November 12, 2022 Dairy Star - 1st section - Zone 1

DAIRY ST R

Volume 24, No. 18

“All dairy, all the time”™

November 12, 2022

Bittersweet change leads to opportunity

Talberg leaves Minnesota to farm in Wisconsin

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

ATHENS, Wis. –

Opportunities can arrive at unexpected moments, but for Ryan Talberg, a young farmer from Minnesota, the opportunity to grow his herd and acquire more land has come after a long search for the perfect place to call home.

Throughout the morning of Oct. 28, the entire Talberg family showed their emotions with the wiping of tears as they all kept busy nishing up the last chores before two cattle pots arrived to take their cattle to their new home in Athens.

After several trips back and forth leading up to the move, the day became surreal

Mursus named Minnesota Milk Producers of the Year

By Tiffany Klaphake

NEW YORK MILLS, Minn. – More than 1,350 guests have visited Mursu Dairy during the last 10 years. A brown guest book lays open at the dairy, awaiting visitors who come for a tour. It is the second book of its kind, the rst had the names of more than 1,000 guests.

People from the neighborhood, county, state, country and around the world have made their way to Mursu Dairy to see the innovation of this small dairy farm near New York Mills. But now in addition to vast visitors, Mursu Dairy has been named the 2022 Minnesota Milk Producers of the Year.

for Talberg as he nished morning milking.

“This has been my home for almost my entire life; this has been my herd’s home for the last seven years,” Talberg said. “I wish I had an opportunity to stay, but with being landlocked, high land prices and neighbors with far deeper pocketbooks, this was my only option to grow and make my dream work. Out there I have room to grow not only my herd but maybe someday raise a family on the farm too.”

For the last seven years, Talberg has lived in Freeport, Minnesota, with his parents, Dan and Stephanie

Talberg, to pursue his dream of running a dairy farm. Talberg said they have been more than supportive since

the beginning, having dairy farmed themselves until 2001 when they dispersed the herd.

“I’ve been looking for a

Leaving the barn door open

Tammy serve on the Otter Tail County American Dairy Association. Jeremy serves on the West Central Holstein Club board.

The whole Mursu family is involved in planning and implementing an annual visit to the farm by the New York Mills kindergarten class. Each year, the students come to the farm to see and learn about where milk comes from. Princess Kay of the Milky Way usually pays a visit to the school that day as well. The event started in 2014 as an idea between Tammy and daughter Bridgett, who is a kindergarten teacher.

“We

little corner of the world,”

Tammy Mursu said.

The farm is run by Tom Mursu and his wife, Tammy, and their son, Jeremy Mursu, and his wife, Vanessa.

Tom said the award is an

honor.

“We were shocked,” he said.

Minnesota Milk selects a farm from those who have been nominated. Nominees are touted as being innovative and open to the public.

Tom said Mursu Dairy has seen an uptick in interest ever since they put two robotic milking systems on their farm.

“We’ve always had an open door,” Tom said.

Tom has served on cooperative boards, and Tom and

Mursu Dairy has come a long way in the past 70 years. Tom’s parents started to rent a dairy farm near New York Mills in the mid-1950s. After a couple of years of renting, they bought the farm.

Tom’s dad, Martin, would get up every morning and milk 12 cows by hand. Then, on his

GRACE JEURISSEN/DAIRY STAR

Ryan Talberg milks cows for the last me Oct. 28 in Freeport, Minnesota. Talberg’s next milking was in a 67-stall estall barn in Athens, Wisconsin, that he purchased in September.

few years for a site to purchase because I’m landlocked here

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Tom (from le ), Tammy, Vanessa, holding Johan, Mallory and Jeremy Mursu stand by their farm near New York Mills, Minnesota. The Mursus were named the 2022 Minnesota Milk Producers of the Year.

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Dairy Prole brought to you by your North America dealers.Rabobank: High prices test demand

In its quarterly Agribusiness Review, Rabobank is forecasting Class III milk prices to trend lower through the rest of the year and into 2023. RaboResearch forecasts fourth quarter Class III prices to average $20.90 per hundredweight. U.S. milk production is expected to increase 1.4% year over year. Impressive dairy product exports are anticipated to prevent domestic supplies to become too burdensome.

Ag lender survey released

Diesel inventory at 40-year low

The U.S. supply of distillates, which includes diesel and heating oil, totaled 106.8 million barrels for the week ending Oct. 28. That’s nearly 20% below the ve-year average and the lowest on record for this time of the year.

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Volatile interest rates are the top concern for ag lenders going into 2023. According to the annual agricultural lender survey from the American Bankers Association and Farmer Mac, most ag lenders said farm protability was up this year. However, more than half of the lenders believe conditions will deteriorate next year. Eighty percent of those surveyed said land prices went up this past year, and 60% believe that trend will begin to slow down. Ination, liquidity and farm income were the top three producer concerns cited by the lenders.

Interest rate bumped another .75 basis points

“These really high summer prices limited the ability to accumulate inventories, and now we’re coming into the winter months hoping it’s not going to be a cold winter,” said Altin Kalo, chief economist, Steiner Consulting.

Federal order reform endorsed

The National Milk Producers Federation leadership has unanimously endorsed a proposal to modernize Federal Milk Marketing Orders. NMPF has led more than 100 meetings over the past year to develop these recommendations.

IDFA speaks out for dairy exporters

The International Dairy Foods Association has submitted comments to the Federal Maritime Commission in response to the rulemaking process for the Ocean Shipping Reform Act. During the pandemic and supply chain disruptions, foreign-owned ocean carriers would often

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leave U.S. ports empty and refused to negotiate shipping space to exporters. IDFA described this practice as “unacceptable” and asked for stronger rules.

Keep the railroads moving

More than 300 trade organizations signed off on a letter to President Joe Biden, asking the federal government to intervene in the dispute between railroads and its workers. The letter said the U.S. economy would see a major economic loss if a rail shutdown happens. The leadership of 12 rail unions approved a tentative agreement, but two of those unions refused to ratify the deal. Boozman seeks details on COVID relief

Congress allocated $11 billion in COVID-related support for agriculture in 2021. Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member John Boozman now wants to see how that money was spent. In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Boozman said he is satised with the way the U.S. Department of Agriculture implemented most of the programs. However, Boozman believes USDA is using the remaining funds for projects unrelated to the pandemic.

DMI looks to the future

Dairy Management Inc. CEO Barbara O’Brien outlined a new three-year strategy for the dairy checkoff program. This plan includes doing more with less, by making programs simpler and more focused. The emphasis will be on projects that can deliver the biggest impact for the dairy industry. The dairy checkoff plan also included a “doubling down” on research with a renewed investment in health and wellness.

Cub recognizes dairy checkoff program

The grocery store chain, Cub, awarded Midwest Dairy with its Vendor of the Year Award. Midwest Dairy was recognized for its June Dairy Month activities. In early June, Princess Kay of the Milky Way and Minnesota dairy ambassadors hosted an ice cream social at a recently rebuilt Cub in Minneapolis after it had been damaged due to civil unrest.

HSUS to participate in COP27 Cli-

mate

Change Conference

For the rst time, the United Nations Climate Change Conference will consider food systems and the impact on the climate. The Humane Society of

the United States is hosting three events during the conference in Egypt, promoting a transition away from animal proteins. The animal rights activist group claims a shift to plant-based diets can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the food system by nearly 50%.

Kraft launches NotCheese

A non-dairy version of the familiar Kraft cheese singles will be rolled out in 2023. Kraft NotCheese is made from coconut oil, modied starch, water and chickpea protein and is available in American, cheddar and provolone avors. Kraft ofcials claim the plantbased product tastes, smells and melts like real dairy cheese.

MMPA contracts with Edge Co-op

The Minnesota Milk Producers Association has contracted with Wisconsinbased Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative for administrative and program services. Previously, Midwest Dairy handled the administrative duties for MMPA. Lucas Sjostrom will remain as the MMPA executive director as part of the Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative staff.

Minnesota FFA ocks to national convention

Minnesota had a large delegation in Indianapolis for the FFA convention. “We have almost 16,000 students involved in FFA and over 1,000 of them are at convention,” said Minnesota FFA interim executive director Lavyne Rada. The convention is a life-long highlight for many FFA members. “It’s one of my favorite things to watch the student’s rst time in the arena when they see blue corduroy jackets just wall to wall,” Rada said.

Trivia challenge

October Co-op Month has been recognized nationally since 1964. That answers our last trivia question. For this week’s trivia, what is the name of the youth wellness program created by dairy checkoff and the National Football League? 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.

way to his job at Wadena Silo Company, he would drop the milk off at the creamery. As Tom got more involved in the farm, the cow numbers slowly increased.

By the mid-2000s, Tom was milking 50 cows in the 36-stall tiestall barn. In 2012, the Mursus talked about improvements.

“That got to be too labor intensive so something had to change,” Tom said.

Their solution was to build a new barn and purchase two Lely robotic milking units. Construction started for the project in fall 2012 and was completed in June 2013. Today, the Mursus milk around 145 cows.

“Those rst years, we had a lot of people come to visit,” Tom said. “It did not take long to ll the guest book Tammy had set out.”

The Mursus farm 500 acres of owned and rented land. They harvest dry corn, silage corn and high-moisture corn. They raise their replacements and forages.

“It was an excellent year for forage,” Tom said.

Jeremy farms full time with his dad and is in charge of robot maintenance, taking care of the cows, breeding and helping with eldwork. He has been farming full time since winter 2008.

When Jeremy graduated high school, he went to Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Fergus Falls. While there, he took a course in taxidermy and then did taxidermy work for the next two years. He then pursued a degree in elementary education.

While Jeremy was student teaching in fall 2008, he realized that was not the career for him. Since then, Jeremy has been farming with his dad. Vanessa cares for their two children and helps when she can, especially in preparation for the kindergarten visit.

Tammy helps on the farm by feeding the calves and does the bookwork. The calves are housed in the original barn that is more than 100 years old.

Tom and Tammy’s son, Trent, is a welder in Detroit Lakes. Both Bridgett

and Trent come to the farm to help at various times of the year.

Martin, 93, comes to the farm every week day.

Of Tom and Tammy’s 11 grandchildren, those who are old enough to join 4-H lease animals from Tom and Tammy and show at the county fair.

Tom and Jeremy are working with an estate planning attorney to transition the farm to Jeremy.

“I think exibility is the way to go,” Tom said.

The exibility is also why the Mursus decided to go with robotic milking in the rst place. Because they are a small farm, they do not have any employees and wanted to have the exibility to get other things done around the farm and off the farm. They never expected to have so much attention after putting in the robots. Almost immediately, the Mursus started to welcome visitors to see the robots.

“Robots are pretty common now, but when we rst got them, it was a new thing,” Tom said.

Word spread about the new technology and soon friends, friends of friends, neighbors, community members and church groups were coming to the dairy.

Tammy keeps the guest book in the ofce of the barn, and it contains names of people from around the world. One memorable guest was a woman from Malaysia, who was living in New York City to attend college and made her way to Mursu Dairy. She came to New York Mills with some friends who had family in the area.

“She didn’t know the difference between a hay eld and a corn eld,” Tom said. “We let her feed a calf; that was an experience for her.”

The Mursus said she learned a lot while visiting Minnesota and left an impact they will not soon forget. Tammy said they helped her see the good of the American farm.

“She came to realize that farmers do take good care of their animals, and in turn, the cows take care of us,” Tammy said.

TIFFANY KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Jeremy Mursu checks the computer to see how cows are performing Nov. 2 at the Mursu farm near New York Mills, Minnesota. Jeremy is the third genera on of Mursus to dairy farm.

at my parents’ place, and I don’t have enough acreage to accommodate my herd,” Talberg said.

Talberg began farming at the age of 17 and had a longing to raise his own registered Holsteins.

“I found a picture of my dad’s cows when I was in the fourth grade, and I knew immediately that I wanted to raise dairy cattle,” he said. “I keep that photo in the milkhouse as a reminder to myself of how far I’ve

come.”

That photo sparked a passion in Talberg that gave him the drive to pursue dairy in any way possible, from participating in dairy knowledge bowl, attending the National 4-H Dairy Conference and purchasing his own herd.

Talberg also made connections with industry professionals for guidance. He credits Jim Salfer from the University of Minnesota for keeping his hopes high in times of volatile milk prices and providing insight on grants and advice on nancing through the Minnesota Dairy Initiative.

In 2013, Talberg purchased his rst three cows from Art Stumpf of Pierz, Minnesota. Then in 2015, Talberg’s parents purchased 15 head from Mark and Natalie Schmitt of Rice, Minnesota. Talberg bought his parents out a few years later.

Talberg said the Schmitts have been close friends and mentors for him from the beginning, even arriving at the farm the evening of Oct. 26 to say goodbye and toast Talberg’s future in the dairy industry.

Once Talberg established his herd, the next step was to slowly grow. In Minnesota, he milked in a 35-stall tiestall barn on his parents’ farm and had 15 tillable acres to use toward feeding his herd.

As he looked for a possible farm to purchase, Talberg said he wanted a turnkey operation and something that was beautiful to look at. For him, the farm needed to have the ability to invite technology as he hopes to implement a robotic milking system.

On Sept. 16, Talberg visited the farm in Athens and felt a connection with the farm and the previous owners. Talberg’s offer was accepted, and by Oct. 13, he closed on the farm.

The site includes a calf barn, 67-stall tiestall barn, heifer barn, machine shed, enough storage for feed and double the tillable acreage he had in Minnesota.

“I have more acreage to feed my cows,” Talberg said. “With the additional acreage and current feed prices, I won’t have to purchase as much feed, which will help lower my costs now that I have a mortgage to pay for.”

Talberg said he will miss the companionship he has in Freeport. Having made friends with neighbors and area farm families, he is leaving most of his dairy connections in Minnesota.

“It’s scary to basically be starting new, but like I’ve been telling everyone, I’m only a phone call away,” he said.

Though Talberg smiled as he talked about the future of his herd,

WHY IS IT BETTER?

he said he had few hours of sleep during the week leading up to the move because he had nerves that echoed fear of the unknown. Talberg said the change is scary, but he knows this was the right choice for his herd and himself. When he stepped foot on his new place in Athens, a sense of peace and home welcomed him into his next chapter. His milk will now be sent to Mullins Cheese in Mosinee.

“I’m slightly elevated on my new site,” Talberg said. “I wanted a site that, when you drive by, it’s picturesque. I drive down the road and think, ‘Wow, this is mine.’”

For Talberg, turning on the vacuum pump in the barn for the last time in Minnesota made him reect on the many memories and growing pains he has had on the farm. Remembering the rst time milking 10 Holsteins he purchased to start his herd, he laughed.

“The rst time I turned on the pump in the barn, the power went out,” Talberg said. “I’ve had my ups and downs, but I’ve always found a way to make it work.”

As the rst truck left with a portion of the herd, the family watched as the future approached. Talberg, though grateful for his dairy career in Minnesota, is ready to take the next step.

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR

Ryan Talberg’s new farm site offers him opportunity to grow and improve his herd near Athens, Wisconsin. Though nervous for this change, his rst milkings went well.

Diorama display wins national championship

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

FARLEY, Iowa – Looking at photos of Doug Simon and Dan Hansen’s dairy farm, one may nd it hard to believe the farm is not real but instead a diorama display on a 1/64th scale.

In fact, the farm is so realistic that it won the national championship in its

Detailed dairy

class Nov. 5 at the 45th annual National Farm Toy Show hosted by the National Farm Toy Museum in Dyersville.

Although it was a thrill to be named champions, both Simon and Hansen said they had an excellent chance of winning that day.

“We were both condant that we were going to come home with a trophy,” Hansen said.

Simon agreed.

“It was the amount of time we put into it,” he said. “When we were putting the whole display together, both of us kept saying that it was going to be really hard for somebody to beat this because it was pretty amazing seeing it all come together. What we ended up with was pretty cool.”

Simon and Hansen used weekends and any spare time for about a year and a half to create their masterpiece. Hansen worked from his home in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and Simon from his home in Farley.

“I built the equipment for the display,” Hansen said. “Doug did all the scenery and weathering stuff – putting manure in places, dirt and dust on the equipment and grass and gravel on the display board. We used each other’s talents within the hobby to do our own parts. Then a few parts we collaborated on and did together.”

A 1/64th scale robo c barn was part of Dan Hansen and Doug Simon’s diorama display Nov. 5 at the Na onal Farm Toy Show compe on in Dyersville, Iowa. The replica barn is loosely based on the barn at Farnear Holsteins, owned by Simon’s two uncles.

Nothing on the display was simply purchased and placed. The farm equipment and some of the tractors were designed by Dan and then 3D printed by him. A few tractors began as Ertl, a replica toy line, tractors but were sandblasted and deconstructed down to the shell and then rebuilt and painted.

“Dairy cows in the barn are Ertl cows, but each one of them has been custom painted (by Simon) with differ-

Dan Hansen (le ) and Doug Simon receive the na onal championship trophy Nov. 5 at the Na onal Farm Toy Show in Dyersville, Iowa. Their 8-by-8 foot diorama display of an en re dairy farm won the 1/64th class at the contest.

ent markings because no two cows are alike,” Simon said. “Some of them are replicated off of show cows that my family shows competitively. The calves and the heifers, all the animals, were custom painted.”

For the contest, the display base had to be 8 feet by 8 feet, but materials used could be almost anything. Simon and Hansen were meticulous in their methods.

“Everything, even the littlest of

things and accessories, we either weathered or detailed or made it custom,” Simon said.

Some of the feed in the display was made from actual feed.

“I would occasionally take a bag of distillers or soybean meal or corn gluten pellets, and Doug and I used a small coffee grinder to make it even ner,” Hansen said. “It still had the color and smell

Turn to TOY FARM | Page 9

PHOTO SUBMITTED

“For the feed in the mangers and the alleyways, there’s a blended turf that they use in railroad hobbies that looks like a ground cover,” Simon said. “It had the color variation of cattle feed. Within the hobby world, there’s a vast variety of products available to buy for making a display.”

Both Simon and Hansen have competed diorama display contests separately, but this was the rst Simon-Hansen collaboration. The partnership all began with a text.

“Doug sent me a text one day and asked if I had ever wanted to build a display for the national competition,” Hansen said. “I was hauling manure at the time, and I said yes. That was about a year and a half ago.”

Simon and Hansen grew up going to farm toy shows and became friends after meeting at one of them.

Simon now works for a trucking company, but he helps on a dairy farm, Farnear Holsteins, near Farley that is owned by his two uncles. The robotic dairy barn in the display is loosely based on their barn.

“My dad was a milk hauler for 35 years, so I grew up riding with him in the milk truck, going to all these different farms,” Simon said. “My mom worked for Ertl Toys nearby in Dyersville for a number of years. For birthdays or holidays, I would get toy tractors or farm and country playsets with every-

thing you need to create a farm scene. That would get my imagination going.”

Because Dyersville was only a few miles away, Simon also had easy access to the national toy shows.

“I saw all the display contests, and I got ideas,” he said.

Simon started creating scenes of his own. It seems his whole childhood was a rehearsal for building diorama displays.

Meanwhile, Hansen was growing up in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, with his own interest in farm toys and replicas being honed.

“I grew up on the farm here at home, but the majority of my life I’ve worked at Brossard Dairy, a 450-cow dairy down

the road from me,” Hansen said. “This past year I started hauling cattle feed, mainly in the Midwest, so I’ve always had a connection to agriculture and farming since I was a little kid.”

Hansen’s dad owned a small equipment repair business and worked on tractors, various equipment and semis for farmers as well as hauled grain and hay .

“I’m more equipment focused from seeing tractors and equipment coming in and out of the yard,” Hansen said. “On top of that, I never had video games. It was always just toy tractors.”

His parents liked the farm toy shows and brought him every year to local ones as well as

the national show in Iowa.

“As I grew older, I got more into the hobby and wanted to change things,” Hansen said. “I’d take a tractor out of the package and, for example, if it didn’t have duals on it and I wanted more tires on it, I just glued more tires to it. From there, it progressed. If I wanted something that Ertl didn’t make, I would try to build it myself.”

As Simon and Hansen worked on their display, they received help from friends in the hobby world and beyond. Some helped build a few pieces, one friend loaned them shop space for putting the whole display together and another let them use his enclosed wagon to haul the main part of the display from the shop to the competition.

“We’ve had a few different people playing a hand in this,” Hansen said.

Family and friends came to the competition to cheer them on.

Simon and Hansen spent ve hours reassembling their display Nov. 4 for the judging that would take place by a panel later that day. They were competing against three other displays in their class. There were two other classes, a 1/16th class and a youth class.

The winners were not announced until Saturday, but the wait was worth it for Simon and Hansen as they heard themselves declared national champions.

“Doug and I looked at each other and gave each other a hug and a really hard high ve,” Hansen said.

Both felt a sense of accomplishment.

“We had been working on it for so long, basically calling each other about it or life in general every day,” Simon said. “It was pretty rewarding to see it come full circle.”

Hansen agreed.

“For two guys like us, who have gone to shows as long as we have and have seen so many winning displays, to actually leave with a win was awesome,” he said.

Simon and Hansen said they will now take a break from building displays, but neither is ready to say goodbye to the hobby.

“We’ve got some ideas in the works,” Simon said.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

An overhead view of Dan Hansen and Doug Simon’s en re diorama measuring 8 feet by 8 feet shows the detail used to cra it. Hansen and Simon used weekends and spare me for a year and a half to construct the display from scratch.

Passing the farm onto the next generation

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

Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part feature regarding farm transitions. In the previous issue of Dairy Star, we gave examples of challenges that occur during farm transitions. Here we present information for success.

Today’s farm families have more resources and places to turn for advice when planning a transition to the next generation. The help that is available, through extension services, colleges and universities, private rms and more, is often more personalized and leads families through the process.

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 transitions.

Meyer said walking families through the process, beginning to end, is better than tossing information at families and expecting them to apply it.

“Then the family leaves more confused than when they walked in because all we did was throw a bunch of options at them and didn’t help them through it,” he said.

Meyer said the process should include all family members and help the family establish clear goals.

“What should always drive the transition are your goals,” he said. “You also need to involve the off-farm siblings to the extent that they feel like they are included. It’s fair that they have part of that initial conversation. They might not get exactly what they want, but at least they had a chance to be part of the process.”

Meyer said farm transitions are more complex than most business transitions because they involve family members’ rooted emotions.

“We need to work through all the emotional and family dynamics before we ever worry about if it’s a (limited liability company),” Meyer said.

Helping farm families successfully transition is important to Jim Molenaar as well. For the past 41 years, Molenaar 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, Molenaar also went through a farm transition himself and is a farm advocate for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

After looking for programs that could best help, Molenaar attended courses offered by Dave Goeller at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who had developed a successful program to guide farmers through transitions. With Goeller’s design in mind, Molenaar now partners with Megan Roberts from

the Southern Minnesota Center of Agriculture to offer free seminars.

“We team teach what I call a marriage encounter for farm families,” Molenaar said. “We’ve been doing this for farm succession for ve or six years.”

The seminars begin on a Friday night and then continue on Saturday.

“We try to get as many people of the farm family as we can into the room, and we go through a process that they can use to reach their own conclusions,” Molenaar said. “No two farms are the same. Each farm has its own unique challenges and ideas.”

The seminars are offered during the winter. During the sessions, Molenaar and Roberts ask questions that foster collaboration and goal setting. Legal and tax aspects of a transition are addressed as well.

“The very rst question we ask in our seminar is whether or not you want your farm to continue after your lifetime,” Molenaar said. “If the answer is no, then it’s pretty easy. All we need is a will, but if you do want it to continue, then the communication, expectations and what’s fair and what’s equal becomes more challenging.”

Molenaar said labor is the easiest portion of a transition. The most difcult is management. Families must discuss both, such as what would be fair compensation for the labor and when should the next generation become owners versus employees.

“The actual decision making of a farm is difcult to turn over,” Molenaar said. “Do I take off my manager hat and put on my mentor-teacher hat? If the older generation is able to let go of the reins and let the younger generation come in and implement things and get an operating interest, it’s huge.”

To bring the transitioning farm family to agreement, setting common goals is key.

“What does the family want their farm business to look like 30 years from now?” Molenaar said. “It’s a compromise like with anything else. It can work well if the older generation is willing to let go a little and there isn’t too much debt. Then, it’s really a matter of putting the puzzle together and deciding what the family wants to accomplish.”

Three of Molenaar and Robert’s seminars are already planned for winter 2023 in Minnesota: Feb. 4-5 in Mankato, March 10-11 in St. Cloud and March 31 through April 1 in Mahnomen.

Registration will soon be available at z.umn. edu/farmtransition. The website also offers tools and tips for planning a farm transition. Those with questions about the seminars can also email Molenaar at jmolenaar6@gmail.com.

“The seminars are really helpful if people take

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

the time to do it,” Molenaar said.

The University of WisconsinMadison also offers webinars and workbooks at farms.extension.wisc. edu.

Although each family has an individual situation and set of needs, when plans that were successful in the past are shared with families planning transitions today, the information can help those families create their own plans.

For example, one family of six children came up with their transition plan when the children were nearing adulthood. The farm was changed to a business corporation. Mom and Dad held almost all shares with each child receiving one share. Those who wanted to make the farm their profession received more and more shares from Mom and Dad’s shares through sweat equity and time. If the other children wanted to sell their shares back to the farm, they could, but the sale was nal. As time went on and the older generation neared retirement, the two children who farmed had worked their way up to being equal owners with their parents, thereby having an equal say in decisions.

Such a plan may not work for every family. But, knowing a variety of plans that have worked gives other families a place to start when brainstorming their own plans. Since specialists, such as Molenaar and Meyer, have discussed many farm-transition plans with families, getting advice from specialists means families have access to more ideas.

Attorney Shayna W. Borakove, of Borakove Osman LLC in Middleton, Wisconsin, has more than 14 years of experience as a farm continuation

practice leader at her rm.

She agreed getting advice is important.

“You don’t know what you don’t know,” Borakove said. “The outcome of planning one’s own farm transition without the advice and counsel of their attorney, certied public accountant, nancial advisor and/or other farm transition advisor would be about as predictable as a game of Plinko. With the advice and counsel of (a specialist), the client can understand the potential consequences of a plan and make better, more objective decisions.”

Borakove also helps families clarify their vision and set goals.

“To prepare, rst the family should ask themselves, if there were no rules, no taxes, no restrictions or judgment of any kind, what would we want to happen with the farm if we couldn’t make the decision?” she said. “Second, having a sense of the time horizon as to when a transition could or should happen, from the farm owner’s perspective as well as the farm successor’s perspective, would be helpful.”

Advisors agreed that planning, inclusion and communication are key.

“Farms that do the planning are much more likely to have a successful farm transition than those that do not plan,” Molenaar said. “It doesn’t guarantee success, but it improves the odds.”

I have used the ADGA ITP 02 APCS. I have also used the same test day samples to test for pregnancy in my does, to save a step during breeding season. Which is your favorite and why? I have only ever used the one test type, but have always been very satis ed with it.

How does testing with DHIA bene t your dairy operation? It is a wonderful aid in the monitoring of the health of our herd. The original purpose of the DHIR testing was to be able to test for and treat mastitis and tracking susceptible cows/ goats. It is also excellent for tracking who your most productive goats are. ADGA and DHIA work hand-in-hand to compile an annual list of top 10 goats for each bred, top 10 in total production, top 10 in protein production and top 10 in butterfat production. We have been fortunate to have two does that have made it on the preliminary list this year from last year’s production.

Tell us about your farm. We are a small hobby farm that strives to breed high quality Nigerian Dwarves that are productive and have excellent longevity. We also aim to produce goats that have a wonderful base temperament. We are an ADGA Plus herd, which means we participate in Linear Appraisal, DHIR and DNA testing.

Linear Appraisal is the evaluation of the goats conformation. We DNA type our goats so parentage can be proven but also we hope to test all of our goats to see which type of Alpha Casein gene they carry. We use all of these programs to try to breed the best goats we possibly can.

Shayna W. Borakove Borakove Osman LLC.

“It is a wonderful aid in the

Eva Edwards

Handmade offers a special touch

Pearl Ice Cream Parlor continues its legacy

By Abby Wiedmeyer abby.w@dairystar.com

LA CROSSE, Wis.

– Just like Wisconsin is famous for its cheese, LaCrosse is famous for the Pearl Ice Cream Parlor’s homemade ice cream.

“Our business is based in Wisconsin, which is America’s Dairyland for a reason,” Azia Thelemann said.

Thelemann manages the ice cream parlor with her sister, Dani Peterslie. The two have been operating the shop since 2016 when they took it over from their parents, TJ and Michelle Peterslie.

Thelemann said the ice cream parlor is successful because of the work of local farmers.

“Our business would not be here without the dairy industry,” Thelemann said. “Once one begins evaluating how many products we use that

contain dairy, it becomes evident what a signicant part of our business it is.”

Pearl Ice Cream Parlor uses Wisconsin dairy in its homemade ice cream. They also use butter in their homemade fudge,

and the connecting coffee shop has many drinks on the menu featuring milk. As supplies became scarce, and shopping became a challenge during the heart of the coronavirus pandemic, Thelemann said

she realized even more the importance of what they are offering.

“This is true now more than ever, as the last couple of years have shown the difculty with sourcing particular food items for

many businesses countrywide,” she said.

That was not always the case.

Pearl Ice Cream Parlor did not always make its own ice cream, but after being open a few years, TJ’s father, Oscar, decided they should.

Oscar, took an ice creammaking course from the University of WisconsinMadison and ew to Texas for training and to purchase the business’s rst batch freezer. Since then, Pearl Ice Cream Parlor has been making its own ice cream on-site, and the business has been growing year by year.

Pearl Ice Cream Parlor uses an ice cream mix with weekly deliveries ranging from 300-400 gallons in the summer. A vintage, commercial ice cream machine is used to create more than 20 avors of ice cream that is hand-scooped.

“By September, production really drops off,” Thelemann said. “But, we are making the sweet stuff all year long.”

sin. Thelemann and her sister, Dani Peterslie, manage the ice cream shop.

The ice cream shop also uses butter in the homemade fudge that is sold in its adjacent confectionery. Each batch of fudge requires 2 pounds of butter. On a typical day of making fudge, the shop uses up to 16 pounds of butter.

Even with the adjoining coffee shop and confectionery, the bulk of the business is still making and selling ice cream to customers in the ice cream parlor. Ice cream is also sold by the pint and half-gallon for those who want to enjoy the treat from home. The mix is also frozen into hard ice cream without any avors or variegates that is later used to create hand-spun malts and shakes.

Pearl Ice Cream Parlor also bakes its wafe cones.

Thelemann said they are the topselling item.

“We roll cones daily,” Thelemann said. “They never stick around for very long.”

Thelemann said Pearl Ice Cream Parlor started as a way to attract families to Pearl Street. The parlor replaced a former bar and is located in one of the oldest historic commercial buildings in the city of La Crosse.

In keeping with the historic theme of the building, the interior emulates a 1930’s style ice cream parlor. They used items found from closed ice cream parlors across the Midwest and other antiques to create the ambiance in the space.

While the core avors are always on the menu, seasonal and never-before-seen avors do make an appearance.

“Any time we do a new avor drop, that sends folks in to try the latest usually in addition to their regular favorite that they always

have to get,” Thelemann said.

Except for 2020, the business has been growing each year and in turn increasing the amount of dairy products being used.

“Our current plans are to maximize the volume of ice cream that we can produce and sell from our location while still providing an old-fashioned ice cream parlor experience to each one of our customers,” Thelemann said.

Thelemann said there has not been a signicant change in customers’ purchasing trends since her ownership in 2016, although there is one popular dairy-free option on the menu.

“Customers are interested in new and interesting avors of ice cream, especially as the seasons change, but the classics are still in high demand as well,” she said. “From what we can tell, there will always be a spot in the freezer and room after dinner for an ice cream treat.”

ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR

Danielle Koch, an employee at the Pearl Ice Cream Parlor, makes a batch of ice cream Oct. 6. All of the ice cream made at the parlor uses Wisconsin dairy products.

r o m O u r S i d eFrom Our Side

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

Steve Killian Blair, Wisconsin Trempealeau County 75 cows

Hunting whitetails is my favorite by far because there’s a challenge. I hunt with a bow and gun, and I get out for the muzzleloader season when I can.

What are some traditions you honor during hunting season? Growing up, we’d always get together for opening day and then have smoked venison bologna for Thanksgiving. Now, all of my kids enjoy hunting. For me, farming, nature and hunting brings you a lot closer to God and the circle of life. I don’t go there just to kill a deer. It’s good to go back and calm your mind and get closer to what we are.

How do you t hunting into your daily schedule on the farm? You go when you can. If you can’t go, you can’t go. I can always work later. It has to be a commitment and something you enjoy. We are lucky to have land right here, and my wife helps me milk so I can get out there.

How do you have your meat processed? What is your favorite wild game to eat and how do you prepare it? We love tenderloin. We process all of our own, and my wife does a lot of canning. It’s been a blessing that our second son, Christian, got right into skinning and cleaning the meat when he started hunting. He’s also a taxidermist. We do like to get hot dogs and bologna made. My wife also makes incredible turkey noodle soup. When it’s prepared right, I like any sort of wild game, but venison is my favorite.

Tell us about your most memorable hunt. One of the largest deer I ever shot was a few years back. It was around Thanksgiving, and I was frustrated because I didn't have a lot of time to hunt that year. I decided around 3 p.m. that day to go for a walk, and I ended up shooting my biggest buck I ever shot that night. We had been watching him on the trail cameras, and we had him named Crosby after the Packers football kicker. He was a big 10-pointer with about a 20-inch spread. I came up and told the kids to come help me get this doe out of the woods, and they went nuts when they saw I got Crosby.

Tell us about your farm. We own around 370 acres of which 270 is tillable with pasture. We raise almost all of our own crops of corn and hay and milk around 75 head. We raise close to 100 heifers. I farm with my wife, Amanda, and our kids, Sam, Christian, Olivia, Bo and Jack. Christian does a lot of food plots, and we also plan some of our crops around hunting. We make sure hay is cut in a timely manner so there's regrowth. Christian planted 1 acre of soybeans that’s saved for the deer and leaves some corn standing. He does all that work for all of us.

Richard Christensen Frazee, Minnesota Becker County 44 cows

What are some traditions you honor during hunting season?

Tyler Mlsna Cashton, Wisconsin Monroe County 100 cows

What hunting seasons do you participate in, and why do you enjoy these particular seasons? Rie and muzzleloading season for deer. I like being out in the woods, seeing things and hearing things. I really enjoy the peace and quiet and the anticipation of something big coming through.

What are some traditions you honor during hunting season? After we hunt, we cut up that night and talk about the hunt and how many mistakes were made. We cut up every day. I hunt with my family and most of us live in different houses on the same farm. I have one brother who comes down from Fargo, North Dakota, and a grandson who comes from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, and a sister from Frazee who hunts with us. There are about nine of us on 320 acres.

How do you t hunting into your daily schedule on the farm? We milk earlier and do all the chores earlier in the morning. I usually quit around 4 in the afternoon and head home to start evening chores.

How do you have your meat processed? What is your favorite wild game to eat and how do you prepare it? We cut our deer into steaks or hamburger, and we mix pork with it. I really like venison and the sausage rings we make.

Tell us about your most memorable hunt. One year, we had 10 deer hanging in the garage. The biggest deer I ever shot was a 12-point buck with a 28-inch spread. I shot that one 15-20 years ago. I was up in my stand, and it was 75 yards away ghting with another buck, which was just about as big.

Tell us about your farm. I farm with my grandson, Blake, and we milk 44 cows. We both milk in the morning, and he milks at night. We both do chores together as well. We farm 120 acres of cropland, and we plant corn for silage and alfalfa for hay. We milk in a stanchion barn, and our milk goes to Bongards through the Perham Cooperative Creamery Association.

What hunting seasons do you participate in, and why do you enjoy these particular seasons? I bow and gun hunt deer mostly. I enjoy turkey hunting, too, but do not have as much time to get out for it. I enjoy it because it is peaceful out there, and you can do your own thinking. Now that the kids are getting into it, it adds to the fun.

What are some traditions you honor during hunting season? We get up early for chores on opening day so we can get out to the woods early. Family and friends who visit come out to get the barn smell on them before going out. We usually get together at someone’s shop to eat and talk about how it is going. I hunt with my kids until they get their rst deer just because I want to be there for that.

How do you t hunting into your daily schedule on the farm? When we get caught up with crops, we have a little more time to get out. Once the time change happens, we can usually sneak out in the evening before chores. Sometimes we bend the chore schedule a little bit to give us more time in the woods.

How do you have your meat processed? What is your favorite wild game to eat and how do you prepare it? I take the deer to the butcher. In the past, I would get together with a group of guys who all had processing equipment, and we would make everything from sausage to brats and burgers. My favorite wild game to eat is actually sh. Ice shing is my jam if I can get the time to go.

Tell us about your most memorable hunt. My daughter’s rst deer. She was 9 years old and with me for the youth hunt. We made a plan of how it would go if we saw a deer. When the time came, she followed that plan exactly how I told her to. She pulled up, took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. That deer just dropped.

Tell us about your farm. We raise dairy and beef. We fatten out all of our steers as well. Between my parents, Mark and Bridget, and my brothers, Eric and Charlie, we run about 500 acres and 500 head total. Eric has ve kids who are a great help along with my three kids as well.

What hunting seasons do you participate in, and why do you enjoy these particular seasons?

Park Rapids, Minnesota Hubbard County 50 cows

What hunting seasons do you participate in, and why do you enjoy these particular seasons? I hunt mostly deer, but we will hunt grouse once in a while when we have time. It’s something I have always done and have been doing it since I was around 10 years old. It’s a break from farming and an excuse to waste a good day. I enjoy getting together with the guys I hunt with. There is probably eight of us in the group. I’m the oldest hunter but not the oldest person. I like to walk in the woods on our land usually with my grandson when we grouse hunt. We hunt squirrels as well.

What are some traditions you honor during hunting season? We all get together during the day some time, and they usually stop over for coffee. They know what time breakfast is on and when there is coffee. My wife, Diane, usually feeds them pie, cookies and mufns. They usually stop over after the morning hunts. I hunt with two guys from Michigan. One has been hunting with me for 40 years. He worked with my cousin in the mines and started hunting then, and then, his brother started coming along as well.

How do you t hunting into your daily schedule on the farm? I usually don’t stand in the morning. This year I went out with my grand-

Jeremy Arceneau Elrosa, Minnesota

daughter at 7 a.m. She came up at 7:40 a.m., and I stayed out. Then, I saw a couple deer in the woods and shot one of them this year. At night, I might feed a little earlier and then go out and sit. I usually hunt during the days and late afternoons depending on what is going on at the farm.

How do you have your meat processed? What is your favorite wild game to eat and how do you prepare it? We cut the meat up ourselves and cut it up at my son’s shop. We will can all our trim meat. My son makes sausage, summer sausage, hot dogs and brats. I like antelope. My cousin shot several of them, and he brought some meat back. We fried some fresh steaks and chops; that was really good. It is kind of like eating lamb. It’s tender, juicy and has a ne texture.

Tell us about your most memorable hunt. One time, there was about nine of us that were going to make a drive. We were in the eld, and a doe and pair of fawns came out of the woods. We started shooting, and they ran in circles and then went back into the woods. There were 50-60 rounds shot, and nobody got anything. Another one was when we were going in on a drive and were walking through some balsam trees on a trail. There was a doe and a couple fawns, and it looked like a Christmas card. I shot the doe, and she fell. Then, we hollered to everybody else that we were full and done for the year.

Tell us about your farm. I farm here with my brother, Dean, and we milk 50 cows in a tiestall barn. We also farm 300 acres, and we plant corn, oat and alfalfa. I’ve been milking since I was around 12 years old and am 61 years old now. We ship our milk to Land O’Lakes, but it goes to Bongards in Perham, Minnesota.

County 44 cows

Stearns

What hunting seasons do you participate in, and why do you enjoy these particular seasons? I just do the shotgun season for deer. I like the peace and quiet. Plus, you don’t have to worry about anything because the fall eldwork is done so, I am not as busy. I also do waterfowl for ducks and geese a couple times a year. I turkey hunt in the spring as well.

What are some traditions you honor during hunting season? I always go deer hunting with my brothers, Josh, Brent and Cole. We have a group text and gure out where we will all sit. If we get a deer, we cut it up ourselves and throw it in the freezer. We take it in later in the winter to a local meat shop. Our stands are usually a quarter to one-half mile apart. We usually work together to clean each deer. My cousin and brothers hunt geese with me as well. Usually, we do morning hunts for waterfowl, and after chores, we go turkey hunting. I enjoy turkey hunting in the spring. We usually breast them out and then smoke them.

How do you t hunting into your daily schedule on the farm? I usually milk early so I don’t have to adjust my schedule too much. I

am at the farm at 3:30 a.m. My dad, Fred, does the evening chores for me. When he goes mule deer hunting in Montana with my brothers, I stay back and do all the chores. I try to get out about four days during the shotgun season. I plan to go out the rst Saturday and Sunday, do my work during the week and get back out for the second Saturday and Sunday.

How do you have your meat processed? What is your favorite wild game to eat and how do you prepare it? We cut up our deer ourselves. Last year, we made hotdogs, pepper and honey barbecue sticks, and sausage out of the deer. My favorite to eat is the sticks. Each year, we mix pork in as well. My brothers made turkey burgers out of some of their turkeys, and those were really good.

Tell us about your most memorable hunt. When we were younger, we always drove or did pushes, and the adrenaline rush of what is going to come is really exciting. I have been 10 yards away when a deer ran by. One year, when we were doing a drive, I stepped on a big tom wild turkey. It was so close I had scratches on my cheek from the feathers when it ew away.

Tell us about your farm. I farm with my dad, Fred. We milk 44 cows in a tiestall barn. We farm 500 acres of land. We plant corn, soybean, oat and alfalfa. We ship our milk to Bongards.

Gary Hensel (pictured with granddaughter DeVyana)

Breeding Prole

Kyles breed for long-lasting, high-component Jerseys, Holsteins

Dave and Hayden Kyle Kylecrest Holsteins and Jerseys Elkhorn, Wisconsin 150 cows total; 130 milking

Describe your facilities and list your breeding management team. Cows are housed in a sand-bedded freestall barn. Half of it is sized for Holsteins, and the other half is sized for Jerseys. Dave is in charge of breeding decisions for the Holsteins while Hayden oversees breeding decisions for the Jerseys. Cows are milked twice a day in a double-6 parallel parlor. Dry cows are housed in two barns – one for faroff cows and one for close-up cows that includes a calving area. Both dry cow barns feature a row of free stalls, a bedding pack and access to pasture. Calves are housed in the old dairy barn in individual pens. They leave the farm at 3 months to be custom raised and return as springing heifers. We used to raise all of our heifers when we just had Holsteins, but we never had enough of our own feed. Our breeding management team includes the two of us and our veterinarian, Dr. Dave Chapman, from Stateline Veterinary Services. Dave is a really good t for us. We also consult with friends in the industry on their thoughts about certain bulls and what certain farms are using instead of just looking at sire proofs. I’ll also ask the appraiser or classier what bulls I should stay away from or what bulls he

likes the 2-year-olds from. But on the ipside, those cows might not milk. We have a big consulting team and get a lot of input. We do feel like every mating is pretty important. It’s an investment both in that offspring and how it will affect future matings.

What is your current pregnancy rate? It is 26%. It has been as high as 37% and as low as 19% in the last year for the whole herd. Jerseys on average run 4% higher than Holsteins. We house Holsteins for a few people – show cows – and these cows are not bred back as quickly. They are either kept open longer for showing purposes or have difculty in getting bred back. These cows can skew our numbers lower, and we struggled a lot with that this past summer.

What is your reproduction program? Do you use a synchronization program? How do you get animals pregnant? We do not use a synchronization program. We work with our vet and do a herd check every two weeks. We use Lutalyse on any cows over 65 days in milk who have not yet shown a heat. We’ll breed off the Lutalyse shot only if we see them in heat. We do most of the milking and know our cows well. If a cow comes in the parlor rst instead of last or looks at us funny, we know something’s up. Therefore, we might not breed off a standing visual heat and use other visual indicators instead.

In our last herd check, nine cows were checked, and seven were pregnant. That’s pretty standard. We have good luck getting cows pregnant and nd that the open ones are the kind that are always open. Our average days to rst service is 80 days, and average days to pregnancy is 122 days. Jerseys are so inquisitive and help with heat detection. They’re good at picking up cows in heat; whereas, we have Holsteins that never show heat.

Describe your breeding philosophy Dave: We try to breed for balanced cows, but our breeding philosophies are different. I want long-lasting, troublefree, healthy cows, but I never used to look at that until Hayden came back home. I always wanted super fancy show cows. I almost bred too much for extreme type, and in the long run, it probably hurt me some. You learn more from making mistakes. I had some great cows that didn’t live as long as they should. They were too big and did not breed back as easy. I wanted to get more milk too. It’s hard to nd a bull we like that’s polled. If we found one, we would use him a lot. But we’re not going to give up what we’re looking for in a bull in exchange for a polled animal.

Hayden: My breeding philosophy changed since rst getting into Jerseys. When I came home from college, I leaned more toward my dad’s philosophy of breeding for typier cows. I didn’t look at components or milk that much. I bred for very high udders and very good type as I gured you can feed for milk. Cows with a lot of type can also be longer lasting. Our Jerseys are larger than a lot of other Jerseys. Our breeding philosophy was always to breed for the bigger-framed cow. We bought our rst 20 to 50 Jerseys through the eyes of a Holstein breeder. We wanted them bigger and wider. Now, we’re going for a more average-sized cow. I was up to 50 Jerseys when I noticed my heifers weren’t getting pregnant. If an animal isn’t bred, we look at who the sire and dam are. We started paying attention

to daughter pregnancy rate, which was new at that time when we noticed heifers out of the same bull taking four or ve times to get pregnant. Now I look for bulls with a higher DPR. If an animal is hard to breed as a heifer, then she’s going to be like that as a cow. Cows that calve in more often and easier are the goal. I probably don’t put as much emphasis on type as my dad does. I try to use a handful of good bulls. We’ll go back and use a bull if we see success with him. We’ll use a bull a bunch and then stop and wait to see his daughters come up. If he produces a really good, consistent group of daughters, we’ll use him again.

What guidelines do you follow to reach the goals for your breeding program? Dave: We genomic test, which is probably as good of a report card as you can get. Of course environment and management inuence whether an animal is going to achieve her potential or not. Classifying is the other guideline I follow. It’s an opportunity to get an outside opinion on if we’re breeding the right kind. DHI testing is also a really good tool. You can nd reproduction numbers quick and know if you’re going in the right direction. When you have milking daughters out of certain bulls, you know if those sires are good or not. We also follow cow families.

Hayden: I was big into genomics in 2017 but have since backed off a little. I don’t care if it’s the best bull in the breed. If I can’t get cows pregnant, what good is that to me? I try to use all the tools on the table. I don’t lean just on proven bulls, production records or genomics. Instead, I take it all into consideration. Some cows are not the highest milkers, but they look so nice and are healthy and trouble-free. Health traits are so under appreciated. You might not get as much milk during the rst and second lactations, but I’d rather have a cow around three more lactations and get more daughters out of her. I try to

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

Dave Kyle and his son, Hayden, milk 130 cows on their farm, Kylecrest Holsteins and Jerseys, near Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Dave manages the breeding of the Holsteins while Hayden manages the breeding of the Jerseys.

using anything but Udder Comfort. It works the best!”

Tim ‘Cooner’ Coon, Copake, NY. He is the 2022 recipient of the prestigious AC ‘Whitie’ Thomson Memorial Award.

“We use it on fresh cows and show cows, any swelling. We wouldn’t use it if it didn’t work. Steve Vail, herdsman, EdgeView Elite Dairy II, Copake, NY, owned by Ken Main and Kenny Joe Manion. Steve and Cooner work with great cows like 2-time

“We use a lot of Udder Comfort. We lay it on the fresh cows after every milking for a week after calving.”

Brandon and Kim Grewe, Cumberland, WI. Their homebred Valley Gem Atlas Malt is now 3-time WDE Grand Champion Guernsey (2019, 2021, 2022).

OtherselectedcommentsatWorldDairyExpo: “You bet we use Udder Comfort!”

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use the highest genomic bulls out there, but I don’t want to give up what my dad and I have built just for a number.

What are the top traits you look for in breeding your dairy herd and how has this changed since you started farming? Hayden: I like cheese merit with an emphasis on type, components and health. Within those traits, I specically look at combined fat and protein, somatic cell count and udder. I place less emphasis on DPR now. I am 30% higher than the breed average for DPR at this point. Your breeding philosophy should change or adapt as your herd adapts. I can get away with not doing shots because I’m a big believer in good-settling bulls that match my cow. I don’t try to breed for super big cows. We are also big into udder composite.

Dave: I am focused on A2 genetics, and probably 85% of all our heifers (Holstein and Jersey) are A2. I don’t currently have a market for A2 milk, but I want to be in the position for it if the opportunity arises. You have to have your eyes down the road a bit. That’s why A2 is part of our breeding selection. I’m big into butterfat and concentrate on percentage fat, not pounds. I like cows with big butterfat records. I also look at health traits a lot now. My type traits are no longer too extreme. I want fancy, balanced cows, but I shoot for less extreme type. I had beautiful cows from the bull Atwood, but I couldn’t get his daughters pregnant because he had a negative 4 DPR. I’m a visual guy who likes to look at the linear on a bull. We treat our cows like individuals. I don’t want to make a problem worse.

What are certain traits you try to avoid? We avoid using bulls with a negative DPR and high somatic cell count. We also stay away from bulls

that are not positive for percentage fat and protein. We do not use bulls with negative components. We also will not use a bad-uddered bull, a low foot angle bull or a high-type bull with bad production numbers.

Describe the ideal cow for your herd. Our ideal cow is the invisible cow – one that is problem-free and low maintenance. She is a cow we can be proud of and enjoy seeing in the barn. You don’t have to think about her all the time because she does her job, comes into natural heat and breeds right back. You have to breed for type too. We want cows that are scored Very Good or Excellent. We have a whole herd of cows that we’re proud of, and people respect the job we do. We have consistency, and it’s hard to nd a bad cow in our herd. In breeding the ideal Jersey, we shoot for 90 to 100 pounds combined fat and protein. We want high components. It’s better to

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ship less water. We also feel that higher component cows are healthier than big milk cows.

What role does genetics have in reaching the goals of your farm? Genetics are pretty important to us. We use genomics, real production and conrmation in helping reach our goals. If we see a nice-looking heifer, we’ll place bets on who the sire is. We’re able to enjoy genetics and have fun with it. It’s almost like a contest. If you shoot for numbers, it’s not as much fun. The milking part is secondary. We both enjoy the genetics of the dairy farm more than anything. Figuring out how we can both breed the best cow that we both will like is a fun challenge.

What percentage of your herd is bred to sexed, conventional and beef semen? Sexed is 30%, conventional 10%, beef 50% and embryos 10%. Our top cows get sexed semen, and the bottom 50% are bred to beef. A select few problem breeders get conventional semen. Hayden: I don’t want Jersey bull calves. I also don’t want a daughter out of a hard breeder. Even my best cows are only bred twice to sexed semen, and after that, I’m switching over to beef semen.

What is your conception rate? How does this differ with different types of semen? We don’t have conception numbers for the individual types of semen. Overall, our Holsteins average 2.1 services per conception, and our Jerseys average 1.8 services per conception. We try to use high-conception bulls while also thinking about calf livability.

What is the greatest lesson you have learned through your breeding program? Dave: I am a big believer in learning from mistakes and admitting if I am wrong. Perhaps we didn’t do enough research on a bull. You always have to evolve and change, be willing to admit you made a mistake and be willing to change. I like to go to shows and see the daughters of different bulls. That’s a good learning opportunity.

Hayden: It’s always a gamble with genetics, but I haven’t gone back on anything. You can’t focus on one thing too much when breeding cows. Even if you think it’s going to be a perfect cross, there’s always that chance it won’t. That’s how genetics are. I don’t get as anxious about bull selection as I used to. You have to look at the big picture and enjoy the victories. Don’t get too

tied up on specic numbers and benchmarks. Stick with your gut. Nothing’s guaranteed.

What is the age of your heifers at rst service? Our heifers are tail chalked every day. They are put in the breeding program at 12 months of age, and we hope to have them bred by 14 months. However, our custom raiser bases it more off size than actual age.

How does your heifer inventory affect your breeding program? You can’t keep all your heifers, so if we’re going to raise a heifer, she has to be a good one. If we’re low on replacements, we can easily go buy a cow. We need about 25 heifers a year of each breed and are raising about 35 of each breed for a total of 70 heifers. Our cull rate in the herd is 20%, so we do have a cushion with the number of replacements we are raising. We try not to calve our heifers from Christmas to the end of February because it is harder on the calves and the udders. We breed 100% of our heifers to conventional semen. For the Jerseys, we might switch to top genomics getting sexed semen and the rest getting beef. We’re going to breed fewer cows to sexed semen in the future and breed more heifers to sexed instead.

Tell us about your farm. We have shifted from Holsteins to Jerseys in recent years, and our herd is now about 75% Jersey and 25% Holstein. Hayden went to the University of WisconsinMadison Farm and Industry Short Course with plans of returning to the farm and milking Holsteins like his dad. A friend of Hayden’s milked Jerseys, and as Hayden learned they require less manure storage, have higher feed efciency, higher components and higher pregnancy rates, he decided to go with Jerseys instead. We started with two and bought adjustable free stalls from a farm that was selling out and continued to expand the portion of the Jersey herd from there. We also own a coffee shop and may consider going down the route of ag tourism in the future. Our coffee shop customers love when they hear we have a farm. We have hosted our county’s dairy breakfast three times and are involved in the community. We also do a lot of tours. We don’t want to grow bigger but instead get better and keep the labor inhouse. We don’t want to have a lot of employees. It’s not just about numbers to us, and the cows are not just cows to us. The cows are part of our family. It’s fun seeing them grow up.

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

Jerseys are now the majority breed at Kylecrest Holsteins and Jerseys near Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Hayden Kyle introduced Jerseys to the farm when he returned home from college, and they now make up 75% of the herd.

JD S680 2012, 2WD, Duals, 2624 hrs., 1790 Sep. hrs., #548165 ......... $147,500

JD S670 2013, PRWD, Duals, 2700 hrs., 1700 Sep. hrs., #550092....... $152,000

JD S660 2014, 2WD, Duals, 1976 hrs., 1408 Sep. hrs., #547013 ......... $175,000

JD S660 2012, 2WD, Duals, 1878 hrs., 900 Sep. hrs., #539380 ........... $185,000

JD S660 2014, PRWD, Duals, 1555 hrs., 1181 Sep. hrs., #532082....... $189,500

JD S680 2015, PRWD, Singles, 2441 hrs., 1762 Sep. hrs., #190078 .... $191,000

JD S680 2014, PRWD, Duals, 2248 hrs., 1668 Sep. hrs., #531966....... $195,000

Case IH 8240 2017, 2WD, Duals, 1733 hrs., 1318 Sep. hrs., #191428 $212,000

JD S680 2017, PRWD, Duals, 1507 hrs., 1053 Sep. hrs., #273646....... $249,900

JD S670 2015, PRWD, Duals, 1712 hrs., 905 Sep. hrs., #550309......... $259,000

JD S770 2018, PRWD, Duals, 1999 hrs., 1458 Sep. hrs., #549678....... $259,900

JD S780 2018, PRWD, Singles, 2489 hrs., 1686 Sep. hrs., #549036 .... $274,900

JD S690 2017, PRWD, Duals, 1429 hrs., 1187 Sep. hrs., #549457....... $294,000

JD S780 2018, 2WD, Duals, 1123 hrs., 700 Sep. hrs., #531873 ........... $319,900

JD S780 2018, PRWD, Duals, 1618 hrs., 1131 Sep. hrs., #276170....... $329,900

JD S790 2018, 2WD, Duals, 1264 hrs., 915 Sep. hrs., #273973 ........... $334,900

JD S790 2018, PRWD, Duals, 1564 hrs., 1177 Sep. hrs., #549847....... $339,900

JD S780 2019, PRWD, Duals, 1559 hrs., 1131 Sep. hrs., #549680....... $339,900

JD S790 2018, PRWD, Duals, 1488 hrs., 1092 Sep. hrs., #549845....... $349,900

JD S790 2018, PRWD, Duals, 1695 hrs., 1214 Sep. hrs., #543163....... $352,900

JD S790 2019, PRWD, Duals, 1390 hrs., 1110 Sep. hrs., #532032....... $359,000

JD S790 2018, PRWD, Singles, 1314 hrs., 949 Sep. hrs., #549846 ...... $359,900

JD S780 2019, PRWD, Duals, 1178 hrs., 920 Sep. hrs., #548046......... $360,000

JD S780 2019, PRWD, Floaters, 1278 hrs., 889 Sep. hrs., #275242 ..... $369,900

JD S780 2018, PRWD, Duals, 1060 hrs., 773 Sep. hrs., #523885......... $379,000

JD S780 2019, PRWD, Floaters, 1559 hrs., 1058 Sep. hrs., #549682 ... $379,900

JD S780 2019, PRWD, Floaters, 1161 hrs., 830 Sep. hrs., #549684 ..... $384,900

JD S780 2020, PRWD, Duals, 1267 hrs., #531610 .............................. $385,000

JD S780 2019, PRWD, Duals, 876 hrs., 725 Sep. hrs., #542133........... $389,900

JD S780 2020, PRWD, Duals, 1123 hrs., 800 Sep. hrs., #191082......... $390,000

JD S790 2019, PRWD, Duals, 1280 hrs., 709 Sep. hrs., #550196......... $396,500

JD S780 2020, PRWD, Duals, 1440 hrs., 990 Sep. hrs., #550187......... $407,500

JD S790 2020, PRWD, Duals, 1151 hrs., 865 Sep. hrs., #275917......... $429,900

JD S780 2020, PRWD, Singles, 833 hrs., 640 Sep. hrs., #532517 ........ $439,000

JD S780 2020, PRWD, Duals, 880 hrs., 634 Sep. hrs., #531647 .......... $439,900 JD S790 2020, PRWD, Duals, 1100 hrs., 685 Sep. hrs., #274274......... $449,900 JD S780 2020, PRWD, Duals, 1021 hrs., 596 Sep. hrs., #188309......... $454,900

S780 2020, PRWD, Duals, 951 hrs., 539 Sep. hrs., #188459........... $454,900

S780 2020, PRWD, Duals, 1031 hrs., 626 Sep. hrs., #188458......... $454,900

IH 8250 2021, 2WD, Tracks, 400 hrs., 400 Sep. hrs., #550253

2021, PRWD, Singles, 682 hrs., 345 Sep. hrs., #190866

IOWA

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

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

WISCONSIN

Advanced Dairy Spring Valley, WI 715-772-3201

Ederer Dairy Supply Plain, WI 608-546-3713

DeLaval Dairy Service Kaukauna, WI 866-335-2825

Sharing the experience

Olsons provide Jersey calf for Dairy Star giveaway

By Tiffany Klaphake tiffany.k@dairystar.com

ATWATER, Minn. – For many years now, sisters Kim and Katie Olson have been leasing their animals to 4-H’ers of Meeker, Kandiyohi, Stearns and Chippewa counties. The sisters take pride, as 4-H alums, in helping youth gain experience in showing and learning more about the dairy industry.

“We’ve done a lot of leasing to 4-H kids over the years,” Kim said.

Kim and Katie, of Oat Hill Dairy near Atwater, are providing a Jersey calf named Oat Hill Voucher Opal for Dairy Star’s Great Christmas Giveaway for youth in the 17 and under category.

Oat Hill Voucher Opal comes from a long line of show cattle.

“We chose this calf because we have a lot of 4-H kids lease from this cow family,” Kim said.

Today, the farm is owned by Kim Olson and Gordon Larson. The farm has one full-time employee and four part-time employees. Kim and her husband, Ken Housman, live on the dairy. Katie lives a few miles away.

Katie is in charge of the cows 60 days prior to calving and the calves until they are 6 months. Once the calves are 6 months, they are moved to the heifer shed and are then under Kim’s care. Kim breeds all the animals. Once the heifers are conrmed pregnant, they are moved to Larson’s farm site until 60 days before they calve, which is when they return to being cared for by Katie.

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

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

Professional Dairy Services Arlington, WI 608-635-0267

Redeker Dairy Equipment Brandon, WI 920-346-5579

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

MINNESOTA & SOUTH

DAKOTA

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

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

The 120-cow herd is milked with an AMS Galaxy robotic milking system, which was installed in March.

“We are still working on getting everything trained, including us,” Kim said.

Oat Hill Dairy uses activity monitors for heat detection. They also have cameras in all the calving and heifer barns that are connected to an app, which they each have installed on their phones.

SD

TIFFANY KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Oat Hill Voucher Opal is a Jersey calf selected as Dairy Star’s Great Christmas Giveaway calf. The winner will be announced in the Dec. 24 issue of Dairy Star.

“Kim

All the animals at Oat Hill Dairy are registered. When making mating decisions, Kim focuses on type, fat and protein.

Oat Hill Dairy is home to Jerseys, Guernseys, Red and White Holsteins and Holsteins as well as Milking Shorthorns.

Together, they show Jerseys, Guernseys and some Red and White Holsteins. Kim owns all the Guernseys at Oat Hill Dairy, and together, Kim and Katie own the Jerseys.

Kim said she is partial to the Guernsey breed because that is what she grew up showing in 4-H. Their parents had switched to Holsteins eight years later by the time Katie was active in 4-H.

“I purchased a Guernsey at World Dairy Expo in 2004, and now, almost all of our Guernseys all trace back to that one,” Kim said.

The sisters have exhibited at World Dairy Expo. In 2015, they sold a Jersey spring yearling that won junior champion at World Dairy Expo and then was later named supreme junior champion at The Royal Agriculture Winter Fair in

Canada that same year.

In addition to the farm, Kim is a full-time veterinarian, and Katie is full-time orist.

The farm site is where Kim and Katie grew up milking and showing cows. Their father sold the cows in 1986.

After the town’s veterinarian passed away, Kim decided she should study to become a veterinarian.

“Must have been a good choice because I am still here,” Kim said.

Katie started working at the oral shop in town while

in high school. “I got into the oral industry because of FFA,” Katie said.

Katie said she enjoyed her time in the oral shop so much she purchased the business after earning her degree in horticulture.

In the fall of 1997, the sisters started construction of an ofce building in Atwater, they moved in spring of 1998; half the building is for Katie’s oral business, and the other half is for Kim’s practice.

Then, in 2001, as a partnership between Kim, Mark Adams, and Russ and Heather Thyen, Oat Hill Dairy was founded.

“The whole partnership started because we like cows and wanted to show,” Kim said. “And, we hoped to sell good cows.”

On Oct. 13, 2001, for the rst time since their youth, cows were milked once again at the sisters’ home farm. The original barn is now the calving barn, and the freestall barn is now the dry cow barn. They built a double-4 herringbone parlor and freestall barn for the milk cows. In 2006, a new addition was added to house more cows.

The Olson sisters said they enjoyed showing and seeing young people get into showing by leasing out their animals. Katie said those feelings inspired them to donate to this year’s giveaway.

“We thought it would be a great idea to give a young person the opportunity to show or have a Jersey calf,” Katie said.

TIFFANY KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Ka e Olson kneels with Oat Hill Voucher Opal Oct. 31 at Oat Hill Dairy near Atwater, Minnesota. Oat Hill Dairy milks 120 Jerseys, Guernseys, Red and White Holsteins and Holsteins.

IOWA

ALLAMAKEE COUNTY

• K & R Feed and Grain

Dorchester

• 563-568-4513

BREMER COUNTY

• Via eld

Sumner • 563-578-3214

DELAWARE COUNTY

• Del-Clay Farm Equipment

Edgewood • 563-928-6445

• Edgewood Feed Mill Edgewood • 563-928-6405

DUBUQUE COUNTY

• Brunkan Equipment

Worthington • 563-855-2434

• CJ Beeps Equipment Farley • 563-744-5010

• Eastern Iowa Dairy Epworth • 563-876-3087

• Helle Farm Equipment Dyersville • 563-875-7154

• New Vienna Ag Automation New Vienna • 563-921-2896

• Roeder Implement

Dubuque • 563-557-1184

• Scherrmann’s Implement Dyersville • 563-875-2426

• Skip Breitbach Feeds Balltown • 563-552-2393

• Ungs Shopping Center (IAS) Luxemburg • 563-853-2455

FAYETTE COUNTY

• Via eld

Elgin • 563-426-5566 Maynard • 563-637-2285

FLOYD COUNTY

• Livestock Systems

Charles City • 641-220-5257

HOWARD COUNTY

• Farmers Win Co-op Cresco West • 563-547-3660

SIOUX COUNTY

• Sioux Dairy Equipment, Inc. Rock Valley • 712-476-5608

WINNESHIEK COUNTY

• Brynsaas Sales & Service Decorah • 563-382-4484

• Franzen Sales & Service Fort Atkinson • 563-534-2724

• Lang’s Dairy Service Decorah • 563-382-8722

MINNESOTA

BECKER COUNTY

• Adkins Equipment Inc. Detroit Lakes • 218-847-3131

BENTON COUNTY

• Farm-Rite Equipment St. Cloud • 844-262-2281

• First National Bank of MilacaGilman Of ce • 320-387-2233

• Gilman Co-op Creamery Gilman • 320-387-2770

• Midwest Machinery Sauk Rapids • 320-259-6222

BROWN COUNTY

• New Ulm Regional Vet Clinic New Ulm • 507-233-2500

CARVER COUNTY

• Bongards’ Cologne • 952-466-5521

• Lano Equipment of Norwood Norwood/Young America 952-467-2181

• Storms Welding Cologne • 952-466-3343

DAKOTA COUNTY

• Midwest Machinery North eld • 507-645-4886

• Werner Implement Vermillion • 651-437-4435

DOUGLAS COUNTY

• Midwest Machinery Alexandria • 320-763-4220

• Nelson Creamery Nelson • 320-762-0115

• Osakis Creamery Assn. 320-859-2146

• Pro Ag Farmers Co-op Gar eld • 320-834-2271

FILLMORE COUNTY

• Farmers Win Co-op

Rushford • 507-864-2161

• First Southeast Bank Harmony • 507-886-6922

• Hammell Equipment Harmony • 507-886-2255 Rushford • 507-864-2845

• Midwest Machinery Grand Meadow • 507-754-1100

GOODHUE COUNTY

• Ag Partners Farm Store

Goodhue • 651-923-4496

• Midwest Livestock Systems, LLC Zumbrota • 507-732-4673

• Midwest Machinery Cannon Falls • 507-263-4238 Wanamingo • 507-824-2256

GRANT COUNTY

• Midwest Machinery Elbow Lake • 218-685-4438

HOUSTON COUNTY

• Caledonia Haulers

Caledonia • 507-725-9000

• ESB Bank

Caledonia • 507-725-3329 Eitzen • 507-495-3321

La Crescent • 507-895-2227

• Farmers Win Co-op Caledonia • 507-725-3306 Houston • 507-896-3147

• Hammell Equipment Eitzen • 507-495-3326

• Midwest Machinery Caledonia • 507-725-7000

ISANTI COUNTY

• Midwest Machinery Princeton • 763-263-6000

KANDIYOHI COUNTY

• D&D Ag Supply & Construction Pennock • 320-599-4466

• Farm-Rite Equipment Willmar • 877-484-3211

• Midwest Machinery Stewart • 320-562-2630

MCLEOD COUNTY

• Leedstone Glencoe • 877-864-5575

• Midwest Machinery Glencoe • 320-864-5571

• Mueller Sales & Service Dairy Equipment Glencoe • 888-205-0974

MEEKER COUNTY

• Farm-Rite Equipment

Dassel • 888-679-4857

• Schlauderaff Implement Co. Litch eld • 320-693-7277

MILLE LACS COUNTY

• First National Bank of Milaca

Milaca • 320-983-3101

• Foreston Farmer’s Co-op Creamery Foreston • 320-294-5711

MORRISON COUNTY

• Central MN Credit Union Little Falls • 888-330-8482

• Lash’s Auto Pierz • 320-232-0537

• Litke’s Veterinary Service Pierz • 320-468-6666

• Midwest Machinery Little Falls • 320-632-5469

• Modern Farm Equipment Pierz • 320-468-2161

• Pierz Co-op Pierz • 320-468-6655

• Sunrise Ag Cooperative Buckman • 320-468-6433 Lastrup • 320-468-2543 Little Rock • 320-584-5147

OLMSTED COUNTY

• Ag Partners Stewartville • 507-533-4222 Lewiston • 507-523-2188

• Hammell Equipment Chat eld • 507-867-4910

OTTER TAIL COUNTY

• Bongards’ Perham • 218-346-4680

• Farmers Elevator of Fergus Falls & Henning 218-736-3301

• PCCA-Country Store Perham • 218-346-7075

• Perham Stockyards Perham • 218-346-3415

• Pro Ag Farmers Co-op in Henning 218-583-2947

• Pro Ag Farmers Co-op in Urbank 218-267-2401

PIPESTONE COUNTY

• Gorter’s Clay & Dairy Equipment Pipestone • 507-825-3271

POPE COUNTY

• Midwest Machinery Glenwood • 320-634-5151

RICE COUNTY

• Ag Partners - Agronomy Le Center • 507-357-6868

STEARNS COUNTY

• A&C Farm Service

Paynesville • 320-243-3736

• Albany Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Albany • 320-845-2801

• Arnold’s of Kimball Kimball • 320-398-3800

• Arnold’s of St. Martin St. Martin • 320-548-3285

• Arnzen Construction/St. Rosa Lumber Freeport, In St. Rosa 320-836-2284 or 1-888-276-1751

• Magni Financial Albany • 888-330-8482 Avon • 888-330-8482 Belgrade • 888-330-8482 Cold Spring • 888-330-8482 Freeport • 888-330-8482 Melrose • 888-330-8482 Paynesville • 888-330-8482 Sauk Centre • 888-330-8482

• Centre Dairy Equipment & Supply Inc. Sauk Centre • 320-352-5762 or 1-800-342-2697

• Dairyland Supply Sauk Centre 320-352-3987 or 1-800-338-6455

• Ecker Feed Service, LLC New Munich • 320-837-5800

• Elrosa Grain & Feed Elrosa • 320-697-5515

• Elrosa Lumber Elrosa • 320-697-5591

• Farm Systems Melrose 1-800-636-5581 • 1-800-247-0012

• Feed Co.

Paynesville • 320-243-3938

• Freeport State Bank Freeport • 1-800-252-9856 320-836-2126

Greenwald • 320-987-2265 New Munich • 320-837-5297 Melrose • 320-256-7208

• Hartung Sales & Service, Inc. Freeport • 320-836-2697

• Lake Henry Implement Lake Henry • 320-243-7411

• Leedstone Melrose • 800-996-3303

• Melrose Implement Inc. Melrose • 320-256-4253

• Midwest Machinery Paynesville • 320-243-7474 Sauk Centre • 320-352-6511

• Modern Farm Equipment Sauk Centre • 320-352-6543

• Nutrien Ag Solutions 320-352-6564

STEELE COUNTY

• Northland Farm Systems Owatonna • 507-451-3131

SWIFT

COUNTY

• Midwest Machinery Benson • 320-843-2610 Madison • 320-598-7575 Morris • 320-589-2011

TODD

COUNTY

• Magni Financial Grey Eagle • 888-330-8482 Long Prairie • 888-330-8482

• Farm-Rite Long Prairie • 866-514-0982

• Olson’s Custom Farm Service Staples • 218-894-2474

• Pro-Ag Farmers Co-op in Browerville Browerville • 320-594-2711

• Pro-Ag Farmers Co-op in Clarissa Clarissa • 218-756-2112

• Pro-Ag Farmers Co-op in Eagle Bend Eagle Bend • 218-738-2552

WABASHA

COUNTY

• Ag Partners Farm Store Plainview • 507-534-2531

• Beck Implement Elgin • 507-876-2122

• Leedstone Plainview • 800-548-2540

• Midwest Machinery Plainview • 507-534-3116

• Wingert Sales & Service Plainview • 507-534-2285

WADENA COUNTY

• Dairyland Equipment of Menahga Menahga • 218-564-4958

• Midwest Machinery Wadena • 218-631-2311

• Olson’s Custom Farm Service Verndale • 218-445-5500 Sebeka • 218-837-5749

WINONA COUNTY

• Elba Co-op Creamery Elba • 507-796-6571

• Lang’s Dairy Equipment Lewiston • 507-452-5532

• Lewiston Rentals and Repairs Lewiston • 507-523-3564

• Midwest Machinery St. Charles • 507-932-4030

WRIGHT COUNTY

• Hobert Sales Inc. Cokato • 320-286-6284, 1-800-820-6455

• Midwest Machinery Howard Lake • 320-543-2170

SOUTH DAKOTA

BROOKINGS COUNTY

• W.W. Tire Brookings • 605-696-7400

CODINGTON COUNTY

• Glacial Lakes Livestock Watertown • 605-886-5052

MINNEHAHA COUNTY

• Central Valley Dairy Supply Garretson • 605-467-0812

• Midwest Livestock Systems Renner • 605-274-3656

ROBERTS COUNTY

• Valley Dairy Supply Corona • 605-432-5224

No regrets

Tri-G Farm reaps benets of six years with robotic milking

By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com

DORCHESTER, Wis

– Six years ago, Bruce and Jolene Gumz and Beth Kosik were thinking they needed to change how they were managing their 72-cow dairy herd at Tri-G Farm near Dorchester if they were going to continue dairy farming.

“We were wanting to make improvements in cow comfort,” Bruce said. “At the same time, we were all getting wore out; my knees were shot. We knew we needed to make some changes to make things more efcient and easier on us physically.”

The Gumzes and Kosik started to consider their options.

“We were strongly considering robots, but when we priced a new facility, we got hit with some pretty serious sticker shock,” Jolene said. “The idea of going that far into debt at this stage in the game was pretty scary.”

The Gumzes’ and Kosik’s children are young enough that they are uncertain if any will decide to pursue a career in dairy farming.

“We wanted to make it an option for them to come back if that is what they wanted,” Jolene said. “But, we didn’t want to make it so that it became an expectation.”

Not to be deterred from pursing a plan to make dairy farming feasible for them for the long haul, the trio started considering a robotic retrot for their tiestall barn.

After that initial research, they decided to restructure their existing tiestall barn to accommodate a DeLaval robotic milking system.

“We toured a lot of barns that had different brands of robots,” Bruce said. “In the end, it came down to service. We were condent in the service we could expect from Bob’s (Dairy of Dorchester).”

That expectation of good service has been met.

“Bob’s has been phenomenal,” Bruce said. “If we have a problem that we can’t gure out or x, one call or text to the repair guy is all it takes.”

Reconguring their barn took some careful planning. The existing barn measured 36 feet by 255 feet. A 20-by-40 addition was added to house the robot itself as well as an area for an ofce.

All of the old stanchions were moved, and they took the haymow oor out to raise the barn’s ceiling up to the level of the exterior eaves and installed a false ceiling to nish the barn.

Because of the 3-foot feed alley, a conveyor delivers the feed with the use of push-button feeding. The feed rail is a exible system. The barn is scraped using a chain-driven alley scraper.

Because of their land base, the Gumzes and Kosik were not interested in expanding Turn to TRI-G

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR

Jolene and Bruce Gumz and Beth Kosik operate Tri-G Farm where they milk 61 cows with one robo c milking system near Dorchester, Wisconsin. The Gumzes and Kosik retro ed their estall barn to install the robot six years ago.

their herd and instead opted to keep their herd size capped so the milking could be handled by one robot. With using one robot, the facility was designed as a guided ow.

Six years after they began their robotic journey, the Gumzes and Kosik are milking 61 cows with one robot, and they agreed there is nothing they would change.

“We are able to get more milk from fewer cows now,” Bruce said. “Our efciency has gotten so much better, and we now have so much more information on our cows.”

In addition to the data provided by the robots, the Gumzes and Kosik also began using CowManager tags.

“What we can learn from the robots and the activity monitors have made hormone shots obsolete here,” Bruce said. “We rarely ever give Lutalyse now. Everything is bred off of natural heats.”

The goal of increased cow comfort, one of the primary goals for the Gumzes and Kosik, is one they consider accomplished.

“The barn is a completely different atmosphere these days,” Bruce said. “The cows are so much calmer, and they have so much more personality now than they did back when we milked in the tie stalls.”

All three acknowledge they see their cows differently now and nd the barn a place they enjoy spending time.

“There is just a really good vibe in the barn,” Jolene said. “It is so peaceful. The ow of the barn is very natural.”

The other goal the Gumzes and Kosik had with their retrot was bettering their own lives, and they said they have had success.

“It has really freed up our time to get other things taken care of or to give us the opportunity to get away or have some time off,” Beth said. “One person can handle chores now. It has really made us much more exible.”

The team divides up the work with Bruce and Jolene handling things in the morning and any cows that need to be bred as well as other herd health duties. Beth takes care of the afternoon cleaning and feeds the cows. The three rotate being on call for any potential issues that might arise overnight.

The trio also employs automated calf feeders to raise their calves.

“We can all take some time away without feeling guilty or feeling like we are dumping everything on someone else,” Bruce said. “I like having that ability to get away and enjoy some time off a little bit.”

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR

Feed is delivered to the cows at Tri-G Farm via an overhead conveyor. This helps accommodate the narrow 3-foot feed alley.

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR

Cows in the Tri-G herd gather in the retro ed estall barn near Dorchester, Wisconsin. A guided ow system is used to coax the cows to the robot

Why did you want to obtain your American FFA Degree?

The following individuals received their American FFA Degree and grew up on area dairy farms. More receipients will be highlighted in the next issue.

The American FFA Degree is the highest degree an FFA member can achieve. To achieve the American Degree, FFA members must show dedication to their local and state association. Members must excel in their supervised agricultural experience and show leadership qualities through community service and at their local chapter. Less than 1% of FFA members achieve their American Degree each year.

Sauder Pine Island, Minnesota University of WisconsinRiver Falls Agricultural marketing and communications

Why did you want to obtain your American FFA Degree? Ever since I was a greenhand, I’ve looked up to those who’ve attained their American FFA Degree, but to be completely honest, I never thought I could earn this achievement myself. After working for several years at my family’s farm, I came to realize that I would qualify to apply. Many of my friends at college, my parents and my FFA advisor helped me rene my application. I am grateful for their help. A big reason I wanted to attain my American FFA Degree was because of my biggest inspiration in this organization, my grandpa, Dick Sauder. He served as the Nebraska FFA president in 1948 and earned his American FFA Degree in 1950. I was so honored and excited to have him join me in Indianapolis when I received my degree.

What did you have to do to obtain your American FFA Degree? Many of the requirements of the American FFA Degree can be reached in a variety of ways depending on a student’s area of interest. Students must earn a minimum of $10,000 in their supervised agricultural experience, which could include a placement job, research project, personal business and more. For my SAE, I worked on my family’s dairy farm, feeding calves, milking cows and operating forage wagons during harvests. Other degree requirements include participating in at least 50 service hours, completing three years in agriculture education and earning the State FFA Degree. Many of my service hours were obtained by

serving in my church and volunteering as a camp counselor.

What did you participate in for FFA? I served as president, secretary and sentinel for my chapter and participated in the creed speaking, dairy judging, oriculture and ag issues contests. Some of my favorite experiences in FFA were the conferences I went to, including Washington Leadership Conference, Ag Policy Experience as well as state and region camps and national convention. I also worked in the Miracle of Birth Center at the state fair and served as a foundation ambassador during the 2019 state convention. In December 2021, I began an internship with Minnesota FFA Alumni and Supporters where I run the social media accounts, write newsletters and assist with events throughout the year.

What are your future plans? After I graduate next December, I plan to start a career in public relations or media development for a small agriculture company in southeastern Minnesota. Aside from a full-time career, I plan to be involved on my family’s dairy farm and would love to start my own photography business.

Tell us about your farm. I was raised adjacent to my family’s seventh-generation dairy, Pine-Shelter Farms, where my three uncles and cousins farm full time. My parents, sisters and I work part time where much of our time is spent together in the calf barn, milking parlor and driving tractors. Our family rst started farming in the U.S. in 1854, and our two current farm sites were purchased in 1910 and 1951. We have expanded and now milk close to 600 registered Holsteins. I love that my job is also a big part of my family’s history, and I’m eager to play a role in its future as well.

Makayla Breth St. Anthony, Minnesota Ridgewater College

Precision agriculture and agricultural business

Why did you want to obtain your American FFA Degree? I wanted to obtain my American Degree because it is the highest award a student can receive through FFA. Only about one-half of 1% of all FFA members receive their American Degree. Throughout my time with FFA, I learned to take hold of the many opportunities FFA has to offer. It is a great honor to receive the American Degree, and I am blessed to have had the support of my family, friends and the community.

What did you have to do to obtain your American FFA Degree? Every student who receives their American Degree rst needs to have their State Degree from their respective state. Our biggest requirement is to work toward our supervised agricultural experience. An SAE can be anything from working on a farm, a greenhouse, a grocery store, a butcher shop or an orchard. The list is endless. For a SAE, we need to work so many hours, spend or earn a minimum amount, or have a combination of hours and money spent and earned. We also need 50 hours of volunteer work as part of the FFA motto, “Living to serve.” An application is needed, which is later reviewed by the state along with an interview.

What did you all participate in for FFA? I participated in a variety of ca-

reer development events: nursery and landscape, meat quality and dairy quality. I also participated in parliamentary procedure, which is a leadership development event. Besides the CDEs and LDE, I was an active member in the chapter. I attended many leadership trainings and camps. My junior and senior year of high school, I was a chapter ofcer. As a freshman in college, I was a Region III ofcer.

What are your future plans? I am a crop advisor with Centra Sota Cooperative in St. Martin, Minnesota. In my role, I am looking forward to continuing to learn about the growing agriculture industry with its many moving parts. I also plan to support FFA in the future for the next generation of agriculturalists.

Tell us about your farm. I am the fourth generation on my family's dairy farm. Together, we milk and provide for our cattle. We milk 44 Holstein cows in a tiestall barn. My mom, Tammy Breth, does the majority of the milking. We grow corn for silage, grain corn, soybean, alfalfa, winter rye and occasionally oats. We also put up meadow hay. We do our own tillage, planting, cutting, raking, baling, chopping, combining and hauling with the help of a few friends and neighbors. My dad, Jerry Breth, is able to do all of our spraying as well. There is always something going on at the farm.

It takes a rugged baler with heavy-duty components to withstand the tough conditions and tight time frames of baling cornstalks. When it comes to durability and efficiency, the new Vermeer 605N Cornstalk Special baler is equipped to bale through even the toughest crop quickly and efficiently. With more heavy-duty components than its predecessor, it’s clear that the 605N Cornstalk Special offers unmatched productivity when baling cornstalks.

Amanda

Re-thinking housing systems for dairy calves

By Brad Heins

Dairy replacement feeding and management systems have undergone major evolution in the last 25 to 30 years. As herd sizes increased, individual hutches were introduced to protect calves from contaminated and overcrowded environments. Recently, some farms have begun to adapt to pair or group housing. Group or paired calf rearing offers opportunities to reduce labor and to aid in socializing calves. The maintenance of health and growth of dairy calves is important in their rst few months of life.

During fall 2020, we started a new research project at the West Central Research and Outreach Center in Morris, Minnesota, where we are comparing individual housing, group housing, pair housing and raising calves with cows on pasture in the context of calf health, behavior and welfare. Ultimately, the team will provide recommendations on the best calf rearing options for dairy farmers. One of the treatments includes raising calves on cows in our dairy system.

The overarching goal of the calf rearing project is to identify the best calf housing option to enhance positive calf welfare. The results will help improve the long-term protability and social sustainability of the dairy in-

dustry by improving its public image. Through this project, we will provide recommendations on the best calf rearing options for organic dairy producers to implement based on welfare outcomes, health benchmarks and management feasibility. The dairy industry must improve calf rearing methods to balance health and animal welfare to meet the demands of stakeholders as well as consumers.

At our 275-cow dairy in western Minnesota, calves are separated at birth from their dams, housed indoors in individual pens and fed 2 liters of colostrum per 90 pounds of body weight two times per day for two days. After that, calves are fed 10 liters (about 2.6 gallons or 10 quarts) of milk per day and are fed a calf starter beginning on the third day of age. Calves that are raised on the cow are allowed to drink as much milk as they want.

So far, 239 Holstein and crossbred calves have been born and assigned to housing treatments by birth order during four calving seasons. We are evaluating calves with a fth calving season this fall. The individual, pair and groupraised calves were introduced to a housing system at 3 days of age. Calves raised by their dam were isolated with the dam for three days and introduced to a larger group where they suckled ad libitum. All calves were weaned at 63

days (9 weeks).

Growth data for calves to 9 weeks of age are shown in the table. For all groups, calves were weekly weighed and scored for health, body condition and behavioral measurements.

The calves raised on the dam had higher weaning weight, larger heart girth, higher average daily gain and higher total gain than the individual, pair or group-housed calves. The calves raised on the dam had more calves triple their birthweight (56.5%) than the other calf groups (10.7%, 9.3% and 18.3%, respectively). That being said, the individual, pair and group-housed calves had superior growth and had average

daily gains of more than 2 pounds.

Health scores indicated no difference in health or hygiene for calf groups, but the sample size was small. The results from this study indicate there are growth advantages to raising dairy calves with their dams during the pre-weaning period. We will be exploring behavior, health, economics and weaning strategies as well of calves raised in these housing systems.

The rst calves born in fall 2020 are starting to calve for the rst time, so we are evaluating their behavior in the milking parlor as well as milk production. Therefore, there is lots more to come. Stay tuned.

Table: Growth measures for calves by treatment

Variable Individual Pair Group Calves raised on cows

Number of calves 56 64 60 69

Weaning weight (lb) 219a 223a 227a 251b

Weaning hip height (cm) 97.8 97.9 98.7 98.6

Weaning heart girth (in) 43.7a 44a 44.4a 45.4b

Average daily gain (lb/d) 2.2a 2.2a 2.2a 2.6b

Total gain (lb) 137a 137a 142a 167b

Tripled weight (%) 10.7a 9.1a 18.3a 56.5b

Means within a row without common superscripts are different.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Erin Royster royster@umn.edu

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

Emma Severns sever575@umn.edu 507-934-7828

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

Key takeaways from the Lameness in Ruminants Conference

By

Swartz

The Lameness in Ruminants Conference, a bi-annual international event, was held Aug. 1-5 in Bloomington, Minnesota, and drew a diverse audience of researchers, veterinarians, animal producers, hoof trimmers, students and industry representatives from around the world. Attendees gathered to embrace excellence in mobility and well-being and to learn current research and practices to help enhance ruminant hoof health along with supplemental education and knowledge through workshops.

Hoof trimming

In addressing lameness in ruminants, the foot is an ideal starting point. Hoof health, particularly the methodologies for hoof trimming and lesion treatment, were prominent topics of discussion throughout the conference. When performed well, hoof trimming can play a large role in the prevention of lameness in dairy cattle on commercial dairy farms. In the rst pre-conference workshop, Karl Burgi and Lee Erickson of the Save Cows Network/ Comfort Hoof Care Inc., shared their expertise and revisited the fundamentals of functional and therapeutic hoof trimming using the ve step method or Dutch method. The rst three steps in this methodology focus on prevention. These include:

– The removal of excessive length on all hooves. Bovine hooves grow roughly 2 inches per year, but not all housing environments allow for even and/or sufcient wear of this new growth.

– Ensuring proper balance between the outside and inside heels of each rear foot. The goal of this step is to create a at and equal surface for weight bearing.

– Modeling of the rear lateral and front medial hooves. In modeling, we aim to remove horn from the typical location for sole ulcers and avoid the toe area to prevent removing any of the weight bearing inside wall. With this step, the environment and management on farms may inuence the amount of modeling required. Herds with more wear, such as from sand, walking or 3-4 milkings/day, require less modeling. Herds with less wear, such as from the use of organic bedding, slippery oors, concrete surfaces or with dry cows, require more modeling.

Steps four and ve of the ve step method focus on treatment steps for cows that are lame. Sole ulcers and white line lesions are two non-infectious lesion types encountered in herds that can only be treated with the therapeutic trimming steps. When present, these lesions require the lowering of the heel to reduce weight bearing on the painful hoof to improve recovery. Blocks should be applied to the healthy hoof to further reduce weight bearing and improve healing. Step ve involves removal of loose horn but ensuring that the horn on the affected hoof is preserved.

Improving communication between stakeholders

Another key takeaway from the conference was that to most effectively elicit changes in on-farm lameness, farmers and other stakeholders must work collaboratively. Communication is a powerful tool, when wielded correctly, in driving the adoption and implementation of different lameness monitoring, prevention and treatment strategies on farms. Addressing hoof and leg health should be a team effort centered around the farmer, with hoof trimmers, veterinarians, researchers and other stakeholders playing a strong supporting role.

Dr. Nick Bell, from the United Kingdom, and Dr. Erin Royster, of the University of Minnesota, facilitated a workshop on improving

communication skills between off-farm and onfarm stakeholders that supports client motivation. As they noted, communication should start by listening to farmers to hear their problems and not by immediately jumping in with solutions. Motivational interviewing utilizes unconditionally positive coaching to allow farmers to take the lead in identifying potential problems on their farm and be an active part in developing a solution. Within the structure of this method, stakeholders play a role in assisting the farmer in nding the purpose to make a benecial change, working within the means and agenda of the farmer while serving as a resource to the farmer.

Producer meetings, in which peer-to-peer learning is promoted, offer another method by which communication on lameness issues within the dairy industry can be improved. An example of this approach presented during the conference is the Danish stable school. These stable schools provide an opportunity for peer-to-peer learning centered around a common goal that lameness reduction is important to all participants despite differences in participants’ farms and backgrounds.

Empowerment through common learning and the consciousness, respect and trust exhibited between peers can serve as a strong motivator for change in lameness management strategies on farm.

Lameness is a complex, multifactorial issue within the dairy industry that, unsurprisingly, cannot be solved overnight nor with a single approach. The success of the Lameness in Ruminants Conference and the knowledge that the diverse group of stakeholders in attendance took away will go on to serve the dairy industry and drive further improvement in the foot and leg health of our production animals.

Gerard Cramer, Sair Ordaz, Elise Shepley and Drew

Montana Krueger

Arlingon, Minnesota

Went home to farm

Why did you want to obtain your American FFA Degree? FFA has always been a huge part of who I am. In high school, I was involved in our school’s FFA chapter. After high school, when I was eligible to receive my American Degree, I wanted to get it as the nal piece of my FFA career.

What did you have to do to obtain your American FFA Degree? Throughout FFA, there are multiple levels of degrees that members can earn when meeting the requirements. The requirements include involvement, community service and a supervised agricultural experience project. For my SAE, I worked on my family’s dairy farm. After receiving enough hours on each requirement, I applied for my degree.

What did you participate in for FFA? I was a chapter ofcer for three years as well as participating in career development experiences. I competed at both the region and state level in both dairy judging and milk quality. I also attended national convention and helped with chapter activities.

What are your future plans? After graduating high school in 2021, I chose not to go to college and instead continued to work on my family’s dairy farm. I have also started a small herd of llamas and meat goats. I plan to continue working alongside my grandpa and dad before partnering with my dad one day. I also plan to continue to expand my herd of goats.

Tell us about your farm. My family milks 100 Holstein cows. We milk twice a day in a tiestall barn. The top half of our herd is bred to sexed Holstein heifers, and the bottom is bred to Angus. My dad, younger brother and I do all of the A.I. We keep our calves and raise the heifers for replacements. Our steers are kept and fed out before being sent to market. We also grow our feed.

Rachel Rynda Montgomery, Minnesota University of Wisconsin-River Falls Agribusiness with a minor in dairy science

Why did you want to obtain your American FFA Degree?

My rst year of FFA, our dairy judging team won the Minnesota state FFA contest. We then judged at the national FFA convention, and since then, it has been a goal of mine. My dad also got his American Degree, and I thought it would cool for me to get it as well. My friend, Jack, and I started doing everything together, and we were on all the same judging and ofcer teams together. We wanted to do it together as a nal hurrah. We are the rst Tri-City United FFA students to receive this degree.

What did you have to do to obtain your American FFA Degree? I had to rst get my Greenhand Degree, Chapter Degree and State Degree. I also needed to do a supervised agricultural experience, which I did on my parent’s dairy farm for the dairy placement category. Members need to have so many work hours, volunteer hours and agriculture classroom hours.

What did you participate in for FFA? I started with dairy judging, but I was active at the chapter level participating in corn drive, thank a farm meal, fruit sales, FFA week activities, breakfasts, baby animal day and alumni tractor pull. I also competed with the farm business management career development experience in addition to my dairy judging CDE. I was a chapter ofcer and region ofcer; I was on the state nominating committee in 2020. Now, I am active in our local FFA alumni chapter.

What are your future plans? After college, I would like to go into agriculture nance. I would like to work with farmers and help them reach their farm goals.

Tell us about your farm. I grew up on my parent’s dairy farm. We milk 40 cows and farm 450 acres of corn, soybean, wheat and alfalfa. We also raise bull calves and buy bull calves from a couple of neighbors to nish as steers. My parents, Francis and Theresa, and brothers, Issac, Noah and Levi, are all active on our farm.

Why did you want to obtain your American FFA Degree?

As a freshman in high school, I set two goals. One was to become president of our FFA chapter, and the other was to get the highest degree that I could. Less than 1% of FFA members achieve their American Degree, and I wanted to part of that 1%. It takes a lot of effort to achieve the American Degree.

What did you have to do to obtain your American FFA Degree? We have to do so many hours of classroom time with our supervised agricultural experience and volunteering. I had two SAEs, one in fruit production and the other was dairy placement. I grew 10 acres of organic aronia berries for my fruit production SAE. For my other SAE, I did research on 10 calves, one male and one female of ve breeds. I charted how often they would get sick and how much weight they would gain. I also interned with Centrol Crop Consulting.

What did you participate in for FFA? I did creed speaking my freshman year, dairy judging all four years and dairy products. I participated in the FFA band at the state FFA convention my freshman year. I was co-chair of our dairy judging team my senior year. I also did wildlife judging and started a parliamentary procedure team my senior year. I served as reporter my junior year and then was president my senior year.

What are your future plans? To graduate college and hopefully get a career as a sales representative or a liaison for an agriculture company from the business to the consumers.

Tell us about your farm. I grew up as the fourth generation of our family’s dairy farm. We milk 45 cows and farm 600 acres and also have beef animals. All of our beef gets federally inspected, and we sell through our on-farm store, Wright Family’s Market. We also have a line of show pigs and have a custom hay and straw business.

Allison Wright

Hutchinson, Minnesota South Dakota State University Agriculture communications and agriculture leadership with a minor in dairy industry, digital and social media, and agriculture business

Tim Kieffer Hastings, Minnesota Dakota County 400 cows

How did you get into farming? My dad milked cows when I was growing up, and my brother, Kevin, and I enjoyed working with cows. So, I decided that is what I wanted to do. We built our current facility in 2000, and Kevin and myself began buying some of the farm in 2007.

What are your thoughts and concerns about the dairy industry for the next year? My biggest concern is supply issues. It is becoming more difcult to get necessary parts in a timely manner.

What is a recent change you made on your farm and the reason for it? Within the last year, we started using CowManager ear tags on our heifers. It has been a huge time saver, and our pregnancy rate on our heifers has never been better.

Tell us about a skill you possess that makes dairy farming easier for you. I guess you could say I am a Jack of all trades but a master of none.

What is the best decision you have made on your farm? Several years ago, we decided to change creameries, and shortly after we switched, our old creamery fell on hard times with low milk prices and too much supply.

What are three things on the farm that you cannot live without? Cordless power tools, a big hammer and hot

water. There’s always something to x around the farm, and we had our water heater go out. I learned you cannot live without hot water.

What strategies do you use to withstand the volatile milk prices? We currently just ride out the low prices.

How do you maintain family relationships while also working together? It can be a challenge at times, but my brother and I think alike which makes things much easier.

What do you enjoy most about dairy farming? I enjoy the spring and fall work even though it sometimes feels overwhelming. I also enjoy seeing the sun rise almost every morning.

What advice would you give other dairy farmers? Always have a backup plan because things can change really fast.

What are your plans for your dairy in the next year and ve years? Just keep upgrading our facilities and equipment as needed. We plan to continue touching up on daily maintenance and potentially upgrading the parlor. We recently remodeled our calf barn, so we are looking into a new, small post-wean barn for the calves.

How do you or your family like to spend time when you are not doing chores? I spend most of my free time at my twins’, Tom and Claire’s, games or practices. I love watching them. It keeps our family busy with the kids being active in softball, baseball and lots of hockey.

TAYLOR JERDE/DAIRY STAR

Tim Kieffer stands with his two children, Tom and Claire, Oct. 21 in one of their freestall barns on their farm near Has�ngs, Minnesota. The Kieffers milk 400 cows in Dakota County.

Inspiring little learners

I live on dairy farm with my husband and our two kids; Allison is 2, and Carson is 10 months. My husband, Jason, farms with his brother, Dan, and together, they milk 80 cows. I help out when I can, but our two kids keep me busy after I get off work at Dairy Star. Jason and I agreed the farm is a great place to raise a family. We live on his home farm.

I grew up on small dairy farm in central Minnesota, so I was familiar with the dairy farm lifestyle. I knew what I was getting myself into when I married a dairy farmer. I was your average farm girl with all the 4-H dairy cattle showing, FFA dairy cattle judging and dairy princess waving. Before we met, I knew I wanted to stay involved in the dairy industry but wasn’t sure if the dairy farm life was for me. There had to be something out there for me to stay connected with the industry. I wanted to broaden my horizons and nd something that best suited me.

By Tiffany Klaphake Assistant Editor

I started to travel internationally and went on two exchange programs. One was through my high school German exchange program, and the other exchange program was right after I graduated college. The latter was an agricultural youth exchange program, International Farm Youth Exchange. The biggest thing I learned while abroad is though we may speak a different language, all farmers have the same mentality. Farmers take the utmost care of their animals, are good stewards of the land and, most importantly, raise a loving family.

During my travels, I read books on the plane and in the trains, and I also started to journal. I have always loved to read, but it was my high school German teacher who encouraged us to journal while we were abroad, sparking my enjoyment of writing. I even started a blog when I went on my three-month trip with the IFYE program.

Now, I don’t get to travel as much because we have two young ones at home, but I get to write for Dairy Star and am excited to see where this next chapter takes our family.

My daughter loves when I read stories to her. Every night, after supper, she proceeds to scour the living room to nd books and brings them over to Jason or myself. Once she has buried us in all the books within eyesight, she crawls onto the couch or recliner onto the lap of the chosen parent, adjusts her blankie and selects the rst book from the pile. This pile is usually anywhere from six to 10 books, and she will not let us get her ready for bed until all of the books have been read. If Carson is awake at this point in the evening, I scoop him up and put him on the other leg of Jason or myself. As I start to read the rst book, Carson turns his focus to putting the books in his mouth. It may be a struggle to hold the book in my hands, a toddler on one leg and an infant on the other as I sit in the recliner, but I still do it as often as I can.

I may not get to read books for my indulgence anymore. Now, I get to read books for my kids’ indulgence, which is even more important not only for their developmental learning needs but also for the memories. I hope my kids enjoy reading, writing and growing up on a dairy farm as much as I do.

Blessings along the road

As harvest begins to wrap up, there is a sense of accomplishment for the countless hours spent in the eld as we work for next year’s reserve of feed and bedding for our cows. There is never a year on the farm that goes perfectly according to plan, but together, we face the year we have before us. Despite any year, dairy farmers look past the dissatisfaction of the growing season and are thankful for the bounty provided to them throughout the harvest season.

While on the road back from Indianapolis, I reected on how lucky I have been, especially this year, as I represent you all as Princess Kay of the Milky Way. Sometimes it is easy to forget just how good we have it. Each year, we face challenges on the farm. Some days may not go as planned for us, and perhaps it leads us to concentrate on the bad, the hardship or the stress before us. It takes a minute to take a step back, remind ourselves to be grateful for what is in front of us and to clearly see the blessings along the road no matter what we may face.

Princess Kay of the Milky Way Rachel Rynda

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

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

Throughout my life, there has been so much to be thankful for. Every step or setback has led me to who I am today. A large portion of my selfdevelopment and personal growth is credited to the outstanding opportunities and leadership found within FFA. As I received my American Degree at the 95th National FFA Convention and Expo in Indianapolis, Indiana, I am grateful for my advisors, friends and mentors who pushed me out of my comfort zone to face and overcome challenges. This convention marked four years since my dairy judging team competed at the national FFA convention and the moment I saw my potential to become a leader. Since then, I have been blessed with so many wonderful experiences in and out of FFA to pave myself as a leader and inspire those around me.

By Rachel Rynda 69th Princess Kay of the Milky Way

In October, I had multiple events on the road as Princess Kay to be thankful for. I had the pleasure of joining Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom for a virtual book reading for farm-to-school book week. Over 40 classrooms attended the virtual book reading as I read “Tales of the Dairy Godmother: Chuck’s Ice Cream Wish.” Throughout the story, Chuck and the students learned what farmers do all 365 days of the year to care for their cows so we all can enjoy the wonderful benets of dairy. After the story, students asked questions about me, my farm and my role as Princess Kay. No matter if the question was what my favorite cow’s name is, my favorite color or my favorite chore on the farm, each student approached the screen to ask me a question with curiosity and excitement. My next event was a Halloween and dairy family night at Chick-l-A in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. Families came to enjoy a meal in their Halloween costumes, meet Rose, the 1-month-old Jersey calf, and enjoy dairy fun activities. More than 150 free kids meals served with milk were given to youth participants of the night.

Spring Creek Elementary School in Northeld, Minnesota, invited me for a special farm-to-school lunch. The meal served that day for lunch was all produced by local farmers in the Northeld area. Even the milk served at lunch came only a short way to the school from Hastings Creamery. Throughout lunch, I meandered around the cafeteria to visit with students eating their lunch and shared with them the benets of eating healthy, nutritious and local foods, including dairy foods. I encouraged all students to drink every last sip of their milk to get every last drop of nutrients their bodies need to fuel them throughout the rest of their school day. My favorite part of the day was the bright, smiling faces I received after asking if I could sit in an open spot while joining students for their lunch.

Princess Kay

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

Learning new tricks

She was hanging around a dingy pawnshop when I rst saw her. I’m a happily married man, but something told me I simply had to have her.

She was a stringy blonde who was obviously past her prime. But, she had a long, elegant neck and a stunning hourglass gure. I somehow knew we could make beautiful music together.

I asked the guy how much. Even though he tossed out a ridiculously low price, I made a counteroffer. We soon had a deal.

I snuck her home and hid her away from my wife in the spare bedroom. Whenever I could, I would steal away to spend time with her.

I nally couldn’t stand all the sneaky subterfuge. One evening as my wife watched TV, I trotted her out for my spouse’s perusal and approval.

“A guitar?” she asked archly. “Why did you buy a guitar? You don’t know the rst thing about music.”

That is totally correct. I can’t tell a treble clef from a tuning fork.

“Maybe I’m someone who can learn to play by osmosis,” I sniffed. “Maybe I’m an idiot savant.”

“You’re right about the idiot part,” she said.

Music that is read and played has always been a foreign language to me. The rst thing our grade school music teacher, Miss Widmer, taught us was all that “do, re, mi” business. Then, she tried to tell us those same sounds were also an alphabet soup of notes. It was as if she were teaching us how to speak in Klingon and write in Chinese.

I became so enamored of the idea of making music that I joined our junior high school band. I chose percussion, mainly because percussionists get to whack things. It’s a drumbeat not a drum tickle.

Plus, drummers didn’t have to learn the scales. We barely had to differentiate between notes. Is that a whole note? Whack the drum. Is that an eighth? Whack the drum.

All the drum notes were on the same line of the scale. It was beautiful in its simplicity: Whack, rest, repeat.

I would pay a price for my sloth. When the time came for our homecoming parade, I was assigned to carry the bass drum. Our band teacher said it was because of my superior sense of rhythm, but I think he was punishing me for my laziness.

I was harnessed to a bass drum the size and

weight of a rear tractor tire and marched the infernal thing all 200 miles of the parade route. It took three days for my spine to return to its normal curvature.

That’s when I lost my desire to learn music. After all, my goal was to be a dairy farmer. The only musical skill I needed was the ability to whistle for the dog.

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So, I was a total musical ignoramus when I purchased that old guitar. But my thought process hadn’t changed since junior high. I don’t want to learn music; I just want to play it.

The internet has made such things possible. Sadly, you can’t go to YouTube and download the ability to strum “Black Magic Woman.” Were such a thing possible I would have been rst in line.

But, there are numerous videos that show how to play the guitar without having to learn how to read music.

The rst thing I wanted to learn was the opening bars of “Smoke on the Water.” The instructional videos were a revelation. Did you know that those 12 notes are mostly repeats and that many of them are played on open strings? Even a complete musical dunderhead like me can learn that.

Guitar Hero has long been a popular video game. Having played both Guitar Hero and a real guitar, I can state conclusively that Guitar Hero has little to do with music. Playing Guitar Hero and thinking you’ll become a rock star is like learning to ride a bicycle and thinking you’ll become a neurosurgeon.

And a guitar is much better for hitchhiking. Stand at the roadside with a guitar and people may think, “Let’s give that traveling troubadour a ride and maybe he’ll serenade us with some jaunty tunes.”

Try to hitchhike while clutching your Guitar Hero game and people may think, “What sort of loser can’t go anywhere without his Xbox console?”

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I’d best get back to my do-it-yourself guitar lessons. It wouldn’t be bad, but my pupil is a knobbyknuckled, fumble-ngered idiot.

But let me know if you need someone to kick off a major rock concert by playing the opening notes of “Smoke on the Water.” I might know a guy who can help with that.

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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.

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‘Doc, remind me why I want more old cows’

Mr. S, a great client of ours, said those exact words to me not long ago while one of his cows was dying. She was a dry cow, due to calve soon, and she was down and making the awful groaning and wailing noise cows of-

Veterinary Wisdom

common in older cows. The overall rate per lactation was 2.7%, but the odds of clinical milk fever were 3.5, 8.6 and 20.2 times greater for parity 3, 4 and 5 and up versus parity 1, respectively. Over 12% of parity 5 and up cows had clinical milk fever. Most likely this is due to decreased capacity to mobilize calcium from bone with age. This may involve impaired vitamin D metabolism or reduced ability to absorb calcium from the gut as well.

probably no surprise to anyone who has worked with dairy cows. However, there is no obvious explanation for this greater risk, except that older cows have more cumulative exposure to concrete and other hard surfaces than younger cows.

Clinical ketosis risk was similar, with relative risks of 1.5, 3.9, 3.7 and 4.9 by parity compared to parity 1. The biggest risk for clinical ketosis is likely the presence of another disease.

By Jim Bennett Columnist

ten make when dying. He said those words because a lot of advisors have been telling him to reduce culling by keeping more older cows. The idea is to reduce herd replacement costs and increase milk production and, in the end, increase protability. This all makes sense and is probably still a good idea for most dairy producers, but there can be a downside, as Mr. S was seeing that day.

A recent paper in the Journal of Dairy Science, by Lean, et. al., discusses the differences in rates of health disorders in young and old cows. The authors collected information from studies in Australia, Canada and the United States accounting for 28,230 Holstein cows. As one would expect, clinical milk fever was much more

Clinical mastitis also increased more with parity, though the increase was not as dramatic. The overall rate of mastitis per lactation was 17.4%. The odds of clinical mastitis were 1.2, 1.7, 1.9 and 2.5 times greater for parity 2, 3, 4 and 5 and up rather than parity 1, respectively. In our practice, we do not monitor clinical mastitis by lactation, but we do monitor somatic cell count by lactation group. In our dataset, the mean SCC in thousands was 120, 129 and 251 for lactation one, two and three and up, respectively. However, there are a few herds where the SCC did not change by lactation. These herds all have herd average SCCs below 100,000, so most cows in these herds probably never get infected at all. The reason older cows seem to be more susceptible to mastitis is probably just that every infection increases the chance of another, so older cows may not be inherently more susceptible if we can keep them clean.

The odds of a case of lameness by parity compared to lactation one were 1.6, 3.1, 4.3 and 5.6 for parity 2, 3, 4, and 5 and up, respectively. This is

The average rate of dystocia was much greater for parity 1 than others, with parity 2, 3, 4 and 5 and up cows having odds of dystocia of 0.55, 0.49, 0.50 and 0.70, compared to lactation one. This is also unsurprising since heifers are not fully mature at rst calving. The increase in dystocia for cows in lactation 5 and up may be due to the much higher risk of clinical milk fever, because clinical milk fever can often result in dystocia.

The relative risk factors for metritis by parity showed a similar pattern as for dystocia, with parity 2, 3, 4 and 5 and up having odds of .57, .55, .52 and .59 compared to lactation one. This could be due to the increased risk for dystocia in parity one.

For displaced abomasum, the relative risks were 1.5 ,4.0, 3.7 and 2.9 by parity, so rst lactation animals were signicantly less likely to get a DA than older cows. It is curious that the highest risk is for parity 3 and not older cows, because hypocalcemia has been postulated to be one of the causes. More likely, the greatest risk factor is excessive fat mobilization before or after calving. The mechanism in those animals may involve inappetence or inammation resulting from fat mobilization, though it is unclear why older cows would have less fat mobilization.

This paper did not assess risk of poor reproductive performance, but our practice’s data set showed average pregnancy rates of 35%, 31% and 27% for parity 1, 2 and 3 and up. However, there were a number of herds with rates that did not signicantly differ by lactation group, so it is possible to achieve similar performance in older cows, and older cows may not be inherently at more risk.

So, if Mr. S has a greater proportion of older cows, he can expect higher milk production, fewer cases of dystocia and metritis but more cases of milk fever and lameness. He may or may not see more cases of mastitis and impaired reproductive performance. The question for all of us is how we manage old cows to not have greater incidence of these conditions. Our clients have shown that this is possible, except maybe for milk fever, but I am betting they will get that gured out as well. For the most part, old cows do not necessarily need to have more problems.

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

It’s that time of year

It’s an election year, which means I am forced to dislike people I’ve never met for bothering me with their nonsense while I’m trying to work or relax. I should start by saying I’m not a naturally ornery person. I’m even happy to chat with the people when they stop by the farm looking for converts to their respective beliefs, but political ads get me all sorts of annoyed.

Instead, we hear about how our representative isn’t doing the sheriff’s job and how our senator isn’t doing the job private businesses are doing. It’s very impressive how many logical fallacies one political action committee can t into an ad, but that’s where my interest in their nonsense ends.

I know we could pay extra to skip the ads on many entertainment services; although, I’m sure that respite would be short lived as it seems there is almost no way to escape the political campaign machine. Turning on the radio in the tractor when my headphones ran low on battery was a mistake. After hearing about where I could nd jewelry like usual, the ominous music started, and I heard about how terrible some political candidate is. I don’t think they ever got around to playing an actual song before I shut the radio off and decided the tractor exhaust noise and my thoughts were good enough for entertainment.

from the barn the other week when two guys drove in the driveway. One man jumped out of the car and literally ran up to me with a card then ran back to the car shouting something about candidates over his shoulder before they drove back out the driveway without another word. Turns out it was a ier with all the candidates for one party printed on it in case I wanted to just vote for everyone in one party without any actual regard to whether they represent my interests. Unsurprisingly, there was no information about what they would or wouldn’t do if elected on the card.

I don’t think we’ve seen local network television in our house since shortly after our old TVs couldn’t make sense of the new digital signals. We were supposed to buy a separate device to help our elderly electronics cope with the change. Turned out, we enjoyed whatever we could nd on the internet to watch instead and didn’t really miss all the advertisements plaguing network television, especially political ads. Unfortunately, those dirty political advertising folks caught up to us, and I can no longer watch YouTube videos about motorcycles, botany or rock climbing in peace while we clean up dinner and wash dishes.

It’s not even possible to avoid being assaulted while walking around our farm. I was walking up

As annoying as I nd all the lead up to elections, I denitely am not in favor of the alternative to elections and the surrounding circus that accompanies them.

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Voting for who represents our interests in local and all the way up to national government is what makes our country great. I’d argue folks need to quit treating it like a football game and cheering on their chosen team regardless of who’s on the roster. In this, and every, election, the candidates should be scrutinized as thoroughly as we do bulls and seed varieties in the dairy farming world. Brand loyalty is ne, but we don’t breed our best cows to some bull without looking carefully over his proofs just because the company selling it gave us a nice hat last Christmas. Let’s all do the same diligence in our voting selections.

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Until next time, keep living the dream, and maybe take up listening to the classical music station while milking for a few months. It’s nice, calming music most of the time, and I don’t recall ever hearing a political ad on there.

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

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Getting comfortable with communication

Communication skills have been on my mind lately. Farm meetings, texting to get bull calves sold and interacting with people as we go about our daily farm routines are some examples of how we use interpersonal skills to give and receive information.

mation. She pointed out that meetings can sometimes be a “complete disconnect.”

To help to keep that from happening, we need to think of communication styles. She outlined four types of people and how the way each type processes and communicates information is different.

– Action-oriented: These people are action or task-oriented and want the outcome of the discussion to be bullet points which outline the tasks to do. They are bottom-line oriented.

– Process oriented: These people listen and want to think things through. They take time and ask, “How will it work or play out over time?”

By Jean Annexstad Columnist

The number of texts it takes to contact a buyer for our bull calves, arrange the day and time, let them know how many there are, the price and so on can be a lot. Sometimes, I run out of patience to make the connections via texts. I wish I could call, discuss the arrangements and be nished. But it usually takes the back-and-forth texting over a few days to get a plan for the calves and then more conrmation the day of.

A logical place to talk about the plans of the day is around the farmhouse table at meal time. Yet it is also a time to relax and spend time enjoying the food being served for the meal. We sit around a kitchen island on stools, and in close proximity to one another, so it is easy to hear and understand what is being said. Family mealtime is good for connecting with each other, but not all of our team members are at the meals for farmrelated discussions.

Ease of getting a clear message sent and received is often not the case in the milking parlor or on other areas of our farm. Parlor talks seem like a good place to touch base with farm team members, because we spend so many hours there. Honestly, it is not the best environment to communicate. After all, it is best to concentrate on milking and not visiting.

Farm meetings are held on our farm when there is new information to go over with everyone who is involved in the decision making in attendance. We have been having a lot of these discussions to go over plans for a barn addition. They are held around a large table where everyone can see and hear. Yet more skills are needed to communicate effectively.

I attended a conference where Monica McConkey, a Rural Mental Health Specialist, explained the way we process and communicate infor-

– People oriented: These folks think about how each change we are considering could affect our entire team of people on our farm. How does it impact the ow of work on our people? They are geared toward relationships and teamwork.

– Idea people: They are strategic thinkers and want to examine how it will change the long-term outlook of the operation. They can see the big picture and the future. These people are enthusiastic and might say, “Let’s implement this and it will be great.” They are not so concerned with smaller details.

McConkey also said a mix of communication styles of people involved in a farm operation is a gift. It is important to realize each person may not see it the same way when discussing an idea, change or future goal.

So, with that in mind, I plan to keep working on my own communication skills. I enjoy learning about the topic and implementing what I have learned as I go about the tasks on the farm each day and as I communicate with others.

Thanksgiving happens this month. The holiday helps us to remember to give thanks for our many material blessings and for our meaningful relationships with family, friends, partners and employees. It is also good to thank all of those around us each day and give people positive feedback for the job they are doing.

Maybe you will enjoy the restful time of a family gathering to have a positive conversation with family and friends in the next few months ahead.

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