October 15, 2022 Dairy Star - 1st section - Zone 1

DAIRY ST

Four brothers carry farm forward

Saemrow family honored as Rice County’s family of the year

By Taylor Jerde taylor.j@star-pub.com

WATERVILLE, Minn Wayne, Gordon, Ron and Keith Saemrow grew up working side by side on the family farm, and today, the four brothers continue to be in partnership together.

“It’s almost unheard of that we, as a four-brother partnership survived,” Wayne said.

Equally as impressive is the relationship the now-grown children have with their mom. At the age of 95, Marian is active on the farm and helps with calf chores.

“It’s her reason to get up in the morning,” Gordon said.

The family’s commitment to one another and their community led to the Saemrows

being recognized as the 2022 Rice County Farm Family of the Year by the University of Minnesota.

The Saemrow brothers are the fourth generation on the farm near Waterville, which dates back to 1894. The brothers have grown their farm to include 750 cows and 2,000 acres. They are also contract turkey growers for Jennie-O.

Although farming is the brothers’ full-time job, they have the same commitment to volunteering that their dad, Herb, did.

Whenever a need arises in the community, the brothers and their families are willing to help in any way possible.

Hurricane Ian devastates dairy

ley hit southwestern Florida but changed course as it neared Dakin’s area and left the dairy in one piece.

“All the way up to about 12 hours before the Hurricane Ian hit, we thought it was going to miss us,” Dakin said.

By Tiffany Klaphake tiffany.k@dairystar.com

MYAKKA CITY, Fla.

Every day, for

days, Jerry Dakin walked his property through the mud and debris left by Hurricane Ian to pick up deceased animals. He continues to gather pieces of debris where his freestall barns once stood.

“Never in my life have I seen this many dead animals,” Dakin said.

Dakin Dairy Farm received 19 inches of rain in a 12-hour span Sept. 28-29. The sustained winds of 150 mph plummeted the area as the Category 4 hurricane made landfall. As the day turned into night, the pouring rain and

winds continued.

Dakin Dairy Farm lost more than 200 animals, both cows and youngstock, and

800-foot freestall barns were scattered across the property after the storm subsided.

“As bad as I got, it is hum-

bling to see that others have it much worse” Dakin said.

“Some lost everything.”

In 2004, Hurricane Char-

Dakin milks 2,000 cows near Myakka City, which is 50 miles inland off the west coast of Florida. The dairy farm processes its own milk and delivers to local grocery stores and homes. They also have an onfarm café and give farm tours.

With the roads under water and bridges washed away, Dakin Dairy Farm could not deliver its milk; even if they could, the grocery stores could not have taken the milk as they did not have power. With no other option, Dakin had to dump multiple days’ worth of milk. The dairy itself was without power for four days, and Dakin has had to bring in two generators to get by.

dairy, all the time”™

Florida farm loses more than 200 head, freestall barns

PHOTO

Cows at Dakin Dairy stand in what is le of one of the farm’s freestall barns Oct. 1 in Myakka City, Florida. Dakin Dairy lost six 800-foot freestall barns to Hurricane Ian Sept. 28-29.

TAYLOR JERDE/DAIRY STAR

The Saemrow brothers Ron (from le ), Gordon, Keith and Wayne stand in their freestall barn Sept. 30 near Waterville, Minnesota. They were the Rice County Farm Family of the Year and milk 750 Holstein cows.

DAIRY ST

www.dairystar.com

ISSN 020355

522 Sinclair Lewis Ave. Sauk Centre, MN 56378

Phone: 320-352-6303

Fax: 320-352-5647

Published by Star Publications LLC

General Manager/Editor

Mark Klaphake - mark.k@dairystar.com

320-352-6303 (ofce)

320-248-3196 (cell)

320-352-0062 (home)

Ad Composition - 320-352-6303

Nancy Powell • nancy.p@dairystar.com

Karen Knoblach • karen.k@star-pub.com

Annika Gunderson • annika@star-pub.com

Editorial Staff

Tiffany Klaphake - Assistant Editor

320-352-6303 • tiffany.k@dairystar.com

Danielle Nauman - Staff Writer

608-487-1101• danielle.n@dairystar.com

Stacey Smart - Staff Writer

262-442-6666 • stacey.s@dairystar.com

Abby Wiedmeyer - Staff Writer

608-487-4812 • abby.w@dairystar.com

Grace Jeurissen - Staff writer

320-352-6303 • grace.j@star-pub.com

Jan Lefebvre - Staff Writer

320-290-5980 • jan.l@star-pub.com

Maria Bichler - Copy Editor

701-340-9749 • maria.b@dairystar.com

Taylor Jerde - Staff Writer

507-403-1680 • taylor.j@star-pub.com

Consutant

Jerry Jennissen 320-346-2292

Advertising Sales

Main Ofce: 320-352-6303

Fax: 320-352-5647

Deadline is 5 p.m. of the Friday the week before publication Sales Manager - Joyce Frericks 320-352-6303 • joyce@dairystar.com

Mark Klaphake (Western MN) 320-352-6303 (ofce) 320-248-3196 (cell)

Laura Seljan (National Advertising, SE MN) 507-250-2217 • fax: 507-634-4413 laura.s@dairystar.com

Jerry Nelson (SW MN, NW Iowa, South Dakota) 605-690-6260 • jerry.n@dairystar.com

Mike Schafer (Central, South Central MN) 320-894-7825 • mike.s@dairystar.com

Amanda Hoeer (Eastern Iowa, Southwest Wisconsin) 320-250-2884 • amanda.h@dairystar.com

Megan Stuessel (Western Wisconsin) 608-387-1202 • megan.s@dairystar.com

Kati Kindschuh (Northeast WI and Upper MI) 920-979-5284 • kati.k@dairystar.com

Julia Mullenbach (Southeast MN and Northeast IA) 507-438-7739 • julia.m@star-pub.com

Bob Leukam (Northern MN, East Central MN) 320-260-1248 (cell) bob.l@star-pub.com

Deadlines

The deadline for news and advertising in Dairy Star is 5 p.m. Friday the week before publication.

Subscriptions

One year subscription $40, outside the U.S. $200. Send check along with mailing address to Dairy Star, 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave., Sauk Centre, MN 56378.

Advertising

Our ad takers have no authority to bind this newspaper and only publication of an advertisement shall constitute nal acceptance of the advertiser's order.

Letters Letters and articles of opinion are welcomed. Letters must be signed and include address and phone number. We reserve the right to edit lengthy letters. The views and opinions expressed by Dairy Star columnists and writers are not necessarily those of the Dairy Star / Star Publications LLC.

The Dairy Star is published semi-monthly by Star Publications LLC, 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave., Sauk Centre, MN 56378-1246. Periodicals Postage Paid at Sauk Centre, MN and additional mailing ofces.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Dairy Star, 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave., Sauk Centre, MN 56378-1246.

Congress passed the Bulk Infant Formula to Retail Shelves Act, temporarily lifting tariffs on imported milk powder. National Milk Producers Federation President and CEO Jim Mulhern said the organization is not opposed to ending these restrictions on a shortterm basis to address the infant formula shortages. However, “NMPF emphatically opposes efforts that would create long-term dependence on foreign suppliers for a critical nutritional food,” Mulhern said. He said overseas milk production does not meet the same stringent regulations facing U.S. dairy producers.

Farm prots could see record highs in 2022

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service forecast U.S. net cash farm income to increase 8.7% from 2021-22. This is the highestlevel forecast since 2012. Both cash receipts and expenses are forecast to increase. Cash receipts for farm commodities are projected to rise 14.4% from the previous year, their highest level on record. Production expenses are expected to see a 11.3% increase. Direct government payments to farmers are projected to fall by 14.3 billion from 2021 to 2022.

Ag economy depends on off-farm income

Of U.S. farm household income, 82% now comes from off the farm. A study conducted by the University of Missouri and commissioned by CoBank identied reliable income as the top reason for off-farm employment. Health and retirement benets were also cited. The research said off-farm jobs are especially important for young and beginning farmers.

Monthly milk production report released

In the 24 major dairy states, milk production in August totaled 18.2 billion pounds. That’s up 1.7% from last year. South Dakota milk production is up a whopping 14.5% with an additional 22,000 cows added to the dairy herd. Minnesota milk production increased 0.6% with cow numbers declining by 8,000 head year-overyear.

A port slowdown

Ag Insider

By Don Wick Columnist

A labor dispute between dockworkers and employers at third busiest port in the U.S. is slowing cargo shipments into and out of the port of Oakland, California. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union started limiting access to workers needed to maintain operations. The disruptions come as negotiations for a new contract enter their fourth month. The ILWU represents more than 22,000 dockworkers at 29 West Coast ports.

UN reacts to ination threat

The Federal Reserve had an unscheduled closeddoor meeting early this month. This session coincided with the release of a report from the United Nations

SERIES

Low

that said the rapidly rising interest rates puts the global economy at risk for recession. The Fed raised interest rates ve times in the past year, moving the benchmark rate to 3%-3.5%. The UN agency said the Fed’s action may be “too drastic.”

Biden addresses UN general assembly

The United States is investing nearly $3 billion to help address global food insecurity. President Joe Biden also spoke about the importance of providing relief to those in need. “We’re calling on all countries to refrain from banning food exports or hoarding grain while so many people are suffering,” Biden said. “Because in every country in the world, no matter what else divides us, if parents cannot feed their children, nothing, nothing else matters.” Biden praised the UN for its work in creating a humanitarian route for exports out of the Black Sea. The President also criticized Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. “Let me be perfectly clear about something; our sanctions explicitly allow Russia the ability to export food and fertilizer; no limitation,” Biden said. The president blamed the Russian war for worsening food insecurity worldwide.

White House hosts hunger conference

President Joe Biden wants to end hunger by 2030. That benchmark was announced during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. The administration wants an additional 9 million school children to receive free school meals.

Housing options should not be a limiting factor in rural America

Attracting and keeping good help for dairy farmers can be a challenge. Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith said the lack of housing options should not add to the difculty. “For many years, USDA helped provide low interest mortgages for rental apartments in exchange for keeping those apartments affordable for low-income people,” Smith said. “A lot of those units are going away. They’re not affordable anymore. People may want to move up the economic ladder, and if they

cannot nd a place to live, it will be hard to do.”

Dairy consumption rising

U.S. per capita dairy consumption this past year was at 667 pounds. That’s a dramatic uptick from 655 pounds per person in 2020. USDA indicates uid milk consumption continues to decline, but American-style cheese consumption is at record levels. Butter consumption is also trending higher.

CBB passes beef checkoff budget

The Cattlemen’s Beef Board will invest $38.5 million in beef checkoff activities in the 2023 scal year. That’s down from nearly $39 million this past year. The budget, which is subject to USDA approval, includes $9.4 million for promotion. There’s $9 million for research and $7.5 million for consumer information.

Meatless no more

After two years in operation, JBS USA is shutting down its U.S. plantbased food business. The meatpacking company will put its focus on its plant-based business in Brazil and Europe.

Hebrink successor named Jase Wagner has been selected as Compeer Financial’s next president and CEO. Wagner will succeed Rod Hebrink when he retires in January.

Wagner is the cooperative’s current chief nancial ofcer.

Trivia challenge

Irish physician Hans Sloane is credited with chocolate milk during his time in Jamaica in the late 1600s. That answers our last trivia question. For this week’s trivia, what country consumes the most chocolate? 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.

HARD WORK DEMANDS A HARD-WORKING DIESEL.

A more complete additive package for a more complete burn. Keeping your o -road engines on point.

Diesel that doesn’t mess around.

Target Your Customers!

Whether it is donating a tractor to another farmer in need, plastic for an organization’s polar plunge or ground beef for an event, Wayne said they are eager to lend a hand.

“The community has been good to us, so it’s our way to give back,” Wayne said.

Wayne was a member of the LandO-Lakes leadership council for 20 years, held a board position with 40 Square Cooperative Solutions and is also on the Rice County American Dairy Association board. His wife, Abbie, is on the Oak Ridge cemetery board.

Gordon said they take pride in giving back to their community and support system.

“I feel being involved opens doors,” Gordon said.

Gordon serves on the church counsel and is treasurer of the Rice County ADA board. His wife, Hindy, is a 4-H and FFA advisor.

Ron is also on the church counsel and teaches Sunday school; he has coached little league and contributed to various community organizations; and has served terms on the Rice County ADA board and the board for Ag Partners. Ron’s wife, Brenda, also assists with fundraising events.

Keith has been active with the Morristown Fire Rescue for 20 years; meanwhile, his wife, Jackie, has also served with the re department. Keith is on the Ag Partners Board of Directors.

All four brothers are involved in the North Morristown Community Club. Through this organization, they assist in running a food booth during a Fourth of July celebration and donate to various events.

While they enjoy being active off the farm, each day is spent with family. Gordon said the farm is the best place to raise a family.

can compromise,” Gordon said. “The farm provides us with so many opportunities that we are grateful for.”

Keith said they enjoy each day they have working together.

“There have been times where I have had four kids in the chopper with me,” Keith said. “My kids have always wanted to be at the farm.”

Being on their farm full time has allowed the brothers to do what they are most passionate about, growing as a family while farming.

“Farming is a hobby; I don’t feel like I am doing work,” Keith said.

While keeping busy off the farm takes much of their time, the brothers stay occupied with their various roles on the farm.

Wayne is the dairy manager; he handles the day-to-day activities and employees. The farm employs 14 nonfamily members and 10 family members. Wayne also oversees the nancial aspects of the farm.

Gordon manages the turkey barns. Additionally, he cares for their replacement heifers which are raised at six locations. Ron oversees bunker management and the feeding. He also helps wherever is needed. Keith manages the calves and oversees eldwork.

“You feel a satisfaction when you succeed and things go well,” Gordon said. “Our successes motivate us to continue.”

The future of their farm looks bright. With their continuous community support, active involvement and a future generation to take over, Keith said new ideas will be implemented to continue growing and developing the farm.

“We continue to make improvements so we can do better for the next generation,” Keith said. “It’s important to take care of details.”

“Working with family shows you

PHOTO SUBMITTED

The Saemrow family – Jobb (from le ), Hindy, Jack, Gordon, Jacy, Abbie, Wayne, Brenda, Marian (front), Ron, Keith, Tyler, Jackie, Wya and Lisa – gather a er receiving their award for Rice County Farm Family of the Year July 20 in Redwood Falls, Minnesota.

Footloose takes center stage

Holstein is named World Dairy Expo Supreme Champion

By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com

MADISON, Wis. – For the past 52 years, only one cow is etched in the annals of dairy cattle history as the reigning World Dairy Expo Supreme Champion. The cow to accomplish the feat at the 2022 WDE was Oakeld Solom Footloose-ET EX-94.

Footloose captivated the audience at the International Holstein Show Oct. 7 in Madison. She won the 5-year-old cow class on her way to being named senior and grand champion of the show before being named Expo’s supreme champion.

“What a tremendous 5-yearold class,” said judge Pierre Boulet. “If you don’t know what a dairy cow is, you check this cow ... lots of dairyness, bone quality, a great texture in the udder. The rst one is for me an easy winner today with so much balance and so much length and width in the body.”

Boulet, of Montmagny, Quebec, Canada, was the ofcial judge of the International Holstein Show.

Footloose is owned by the partnership of Mike and Julie Duckett of Rudolph, Vierra Dairy of Hilmar, California, and Tim and Sharyn Abbott, of Enosburg, Vermont. Footloose is housed at Duckett Holsteins. Footloose was

bred by Jonathan and Alicia Lamb of Oakeld Corners Dairy in Oakeld, New York.

Footloose rst caught the attention of the Ducketts as a 2-yearold in 2019, when she placed fourth in her class at WDE and garnered an All-American nomination. A granddaughter of the Ducketts’ beloved Harvue Roy Frosty EX973E-GMD, who herself was a twotime WDE Supreme Champion, the Ducketts had an interest in the young cow.

“I remember seeing Footloose as a 2-year-old,” Mike Duckett said. “I’d like to say I could see what she would become. I liked her, but I wasn’t 100% certain she would ever get to the next level.”

Duckett continued to watch Footloose as she developed into a 3-year-old. She won the junior 3-year-old class at the North American Open Show in Circleville, Ohio, and was named the reserve intermediate champion. She was named the 2020 All-American junior 3-year-old.

“I was impressed with how she had developed, but I still wasn’t convinced she would be great,” Duckett said.

The following spring, Footloose began to earn his respect and admiration when the Ducketts stopped at Oakeld Corners following the New York Spring Show.

“Julie and I stopped in planning on trying to get another highprole cow for our sale that summer,” Duckett said. “Footloose was dry, and when I saw her, I just looked at Julie and said, ‘This is the one we want.’ She had changed so much in her frame in that dry

period. She was on her way to the next level.”

After Footloose calved, Duckett asked the Abbotts to look at the cow.

The Ducketts and Abbotts purchased Footloose that spring and then consigned her to sell in the Summer Selections sale. At that sale, Vierra Dairy entered the partnership by purchasing half interest in the cow.

Footloose went on to win the 4-year-old class at WDE for her new owners and was tapped as the reserve senior and reserve grand champion cow. She completed the 2021 show season being the unanimous All-American selection in the 4-year-old cow class.

“Footloose is just an easy cow,” Duckett said. “She just does it all on her own. She just stands back and does her own thing, and

likes her own space. She doesn’t like to be messed with.”

Sired by the popular Walnutlawn Soloman, Footloose is a daughter of Duckett-SA Braxtn Frisco-ET EX-94, a Regancrest S Braxton daughter of Frosty.

Footloose calved in June to become a fourth-calf 5-year-old. According to Duckett, she has been conrmed pregnant to Mr Danielle Devour-ET and is due back in early June 2023.

“If you painted Footloose black, you’d almost think it was Frosty standing back in the barn,” Duckett said. “There is so much about Footloose that reminds me of Frosty. The biggest difference is that Footloose is better from the rear view. She has such a tremendous rear udder. Frosty was a nofuss kind of cow, and Footloose is the same.”

Duckett expressed his admiration of the breeding program at Oakeld Corners that created the cow he has come to love.

“Jonathan and Alicia have such a strong and diverse breeding program,” Duckett said. “They breed for the commercial dairy aspect, the genomic aspect and the type aspect. The success they have had in all three areas is impressive on its own, but they have been able to blend the three to make such complete cows.”

With her storied pedigree and her own outstanding phenotype, there is a growing demand for Footloose’s genetics.

“She has two really cool sons,” Duckett said. “When you combine cows that excel in the udder like Delta Missy and Treasure with a cow like Footloose, I think the possibilities are endless.”

One son, Oakeld Tstrk Footprint, sired by OCD Thunder Struck-ET, is available and being marketed by AG3. Another son, sired by Duckett Crush Tatoo-ET, was born at Duckett Holsteins and will be entering stud soon.

While Footloose’s accomplishments are not the rst time the Ducketts have watched one of their cows claim victory under the spotlight, they said this victory was extraordinarily special because of the connection to their own breeding program.

“It has been so special to bring this cow into our herd with us being the breeder of her dam,” Duckett said. “She is a dairy cow, no question. Out there under the lights, walking down the center of the Coliseum, she looked unreal. It was something I will never forget.”

SHE’S GIVING

To

visit DiamondV.com/NutriTek

There’s nothing special about this cow—except everything. She navigates calving, pregnancy, and dry off with ease, producing high-quality milk along the way. She’s a NutriTek cow, leading the pack and built to withstand anything thrown at her— by us or Mother Nature.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ELLA WRIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY David Dyment escorts Oakeld Solom Footloose-ET under the spotlights during the World Dairy Expo Supreme Champion ceremony Oct. 7 in Madison, Wisconsin.

A comparison of parlors

Two farmers share insights on rotary, herringbone systems

By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com

WEST BEND, Wis. –

When the Roden family red up their rotary parlor for its rst milking March 8, they did not anticipate how quickly cows would adjust to a different system. By the fourth day, Rick Roden told his extra help to stay home because cows had the hang of it.

“I was really surprised how fast our cows adapted to the rotary,” said Roden, part owner of Roden Echo Valley Farm. “The rst morning was tough. However, I was shocked by day two when three-quarters of the cows or better had it gured out. They are so calm riding on there. Cows chew their cud and look totally relaxed.”

Roden farms with his parents, Bob and Cindy, near West Bend where they milk 850 cows three times a day in a 40-stall rotary parlor. Roden

was part of a producer panel on the PDPW Dairy Signal discussing milk parlor management. Joining him was Zoey Nelson, chief operative ofcer of Brooks Farms near Waupaca, who farms with her dad, Ron. The Brooks family milks 600 cows twice a day in a double-16 herringbone parlor built in 2017.

“We’ve seen a lot of rotaries going in, and we liked the consistency of the rotary from an employ-ee standpoint,” Roden said.

Moving from a double-8 herringbone built in 1969 into the rotary was a dream come true for both cows and

employees. The parlor allowed the Rodens to return to milking three times a day – a practice they abandoned due to not getting cows through their old parlor fast enough.

“We had nice scheduled shifts for employees because we were milking around the clock in the old parlor,” Roden said. “In the new parlor, we’re getting a little creative with scheduling because we’re not nearly to the capacity of a 40-stall rotary.”

Three employees handle milking – one prepping, one attaching and one bringing cows up to the parlor. Cost and maintenance steered the

family away from doing a fully automated rotary.

“We felt we could put a body in there and maybe have a little less maintenance,” Roden said. “We wanted to have the most technology possible yet keep it somewhat simplistic.”

When a cow enters the parlor, the rst person’s job is to prep her. The milker stands in the same spot to do their work as cows come in. A second person stands a few stalls over to put milk ma-chines on, which allows for a 60- to 90-second stimulation time. A spray robot does the post dipping.

“Ensuring employees stay put gives a cow consistency as she’s going around the rotary,” Roden said.

In the new parlor, each milking takes about 4.5 hours. Every shift is about six hours, which in-cludes milking and cleanup. The Rodens continue to run their herringbone parlor for fresh cows and treated cows, which is where employees begin their shift. The morning crew milks six morn-ings while the night crew milks six nights, and everybody milks three afternoons.

“Employees are still getting approximately the same number of hours as in the old parlor; it’s just that one day is short, and one day is long,” Roden said. “Until we get more cows to make a long-er milking shift, this is how we have to do it.”

Brooks Farms has 13 employees, eight of which are on the milking crew. Prior to building their new parlor, the family milked 200 cows in a double-6 herringbone built in the early 1970s. Nelson said they spent three years putting pen to paper and touring farms before deciding on the type of parlor they wanted.

ON-FARM

Roden Echo Valley Farm began milking in this 40-stall rotary parlor March 8 near West Bend, Wisconsin. The Roden family milks 850 cows three mes a day.

Pieces of freestall barns at Dakin Dairy Farm lie sca ered Oct. 1 in Myakka City, Florida. The dairy received 19 inches of rain in a 12-hour span and experienced 100 mph winds during Hurricane Ian Sept. 28-29.

Dakin said the high winds ruined a eld of sorghum. The wind stripped the leaves and ruined what was left in the eld to harvest for this year.

“For me, it’s realizing that we are not that strong; Mother Nature is stronger,” Dakin said. “I don’t think it has really hit me yet about everything. I’ve cried a couple times, but it hasn’t fully hit me yet.”

To prepare for the storm, Dakin lled water tanks and water trucks to have water available after the storm. They parked the trucks around the parlor and around the milk processing facility to protect the buildings. The plan worked as the parlor and processing facility remained intact.

They milked until 7:30 p.m. Sept. 28 then shut down to retreat to safety.

“That’s when pieces of metal started ooding into the parlor,” he said.

Dakin went to his brother’s house nearby because of a generator being at that location. Dakin said his brother lost over 300 animals from the storm.

The next day, as Dakin returned home to assess his farm, he did not know what to expect.

Though the silage bags survived, the roof was torn off the commodity shed, leaving feed exposed.

Due to the warm climate of Florida, most of Dakin’s animals were outside and were able to nd high ground to survive the storm. Otherwise, Dakin said the dairy might have lost even more animals had they

all been indoors.

“I was able to go in the house and recuperate; the animals could not,” Dakin said. “(They) had to stay out there and take it.”

Dakin has since sold a couple of loads of injured cows and sorted the remaining livestock into the remaining outdoor pens and barns. Dakin said the stress on the cows has affected the farm’s pregnancy rate.

“This is the biggest devastation I have ever seen,” Dakin said. “It has been a challenge, and we are just taking it one step at a time.”

The day after the storm passed, the surrounding community rallied together to help Dakin clean up. The farm even became a donation center, with the onfarm café serving as headquarters. People came from miles around to drop off food, water, diapers and other household supplies for those in the wider community.

“It was great to see the community support,” Dakin said. “So many of our employees had lost everything at home and needed to stay home and take care of things there. The biggest thing I’ve learned is that it’s OK to ask for help. People want to help. People want to see local farms survive.”

Dakin plans to rebuild the dairy farm and put Hurricane Ian behind him.

“I don’t want to go anywhere else or do anything else,” Dakin said. “I love what I do.”

PHOTO SUBMITTED

More cheese, please

Portesi Pizza, Wisconsin

dairy a great relationship

By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com

STEVENS POINT, Wis. – Rusty Mitch is not a dairy farmer, but his connection to the dairy industry is strong. Mitch is the president of Portesi Italian Foods Inc., which is home to Portesi frozen pizza, a central Wisconsin tradition.

Mitch is the third generation of his family to make pizzas in Stevens Point; he follows in the footsteps of his grandfather, George Portesi, who immigrated from Altopascio, Italy, and his father, Joe Mitch.

“We put a lot of emphasis on the whole quality of our pizzas,” Mitch said. “Wisconsin dairy farmers take a lot of pride in the cheese they produce, and we are proud to use that cheese to make a quality product.”

Portesi Italian Foods operates from a stateinspected facility in Portage County. That licensure limits the distribution of Portesi Pizzas containing meat to within the state of Wisconsin. The company currently markets their pizzas primarily in the central and northeastern areas of the state and are working with distributors to bring their pizzas to all corners of the state.

“We are starting to get our pizzas into some markets in southeastern Wisconsin,” Mitch said. “We really don’t have a presence in western Wisconsin yet, but that is something we would like to change.”

Because they lack a meat component, Portesi can market its cheese fries across state lines, and the fries are available in Minnesota as well as in Wisconsin.

Portesi produces their original style pizza with ve variations of toppings; a thin crust pizza with six variations of toppings and a line that features three variations with extra-thick toppings and cheese.

In addition to the pizzas, Portesi produces two styles of cheese fries, high-rise and thin crust. Mitch describes the popular cheese fries, which were launched in 1980, as pizza dough with garlic butter and topped with mozzarella cheese and Portesi’s spices. Basically, garlic bread with cheese in a pizza form.

“We don’t make frozen pizzas; we make fresh pizzas frozen,” Mitch said of what sets Portesi Pizzas apart from the rest. “There are

many kinds of pizzas out there, but there is only one Portesi.”

Mitch said that what makes Portesi original style pizza different is that the pizzas are partially baked in a 600-degree oven before being frozen.

“By pre-baking the pizza, we are able to seal in the avor that you lose when you freeze an unbaked pizza,” Mitch said. “That is what separates us from frozen pizza.”

All pizzas and cheese fries are hand-made.

“The way we do things, it is hard to bring in a lot of automation,” Mitch said. “But that individual attention to detail is part of what sets us apart.”

Portesi Italian Foods ties their brand to the well-known reputation of Wisconsin cheese and proudly display’s the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin’s Wisconsin Cheese logo on their products. Cheese fries and pizzas are each topped with 5-8 ounces of Wisconsin-made mozzarella.

“It’s a whole quality thing,” Mitch said. “Wisconsin takes great pride in the cheese made here. We are thrilled to be a part of that legacy.”

Each week, Portesi utilizes over 6,000 pounds of cheese.

Working at Portesi has some good fringe benets, said Mitch.

“Pizza gets made for lunch pretty much every day,” Mitch said. “You always hear about people that work in the food industry don’t like to eat the product they make, but that is not the case here. Our employees love our pizza. No one gets tired of it.”

Mitch can attest to living a life of eating Portesi Pizza.

“I grew up on this stuff,” Mitch said. “I have our pizza almost every day for lunch, and we have it at home for dinner at least once a week. It is good, and people enjoy it immensely, myself included.”

Portesi Pizza is a healthy food choice, said Mitch.

“There are no preservatives or additives,” Mitch said. “It is all natural.”

Portesi Italian Foods is a part of the local school lunch program, and Mitch said Italian atbread – the foodservice version of Portesi’s cheese fries – is one of the most-requested items on the school district’s menu.

In addition to working with schools, Portesi is the ofcial frozen pizza of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR

Rusty Mitch displays several varie es of pizza and cheese fries that Portesi Italian Foods markets in Wisconsin. Mitch is the third genera on to operate the company based in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

Like many Wisconsin dairy farms, Portesi Pizza is a small, family-owned business and employees around 20 people to operate the enterprise.

“I started working here myself when I was a kid, starting when I was 11 or 12 years old,” Mitch said. “At some point in time, I have pretty much done every single job here. I was able to learn the business well from that point of view.”

That long-standing involve-

ment in the family’s business allowed Mitch to grow up with a great deal of respect for what his grandfather and father built before his time.

“As a family-owned business with more than 65 years under our belt, we take a lot of pride in what we do,” Mitch said. “That same sentiment carries through for dairy farmers in the product they produce. All our businesses benet from that commitment of the other.

They ended up choosing the same style they had before – a herringbone.

“That may seem a little stagnant or like a lateral move, but our old parlor was also a Germania, and you can’t beat the quality and durability of that equipment,” Nelson said.

“The service the company offers was also a factor for us. Furthermore, we like the side prole for milking.”

Nelson and her dad discussed options with employees, who completely ruled out a parallel par-lor.

“Don’t just think of the cows when building a parlor the people make up a big part of it too,” Nel-son said. “We ensured our employees have a nice place to work and a place they can be proud to work at.”

To meet goals of cleanliness and quietness, Brooks

Farms decided to put in a basement-style parlor.

“We wanted the cleanest, quietest parlor for both cows and employees,” Nelson said.

“The way to do that was a basement, which a lot of builders don’t like to do nowadays. Our parlor guy told us there are two types of basement parlors – the ones that leak and the ones that don’t leak yet. But we’re ve years in and haven’t had any leaks. It’s built very well.”

Nelson said the basement-style parlor reduced their maintenance costs. The parlor’s meters and electronics are located in the basement where they stay dry and clean.

“We’ve only had to replace maybe two units at most,” Nelson said. “The parlor requires very little maintenance and is easy for our

maintenance guys to work on even when we’re milking. The basement has also been a benet for testing milk.”

Nelson said they have no regrets when it comes to the basement.

“You do have to take steps to ensure it won’t leak,” she said. “We spent the extra money upfront for special epoxy coatings and seals, etc. When you walk into the parlor, it’s a very calm envi-ronment and a welcoming place for cows. It also has great ventilation and stays nice and cool in the summer and warm in the winter, unlike our old parlor.”

Roden said their new parlor is also much more inviting than their previous parlor.

“Our old parlor was dark and small, but in the new parlor, the work environment is top notch,” he said. “There’s good ventilation, LED lights, and everything is white and bright.”

Nelson’s favorite feature of her parlor is the camera system.

“Cameras have been invaluable to us, especially in the form of employee training,” she said.

Roden is also a fan of having cameras in the parlor. Eight cameras inside and

outside are the extra eyes providing peace of mind to the Rodens.

“Cameras are a great feature to have on a farm,” Roden said. “We can use that footage to show employees if they’re making mistakes, and we can also highlight what they’re doing right.”

Brooks Farms started out with a two-man shift – one person milked while another pushed up cows. It was a tactic they tried for nearly two years, but employee turnover was high.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Employees at Roden Echo Valley Farm prepare cows and a ach milkers in the 40-stall rotary parlor near West Bend, Wisconsin.

PHOTO SUBMITTED Brooks Farms near Waupaca, Wisconsin, installed this basement-style milking parlor to meet their goals of cleanliness and quietness. Meters and electronics are located in the basement where they stay dry and clean.

“We were constantly hiring new people,” Nelson said. “So now we have two people in the parlor and one person pushing up cows.”

Brooks Farms runs a seven-day on, one-day off schedule with the day off rotating throughout the week and weekend. Employees maintain a ninehour workday.

On the cow side, Brooks Farms continues to netune procedures in order to get the level of milk the family envisioned. When moving 200 cows into a new barn designed for 600 animals, Nelson and her dad were convinced cows would take off production-wise.

“When we moved our cows from an outdated facility where they were almost 200% overcrowded into the new facility, we thought it was the Taj Mahal,” Nelson said. “But we actually dropped in milk, and it’s been ve years of trying to gure out why.”

Stray voltage was one issue they resolved. Another was being more selective about the cows that stayed in the herd. In late 2020, the family also experimented with three-times-a-day milking.

“It’s kind of an anomaly for a herd our size to still be milking twice

a day,” Nelson said. “We tried milking three times a day simply because it was one of the boxes we hadn’t checked off in gur-ing out where the milk was.”

The goal was to see a 5-pound increase in milk per cow to pay for the extra labor, utilities and chemical expenses of adding another milking. After running the numbers at the close of a year, cows were up about 3 pounds, and Brooks Farms concluded milking three times was not the solution. The family saw burnout with employees and also found that twice-a-day milking is better for their cows.

“Cows are healthier, our somatic cell count went back down, we have better foot and leg health, and cows are just able to be cows,” Nelson said. “They’re not standing in the holding area for an extra shift each day. Instead, they can eat and lay down.”

The parlors at Roden Echo Valley Farm and Brooks Farms are working well for each farm’s indi-vidual needs and offer the capacity for growth.

“We built this parlor for the future,” Nelson said. “If we ever exceed the amount of cows that can go through it, the parlor can be turned into a double-32 parallel.”

PHOTO SUBMITTED

This double-16 herringbone parlor was built in 2017 at Brooks Farms near Waupaca, Wisconsin. The Brooks family milks 600 cows twice a day.

F r o m O u r S i d eFrom Our Side O f T h e F e n c eOf The Fence From World Dairy Expo

What were growing conditions like in your area?

Duane Copenhaver

Lebanon, Pennsylvania

300 cows

Describe your farm. We are milking in a swing-22 parlor; however, we are in the process of transitioning to robots and expanding the herd to about 500 cows. Our cows are housed in a freestall barn, and as we are transitioning to the new facility and renovating the old one, we are looking to use recycled manure solids. We grow silage, earlage, shelled corn and soybean.

What are growing conditions like in your area? We generally have great growing conditions. This year, we had extremely good growing conditions through the end of July, and then, we dried up all the way to the end of September. But, our crops were mature enough, so we managed good yields.

How was your harvest? We had good yields this year. It’s spotty with who had a successful harvest. Some places had the best yields ever, and there were people who had barely any grain to harvest.

What was the biggest challenge facing your dairy this year? Finding labor is always a challenge, but having a large family helps. We also had some cattle health issues this year we were not anticipating.

What has been the highlight of your farm this year? Taking steps toward the robotic facility and transitioning our farm.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of dairying in your area? An advantage is the good crop land and good rain. A disadvantage is that we have a lot of dairy in our area so we are competing for cropland. However, that can also be seen as an advantage because our community has the infrastructure to support dairy. We have creameries and feed cooperatives nearby.

What do you enjoy about dairy farming? I enjoy that we get to do it as a family. While it ties us down, it allows us the exibility to work together as a family-run operation.

Mary and Patrick Maddox Riverdale, California 4,700 cows

Describe your farm. We have two dairies. Maddox Dairy has 3,500 cows and RuAnn Dairy has 1,200 cows. We run 8,500 acres. We diversify by selling beef, semen and breeding bulls. We have a separate barn for our show cows.

What are growing conditions like in your area? We get about 10 inches of rain a year from November through March so everything is irrigated. The water from the mountains supplements the irrigation. We grow corn in the summer and wheat in the winter.

How was your harvest? We are about threequarter of the way through our corn harvest. We will make hay through October and haylage through November. We also grow almonds and wine grapes for cash crops.

What was the biggest challenge facing your dairy this year? Weather. There was a drought due to lack of water from the mountains which stressed the crops.

What has been the highlight of your farm this year? We have had one of the highest years for milk price. We also had a mild winter. It was a good year for milk production. We hit high production and price at the same time.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of dairying in your area? The advantages are the weather. The cows can be outside year-round and facilities require low input because of this. The quality of feed is high, and we can produce a lot per acre of alfalfa. The disadvantages are all of the environmental regulations on labor. We also know water rights are coming.

What do you enjoy about dairy farming?

I love the cows. I have a passion for show cows and breeding. I like all aspects of it.

Andy Gray Storypoint, North Carolina 1,100 cows

Describe your farm. My brother, Jimmy, and I milk 1,100 cows three times a day in a double-20 parallel parlor that we built four years ago. We milk mostly Holsteins, a few jerseys and some Brown Swiss. We farm about 1,100 acres.

What are growing conditions like in your area? We have a lot of red clay. With our limited acres, we mainly grow corn for silage and shell some. We had a pretty good growing season this year.

How was your harvest? We had a smooth harvest with limited break downs and a good crop.

What was the biggest challenge facing your dairy this year? We have had some challenges sourcing feeds because of trucking and increased prices. We have also had difculty accessing parts for equipment.

What has been the highlight of your farm this year? My brother applied for the 2022 Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability Award, and our farm received it. We are the rst farm in the North Carolina to ever receive it.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of dairying in your area? The advantage is that there are a lot of dairies in our area, but that is also the disadvantage. Property prices are more expensive because we are relatively close to the Charlotte area, and we have a lot more neighbors than you would like around a dairy.

What do you enjoy about dairy farming? I enjoy that I am working with my family. My daughter recently graduated from college, and she has returned to the farm. It is great to be able to work with her every day.

Dwight Rokey

Sabetha, Kansas

125 cows

Describe your farm. We milk 125 Holsteins and crop 450 acres. We are the only tiestall dairy in Kansas. We started our rst-generation farm in 1999. I farm with my wife, Anita, and our seven children.

What are growing conditions like in your area? With rain, the conditions are really good. We have nice, rolling land. The humidity is higher in the summer which is not good for the cows, but it is good for the crops. We have readily available feed.

How was your harvest? Very good. We had good yields with 200-bushel corn and six crops of hay.

What was the biggest challenge facing your dairy this year? Weather events were challenging with a lot of heat and humidity. Last winter, we had a lot of cold spells with extreme temperature uctuations. At times, it went from 100 degrees to 60 in the same day.

What has been the highlight of your farm this year? Production has been the highlight this year with our cows averaging over 100 pounds of milk per cow per day.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of dairying in your area? The advantage is that our feed is good quality and available. The disadvantage is the uctuation in weather.

What do you enjoy about dairy farming? I enjoy working with the cows and interacting with people within the dairy industry.

Joel and Lauren Albright Willard, Ohio 600 cows

Describe your farm. We milk 600 Jerseys with robots and crop 800 acres. I farm with my parents.

What are growing conditions like in your area? It was a wet start so corn was planted toward the middle to end of June which is late for us.

How was your harvest? Our hay crop was fabulous. We have not cut corn yet. We will start on corn in the middle of October.

What was the biggest challenge facing your dairy this year? Even though we ended up with a good harvest, we were stressed about the uncertainty of the weather. Input costs were up, and it is challenging to constantly track the budgets.

What has been the highlight of your farm this year? It was a pretty quiet year which was nice. It allowed us to have the opportunity for the kids to show cattle this year.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of dairying in your area? The advantages are that we have abundant water. The disadvantages are that there are not a lot of dairies in our area. We are able to produce our own feed, but there are a lot of crop farmers in our area. If we could not grow our own feed, it would be a challenge.

What do you enjoy about dairy farming? I enjoy the challenge as crazy as that sounds. I also enjoy being part of a multiple-generation farm.

Daniel Crain Center, Kentucky 40 cows

Describe your farm. We milk 40 cows and crop 400 acres. I help my grandpa, Danny Crain. I have been helping all my life and farming full time for 15 years.

What are growing conditions like in your area? Growing conditions are good. We have clay-like conditions. Some of our land is low swamp ground. We do not grow corn silage, just alfalfa hay and grass hay.

How was your harvest? It was a dry year so not as good as usual.

What was the biggest challenge facing your dairy this year? It was a drought year so we are going to be short on feed. This will also lead to high feed costs that we will have to pay to make up for what we did not yield.

What has been the highlight of your farm this year? Milk price has been good.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of dairying in your area? The advantages are that we have a good climate for cattle with mild winters and usually enough rain. The disadvantages are that we are all small farms, and most farmers are 60 years or older and starting to retire. We worry about being able to get our milk picked up.

What do you enjoy about dairy farming? I enjoy taking care of the cattle and raising calves from birth through the end.

Breeding Prole

John Schaller

Morning Star Dairy

Onalaska, Wisconsin

500 cows

Describe your facilities and list your breeding management team. Our cows are milked in a double-10 parallel parlor that we built three years ago. The cows are housed in 4-row, sand-bedded freestall barns. Our breeding management team includes Judd Hanson, who does the mating, and Brad Gollnik, who does the arm service and the ovsynch.

What is your current pregnancy rate? Our current pregnancy rate is 25%.

What is your reproduction program? We do herd health on Mondays and breed cows on Thursdays. 93% of our cows are bred from ovsynch. Our cows are bred using A.I.

Describe your breeding philosophy. I never use young sires. We use proven bulls and usually the top bulls. We have not purchased an animal in 30 years.

What guidelines do you follow to reach the goals for your breeding program? We breed cows to Holstein bulls up to four times, and if they do not get pregnant, then we use beef semen. We have done this for many years. A lot of our heifers only get bred

to Holstein twice before trying with beef. By doing this, we breed out the problem breeders. We do take into consideration the time of year and the effect it may have on cows settling. We do matings three times a year.

What are the top traits you look for in breeding your dairy herd and how has this changed since you started farming? We always look at feet and legs and udder composites. This has continued to change over the years. We are getting toward shorter-statured animals.

What are certain traits you try to avoid? Tall animals, poor feet, poor udders and cows that are too narrow.

Describe the ideal cow for your herd. Not too tall, good feet and legs, and not too set or straight-legged but a happy medium.

What role does genetics have in reaching the goals of your farm? Breeding plays a big role in reaching the goals of our farm. Our main things are excellent quality feed, comfortable cows and good genetics.

What percentage of your herd is bred to sexed, conventional and beef semen? We just started using sexed semen a few months ago, but we use very little. We prefer to use conventional semen because we have plenty of cows. We use approximately 93% Holstein conventional semen, 2% sexed Holstein semen and 7% Angus.

PHOTO BY ABBY WIEDMEYER

John and Cameron Schaller milk 500 cows at Morning Star Dairy near Onalaska, Wisconsin. The herd is milked in a double-10 parallel parlor and housed in sand-bedded freestall barns.

We want to congratulate Mark Comfort, co-founder of Udder Comfort, on the award of 2022 World Dairy Expo International Person of the Year.

The Comfort Team is proud to be associated with such a humble, visionary leader. His dedication to dairy and passion for progress has led to contributions over four decades with international impact in dairy genetics, market access, products and practices. A prime example was the launch of Udder ComfortTM to have global impact as the gold standard in preventive udder care with sales in 30 countries on virtually every continent, worldwide.

and Bev Comfort Scan QR code

go

TILLAGE

story:

Mark saw the need for a natural tool for udder quality in an international environment that emphasizes preventive management.

He worked with a scientist who created the unique formula, gained insights from dairy producers, and built a team to advance tools for a variety of dairy environments.

In the 1980s, Mark’s longstanding passion for genetic improvement fueled a mission to see “great sires go everywhere.”

Mark built cross-border relationships through his company Transfer Genetics, which became known as TransCanada Select Sires and was sold to Select Sires in 2000.

Heifers eat at the feedbunk at Morning Star Dairy. They are bred at 15 months of age.

What is your conception rate?

How does this differ with different types of semen? Our conception rate is 50%. Overall, there are two services per conception. It does not vary by much between conventional, sexed or beef semen.

What is the greatest lesson you have learned through your breeding program? It pays to use good bulls. When I rst started milking cows in 1986, I had jumper bulls. I had a really good cow that made 21,000 pounds of milk. Back then, that was a big deal. That’s when I realized the importance of genetics and went to A.I.

What is the age of your heifers at rst service? 15 months.

How does your heifer inventory affect your breeding program?

We usually have too many heifers so we need to start using more beef.

Tell us about your farm. My grandparents moved here in the 1930s. My dad took over in 1947. I started renting the farm in 1984 and bought the buildings and 20 acres in 1986. We now own 620 tillable acres and rent a couple hundred more. We milk three times a day and are proud of a tremendously low somatic cell count with an average below 50,000. Our cows average 95 pounds per day. My youngest son, Cameron, farms with me full time.

PHOTO BY ABBY WIEDMEYER

TAKE COW-FLOW TO ANOTHER LEVEL

IOWA

Kramer Bros. Monticello, IA 319-465-5931

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

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

WISCONSIN

Advanced Dairy/Bob’s Dairy Supply Spring Valley, WI 715-772-3201

Ederer Dairy Supply Plain, WI 608-546-3713

The next phase in life

Aug. 16 was a life-changing day for my family as it was the day my husband and I moved our rstborn child off to college. It was a moment I had been dreading since she was 2 days old when we brought her home from the hospital. I knew that someday she would grow up and leave us and that was way too much for a new mother’s heart to bear. Fast forward nearly 19 years, and that day was upon us before we knew it.

It was a bittersweet occasion. On the one hand, we were excited for her to start this new adventure. But on the other hand, the bigger hand I might add, we were sad our baby girl was leaving home. It is 10.5 hours from our doorstep to Felicity’s dorm in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

She is a Razorback attending the University of Arkansas, a school where the mascot is a wild hog and “Wooo Pig Sooie!” is the chant recited at games; probably the most unique in all of college sports.

By Stacey Smart Staff Writer

From the time Felicity walked across the stage to receive her high school diploma May 27 until the day we packed the car for college, the summer ew by. I found myself wondering, where did Felicity’s childhood go?

My mom always said, “You can only give your kids two things – roots and wings.” We gave Felicity the best possible roots we could, providing her a solid foundation in life, and now it was time to give her wings to start her own life.

I have shed many tears since the day we said goodbye. Returning home without her was hard, to say the least. Seeing her bedroom without her in it made my heart ache and still does. Our home dynamic has forever changed. There is one less person at the dinner table every night and one less person in our pew in church on Sunday. It has been a difcult transition, and I miss her like crazy.

She is at a distance where a quick trip home for the weekend is not possible. We only see her if we go down there for a visit or if she comes home for a planned break. Luckily, we have several of those visits on the itinerary. It will be nice to have a warm place to go when it is cold up here.

In the middle of September, we got to see Felicity again for family weekend at the university. My heart was bursting with joy the day we arrived in Fayetteville. After a month, our close-knit family of four was back together again. It was a beautiful reunion.

Watching our daughter grow and make adult decisions is rewarding. We look forward to the great things she will do and the people she will meet as we all try to embrace this next phase in life. In the meantime, I am happy to have one child at home.

Time away gives a person a deeper appreciation for the place they call home. Felicity has dealt with her share of homesickness and is convinced she will be returning to Waukesha when she is done with college. She already knows from a short time away that she wants to live near family again someday. Of course, nothing would make me happier than the four of us living in the same town again when both my kids are grown.

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

Advanced Dairy of Mora Mora, MN 320-679-1029

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

Advanced Dairy Systems St. Charles, MN 507-932-4288

Professional Dairy Systems Wadena, MN 218-632-5416

My son, on the other hand, who is a sophomore in high school, does not plan to make Wisconsin his home after college. Like his sister, he wants to attend college in the south and eventually make a southern state his permanent residence. He hates the cold and cannot wait to live in warm weather year-round. But, who knows? After spending some time away, he may decide Wisconsin really is the best place to live after all. And maybe the tables will turn and Felicity will be the one to stay in the south after getting swept off her feet by a southern boy.

When I visit farms where the children have returned home to farm with their parents, I always pause to think of how lucky those families are. What a blessing to see and work with your kids on a daily basis. The family farm provides that opportunity. Oftentimes, there are grandchildren running around the farm too. So not only do these parents have the luxury of having their children close, they also have the good fortune of being an integral part of their grandchildren’s lives as well.

Oftentimes, that next generation lives on the farm or very close by. To work alongside your children and continue to be a part of their everyday adult lives must be extremely gratifying. I have been fortunate to meet families where one child or two children or three or more have returned to farm with their mom and dad. In some cases, all the children made the family farm their career. For the families living this dream, I hope you appreciate this special gift you have been given.

To me, there is nothing more precious than time spent with family. I do not have a family business my kids can return to, so no one knows yet where their careers will ultimately take them. As with all things, time will tell. Only God knows where life will lead them. For now, Arkansas is far enough.

Dairy couple welcomes unexpected child

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

BROWERVILLE, Minn – Alicia Thurk Hiebert and Jared Hiebert had resigned themselves to not having children, but then the unexpected happened.

The couple welcomed their daughter, Elaina, July 28.

Filled with joy but without the luxury of time to slow down, Alicia and Jared swooped her up into their farming rhythm.

“Since Elaina turned 3 weeks old, she’s been going out with me,” Alicia said.

Alica, 42, and Jared, 48, milk 40 Holsteins and a few Jerseys in a tiestall barn on their farm near Browerville. Jared works off the farm full time and crop farms 900 acres.

Jared helps with morning chores until he needs to leave for his job as the manager of a fertilizer plant in Clarissa. Elaina sleeps while Alicia milks cows, using a baby monitor to keep track of her daughter. During the afternoon chores and evening milking, Elaina comes along. When Jared gets home again, he helps milk cows and sometimes heads out

A change of plans

after for eldwork. Elaina is in her stroller or relaxing in her favorite spot, a swing by the bulk tank.

“She loves her swing,” Alicia said. “I don’t think she’s even once fussed in it.”

After the couple married in 2016, they did not consider having children.

“Given both of our ages, and since we needed to gure out how to get both of our schedules to work, we knew we didn’t want kids right away,” Alicia said.

Then, Alicia began having health problems, mostly due to Crohn’s disease.

“It became fairly evident that (having children) was not what we were going to do,” Alicia said. “It was a lot for me just to gure out my autoimmune issues and dietary challenges.”

Life went on in a busy pattern until December 2021 when Alicia started to feel odd.

“I had enough signs that I started to wonder, but I had gotten pretty accustomed to my body doing weird things,” Alicia said.

Alicia decided not to say anything to Jared until she took a pregnancy test. At rst, Jared did not know what was going on because Alicia was crying as she tried to tell him the results.

“It was a pretty big surprise,” Alicia said.

The pregnancy was not without its complications, but

Alicia’s autoimmune issues improved dramatically.

Friends and neighbors gave them all the baby equip-

ment and supplies they needed.

JAN LEFEBVRE/DAIRY STAR Alicia Thurk Hiebert and her husband, Jared Hiebert, hold their daughter, Elaina, Sept. 28 in their estall barn near Browerville, Minnesota. They had not expected to have children at this stage in life un l Elaina surprised them.

Elaina

helped with

farm and

Now, life has gotten back to its rhythm;

it has a bit more meaning.

“Everyone is so excited for Elaina because she gets to grow up on a small farm,” Alicia said. “That’s not a thing that many kids get to do anymore.”

Alicia and Jared met seven years ago on a dating website. Alicia teased Jared when describing her rst reaction to his site prole.

“I read about his interest in agriculture, and he seemed normal enough to talk to,” she said.

Jared also noticed Alicia’s similar interest.

“I thought, well, maybe this could work because (agriculture) is all I do,” Jared said.

Alicia had held back some details in her prole.

“At rst, she didn’t say that she milked cows,” Jared said. “In the relationships I had earlier, ag was always a problem. A lot of people who grew up around here wanted to leave, and I had no intention of leaving.”

Jared had grown up near the Twin Cities until his parents bought a dairy farm a mile away from Jared’s grandparents’ farm. Jared liked the change and wanted to stay in the area after he graduated.

“I did not want to dairy,” Jared said. “But, after living in Coon Rapids for my rst 16 years, I did not like the cities at all. You can hardly get me to go there now.”

Jared was hired at the fertilizer plant as a custom applicator and became a certied crop advisor. He is now manager and has been at the plant for 27 years. He bought his parents’ farm in 2003.

Meanwhile, about 35 miles away on her family’s dairy near Villard, Alicia was renting the farm from her parents and purchasing the cows. She also judged cattle shows at county fairs and helped coach the University of Minnesota’s dairy cattle judging team.

Alicia’s and Jared’s busy lives went on separately until their connection in 2015. In 2016, they bought their current farm. The farm is located next to Jared’s family’s farm. Alicia brought her cows to their new farm, and they merged their lives.

Experiencing the life-changing event of the birth of their daughter has not thrown the couple too many obstacles. Their busy lives have taught them that some

things cannot be planned for until the moment arrives.

“When I’m at work, I do a lot of planning, but when you’re dealing with four oaters and three sprayers and trucks and everything else and you’re coordinating all of that, all you do is move and adapt,” Jared said. “I just kind of roll with it. In the last four or ve months, I have tried intentionally not to make plans.”

Alicia agreed.

“It’s not going to be too much longer where the swing isn’t going to work for her,” Alicia said. “I have no idea what’s going to work then, so we’ll just have to gure it out as we go along.”

Embracing life’s surprises is one of the rst life lessons Elaina will learn by her parents’ example.

JAN LEFEBVRE/DAIRY STAR Elaina Hiebert relaxes in her swing by the bulk tank Sept. 28 on her family’s dairy farm near Browerville, Minnesota. She has been accompanying her mother during a ernoon chores and evening milking since she was 3 weeks old.

Gibbs sisters t their way to success

Jamie, Lindsey place in top 5 of Youth Fitting Contest at World Dairy Expo

By Sadie Frericks Contributing Writer

MADISON, Wis. – The World Dairy Expo Youth Fitting Contest was held Oct. 2. in Madison, with 78 youth from the United States, Canada and Denmark competing. Jamie Gibbs, of Rollingstone, Minnesota, placed second in the senior female division. Lindsey Gibbs, also of Rollingstone, placed fourth in the intermediate female division.

“I’m really proud of myself,” Lindsey said. “I was nervous before the contest, but after I got started the rest just felt like a breeze.”

Kyle Natzke, originally from Wisconsin and now a show herd manager in California, was the ofcial judge of the competition. He evaluated contestants on their ability to handle tting equipment

with ease and the techniques they used for body clipping, topline grooming, blending hair and applying sprays. Participants were given one hour to t their animals.

“Placing second was an amazing experience,” Jamie said. “Kyle Natzke is someone I have always looked up to for both his heifers and his tting.”

For the Gibbs sisters, their years of tting experience and practice before the contest prepared them for success.

“I clipped all of my own heifers throughout the year,” Jamie said.

“You have to get to know your heifers’ hair type and what style of tting will help them look the best they can.”

Lindsey agreed.

“I clipped my heifer’s head and legs before the contest,” she said. “I also made sure my clippers were

sharp and that I had the right sprays.”

Participants were allowed to clip their animals’ heads,

necks and lower legs prior to the contest, because those ar-

PHOTO COURTESY OF WORLD DAIRY EXPO Sophie Leach (from le ), Alexis Blankenberg, Haley Beukema, Jamie Gibbs and Brooke Hammann were named the top ve individuals in the senior female division of the World Dairy Expo Youth Fi ng Contest Oct. 2 in Madison, Wisconsin. Gibbs is from Rollingstone, Minnesota.

“I’m really proud of myself. I was nervous before the contest, but after I got started the rest just felt like a breeze.”

LINDSEY GIBBS

eas were not part of judging.

Jamie also gained experience through competing in Expo’s tting contest last year. She placed fourth in the intermediate female division. This was Lindsey’s rst year entering the contest.

“I wanted to see how I could do under a lot of pressure,” Lindsey said.

Jamie said she rst began competing in the tting contest because of her friend’s, Adhyn Schell’s, advice to do so.

“Plus, clipping is always the most enjoyable when tting with a friend or someone you can learn from,” Jamie said.

Schell did well in this year’s tting contest, too, placing rst in the intermediate female division.

For Jamie and Lindsey, sheer enjoyment keeps them tting.

“Fitting has turned into one of my favorite things to do because you can just get lost in it, like people who really like drawing or painting. It’s an art,” Jamie said.

Lindsey agreed.

“Fitting cattle gives me a sense of

creativity,” she said.

The tting contest was only one part of Jamie and Lindsey’s trip to WDE this year. They both showed their Jersey heifers, and Jamie showed a Milking Shorthorn heifer that she co-owns with Schell. Lindsey also competed in the Youth Showmanship Contest.

Beyond Expo, Jamie and Lindsey are involved in other facets of dairy. They are active in the 4-H dairy project and show at the Winona County Fair and Minnesota State Fair. They help their parents, Nathan and Bridget Gibbs, on their 200-cow dairy farm.

And together with their older sister, Cora, they are developing their own small herd of show type Jerseys, which they show throughout the Upper Midwest.

Jamie’s interest in Jerseys also led her to a crown. She is serving as the 2022-23 Minnesota Jersey Queen.

“I have a big passion for the dairy industry, and I love being able to talk to others about cows and the breed that I love,” Jamie said.

Easy

PHOTO

Makenna Mase (from le ), Lindsey Gibbs, Emily Goode, Ellie Larson and Adhyn Schell were named the top

ve individuals in the intermediate female division of the World Dairy Expo Youth Fi ng Contest Oct. 2 in Madison, Wisconsin. Schell is from Lewiston, Minnesota, and Gibbs is from Rollingstone, Minnesota.

Lorilee Schultz

Orangeville, Illinois Stephenson County 55 cows

Family: My partner Chris and daughter Lucy. Aside from helping on the agronomy side, Chris is busy with his own farm, custom spraying and carpentry businesses and is not involved in day-to-day operations. The farm is owned by my grandparents, Bob and Kaye Miller. My aunt, Kathy Miller, is our calf feeder. My eldest two brothers operate a custom harvesting business, and I am able to hire them to make our feed and for some other eldwork. I am lucky to also have three sisters-in-law and a few cousins nearby who can help in a pinch.

Tell us about your farm. My grandparents started Mil-R-Mor Farm in 1962. They relocated the farm from a Chicago suburb to Orangeville in 2006. The main farm is 285 acres, including about 50 acres of grass and pasture. The milking barn has 34 tie stalls and 22 box pens. Calves are raised in individual pens in a converted corn crib with curtains on the sides. Heifers are in groups of 4-6 from 10 weeks to breeding age. Bred heifers and dry cows are housed in a freestall with access to pasture. Our breeding goal is to develop strong cow families with high type and longevity. Our herd received the Holstein Association Progressive Breeder Registry Award in 2021. Since taking over management of the crop ground in 2015, I have worked to incorporate environmental practices such as growing cover crops, creating pollinator and wildlife habitat, planting native tree species and managing soil for micronutrients, all while growing corn, alfalfa and wheat. In addition to myself and my aunt, we have one full-time employee along with some part-time employees. We enjoy being an integral part of our community and economy.

What is a typical day like for you on the dairy? My role on the dairy is constantly evolving depending on the time of the year and our employee situation. I am lucky and grateful to have an amazing employee who has been my right-hand lady through it all and makes it easier to run a farm while caring for

an infant. She generally arrives rst and gets the cows in and starts milking while I get organized to make it to the barn. I help bring in the second group of cows to milk, then put out feed while Lucy naps in the barn. This time of year, the cows go back out to pasture, and we clean the barn for the day. Then it’s project and errand time. Occasionally, I use this time to clean my house or get groceries. By mid-afternoon, I start mixing feed again for the day. Ideally, Lucy will take a nap in her stroller during this time, or she will ride with me. Then, we put cows in for evening milking. Most nights, I have a high schooler who milks while I put feed out again and feed hay to heifers. On days that I don’t have help in the barn, I call Grandma for help with the baby and plan to spend most of my day in the barn. After chores, we do our nighttime routine of super, bath time and not doing the dishes, and I prop my eyes open until I can get the baby to sleep.

What decision have you made in the last year that has beneted your farm? I decided not to breed anything to calve in January-February and JulyAugust any more. Winter time chores with 22 box pens is a ridiculous amount of work, so it is worth having a few empty pens at that time, even if it means I have to double up in the spring when the cows are back on pasture. Try as we might to keep them cool, calving in the middle of summer inevitably leads to fresh cow problems that also take up time. Without the ability to make major changes to the facility, anything I can do to streamline labor makes a big difference. As a bonus, I have been able to maintain better pre-fresh nutrition and protocols when I calve in bigger groups together.

Tell us about your most memorable experience working on the farm. Every summer, we compete at our local district show. My grandparents now have 23 great-grandchildren, and last year, we had 11 of them participate in the show. We bring a bunch of March calves that they all work with ahead of time. It takes a lot of effort, but the kids have so much fun together, and it is amazing to see their progress each year as they learn. The connection with

animals, teamwork with each other and work ethic they learn means at least as much as any banners or trophies we might bring home.

What have you enjoyed most about dairy farming or your tie to the dairy industry? The dairy industry has taken me some amazing places, and I’ve met many interesting people. I’ve been all over the country for Holstein conventions and conferences. I went to Australia and visited many farms with my grandparents when my grandpa was invited to judge an on-farm competition in Victoria. I’ve been to the incredible Swiss Expo in Lausanne, Switzerland, and visited dairy farms in China and New Zealand through internship and study abroad experiences. There is also a great network of supportive dairy farmers at my ngertips on social media.

What is your biggest accomplishment in your dairy career? I’ve had my share of highs and lows on the farm and had neat experiences, but I am most proud of the quality product that leaves the driveway every day. It represents the consistent effort we put in to maintain exceptional milk quality, keep our cows healthy and grow high-quality forages.

What are things you do to promote your farm or the dairy industry? We donate to local fundraisers and host tours when we can. I also did a collaboration with Midwest Dairy to thank teachers for their efforts during the pandemic. We participated in the adopt-acalf program for three years and were able to help reach over 200,000 students with information from our farm. This included farm tours on YouTube. I also host a farm Facebook page with over 4,000 followers.

What advice would you give another woman in the dairy industry? It’s hard to leave the farm, but try to do something for yourself to gain perspective and grow your skills. Each year, I participate in at least one conference or program. In the past, I have completed the Young Dairy Leaders Institute, gone to meetings such as the annual PDPW or the Dairy Girl Network conferences, and this year, I am excited to go to the National Milk Producers Federation Young Cooperators meeting. Sure, I’ve been underestimated and discriminated against, but at the end of the day, it’s true that those who matter don’t mind, and those who mind don’t matter.

When you get a spare moment, what do you do? Spend time with family and friends.

Insights on farm sustainability metrics from the Minnesota Nutrition Conference

By Isaac J. Salfer

I recently attended the Minnesota Nutrition Conference in Mankato, Minnesota. We had a great group of speakers focusing on hot topics related to nutrition of dairy, beef, swine and poultry.

The open session focused on opportunities and challenges associated with improving sustainability of livestock operations. Although my lab does a fair amount of research measuring impacts of dairy nutrition on methane and nitrogen emissions, I consider myself somewhat of a novice when it comes to understanding sustainability as a broad concept.

While it is extremely important that everyone, including us in the dairy industry, focus on how we can reduce our environmental impact, I always considered the term sustainability more of a buzzword that made for good marketing material instead of something easily denable from a practical or even scientic standpoint. During the conference, I found several valuable insights worth sharing.

The general session kicked off with Dr. Erin Cortus, a professor in the University of Minnesota Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering Department, who provided denitions and metrics used for livestock sustainability. She claried that sustainability is not a single metric

but rather a set of attitudes, practices and systems that reduce the environmental burden and waste from a system. Because of this, the way in which the term is applied is often context dependent and specic to a certain operation or industry’s goals. Factors including greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, water quality and promotion of biodiversity are important to consider when determining the sustainability of a livestock operation.

Typically, assessments of the sustainability of any system are determined using a modeling approach called a lifecycle assessment. This approach considers the entire environmental impact of a product at all stages of development. For dairy farms, this means the environmental costs of raising livestock, raising and/ or transporting feed, and harvesting and transporting cattle and milk are all considered.

One of the challenges with a life-cycle assessment is that like with any model, they are completely dependent on the inputs. Because of this, factors such as the time scale, geographic scale, and inputs and outputs can all impact the calculated carbon footprint as a system. Cortus stressed the importance of understanding what environmental footprint values mean and making sure that producers and the allied industry clearly communicate

with scientists and policy makers to ensure our goals and contributions are being appropriately reected.

Terry Ward, the global director for sustainability at Zinpro Corp., and Lara Moody, the executive director of the Institute for Feed Education and Research, provided an update about market and policy factors driving decisions related to sustainability.

I was surprised to hear about how much of the decisions related to sustainability were driven by nancial investors. Most investors essentially require that a company makes a sustainability claim before they are willing to provide nancial backing. This requirement is largely market driven and done because companies that make sustainability claims have been shown to be six times more protable than those without those claims. We, as a dairy industry, have a huge marketing opportunity available to tout the ways in which we contribute to global environmental sustainability. Across the country, several state and national commodity groups have already begun setting sustainability goals to capitalize on this market trend, and I only continue to see this happening into the future. Moody also said policy is being discussed within the U.S. Securities and Exchange Com-

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

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

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

mission that would require companies claiming to have a sustainability goal to be able to provide proof that these goals were met.

Moody also did an excellent job outlining the crucial role animal agriculture plays within the context of a circular agricultural economy. Briey, a circular economy is one where products are able to be used, reused, recycled and inputted back into the system. A great selling point of the livestock industry within this circular economy is the fact that a large percentage (approximately 40%) of the feed inputs are byproducts, and animals act as a way to recycle waste from other food industries. There are additional opportunities to continue to work animal agriculture into a circular economy including things like the use of methane digesters to produce renewable natural gas and potentially feeding unique byproduct feeds like grocery waste.

Overall, all the speakers highlighted that the train has left the station so-tospeak in regards to an increased focus on sustainability within livestock operations. The dairy industry has to both promote the strides is has made in improving environmental sustainability and continue to make improvements in this area.

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

Dairy producers should be on the lookout for Palmer amaranth

By Claire LaCanne

educator for

counties

As we approach harvest, I want to give the annual reminder to keep an eye out for Palmer amaranth. Palmer amaranth is on Minnesota’s prohibited noxious weed and seed list with the intention to eradicate it before it becomes widely established or spreads to new areas in the state. Palmer amaranth was rst conrmed in Minnesota in 2016. Fall is a good time of the year to scout, when mature Palmer amaranth plants are easier to distinguish from other closely-related pigweeds.

Palmer amaranth is fast growing and a prolic seed-producing weed; up to 500,000 seeds can come from one plant. It has developed resistance to multiple classes of herbicides and their different modes of action. It is also highly competitive. These characteristics make it cumbersome and expensive to control.

In southern states, infestations have caused substantial yield losses and greatly increased weed management costs. If it were to become established in Minnesota, it would likely do the same and signicantly increase costs and decrease yields.

Palmer amaranth is the most competitive and aggressive pigweed species. Like waterhemp, it emerges throughout the growing season from May to August. However, Palmer amaranth is much more aggressive than waterhemp, growing 2 to 3 inches a day.

Because Palmer amaranth is closely related to other pigweeds, it can be challenging to differentiate between

them earlier in the season. When scouting for Palmer amaranth at this time of year, be on the lookout for these distinguishing characteristics:

– Plants commonly reach 6 to 8 feet tall but can grow over 10 feet in height.

– Long, terminal seed heads or pollen heads, up to 2-3 feet long, which are usually longer than other pigweed species.

– Seed heads (on female plants) have spiny bracts that are sharp when touched. Pollen-producing male owers are long as well but do not have spiny bracts.

– Long petioles. The petiole length of Palmer amaranth is typically longer than the leaf blade.

– Plants are smooth with no hairs on stems or leaves. In Minnesota, the only other commonly-occurring pigweed species without hairs is waterhemp. Redroot and smooth pigweeds have ne hairs on their stems and leaves.

Palmer amaranth tends to grow faster than other pigweed species. In some cases, Palmer amaranth has maintained its green color longer than waterhemp in the fall.

Spend extra time scouting areas where contamination may be more likely, including areas seeded to native plantings or cover crops, or in elds that have a history of manure from livestock that were fed feed ingredients imported from other states, like cottonseed, sunower screenings, sorghum or purchased hay. In addition to spreading through contaminated grain, feed, seed and manure, Palmer amaranth has spread from southern states via equipment as well.

So far this season, Palmer ama-

ranth has been detected in Becker, Clay, Freeborn, Goodhue, Houston and Polk counties. Of these detections, the introduction pathways were identied as screenings in two of these counties, feed in one, agricultural seed in one and unknown in two.

As a dairy producer, one should pay special attention to weeds growing around livestock feeding areas, near manure storage areas or in elds with a history of manure application. These are likely areas where Palmer amaranth and other new weeds will show up rst.

The amount of risk for contamination of feed with weed seeds depends on the type of feed and where it originates. Feed that has been pelletized, ground or ensiled is less concerning compared to less-processed feed ingredients. Fortunately, Palmer amaranth seed viability can drop by 40%-60% after one month of ensiling alfalfa or corn silage.

Palmer amaranth seed has a hard coat and is not as easily destroyed as grass seeds or soft-coated broadleaf seeds during the digestion process. In fact, nearly 30% of amaranth seed survives digestion in ruminants. A bit of good news is that weed seed viability is usually reduced by over 90% in a typical on-farm composting site. That percentage can be even higher in the bestmanaged compost sites.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Palmer amaranth is more common further south. Any feed ingredient that was produced where Palmer amaranth is present in elds is more likely to become contaminated. Sunower and cottonseed screenings have been the source of several infestations in the Midwest. Herbicide resistance is also more com-

mon further south, meaning other weed seeds that may travel in with the feed may be herbicide resistant.

If you suspect the presence of Palmer amaranth, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and University of Minnesota Extension suggest the following reporting process:

– Take pictures of the plant in question. Pictures should include clear visibility of the whole plant, a close-up of the leaf and where it attaches to the stem, the ower head, and a leaf with the petiole folded over.

– Contact UMN Extension or MDA immediately and provide the pictures. Please include a phone number where you can be reached.

– Report any weeds found on the MDA’s eradicate list to 1-888-5456684 or arrest.the.pest@state.mn.us.

– Leave the plants in the eld until MDA or UMN can get to the location to verify the plant and collect genetic material for conrmation. Some Palmer amaranth is fairly straight forward to identify from pictures but is important to get genetic conrmation.

The key to eradicating Palmer amaranth in Minnesota is early detection and reporting. According to Minnesota statutes, landowners must attempt to eradicate any Palmer amaranth found by destroying all the above and below ground parts of the plants. Remember, you are not in trouble for having Palmer amaranth in your eld, and reporting an infestation means you are not on your own when it comes to managing Palmer amaranth. The MDA and UMN Extension are working together with farmers and crop consultants to manage Palmer amaranth.

Showing all the way to the top

Visser wins intermediate youth showmanship contest at WDE

By Taylor Jerde taylor.j@star-pub.com

HUTCHISON, Minn.

–

Shock and pure excitement washed over Hannah Visser at this year’s World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin.

That is because Visser won the intermediate division of the WDE Youth Showmanship Contest Oct. 2.

“There’s always so much commotion going on in the barns while you’re getting ready to show,” Visser said. “When you step foot into the show ring, everything slows down. It’s just you and your animal.”

Although Visser did not grow up on a dairy farm, she has been showing dairy cattle for 10 years. The Hutchinson native has leased animals and purchased some of her own heifers.

“It’s a really cool opportunity because even though I didn’t grow up on a dairy farm, I still get to experience being in the dairy and agriculture industry,” Visser said.

Visser has exhibited Jersey cattle at local, state and national levels. Chad and Stacy Bohn, of Litcheld, have made it possible for Visser and

her two sisters to show. The girls board their animals at the Bohns’ farm.

The Visser sisters assist the Bohns, which allows the girls to be incorporated with a dairy farm without living on one.

“We go out and help on the farm whenever our help is needed,” Visser said.

The contest consisted of talented showmen from across the country and Canada. Visser said she is proud to be counted among the group.

“I’m at the top now, but to myself, there’s still so much I can do,” she said.

Visser said she tries to stay calm when she is in the show ring.

“I try to step in sync with my heifer,” she said. “When she takes a step, I take a step. I keep a close eye on both the judge and my heifer, while also being aware of everything. I always pose and set up my heifer as efciently as I can while still making her look good.”

Visser said she is always working toward larger goals.

“Showmanship is a great chance for me to take everything I have learned and just give it all I’ve got,” she said.

A few weeks ago, Visser set a goal for herself to be in

the top ve in the showmanship contest. Although she exceeded her own expectations, she could not believe she won until the medal was placed around her neck.

“The work I put into showing dairy cattle is what I am going to get out of it,” she said.

Visser credits her success to her family and the Bohns for teaching her everything she knows about showmanship.

“I couldn’t have done it without all of them,” she said.

Visser works with her heifers often, practicing walking in synch and setting up. From there, she works on the more technical aspects of showing and simply creating a bond with the animal.

Visser plans to stay involved in the dairy industry; she is a county dairy ambassador and enjoys advocating for dairy farmers. Visser is also a

three-sport athlete and is in the Hutchinson FFA chapter and McLeod County 4-H, where she serves as treasurer.

“The dairy community is such a close industry, and it is very family based,” Visser said. “The family farms all come together to show, and you can learn so much. Showing is about the lessons I have learned, all the memories I have made and the hard work that’s paid off in the end.”

You Know Farming,

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAIRY AGENDA

Hannah Visser, Mason Ziemba and Logan Harbaugh stand with their heifers a er receiving their medals Oct. 2 in Madison, Wisconsin. Visser won the intermediate division of the World Dairy Expo Youth Showmanship Contest.

Stephanie Hughes

that you cannot live without? First would be my husband and my kids; they are the reason I get up in the morning. I work hard for them, and they work hard with me. They support my passion to dairy farm. Second would be our cows. They are the income-earning asset, and I love developing good cows.

How did you get into farming? My husband and I began renting his father’s farm in 2007. We purchased our own registered dairy cows.

What are your thoughts and concerns about the dairy industry for the next year? Input prices to plant our crops is an extremely huge concern.

What is a recent change you made on your farm and the reason for it? We have started direct marketing our nished Jersey steers to consumers. We also opened an on-farm store, Sunsett Farmstead Market.

Tell us about a skill you possess that makes dairy farming easier for you. Being knowledgeable about animal care and being able to diagnose and treat cattle, therefore saving vet costs. Also, being able to articially inseminate my own cattle is a huge cost savings.

What is the best decision you have made on your farm? Putting in a stationary mixer was great. Our cows are healthier on a total mixed ration, we have good milk production, and we are able to better manage feed inventory. What are three things on the farm

Third would be the skid loader. We use the skid loader every day to help us feed and clean. It makes our lives easier.

What strategies do you use to withstand the volatile milk prices? Every day we focus on efciency. We try to do many things ourselves with the cows, machinery, improvements and repairs. Direct marketing our meat has helped cash ow as well.

How do you retain a good working relationship with your employees?

We have one or two part-time employees every year. They are typically young people. I am fortunate to have very good help the last few years, and we can get away from time to time. I enjoy working with them and teaching them about farming, because it isn’t just a job.

What do you enjoy most about dairy farming? What I enjoy most about farming is raising my kids on the farm.

The experiences and life lessons are second to none. We have good days and bad. We celebrate our success and dust each other off when we need to. They see life, and they see death. We work hard and play hard. I love this life and love doing it with them.

DC-1125 DUMP CART

- 1125 Series Dump Carts

What advice would you give other dairy farmers? Try to do as many things as you can yourself. Be open to learning and education. Listen to learn, ask questions and participate in trainings. Never take anyone for granted. Be humble and kind.

What are your plans for your dairy in the next year and ve years? This year, we would like to continue to grow

our direct marketing business and continue to raise and develop good-quality registered dairy cattle for my kids to show. In the next ve years, we would like to start planning the construction of a heifer and steer facility.

How do you or your family like to spend time when you are not doing chores? We like to show our registered dairy cattle. We like to sh, canoe and kayak. We also like to attend local car, truck and tractor shows.

h co ha

Series carts

a durable and time proven box design to keep continuous harvest production.

tires that create less damaging impact on your fields and harvesting equipment. DC-1125 Series now also comes standard with the fold down gate and ground level grease banks.

high

Skid Steer/Telehandler Tire Shooter Wheel Loader Tire Shooter

with husband, Alan, and sons, Bryce, Gavin and Derek)

Dairy

Wisconsin

County

cows

Creamery business gives back

Bongards employees Bob Grinsell (from le ), Ranjeeth Swagatha and Jus n Rudd assemble nutrious meals Sept. 20 at Feed My Starving Children in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The meals are sent to organiza ons across 70 countries.

Bongards employees pack meals for those in need

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

CHANHASSEN, Minn. – A group of 15 employees from Bongards spent several hours assembling and packing food boxes Sept. 20 for the nonprot organization, Feed My Starving Children.

FMSC donates meals to schools, orphanages, clinics and other programs across 70 countries. The Bongards team of volunteers was organized by their corporate employee engagement committee.

The volunteers worked at a FMSC site in Chanhassen, which is also where Bongards’ corporate ofces are located.

The group assembled nutritionally-fortied rice meals designed to travel well and to meet the needs of children around the world who are severely malnourished.

When groups volunteer at a FMSC location, they can pack many meals at once to make a dent in the large task of helping end hunger. The meals go to a network of missions and humanitarian organizations who work hard to get the food to those who need it most Katie Simons, credit and sales analyst for Bongards, served with the volunteer team.

“Feed My Starving Children was a great event for Bongards,” Simons said. “We like to give back to the community and help those less fortunate. We can’t thank them enough for allowing us to help package.”

The volunteer event was part of a team-building exercise for Bongards employees that allowed them to give back. Another Bongards team had done this three years ago, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed a return. Employees were glad for the chance to do help again this fall.

FMSC staff makes the environment fun for groups who volunteer, Simons said.

“The employees and volunteers were very welcoming and helpful,” Simons said. “They also had great music.”

Bongards has been a market for Minnesota dairy farmers for over a century. The name comes from the small, unincorporated Carver County town of Bongards in which the rst creamery site was built in 1908. The business now has three production facilities and several retail locations. Its products are available in grocery stores across the globe.

Simons said Bongards is hoping to do a similar event next spring at FMSC or another humanitarian organization.

“The team was very animated and felt very good about what we did,” Simons said. “Many said that they would do this again.”

The company is also planning a food drive for a local food shelf in autumn 2023. The camaraderie shared at such volunteer events helps both the nonprots and Bongards employees.

“We enjoyed working as a team and knowing that we were helping out people in other parts of the world,” Simons said.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Seless work in a memorable season

The crisp fall walks to the barn for morning chores are like no other. The changing color of the trees and falling autumn leaves rustle underneath my chore boots. I look out across the dried rows of crops in the elds and see the passing equipment on the road. As I walk, the calm hum of the corn dryer cuts through the silence of the morning. All these sights and sounds together can only mean one thing.

On the Road with Princess Kay

Harvest season has begun.

always make for a perfect night. Even now, over a decade later, bag lunches and late-night rides with Dad in the combine will unfailingly be my favorite thing to look forward to as the leaves and crops turn leading toward the season of harvest.

As the work in the elds begin, I wish everyone a safe and bountiful harvest ahead. It is safe to say we all have something memorable to enjoy about the harvest season.

nesota, 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 future farmers with their nances. In her free time, she enjoys participating in sports and singing in church with her dad.

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

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. Fall brings cool weather and beautiful sceneries. Each year, fall brings the return to another school year. As I have been settling into my year at school, I have also started my travels as Princess Kay. The Le Sueur County and Blue Earth County Breakfast on the Farm held fun activities for everyone. I started the morning off with a delicious pancake and sausage breakfast. Throughout the morning, I enjoyed informing families about all things dairy as they completed their agriculture scavenger hunt around the farm. I was able to share many stories of growing up on my family’s farm and my wonderful state fair experience as Princess Kay. My next event was Heidelberg Community Day. I was able to visit with event goers, hand out coloring books and stickers, and even hand out the car show trophies at the end of the day.

Harvest is a bustling season on the dairy farm. Not only are there the awaiting daily chores in the barn that need to be completed, but the work in the elds to harvest our crops at the end of the growing season. It seems as though the work ahead will never be nished. The dedication farmers put into their cows and crops all year-round cannot be compared. There are countless long hours spent in the combine, tractor or barn to accomplish everything. Though it seems as though the work may never be done, it becomes possible with the help of those around us. Friends, family and neighbors join together to complete harvest and make memories while doing so. The bonds formed between those around us during the fall season creates a sense of community that is, without a doubt, felt by the community. Though we know all farmers are surrounded by their own work, they never shy away from helping others, proving once again that farmers pride themselves by selessly giving their time to others.

I look forward to bringing together two highly anticipated traditions of the harvest season: brown paper bag lunches and late-night rides in the combine with Dad.

For me, there has always been something special about receiving a brown paper bag lunch with my name and a smiley face on it from Mom during harvest. Even though harvest lunches most likely consist of a sloppy joe sandwich, chips and a homemade oatmeal fudge bar, it always tastes so much better coming out of that brown paper bag. When I was little, Mom would make me a bag lunch and send me out to the eld with Dad to have a combine picnic. As I rode in the combine, eating my lunch, I waited for the sun to set and the lights of the combine to come on. As we drove, country music was on the radio, mufed by the sound of the hopper lling as the lights led our path down the rows of crops. This combination will

Princess Kay of the Milky Way Rachel Rynda serves as the Minnesota dairy community’s goodwill ambassador. Rachel grew up in Montgomery, Min-

Shield Her From The Cold.

Laundry lore

It’s been said that a few key innovations fostered the rise of civilization. A list of such inventions invariably includes the wheel, the lever and frozen pizza.

Those who think that these tries deserve great credit are – borrowing a phrase often used by the Oxford Union Society– full of hooey. Without a doubt, the one item most responsible for nurturing modern civilization is the washing machine.

The rst washing machines appeared in the Stone Age. They were quite crude and made entirely of stone. After all, it was the Stone Age.

Clothing was taken to any handy body of water where it was soaked then pounded with rocks. This wasn’t very efcient, especially when it came to eliminating stubborn stains.

“I can’t get this stubborn stain out of Og’s pants! I wish he’d never had that encounter with that saber-

toothed tiger.”

“Wow! I didn’t know that Og killed a sabertoothed tiger.”

“I didn’t say he killed it. Just that he encountered one.”

Washing machine technology gradually advanced, eventually evolving into a system that involved a tub and a washboard. Using a washboard vigorously for several hours every day built up the abdominal muscles, which led to the expression washboard abs.

Washing machines have undergone innumerable changes over the years. The principal driving force behind this transformation has been women. This is because we guys tend to have dreadfully low standards when it comes to cleanliness. After all, it was a guy who invented the mountain man method of laundering.

In the spring of each year, your typical mountain man would tromp down from his alpine haunts to cash in his cache of furs. But many trading posts were located in or near towns, which meant the mountain man might be forced to interact with other humans.

Just look at his buckskins. They’re covered with dandruff from his pet badger and drool from his moose pal. The odor emanating from his clothing is a pungent reminder his unexpected encounter with a grizzly.

What’s a manly mountain man to do? Why, simply disrobe and toss his clothing onto a handy ant mound. While the ants perform their insect version of dry cleaning, the mountain man might even bathe in a nearby creek. Not that he needs it, mind you.

Dear County Agent Guy

By Jerry Nelson Columnist

This attitude toward cleanliness is deeply ingrained in many guys’ psyche. It’s also diametrically opposed to most women’s attitude. In my experience, if a female were to examine a piece of clothing under an electron microscope and found a single molecule of dirt, the clothing would be declared lthy and immediately washed.

I felt sorry for my wife when our sons were young. Keeping things clean with two little boys running around the farm (she often said she had three boys, counting me) was a Sisyphean task. Our boys were fascinated by interesting pebbles and anything that crept or crawled. My wife soon learned to empty all pockets before doing the laundry. Otherwise, the washing machine might begin to emit strange noises that involved interesting pebbles or some unfortunate creature who was suffering from severe motion sickness.

I admit I was just as bad, although my wife would argue I was much worse.

It seemed as though my wife wanted to wash my manure-spattered coveralls every time I turned around. My attitude was that coveralls don’t need to be laundered until they remain standing after you take them off.

Better sense prevailed and my coveralls were washed much more often than I thought necessary. Even so, the water in the washing machine frequently became an icky sudsy slurry. A true hallmark of civilization is the sight and smell of a steam plume emanating from a clothes dryer. It’s a sign that many things are right with the world.

It means there is a ready supply of hot water. It means there is a plumbing system to deliver this hot water and carry away the wastewater. A particular aroma tells you somebody cared enough to buy laundry detergent that includes a pleasantly scented fabric softener.

But above all, it tells me my putrid pantaloons and my nasty knickers are coming clean. It also reminds me how my wife has taught me that a real man – a civilized man – does his own laundry.

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.

Parlor miracles

any way to disinfect dirty teats. It is difcult to disinfect signicant amounts of organic matter, such as found in straw or manure.

Veterinary Wisdom

By Jim Bennett Columnist

While it sometimes might seem to be a miracle that we managed to get all the cows milked and through the parlor three times in 24 hours, in reality, no miracles happen in parlors. This fact does not stop us humans from thinking differently, however, and hoping that one or more do happen. Here are three examples. The rst commonly expected miracle is disinfecting dirty teats with a 30-second application of a pre-dip. Sure, the label might say it kills 99.9% of everything in 30 seconds, but in reality, no teat dip is made to work on dirty teats.

According to Dr. Pamela Ruegg of Michigan State University, teat dip products should have efcacy data based on National Mastitis Council testing protocols. Effective products will usually have at least a 3-5 log score reduction in the number of bacteria on teat skin. However, all teat dip testing protocols used by the National Mastitis Council are designed to be used on clean teats. There are no testing protocols for use on dirty teats, and thus, no products are designed or certied in

It is also difcult to disinfect all the surfaces of granules of sand because of the myriad or surfaces containing many small cracks or holes. We see a similar problem with dirty colostrum or calf milk, where we expect a pasteurizer to kill 95% of pathogens, but the pathogen load is so high that even a 95% reduction leaves way too many viable organisms to ensure good calf health.

In short, disinfected manure is still manure and is not actually disinfected. We expect this miracle to happen in parlors because the protocol in the vast majority of parlors is to use a pre-dip as an udder wash. This is great if the teats are clean, either because they came in clean or the teats were wiped or washed before. As we know, that is not always the case, so dipped dirty teats are still dirty teats. That is true until the liners do a great job of washing everything off into the milk or into the streak canal of the teats, which of course creates the problems we were trying to avoid by using the pre-dip.

The second miracle is expecting gloves to keep manure off the teats when shells, claws and hoses are covered with manure. Gloves are important in the milking process, and studies have shown that gloves can reduce new mastitis infections by up to 50% or achieve a reduction of bacteria on milkers’ hands by over 90%. However, if the equipment is covered in manure, and

the milkers do not wash and wipe their gloves every time after attaching a unit, those gloves are very well contaminated with organisms which will transfer to anything that is touched, including teat skin, towels and dip cups.

Yes, it can be difcult to keep units clean in a busy parlor, but if everything is clean when the shift starts, periodic spraying with water is usually all one needs to do. If you have some of those new, ultralight plastic shells, and nobody takes time to scrub them after milking, after a few shifts, they often have a thick, brown lm, which is loaded with just about all the environmental organisms your cows are exposed to in the barn. If everything is kept clean, units, claws and shells will not be appreciably dirtier at the end of milking than at the beginning.

The third miracle is expecting humans to behave like robots and consistently do the same procedure over and over, day after day, without some sort of feedback. If you own the dairy, the negative feedback you receive to changes in procedures might be more cases of mastitis, higher somatic cell counts, lower production or a smaller milk check. For parlor employees though, none of these may be visible, or at least not visible enough to ensure compliance.

Anyone who spends much time evaluating parlor performance will say there are almost always some failures of compliance with milking protocols in every parlor. They might be minor failures with no visible bad results, or

they could be major failures resulting in signicant reduction in milk harvested, reduced milk quality or impaired udder health.

Humans like to try different ways to accomplish tasks. There must always be a method that is better, easier, faster or sometimes just different enough to be attractive to try. Because one might do tasks in a parlor thousands and thousands of times in a year, and the temptation to try something different is pretty much unavoidable for most humans. Sooner or later the actual procedure has drifted to something entirely different. If nobody in management notices and offers to help correct the procedure, do not expect the procedure to magically drift back to where it is supposed to be and be prepared to accept the negative consequences. That would be a miracle.

Removing the expectation that one or more of these miracles will occur in the parlor does not involve anything fancy or high tech. No expensive equipment is needed. All one needs to do is observe what is taking place and make necessary corrections promptly. It does not cost much either. Miracles may indeed happen, just not in the parlor.

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.

Road trip

Our family doesn’t do many multistate road trips. We love traveling whenever we get a chance to get away from the farm, but it’s usually destinations we can get to in half a day. Maybe once every couple years we get in the car and do a drive that takes more than a day to complete. I’m reminded why we didn’t do it much in the past talking with my siblings with young children about how much extra time it takes to travel with young kids. Our youngest is still not beyond asking, at obnoxious times like when I’m trying not to slide off the side of a sheer cliff on an icy mountain pass, “Are we there yet?” But, we can now drive for as long as a cup of coffee lasts without having to stop for a bathroom break or fratricide prevention when someone won’t stop humming a bit too loudly.

My brother married a wonderful girl from Colorado a couple weeks ago, and they had the wedding on a ranch in the mountains by Marble, Colorado. A fun fact I learned was that the marble quarry there was the source of marble for many monuments, like the Lincoln Memorial, and sculptures you’ll nd throughout the country. I’m told one of the waterfalls by the town is the one pictured on Coors beer cans. Marble is about 17 hours away from Elko, Minnesota, if you drive continuously only stopping for gas.We made it there in about that many hours thanks to our oldest son being able to take shifts driving now that he has a driving permit and a lot of excitement to get there pushing us along like a strong tailwind.

We took the route Google said was most fuel

From the Zweber Farm

By Tim Zweber Farmer & Columnist

efcient, zigzagging through Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado on mostly backroads. Gas isn’t cheap and Ford Explorers aren’t exactly known as a fuel economy vehicle. Also, the interstate from Minnesota to Colorado is possibly the most boring stretch of driving in the entire United States. Taking the backroads also afforded me the option to do a lot of one of my favorite activities while driving which is looking at other people’s farms. This is usually a cause of annoyance to my wife Emily as I don’t always drive quite as straight when looking around at cows and crops. Thankfully with Emily and Erik taking over every 2-3 hours, I had plenty of time to look at all the beef cattle grazing and corn being chopped.

We all agreed that unlike past road trips this one, although long, was not so bad and maybe we’d all be up for an even longer one in the future to Canada.

You are possibly wondering how our whole family left the farm for a family wedding. The answer is we have a lot of great part-time and past employees who stepped up and ran things for ve days without us. We had all our neighbors, repair services and friends on call in case anything happened. Turns out we had a very convenient lack of calves born or equipment breakdowns while gone. Kind of makes me wonder if we could do such a thing again and actually all have a family vacation together instead of half of us at a time while the other half run the farm.

We are so grateful to have gotten the chance to celebrate a wedding and do a few activities in Colorado. We even got to accomplish a family goal of ours which was to climb a mountain. We hiked up to the summit of Mount Sopris after the wedding. I can’t say it was any harder to climb a mountain than it is to walk over a layer of badly stacked small square bales except you have to do it for a couple miles and the views when you get to the top of the stack of rock are spectacular. Also, there’s the whole elevation thing. Anyway, I’d suggest you try it some time. It was worth the walk.

Until next time, keep living the dream and climbing whatever literal or gurative mountain you are currently on because it feels pretty good when you get to the top and look around at the views.

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

It’s a calf’s life

concept merits consideration in my calf care.

As you can see , some of the techniques, tools and products used in calf care uctuate through the years.

Come Full Dairy Circle

By Jean Annexstad Columnist

After three decades of taking care of calves, and having them right outside my window, I can tell the source of the bellering. I can tell the difference at night between a calf just talking with a cow strolling by on the pasture, if it is frightened or in trouble, or if it is one of those calves that is persistently hungry and wants everyone to know. Our calf care story started with my mother-inlaw, Lois. She was the original calf expert at our dairy farm starting in the 1950s and held that role for many decades. She is now retired but has passed down all of her expertise and skills to me. I will always be extremely grateful for her patience in showing and teaching what is needed in calf care. There’s no way to surpass Lois’ amazing efciency and multi-tasking abilities in her work with calves.

The key to calf care is not a secret. Consistency, cleanliness, quality of feeding and nutrition, observation, quick action if there is a problem and love of baby animals are all of top importance. I have learned to focus on these.

Colostrum fed quickly, in correct amounts, high in quality and clean is the single most important thing a calf care person needs to tend to.

These basic colostrum rules have remained the same for at least 40 years.

Wh h l d

I grew up offering hay to the calves on our farm. Then, several research studies determined hay in a young ruminant diet is not utilized and may deter starter feed consumption. Calf starter was shown to enhance rumen function, so getting calves to consume that sooner was better. Now if you ask dairy nutritionists or calf experts about hay, they often hedge, pointing out what works for some farms doesn’t work as well for others. I like to start offering just a little grass hay only when I start to wean our calves off of milk, usually at 2 months of age.

At my home farm in the ‘60s and ‘70s, we stirred up milk replacer for calves. Here at An-nexstad Dairy, we feed whole milk and now batch-pasteurize treated and fresh milk if available for feeding calves. On most days, I haul several pails of whole milk from our bulk tank to the pasteuriz-er. It isn’t bad if there are 20 or fewer calves, but there are often upward of 30 calves. That is a lot to haul. I often wish for a more efcient way to ll the pasteurizer.

I notice when I plan to be gone for more than a calf feeding at a time, my calf barn routine is somewhat complicated. It’s simply the nature of taking care of calves. Each one needs attention and to be observed each feeding. If they are off, then there is a reason that needs to be investigated. The calf might need treatment for scours, navel infection or a respiratory problem. I take tem-peratures and decide whether to treat with a nutraceutical, electrolyte, antibiotic or give other special attention.

When helpers do my chores, I write a complete set of feeding, care and clean up instructions for the calf feeding crew to refer to. They often text with questions. Advising when I am not there is tricky, but I do my best. When I receive word that the calves are full and happy, I know all is well.

Yet there is much research and new technology to measure calf absorption of immunoglobins, systems to manage co-lostrum with ease, different feeding techniques and most recently an article about a research study that supports the use of colostrum as an early treatment of scours in young calves. The article states that scours is a challenge that causes 56% of illness and 32% of deaths in calves. Though I don’t keep the stats in our calves, it is a main challenge I face. Recovering from scours has long-term negative effects as the calf matures and joins the milking herd as well. The colostrum as a treatment

During the past summer, I hired three part-time calf helpers in the calf barn. Typically, our kids have helped, but they spent this summer working off the farm. The helpers were quick learn-ers and tremendous help with all calf-related tasks. Now, they are back in school, but they help when they can. I appreciate the workload break.

Thank goodness for help in raising the future of our herd. Now, it’s time for chores.

Jean dairy farms with her husband, Rolf, and brother-in-law, Mike, and children Emily, Matthias and Leif. They farm near St. Peter, Minnesota, in Norseland, where she is still trying to t in with the Norwegians and Swedes. They milk 200 cows and farm 650 acres. She can be reached at jeanannexstad@gmail.com.

Silo

Lillian, MN

Hartung Sales & Service Freeport, MN 320-836-2697

Imp. Melrose, MN 320-256-4253

Anibas Silo & Eq. Arkansaw, WI 715-285-5317

Brubacker Ag Equipment LLC Curtiss, WI Edgar, WI Bagley, WI 715-613-7308

When helpers do my chores, I write a complete set of feeding, care and clean up instructions for the calf feeding crew to refer to.

Save money without sacrificing udder health

The Udder Mister automatically sprays pre and/or post dip on the front or back side of a rotary parlor. The system is compatible with a wide array of GEA teat dips, and interchangable spray tips allow you to increase or decrease dip usage. Now you can reallocate labor to more important tasks, while maintaining milk quality.

Contact Your Local GEA Milking Equipment Dealer:

Central Ag Supply, Inc.

Centre Dairy Equipment and Supply Inc. Sauk Centre, MN 320-352-5762 • 800-342-2697

Centre Dairy Equipment and Supply Inc.

Sauk Centre, MN

Fuller’s Milker Center, LLC Lancaster, WI • 800-887-4634 Richland Center, WI • 608-647-4488

Fuller’s Milker Center, Inc.

Midwest Livestock Systems, LLC Zumbrota, MN • 800-233-8937 Menomonie, WI • 715-235-5144 Renner, SD • 800-705-1447

J Gile Dairy Equipment, Inc.

Kozlovsky Dairy Equipment

Leedstone, Inc. Melrose, MN 320-256-3303 • 800-996-3303 Glencoe, MN 320-864-5575 • 877-864-5575 Plainview, MN • 800-548-5240 Menomonie, WI • 715.231.8090

Leedstone, Inc. Melrose, MN

Glencoe, MN

Sioux Dairy Equipment, Inc. Rock Valley, IA 712-476-5608 • 800-962-4346 Colton, SD Service 800-944-1217 Edgerton, MN Chemical Sales 507-920-8626

Sioux Dairy Equipment, Inc.

Rock Valley, IA

J Gile Dairy Equipment Cuba City, WI • (608) 744-2661

Kozlovsky Dairy Equipment Kaukauna, WI •920-759-9223 Weston, WI • 715-298-6256

Monroe WestfaliaSurge Monroe, WI • 608-325-2772

Midwest Livestock Systems, LLC

Central Ag Supply Inc. Juneau, WI • 920-386-2611 Baraboo, WI • 608-356-8384

Preston Dairy Equipment Sparta, WI • (608) 269-3830

Stanley Schmitz, Inc

Stanley Schmitz, Inc. Chilton, WI • 920-849-4209

Eastern Iowa Dairy Systems Epworth, IA • (563) 876-3087

Monroe Westfalia Surge

Preston Dairy Equipment

Supply

Tri-County Dairy Supply Janesville, WI • (608) 757-2697