October 29, 2022 Dairy Star - 1st section - Zone 1

A spreading improvement

Reuling strives for efciency in bedding

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

CLARKSVILLE, Iowa

Reading up on worldwide dairy practices and technology has been something Eduard Reuling has always enjoyed.

And, beyond his enjoyment, Reuling’s reading led him to invest in a robotic bedding system on his farm near Clarksville.

“I always try to know what is happening in the world,” Reuling said. “Coming from the Netherlands, I like to know what is going on over there since I still have many friends there.”

Reuling and his wife, Resy, and their children, Jenny, Ryanne, Nick and Wouter, milk 500 cows in a swing-32 parlor three times a day.

In 2005, the Reulings moved from the Netherlands to start Snow Rock Dairies LLC.

They began milking 350 cows and slowly grew the herd to where it is today.

The Reulings spent a number of years trying different bedding options.

“When we rst started, we used rubber mats and sawdust, but the sawdust would get wasted by the cows, and we had to bed regularly,” he said.

“This became expensive and time consuming so we tried manure solids.”

Reuling said manure solids were not efcient for his operation.

In 2017, waterbeds were installed in the freestall barns. At rst, they spread hydrated

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8

A bright future Rolling the dice

Buying dairy farm 20 years ago pays off

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

VERGAS, Minn. –

Zumbrota DFA plant completes expansion

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

ZUMBROTA, Minn.

– The Dairy Farmers of America plant in Zumbrota has grown in size not only to meet customers’ demands but to better serve the dairy farmers in the area and the communities it serves.

“What really drove this decision was the needs of the customers,” said Terry Johnson, plant manager.

“When you make this investment, there is a continued demand and a process of creating value-added products that also help add value to our dairy farmer owners and end product that goes out.”

The $90 million expansion added an additional 86,000 square feet to the facility which initially boasted

When the Schlauderaff family bid on a dairy farm near Vergas during an auction in 2002, it was a big move. When their bid won, it took a while to sink in.

“After the auction ended, we had to get back because we had corn chopping to do,” Casey Schlauderaff said. “The reality didn’t set in until later when we had to do nancing and try to put the whole project together and make it work.”

In the 20 years since then, the family has done just that – made it work.

Today, Schlauderaff Enterprises milks 650 Holsteins three times a day in

a double-12 parallel parlor, which is a big change from the 150 cows they milked on their home farm near Detroit Lakes prior to purchasing the second farm.

Family members live

on or near the home farm. A 15-minute commute is all that separates the two farm sites. At the Vergas farm,

AARON THOMAS/DAIRY STAR

Eduard Reuling checks the se�ngs on his Astor bedding robot Oct. 21 at his farm Snow Rock Dairies LLC near Clarksville, Iowa. They milk 500 cows in a swing-32 parlor.

TAYLOR JERDE/DAIRY STAR

Plant manager Terry Johnson stands in front of the Dairy Farmers of America sign Oct. 20 at the plant in Zumbrota, Minnesota. The Zumbrota loca�on is one of the largest plants for DFA.

JAN LEFEBVRE/DAIRY STAR

Some of the 650 Holsteins eat Oct. 18 in one of two freestall barns at Schlauderaff Enterprises near Vergas, Minnesota. The Schlauderaffs milk three �mes a day in a double-12 parallel parlor.

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The

One

Our

Milk pricing system scrutinized

Last year, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack requested the U.S. dairy industry get into one room and build consensus to nd solutions to the shortfalls in the federal order system. American Farm Bureau economist Danny Munsch said the system has not been updated in 20 years in a major way. “In that time, we’ve gone from a uid milk-focused market to more of the manufactured goods driving the market, and the Federal Milk Marketing Order system doesn’t reect those changes,” Munsch said. Due to other market disruptions, like COVID-19, farmers faced massive negative producer price differentials on their milk check. The AFBF hosted the weekend forum in Kansas City, Missouri.

AFBF outlines farm bill priorities

That list includes the continuation of current farm bill funding, prioritization of crop insurance, and adequate stafng and resources for U.S. Department of Agriculture technical assistance. “We also believe that transparency is needed in our dairy system,” said Zippy Duvall, president, American Farm Bureau Federation. “We believe that because higher costs of production, it justies the increase in the reference prices for the Title I commodities to ensure farmers remain economically viable.” The AFBF board of directors unanimously approved the policy recommendations, but the nal approval will come during the group’s annual meeting in January 2023.

A new perspective on trade

The White House newly-released National Security Strategy includes a change in trade policy. The report said the United States’ focus on fair and open trade has helped corporations rather than workers. The Biden administration said it will seek new trade opportunities that protect labor

standards and the environment. To combat food insecurity, the administration plans to keep agricultural markets open, increase fertilizer production and invest in climate-smart agriculture.

WTO predicts trade downturn

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Sauk Centre, MN

The World Trade Organization is forecasting a signicant decline in global trade growth next year. Growth is forecast at 1%, compared to a previous estimate of 3.4%. The WTO director-general urged member-countries to avoid trade restrictions to counter supply chain problems.

By Don Wick Columnist

Dairy industry seeks better ocean freight service

Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Daniel Maffei sat down with representatives of the U.S. Dairy Export Council and National Milk Producers Federation to discuss supply chain issues. The dairy groups emphasized the continuing problems with high costs, unreliable scheduling and the need for better service from the ocean freight system.

Managing the three-headed dragon

knowledge to manage the three-headed

Virginia Tech professor emeritus David Kohl said it takes solid

“If it’s not well managed, that will take liquidity, prot and equity off the balance sheet, but those with a high business IQ will actually put prot, liquidity and equity on the balance sheets,” Kohl said. Over the rest of this decade, Kohl said “the better will get better and the worst are going to fall behind.” Good relationships are also key during tough times.

Ination disrupts farm, food sector

The Federal Reserve banks, of Minneapolis and Kansas City, hosted a virtual symposium to discuss food costs and the long-term outlook. During the forum, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Vice President Nathan Kauffman said the current increase in food and commodity prices is similar to what happened in 2013. “Price surges are usually driven by severe production disruptions,” Kauffman said. “Occasionally, price surges are driven by demand growth, like in 2013 where we saw rapid economic growth in China and the establishment of biofuel policies in the U.S.” Land O’Lakes President and CEO Beth Ford was also

part of the conference and said farmers are feeling the impact of high input costs. “Transportation, trucking, rail and warehousing are all facing interruptions that are driving up prices.”

Environmental benets of dairy production

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers, the National Milk Producers Federation and Dairy Farmers of America unveiled a study on the benets of modern dairy technologies during World Dairy Expo. “If you look at the role technology has played, we’ve seen a tremendously positive impact on milk yield,” said Chad Huyser, president, Lely North America. “We believe the technology adoption can be attributed to a milk yield increase of about 6% and the data supports that we’ve been able to reduce the feed usage by what’s the equivalent of 3,200 NFL football stadiums full of feed.”

New faces coming to St. Paul in 2023

Ahead of the election, it’s known that 41 Minnesota legislators will not be returning to St. Paul in 2023.

Agricultural lobbyist Cory Bennett

said it will be a time of change. “No matter who’s in control, Republican or Democrat, we’re going to have new leadership; we’re going to have new committee chairs, new committee staff,” Bennett said. There is a budget surplus, which will get attention in the upcoming legislative session. The upcoming year is a budget-setting one which will be a priority. “With that, I think you’re going to hear a lot about taxes and a lot of talk about a bonding bill,” Bennett said.

Consumer misconceptions

While 98% of U.S. farms are family-owned and operated businesses, most Americans believe less than half of the farms are family farms. A survey of 1,000 adults nationwide was conducted by Land O’Lakes. This research found 87% of those surveyed are interested in knowing where their food comes from. Millennials were at the top of that list.

Beyond Meat cuts jobs

Beyond Meat, which produces plant-based meat substitutes, is cutting 200 jobs and has issued a warning to investors about its revenue outlook. Beyond Meat Chief Financial Ofcer

Douglas Ramsey is also leaving the company. Ramsey was suspended in September after an altercation at a college football game.

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 plantbased business in Brazil and Europe.

Trivia challenge

Switzerland consumes more chocolate on a per-capita basis than any other country in the world. That answers our last trivia question. For this week’s trivia, when did October Co-op Month become a national celebration? 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.

cows are housed in two freestall barns. The herd maintains a rolling herd average of 28,000 pounds.

The Schlauderaffs also farm 1,000 owned acres and 800 rented, manage a hay and silage chopping business, and raise and feed out 50 bull calves each year.

Schlauderaff said they knew the choice to bid on the Vergas farm was a gamble, but the timing was right, even though he and his brothers, Chad and Kelly, were only in their 20s. The youngest brother, Kory, was in high school at the time.

“We thought if we’re considering building a new barn in any sort of time, we should probably be at that auction,” Schlauderaff said. “We thought it might be a fair deal, and it was already complete and close enough.”

The family did not hold a formal meeting, but they often discussed buying the second farm.

“We talked on the phone constantly about it,” Schlauderaff said. “It was pretty stressful.”

They also talked with a banker to determine if they could secure the funds needed to be allowed to bid at the auction.

“There were so many unknowns,” Schlauderaff said. “What’s it going to go for? Can you leverage to do it? You’ve got to buy cattle. You’re basically putting money down on the chance that you’re going to be able to pull it off.”

Once they made the decision and won with a bid of $500,000, it took at least ve years to get the whole family better arranged in the jobs that best suited them.

“Your original vision changes as you nd out that people’s personalities t better in certain places,” Schlauderaff said. “I can’t speak for my brothers, but they would probably say that I’m a bossy person. Then, you gravitate toward telling employees what to do.”

Since purchasing the farm, all four boys have married and now have children. Chad and Jennifer have two children. Chad handles all crop decisions and does equipment repairs. Schlauderaff, who manages the dairy, and his wife, Paige, have three children. Kelly and Jamaica have ve children. Kelly works off the farm but helps when needed. He also handles feed purchases and milk contracts. Kory and Lindsay have three children. Kory manages the farm’s 550 heifers, drives the chopper and sprayer, and helps Chad with repairs. Their parents, Barb and Gary, help on the farm.

Barb spent many years managing newborn calves, and Gary did eldwork and pile packing. Both helped with milking. Today, they spend the winter in Florida but help in many ways.

“There’s a lot of farms where families can’t work together,” Schlauderaff said. “Being as spread out as we are probably helps us do it because we’re not right on each other every day.”

Originally, the plan was to avoid having employees beyond hiring a herdsman right after the purchase of the Vergas farm. That person, Paul Kasowski, is still with them today.

“We did most of the milking ourselves for the rst several years,” Schlauderaff said. “Mom and Dad would start in the morning. I was on the later shifts and got home at 2 in the morning. That was probably the rst 10 years. We added even more cows and realized that we needed to add more people.”

The farm’s growth has brought on the purchase of tractors, equipment and farm structures, such as a sand separator purchased in 2014 and a new feedlot added at the beginning of this year.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Chad, Kory, Kelly and Casey Schlauderaff a�end a Minnesota Vikings game Dec. 8, 2019, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The brothers and their parents, Barb and Gary, have grown the family’s dairy business, Schlauderaff Enterprises, to include two farm sites.

bedding has been huge over original

as to cow comfort and better production,” Schlauderaff said.

There have also been challenges along with the growth.

“We bought expensive cattle in 2008, and then the milk price crashed in 2009,” Schlauderaff said. “A lot of people went out of business that year.”

Through the years, Schlauderaff said he has become more certain the farm will withstand volatility.

“I don’t think you ever get to that point of thinking you’ve made it,” he said. “You still have daily stress and wonder if this thing will make it or not. It was rough when the milk price crashed, but the next time there was a milk price drop I thought, ‘Well, we’ve done it before.’ You’ve got to gure out what you’re going to do and ride through it.”

Today, some of the next generation of Schlauderaff children are showing an interest in agriculture, and Kelly’s son is already working on the farm. The future of Schlauderaff Enterprises looks bright.

“It’s been a crazy ride,” Schlauderaff said. “We’ve met so many people and learned so much. I like the process. I think that’s what makes successful farms … guring out how systems relate and work together.”

Schlauderaff said he is happy with how the family business is evolving.

“I like the days I show up here,” he said. “For the most part, it’s a pretty rewarding job.”

JAN LEFEBVRE/DAIRY STAR

Casey Schlauderaff stands by his tractor Oct. 18 on the family’s dairy farm near Vergas, Minnesota. The Schlauderaffs bought the dairy 20 years ago to expand their original farm near Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.

lime on top of the stalls, but it was not keeping the cows dry and clean.

Not wanting to go back to hauling bedding, Reuling purchased the bedding robot in 2021 and began preparing the barn to house the technology.

“I will never ever go back to hauling bedding in four days a week,” Reuling said. “The dual chamber waterbeds have improved cow comfort, and the robot spreading sawdust twice each day keeps them dry and clean.”

Reuling set up the frame himself over the course of a few months. He fastened approximately 1,600 feet of Ibeam to a T that is attached to his posts in the middle of the stalls. Reuling chose to put the hopper and conveyor for the robot at the center of the freestall barn so there was no need for additional construction.

Once construction of the track and frame were done, technicians from AMS Galaxy USA installed and programmed the robot. The robot has been running since early August 2021.

Other than a short-lived mishap with the robot’s wiring in August, caused by a lightning strike, Reuling said the technology has been running

well.

“It’s so convenient,” he said. “All I have to do is ll the hopper a few times each week, and the rest is done by the robot. If we need to reprogram the timing, I just go into the computer to change it. It’s simple.”

The robot is programmed to spread bedding while the cows are being milked. Bedding is spread across 400 stalls in the older existing freestall barn. The barn that houses the fresh cows is bedded with sawdust using a manual spreader.

For 500 cows, Snow Rock

Dairies goes through one semitruck load of sawdust a month.

The sawdust is loaded into the storage container three times per week and from there runs up a conveyor to equipment that shreds the bedding further.

The bedding is then conveyed to a robot that delivers the bed-

ding to the stalls.

Once the timing is right, the robot runs the bedding along the stalls, and in about 30 minutes, it travels back to the hopper to charge and reloaded for the next group.

Milking at the farm is done by employees, while much of the herd health and management is done by Reuling with the help of his family. Crops are purchased out of the eld from neighbors, and heifers are sent at 4 months to a heifer raiser.

“I do nearly everything, the breeding, feeding calves, feeding cows, hoof trimming and ultrasounding,” Reuling said.

Because milking is hired and feed is purchased, the Reulings focus on minimizing the extensive list of tasks that have to be done or at least ease the way they are being done.

“If we want to automate something, it needs to take labor away from me,” he said.

Reuling’s whole life has been surrounded by dairy, and his ultimate goal with the farm has been to improve animal well-being and do so efciently.

“This is always what I’ve done,” Reuling said. “I’ve never thought of doing something else.”

AARON THOMAS /DAIRY STAR

The bedding robot spreads sawdust across 400 stalls in the Reulings’ freestall barn. Reuling lls the robot’s hopper three mes a week with sawdust, and the robot does the rest of the work on a set schedule.

110,000 square feet. The expansion also allows the plant to grow from 140 employees to 160.

The expansion, completed in July and celebrated in September along with the Zumbrota plant’s 50th anniversary, includes a waste water treatment facility, drying tower, wet mixing system, lab upgrades and utility upgrades. The dairy powder drying tower has the capacity to dry an additional 25% per year.

The Zumbrota location takes in 1.5 million pounds of raw milk each day. The milk is used to create cheese, condensed whey and cheese powders. Johnson said the recent increase in production capabilities delivers value back to the farmer owners.

“We’re able to highlight farmers and market their milk globally,” he said.

The expansion stems from a want to be better stewards to the community. The waste water treatment facility enables DFA to discharge clean waste water to the city. They also added a column that eliminates odor from the air when being discharged from the plant.

Johnson said such improvements will increase plant efciency and production capabilities while

also lowering the cost of water discharge.

The addition also added safety measures for employees.

“We had to be mindful of the community and community concerns,” Johnson said. “It makes us a better neighbor.”

Johnson has been the plant manager since 2020 when the expansion began. He was a dairy farmer from Wisconsin but became interested in food production. He started working in a small cheese plant in Wilson, Wisconsin, and then took a job at Nestle before coming to DFA.

Johnson said he feels fortunate to have been part of the expansion.

“It is important for me to contribute to DFA,” he said.

As DFA expanded its presence in Zumbrota, Johnson said they took care to use local products and businesses whenever possible. They worked with local contractors and had new equipment for the plant made in Minnesota.

“My hope is to see the things we put in to make ourselves better for our customers and for the community continue to do exactly what we project it to do: to set a standard for our site and encourages future investments,” Johnson said.

TAYLOR JERDE/DAIRY STAR

This dry tower is part of the expansion of the Dairy Farmers of America plant in Zumbrota, Minnesota. It has the capacity to dry an addi onal 25% per year.

Passing the farm onto the next generation

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

Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part feature regarding farm transitions. In the next issue of Dairy Star, we will cover examples of what has worked well for some farm families and where to nd assistance with farm transitions.

When considering a farm transition, how does the older generation value the next generation’s investment? Should sweat earn equity? Do children who put time and effort into the success of the farm deserve a larger share of farm inheritance than nonfarming siblings?

These, and many other, questions can be tricky when passing on a family farm. It is also a private matter to most families and can be difcult to discuss with others or even within the family itself.

Jim Molenaar is aware of how difcult it can be to navigate a farm transition. For the past 41 years, he has worked as an instructor in farm business management, the past eight years at St. Cloud Technical and Community College. A specialist in farm succession planning, he rst gained experience while working as a mediator in a farmer lender program during the 1980s farm crisis.

“For so many farmers, transitioning is something they need help with,” Molenaar said. “Some do this very well, but I’ve also seen some failures.”

Molenaar grew up on a farm and went through a farm transition himself.

“There is a big difference between an estate plan and a farm succession plan,” he said. “An estate plan is what happens with my assets when I pass away. A farm succession plan is what I can do during my lifetime to make sure the farm continues with the next generation.”

Many farmers are uncomfortable talking with others about their farm transition struggles. If they do wish to say something, they may rather remain anonymous. Even those who have had successful transitions are uncomfortable talking about the experience because they do not want to seem like they are bragging; they want to avoid sharing private nancial information about family members.

Off the record, farmers of both generations may talk about the difculties they are facing in communicating their wishes for the future of their farm. Younger farmers may say things such as, “I can’t talk to my dad about this,” or “I’m putting in lots of sweat equity and not receiving much pay, but I still have no say in anything.” Older farmers may say, “I’m near retirement and can’t afford to invest major money in big changes right now,” or “I’ve worked my whole life for the farm and deserve to make the big decisions.”

Molenaar said one farmer talked about a family near him that has to hold two separate Christmas holidays because two brothers fought over their family’s farm transition and will no longer attend the gathering at the same time. Another farmer spoke about going into debt before retirement for a son who wanted to take over the farm and expand, but the son changed his mind a few years later when high debt remained. There are also numerous stories about siblings suing siblings over farm transitions.

Besides farmers not sharing stories with outsiders, a bigger problem is when farm families are uncomfortable discussing a farm’s transition within the family itself. Then it can be difcult to get through the transition successfully and keep the family intact.

“You hear stories about farms where somebody dies, the will is read and somebody gets it all and the others didn’t get any,” Molenaar said. “There are families who will never talk to each other again, and this is real. It happens way too often.”

One pitfall, according to Molenaar, is for the retiring or leaving generation not to plan what their retirement will look like and what their retirement needs will be. This includes living arrangements such as who will live in the farmhouse or on the farm.

“What is fair versus what is equal?” Molenaar said. “Let’s say there are ve children. One stays to farm; the others move elsewhere. Is the fairest thing that everyone receives an equal share, or does the one staying on the farm need some assistance so that the farm will continue? There are some ways to look at that such as what is the contribution versus how have they been compensated.”

Shawn Meyer is a farm business management instructor at Minnesota West Community and Technical College in Hutchinson, Minnesota. He has more than 17 years of experience in farm nance and working with farm families as they plan for the future.

“I’ve sat at so many tables where I know what one of the parties is thinking, but, for whatever reason, they just won’t say it to the other one,” he said. “How do we move forward without ever communicating what my hopes, my wants, my thoughts are. Some people just give up because they have gotten nowhere for so long.”

Meyer said the process is challenging but necessary.

“It’s not fun by any means, but it has to be dealt with in order to be successful,” he said.

Attorney Shayna W. Borakove, of Borakove Osman LLC in Middleton, Wisconsin, has more

ADOBE STOCK PHOTO

Transi oning a farm to the next genera on involves many conversa ons and detailed planning. It’s important for families to approach a transi on with open minds.

Shawn Meyer West Community & Technical College

Jim Molenaar

St. Cloud Technical & Community College

than 14 years of experience as a farm continuation practice leader at her rm.

“I regularly am called in as a consult by other attorneys throughout Wisconsin regarding farm succession strategies and structure,” she said. “I have spent the majority of my life either living on a farm or planning to ensure farm families continue living on theirs.”

Borakove knows farm transition planning is different from most other kinds of estate planning.

“The farm is more than land, cows, crops, ups and downs,” she said. “It is a piece of the farmer; it’s family; it’s a belief and a core value. Farm transition planning is so difcult to begin as it is hard to put words down about something so hard to describe.”

Borakove realizes the emotions attached to a family farm add an extra challenge in farm transitions.

“This one is a big one … the failure to address and anticipate family dynamics in the planning,” she said. “The cracks and breaking points of the family and the farm should be weighed and considered. The way it was when the patriarch/matriarch acquired the farm is not the way it has

to be, nor the way it necessarily can be today.”

Molenaar said addressing family dynamics is important as well.

“It’s hard for parents to communicate plans to their children, especially if it’s not equal shares,” he said. “But, it’s really important to do if you want your family to like each other. Maybe they won’t like you, but they will like each other.”

Even though farm families know communication is key in transitions, it is often an intimidating hurdle.

“Talking about it does make one face one’s own mortality,” Molenaar said. “That can be hard. Giving up control can be really hard.”

Also, the next generation struggles to bring up the topic.

“Sometimes the younger generation is uncomfortable pushing the conversation,” Molenaar said. “Whoever has the gold gets to make the rules. The option the young person has is to say, ‘OK, I don’t want to do this.’ Other than that, it is the parents’ responsibility to start the conversation or get help in planning. If you have a plan, you can transfer management over time.”

Meyer agreed.

“It sounds so cliché, but it’s just communication,” Meyer said. “We have to be open and honest about what’s there, whether it’s good or bad.”

Molenaar agreed.

“It’s never too late to communicate,” he said.

Shayna W. Borakove Borakove Osman LLC.

Curds and whey

Redhead Creamery ages well, opens distillery

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

BROOTEN, Minn. –

For almost a decade, JerLindy Farms has been the site of Redhead Creamery near Brooten.

From when the creamery rst began crafting cheese curds, cheddar and brie in 2013 to now being available nationwide, Redhead Creamery’s products have won the way into consumers’ taste buds.

The farm and creamery are co-owned by Alise and Lucas Sjostrom and Alise’s parents, Jerry and Linda Jennissen. The majority of the creamery’s cheese is sold through a distributor to stores such as Lunds & Byerlys, Jerry’s Foods and Kowalski’s Markets. Redhead Creamery’s cheese is also shipped to stores nationwide.

Taking things a step further, Redhead Creamery is

in the process of creating an on-site distillery in order to use the whey that is a byproduct of cheese making.

“We will be getting a lter machine that will allow us to separate the lactose from the protein that’s left

in the whey,” Alise Sjostrom said. “Then, we will ferment that lactose.”

The distillery will create and market what Sjostrom calls a clear, whey-based spirit.

With a distillery in the works and Redhead Cream-

ery growing, Sjostrom values taking time to reect.

“It’s weird to have people driving out to the middle of nowhere to come and see the cows and buy our cheese,” she said. “I get to go to stores where I dreamed of seeing my products, and

there they are. I need to stop and think about it a second, and I don’t do that enough because we are trying to get the next thing going.”

At Jer-Lindy Farms, 190 cows are milked in a double-8 herringbone parlor. The herd is comprised of registered Holsteins and Brown Swiss. Redhead Creamery uses about 12% of the farm’s milk in the production of artisan cheeses.

“I always knew, if I ever had my own family, I wanted them to grow up the way I did,” Sjostrom said. “But, I didn’t really want to milk cows, so I had to gure out what I was going to do instead.”

Three full-time and four part-time employees help with making cheese, running the on-farm store and working events. The creamery also offers delivery service, which became necessary during the coronavirus pandemic.

“There was a point where we had zero wholesale sales because restaurants closed and everything closed,” Sjostrom said. “Out

TIFFANY KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Cheesemaker Alise Sjostrom stands at the store counter Sept. 30 in Redhead Creamery in Brooten, Minnesota. At Jer-Lindy Farms, 12% of the milk produc on is used for the creamery.

of necessity, we needed to move cheese. We started delivering door to door.”

Redhead Creamery is open to the public Friday and Saturday afternoons. The shop offers pan-fried cheese curds, paninis and cheese platters as well as beer, wine and cider. During store hours, the creamery offers farm tours. On the third Saturday of June, the creamery holds its biggest event called Curd Fest.

“It’s a huge celebration of agriculture and cheese curds,” Sjostrom said. “We have live music, and we bring in other food makers and vendors to sample and sell their products as well. We also have food trucks.”

Redhead Creamery aims to create the best cheese possible through a willingness to experiment and learn, always starting with quality ingredients.

“At the very basic for making cheese, you need milk, cultures, rennet and salt,” Sjostrom said. “You have to start with good quality milk. If you start with crappy milk, you will have crappy cheese.”

Many variables are involved in creating cheese texture and avor.

“It’s not just one thing that makes the cheese what it is,” Sjostrom said. “During cheddaring, we might manipulate the avor by nishing it off differently, for instance cave aging it in a different humidity and temperature, and end up with a completely different cheese than if we vacuum sealed it and put it in a cooler.”

Redhead Creamery uses both techniques and many others.

For instance, they wash wheels of cheese to make avors such as the Tipsy Tilsiter, washed with cider from Milk and Honey Ciders. There is also the St. Anthony, which is selling well seven years after the rst was made.

“It was our rst award-winning cheese,” Sjostrom said. “We wash that one with whiskey from Panther Distillery to create a fun rind.”

Since then, other varieties of Redhead Creamery cheese have won awards at the Minnesota State Fair and in other contests.

Sjostrom said being asked to pick her favorite Redhead Creamery cheese is like being asked to pick her favorite child, but she admitted her favorite is the North Fork Munster.

“I wanted a soft, stinky, alcoholwashed cheese, and that’s what this is,” Sjostrom said. “It’s our most challenging and frustrating cheese, but when it works, it’s my favorite.”

After graduating from the University of Minnesota and moving to Vermont because of her husband’s job, Sjostrom worked in the retail shop for a cheese company and learned about European-style cheeses and specialty food marketing. The couple visited breweries and cheese companies on weekends.

“It was fun, but we were learning,” Sjostrom said. “We picked the brains of other makers and asked questions. We went to cheese companies at ve in the morning to watch them get started.”

When they moved to Wisconsin, Sjostrom worked for Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese but made trips to Vermont to take cheesemaking classes. During these years, she continued to plan for Redhead Creamery.

“From ideation to actually making something took a good 10 years of planning,” Sjostrom said.

Today, the Sjostroms have three children: Lucy, Henry and Conan. And, like Sjostrom had hoped, the Sjostrom children are growing up on the farm.

“Originally, I imagined it would be me and my mom making cheese, and that would be it, which is nonsustainable,” Sjostrom said. “When I was not here, cheese was not made, so I had no life when we rst started. Now I have this awesome group of people who are able to help make this happen. As my kids are growing and I want to go do things with them, I can do that.”

TIFFANY KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Employees of Redhead Creamery prepare to make cheese Sept. 30 in the creamery’s lower-level. Customers at the creamery can watch through the store’s interior viewing windows.

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

Eric Otte Randolph, Minnesota Dakota County 600 cows

When did you start and nish corn silage harvest? We began the second week of September, and it took two full weeks to complete.

How many acres did you harvest and what was the tonnage? We harvested around 9,500 tons on about 350 acres.

What other crops do you harvest in the fall and how is the harvest coming for those? We strictly harvest corn in the fall and began Oct. 18. This fall has been going great because of how dry it has been, but also not so great because of how dry it has been. We are getting anywhere between 220-230 bushels per acre and have about a week left of harvesting.

What other eldwork do you have left for this year? We have a lot of corn stalk bales to do. We don’t plan on doing much tillage because of how dry it has been, and we don’t want to dry the ground out any more. We’ll also do some ripping on the headlands just to break up the compaction.

What was the biggest challenge you encountered during the growing season or while harvesting this year? The biggest challenge for us has been the dryness. We had to run the irrigator so much that we had a lot of breakdowns on the irrigator. We were changing gearboxes all summer long because they were running so often.

What is your favorite part of the fall harvest? My favorite part is hauling corn and driving truck. It’s my favorite job to do in the fall.

Tell us about your farm. We milk 600 Holsteins and raise our own youngstock. We have 1,500 acres and raise our own crops. My mom, dad, brother Tyler and myself are all full time on the farm. My other brother, Bret, helps part time, and my ancée, Laura, helps and drives grain cart.

Chris Hedtke Mayer, Minnesota Carver County 70 cows

When did you start and nish corn silage harvest? We started Sept. 9 and nished Sept. 16. Then, we did a small bag a couple weeks later of some late-planted corn when we got our rst frost.

How many acres did you harvest and what was the tonnage? Normally, we do 45 acres, but this year, it took 55 because the tonnage was down. We don’t track our tons per acre. We chop until our four bags are full.

What other crops do you harvest in the fall and how is the harvest coming for those? We did our high-moisture corn Oct. 10-11. That yielded close to 200 bushels an acre at 27% moisture. We’ve been hauling our corn to the elevator for our dry corn, and it has been yielding between 170-180 bushels to the acre at 20% moisture. We have 40 acres of corn that will be combined this week.

What other eldwork do you have left for this year? We have most of our tillage left. We have a small amount of corn stalks to bale.

What was the biggest challenge you encountered during the growing season or while harvesting this year? We were wet in the spring so we planted later than normal. Then, in July, we were short of moisture, which caused the yields to be down from last year. We are happy how everything turned out. The crop could have been a lot worse. I’m thinking plowing will be a challenge this fall because the ground is so hard and dry.

What is your favorite part of the fall harvest? I enjoy when we chop silage. We have a tradition with our family to pick a night or two to have supper in the eld. The kids enjoy it.

Tell us about your farm. My wife, Kirsten, and I have four children, Maddie, Hallie, Grace and Joey. We are in partnership with my mom and dad, Joni and Curtis. We milk 70 cows and raise our replacement heifers and farm 300 acres of corn and alfalfa.

How far along are you with the fall harvest?

Duane Suess Sleepy Eye, Minnesota Brown County 200 cows

When did you start and nish corn silage harvest? We started around Sept. 10, and we were done in about a week.

How many acres did you harvest and what was the tonnage? We do about 110 acres of silage, and the tonnage was similar to last year. We chopped around 2,000 tons.

What other crops do you harvest in the fall and how is the harvest coming for those? We did 100 acres of earlage in late September. It was running around 230 bushels an acre. That’s about normal. We only had 7.5 inches of rain this summer, so I am happy with my yield. We had 100 acres of soybeans, and they ran in mid-50s.

What other eldwork do you have left for this year? We are doing grain corn now. We are on our last 90 acres, and we have 800 acres of total corn acres. When we started the corn Oct. 10, that ran 19%-20% moisture. Now, it’s down to 14%-15% so we can run it right in the bin and blow air on it. We have some fall tillage done and have a lot of round bales to do yet. We try to do around 600 rounds and have done around 300.

What was the biggest challenge you encountered during the growing season or while harvesting this year? The dryness, but I’m surprised how good the crop was. It was a wet spring, and then, it turned dry.

What is your favorite part of the fall harvest? Combining, that’s my favorite part of the whole year. It’s a joy harvesting.

Tell us about your farm. I farm with my son, Craig. He is the third generation on the farm. We milk 200 cows and farm around 1,050 acres; that includes acres my son farms. We milk our cows in a double-8 parlor. We feed our Holstein steers and buy extra as well. We ship our milk to First District Association.

Marvin Amundson

Westby, Wisconsin

County

cows

When did you start and nish corn silage harvest? We nished the rst week in October. It took two days with a custom harvesting crew.

How many acres did you harvest and what was the tonnage? We harvested 60 acres, and it came to 29 tons per acre.

What other crops do you harvest in the fall and how is the harvest coming for those? We harvest soybeans, high-moisture corn and dry corn in the fall. Everything is late this year so we have not started on any of them yet.

What other eldwork do you have left for this year? Besides harvesting the rest of the crops, we usually make about 300 shred bales for heifer bedding.

What was the biggest challenge you encountered during the growing season or while harvesting this year? Not being able to get parts when there were breakdowns.

What is your favorite part of the fall harvest? Everything. It is my favorite time of the year because it’s not too hot outside, and I love eldwork.

Tell us about your farm. I have been farming here for 47 years. We crop 375 acres. My wife, Chris, farms with me and is also a eld representative for Westby Creamery. Our son, Kyle, is transitioning into taking over the operation. We have been milking with robots since May 2021.

Brad Medek Pierz, Minnesota Morrison County 250 cows

When did you start and nish corn silage harvest? We started Sept. 10 and nished Sept. 20. We put it all in a bunker. The bunker is 80 feet by 250 feet with 8-foot side walls. We harvested it with a 6-row self-propelled and hauled with seven boxes.

How many acres did you harvest and what was the tonnage? We did about 300 acres at about 5,000 tons. It was a good year but not our best. We got a little dry at the end. We were very fortunate. The cattle will stay fed for another year.

What other crops do you harvest in the fall and how is the harvest coming for those? Two weeks ago, we did 200 acres of soybeans. That ran between 20-30 bushels an acre. That’s on sandier soil so we were happy with it. We have 350 acres of corn to combine for high moisture. We started that last week. It’s running 20%-31% and is 130140 on the yield. In between that, we were picking rocks for a couple weeks. We picked 100 acres on land we plan to seed alfalfa in. We have a lot of rocks.

What other eldwork do you have left for this year? We are working on emptying the lagoon as we are combining. We have 2.5-milliongallon lagoon. We have 1.5 million gallons to haul yet. We top applicate it and then disc it in. We have done 150 acres of tillage. We also have to do corn stalks and usually do at least 500 bales.

What was the biggest challenge you encountered during the growing season or while harvesting this year? The high fuel price and operating costs. Diesel fuel is still around $5. We got dry at the end of August, and it’s been dry through. We are really dry, but it makes harvesting really easy.

What is your favorite part of the fall harvest? All your work is nearly done. The end is in sight. I really like to combine.

Tell us about your farm. I am in partnership with my nephew, Riley Schlegel, and we milk 250 cows and farm 1,100 acres. We typically grow corn, soybean, alfalfa and grass hay. We milk our cows in a double-10 swing parallel parlor, and we have one freestall barn. We ship our milk to First District Association.

Zimmermann

110 cows

Sauk Centre, Minnesota Stearns County

Describe your farm and facilities. We milk in a double-8 parallel parlor. The dry cows are in a pole barn with a bedding pack. We farm 300 acres of corn, soybean and alfalfa.

What forages do you harvest? Corn silage, haylage, dry corn, high-moisture corn and soybeans.

How many acres of crops do you raise? We have 75 acres of alfalfa, 80 acres of corn for silage, 80 acres for grain corn and 80 acres of soybean.

Describe the rations for your livestock. We feed a mixture of corn silage, haylage, dry or wet corn (depending what we have at the time), and a protein mix.

What quality and quantity do you harvest of each crop? As much and as good as we can get. Qual-

ity is important to us. We get 68% moisture for corn silage, and we get 25-30 tons per acre. We always get four cuttings of alfalfa, and sometimes, we even

get ve. We get 12-14 tons of haylage a year and harvest at 50% moisture. We chop everything and put it in a pile.

Describe your harvesting techniques for alfalfa and corn silage. We chop all the alfalfa and put it in a pile. We custom-hire someone to chop the alfalfa. We

also custom-hire someone to harvest corn silage, and we use all our equipment to pack the pile. We customhire for our harvest because it’s cheaper than owning large enough equipment to get the crops harvested fast enough at the right time to get the best quality feed.

What techniques do you use to store, manage and feed your forages? We let silage sit for three months before we open the bag. For haylage, we like it to sit a month before we use it, but sometimes we run out and will need to start using it sooner. We put everything in bags or piles. We cover the pile with tires, so that the tires are tire to tire.

How do quality forages play into the production goals of your herd? It is a must to get good quality feed for our cows. To get good quality milk, we need to feed our cows good quality feed. We work closely with a nutritionist to monitor the quality of each bag

TIFFANY KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Lori and Mike Zimmermann farm 300 acres and milk 110 cows near Sauk Centre, Minnesota. The Zimmermanns closely monitor their forage to ensure the quality of their milk.

“Udder Comfort™ is a big help on our dairy. We use it on all fresh cows and for any cow with signs of mastitis. It helps our milk quality too. We love it!” says Brandon Grewe. He and his wife Kim met in 2010 when Brandon wanted to buy a cow from Kim and her dad. Today, they operate Valley Gem Farms, milking 180 cows near Cumberland, Wis., and the cow that brought them together was dam of homebred 7-year-old three-peat World Dairy Expo grand champion Valley Gem Atlas Malt-ET EX96 97MS

Malt’s first world championship was in 2019 as a 3-year-old. The show was canceled in 2020. Then, in 2021, Malt came back just fresh and was grand champion again. In the same lactation, she achieved the three-peat as grand champion Guernsey of WDE 2022.

Kim recalls 2021: “Malt was just 20 days fresh at Expo that year and made grand champion -- and best udder -- for the second time. Udder Comfort works!”

— Kim and Brandon Grewe

VALLEY GEM

and pile when we open it to feed our cows so we can adjust the ration if needed.

What management of harvesting techniques have you changed that have made a notable difference in forage quality? We switched from baleage to haylage. For us, it saves a ton of time and money doing haylage versus baleage. The biggest thing we have learned is to pack the piles as best

we can. The more packing the better, so we drive over it with a tractor and blade.

Describe a challenge you overcame in reaching your forage quality goals. The biggest challenge for us each year is the weather. Getting enough rain throughout the growing season and then not raining while we are trying to harvest.

TIFFANY KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR Tony Schlangen, Mike Zimmermann’s brother-in-law, drives combine as Mike’s daughter, Daisy, drives grain cart Oct. 21 near Sauk Centre, Minnesota. The Zimmermanns worked to

a bag of high-moisture corn.

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I did not grow up on a dairy farm, but I did marry into one. My husband, Mark, and I remodeled the original farmhouse on his family farm in Otsego, Minnesota, the same house in which his grandfather and great-grandfather died. My husband, along with his brother and father, farmed for nine more years after we married before the family felt forced to sell the farm due to pressures from suburbia.

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While I lived there, I was a high school teacher and didn’t help on the farm. However, there was the time during a snowstorm where I had to move a group of 11 cows off the main road because they had gotten out of the pen. Everyone else was elsewhere, clearing snow and doing chores. I did have the help of an old, arthritic farm dog named Sam. I remembered my husband telling me that if you could get a lead cow to go in the right direction, the rest would follow. After asking, demanding and then begging each cow to go back to the pen, Sam got one to head in that direction, and the rest did indeed follow. I was amazed and pretty proud of myself as I secured the gate.

By Jan Lefebvre Staff Writer

When I told Mark at dinner that night, I thought he would cheer or make a toast, but he didn’t seem too impressed.

Our twins, Jackson and Emma, were born during my time on the farm. I started to understand the magical gifts that growing up on a dairy farm brings. I loved taking the kids to the calf hutches. They never tired of sticking their little hands into a calf’s mouth and receiving the sandpaper feel of its tongue. Some of my son’s rst words were “wheel” and “loader tractor.” Only he said, “wee-o” and “yodo tacta.” He could identify what piece of equipment or vehicle was pulling into the yard just by the sound it made without even looking at it. The rst books he fell in love with were John Deere catalogues. My daughter was more drawn to the farm cats. She said “kitty” before she said “mommy.” We never saw her outside without toting a cat under each armpit. One kitten, Flower, enjoyed the company while all the others, to no avail, fought like heck to free themselves. My daughter was possibly the rst successful cat herder in history.

More importantly, my children spent time with extended family every day and witnessed, then took on, the honorable traits of working hard and contributing to something bigger than themselves.

When my husband, his parents and his brother decided to upgrade the farm by building a parlor, things changed. A group of nonfarming neighbors, who had a few horses or just a piece of country, decided to ght us, got lawyered up and, in the end, won. It hurt to see my family so sad and frustrated, and it dawned on me that I was devastated too.

After looking for answers such as a land swap to farm elsewhere, appealing the city council’s vote and lawyering up ourselves, the tough decision to sell the farm became the most viable option.

At the end of the auction, when the big combine was driven off the farm and down the road by its new owner, I wiped tears along with uncles and aunts, in-laws and a cousin or two.

I had changed.

As a reporter at Dairy Star, I have a bigger dairy learning curve to face than most of my colleagues, but my heart is ready to celebrate the world of dairy farming.

Youth represent Minnesota at National 4-H Dairy Conference

Ritter, Nelson experience global dairy industry

By Maggie Molitor Staff intern

MADISON, Wis. – Fourteen Minnesota delegates joined youth from across the United States in Madison for the National 4-H Dairy Conference Oct. 2-5.

Students, all with a shared interest in dairy, spent the duration of the conference meeting other youth within the dairy community, learning about the global dairy industry and exploring dairy-related career opportunities.

“It was an experience I will never forget,” said Kalie Ritter, an attendee of this year’s conference. “I met so many people and learned so much about dairy outside of my family’s farm.”

Ritter, the daughter of Glen and Leslie Ritter, is a senior in high school. Her family milks 64 cows near Avon, Minnesota.

To attend the conference, 4-H’ers from each state must ll out an application and be selected to represent their state as a delegate. Those selected from Minnesota were Klaudia Biel, Carter Burriechter, Anna Cox, Eiden Miriana, Wyatt Glessing, Hailey Herr, Afton Nelson, Kellen Nelson, Ryan Pierson, Kalie Ritter, Nathan Saulsbury, Greta Saylor, Madisyn Tollerd and Alexis Woeste.

Since its origin in 1954, the National 4-H Dairy Conference has strived to bring leading dairy youth from across North America together to interact and build industry bridges.

With a packed itinerary, the kids attended industry tours, educational seminars and World Dairy Expo.

“They denitely kept us busy,” Ritter said. “We were able to pack so much in the four days, making the trip so worth it.”

Ritter said the tours were among her favorite activity the delegates participated in. Along the tour route was the American Breeders Association, Hoards Dairyman Farm and ofce, and

Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese.

“I really enjoyed touring Crave Brothers and getting to see a rotary parlor and manure digester in person,” Ritter said. “Their sustainable practices are something that I would like to take back home to my farm.”

Ritter plans to attend Ridgewater College. She credits the conference for conrming her career aspirations.

“The conference helped me to further decide that I wanted to stay in the dairy industry,” Ritter said. “I’m not quite sure what that looks like right now, but I know my future is dairy.”

The National 4-H Dairy Conference provides the opportunity for students from all backgrounds to attend, including Afton Nelson and her younger brother, Kellen.

Nelson, the daughter of Tim and Stacy Nelson of Owatonna, Minnesota, did not grow up on a dairy farm, but she has been involved in the Minnesota 4-H dairy lease program for the past 12 years.

“The conference broadened what I personally knew about dairy,” Nelson said. “What I learned and experienced is something that I will never forget.”

Nelson is a freshman at South Dakota State University studying dairy production in the pre-veterinarian program.

Her experience in the 4-H lease program inspired the 18-year-old to pursue this degree and remain involved in dairy beyond the stretches of the show ring and into her career as a large animal veterinarian.

One of Nelson’s favorite parts of the conference was attending the seminars. During a seminar, students were asked to determine the reason behind their aspirations. This exercise allowed students to explore what their future plans were as they continue their involvement in dairy.

“I recognized my why,” Nelson said. “I want to give back to the dairy community as a veterinarian because dairy has impacted my life immensely.”

Attending the conference allowed Nelson to network with peers. She said she is grateful for the connections and friendships she made.

“It wasn’t just work and no play,” Nelson said. “Every evening we would have giant dance parties. I met so many people from different states by dancing

with them. It was a blast.”

On the last day of the conference, delegates attended Expo.

“You could tell everyone truly loved dairy because as soon as we got to the Alliant Energy Center, everyone ocked to the coliseum to watch

the grand champion selection for the Brown Swiss,” Nelson said.

Ritter agreed.

“It is always worth ending a good trip with beautiful show cows,” Ritter said.

MAGGIE MOLITOR/DAIRY STAR

The Minnesota delegates of the Na onal 4-H Dairy Conference gather at World Dairy Expo Oct. 5 in Madison, Wisconsin. The students spent the dura on of the conference mee ng other youth from the dairy industry.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Na onal 4-H Dairy Conference delegates tour Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese Oct. 4 in Waterloo, Wisconsin. Students at the conference a ended industry tours, educa onal seminars and World Dairy Expo.

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Practice makes perfect

Stearns County dairy judging team places high at nationals

By Carol Moorman Staff Writer

MADISON, Wis. – This year marked the 100th National 4-H Dairy Cattle Judging Contest.

The competition became extra special for the Minnesota Stearns County 4-H dairy judging team when it placed third overall and rst in oral reasons Oct. 2 at World Dairy Expo in Madison.

The Stearns County team members – Dan Frericks, of Melrose, Minnesota; Lanna Walter, of Sauk Centre, Minnesota; and Megan and Tyler Ratka, of Cold Spring, Minnesota – competed against 20 teams and were coached by Sadie Frericks, Kevin Ratka and Tara Meyer.

“It was a great time spent with great friends judging very good cows,” Dan Frericks said. “We practiced a lot

before Expo, and it was great to see all of our hard work pay off.”

The Stearns County 4-H team advanced to the national competition after earning rst place at the Minnesota 4-H Dairy Cattle Judging Contest during the Minnesota State Fair in August. The third-place nish at the national contest provides the team the opportunity to compete at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh, Scotland, the summer of 2023.

Sadie Frericks said she gives the students credit for their hard work.

“Third place is incredible, but I’m most proud of our team for earning rst in oral reasons,” she said. “Delivering oral reasons is a skill each 4-H’er develops through lots of practice and feedback from coaches and teammates. These kids really worked on their reasons this year, and it showed in their scores at the contest.”

During the national competition, contestants evaluated cows on their udders, rear feet and legs, dairy strength/ milk production capacity and frame. During oral reasons, a 4-H’er justies

to a judge why they judged classes the way they did. The Minnesota team of four judged 10 classes of dairy cattle and gave ve sets of oral reasons as part of the competition.

“The team camaraderie was great,” Meyer said. “All of these team members are hard-working and eager to learn and implement the feedback they are given.”

Dan Frericks and the Ratkas also earned All-American status, an honor given to individuals who place in the top 25.

Leading up to the competition, the team practiced at several farms in central Minnesota and Wisconsin and participated in a practice and tour session the Friday before the national competition.

Sadie Frericks said after the state fair, they worked with the team to build on their state fair performances leading up to the national competition.

“They were so coachable and took

every suggestion we offered them to heart and put it into practice,” she said.

The rst time a Stearns County team advanced to nationals was in 2007 when the team earned rst place overall and rst place in reasons.

“We’re continuing the precedent for Stearns County success at the national contest,” Sadie Frericks said.

This year’s team toured the National Dairy Shrine Museum before the contest and looked at the national 4-H dairy judging contest plaques.

“There’s a plaque that lists all of the teams that placed rst in oral reasons,” Sadie Frericks said. “It’s really neat that this team has earned its own spot in Dairy Shrine history.”

Once a 4-H’er has judged in the national contest, they are ineligible to judge in any future national dairy judging contests.

“This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience for these kids,” Sadie Frericks said.

A change worth the investment

Middendorfs install robotic milking system, see herd improvement

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

Minn.

23 years, Joel Middendorf and his family milked in a 62-stall tiestall barn. And for the last several years, they have been switching the tiestall barn at least once to milk the farm’s 113 cows.

Now, in addition to farming 700 acres, Middendorf and his family – dad Eugene, wife Julie and their children – milk a portion of their herd using a DeLaval robotic milking system on their farm near Melrose.

“I look back on how much simpler things have been since April, and I genuinely don’t know how we ever made it to the boy’s football games and track meets,” Middendorf said. “The way we are doing things now has made me wonder why we didn’t put it in seven years ago when we rst thought about it.”

On April 14, the Middendorfs walked the better producing 60% of their herd into a new freestall barn equipped with a robot, exible stall system and rubber mats. For two weeks, the family eased the herd into its new lifestyle.

“It’s a night and day differ-

ence,” Middendorf said. “We were bedding the bed pack three times a week, and the cows just weren’t performing like they should; they were uncomfortable and that reected in our production.”

Since the transition, milk production went up nearly 20 pounds of milk per cow per day within the rst month of using the robot. Milk quality has improved, too, with a somatic cell count below 200,000.

In addition to improvements the Middendorfs have seen in their herd, the family now has more time to focus on other aspects of the farm. Middendorf said milking in the tiestall barn was taking nine hours a day.

“I think our forages this year have been way better,” Middendorf said. “I can check the barn whenever it ts my schedule. I don’t have to stop making hay to go milk, and Connie, our hired hand, takes care of milking the tiestall cows.”

The Middendorfs built the freestall barn with the next generation in mind. The Middendorfs’ sons – Gentry, Jesse and Jordy – are instrumental to the dairy and help on the farm when

they are able.

“We set it up for the future,” Middendorf said. “We have the ability to add east and then an addition west to have four total robots. We have what will suit us now, but if the kids decide to come back, in say ve years, the option to go all robotic milking

is there for them.”

The Middendorfs also implemented an activity monitoring system. The collars help record which cows are having problems during milking, who is in heat and how often the cows are getting up to eat.

All of the information is ac-

cessible through an app. They receive notications as to who has not been milked in a while, and with that information, they fetch cows and coax them to the robot for milking.

MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Jordy (from le ), Eugene and Joel Middendorf stand by the robo c milking system Oct. 20 on their farm near Melrose, Minnesota. The Middendorfs milk 113 cows in a estall barn and with a robot.

Middendorf said in the next few months, he would like to increase the number of times the cows visit the robot from around 2.6 to closer to three visits per day.

“There are already several cows that go to the robot three times a day, but I want that number to be higher,” Middendorf said. “I haven’t had to treat anyone in the barn yet for mastitis, which means they are going to the robot often enough, and their quarters aren’t being over milked.”

Middendorf said he appreciates that the robot pulls the milking unit off each individual teat, which prevents over milking. He said when milking in the tiestall barn, the units are watched closely, but because no quarter is the same as the next, some cows are over milked.

Middendorf said the 43 cows be-

ing milked in the tiestall barn have seen production improvements too. Without having to share space with the rest of the herd, those cows are more comfortable and easier to manage.

“Connie wanted to keep milking for another ve years in the tiestall barn,” Middendorf said. “I’m ne with that, because we are still making use of the barn, and we milk the fresh cows there once before rotating them into the freestall barn.”

With their herd on an upward trend, the Middendorfs are looking forward to the continued use of robots for both themselves and the next generation should they decide to take over the family farm.

“There is so much to be learn about these robots,” Middendorf said. “But I already know that I like it, and I want to learn more about it to help my herd improve.”

MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Joel Middendorf shows how the robot tracks the amount of milk each teat is producing. He appreciates that the robot does not overmilk a quarter.

MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

A cow walks under the guided ow gate. The system is designed to lead the cows to the robot.

MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR Cows on the Middendorf farm eat and rest in the freestall barn Oct. 20 near Melrose, Minnesota. The freestall barn is equipped with exible stalls and rubber mats.

Women In Dairy

Jessica Pralle-Trimner

Athens, Wisconsin

Marathon County

3,000 cows

Family: I grew up on Selz-Pralle Dairy in Humbird, Wisconsin, where my parents, Scott and Pam Selz-Pralle, milk 400 registered Holsteins. My brother, Ryan, is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and my sister, Nicole, is a calf specialist for Purina Land O’Lakes. Two years ago, I married my husband, David Trimner, and now farm alongside his family at Miltrim Farms in Athens.

Tell us about your farm. Miltrim Farms was founded in 1988 by David’s grandparents, Martin and Elaine Mueller, his uncle, Tom Mueller and wife Lorene, and his parents, the late Scott Trimner and Kathy Trimner Roth. In 1988, the farm consisted of only 140 cows and 260 acres and has now grown to 3,000 cows, 2,000 youngstock and 5,200 acres. Miltrim Farms is the largest automated milking facility in Wisconsin, milking 1,800 cows with 30 robots. The remainder of the cows are milked in the original double-24 herringbone parlor. Our farm goals focus on sustainability of land, livestock, water and our community. To reach these goals, we focus on cow comfort, cover cropping, minimal tillage or no till, and educational opportunities in our new event space known as the Milk Haus.

What is a typical day like for you on the dairy? I wear many hats, but my main title is herd manager. Typically, I spend as much time as possible in the barn working with our cow-side teams during their morning chores. Morning chores for me can include fetching, working fresh cows, vaccinating, ultrasounding, walking cow pens and feeding calves. Once I’ve met with most of my team members in the barn, I typically spend the rest of the day working on protocols, analyzing data and nishing up scheduling for employees and consultant meetings.

What decision have you made in the last year that has beneted your farm? Heifer replacements fall into one of top three largest expenses on all dairies. As our dairy has expanded, we have needed to raise heifers off site from birth to 5 months before bringing them home. Knowing the cost to raise our heifers, and using my prior industry experiences, I’ve dedicated time in the past year to creating the right number of heifers and raising only the best ones through use of genetic and phenotypic data from both the calves and their dams. Through this process, we’ve sold several heifers to expanding dairies and increased the amount of beef semen we use throughout the dairy. We have partnered with the TD Beef program to ensure we are creating a desirable and higher quality black calf for the growers, packers and consumers.

Tell us about your most memorable experience working on the farm. From growing up on my family’s dairy to working on a large dairy and everything in between, there is a list a mile long of memorable experiences and life lessons that shaped me into the person and manager I am today. However, as I go throughout my days, I nd my-

self hearing my parents’ voices. When I’m cow-side, it’s my dad telling me, “Slow down, read the cows, let them tell you what they need.” I share those same words and trained senses that my dad taught me as I work with new and existing employees. Even with the robots and having data at our ngertips, it still takes keen cow people. When I’m preparing for employee meetings or reviews, I can recall the conversations my mom had around our kitchen table guiding the conversations that lead to growth and development on our farm and how she gracefully handled all situations through listening. These are the most valuable experiences for me. They aid me when I need to make decisions and handle difcult situations.

What have you enjoyed most about dairy farming or your tie to the dairy industry? I love the diversity of dairy farming and the challenges every aspect brings to the table. It’s fun to work through the data and gures to assess how well our teams work together to make the farm more efcient. I realized this passion for analyzing dairies while in college at UW-Madison competing on the dairy challenge team.

What is your biggest accomplishment in your dairy career? This summer, I was honored with the opportunity to judge the Wisconsin State Junior Fair Showmanship contest in West Allis. As a junior exhibitor, I lived for showmanship. As I stood in the ring and watched the participants show off their animals, I saw that same spark through many of the junior exhibitors. It was humbling to see so many juniors I had worked with as beginners in showmanship now in their senior years who have developed into excellent showmen.

What are things you do to promote your farm or the dairy industry? In April of this year, we opened the doors to our event and education center known as the Milk Haus. The Milk Haus features observation windows into our robot facility. Visitors get the chance to not only view cows being milked by the robots, but they also get to take a glimpse at how cows time budget their days from socializing to eating and resting. To incorporate all the facets of our dairy into the education center, we have developed videos that highlight all aspects of the farm, from cows calving to raising heifers, milking in the parlor, and our cropping and manure management practices. We also have a few hands-on features for visitors to help guide and show how some of our practices work. These hands-on features include a farm cropping simulator and a sand topography table to highlight how different topography inuences water owage, and then, we tie it back to our practices at the farm.

What advice would you give another woman in the dairy industry? Don’t just visualize your goal, work for it. Working hard is in our blood. However, as the communicators, event planners and care takers of humans and animals, we constantly juggle the worklife balance card until we forget about ourselves. So don’t write your goals on paper and daydream about them; say them out loud. Declare them to the people who matter. Reach out to your idols to hear their journeys. Let them mentor

you or have them share other mentors. Go to meetings and learn from industry experts and collect their contact information. From there, you’ve created a circle of people to hold you accountable. When the days get hard and the end goal further in sight, lean on your circle and know it’s OK to be selsh in the pursuit of your dreams.

When you get a spare moment, what do you do? Honestly, I walk cows. There’s simply nothing more relaxing to me than walking pens of cows and seeing the dynamics of the pen, the behaviors of the cows and analyzing their conrmation traits.

AABP research roundup: Calf edition

By Whitney Knauer, DVM

The American Association of Bovine Practitioners had its annual meeting in Long Beach, California, Sept. 22-24. Cattle veterinarians, vet students and researchers from around the U.S. and Canada met to share the newest research, recommendations and best practices to enhance cattle welfare and help producers improve the health of their cows and the protability of their operations.

Three studies on calf health were presented at the meeting.

The rst study was presented by researchers from The University of Guelph where they evaluated the impact of plane of nutrition and analgesic treatment on wound healing following cautery disbudding of preweaned calves.

To do this, they assigned calves to four groups: biologically normal milk allowance (up to 15 liters per day day), conventional milk allowance (6 liters per day) and calves that received one or two doses of meloxicam (at disbudding and three days after). All calves received a lidocaine nerve block. Healing was evaluated and compared

between the four groups. Researchers reported that only 12% of horn buds were completely healed by 8 weeks of age. Calves on the biological milk allowance and calves who only received meloxicam at disbudding were more likely to have healed buds compared to calves on a conventional feeding plan and who got a second dose of meloxicam on the third day post disbudding.

The second study presented research performed at Cornell University where they evaluated the association between temperature humidity index and light intensity and colostrum production on 18 New York dairy farms. This research was driven by the observation that many cows produce less colostrum in the fall and winter, which can impact colostrum management and calf health in crucial winter months. Researchers collected THI and light intensity information for 1.5 years and colostrum yield in over 18,000 heifers and mature cows during that time. THI and light intensity were associated with colostrum production in mature cows such that lower THI and lower light intensity were associated with lower colostrum yield. These factors were not associated with colos-

trum yield in heifers. The researchers concluded that colder and drier prepartum environments are associated with decreased colostrum production.

The third study relevant to calf health was presented by researchers from Washington State University where they evaluated the utility of using thoracic ultrasound and clinical signs to diagnose respiratory disease in pre-weaned dairy calves. Thirty calves on two farms received thoracic ultrasound and health scoring weekly, and farm health treatment records were collected. Calves were classied each week as non-diseased (healthy or recovered) or diseased (pre-onset or chronic consolidation) based on the sequence of thoracic ultrasound ndings. Results suggest that the use of clinical signs (snotty nose, runny eyes, cough, fever) for diagnosis of lung consolidation (respiratory disease) in dairy calves is not a good measure. Researchers found many false negatives (calves did not have any signs of respiratory disease but had lung consolidation), suggesting that thoracic ultrasound may be a more robust measure of respiratory disease than using clinical signs alone, and thoracic ul-

trasound can help farmers nd lesions that cannot be clinically identied by observation alone. In addition, researchers found that some lesions observed with thoracic ultrasound would resolve on their own (without antibiotic treatment), suggesting more research is needed to understand the dynamics of lung disease in dairy calves.

The summary results of these three research projects highlight important points for dairy farmers. First, feeding a higher milk allowance is important for improving wound healing post disbudding. Second, lower colostrum volume is associated with colder and drier weather, and darker days. Third, clinical signs alone are not adequate to predict calves who need treatment for respiratory disease. While these three studies are not intuitively linked, they each provide information for farmers who are interested in improving animal welfare in their calf programs. Farmers with questions about feeding more milk, colostrum production or management, or implementing thoracic ultrasound into a calf management program should reach out to a veterinarian or local extension agent for more information.

Dana

adam1744@umn.edu 320-204-2968

Joe

armst225@umn.edu 612.624.3610

Luciano

lcaixeta@umn.edu 612-625-3130

Gerard

612-625-8184

Marcia

612-624-5391

Joleen

Les

Nathan

Benjamin H. Netzke, OWNER

Using lab pasteurized counts

By Mike Schutz

Milk quality has many denitions ranging from milk components to somatic cell count to bacteria levels and more. Recently in this column, we have looked at the dramatic improvement in milk components, especially fat percentage, and reductions in SCC over the past 20 years or so. By any measure, milk quality has improved dramatically; that is a credit to dairy farmers who have made great strides to provide increasingly high-quality milk. Likely, the dairy industry has made incredible progress in reducing the bacteria in milk as well. There just is not as much readily available data to allow tracking of the measures of bacteria levels over time. A piece of evidence that points to this improvement is that the regulatory limit for the standard plate count remains at 100,000 colony forming units per ml. However, most cooperatives and handlers jump into action when counts exceed 10,000 CFU/ml and less than 5,000 CFU/ml is a reachable goal with good hygiene and proper milk cooling. Clearly, delivery of milk with low total bacteria counts as determined by the SPC or other automated methods results in improved quality of milk and milk products in stores, longer shelf-life stability and improved product yield.

Milk from the cow always has some bacteria. Milk in

the bulk tank always has some more bacteria. But, proper milking procedures; milking clean, dry, sanitized teats; cooling milk quickly to temperatures just above freezing; and properly functioning and wellcleaned milking systems limit bacterial contamination of milk and slow the growth of bacteria. The quality of milk arriving at the pasteurizer has never been better.

However, it is important to remember that pasteurization does not sterilize milk. It was designed to reduce bacteria in milk and especially to kill pathogenic bacteria (e.g. brucellosis and tuberculosis) that thrive at a cow’s body temperature, which is very close to human body temperature. Pasteurized milk still contains some bacteria. Pasteurization of milk cannot reverse the harmful effects of bacteria already present in the milk. While pasteurized milk will have greatly reduced bacteria counts, any lipases and proteases present in the milk prior to pasteurization can impact post-pasteurization quality by breaking down fats and proteins respectively. Thus, higher quality milk at pasteurization leads to higher quality milk after pasteurization too. The consistent delivery of high-quality milk for pasteurization has allowed focus on the bacteria that may survive pasteurization in otherwise high-quality milk.

Figure 1 identies the temperature ranges at which the classes of bacteria dened by

microbiologists thrive. Psychrophiles are cold-loving bacteria that slowly reproduce in properly cooled milk but thrive at temperatures common to improperly cooled milk. Mesophiles are warmth-loving bacteria that grow well at body temperature. Cooling milk properly dramatically slows growth of these. Most psychrophiles and mesophiles are dramatically reduced by pasteurization. Thermophiles and hyperthermophiles (heat-loving) have the ability to survive pasteurization but are very rare in the environment and so are not usually associated with problems in pasteurized milk. The primary contaminants of pasteurized milk that reduce shelf life and reduce product yield and quality tend to be mesophiles and even psychrophiles that are thermoduric (endure pasteurization temperatures). Mostly, these bacteria survive by forming endospores during environmental stressors such as heat, drying and sanitizers. The Lab Pasteurized Count is designed to determine levels of bacteria that survive pasteurization. The LPC is done by heating a raw milk sample to 145 degrees for 30 minutes (to mimic temperatures common to batch pasteurization) and then conducting the SPC. The LPCs, because of exposure to pasteurization temperatures, are expected to be much lower than SPCs. There is no regulatory limit for LPC, but LPC more than 200-300 CFU/ml is considered high, and 50 CFU/ml should be

achievable with proper milking and milk management.

Knowing that much of the LPC is driven by spore-forming bacteria and that heating, drying and sanitizing creates conditions for the bacteria to create endospores that allow them to survive pasteurization provides a clue of where to look to solve issues of elevated LPCs. Unclean equipment, improper sanitizing and dirty udders are the most likely culprits. While the cow and mastitis pathogens can increase bacteria in milk, they are not typically associated with LPC. The most common cause of high LPCs is a chronic consistent failure of cleaning leading to biolms or milkstone deposits in milk lines, inside plate coolers and in bulk tanks. Old rubber parts, including gaskets, inations, milk tubes and seals, should be on a regular replacement schedule. Old rubber parts can deteriorate to make clean-

ing ineffective. Leaky pumps may also allow thermoduric bacteria to enter the milk. Rarely, spore formers can be present in the cow’s environment and be transferred to the milk from soiled teats. Spores can be present in manure from cows, and so it is possible that elevated counts could result from the use of manure solids as bedding. That is not to say that manure solids should not be used, but if they are, LPC counts should be monitored along with SPCs. Breakdowns in equipment cleaning or failure to replace rubber parts are a more likely cause of elevated LPC than dirty cows. Serial testing of milk from points along the milking system, especially before and after the plate cooler, can be a good approach to determining potential sources of the bacteria causing elevated LPC.

Dairy

How did you get into farming? I was born into it. I’ve been around cows my entire life, and I developed a passion for farming and cows while working alongside my dad growing up.

What are your thoughts and concerns about the dairy industry for the next year? I’m concerned that small, familyrun dairy farms will be wiped out to be overtaken by large factory farms. I’d like to see small farms thrive once again. I have a vested interest in all families wanting to continue dairy farming, and in particular, I’d like to keep our farm going for my four sons.

What is a recent change you made on your farm and the reason for it? We recently purchased more land and hope to continue to be able to purchase more in the future.

Tell us about a skill you possess that makes dairy farming easier for you. I went to the Farm and Industry Short Course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and gained many skills from my classes there. One skill that has come in handy the most is the knowledge and ability to breed my own cows. It has enabled the farm to save time and money and gives me full control over when the breeding is done and which bulls I use.

What is the best decision you have made on your farm? I changed the setup location for when we do the hoof trimming. It was a simple change, but it has made all the difference in feasibility and efciency.

What are three things on the farm that you cannot live without? The three things I cannot live without are skid loaders, the Kubota RTV and my family. We use our skid loaders daily for nearly every aspect of the farm, including mixing feed, moving bales of straw and hay, lling stalls with sand and countless other tasks. We use the Kubota about as much as the skid loader. If I need to get somewhere quickly, it is convenient to jump on the Kubota. I use it to go to the pastures to check on and x fence lines and deliver hay to the cows when needed as well as to feed calves and do other tasks. I couldn’t run this farm without my family. My dad and I have been

working together my whole life, and one could not run this place without the other. My boys are also learning chores and will continue to do more as they grow.

What strategies do you use to withstand the volatile milk prices? We watch feed costs, decrease herd size from time to time and continue to pay off land and equipment when milk prices are high.

How do you maintain family relationships while also working together? While it isn’t easy to maintain family relationships while working together, I try to stay even keeled and know when to walk away from a disagreement. I love working on the family farm and cherish working with my dad and my sons. The good times denitely outweigh the bad. We each have our assigned tasks for the day but are always there for each other when someone needs help.

What do you enjoy most about dairy farming? I enjoy the cows and being outside while using my body. It’s a unique job and is becoming more and more unique as there are fewer farms around. I like the predictability of the daily chores but also the unpredictability of challenges that arise.

What advice would you give other dairy farmers? Going big is not always the answer. The more you add to your farm, whether it’s more or newer machines or more cows, the more work and problems you have. One particular problem is nding good and reliable help. Sure, you make more money when you have more cows, but you also have more expenses and problems.

What are your plans for your dairy in the next year and ve years? In the next year, I would like to continue what we are doing and continue to nd ways to improve my skills and efciency on the farm. In the next ve years, my dad is looking at reducing his role in the daily chores, and I will start to ll in his role and take on the chores he is responsible for. I also plan to continue to teach my sons how to do chores and increase their role on the farm.

How do you or your family like to spend time when you are not doing chores? I enjoy playing hockey on a weekly basis. My family and I enjoy being in the outdoors together whether we are watching a baseball game, hiking or playing any number of sports together. You don’t always need to leave the farm to get away.

DairyRotor—T8000

Adam Meier (pictured with Jake (front, from left), Charlie and Alex; Alyssa and Joey) Milton, Wisconsin Rock County 130 cows

Calf management tips in preparation for winter

As fall harvest progresses and the days get shorter, we know cold stress is just around the corner. Special attention should be given to the most delicate group of animals on the dairy: newborn calves.

The thermal-neutral zone for a calf under 3 weeks of age is 55 to 78 degrees. Within this range, the calf doesn’t have to expend extra energy to maintain body temperature. With lower temperatures, the calf experiences cold stress, needs more energy to stay warm and may not grow as efciently as possible. Cold weather can be tough on calves, but simple management and feeding strategies can make winter go more smoothly.

Something to Ruminate On

By Barry Visser Nutritionist

Calves are born with only 3%-4% body fat. They are also born with a special layer of fat called brown fat. Brown fat’s only purpose is to release energy as heat. Combatting cold stress – and keeping the calf from using all that fat within a few hours of birth – starts in the maternity area.

Towel-drying a newborn calf helps uff its hair coat, which insulates the calf by creating a boundary between the body and the chilly ambient air. Dry the ears as this will help reduce the risk of frost damage. Warming boxes (which need to be kept clean) work well to nish the drying process and keep calves warm during the rst 12 hours after birth. Calves that receive supportive warming therapy after birth will have less stress and, as a result, will likely have greater efciency of immunoglobulin absorption from colostrum feeding. A calf’s ability to absorb antibodies from colostrum diminishes as its body temperature lowers.

Move dry calves into a clean, dry space with an adequate amount of bedding that ensures good nesting, such as straw. Bedding should be deep and uffy, allowing the calf to nest and conserve energy. Bedding condition should be monitored to make sure it stays dry.

Calf jackets also limit heat loss, but calves need to be dry before they’re tted with jackets. A jacket on a wet calf holds the moisture and chills the calf. Jackets should be clean and in good condition. The general recommendation is to have enough jackets to cover all calves younger than 3 weeks, but this may differ depending on calf housing. A good rule of thumb is to keep the jacket on the calf until it consumes starter regularly. Don’t forget to adjust the straps as the calf grows.

Close attention needs to be paid to winter ventilation. Keeping barns or hutches warm is not typically the goal. A minimum of four to six air exchanges per hour should keep air fresh to minimize disease while not allowing a draft on calves. Positive pressure tubes can help achieve this goal.

As the temperature decreases, a calf’s caloric demand increases, which leaves fewer calories available for growth and immune function. Strategies to increase energy intake during cold stress include altering the amounts and timing of milk feeding. Milk volume is often increased by about one-third. Shifting from two to three daily feedings will also increase milk intake. Supplemental fat can be added to the milk feeding. Each of these options comes with pros and cons to evaluate with a calf management team and nutritionist. Pick the strategy that works the best on your farm.

No matter which option you choose, consistency is the key to success. Monitor milk mixing and delivery temperatures at the beginning and end of the feeding to minimize variation. Milk temperature at feeding should be around 105 degrees.

Throughout the year, encourage starter grain intake by keeping it fresh and dry. In addition to providing supplemental calories, starter grain intake has a secondary benet. Heat from microbial fermentation in the rumen will also contribute to the calf’s energy needs during cold stress.

Water intake is crucial to starter grain intake regardless of the temperature. Even though feeding water can be challenging in the winter, it is extremely important. A common practice in the winter is to feed warm water shortly after milk and dump the pails before they freeze. Warm water and starter consumption are positively correlated. The more starter the calf eats, the more water it will drink.

Calf performance doesn’t need to drop as temperatures decrease. Ensure calves have adequate nutrition to support both maintenance needs and growth. Make sure drafts and wet bedding do not increase their maintenance needs. Monitor and track calf growth and health. This will help identify bottlenecks and troubleshoot challenges. Excellent management during winter will allow calves to overcome cold stress, continue to grow at target rates and thrive.

Barry Visser is a nutritionist for Vita Plus.

E-commerce proves opportunity for dairy

Ramping up e-commerce efforts proved to be a priority during the coronavirus pandemic for many retailers. Because consumers could not readily shop when convenient and wanted to avoid big crowds, they turned to new ways of shopping. In 2020, we saw 20% or fewer shoppers buying groceries online, but as the world changed, those numbers skyrocketed to 70% of consumers utilizing ecommerce grocery shopping. And even today, more than 60% of consumers utilize online grocery shopping. Because of this shift to online grocery shopping, there are new opportunities for dairy farmers and delicious dairy products to be placed front and center for consumers.

compared to purchases without dairy. Ultimately, we want shoppers to purchase dairy products and feel condent when using them so they return for more. We work closely with retailers and encourage them to work with their dairy vendor community to provide promotions and coupons for these dairy products. Recipes are also a good way to inspire shoppers to add dairy to their meals. Our retail partnerships allow Midwest Dairy to bring ideas for activations forward for their consideration as well. These ideas can revolve around the nutritional benets of dairy, a sustainability message, promoting the local farmer and so much more. The dairy checkoff has brought value to those stakeholders by reminding and educating them how

important it is for dairy to have a presence in the online space.

By staying educated on relevant shopper marketing tactics like this, Midwest Dairy can help more dairy products nd their way into consumer’s carts – especially online. As we enter the holiday season, e-commerce efforts will be valuable as more shoppers turn to dairy products for menus for special meals and holiday favorites. Online grocery shopping is projected to continue to grow, and Midwest Dairy remains dedicated to making dairy products more visible in the digital space, which will encourage more milk consumption – a win for farmers, retailers and shoppers.

By Martha Kemper Vice president of dairy experiencedemand at Midwest Dairy

The demand team at Midwest Dairy has identied the e-commerce space as an important one. We are immersed in making dairy products stand out online and are working on getting a variety of dairy products well-represented in this online space. Not only is e-commerce keeping its popular status even after the pandemic, but shoppers are adopting it as a regular shopping behavior. Dairy is the second largest category of grocery purchases online, making online grocery shopping something the dairy industry and retailers are equally excited about.

Because consumers are creatures of habit, it is important we position the dairy case as a critical, top-ofmind purchase. We have seen that once dairy is in the shopper’s cart, it usually becomes a permanent part of their list, and often, they will purchase that same product again in the future. User data indicates that milk is the No. 1 search term for e-commerce. This is exciting because it allows us an opportunity to promote product information and even product reviews to a wide range of shoppers. This is also an opportunity for shoppers to see new products they may overlook in the physical experience as they scroll online.

Getting the product in the shopper’s cart is also an art Midwest Dairy is working hard to perfect. We are exploring and utilizing new tactics, such as banner ads to promote dairy products and recipes containing dairy. By showcasing dairy’s nutritional value and versatility in the kitchen, we hope to make the consumers’ experience easy when purchasing by providing direct links to products and easy-to-access “add to cart” buttons right from the recipe. We are encouraging consumers to get creative when using dairy products, thus ultimately increasing their dairy consumption. For example, perhaps making milk a staple product in their breakfast routine by not only using it in their cereal but also by adding it to their morning coffee.

But these efforts go further than shoppers. Retailers are also conscious of what dairy purchases are doing for them and are seeing how important a dairy purchase is to the overall dollars generated by that shopper. Grocery baskets are 75% greater in value when dairy is in the cart and contain 83% more units

Editorial disclaimer: The views expressed by our columnists are the opinions and thoughts of the

and

the opinions and views of Dairy Star staff and ownership.

Rugby lessons from afar

a

which was tting as one of them is Irish while the other is English.

fans call the grass playing eld.

must be important

climbed out.

them as they wore

pair of aliens were soon at our door, making a request. It had nothing to do with taking them to our leader.

Though their speech was somewhat difcult to understand, we got the message that they desired to watch something called rugby. Thankfully, our cable package includes several sports channels, so we were able to accommodate their request and thus avoid being vaporized by any possible ray guns.

The so-called aliens are friends of ours whom we had invited over to watch the Six Nations Championship rugby match between England and Ireland,

Our friends are bilingual; that is, they can speak both English and American, albeit heavily accented. One of them sounds like Daniel Craig, while the other sounds like Liam Neeson. Listening to them talk was like a night at the movies.

We settled in our living room as the game began. I know nothing about rugby other than it involves two teams and an oblong ball.

I was hoping to glean insights about the nuances of rugby, but that didn’t happen. Our friends were too busy shouting such things at the TV.

“Yes!”

“No!”

“You idiot!”

“Off the oor! Keep it off the oor!”

I nally gured out that the oor is what rugby

There are many similarities between rugby and football, which I was only too happy to point out to the two.

“I see you guys stole our idea of having goal posts,” I said. “And your rugby ball looks a lot like our football. But you haven’t yet discovered that pads can be benecial for the players.”

This grabbed their attention. I was informed that most of what we call football was actually stolen from rugby and that what we call soccer is, in fact, football.

“Soccer,” they explained, “is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans. Rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen.”

Dear County Agent Guy

By Jerry Nelson Columnist

So, no matter what the game, some level of hooliganism is involved?

“Correct,” they said.

The English team took the eld wearing sparkling white uniforms while the Irish wore their traditional green. There wasn’t much point to having different colored uniforms as far as I could tell; within minutes of taking the eld, every single player had been transformed into a walking human-shaped grass stain.

There’s some strange terminology associated with rugby. For instance, there’s blood replacement, which isn’t a form of articial plasma. There’s also the sin bin, which is remarkably self-explanatory.

Rugby appears to be a tough sport, very much like our football but without even the slightest hint of padding. The players run nonstop and smash against each other in a game that really should have been named kill the carrier.

As with many sports, watching rugby traditionally involves consuming malt beverages. In keeping with tradition, we partook of a substance known as Guinness. I don’t know how Guinness is made, but its color seems to suggest tar is involved.

But, that’s where I drew the line.

“We’re in America, by gee,” I declared. “And we’re going to eat American food.”

So, we fed them pizza.

After the rugby game was over, there was a spirited discussion that included the topic of the old days.

Both men agreed that what attracted them to America was our pervasive sense of optimism. Our nation’s energy and enthusiasm are imprinted in our collective DNA and stands in stark contrast to their experiences in Europe.

They don’t miss the gloomy “No, I don’t dare” mindset of the Old Country. They didn’t miss being shoved into a stiing little pigeonhole and being told to be glad for it because that’s as good as it will ever get. Both expressed a deep affection for their adopted homeland.

During the rugby game, I noticed the players received no coaching from the sidelines. It was up to each individual team member to determine the best course of action and grab the initiative whenever possible.

This parallels the path our two friends took when they left their home countries. How entrepreneurial, how utterly American.

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.

Stay connected with current programs

By Steve Frericks

Stearns County FSA executive director

It’s a great feeling; that feeling of having enough feed from an exceptional harvest to feed livestock this next year. What a difference a year can make after the drought of 2021. Be proud of what you have accomplished this past year. We certainly are proud of you. Stay safe as you nalize harvest.

Below is a listing of several current programs that might affect producers. Do not hesitate to contact a local Farm Service Agency ofce with questions.

It is that time of year again when dairy producers start thinking about the coverage level they may want to take for the Dairy Margin Coverage program. DMC offers protection to dairy producers when the difference between the all-milk price and the average feed cost (the margin) falls below a certain dollar amount selected by the producer. For DMC enrollment, producers must certify with the FSA ofce that their operation is commercially marketing milk, sign all required forms and pay the $100 administrative fee. This fee is waived for farmers who are considered limited resource, beginning, socially disadvantaged or a military veteran.

To determine the appropriate level of DMC coverage for a specic dairy operation, producers can use the online dairy decision tool at farmers.gov. The annual registration and coverage election period for 2023 will take place from Oct. 17 to Dec. 9. Producers will be able to apply for 2023 DMC by contacting a U.S. Department of Agriculture Service Center.

Producers are reminded to report any fall-seeded crops such as winter wheat or rye before the FSA annual reporting deadline of Nov. 15 on form FSA-578. There currently is not an established reporting deadline for cover crops as of this publication date, but we invite those producers with cover crops to report this information also. Stay in contact with the local ofce should a deadline be established for benet by the Risk Management Agency.

USDA has made available $20 million in cost-share assistance to help agricultural producers in Kentucky, Minnesota, South Dakota and surrounding areas to rebuild storage facilities damaged by devastating natural disaster events in 2021 and 2022. This assistance will help producers who were hit by disasters and are currently struggling with a lack of available grain storage.

This assistance will be designed to help producers affected by the December 2021 tornadoes that passed through eleven counties in Kentucky as well as producers in Minnesota and South Dakota affected by the derechos (severe thunderstorms and straight-line winds) that swept through these states in May and July.

Similar to other USDA cost-share programs, USDA anticipates that the funds announced will cover 75% of the eligible expenses associated with building grain storage capacity or purchasing equipment such as grain baggers for a producer’s own use or for a shared-cost arrangement among a group of producers who want to use a common facility.

The program will be primarily focused on supporting producers or

groups of producers in their efforts to build new storage capacity in eligible areas where there is a shortage of local grain storage. Details on the program and the process to seek cost share will be available in a future notice, but USDA also has an existing Farm Storage Facility Loan Program that can immediately provide low-interest nancing.

Through proactive communications and outreach, USDA will keep producers and stakeholders informed as program eligibility and application and implementation details are made available in the coming weeks.

As we move into the colder months in the Midwest, keep in mind that the Livestock Indemnity Program provides assistance for livestock deaths in excess of normal mortality caused by adverse weather, disease and attacks by animals reintroduced into the wild by the federal government or protected by federal law.

For disease losses, FSA county committees can accept veterinarian certications. For 2022 livestock losses, a notice must be led within 30 calendar days of when the loss is rst apparent. The following supporting documentation must also be provided to the local FSA ofce no later than 60 calendar days after the end of the calendar year in which the eligible loss condition occurred.

– Proof of death documentation.

– Copy of grower’s contracts.

– Proof of normal mortality documentation.

USDA has established normal mortality rates for each type and weight

range of eligible livestock. These established percentages reect losses that are considered expected or typical under normal conditions. In addition to ling a notice of loss, an application for payment must be submitted by March 1, 2023.

Livestock inventory records are necessary in the event of a natural disaster, so remember to keep them updated. To participate in livestock disaster assistance programs, veriable documentation of death losses resulting from an eligible adverse weather event must be provided and a notice of loss must be submitted to the local FSA ofce within 30 calendar days of when the loss of livestock is apparent. For grazing or feed losses, a notice of loss must be submitted to the local FSA ofce within 30 calendar days of when the loss is apparent; documentation and receipts should be maintained.

All pertinent information regarding livestock inventory records should be kept, including documentation of the number, kind, type and weight range of livestock; and beginning inventory supported by birth recordings or purchase receipts.

For more information, contact the local county USDA Service Center or visit fsa.usda.gov.

Farm Service Agency is an Equal Opportunity Lender. Complaints about discrimination should be sent to: Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., 20250. Visit www.fsa.usda.gov for necessary application forms and updates on USDA programs

My favorite month

October has to be one of my favorite months of the year. It is a month full of energy, excitement, stress, colors and peace wrapped up in 31 days. October is a month of both closures and new beginnings. It is an adventure awaiting every morning when I pop out of bed.

Take the weather, for example. The weather vane on top of the old hip roof barn is getting dizzy from the shifting winds. It is like watching a tennis match between the seasons, and we are the net. The frigid northwest winds start the match with an opening serve of freezing temperatures bringing a shrieking halt to the growing seasons. Blankets wrapped around my tomato plants can’t keep the killing temperatures at bay. My garden is ofcially done. Next year, I’ll know to put out the plants a bit earlier if I want to have ripe tomatoes in the fall. The end of June is pushing the limits on our growing season up here.

It was quite a shock to wake up one of these cold mornings to nd snow covering the yard. But, I have to remember we do live in Minnesota, home of the Hal-

loween blizzard of 1991 when 2-feet of snow fell. It also snowed this same week two years ago when we had our sale. Fortunately, this snow melted by noon, and we knew we had limited time before the snow would return and stay until next year. These cold morning temperatures are nudging me to start pulling out the winter gear from summer storage.

All of a sudden, the weather vane spun around with a blistering return volley of warm southerly winds as summer tried to stay in control for a bit longer. Sweatshirts and stocking caps were shed as daytime temperatures rose. It was a second chance for us to wrap up our outside jobs with warm hands. The tarps on our calf domes have all been folded and stored away. I pulled out the tote with all the calf blankets and jackets to keep our new replacements snuggly warm on cold winter days.

I’ve noticed our recent newborn calves are already dressed for cold weather. The last calf born is so fuzzy with a wavy thick coat of hair twisted in cowlicks across her poll and body. She is so cute and yet fashionably

dressed for the weather ahead. Here’s something to ponder. When her dam was bred nine month earlier, it was springtime and her gestation period was during the hot summer months. How did she know she would need a thick coat of hair when she was born? Just asking.

Thinking Out Loud

This second chance at getting ready for winter around the farm has been a welcome reprieve. Austin was able to plant a rye cover crop over the barren soybean elds to hold the top soil in place during the windy days. This is one the new ideas he brought home to upgrade our cropping operation. He had a couple of small cropping experiment projects around the farm this summer. I’m looking forward to hearing the nal take on how these new ideas are working. It is different than how we’ve done things, but there is room for everyone to learn new things and apply this knowledge.

By Natalie Schmitt Columnist

October is one of the few months where you can dress for all four seasons of the year in four weeks. We went from shorts and T-shirts to stocking hats and winter gloves in a matter of a few days. I take it as a personal challenge to see how long we can hold off before we turn on the furnace. I cheat by baking on those really cold days, but when the temps dropped to the teens, that was it for me. I turned on the furnace to take the chill out of the house. Then, the winds shifted and summer returned. I refuse to turn the air conditioner back on. I’ll let the warm air help to warm up the house.

I did notice the fan in the tractor cab quit working on a consistent basis when I was chopping corn stalks. The sun warmed up the cab to the point where I wanted to run the air conditioner for a bit. Instead, I had to settle for the side windows being cracked and hopefully catching a cross breeze. Once in a while, I noticed the fan would kick on when I hit a pivot track a bit too fast and jarred it into operation, sending a cooling breeze around the cab. We’ll need to get that xed before winter. I’ll add it to our growing to-do list.

I can cross two things off my list. The whipping winds have cleared all the trees of their colorful leaves and scattered them across the yard. The general rule around here is if you make a mess, you clean up your mess. Since the winds made the mess, they are cleaning it up by swirling leaves and corn stalk debris across the yard and pushing the trash into the cleared corn elds surrounding our farm. The wind is returning the organic matter back to the soil. I’ll have to touch it up a bit where some leaves were caught in the hedge row. Because the trees are clear of their leaves, I can also get the rain gutters cleaned and maybe hang up some Christmas lights while it is warm outside. The only downside of letting the wind help with my jobs is all the dirt swirling around. It is difcult to wash windows until things settle down. Oh well, a job for another time.

I guess the best part about it being October is the dust and cobwebs collecting at my front door are now considered Halloween decorations to welcome trick or treaters. I just need to add a few colorful mums and pumpkins to nish the look.

As their four children pursue dairy careers off the family farm, Natalie and Mark are starting a new adventure of milking registered Holsteins just because they like good cows on their farm north of Rice, Minnesota.

Fairy tales, part two

Our fair season was truly one to remember. In addition to the tales of Daphne and Daisy and Monika and Galadriel, which I shared in the rst chapter of this column, there were several other moments worth memorializing.

Dan placed the classes well enough and delivered his reasons well enough to take 10th place overall. As one of his dairy judging coaches, I saw rst-hand how hard he worked on improving his reasons this summer and couldn’t be more proud of his success.

I also saw how hard all of the 4-H’ers on our county’s dairy judging team worked this summer. I shouldn’t have been surprised – but I was a little – that Dan’s teammates did well. With one teammate placing fourth overall, another 12th, and another 22nd, Dan’s team placed rst in the contest. They also placed rst in oral reasons, an incredible feat in its own right.

By

When one door opens, another closes. This was Daphne’s rst year as a full-edged 4-H’er, but it was our nieces’ last year. Hailey and Kallie have been showing our cows through the 4-H lease program since they were just a little older than Daphne is now. I spent the entire fair season blinking back tears whenever this nality popped into my thoughts.

Not only was it Kallie and Hailey’s last year, it was the last year for Cherry and Cobbler, our Holstein cows. Kallie showed Cherry for the past ve years; Hailey showed Cobbler, Cherry’s daughter, for the past three years. Both pairs had remarkable success during that time, both in the ring and in showmanship.

Hailey and Kallie capped the experience with two last trips to the Minnesota State Fair, two more purple ribbons, two spots in the nal round of showmanship, and lots of bittersweet, grateful tears. Taking Cherry and Cobbler’s halters off after that last trailer ride home from the state fair and watching them walk out in the yard will forever be etched in my memory.

For Dan, this was the year his luck nally turned. As Dan had so desperately hoped coming into this show season, his Milking Shorthorn 2-year-old, Glitzy, bloomed into a beautiful cow. They showed their way to the third spot in our county state fair lineup and earned two champion ribbons at the state fair: overall and net merit. Glitzy sure made up for all of Dan’s show heifers who never made it into a cow class.

Dan found success in dairy judging as well. Last year, as an intermediate, he ended up on the wrong side of a tie for 10th place overall and missed out on a ribbon. This year, he aged up to the senior division and its three sets of oral reasons. When it was all said and done,

The dairy judging team’s rst-place nish meant our season didn’t end at the state fair. The tale continued with the National 4-H Dairy Cattle Judging Contest at World Dairy Expo.

For dairy kids, the most magical place on earth isn’t Disney World; it’s World Dairy Expo. For Dan and one of his teammates (and his sisters, who got to come along to watch), our team’s berth in the national contest earned them their rst trip to Expo. It was a delight to watch them take in the sights and experiences of the cattle shows, barns, and trade show.

The national contest itself, with 10 classes and ve sets of reasons, is a daunting prospect. Dan and his teammates were nervous but composed. And when the awards were announced, they were rewarded for the extra time and effort they put into practice. Their team placed third overall and rst place in oral reasons. Dan placed 17th overall and was named an All-American. I couldn’t be more proud of Dan and his teammates.

And, so, just when we thought the tale was going to end, the page turns and the story keeps going. The team’s third-place nish earned them a spot in the international dairy judging contest at the Royal Highland Show in Scotland next summer.

In this next chapter, our fairy tales will become a lot like real life fairy tales. The International Dairy Judging Tour will include ying away to a faroff place, a foreign quest, journeying to ancient castles, and more seemingly unbelievable experiences.

I can’t write the ending yet, because there’s more to come. But, I can say that the 4-H dairy project, with all its facets, is a place where dairy kids go on fairy tale level adventures and dreams come true.

Sadie and her husband, Glen, milk 100 cows near Melrose, Minnesota. They have three children – Dan, Monika, and Daphne. Sadie also writes a blog at www. dairygoodlife.com. She can be reached at sadiefrericks@gmail.com.

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