 at Emerald Spring Dairy near Plainview, Minnesota. The dairy was awarded its third pla num recogni on as part of the 2022 Excellence in Dairy Ca le Reproduc on Awards from the Dairy Ca le Reproduc ve Council.

Three options for 2023 farm bill

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When the new Congress convenes next month, Pennsylvania Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson will be at the helm of the House Agriculture Committee. Thompson said there are three options for the 2023 farm bill. No. 1, the bill could be allowed to expire at the end of September and revert to the language established during the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s. “No. 2, we could kick the can down the road and do an extension,” Thompson said. “But, that’s a failure to do our job because I think there’s improvements to be made.” Crop insurance and updated reference prices were cited as possible improvements for the next farm bill. The ag committee’s third option is to complete the farm bill before the current legislation expires. “Which really in my mind is the only option,” Thompson said.

Dairy industry praises Taylor conrmation

Alexis Taylor has been conrmed as U.S. Department of Agriculture’s undersecretary of trade and foreign agricultural affairs. Taylor is an Iowa native who previously served as the director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture. This action was praised by key dairy leaders. “Her dedication and experience make her the perfect choice to serve American dairy producers,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO, National Milk Producers Federation. A similar sentiment was made by the U.S. Dairy Export Council. “So much of the health of American agriculture and the nation’s dairy community is tied to ensuring that our products can reach consumers around the world, (and) we’re thrilled Alexis Taylor will help us lead this effort,” said Krysta Harden, president and CEO, USDEC.

Year end with con



rmation of ag trade ambassador

As the lame duck session approached the nish line, the Senate conrmed Doug McKalip as the chief agricul-

tural negotiator for the Ofce of the U.S. Trade Representative. McKalip was nominated in July, but a hold was put on the conrmation. McKalip was the senior advisor for agriculture and rural affairs with the Biden administration’s Domestic Policy Council.

Canadian dairy farmers receive trade compensation payments

Ag Insider

Canadian Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau has announced the fourth payment under the Dairy Direct Payment Program is now available. Dairy farmers will receive payments based on the milk quota. The payments are designed to help offset the impact of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacic Partnership. “Our government committed to fully and fairly compensate supply-managed sectors after ratication of the trade agreements,” Bibeau said.

Milk production increases

Milk production in the 24 major dairy states totaled 17. 5 billion pounds in November. That’s up 1.4% from one year ago. In South Dakota, November milk production rose nearly 11%. Over the past year, South Dakota added an ad-

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ditional 19,000 dairy cows to the state herd. Minnesota milk output increased nearly 1% despite a 7,000 head downturn in cow numbers. Milk production increased 1.3% over the past year in Wisconsin and declined a fraction of 1% in California.

IDFA outlines 2023 objectives

The International Dairy Foods Association has identied ve key objectives that will dene 2023 and beyond. Nutrition, health and wellness tops that list. Global competitiveness and the ability to capture more consumers worldwide is another priority. IDFA cites workforce challenges, sustainability and technology/innovation to round out the list.

Checkoff highlights

Dairy Management Inc. has recapped the dairy checkoff highlights of the past year. Topping that list is a veyear collaboration with the Mayo Clinic and research into dairy’s role in health and nutrition. Social media efforts with foodies and inuencers included the butter board craze that became a viral sensation. The checkoff also engaged in programs to help dairy farmers meet its 2050 Environmental Stewardship Goals.

Used equipment market not slowing down

Machinery Pete founder Greg Peterson has been tracking the used equipment market for 33 years. “I’ve never seen anything close to this; the market has just been on re since late 2020,” Peterson said. Used machinery values increased every month of 2022. “When the calendar ips, we might have a chance to catch our breath, but everything’s in place for used equipment values to remain strong,” Peterson said. The combination of tightness on late-model large equipment and scarcity of new equipment is driving demand. Minnesota whey, milk protein company acquired

Milk Specialties Global is being acquired by a California-based private equity rm called Buttery. MSG is based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and manufactures whey and milk protein ingredients for the food and feed markets. Buttery specializes in the food sector. Milk Specialties is now owned

by another private equity rm, American Securities. The deal is expected to close in the rst quarter.

Develder re



ects on career in the dairy business

Donn Develder started his career with Associated Milk Producers Inc. in 1985 as a eld representative in northern Minnesota. At the end of this week, he’ll retire as the co-op’s co-president and CEO. Thanks to the global demand for dairy products, Develder sees a bright future for the dairy industry. “If you consider the dairy products that are really in demand, which is cheese, butter and whey, the cheese basket of the U.S. is here in the Midwest,” Develder said. “The proximity to the East Coast, the better off you are. The infrastructure here in the Upper Midwest has always been strong, and it’s done nothing but get stronger.” Sheryl Meshke, who has been AMPI’s co-president and CEO since 2015, will continue to lead the company moving forward.

Dingels elected foundation chair

The Minnesota FFA Foundation Board of Trustees elected Pat Dingels of Redwood Falls, Minnesota, as its chair, succeeding Lara Durben of Buffalo, Minnesota. Julie Tesch of Waldorf, Minnesota, is vice chair. Patrice Baley of Maplewood, Minnesota, is the secretary, and Staci Martin is the treasurer. Gary Sloan of Lake Elmo, Minnesota, chairs the executive sponsors board. Jenny Doering of Mapleton, Minnesota, and Nathan Purrington of Ada, Minnesota, are newly-elected to the board.

Trivia challenge

A turophile is the term for a connoisseur of cheese. That answers our last trivia question. For this week’s trivia, what business are you in if you are involved in caseiculture? We will have the answer in the next edition of Dairy Star.

Don Wick is owner/broadcaster for the Red River Farm Network, based in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Wick has been recognized as the National Farm Broadcaster of the Year and served as president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. Don and his wife, Kolleen, have two adult sons, Tony and Sam, and ve grandchildren, Aiden, Piper, Adrienne, Aurora and Sterling.

Con nued from TAUER | Page 1

Like with many farm families, the Tauers were having trouble nding committed employees. MAST interns bring that commitment, even if they often do not have experience, Angie said.

“We’ve had 30 trainees, and 22 did not have a farm background,” Angie said. “They have various reasons for wanting experience being on a farm – engineers or veterinary tech experience – it varies. Some even have accounting degrees.”

Angie said they value character more than experience.

“You need to be open to new people, you need to be open to their ideas, and you have to be willing to constantly train,” she said.

David agreed.

“I’ll take someone who is positive over someone who is really good (trained) and not so positive,” he said. “I enjoy working with people. The people who work on the farm and keep things going are very important and valuable. Without all the people here, we would not be able to do what we do.”

Both said the interns bring gifts to their family.

“We have two kids who we want to have these experiences and know these people,” Angie said. “It’s a great big world out there. We talk all the time about agriculture being global, how we need to t in on the global scene. This is one of the easiest ways to do it.”

The Tauers also participate in farm outreach on a local scale as well.

One way is by hosting an ag enrichment day for middle schoolers from St. Mary’s Middle School in nearby Sleepy Eye. Angie is a science teacher at the school, which rotates enrichment days on three-year cycles. Angie saw a chance to help students see how a farm works, how it connects to their lives and how agriculture offers a variety of career options.

“I wrote a grant with Midwest Dairy,” Angie said. “We brought out the entire middle school – sixth, seventh and eighth grades – and we basically did a farm tour. We brought all the people who work with us, such as our vet, our nutritionist and our A.I. rep, and we set them up at stations. Then we sent the kids through to learn about what they do. We also had Princess Kay talk about the parlor.”

The farm will host its next ag enrichment day in two years.

Another way the Tauers have reached out through education is by participating twice in the Adopt a Cow Program, where a farm picks a calf and sends pictures and updates throughout the school year to a classroom to which they have been matched. At the end of the school year, farm members video chat with the class to answer questions and show the farm.

“It was really fun,” Angie said. “Not everything needs to be a lecture, and it’s not super complicated. If you want to be involved, you can do it on your own

terms. Do it in a way you enjoy.”

Angie also coordinated the dairy princess program in Brown County for ve years and began an ag literacy program to ensure kids had access to books about agriculture in their town library and school.

The Tauers have also hosted twilight meetings on their farm through the Brown County Holstein Association to bring farm families together for fun agrelated activities.

As the Tauers connect to community near and far in many ways, they also keep improving their farm. The most recent upgrade was the addition of a new heifer raising site in 2021.

“We didn’t have enough housing, and certain weather caused challenges with heifers being outdoors,” David said. “Now, we have 225 head under a roof in a monoslope barn. It saves on bedding, and the cattle are denitely growing quicker. The rate of gain is higher.”

David said another area of change on their farm is in genetics in general. Tauer Dairy is continually ranked as a Minnesota Dairy Herd Improvement Association top 200 herd.

“Cows are much more consistent than they used to be,” he said. “Production is much higher. Facilities and the environment they live in is much more consistent and healthier. All that stuff kind of goes together.”

David and Angie took over the farm in 2006 as the third generation. The farm was established in the 1920s by David’s grandparents, Michael and Margaret. David’s parents, Robert and Darlene, still help on the farm, Darlene with calf feeding and Robert with maintenance and errand running. Darlene grew up on the farm across the road where David’s brother now lives and raises steers.

“The biggest gift is the connection we have as a family and that my kids see a work ethic,” Angie said. “They see that we work hard and that everyone works hard here. Everyone has a job, and every job matters.”

Ruby especially loves helping her grandma Darlene with gardening in the summer. Adam loves anything to do with the skid loader. Both help with feeding calves and other chores around the farm.

As the Tauers keep farming, they said they keep their goals simple.

“The biggest thing we have to do is to try to be better than we were yesterday,” Angie said. “It’s important to show up and be real. David always says, ‘You can have a bad ve minutes, but it doesn’t mean you are having a bad day.’”

Both said being positive and willing to connect are important to them.

“It’s not about the award or about saying I can run this board or I can do this volunteer activity, anybody can do that, but to be a good person on a good farm – that takes a lot of work,” Angie said. “For other people to notice that, we both really appreciated it.”

Darrin works with Javier Prieto Martinez, the farm’s herdsman, to synchronize cows during the week to prepare for the weekly breeding routine. Cows are bred after a voluntary waiting period of around 80 days. Once cows are bred, they are marked with tail chalk and watched for natural heat before being pregnancy checked at 35 days.

“We can get quite a few cows bred in the rst breeding,” Darrin said. “There are fewer cows to look for a second time around.”

Emerald Spring Dairy achieves a 42% pregnancy rate, 53% conception rate and keeps their cull rate around 33%. They breed the highest

and the other 70% with beef semen.

Kim DeFrang, of Select Sires, meets with Darrin quarterly to evaluate the breeding program and look through new bull proofs. From there, they decide what to change or keep in the program. Darrin likes to use bulls that are structurally sound, have a high combined fat and protein score, positive daughter pregnancy rate and improve somatic cell scores.

DeFrang also scores 2-year-olds and determines which cows are bred with Holstein and or beef semen.

Heifer care is outsourced to a grower in Nebraska. The grower is responsible for getting the heifers bred. Two months before calving, heifers are brought back to Emer-

ald Spring Dairy.

There are many factors that affect reproduction, and when Darrin came back to the farm in 2008, one of his strengths was managing the cows and the employees.

“Darrin really contributed to ne tuning our farm protocols,” Rita said. “They were never bad, but he took it another step and focused on some of the smaller details.”

When Darrin returned, the Youngs were milking 500 cows on the original farm site and 500 cows on a neighboring site. Once they built a cross-ventilated addition on the neighboring farm, having all of the lactating cows on one site became easier.

Moving the cows to one site gave the family room to expand and have ample room for their dry cows.

“We have the dry cows on the original farm site now, and they do really well over here,” Darrin said. “I would say that having them in a separate facility has helped reproduction by making their transition back into the barn more comfortable.”

Comfort is one of the leading factors for the Youngs’ exceptional reproductive program. They utilize sand bedding in their free stalls, and pens are cleaned three times per day as each group is milked. A hoof trimmer is at the farm once a week.

On top of comfort is the Youngs’ nutrition program. Cows at Emerald Spring Dairy are fed rations based on their stage in lactation. Forage quality, as well as a proper genetic program, has helped the farm achieve a rolling herd average of 32,000 pounds.

Maurie is active in crop management and devotes time to managing forage harvest windows and achieving high-quality feed.

The Youngs credit their team of 20 employees as being critical to the success of the farm.

“We are really lucky to have such a great crew of people working with us,” Darrin said.

Thursday, February 9

Pizza Ranch, Slayton, MN 10:30 AM – Leadership Meeting 11:30 AM – Lunch and Midwest Dairy Update

Thursday, February 16 Little Falls, MN 11:30 AM – Lunch and Midwest Dairy Update

Thursday, February 23

Pizza Ranch, Wadena, MN 10:30 AM – Minnesota Milk 11:30 AM – Lunch and Midwest Dairy Update

Tuesday, March 14

Recreation Bar and Café, Lewiston, MN 12:00 PM – Lunch 12:30 PM – DHIA Annual Meeting 1:00 PM – Midwest Dairy Update 2:00 PM – DHIA Awards To register visit:

Wednesday, February 22 Paynesville Legion, Paynesville, MN 11:30 AM – Lunch and Midwest Dairy Update

GRACE JEURISSEN/DAIRY STAR

Cows are checked daily for estrus by Emerald Spring Dairy’s A.I. technician, Brian Dick. Dick’s work with the farm has helped them achieve a pregnancy rate of 42%.

GRACE JEURISSEN/DAIRY STAR

Cows are marked with tail chalk Jan. 7 at Emerald Spring Dairy near Plainview, Minnesota. Cows are put on a double ovsynch program with med A.I.

A tradition of cheese making

Eichten’s

Cheese is three generations strong

By Tiffany Klaphake tiffany.k@dairystar.com

CENTER CITY, Minn. –

Brenda Carlson does not have to search far to nd her needed recipe.

After all, Carlson is the third generation of Eichtens to make cheese using the same recipes her grandparents used.

Those avors are preserved at Eichten’s Cheese near Center City where cheese is crafted and sold on the family farm.

“We are the godfather of the farmstead cheese in the Midwest,” Carlson said. “We are the oldest company in Minnesota that makes farmstead cheeses.”

Milk for cheese production is purchased from neighboring farms and stored in a 5,000-pound tank. That volume can produce 500 pounds of cheese.

Eichten’s Cheese makes one to three batches of cheese a week, depending on the time of year.

“Christmas is crazy for us,” Carlson said. “We make cheese two to three times a week for the two to three months before

Christmas for the big Christmas sales.”

Eichten’s Cheese is known for its Gouda varieties, of which they have 17 avors.

“The big ones are the smoked Goudas,” Carlson said. “Our tomato basil Gouda started out as a holiday Gouda in the ‘80s, but it was so popu-

lar we had to keep making it.”

Eichten’s Cheese also has a line of hot Gouda cheeses such as a cran-chipotle and a jalapeno as well as the rst avored Gouda Carlson’s grandmother created, which is an herb Gouda. The newest avors being offered are a parmesan Gouda and an everything

bagel Gouda.

“Another well-known cheese that we make … is a Danish Tilsit,” Carlson said.

The company is known not only for its cheese but for giving back to the community as well as providing education.

“My grandparents trained a lot of people from Europe

and third-world countries on how to make cheese,” Carlson said.

One of the people they trained was a Turkish professor who came to the United States to learn how to make cheese from Carlson’s grandmother, Mary Eichten.

Because the Eichtens did not charge anyone to learn to make cheese, the professor asked if she could do anything for Mary.

Mary enquired about a recipe for Danish Tilsit. The professor sent Mary the recipe, but it was in Turkish and used metrics. With the help of the University of Minnesota, the recipe was translated and the family spent two years perfecting it.

“A Tilsit is a warm-room cheese,” Carlson said. “It goes in a room that is 65 degrees for two weeks.”

Carlson grew up working alongside her mom, Eileen, and her grandparents, Joe and Mary. All through high school, and on weekends when she was in college, Carlson helped make cheese. After moving away for 20 years, Carlson returned to the family business full time in 2010.

“I wanted to get back to my roots and be with family again,” Carlson said.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Brenda Carlson and Ruth DeMunck show off the array of Gouda cheeses that Eichten’s Cheese has to offer at an event at Cannon River Winery near Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Carlson is the third genera�on of Eichtens to make cheese at their family’s shop.

The idea of Eichten’s Cheese started in 1974 when milk prices were low and many farmers were dumping milk.

Joe and Mary participated in a University of Minnesota pilot program. The farmer had to fund a trip to Holland for six weeks, and the university sent a professor along who helped them learn to make cheese.

Upon their return to Minnesota, the professor helped the farmers establish on-farm cheese production as a valueadded entity. Six farmers participated in the program, but the Eichtens are the only family still making cheese today.

“Our rst wheel was produced in 1976 on our farm,” Carlson said.

Originally, the milk came from three herds owned by Joe and three of his sons. Eventually, milking cows and making cheese was too labor intensive. The family sold the cows in the 1980s.

Joe insisted on always using quality milk so the family could make quality cheese. They even purchase the cultures needed to craft cheese from Holland.

“My grandfather and grandmother were pretty innovative in thinking, so the rst thing they did was go to the grocery stores in the area and handed

out free samples,” Carlson said. “They also went to farmers markets and have been a member of the St. Paul Farmers Market since 1977.”

Today, the company also has a website and ships cheese all over the U.S.

“Our website is a big help in sales, and we belong to a couple of wholesale sites,” Carlson said. “So now any momand-pop shop out there can go in and buy our products for their store.”

Eichten’s Cheese is sold at the St. Paul, Richeld, Roseville and White Bear Lake farmers markets every week in the summer. Going to the markets is one of Carlson’s favorite parts of the job because she said she gets to meet fun and interesting people.

“I like to stay as local as I can,” Carlson said.

At the shop on the farm, they also offer a small selection of local artisan products.

No matter the avor of cheese Carlson creates, she takes pride in carrying on her grandparents’ legacy.

“My grandparents put their life savings into this, and I get to carry that on,” Carlson said. “It’s about being a good farmer and neighbor.”

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Several varie es of cheese sit in the aging room at Eichten’s Cheese near Center City, Minnesota. Eichten’s Cheese makes 17 varie es of Gouda.

Star’s year in review

Tragedy strikes Stearns County dairy

Blizzard ravages North Dakota

Most of North Dakota was hit with a threeday blizzard beginning April 12. Bob and Debbie Hintz milk 250 Holsteins with four robotic milking units on their dairy farm near Flasher, North Dakota. Blinding snow and high winds harassed the Hintz farm and the surrounding region. The Hintz family said they did what they could to prepare for the blizzard, fueling up tractors and skid loaders and servicing the snowblower. The milk truck could not make it to their farm for three days. Bob said they had enough milk storage to see them through but was concerned other farms may have been forced to dump milk.

PHOTO BY MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Glenn Heinen’s dairy barn was destroyed in an early morning re Jan. 4 on his farm in Stearns County near St. Rosa, Minnesota. The structure, shown Jan. 6, also housed heifers, many of which were saved.

An early morning barn re Jan. 4 on the Heinen dairy farm near St. Rosa, Minnesota, took the milking facility and the entire milking herd of 48 cows housed within. Also lost were 3,500 bales of hay. Owners Glenn Heinen and his son, Aron, were able to safely move calves from hutches near the re while Glenn’s other sons moved heifers from a lean-to on the south side of the barn. In total, 36 of the 40 heifers survived.

Farmland prices strengthen as key indicators raise demand

Spring derecho causes unexpected damage

Strengthening farmland prices due to rising demand was evident by looking at 2021 numbers. Of the Upper Midwest states, Iowa had the greatest average sale price of high-quality land at $14,500 per acre, a 29% increase from 2020, according to a survey conducted by Farmers National Company. South Dakota’s top-quality cropland followed at $10,500 per acre (23% increase); Minnesota at $9,700 per acre (26% increase); and Wisconsin at $7,700 per acre (10% increase).

Promoting U.S. dairy products in Dubai

Becky Levzow, whose family milks 150 cows near Rio, Wisconsin, joined other dairy farmers in November 2021 to visit the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The trip was sponsored by Dairy Management Inc. and the United States Dairy Export Council as part of an effort to promote U.S. dairy products. The U.S. continues to work on penetrating the global market and moving more product internationally. Exports of U.S. dairy products are now 17% of U.S. sales, which Levzow said equates to 1 in 6 tankers of milk leaving the country.

On the early evening of May 12, a severe derecho pummeled eastern South Dakota and west central Minnesota with wind gusts of over 100 mph and heavy rain. The storm tore through Hamminck Dairy near Bruce, South Dakota, with roofs and support beams crumbling in the hurricane-like winds. The Hamminck family milks 4,000 cows – 3,200 of the herd being milked in a 60-stall rotary parlor. The roof of the parlor and the holding pen collapsed with cows beneath. Fortunately, the structure of the rotary and gates within the holding pen held the roof up. The Hammincks worked to cut out a partial side of the holding pen, allowing the cows to walk through the return lane, unscathed, seven hours later.

Valley Queen Cheese Factory launches expansion

A groundbreaking ceremony took place May 19 for an expansion at Valley Queen Cheese Factory in Milbank, South Dakota. The expansion is expected to boost the factory’s processing capacity from 5 million pounds of milk per day to 8 million. The economic impact from the addition is estimated to be as much as $1 billion annually within an 80-mile radius of Milbank. The expansion, which is scheduled to be complete by Jan.

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Employees look at the damage of Hammink Dairy LLC’s parlor and holding pen area May 12 near Bruce, South Dakota. Cows were stuck in the parlor and holding pen for seven hours before they could be safely relocated.

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Valley Queen Cheese Factory in Milbank, South Dakota, is expanding. The project will boost processing capacity from 5 million pounds of milk per day to 8 million.

1, 2025, will boost Valley Queen’s yearly cheesemaking capacity by 125 million pounds.

Schlangens honored as 2022 sustainability award winners

June 25, 2022

Steve and Cheryl Schlangen were recognized for their conservation efforts by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy by being named one of four dairy farms receiving the center’s 2022 U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award. The Schlangens milk 60 cows and farm 200 acres near Albany, Minnesota. Over time, the couple has implemented more than 30 conservation practices including cover cropping, establishment of buffer strips and use of LED lighting in the barn. They also employ nutrient sampling and management

Smoky Hills buys, updates Hastings Creamery

July 9, 2022

Having purchased Hastings Creamery from Plainview Milk Products over a year before, Smoky Hills Farmers Cooperative added organic processing and built a new store at the site in Hastings, Minnesota. The cooperative, made up of 11 organic dairy farmers, opened the store June 17. Justin Malone, who is general manager of the creamery, milks 220 cows with his family near Ottertail, Minnesota. He said the cooperative decided to process its own milk and bottle it themselves in order to go more directly from the farm to the customer table.

Rynda crowned 69th Princess Kay of the Milky Way

Aug.

27, 2022

Rachel Rynda, representing Le Sueur County, was crowned the 69th Princess Kay of the Milky Way Aug. 24 at the Minnesota State

Turn to YEAR IN REVIEW | Page 12

BY MATT ADDINGTON/MIDWEST DAIRY

Rachel Rynda of Montgomery, Minnesota, is crowned the 69th Princess Kay of the Milky Way Aug. 24 at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul, Minnesota. Rynda represented Le Sueur County in the event.

Fairgrounds in St. Paul, Minnesota. Rynda’s parents, Francis and Theresa Rynda, and their family milk 40 cows and farm 400 acres on their dairy farm near Montgomery, Minnesota. Rynda is an agribusiness student at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. She said she planned to share her butter carving with her family during their weekly popcorn-and-movie nights.

Minnesota completed rolling out its bulk milk program across the district when it added dispensers to its elementary schools Oct. 25. Other schools in Minnesota and in nearby states have turned to bulk milk as well, providing a better milk product for their growing students.

Hurricane Ian devastates dairy

Dakin Dairy Farm near Myakka City, Florida, which milks 2,000 cows, received 19 inches of rain in a 12-hour span from Sept. 28-29. The sustained winds of 150 mph pummeled the area as Category 4 Hurricane Ian made landfall. Jerry Dakin said the hurricane caused a loss of 200 head of cows and youngstock and the destruction of six 800-foot freestall barns on his dairy. Dakin said he walked the farm for ve days after the hurricane, picking up deceased animals. However, he said he felt others had it far worse and lost everything.

Zumbrota

July, adding 86,000 square feet to the facility’s previous 110,000, allowing for the growth from 140 employees to 160. The expansion includes a waste water treatment facility, drying tower, wet mixing system, lab upgrades and utility upgrades. The Zumbrota location takes in 1.5 million pounds of raw milk each day, which it uses to create cheese, condensed whey and cheese powders.

Holle elected as state representative

own Northern Lights Dairy near Mandan, North Dakota. Holle and his three younger siblings are the fth generation on the farm, where the family milks 800 Holsteins in a 36-stall rotary parlor. Holle said one of his main goals as a representative is to be an advocate and voice for dairy farmers.

Fellings receive platinum award for reproductive excellence

Felling Dairy LLC was one of six dairies recognized this year with a platinum award from the Dairy Cattle Reproductive Council. The platinum award is the highest award for excellence the council gives.

The healthy, popular trend of adding bulk milk dispensers to school cafeterias continued to grow. Eden Valley-Watkins High School in Minnesota started the school year Sep. 6 with a new dispenser, and staff and students reported positive results, especially in better taste leading to increased consumption. The Hutchinson school district in

plant completes

The Dairy Farmers of America plant in Zumbrota, Minnesota, completed its $90 million expansion in

The recognition was part of the 2022 Excellence in Dairy Cattle Reproduction Awards. The winners were recognized Nov. 16 in Middleton, Wisconsin. Felling Dairy milks 1,200 cows in a 28-stall rotary parlor. The farm is owned in partnership between Jason Felling, his wife, Marie, and Felling’s parents, Cyril and Deb Felling. At Felling Dairy, all the breeding is done inhouse with use of genomic testing and results have improved reproductive rates. Currently, the dairy is achieving a pregnancy rate of 40%, a conception rate of 55% in cows and 58% in heifers.

Eighteen-year-old Dawson Holle was elected as a state representative from North Dakota’s District 31, making him the youngest representative in the state’s history. Holle’s parents and grandparents

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Dawson Holle was sworn in Dec. 2 to the North Dakota Legislature for House District 31. The 18-year-old grew up on Northern Lights Dairy near Mandan, North Dakota.

Adam Hedlund, of Siren, Wisconsin, was hospitalized in October 2021 from complications of the coronavirus. Hedlund was transferred to multiple hospitals and received a double lung transplant over the course of 10 months. During his hospital stay, his wife Annie gave birth to their third child and kept their 100-cow dairy up and running with the help of friends and family.

of Auburndale, Wisconsin. Todd and Patti Bores milk 50 cows near Auburndale. Todd’s grandfather, Arnold, and father, Ralph, joined what was then the newly formed Auburndale Fire Department in 1965. Ralph retired after 55 years of service. Todd has been volunteering for 28 years. Todd and Patti’s sons, Riley and Collin, have 10 and eight years of service with the re department, respectively. Patti celebrated nine years with the EMS.

Six townships in Polk and Bennett counties in Wisconsin formed committees to craft ordinances related to animal agriculture. These rules would regulate animal numbers, hours of operation and permitting costs. Three of the townships adopted the ordinances.

April 11, 2022, was a comfortable 55 degrees in southwestern North Dakota, but April 12 brought a brutal blizzard to the northern Great Plains. Bob Hintz, who milks 250 cows near Flasher, North Dakota, estimated his farm received 2 feet of snow and wind gusts up to 74 mph over the course of three days. The Hintz family prepared for the storm by giving their cows extra feed and fueling up tractors and skid loaders ahead of time. Due to so many roads being closed, their milk hauler was not able to come for three days. Thankfully, the dairy did not have to dump milk.

Tanner Schmaling, of Delavan, Wisconsin, was on vacation with his family in Hawaii in early January 2022. While swimming in the ocean, he nearly drowned and sustained injuries that left him 90% paralyzed. Schmaling was told he would never walk again, but after physical therapy and determination, he was able to walk out of the hospital in March 2022 and return home to his 120cow dairy farm.

Janice Hill is a rst-generation dairy farmer from Reedsburg, Wisconsin. She milks 45 cows on her 100-acre farm. Hill grew up on a dairy farm, but she chose to work elsewhere for a number of years. In 2008, Hill purchased her own farm while continuing her day job. She has since quit that job to farm full time.

Jan. 4, 2022, was the worst day Glenn Heinen and his son, Aron, have faced. That morning, the family of St. Rosa, Minnesota, woke up to their barn engulfed in ames. They lost their barn, their 48 milking cows and 3,500 bales of hay. The family was able to save the farm’s calves and most of the heifers.

At just 9 months old, Abby Fick, of Lake City, Minnesota, was diagnosed with neurobromatosis type 1, which attacks nerves in the body and develops tumors. The disease stayed dormant until Fick was 14 at which time a cancerous tumor was discovered on her left shoulder. After trying chemotherapy with no success, the doctors determined they would need to remove her arm and shoulder. Fick now has a prosthetic shoulder and arm and is active in 4-H. Fick said she enjoys being with the animals on her family’s dairy farm where they milk 250 cows.

Nick Wienen knew he wanted to be a dairy farmer, but in 2020, his father, Tim, sold the family’s herd of cows after being diagnosed with cancer. Wienen had a job off the farm and continued to care for the remaining youngstock and farm the land with his dad. But, Wienen missed the dairy cows. So, Wienen and his wife, Tatum, purchased a group of cows to add to their freshening heifers to begin their own herd in September 2021. They milk 80 cows in a parallel parlor near Galena, Illinois.

Four generations of the Bores family have served on the re department or with the Emergency Medical Service in

At 9 p.m. Jan. 11, 2022, Eric Svenson received a call no dairy farmer ever wants to hear. The dairy farmer of Ringwood, Illinois, learned his family’s tiestall barn was on re. At the time of the re, there were four animals and a tractor inside the barn. Svenson and his wife, Mandy Parker, got the tractor and two cows out, but two springing heifers were housed in a different part of the barn that Parker and Svenson could not reach. The next morning, Svenson went to the damaged barn expecting to nd two deceased heifers. Instead, he found both alive and one had given birth to a healthy calf. The tiestall barn where the farm’s 160 cows were milked was a loss, but no animals were lost, and no other buildings were damaged. s in a parallel parlor near Galena, Illinois.

Our Side

r o m O u r S i d e

O f T h e F e n c e Of The Fence

Jim Kemmetmueller Rogers, Minnesota Hennepin County 55 cows

How many years have you been dairy farming? I’ve been milking for 39 years. I farmed with my dad rst and then took over the farm.

What were some of your accomplishments on the farm in 2022? We rebuilt a tractor and painted it over the winter, a 560 International. We got enough feed so that we didn’t have to buy any. The year before I had to buy some, but I had more hay in this year.

What are you looking forward to most in 2023? Just getting better crops and moisture. Hopefully the growing season is better. I always look forward to when the animals are birthing and calving. I’m breeding Red and Whites. Half my herd are Red and White Holsteins.

What is one goal you have set for the dairy this year and how do you plan to achieve it? I have goals to keep everything aoat. We’ll rebuild the heifer shed because it went down with the snow the day before Christmas. Insurance is looking at it, and we were told to get a couple bids to x it. The heifers are still in the shed; only half of it went down. It was where I had hay storage.

What do you think will be the greatest challenges for your dairy and the industry this year? The cost of everything with ination. Everything keeps going up. We try to keep the farm protable. That’s the biggest challenge. Don’t get me wrong; I love what I do. It’s just that prices don’t help.

Tell us about your farm. We milk in a stanchion barn. I also farrow-to-nish 35-40 sows. We farm about 500 acres of corn, hay and oat. With the farm located by the suburbs, we work to keep enough land because houses are approaching. The farm is in an agricultural preserve, though, so it can’t be touched. We’re one of four dairy farms left in the county.

Kenny and Cheryl Ley Lake Henry, Minnesota Stearns County 59 cows

What are you looking forward to in 2023?

Tom and Austin Dobmeier Albany, Minnesota Stearns County 85 cows

How many years have you been dairy farming? Tom has been farming for 30 years, and Austin has been full time on the farm for the last six years.

How many years have you been dairy farming? We have been farming since 1990.

What were some of your accomplishments on the farm in 2022? We bought land where Kenny grew up and put steel on the horseshoe roof dairy barn.

What are you looking forward to most in 2023? We are looking forward to getting normal amounts of rainfall after two years of dry weather.

What is one goal you have set for the dairy this year and how do you plan to achieve it? We hope to get a few more elevated calf huts. We have been watching Craigslist for a used one, but everything went up so much. We have to wait so long to get new ones.

What do you think will be the greatest challenges for your dairy and the industry this year? For our dairy, it’s getting adjusted to being empty nesters. The last of our four kids moved out last year.

Tell us about your farm. We milk cows in a tiestall barn. We grow hay, corn and soybeans that we feed to our cattle. We have our routine where Kenny does the majority of the feeding, and Cheryl does the majority of the milking. On weekdays, Kenny leaves for his off-farm job at 7:15 a.m. He is a lead nisher at North Manufacturing in Lake Henry, Minnesota, and Cheryl nishes chores. Kenny returns around 4:15 for evening chores. Every once in a while, we have a hiccup in our routine if Kenny has a re or rescue call. He has been a volunteer reghter for 24 years. We start our bull calves then sell them as feeders to our daughter and their family who nishes them. During eldwork, we have a son-in-law and his dad who help with driving tractor.

What were some of your accomplishments on the farm in 2022? We transitioned our farm into a 50-50 ownership limited liability company to help make an easier transition to the next generation. We also purchased our own bale wrapper, so we do not have to rely on custom work.

What are you looking forward to most in 2023? Austin and his wife welcomed their rst child this past fall, so we are looking forward to having her around on the farm.

What is one goal you have set for your dairy this year and how do you plan to achieve it? Every year, over the past ve years, we have increased our milk production and quality. Our goal is to continue that trend. We also plan to make improvements to our heifer facilities.

What do you think will be the greatest challenges for your dairy and the industry this year? Ination by far will be the biggest struggle along with the rising interest rates.

Tell us about your farm. We farm with both our wives who work off the farm and help when needed. We milk 70 cows and raise our replacements. Our herd consists mainly of Holstein, but we also have Jersey, Milking Shorthorn, Viking Red and Montbéliarde. We farm 180 acres where we grow corn for silage, alfalfa, pea, barley and winter rye.

Cody and Arlisa Clements Coon Valley, Wisconsin Vernon County 80 cows

How many years have you been dairy farming? We've been farming together for ve years. We both grew up on dairy farms. We met through my wife's parents when they sold their cows. I bought a Red and White Holstein heifer from my wife's parents, and then, the rest is history. We have four children.

What were some of your accomplishments on the farm in 2022? Some of our accomplishments in 2022 included an awesome crop year with everything above average. We also had a good year doing custom work.

Terry Entzminger Jamestown, North Dakota Stutsman County 850 cows

How many years have you been dairy farming? Following high school graduation in 1984, I attended Lakeshore Technical College’s oneyear dairy herdsman’s program in Cleveland, Wisconsin. Upon completion, I returned home to the family farm that has been in operation since 1962 where I am today in a family partnership.

What were some of your accomplishments on the farm in 2022? We increased ventilation signicantly in our freestall barns, which made a positive impact on both milk production and reproduction. We updated and upsized our forage chopping equipment to allow us to move from high moisture corn to earlage. So far, that appears to be paying dividends in our milk components, primarily butterfat.

What are you looking forward to most in 2023? We have a much larger feed inventory on hand of most all forages than we did this time one year ago, so feed purchases should be far less starting out the year. Of course, the last half of the year is yet to be determined.

What is one goal you have set for the dairy this year and how do you plan to achieve it? I’m going to concentrate some dollars and effort to accomplishing things in the workplace that bring peace of mind. By that, I mean addressing things that will make one’s job and one’s performance

What are you looking forward to most in 2023? We are looking forward to the new crop year and seeing how all the hard work turns out.

What is one goal you have set for the dairy this year and how do you plan to achieve it? One of my main goals is to reduce feed costs by putting up better forages and using less purchased protein.

What do you think will be the greatest challenges for your dairy and the industry this year? I see the biggest challenge to be inputs. Everything has skyrocketed in price and makes margins really tight.

Tell us about your farm. We farm alongside with Cody's dad, Alan. We milk 80 cows in a freestall and parlor setup with a swing-8 parabone. We raise our replacement heifers. We farm 550 acres of corn, hay and soybean. We also do custom farming services for area farmers. Those services include planting, big square baling, forage harvesting and combining. We hope that one day our children can have a future in this industry.

more enjoyable and productive. We’ve been in a cost-cutting mode for so long; things that have had short-term and low-cost xes now need to be done right once and for all. Overhead doors have been an on-farm headache here. It is time to put that behind us. We are switching from electric hot water heaters to propane (a $36,000 investment) to eliminate sporadic high bacteria counts; milk quality is far too important. We need to modify our feed yard and feed storage area. In a perfect world, it would be all concrete, but it’s not, nor will it be, but we can do some concrete and change the way we do some things. We will see improvements. Death loss due to hemorrhagic bowel syndrome is an on-farm issue we need to address; it comes from too much feed and forages on the bare ground and the soil getting in the feeds when we scoop them up, triggering the next HBS case.

What do you think will be the greatest challenges for your dairy and the industry this year? Managing inventories with the sporadic parts and product availabilities we’ve been facing from animal health to parts to feeds, etc. Having a reasonable number of things on hand due to the uncertainty of product availability without having capital tied up in nonproductive items. Interest rates will once again become an expense we will need to better manage.

Tell us about your farm. We are a Holstein herd and raise our heifers. We never did jump on the crossbreeding or beef breeding bandwagons. We do use sexed semen in our heifer breeding program, primarily for calving ease. Our current Dairy Herd Improvement Association rolling herd average is 28,000 pounds. We use a pedometer system (SCR ear tags) to manage reproduction and animal health along with the Boumatic SmartDairy system collars to manage milk production. With our current program, replacements exceed our current needs, so we are able to cull low end and problematic animals aggressively as well as market excess animals.

Teamwork vital for Engelmann Farms’ breeding program

Edgar Gonzales, herdsman Engelmann Farms Plato, Minnesota McLeod County

740 cows

Describe your facilities and list your breeding management team. Cows are housed in a freestall barn and bedded with manure solids. They are milked in a double-12 parabone parlor. The treated cows are milked in a single-6 parlor separate from the other cows. I am the farm’s herdsman, and Matt Grams is a full-time employee of Engelmann Farms. Together, we do the breeding on the farm. We do genomic testing, and Select Sires Inc. chooses matings.

What is your reproduction program? Do you use a synchronization program? How do you get animals pregnant? After 30 days in milk, cows are given prostaglandin. Two weeks after that, they are given a second shot of prostaglandin. A week later, a GnRH shot is given. The following week, they are given Lutalyse, and a heat patch is applied. If cows do not show heat, they get a CIDR 10 days later.

Describe your breeding philosophy. We use genomics to keep the herd improving. It helps make breeding decisions easier. We work closely with representatives from Select Sires who choose which cows are bred with sexed semen and which are bred with beef.

What guidelines do you follow to reach the goals for your breeding program? We try to keep the cow in the herd, so if she doesn’t stick after the sixth service, we don’t breed her again. We walk through pens three times a day to catch cows in heat.

What are the top traits you look for in breeding your dairy herd and how has this changed since you started farming? In the beginning of the farm, Roger Engelmann was picking for type traits and production due to their kids showing cattle. As the farm grew and time went on, we adjusted the breeding program to t a commercial dairy herd. Now, we don’t look at bulls that are tall and show high dairy type. We breed for moderate frames, good daughter pregnancy rate, high fat and protein, and exceptional feet and legs. We

use all genomic bulls through Select Sires, who do a majority of the bull selection.

What are certain traits you try to avoid? Tall cows, high somatic cell counts and low components.

Describe the ideal cow for your herd. Our cows need to have livability and perform in the freestall barn and parlor. They need to have good feet and legs, a moderate stature and high production without sacricing components.

What role does genetics have in reaching the goals of your farm? We use genomics, which helps boost the rate at which our herd is improved.

What percentage of your herd is bred to sexed, conventional and beef semen? We use 60% beef semen and 40% sexed semen, which helps control heifer inventory.

What is your conception rate? Our conception rate is 48%.

What is the greatest lesson you have learned through your breeding program? I like working on the farm, as I do something different every day. I’ve been working here for 12 years, and what I’ve learned is that we have to be simple with the breeding program. We walk the pens three times a day to watch for heats. It helps to keep a watch over these things because we end up saving on days in milk, and cows are lasting longer in the herd.

What is the age of your heifers at rst service? The heifers are around 407 days old.

How does your heifer inventory affect your breeding program? We use sexed semen to manage heifer inventory.

Tell us about your farm. We milk 740 cows and farm 2,500 acres. Our milk is shipped to Bongards. We raise the heifers from birth to production. The heifer farm in Mayer, Minnesota, holds heifers from 3 months to around breeding age when they are brought back to Plato, Minnesota. The beefon-dairy calves are raised until about 500 pounds and then are sold.

“What I like best about Udder Comfort™ is really two things that are related: The removal of swelling and how it helps with cell counts. We started using it more routinely with our fresh cows 5 years ago. The Udder Comfort Sprayer makes it easy, fast and uses 30 to 50% less spray per application. With more routine use of Udder Comfort, we get better results, seeing consistently lower SCCs, now averaging below 100,000, and the savings from better udder health,” says Matt Nealy.

Matt is the ‘cow guy.’ He and his father Steve, cousin Tommy and uncle Tom operate the third generation Nealand Farms, milking 400 cows near Newville, Pennsylvania, MDVA co-op’s 2020 Producer of the Year, recognized for outstanding milk quality, animal care, farm and environmental practices.

“Udder Comfort is something we don’t cut. It gets swelling out faster for better milkouts and higher quality milk. We do every fresh cow for a week after calving. We mark high-count cows on DHIA and do them too. We tried knock-offs. They don’t work. Udder Comfort works!”

Earlier calving does not equal more prot

Heifer maturity is vital for reaching production potential

By Abby Wiedmeyer abby.w@dairystar.com

JUNEAU, Wis. – Dr. Gavin Staley has been studying the long-term impacts of calving in heifers at a younger age. While he agreed there are economic reasons to bring heifers into the milking string earlier, he has studied the impacts of these heifers not being mature at calving.

Milk production ultimately suffers, and it goes deeper than the rst lactation alone. Staley has studied production data from 500,000 cows and has discovered a formula that proves the importance of mature heifers.

“I call it the Peter Pan problem, alluding of course to the children’s comic character,” Staley said. “The individual that never grows up.”

Staley is a technical services specialist with Diamond V and a veterinarian who spoke in a Profes-

sional Dairy Producers podcast Dec. 28, 2022.

Heifer maturity means the phenotypic characteristics – frame and body weight – that allow full expression of genetic potential over the animal’s lifetime. For a long time, the standard has suggested heifers need to be 85% of the mature body weight post-calving, and close-up heifers should be about 95% of mature body weight.

If an animal does not reach the required level of maturity before calving, she will reach it during lactation at the expense of production, Staley said. She will inevitably reach the benchmark on the lactating ration, ultimately increasing the growing cost.

“It nets out to an 8:1 ratio,” Staley said. “For every 1 pound that she has to mature after calving, it will cost 8 pounds of milk.”

Staley said it also takes longer because the daily growth rate drops signicantly after calving. Sometimes it can take up to 500 days, which could be a lactation. Some heifers simply never catch up.

Staley has determined that week 10 of the rst lactation approximates the herd annual average milk.

“If you want a 100-pound herd, you’ve got to have a 10-week lactation one that is 100 pounds,” Staley said. “Ninety-two percent of the average annual herd milk variation can be explained in lactation one.”

This predicts the average annual milk for the entire herd from a single value. It also works in reverse,

with the rst lactation setting the ceiling for the whole herd.

“The herd cannot outperform the production level set by lactation one,” Staley said. “You can’t cull your way there, you can’t repro your way there, and you can’t feed your way there. It’s basically the ace card.”

Staley and colleagues have determined that the age at freshening impacts the second and third lactations also.

“This is unfortunately the gift that keeps on giving,” Staley said. “It leaves an awfully long shadow.”

In order to evaluate a herd and be able to shift the focus to mature heifers, Staley said the third- and fourth-lactation groups of cows need to be weighed in order to determine the herd’s mature body weight. Then, springing heifers and fresh cows need to be weighed. After that, the weight difference between desired and actual weights can be calculated. This way, it is clear what the system is delivering, Staley said. From there, the average daily gain can be calculated to see what the heifer raising system is achieving.

The average daily gain or the age at freshening are the two variables to consider when deciding what to change, Staley said. And, if the average gain cannot be increased, breeding must be delayed until the animal reaches that mature point.

Staley said dairy farmers should set health and growth goals for all key stages of growth from birth to calving. The goal can be to calve heifers as early as possible, but they must be mature at calving.

Staley said there has been a trend over the past 20 years encouraging producers to calve their heifers in at a younger age. The thought was the animal would begin milk production earlier, reduce heifer inventory and lower heifer feed costs. The message that got missed, however, is to manage the heifers to be mature at a younger age.

Staley said calving immature heifers has not been successful because the growth management was not changed.

“I’m not saying you should not breed heifers earlier, but you should get them to maturity earlier,” Staley said. “You can have your cake and eat it too.”

IOWA

Prairie Land Ag Supply Inc. Rock Valley, IA 712-476-9290

United Dairy Systems, Inc. West Union, IA 563-422-5355

WISCONSIN

Advanced Dairy Spring Valley, WI 715-772-3201

Ederer Dairy Supply Plain, WI 608-546-3713

DeLaval Dairy Service Kaukauna, WI 866-335-2825

Joe’s Refrigeration Inc. Withee, WI 715-229-2321

Mlsna Dairy Supply Inc. Cashton, WI 608-654-5106

Professional Dairy Services Arlington, WI 608-635-0267

Redeker Dairy Equipment Brandon, WI 920-346-5579

The Scharine Group Inc. Whitewater, WI 800 472-2880 Mt Horeb, WI 800-872-3470

MINNESOTA & SOUTH

DAKOTA

Farm Systems Melrose, MN 320-256-3276 Brookings, SD 800-636-5581

Advanced Dairy Mora, MN 320-679-1029 Pierz, MN 320-468-2494 St. Charles, MN 507-932-4288 Wadena, MN 218-632-5416

Winter is the only season to mark the close of a year and the beginning of another.

While winter happens to, more often than not, show the worst weather and the best views, it is the time of year for reection.

One of my favorite scenes are freshly-covered evergreen trees. There are three in my backyard, and during a frosty sunrise, I can usually crack my frozen face to make a smile.

The end of the year gives many families time to gather and celebrate life. With the holiday gatherings, and more time spent indoors, it can also make a person appreciate their alone time. Who would have thought hauling manure could be therapeutic.

By Grace Jeurissen Staff Writer

For me, 2022 has marked large milestones in my life and self-discovery.

In January 2022, I was helping on the farm. Then in February, I started my work with Dairy Star. Coming out of college with zero writing experience, colleagues took me under their wing and showed me the importance of print. I visited a few expos and realized how much people appreciate our content.

It is always nice to receive recognition for the work you are doing. That goes for all career elds.

This brings me to the reason behind Dairy Star. We are so fortunate to have rich dairy owing in the Midwest and so many passionate people to share stories of. Farmers deserve to receive recognition for their challenges and career achievements.

My visits with farmers always make me feel at home. But once I nish their story, the feeling of fulllment oats away because my mind is no longer living their story.

I ran into a young farmer who started farming when he was about my age. When I asked about why he chose dairy farming, he told me this.

“I feel at home here. I knew if I didn’t have a farm of my own, I wanted to be a herdsman for someone else, or I’d be trying to nd every way to make this dream work.”

This made me think on my drive to my parents’ farm that day. Against all odds, that young farmer is pushing through some of the most trying times in the dairy industry.

The passion in each farmer’s voice when we talk about cows together always excites me; I’m interested in their experiences and wisdom. Maybe the reason I feel connected to the stories until they are nished being written is because deep down I wish I was living their life, waking up early, seeing cows greet me at the gate, feeding a new born calf and cutting hay.

I thought the time wasn’t right for me to pursue my next goal, but when God presented me with the opportunity to farm, despite it having underlying concerns, I had to go for it.

I love it.

Every day, I set up the barn and get the barn moving. Then, I start my computer to plug away at work for Dairy Star and Country Acres. After, I have the freedom to take a break from my desk and help on the farm.

I’m truly getting the best of both worlds, and I couldn’t be happier. Like winter, I started my year how I ended it, in the barn.

What stands out to me the most over the last year is that nearly every farmer I have had the privilege of talking to has hope. They show resilience in everything they do, and despite the odds of volatile markets and high inputs, they try new things to make their operation work.

From the family that manages 20 employees to the young guy who milks 50 cows on his own, one thing stands true: No matter what the world around us does, farming is not only a job, but rather a way of life.

Janski Farms honored for efforts

Stearns County SWCD awards

Outstanding Conservationist

WAITE PARK, Minn.

– The Janskis are a fourthgeneration family that homesteaded their farm in 1940. The family farm is owned and operated by Rich and Marlys Janski, sons Thomas and Daniel along with their families, and Rich’s parents Bob and JoAnn Janski.

The Janskis milk 200 cows with a Lely robotic milking system, feed out 750 steers and graze beef cowcalf pairs and chickens.

For the past several years, Janski Farms of St. Augusta has been implementing conservation practices on their farm and in December 2022 were named as the 2022 Outstanding Conservationist for Stearns County. The Janskis were honored at the annual convention of the Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts in Bloomington. The Farmer Magazine presented them, along with other counties’ outstanding conservationists, with a certicate for their dedication to conservation.

Daniel said the award is an honor.

“We certainly were not

expecting this recognition,” he said. “We would not be able to do what we do without our family, employees and the SWCD guidance. They play a large role in our farm being successful.”

The farm encompasses a wide range of soils and landscapes, and for that, they have had to overcome management challenges to best farm the land. Yet, that has not stopped the family from striving for diversication. Growing seven types of crops – corn, soybean, alfalfa, oat, cereal rye, hemp, and canning pea – the Janskis raise their feed as well as cereal rye seed for cover crops.

They utilize no till, cover crops, irrigation water management, nutrient and pest management, and have more than 30 alternative tile inlets installed to protect water quality.

The Janskis started with a single species cover crop. Since then, they have planted cover crop mixes with up to 25 species. In addition to soil health benets, cover crops are also planted to assist with bees, birds, wildlife habitat

and pest management.

“We weren’t expecting the cover crops and no-till practices to work,” Rich said. “The rst year trying out conservation practices, Thomas knifed corn into alfalfa, and that was one of

the best crops we had ever seen. We were not expecting that.”

The Janskis are continually looking for ways to be innovators – both in and out of the eld. For example, they have modied a drill to

inter-seed cover crops, they mechanically terminate cover crops with a roller crimper, as well as experiment with interseeding a mix of cover crops into both 30-inch and 60-inch

Turn to JANSKI | Page 25

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Rich, Thomas and Daniel Janski stand together at the 86th annual conven on of the Minnesota Associa on of Soil & Water Conserva on Districts in December 2022. Janski Farms was recognized as the Stearns County Soil & Water Conserva on District’s Outstanding Conserva onist.

Denny Sanford Premier Center, Sioux Falls,

By working with the Stearns County SWCD, Janski Farms has participated in conservation programs, including the Natural Resources Conservation Service Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certication Program and the NRCS Regional Conservation Partnership Program.

Thanks to these programs and the family’s willingness to try conservation practices and be open-minded, they have not only been able to nd a more sustainable and efcient way to farm, but they also serve as a model for how these working land conservation practices thrive on various soil types and landscapes.

successful,” Daniel said. “I am still learning.”

The Janskis recognize each year presents challenges. Rich said they strive to adapt from year to year and be proactive in their techniques.

“For someone who may be thinking about pursuing cover crops or any type of conservation practices, start out small,” he said. “Walk before running. See what works best and work up from there.”

Daniel agreed.

“Learn as you go,” he said. “Build a community you can trust, and have someone to go to for questions and guidance.”

DANIEL JANSKI, DAIRY FARMER

By utilizing a diverse cropping rotation along with conservation practices, the Janskis are seeing soil health benets such as reduced erosion and weed pressure as well as savings in fertilizer and pesticide inputs and fuel and machinery costs. The Janskis sold their tillage equipment, and because they make fewer passes on the eld, they also save fuel.

Although the family has seen successes with their conservation practices, Daniel said regenerative agriculture is not without its challenges, sometimes even failures.

“It hasn’t always been completely

Because of their experiences and willingness to share their knowledge, they have served as mentors for farmers interested in innovating technology and conservation practices. They partner with the Stearns County SWCD and other organizations on eld days, outreach opportunities and participate on farmer panels.

When Rich and Daniel are not on the farm, they can be found shing, hunting and spending time with family. Daniel also can be found in his garden experimenting with regenerative practices.

Adopting conservation practices has not only helped them work toward their goals but also their future goal –securing the next generation’s ability to farm.

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“Learn

Mehr manages dairy farm while raising a family

By Tiffany Klaphake tiffany.k@dairystar.com

FREEPORT, Minn. – Nicole Mehr, a single mother of four children, will always remember July 12, 2021, as the day she bought her own dairy farm.

“I didn’t think it truly would be possible,” Mehr said. “But I always had the dream of having my own farm.”

Mehr did not think she would be able to purchase a farm of her own due to the large capital investment.

“I have always worked on a dairy farm,” Mehr said. “Now, I nally have my own.”

Today, Mehr, along with her children, Calvin, Krysta, Ike and Mirah, milks 44 cows in a stanchion barn on her dairy farm near Freeport. The herd is housed in a freestall barn.

Mehr does the milking herself, getting up at 3 a.m. to start chores and milk the cows so she can be back in the house to get the kids ready for school.

On nights and weekends, when the kids are home, Calvin helps with taking care of the youngstock, Kyrsta feeds milk to the calves, feeds the

Farming her way

chicken, rabbits and horses, and gives grain to the cows.

“The best part is I get to make the decisions,” Mehr said. “And, I am able to spoil my cows and know that they are mine.”

Mehr did not grow up on a dairy farm but did grow up on a hobby farm with animals. Her love of animals only grew when she started working on a neighboring dairy farm.

“It is hard work, but I knew what I was getting myself into,” Mehr said. “I have worked on dairy farms since I was 16.”

Mehr rst heard about her current farm site in December 2020; the location was foreclosed on, so Mehr submitted a sealed bid and waited.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Mehr said. “I would lie awake at night wondering and thinking about this place.”

Mehr did not hear from the bank until April 2021. The answer was exactly what she was hoping for.

With the farm secured, Mehr immediately started cleaning up the farm site and going through what was useable and what would need to be replaced.

“The stalls were broken; the barn was a mess,” Mehr said. “One thing after another, something would break.”

To begin her herd, Mehr purchased 20 cows from a farmer who was selling his herd. The man had already sold his good cows to another dairy. All Mehr could afford were his cull cows.

“They were three titters, old and weren’t perfect, but he told me if I want them, I can have them,” Mehr said. “They were, however, used to

being pasture cows, so they had good feet and legs.”

TIFFANY KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR Nicole Mehr stands in her milkhouse Jan. 3 near Freeport, Minnesota. Mehr, a single mom raising four children, purchased her own dairy farm last year.

The house on the farm needed maintenance before Mehr and her children could move in. They had been living in a house in town that was about 1 mile from the farm.

“We had 21 cows due to calve in September, and I said we need to be on the farm for that,” Mehr said.

They reached their goal and moved into their new home in September 2021.

As the calves grew, so did the farm.

“Once the cows started calving, we found the old calf huts and popped the dents out of those and put calves in them,” Mehr said. “When the calves got bigger, we xed up the calf barn.”

The freestall barn is big enough that Mehr can partition off a section for the dry cows and a section as a maternity pen.

“My cows have very good feet and legs and good fertility,” Mehr said. “I actually have too many heifer calves right now.”

Mehr owns 50 acres and purchases the majority of her feed.

“We may not have a lot, but until I get more land I really don’t need anymore,” Mehr said. “You take what you got and make it work.”

Because Mehr is just starting out, and without an inventory of equipment, most of the chores are done manually.

“We don’t have a (mixer),” Mehr said. “I put the silage down, and Krysta puts grain on top. Then, after milking, I feed hay to the cows.”

Mehr said her biggest challenge is nding balance between growing and improving the farm and spending time with her children.

“I would like to have enough land to grow my own forages, but that’s it,” Mehr said. “I have my kids to take care of too.”

Mehr’s main pursuit is to raise her children on the farm because of the valuable skills the lifestyle can impart on them such as a work ethic and responsibility.

“First and foremost, I am a mother,” Mehr said. “But, I am also a farmer.”

TIFFANY KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR Nicole Mehr stands in the freestall barn with her children – Mirah (front); (middle, from le ) Krysta, Ike and Calvin – Jan. 3 near Freeport, Minnesota. Mehr milks 44 cows and farms 50 acres.

“First and foremost, I am a mother. But, I am also a farmer.”

NICOLE MEHR, DAIRY FARMER

Mensen Luxemburg, Iowa Dubuque County 80 cows

Family: Husband Carl, sons Travis and his wife, Brittney, and their children, Kasin, Harper and Ian; Matt and his wife, Maria, and their children, Spencer and Carlene; and Jesse and his wife, Sara.

Tell us about your farm. We bought our 160-acre farm in 1993, and we milk in a tiestall barn that holds 66 cows. We have a cattle shed with free stalls that houses the switch cows. We milk Holstein cows and raise our replacement heifers and have 100 peafowl and sell their eggs to our son who has a hatching business.

What is a typical day like for you on the dairy? We get up at 4 a.m., and I clean my calf pens while my husband checks the pre-fresh pen for more fresh cows and gets the barn ready for milking. By about 4:45 a.m., we are milking, and then after that, we let cows out to eat while we clean the barn up and feed the other heifers and dry cows. We then eat breakfast about 8:30 a.m., and then Carl does his things for the day, and I can do my things for the day until about 3:30

p.m. Then, we start chores all over and get done for the day about 6:30 p.m. We don’t have any hired hands, but when we need extra help, our boys, daughters-in-law, two neighbor boys or family help us.

What decision have you made in the last year that has beneted your farm? We upgraded some of our machinery. Tell us about your most memorable experience working on the farm. Watching our kids grow up and now seeing our grandkids help just like their dads did on the farm.

What have you enjoyed most about dairy farming or your tie to the dairy industry? Seeing where the dairy industry is going, and I loved when we used to show cattle, seeing how our cattle did compared to other cattle.

What is your biggest accomplishment in your dairy career? We got automatic takeoffs and a feed mixer.

What are things you do to promote your farm or the dairy industry? We donate dairy products or put dairy baskets together to promote dairy for our parish functions.

What advice would you give another woman in the dairy industry? Dairying may be a lot of work, but it’s the best place to raise a family.

When you get a spare moment, what do you do? I like to put quilts

together and quilt them and spend time with my grandkids, or Carl and I like to go on side-by-side rides and see the countryside. And, we go on mystery trips with some friends for a day.

Lisa

Wicked problems: Why we struggle to solve major challenges

By Jim Salfer

Our country is divided when it comes to solving some of our major issues. Surveys even show many people want to split the country up because it appears different regions of the country cannot agree on anything, even when urban centers and rural areas benet greatly from each other’s strengths. Part of the reason is that issues rural and urban dwellers see affecting them and their neighborhoods are different. These perspectives of problems make it difcult to come up with solutions to big societal issues such as sustainable food production, climate change, immigration/ border policy and achievement gaps in schools. This consequently results in conict over how to spend tax dollars and policies. There is a scientic term for these large, complex societal problems. They are considered wicked problems.

A wicked problem is dened as a problem that is difcult or impossible to solve because of its complexity and interconnected nature. In our environment of political division, social media and often the attitude that anyone who disagrees with us is an enemy, it is challenging to solve these complex problems. Wicked problems have no perfect solutions and require open discussion and listening to all perspectives before arriving at a compromise that works for everyone. Figure 1 shows 10 properties of wicked problems. A few reasons wicked problems are particularly challenging are:

– Wicked problems involve several stakeholders with perspectives on the problem. One reason it is difcult to agree on a solution is that stakeholders have different values. If you were to ask 10 people about what constitutes sustainable food production, you could easily receive 10 different responses. Responses will vary because of personal values and circumstances. For some, the highest priority of a sustainable food production system is producing nutritious food that is low cost. Other people may be more concerned about using less herbicides and wanting products from animals raised in their natural environment. Cost

is less of a concern. People living in the rural areas may be more interested in supporting a food production system that keeps their local schools and small towns vibrant. All these stakeholders’ perspectives are valid and important; however, potential solutions may compete against each other.

– Wicked problems are unstructured making it difcult to sort out the cause and effect, and there is little consensus in identifying problems and solutions. Is our current food production economically, socially and environmentally sustainable? What are the long-term effects on the environment and food cost if we eliminate all herbicides? Are there any long-term human health or environmental effects of the herbicides we are using? Is grazing better for the environment and animal welfare than connement dairying? Is eliminating all ruminants better for the environment?

For many of these questions, the answers are not clear, and research results are inconclusive or conicting. There are potential tradeoffs with different solutions. Eliminating ruminants will decrease methane production, but many of the human inedible by-products we feed are converted to highly nutritious human food. Landlling these by-products may result in methane production. Grazing cows will result in more perennial crops being grown, potentially lowering erosion while less fuel will be needed to harvest the crop and haul the manure. However, if cows produce less milk, we may need more land and cows to produce the same amount of milk resulting in increased methane production.

– Wicked problems are interconnected, never go away and can only be managed. Solutions involve compromise and tradeoffs. Will eliminating ruminants solve climate change if we keep using fossil fuels? Will building a border wall prevent refugees from attempting to migrate here if their native countries remain in political, social and economic crisis? Will spending more money in schools to narrow the achievement gap work if students are homeless

Dana Adams, adam1744@umn.edu 320-204-2968

Joe Armstrong armst225@umn.edu 612.624.3610

Luciano Caixeta lcaixeta@umn.edu 612-625-3130

Gerard Cramer gcramer@umn.edu 612-625-8184

Marcia Endres miendres@umn.edu 612-624-5391

Fig. 1

without adequate nutrition and parental support?

Most of the major challenges our society faces, what we hear about on the news and what is being debated in the political arena are wicked problems. Before we jump to what may appear to be a simple solution, it is important for us to try and understand everyone’s perspective. We need to have more respectful conversations about all the potential solutions, realizing that solutions will involve compromise and tradeoffs. If we do this, we will craft better solutions that work for everyone.

Joleen Hadrich jhadrich@umn.edu 612-626-5620

Les Hansen hanse009@umn.edu 612-624-2277

Brad Heins hein0106@umn.edu 320-589-1711

Nathan Hulinsky huli0013@umn.edu 320-203-6104

Kevin Janni kjanni@umn.edu 612-625-3108

Karen Johnson ande9495@umn.edu 320-484-4334

Emily Krekelberg krek0033@umn.edu 507-280-2863

Claire LaCanne lacanne@umn.edu 507-332-6109

Brenda Miller nels4220@umn.edu 320-732-4435

Erin Royster royster@umn.edu

Isaac Salfer ijsalfer@umn.edu 320-296-1357

Jim Salfer salfe001@umn.edu 320-203-6093

Mike Schutz mschutz@umn.edu 612-624-1205

Melissa Wison mlw@umn.edu 612-625-4276

Culling reasons: Value of Holstein, crossbred cows

By Brad Heins and Sabrina Portner

Beef prices have been relatively higher the past year, and farmers are always evaluating which cows to keep and which cows to cull. Cull rate is one way to determine how well a dairy is performing. However, overall cull rate does not tell why the cows were culled or if they died; therefore, it can be biased. Cows with high somatic cell count and fertility challenges tend to nd themselves at the top of culling lists. However, farmers might consider potential cull value when making decisions on when to sell cows.

Dairy cull cows account for close to 10% of the U.S. beef market, yet little research has classied cull cows by breed or provided detailed information of the cull cow value for dairy farmers. Furthermore, there has been little research on the reasons for culling and beef value of crossbred dairy cull cows.

Recently, we completed a study to compare reasons for disposal and cull cow value of Holstein cows (n = 225), GrazeCross crossbred cows (n = 244) composed of the Normande, Jersey and Viking Red breeds and ProCROSS crossbred cows (n = 426) composed of the Montbéliarde, Viking Red and Holstein breeds.

Cull cow records and receipts were from the University of Minnesota West Central Research and Out-

reach Center in Morris, Minnesota. Reasons for disposal were recorded in PCDart Software, and cull value was from invoices from livestock cull markets. Data were from a 12-year period from January 2010 to December 2021.

Table 1 shows the reasons cows were culled within breed group at the Morris dairy. The percentages for U.S. Holsteins culled from Dairy Herd Improvement Assocation data for various reasons from 2021 are also in the table. For the Morris dairy cows, the average body weight at culling was 1,257 pounds for Holsteins, 1,078 pounds for GrazeCross and 1,235 pounds for ProCROSS cattle.

The primary reason for culling across all cows was 10.6% died, 5.1% for low production, 16.9% for mastitis or SCC, 43.2% for reproduction and 14% for other reasons.

The number of cows that died on farm was lower for the crossbred groups compared to the Holsteins. The Morris Holsteins (15.5%) were similar to the national average of 16.3%. Of course, we did not receive cull value for the cows that died, and those are a total loss for farmers. In some cases, the cows that die on farm can cost money to dispose of the carcass. The Morris cattle that die are composted on-site which costs labor to maintain.

Culling for mastitis or SCC was the highest for the GrazeCross cows because those cows have Jersey in

the rotation which is known to have higher SCC as a pure breed. Reproductive culls at the Morris dairy are high because of the seasonal nature of the dairy. The dairy herd calves seasonally from March to May and September to November, and the cows are thus only bred for six months out of the year. Most cows that are culled for reproduction have days in milk that are greater than 250 days.

Across the 12 years, 2014 had the highest cull price received ($1,100 average cull value) and 2020 was the lowest ($525). The cull value ranged from $575 to $1,000 across the period removing the high and low years. Interestingly, cows culled during the spring and summer ($796) had higher cull value than cows culled during the fall and winter ($690). The Holstein cows ($712.17) had lower carcass value compared with GrazeCross crossbreds ($740.71), and ProCROSS

($740.65) crossbreds. Dairy producers may receive greater cull value from crossbred cows compared to Holstein cows.

Crossbred cows had lower death rates and higher cull value than Holstein cows at the Morris dairy. Reproduction and mastitis were the most frequent reasons for culling which follows national averages. Farms should provide accurate reasons for voluntary and involuntary culling because they have substantial impact on protability of farms. Culling reason and price received provide valuable information for economic studies on dairy management of Holstein and crossbred cows. Because cull cows that don’t die on farm represent a source of income for farmers, the overall cull value of cows should be considered when evaluating breed groups of cows.

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Milk hauling milestone

Johnson meets half-century mark at Osakis Creamery

By Jan Lefebvre jan.l@star-pub.com

OSAKIS, Minn. – Ken Johnson is not retiring. In fact, he plans to keep hauling milk for as long as he can.

“I’ll keep going as long as the good Lord allows me,” Johnson said. “My joke I tell my farmers is, ‘When I turn 70, I’m going to cut back to a 40hour week.’”

For more than 50 years, Johnson has hauled milk, driving bulk trucks for the Osakis Creamery Association of Osakis. Routes and destinations have changed throughout the years, but aspects of Johnson’s job have remained the same.

Johnson drinks about 10 cups of weak coffee on his route every day, and he makes connections with farm families, which is the part of his job Johnson said he values most.

“It’s my main reason for hauling milk,” Johnson said. “My patrons and families are a big part of my staying this long.”

For certain farms, Johnson has been an almost daily pres-

ence for three generations, and he said he has seen both happy and sad times experienced by those families.

Johnson said he tries to be a supportive force.

“I’ll put an arm around them and let them know if they need somebody, I’ve got big shoulders,” he said.

Johnson is often invited to the weddings and other gatherings of his farm families, and he attends the events whenever possible, sometimes nding inventive ways to do so. When a teenager from one family invited Johnson to her graduation party, Johnson had to work that day. His wife, Linda, met him on his route with a change of clothes and drove him to the party. Afterward, they returned to where his truck was parked, and Johnson continued his route.

“Those relationships and memories mean so much to me,” Johnson said.

While Johnson has remained in the same job, changes have taken place around him. One change has been with the trucks themselves.

“That rst bulk truck had a

1,300-gallon tank on it, and we had a little 600-gallon pup trailer we pulled to haul skim milk with,” Johnson said. “The truck I have today has a 6,200-gallon tank.”

Other changes Johnson has seen are in dairy farm numbers and sizes. He has to travel farther on his routes to reach farms which are spread far apart. Johnson said his route radius has gone from roughly 8 miles to 35 miles during his

career.

“At my peak, I would probably pick up at 25 or 26 stops a day,” Johnson said. “At every barn you saw then, they were milking cows. Right now, it’s about 10 stops. You travel all over for a load of milk.”

However, each stop has more milk.

“The sizes of the herds have increased immensely,” Johnson said.

The Osakis Creamery As-

sociation has also seen changes.

“We built the rst fertilizer building on this property in 1975, so we expanded from just milk into agronomy,” Johnson said. “I’ve always stayed with the milk, but the agronomy really gave us a boost.”

During its peak in the 1980s, the creamery was collecting about 500,000 pounds

SOUTH

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JAN LEFEBVRE/DAIRY STAR

Ken Johnson stands by his washed bulk truck Jan. 5 at the Osakis Creamery Associa on in Osakis, Minnesota. Johnson has been hauling milk for the creamery for more than 50 years.

of milk per day. That number has shrunk to roughly 120,000 pounds per day as dairy farms disappear.

Johnson’s connection to the Osakis Creamery Association stretches to before he was born. Both his grandparents and his parents were patron farmers of the creamery. Johnson still has the billfold his grandfather received from the creamery at its 1959 annual meeting. His father also received a billfold that day, but he died that same year of a sudden heart attack. Johnson remembers his mother using the billfold herself after his father’s death. At 40 years old, Johnson’s mother had to continue farming without her husband and their seven children, the oldest having just graduated.

Johnson graduated in 1967 as the

third youngest of the siblings. A war in Vietnam was escalating at the time.

“I knew I was going to get drafted,” Johnson said. “The creamery needed somebody to haul cans (of milk), so I did it then just to kind of ll in. We did have the bulk truck then, so I would do some bulk hauling too.”

That rst bulk truck was purchased by the creamery in 1964, but only after 10 farmers had signed on to get a bulk tank at their farms, making the purchase of the truck viable. Johnson’s family farm was one of the 10.

After a while, Johnson left the creamery to take a job doing mechanical work for a car dealership in Alexandria. He continued to help on the farm as well.

Then, Johnson’s prediction came

true. He was drafted in 1968 at the age of 19. The next three years found him training for and then serving as a combat engineer, running a bulldozer most of the time during two tours in Vietnam.

When he left Vietnam for the second time in 1971, he was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. There, he met a women named Linda at the nearby bowling alley. They married that year.

Today, the Johnsons have four children, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

After Johnson’s service, he and Linda returned to Osakis. Interstates 90 and 94 were being constructed, and bulldozing experience was needed. Johnson spent two years working in road construction. He said he loved the work.

“My heart will always be on a dozer doing dirt work,” Johnson said. “My wife says I have diesel fuel in my blood.”

However, as the interstate projects came to an end in 1973, Johnson knew he needed another job. His old employer, the Osakis Creamery Association, was looking for milk haulers.

Once Johnson was hired, he never left.

After 50 years, Johnson said his job still suits him, and he continues to connect with the farm families he serves.

“I really like that Luke Bryon song, ‘Most People Are Good,’” Johnson said. “That’s the reason I like hauling milk. I’ve made many friends through the years. I hope I can keep that the rest of my life.”

MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Bruce Waldvogel (le ) talks with Ken Johnson Jan. 6 at Waldvogel’s farm near Osakis, Minnesota. The farm is on Johnson’s route for the Osakis Creamery Associa on, for whom he has hauled milk for more than 50 years.

MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Ken Johnson takes a milk reading Jan. 6 at the Waldvogel farm near Osakis, Minnesota. Johnson said he has no plans to re re.

SomeStuff Udder

News and Dairy Views from across the region

Compeer Financial offers scholarships to high school seniors

The Fund for Rural America, Compeer Financial’s corporate giving program, is offering 123 scholarships to students this year. Graduating high school seniors who have an agriculture or rural background, or plan to major in an agriculture-related eld at a community college, university or technical school are encouraged to apply between now and March 15.

Each scholarship recipient will receive $1,500 for educational tuition expenses. Qualied applicants must be graduating seniors who live in Compeer Financial’s 144-county territory and have a 3.0 GPA or higher. Recipients will be selected based on a combination of academic achievement; agricultural, community and youth organization involvement; and essays.

To date, the fund has awarded 591 scholarships to graduating seniors, totaling $886,500.

“At Compeer, our mission is to champion the hopes and dreams of rural America, and providing scholarships is just one way we can help fulll our mission,” said Karen Schieler, senior corporate giving specialist. “We know there is a bright future for agriculture and rural communities with these students.”

Students can nd more information and link to the scholarship application at compeer.com/scholarships. All applications must be submitted through the online platform. No paper or email copies will be accepted. The application deadline is March 15.

Holstein Association seeks nominations and scholarship applicants

Nominations are open for Holstein Association USA’s annual awards. These include the 2023 Distinguished Young Holstein Breeder, Elite Breeder and Distinguished Leadership awards.

Award applications are available at: www.holsteinusa.com/awards/individuals.

Nomination applications must be postmarked by Jan. 31. Honorees will receive their recognition during the 2023 National Holstein Convention, June 2327, in Lexington, Kentucky.

Additionally, a scholarship is available to students interested in agriculture who plan to pursue their master’s degree in business administration. The Robert H. Rumler MBA Scholarship awards $3,000 to a qualied individual pursuing their MBA at an accredited university. Applications for this scholarship must be received by April 15

Applications open for funding to help new farmers purchase land

Qualied farmers will receive dollar-for-dollar matching money up to $15,000

Applications are now being accepted for a new grant program to support Minnesotans purchasing their rst farm. The Down Payment Assistance Grant Program is managed by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and offers dollar-for-dollar matching up to $15,000 for qualied small farmers to purchase farmland.

The MDA’s Rural Finance Authority is awarding this funding using a rst-come, rst-served application process opened Jan. 4. The Minnesota Legislature appropriated $500,000 in scal year 2023 for these grants. The RFA expects to award between 30 and 40 grants in this cycle, depending on the size of requests. A second cycle of $750,000 in funding has been secured and will be made available on July 1.

Farmers must be Minnesota residents who will earn less than $250,000 annually in gross agricultural sales and plan on providing the majority of the day-today physical labor on the farm for at least ve years. Applicants must not have previous direct or indirect farmland ownership.

Applications will continue to be accepted until a waitlist of 100 applicants forms or May 15, whichever comes rst. Approved applications will remain valid for purchases closing within 90 days of approval or until May 15, whichever comes rst.

The application and more information on the Down Payment Assistance Grant can be found at https://www.mda.state.mn.us/down-payment-assistance-grant-program.

Jumping into 2023 with dairy

As the new year has come, we look back at what the last year brought, and we look ahead to what the new year will bring us.

Maybe looking ahead to the upcoming year leads to setting New Year’s resolutions, creating goals or making plans throughout the upcoming year. For me, the new year is a time to clear my head, reset and have a fresh perspective before the year swiftly gets underway.

tial nutrients help complete a balanced diet for all ages. We can all jump into 2023 by adding more real dairy goodness to our diets. This past year has own by and brought so many amazing opportunities, but it is now time to look to 2023 and see what the upcoming year has in store.

I am so excited to see where this year brings me as I continue my journey as the 69th Princess Kay of the Milky Way. There is so much to look forward to.

Princess Kay of the Milky Way Rachel Rynda serves as the Minnesota dairy community’s goodwill ambassador. Rynda grew up in Montgomery, Minnesota, on her family’s dairy farm. She attends University of Wisconsin-River Falls, studying agriculture business with a minor in dairy science, with plans to assist farmers with their nances. She enjoys participating in sports and singing in church with her dad.

Wishing you all a very safe and healthy new year. May 2023 be a prosperous year with good weather, happy cows and plenty of joy and laughter.

Princess Kay is active doing school visits, representing dairy farmers at the Fuel Up To Play 60 activities in conjunction with the Minnesota Vikings and sharing the importance of dairy farming and dairy foods at appearances across Minnesota.

By Rachel Rynda 69th Princess Kay of the Milky Way

Each new year brings us new things, new opportunities and new memories to be made. In the month of December, I had a few fun opportunities. I joined the community of Montgomery, Minnesota, for its annual Torchlight Holiday Parade and Fireworks. The night was lled with lots of good conversations about my journey as Princess Kay and how dairy is included in community member’s holiday traditions.

Next, I joined Bremer Farms for its Santa on the Farm event. Each year the Bremer family puts on a pretty incredible light display on the farm with Santa, Mrs. Claus and the cows. As families drove through the light display, they were greeted by a friendly elf and then moved on to meet me and two calves from the farm, Harlen and Hannah. Visitors were so excited to hear about the calves, learn about dairy farming, meet Santa and Mrs. Claus, and enjoy milk and cookies. There was even a bus of children driven by their grandma who came through to see the lights. It was a perfect evening lled with lots of smiling faces.

In the last couple of weeks doing chores on the farm in the bitter cold and the wind, it reminded me of the cold, snowy winter nights when I was younger. My brothers and I would bundle up really well after school for evening chores. We would hurry to get our chores done so we could spend the rest of the night playing in the snow. Dad would move the snow from the driveway and pile it up beside the barn. The snow pile was the perfect spot to play, as the yard light lit the area around it. By the end of chores, that pile would be attened from all the climbing up and sliding down by us kids and the dogs. We would come inside with all of our winter clothes soaked and lay them out to dry so we could do it again the next day.

Even with the new year, some things stay the same. Our work as dairy farmers goes on every day as our goals in maintaining exceptional care continue. We are constantly making improvements, both small and large, to keep moving for a brighter future. On top of making improvements, there are the daily chores that need to be done: milking, feeding, bedding and more. Each year brings hardships, but each roadblock we face makes us better and helps us grow. As we settle into the new year, we need to make sure we don’t overlook what is happening in our lives. Life gets busy, things happen, and through all of it, we need to take time for the simple and small things in life.

Whether you’re making a resolution or not, dairy can accompany everyone into every new year. Dairy foods provide people with wholesome and nutritious products that t perfectly into everyone’s lifestyle. The benets of dairy’s 13 essen-

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Editorial disclaimer: The views expressed by our columnists are the opinions and thoughts of the author and do not reect the opinions and views of Dairy Star staff and ownership.

On the Road with Princess Kay

The winter doldrums

We are in the midst of the winter doldrums. That time of year when time seems to stand still. We are becalmed in a white, frozen Sargasso Sea, progressing neither forward nor backward, our sails slack and useless in the horse latitudes of midwinter.

Nothing seems to move or change at this time of year except for the snow, that is. Snow falls and the wind blows, rearranging it into cadaverous dunes that grasp, zombie-like, at our tires. This icy sargassum is striving mightily to make our cars disappear into the vast emptiness of a snow-choked Bermuda Triangle.

This is also the time of year when people discover what they are made of. Most of us hunker down, mimicking the behavior of our Paleolithic ancestors who passed the long cold in the dank

darkness of their caves.

Some of the hunkerers learned they couldn’t take it. They became unhinged and ran from their caves, screaming, “I cannot watch another single rerun of Gilligan’s Island!”

There must have been some runners and screamers among my Viking forebears. When the icy ngers of the winter doldrums began to snake into their brains, they would suddenly bellow, “I’ve got to get out of here!”

They would make a mad dash down to the dock and hop into their longboats. As their sails lled with the bitter winter wind, their wives probably yelled, “Where are you going?” To which the Viking might have replied, “I don’t know. Out!” To which the wife probably replied, “Could you stop and pick up a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread on

your way home?”

The winter doldrums are responsible for a lot of stupid behavior. A good example of such behavior would be driving around out in the country until you are thoroughly and completely lost, then getting stuck in a snowdrift.

I know this to be true because I personally witnessed such behavior one midwinter day a few years ago.

I was at home doing writing on the day in question. I was trying to focus on visualizing the process, which, to the untrained eye, looks very similar to staring vacantly out the window.

By Jerry Nelson Columnist

My eye fell upon a brownish blob in the distance. Closer examination with binoculars revealed that a tan car, driven by a non-local, had become hopelessly mired in a snowbank about three-quarters of a mile east of our farm. I knew the driver was a non-local due to the fact that everybody who lives hereabouts knows better than to try to drive through that spot, which frequently has snowdrifts the size of Mount Everest.

One of the car’s occupants eventually began to walk toward our house. I could see the walker was a young guy. While it was chilly out, I knew it wasn’t deadly cold. I gured the lesson the guy was about to learn would stay with him longer if he had to hoof it for a ways.

When the guy got to within a quarter of a mile of our house, I red up my old Chevy pickup and drove out to meet him. It at rst appeared he had no hands, but then I saw he actually had no gloves and had pulled his hands up into the sleeves of his coat.

It turned out the car was occupied by three college guys who claimed they had been driving around looking for a friend’s house when they became lost and then stuck. They had tried to dig themselves out with a windshield scraper but gave up after half an hour of indiscernible progress.

But, I knew better. I know the wild-eyed look of acute winter doldrums when I see it.

So, I chained my pickup to the car and yanked it out of the snowdrift. The three college guys thanked me profusely, hopped back into their car and drove away. They didn’t offer to pay, nor did I expect any compensation.

I know from abundant personal experience what it’s like to nd yourself hopelessly mired in a snowdrift and dependent upon the kindness of strangers. I doubt if those particular college boys tried that particular stunt again anytime soon.

But in the meantime, they had a rousing yarn to spin about how they had found themselves lost and becalmed in a sea of frozen white swells and how a fresh breeze arrived in the form of a wild-eyed stranger in an old Chevy pickup.

Jerry is a recovering dairy farmer from Volga, South Dakota. He and his wife, Julie, have two grown sons and live on the farm where Jerry’s great-grandfather homesteaded over 110 years ago. Jerry works full time for Dairy Star as a staff writer and ad salesman. Feel free to email him at jerry.n@dairystar.com.

What’s in my car?

Veterinary

Wisdom

Most dairy vets probably still drive trucks with berglass inserts. I used to, but my last few vehicles were small SUVs with a much smaller cabinet inside, because I do not need to carry all that stuff anymore. What’s in my car has changed a lot. Here are a few of the changes.

have treated her except that he did not think milk fever was possible in such a cow. I reminded him that the saying, “Every down cow deserves a bottle of calcium,” is still true. In the old days, I might have treated four to 10 cows for milk fever on a weekend and may have treated some of them twice. Now, I probably treat one every three or four months.

IV needle: Like many dairy doctors, I used to carry a couple of reusable, big, 10- to 12-gauge, 3-inch needles. These were used to administer IV medications to adult cows. Now, I carry six or eight disposable, 2-inch, 14-gauge needles. I estimate that I IV a cow once every couple of months now, so I do not need many. Most conditions that require IV therapy are now treated by our farmers or their staff. My standards have changed as well, in that I would never dream of pounding one of those big, dull needles into the neck of an ailing bovine. Disposable needles are cheap.

By Jim Bennett Columnist

Calcium: I carry two bottles of 23% calcium and one bottle of CMPK. I used to carry at least six to 10 bottles, because milk fever was much more common and most farmers did not treat their own as they do now. The last milk fever cow I treated had been dried up two days earlier, and the farmer would

Mastitis tubes and antibiotics: I do not carry any lactating or dry tubes. Ninety percent or more of our product sales are done direct to the farm, so I do little dispensing. We could not do that in the old days, so everything went off the truck or out of the ofce. Plus, I rarely treat cows for mastitis anymore. I used to carry at least three kinds of lactating tubes and a couple boxes of dry tubes. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that some of those lactating tubes were squeeze-jets lled with a variety of antibiotics and antibiotic concoctions. We thought we were doing the right thing, but today, we understand treatment failure is not usually due to using the wrong antibiotic and the use of antibiotics by dairy veterinarians is much more regulated. As everyone knows, there are only a few parenteral antibiotics we can use in dairy cows, so I carry ceftiofur in various forms, ampicillin and long-acting tetracycline. I do have two or three bottles of other antibiotics for treating respiratory disease in calves. I do not carry any antibiotics or disinfectants for uterine infusions or cleaning cows, because we do not do that anymore either. I used to carry enough tetracycline to infuse at least a couple dozen cows.

Restraint aids: I carry a halter, cow hobbles, a 3-foot section of chain with extra snaps and a trailer tie-down strap. I used to carry a nose lead and a block and tackle apparatus to lift feet. The tie-down strap is used to restrain cows for surgery if a farm does not have a proper chute. Hobbles are for particularly agitated cows or for cows that might need some sort of surgery on the teats or udder. In the old days, I did not carry hobbles or the tie-down strap because I was young, did not think I needed to and, in retrospect, stupid. Now, the nose lead seems to cause too much fear and unpleasantness for the cow, so I would not use it even if I had to IV a cow. Cows are, on average, much calmer than in the old days too. If one cannot hit a vein with a halter, one probably cannot hit a vein. The chain is useful for a bunch of things, including attaching behind a cow in a chute so she cannot back up, to tie a swinging gate to the post on the wall when we are trying to assist a calving cow and other situations where something needs to be tied down. Plus, one can never have too many snaps.

Rectal sleeves: I carry two bags of 100. I palpate a lot of cows and assist with dystocia. Now, I carry a portable

ultrasound machine, which did not even exist in the old days.

Computers: I have a computer, a cell phone and an iPad. I used to have paper invoices in a steel box. Back then, computers were bigger than my car, phones were attached to a wall, and there was no iPad because apple was only something we ate. Now, we do mobile invoicing, mobile reporting, mobile health certicates and veterinary feed directives, and so much more. We have a variety of other electronic gadgets, too, that we sometimes bring to farms. What has changed in my car reects the big changes the dairy industry has seen in the last 40 years. I will not be around in another 40 years, but I sure would like to know what will be in Doc’s car then, and I bet what’s in there will have changed again.

Bennett is one of four dairy veterinarians at Northern Valley Dairy Production Medicine Center in Plainview, Minnesota. He also consults on dairy farms in other states. He and his wife, Pam, have four children. Jim can be reached at bennettnvac@gmail.com with comments or questions.

has changed in my car reflects the big changes the dairy industry has seen in the last 40 years. I will not be around in another 40 years, but I sure would like to know what will be in Doc’s car then.

It probably seems a bit late to be writing a column about Christmas traditions.

The season is over for some people, but as I’m writing this, our family is still celebrating or at least doing activities together that are traditions for us, like going skiing and playing lots of board games. Our family tends to stretch Christmas and New Year’s out over at least a couple weeks. In my opinion, this is the best way to do it as I feel awful if I eat more than one huge holiday meal in a day but prefer to eat as many seasonal meals and hang out with as many family members and friends as possible per holiday.

I used to think it was just our family that celebrated Christmas from around Dec. 20 to Jan. 10. Turns out we just celebrate like they do in Romania and Moldova.

Occasionally, we get calls from people who want to process their own hog for a special event or holiday. A couple weeks ago, a family called us wanting a Christmas pig to butcher for their cel-

ebrations. I told them I had a few extra pigs that weren’t spoken for yet and could help them out with that. They came out to the farm with the whole family, food, drinks and a large propane torch. I’m glad it was a Sunday, and I didn’t have big plans for the middle of the day.

I sorted out the pig they wanted with a little help from them running the gate. We then spent the next four hours having the best time drinking, eating, laughing and disassembling a pig. I mostly stood around and chatted and drank wine as only so many people can torch, wash and scrape hair off a pig at a time, and no one had expected me to be involved past providing the pig. A week later, we repeated the party for some friends of theirs from Moldova who also wanted a pig for their Christmas celebrations.

I learned a lot about the countries of Romania and Moldova and how they celebrate the holidays.

Turns out, they celebrate Christmas like our family does. They begin celebrating around Dec. 20

and end Jan. 7. The family kills a pig at the beginning of the Christmas celebration, and they make different pork dishes throughout the couple weeks of celebrating.

A delicacy I’d never had until this year that they insisted I try was skin right off the pig. At rst, I thought that didn’t sound all that sanitary, but then, they had torched, scraped and washed the whole thing twice then wrapped it in plastic covered in salt. Pig skin and ears are pretty good with a sprinkle of salt.

From the Zweber Farm

Over the years while raising hogs, I’ve never butchered one myself for our family. With the farm store just a quick walk through our garage, we don’t generally have pigs in our basement freezer just for ourselves. We usually are eating all the dropped, weird-looking or odd-sized packages of meat.

By Tim Zweber Farmer & Columnist

That said, after seeing how much those families enjoyed the process of working together while having a great time butchering their own hog, I might propose we add one more tradition to our Christmas season. After seeing quite a few people butcher hogs here, I know there are at least 20 different ways to do it, because not a single one of them has done it the same as the last person.

Maybe try that method of roasting a whole hog in a hole in the ground. That has always intrigued me, but if we’re going to do that for Christmas, I

better plan ahead and dig that hole in the fall before the ground freezes.

Until next time, keep living the dream, providing the foods that make people’s holidays a bit merrier. And, if someone offers you something you’ve never eaten before, give it a try. You never know what weird things you may nd enjoyable.

Tim Zweber farms with his wife, Emily, their three children and his parents, Jon and Lisa, near Elko, Minnesota.

After seeing how much those families enjoyed the process of working together while having a great time butchering their own hog, I might propose we add one more tradition to our Christmas season.

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Carrying on the multigenerational farm

One of the greatest things about America is its farmers; in particular, its dairy farmers.

For generations, they have been the hard-working backbone of countless communities across this great

started 60 years ago. We are strongly invested in learning new ideas, techniques and management practices, allowing almost all services to be executed by the team within the dairy.

By

& Ellen Stenger Columnists

country. At one time, America’s dairy farms totaled more than 5 million. Now, they number less than 32,000. Of those that remain, many of them are multi-generational farms with family livelihoods, histories and knowledge that have been passed down from generation to generation.

Our dairy farm is one of those farms.

The story of our family dairy began with our grandfather, Wilfred Becker. Wilfred was not the eldest son and did not have the opportunity to take over the family dairy farm. Therefore, Wilfred and his young family set out on their own, eventually purchasing a neighboring dairy farm in 1964, which consisted of 14 Holstein cows, an array of pigs and chickens, and 160 acres.

Transforming over the decades, the dairy transitioned from grandfather to sons, adding more cows, discontinuing the pigs and eventually shifting again from sons to daughters, evolving into what is currently NexGen Dairy.

NexGen is now a third-generation dairy farm owned and operated by our family, Megan and Tim Schrupp, Ellen and Brandon Stenger, and Vern and Mary Kay Becker.

What started out with 14 Holsteins has now become a family farm milking about 1,000 Jersey and Jersey-cross cows. Instead of brothers at the helm, we’re two sisters, Megan and Ellen, who, along with our husbands, are in pursuit of not only continuing our family heritage and legacy but building the increasingly rare and priceless lifestyle that only dairy farming affords.

Our dairy aims to remain protable and sustainable to allow us to carry on the legacy our grandparents

Megan, a large animal veterinarian specializing in dairy medicine, is responsible for all the reproduction and herd health of the dairy. Ellen tackles all things accounting and assists with the daily care of the cows and heifers. Brandon, an agronomist, and Tim, a contractor by trade, are busy with crop production and manure pumping. Tim teams up with Vern on nutrition for the dairy, and Vern presides over a portion of the hoof trimming as well as assisting with the eldwork and manure operations. Brandon is also busy managing replacement heifers and, along with Tim, spearheads any construction projects that have occurred on the dairy farm.

Most recently, we have added new heifer facilities, including a grouphoused calf barn with individual feeding and a new fresh cow milking parlor and transition cow facilities. In addition to the milking herd, we raise our replacements on-site and tend to just over 1,000 acres, providing forages for our dairy. We are constantly vigilant, looking for new ideas and technologies to implement that enable us to eliminate bottlenecks or increase efciencies.

Individual cow data from smart tags has been implemented on the dairy and is utilized in conjunction with other systems to maximize cow health and longevity. Several side projects have also been added to our dairy, such as beekeeping, Guernsey cows, maple syrup production, solar energy generation for the dairy, and the addition of a vegetable and cut ower farm and farm market.

We enjoy working as a team, building off of each other’s strengths and interests to achieve success. We constantly strive to learn more, to do better and to invest in technologies and ideas while maintaining the core lessons and values that we as farmers have passed down through the generations.

In the coming issues, we, Megan and Ellen, hope to share more about our dairy, new ideas we’ve implemented and lessons we’ve learned with you, our readers, in the hopes that you, too, are proud of your family dairy heritage and committed to carrying it forward.

Megan Schrupp and Ellen Stenger are sisters and co-owners of both NexGen Dairy and NexGen Market in Eden Valley, Minnesota. They can be reached at nexgendairy@gmail. com.

Megan Schrupp

The NexGen: Adventures of two dairy daughters

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