March 11, 2023 Dairy Star - 1st section - Zone 2

DAIRY ST R25

Locking in a price for milk

Brady (le ) and Bre Weiland milk 1,150 cows near Columbus, Wisconsin. The Weilands use forward contrac ng to ensure protability and have 75% of their milk contracted for 2023.

Weilands ensure protability through forward contracting

By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com

COLUMBUS, Wis. – Fifthgeneration dairy farmers, Brady and Brett Weiland, have plans to purchase the family farm from their parents someday. To ensure this dream becomes a reality, the brothers do not leave their profits to chance. Locking in milk prices through forward contracting is a strategy they use to help guarantee the farm’s protability from one year to the next.

“Protecting the balance sheet is the No. 1 reason why we contract our milk,” Brady said. “It’s a good feeling to know that next year at this time we’re going to be able to pay the bank, ourselves and our employees, and we’re still going to be in operation. A couple guys in their 20s who are trying to buy the business from Mom and Dad can’t afford to go backward.”

The Weilands milk 1,150 cows between two dairies near Columbus with their parents, Roger and Tammy, and Brett’s wife, Emiley. The family farms 500 acres and buys the rest of their feed from neighbors. Unwilling to be at the mercy of the market for 100% of their milk check, the Weilands have prices

First-generation farm approaches a decade of dairying

By Abby Wiedmeyer abby.w@dairystar.com

WILTON, Wis. – When Bronson Schultz graduated from college in 2014, he decided it was now or never if he was going to farm.

“I either had to make a go of it or go nd a different job,” Schultz said. “If you want to farm, you have to try. You better make it go, or you have to start working and put your money in a 401(k).”

Almost a decade later, Schultz is farming with the help of his girlfriend, Maddie Schmidt. The couple milks 40 cows in a tiestall barn near Wilton. The farm is home to Holsteins, Brown Swiss and a couple Jerseys.

They have taken inten-

tional steps to keep the dairy going.

Schultz was able to purchase the facilities and 1.8 acres from a neighbor to get started. He lived with his parents down the road and purchased the barn and 32 cows.

“It was as bare bones as it could be,” Schultz said. “We started with a barn full of cows, a skid loader and a manure spreader. I had a tractor and a handful of heifers too. It did not equate to much.”

Schultz said it was convenient to be living nearby, and it was a way to get started without a lot of debt and without having to work in a partnership or rent a farm.

For the rst two years, all the feed was purchased from neighboring farms. Schultz said it was important to keep a good relationship with

Dairy Pride Act back in play

Sen. Baldwin reintroduces labeling bill

By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com

WASHINGTON, D.C.

– The Dairy Pride Act has found its way back to the halls of the U.S. Capitol.

The act, otherwise known as the “Defending Against Imitations and Replacements of Yogurt, milk and cheese to Promote Regular Intake of Dairy Everyday,” has been introduced to Congress in 2017 and again in 2021, and requires the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to enforce rules that already exist within the department, said

Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

“You don’t have to go further than the dairy case at your local grocery store to see that the dairy case is now occupied with all of these plant-based imitations calling themselves milk or cheese or yogurt,” Baldwin said. “Those are very specic

terms with standards of identity that the FDA enforces.”

In response to last month’s draft guidance issued by the FDA regarding the use of the word milk in labeling of non-dairy, alternative plant-based beverages, Baldwin (D-WI), along with Sens. James Risch (R-ID), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Peter Welch (D-VT), reintroduced the Dairy pride Act to the Senate Feb. 28.

The bi-partisan legislation is also cosponsored by Sens. Mike Crapo (R-ID), Angus King (I-ME), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Tina Smith (D-MN).

The purpose of the Dairy Pride Act is to require nondairy products made from nuts, seeds, plants and algae to no longer be labeled with

dairy terms such as milk, cheese or yogurt, Baldwin sa id.

“Wisconsin dairy farmers work very hard to produce products with high nutritional value that meet all the standards set out by the FDA, and then you have all these imitation, plant-based products getting away with using dairy’s good name without having to meet those standards,” Baldwin said. “The Dairy Pride Act would make the FDA do its job and enforce dairy standards that they are already supposed to be enforcing. I think it strikes many as almost absurd that we have to introduce a bill to tell the FDA to do its job, but

ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR

Maddie Schmidt and Bronson Schultz stand in their estall barn Feb. 25 at their farm near Wilton, Wisconsin. The couple milks 40 cows on their rst-genera on farm.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin

ST R

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mailing

Net farm income was at record high levels the past two years. That trend is not expected to continue this year, but the expectation is it will still be an above average year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Chief Economist Seth Meyer spoke at the Agricultural Outlook Forum and said net farm income is expected to top $150 billion this year. That would be down 23% from this past year.

Record trade decit

USDA is forecasting a record agricultural trade decit of $14.5 billion. USDA blames the value of the U.S. dollar for the negative trade balance. Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member John Boozman said this forecast is not unexpected given the Biden administration’s lack of attention on trade. Boozman emphasized the need to open new markets, expand existing markets and demand trading partners follow the rules of the trade agreements.

Record exports for Wisconsin

Wisconsin dairy product exports totaled $617 million in 2022, up 32% from 2021. In total, Wisconsin agricultural exports totaled a record $4.2 billion, up 7% from the previous year. Canada, China, Mexico, Korea and Japan are the top ve markets for U.S. ag exports.

Agriculture pinched by labor shortage

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack addressed the USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum. “The pandemic put a spotlight on agriculture’s workforce and highlighted labor instability, irregular migration and the need for increased labor protections,” Vilsack said. Vilsack said by addressing labor shortages, the United States can put

resiliency back into the supply chain.

Plant-based confusion

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced draft recommendations for plant-based foods. It will continue to allow the plant-based food industry to use dairy terms, such as soy milk. The National Milk Producers Federation said the FDA guidance recognizes plant-based beverages do not have the nutritional value found in dairy products. However, NMPF remains upset with the labeling confusion.

Dairy Pride reintroduced

Ag Insider

A bipartisan group of lawmakers have reintroduced the Dairy Pride Act. This bill would prevent products made from nuts, seeds and plants to use dairy terms, such as milk, yogurt or cheese. This follows the FDA proposed guidance allowing these non-dairy products to continue to use dairy-type labels. Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin is a co-sponsor of this legislation.

Court of Appeals protects right to use common name

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Con nued from AG INSIDER | Page 2 term for a variety of cheese. The National Milk Producers Federation, U.S. Dairy Export Council and the Consortium for Common Food Names and other dairy stakeholders defended the generic usage of gruyere as a common food name. European groups claim this type of cheese is produced only in the Gruyere region of Switzerland and France. “This sets a terric precedent for the right to use common food names in the United States,” said Krysta Harden, president/CEO, U.S. Dairy Export Council. “Now, we need other countries to likewise stand up for what’s right and defend that use just as strongly.”

Milk production edges higher

Milk production in the 24 major dairy states totaled 18.5 billion pounds in January. That’s up 1.5% from January of last year. Wisconsin milk production increased 1.6%. Over the past year, the size of Wisconsin’s dairy cow herd declined by 3,000 head.

DMC payments to be Issued

For the rst time in 2023, Dairy Margin Coverage payments have been triggered. The February DMC income over feed cost calculation is $7.94 per hundredweight. Milk covered at the $9.50 level will receive an indemnity payment of $1.56.

Biden appoints Ford to trade council

Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford has been appointed to the President’s Export Council. Ford is one of 25 people selected for this advisory group.

Schwager to lead common food consortium

The Consortium of Common Food Names has named Jeff Schwager as its new chairman. Schwager most recently served as CEO of the specialty cheese company Sartori. Schwager succeeds Errico Auricchio who has led CCFN since its founding in 2012.

Dairy checkoff board elections

Rio, Wisconsin, dairy farmer Becky Levzow was elected vice-chair of Dairy Management Inc. The balance of the ofcer team are from Penn-

sylvania, New York and Kansas.

Discovery Farms director passes

The University of Wisconsin Discovery Farms Director Eric Cooley, 51, passed away Feb. 22. Cooley had been dealing with a pancreatic cancer diagnosis for the past year. Wisconsin Farm Bureau President Kevin Krentz said Cooley “was a true friend to agriculture and will be greatly missed.”

WFBF hired advocacy, issues coordinator

The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation has selected Erin Tomasik as its member advocacy and issues coordinator. Most recently, Tomasik was the administrative assistant for the WFBF government relations team.

UW-Extension hires water quality specialists

UW-Extension has lled three positions that will focus on farm production’s impact on water quality. Lindsey Hartel is the new Discovery Farms research manager. Hartel recently nished her Ph.D. at Iowa State University and is originally from a dairy farm near Marsheld, Wisconsin. Lindsey Rushford will coordinate the on-farm nitrogen optimization program. For the past eight years, Rushford worked in the private sector as an alfalfa breeder. Kelsey Hyland is the new agriculture water quality program outreach specialist. For the past three years, Hyland worked in the plant pathology department at the University of Minnesota.

Trivia challenge

The Arctic Cat brand introduced the Pantera, Puma and Kitty Cat snowmobile models. That answers our last trivia. For this week’s trivia, what is the name of the 19th century French biologist who created the practice of pasteurization? We will have the answer in our next edition of Dairy Star. Don Wick is owner/broadcaster for the Red River Farm Network, based in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Wick has been recognized as the National Farm Broadcaster of the Year and served as president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. Don and his wife, Kolleen, have two adult sons, Tony and Sam, and ve grandchildren, Aiden, Piper, Adrienne, Aurora and Sterling.

Con nued from DAIRY PRIDE | Page 1 that is exactly what this is.”

Baldwin is encouraged by the strong support on both sides of the aisle standing behind the Dairy Pride Act 2023. She said the timing with the farm bill is favorable.

“In introducing the Dairy Pride Act again this year, we have a really good bi-partisan group of senators,” Baldwin said. “We are also concurrently working on a farm bill, so I am hopeful that we can advance Dairy Pride along further this year.”

While the premise of the Dairy Pride Act is simple, Baldwin said several things have worked as stumbling blocks for the bill previously, including the question of whether or not consumers are confused by plant-based products using dairy-related terms.

“I would say (consumers) likely understand something is a plantbased product but use of the term milk implies a nutritional equivalency that does not exist,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin said the Dairy Pride Act would require the FDA to issue nation-wide guidance for enforcement of product labeling.

“(Manufacturers) would have a certain number of days to stop using these dairy terms in their marketing and labels,” Baldwin said. “The FDA

would have to report back to Congress on their enforcement.”

Passing the Dairy Pride Act will take action that occurs far beyond the Capitol, Baldwin said.

“Certainly, I hope that folks will reach out to their congresspeople and senators to urge them to co-sponsor the bill, especially those who will be taking an active role in putting together the farm bill,” Baldwin said. “This will be a great measure to include in the farm bill reauthorization.”

While passing the Dairy Pride Act is a rst step toward differentiating true dairy products from plant-based products in the marketplace, Baldwin encouraged dairy farmers and other dairy industry enthusiasts to continue working to educate consumers.

“Just educating folks is important,” she said. “I talk all the time about misuse of the term milk and will use the word beverage – almond beverage, soy beverage – but will not use the term milk even if they put it on their container. It is pretty clear to me that these plant imitations are trying to pretend they are substitutes for dairy products. … They should not be able to use dairy’s good name without meeting the same standards dairy has to meet.”

“The Dairy Pride Act would

TAMMY BALDWIN

Con nued from SCHULTZ | Page 1

whoever was growing the crops because it provided a place to haul manure.

“It’s a very good system if the guy making your feed cares as much about making it as you do feeding it,” Schultz said. “I could have called South Dakota and said bring me a semi load of 180 (relative feed value), but I can’t haul manure to South Dakota.”

Schultz has worked at a nearby feed mill throughout his dairy career. When Schmidt graduated college, she worked off the farm until 2020 when she joined the operation full time. Now, she has a part-time job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic.

“I don’t know how else you do it if you want to milk this many cows,” Schultz said. “If you’re going to start from zero, I don’t know how somebody’s going to do it without some other form of income, whatever sort of subsidy it’s going to be.”

The couple found themselves in a slightly better position when they were able to secure rented land. Although it did not change their nancial situation, it did allow them to have a surplus of feed. They were also able to purchase the house on the farm and some acreage with it. They currently own and

rent a total of 170 acres.

All of the hay is baled and wrapped from around 70 acres of rented land. The other 100 acres is close to home, and the couple has a twoyear rotation that includes cover crops.

The land is rotated between corn, fall triticale which is harvested for feed in spring and forage sorghum. Over the winter, a fast grow-

MARCH

ing cover crop such as oats or clovers is planted and left in the ground. Manure is spread on top for additional winter cover.

“I can maximize the amount of tonnage close to home,” Schultz said. “When I chop and have to pull the old-style chopper boxes, I can make time.”

The couple faced a challenge last winter when an

outbreak of salmonella went through their calves. After a seven-year streak of only losing two calves, they had 30 calves succumb to the illness in a matter of three months.

“I very much prided myself on my calves, and then last winter hit and it wiped out everything,” Schmidt said. “It’s hard to accept that everybody goes through those times and somehow

you get through.”

Schmidt said having a good group of friends as a support system helped her get through the challenging time.

When they are not farming or working in town, Schultz likes to attend high school basketball games, and Schmidt enjoys showing cattle. The herd is 90% registered.

“My favorite thing about the farm is seeing the families develop,” Schmidt said. “That’s the coolest part because we are down to only a handful of cows that aren’t homebred.”

There are 26 heifers due to calve by the end of May, and another 18 due shortly after. With a 40-stall barn, they will have to decide which cow families to continue with or how many cows they want to switch to milk. There are 23 sand-bedded free stalls and 12 acres of pasture that make a little more room.

Schmidt said she enjoys watching the cow families develop.

“You have to nd something you’re passionate about and something to look forward to,” Schmidt said. “When I get to see it go from a calf to a heifer to a cow, that’s cool. That’s what keeps me going.”

ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR

Maddie Schmidt greets a favorite show cow, Tessa, Feb. 25. at the farm owned by her partner, Bronson Schultz, near Wilton, Wisconsin. The rst-genera on farm began in 2014.

Off to the races

Hansons attend Daytona 500

By Tiffany Klaphake tiffany.k@dairystar.com

GOODRIDGE, Minn. – The roar of an engine, the smell of burned rubber, and clouds of smoke lling the air. Those are the sights and sounds of the Daytona 500.

Racing enthusiasts Mike and Linda Hanson, of Goodridge, ventured to the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, to see the legends of NASCAR live during the opening race of the season.

“The Daytona 500 is the granddaddy of racing, the biggest race of all,” Mike said.

The Hansons do not leave their 150-cow registered Ayrshire dairy herd often, but now that their sons farm full time with them, they have started to cross things off their bucket list.

“The cars are going 180 to 200 mph, and the cars are between 2 inches and 2 feet apart, and they do that for 500 miles,” Mike said. “Try going down (Interstate 94) at 190 mph with 2 inches between you and the next car and do that for 500 miles. The athleticism of these drivers is pretty phenomenal.”

The Hansons, at the invitation of some long-time friends who are regulars at the race, received pit passes so they were able to take part in pre-race festivities. They spent time on the ineld of the track and saw the infamous

NASCAR in 2001. Mike is a fan of Dodge, and Dodge made a return to NASCAR in 2001.

“That’s what peaked our interest,” he said.

Linda said their family is interested in racing of all kinds.

“Racing is in our blood whether it’s sleds or cars,” she said.

The couple said they race snowmobiles and dirt bikes cross-country.

“We kind of like the rev of a motor; it’s an adrenaline rush,” Mike said. “If you did it, you understand it. It’s an individual thing. It’s you against everybody else.”

The Hansons have attended other races and events and met Kasey Kahne, who signed one of their NASCAR diecast cars. The duo has also collected hats and other memorabilia.

“My most prized possession is my No. 9 Kasey Kahne autographed car,” Mike said. “I also have a Bill Elliott leather jacket.”

Before the start of the Daytona 500, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds conducted an aerial show.

“Most of the races are very military minded,” Mike said. “There is a prayer, the national anthem and a yover.”

in

The Hansons milk 150 cows near Goodridge, Minnesota.

garages and cars up close. They also attended a pre-race Dierks Bentley concert.

Linda said they were awestruck as they approached the ineld.

“Getting to the track and walking through the tunnel into the ineld, I kept saying to myself, ‘We are really here,’” Linda said.

They walked on the legendary track

and, in true NASCAR fan tradition, inscribed their names on the yellow line marking the track’s edge next to thousands of other names.

They went to three races and spent ve hours touring the grounds before the big race started.

“There are all kinds of exhibits and other stuff to see,” Mike said.

The couple became serious about

Linda said the sounds and smells of actually being there brought the event to life.

“It’s a 2.5-mile track, so when the cars are on the opposite side of the track, you can watch the jumbo screen to see what it happening until the cars come back around,” Linda said.

Daytona Beach, Florida.

The Hansons said they follow drivers on Team Penske, such as Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.

“(Ryan) is a young upcoming driver, and his dad, Dave Blaney, used to race back in the day,” Mike said. “NASCAR has a lot of family racing, where a driver had his dad or grandpa race. Even the professional side is very family-oriented with NASCAR.”

Though the Hansons, who are active with various dairy organizations, have attended meetings and conventions all over the world, they often do not attend such events together. When their children were young, they occasionally hired someone to milk so they could have one night away from the farm.

Now, their sons, the fourth generation on the farm, milk 150 cows with two robotic milking units and also utilize an automatic feeding system. They farm 2,800 acres of wheat, oats, soybeans, corn and alfalfa.

Matthew is in charge of the cows, and Steven takes care of the crops, but everyone helps where needed. David helps with

decision making but lives and farms with his in-laws in southern Minnesota.

Linda said the robots make it easier to get away.

“By switching to the robots, we don’t get calls from our boys asking questions about the milking equipment, because they know more about the robots than we do,” she said.

For the last several years, Mike said they have made it a priority to leave the farm for one week.

“Once I get in the car or plane, I just forget about what’s going on at home and focus on where I’m going,” Mike said.

This time around, the couple planned to y out of Thief River Falls but their ight was delayed, which

forced them to drive to the Twin Cities to catch a connecting ight only to have that ight delayed as well. Their ight to Charlotte, North Carolina, eventually took off but once again missed the connection. Due to the ight delays, the Hansons were forced to rent a vehicle and drive more than 400 miles across three states to make it to the race in time.

“We nally made it, but we ended up driving about half the distance to get there,” Mike said.

Regardless, they said the trip was one of the best things they have ever done.

“The whole thing was such an adrenaline rush,” Mike said.

500,

PHOTO SUBMITTED

An autographed Kasey Kahne hat and diecast car are among Mike Hanson’s most prized possessions. The Hansons met Kahne at a race.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Linda Hanson stands next to a racecar Feb. 19 at the Daytona Interna onal Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The car, which won last year’s Daytona

was on display as part of the fes vi es prior to this year’s race.

BUILT TO KEEP GOING. BECAUSE A FARM NEVER SLEEPS.

CHECKOUTTHE 7700SERIES

for 75% of their milk locked in with forward contracts for all of 2023.

“Our family has been contracting milk for as long as I can remember,” Brett said. “All of us work together with our advisory team on setting a plan ahead of time. We watch margins closely. We know what we’re going to get paid for milk and what we’re paying for feed and do what we can to try and protect that margin.”

A form of risk management, milk contracting xes a future price for Class III milk by locking in the milk price for a set volume and particular time period. For example, if a farmer locks in a price of $19 for the month of May, and the Class III milk price drops to $13, the forward contract is going to compensate the farmer $6. However, if the Class III price exceeds $19, the farmer has to pay the difference.

“When you lock in a milk price, you give up all the upside and, in turn, prevent a lot of the downside,” Marin Bozic said. “It’s a big shortcoming in the sense you’re removing all that upside potentially. Cheese prices can get wild and rise quickly on strong demand.”

“The processor has to pay day-to-day margin calls, whereas we don’t have to pay it until our milk check comes, and they take it off our check,” Brett said. “The processor essentially carries the loan for us when the milk price ends up higher than our contracted price.”

Brady agreed.

“When we book it through our processor, the premiums we pay are more than if we did it through our margin account, but we like to use our capital for other opportunities rather than having it tied up in hedging loans,” he said.

The amount of milk they contract changes with the marketplace, and when milk prices are high, the Weilands typically contract 75% of their milk. Leaving the upside open on 25% gives them the opportunity to make more money depending on where the market goes.

“We talk to a lot of consultants and try to understand where the market may or may not be headed, and then we take all that into account while looking at the projected margin to form our own opinion,” Brady said. “You’re never going to hit it perfect. It’s kind of a gamble just like everything else we do as farmers.”

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MISCELLANEOUS

Loftness

Bozic is an assistant professor in the department of applied economics at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He is also one of eight faculty members of the National Program for Dairy Markets and Policy. Bozic said 5% to 10% of the total U.S. milk volume is contracted currently. Milk futures are traded daily on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. A minimum contract size with the CME is 200,000 pounds. In most cases, farmers can contract milk through their cooperative, or they can contract independently through a broker. Cooperatives offer smaller contract sizes in 25,000-pound increments – a more attractive option for smaller farms.

“Last year when milk prices were $22 to $24 and north of that, there was a lot of contracting being done,” said Matt Tranel, broker/agent with Ever.Ag. “Signicantly higher prices than that had not been seen in the past.”

Tranel said his clients are typically heavier on coverage in the rst half of the year with the average customer contracting 50% to 75% of their milk. In the second half of the year, he said coverage averages 30% to 50%. According to Tranel, a lot of contract purchasing is done in the months of August, September, October and early November to prepare for upcoming consumer demand during the holidays.

“Farmers might not cover as much, but they try to get the most aggressive to layer in for following quarters because demand for dairy tends to drop after Christmas,” Tranel said. “I see data about spending habits come in off the scanners and get a sense of when the consumer is stepping back or reducing some of their purchases. This can be an indication as to when you should push your client to contract their milk.”

Bongards, a milk cooperative in Chanhassen, Minnesota, works with a brokerage rm in Chicago to help its patrons contract milk. Of Bongards’ 300 patrons, milk procurement and eld service manager Tom Beringer said 7.5% contract their milk, and that number has held steady for years.

“We have producers who don’t contract at all, some who contract all the time, and some that are in and out,” Beringer said.

Patrons call the broker directly to lock in prices.

“They might say, ‘I want two June contracts at $21,’” Beringer said. “The broker sends us the conrmation, and we put it in our milk payroll system. If June comes and the price settles at $20, they’ll get a dollar added to their contract. If the price settles at $22, we take a dollar off their milk check.”

Farmers contracting their milk pay a fee of 10 cents per hundredweight to Bongards. Bongards facilitates the margin calls for the farmer which comes out of Bongards’ accounts. A margin call is a request from the broker to deposit additional funds into the margin account.

A margin account contains the money a farmer needs to pay when the contract price falls short of the market price. If dealing directly with a broker, the farmer is responsible for putting their own money into the margin account.

When contracting their milk, the Weilands work with both their cooperative and a broker.

“We used to go directly through a broker, and now we’re going through our milk processor,” Brady said. “The broker works with our processor; he’s the middleman. We used to do a margin account, but now it all comes in on our milk check.”

When Brett calls the broker, he states if he wants to set up the contract through the processor or through the Weilands’ margin account.

The Weilands milk is split into multiple contracts, and each 200,000-pound contract could be locked in at a different price. Prices can change by the second, Brady said.

“I don’t like to go for that big homerun shot,” Brett said. “As long as the price is above our operating costs, I like to layer it in piece by piece, doing 10% to 25% each month so it averages out and takes away some of the risk. We layer in over the course of many months, doing a couple contracts here and there as long as we’re happy with where margins are at.”

The Weilands watch the markets daily and study price history for the last ve to 15 years to determine historic averages.

“Right now, the milk price is higher than previous years, and we’ve been well above that the last year or so,” Brett said. “We believe there’s more risk of a falling market than of milk going to $25.”

The Weilands also engage in other forms of risk management, including Dairy Revenue Protection, options and the Dairy Margin Coverage program. The Weilands’ combination of strategies helps them achieve a level of risk management they feel comfortable with.

“If we’re looking at good prices, we like to contract as much milk as we can,” Brett said. “Right now, we have the option to lock in and sell milk at a good price. We want to take advantage of that because we know at some point prices won’t be as high. If we were on the other end at $16 or $17 milk, we might be doing more puts and calls.”

The Weilands like to look into the future when contracting milk, and good prices prompt the family to reach further out.

“When you can lock in milk over $19, that’s pretty unusual,” Brett said.

The Weilands have targets in place for 2024 as they begin to layer in contracting for quarter one. Currently, 10% of their milk is locked in for January of next year. This year, the Weilands are focused on $20 milk or higher. Their focus for 2024 is slightly lower at $19.25.

“I’d like to sell January through June of next year for that price,” Brett said.

Bozic said it is prudent to hedge far out rather than the next available quarter. He recommends contracting milk nine to 12 months in advance.

“Producers should now be looking into the fourth quarter of 2023 and the rst quarter of 2024 and later,” Bozic said. “We need to be proactive.”

Tranel said a farm can contract up to two years forward on the CME.

“How far out people go depends on the market we’re in,” he said. “Right now, we have farms touching both third quarter and fourth quarter of this year, and a couple are touching rst quarter of 2024. Many times, people go six months out. It’s a matter of producer preference. When looking way out, bids and offers can be very far away from each other.”

Deciding how much to contract depends on a farmer’s risk preference.

“Some producers regularly hedge everything, while others are more opportunistic,” Bozic said. “When they believe the markets are going to drop, they hedge more. The higher the leverage, the higher the hedge ratio should be. I advise producers to layer it in. Start by hedging 10% of your milk, then a month later, maybe another 10%, etc. If prices rally, you have an opportunity to put in a higher oor.”

Bozic recommends farmers compare prices to their cost of production.

“If the price you can lock is higher than your cost of production, then pull the trigger,” he said. “Also, look at

Marin Bozic Assistant professor U of M-Twin Cities

Matt Tranel Broker/Agent Ever.Ag

historical patterns. Is the price higher than three-quarters of the prices we’ve had for that time of year for the last 10 years?”

Brady said his family makes decisions carefully and likes to think about things ahead of time.

“We want to be as objective as possible; we’re not deciding based on emotion,” he said. … “We like to have a plan for every scenario so we know how to react.”

Factoring in their use of DMC, the Weilands have a total of 80%-85% of their milk currently covered, which is similar to last year. They also used a small amount of DRP this year for rst quarter.

Tom Beringer

“We keep an eye on options, but we haven’t been doing much of that lately,” Brett said. “We look at what we can do with spread options. We watch if the milk price drops a fair amount, then we might do some options to open up the top side again for fairly cheap.”

When prices are in the middle and it is hard to speculate whether they will go up or down, the Weilands try to contract 50% of their milk and also use DRP, leaving the upside open without falling behind their operating cost.

“In that situation, we’re guaranteeing half of our milk and sliding in a oor for the other half,” Brett said. “We still have the opportunity to play the market and get the upside on 50%, but we’re also 100% covered on the downside.”

When contracting milk, the potential to leave money on the table is real, but it is a risk the Weilands are willing to take.

“We want to do everything we can to protect even if that means taking some off the top in an exceptional year,” Brett said.

“You’re never going to hit the peak of the market. There is always going to be some you missed out on, but you try to average out. The goal is to try to make every year protable and not go backward.”

The Weilands are committed to staying the course and sticking to their plan.

“In 2022, we left quite a bit of money on the table, but we’re already starting to see that money come back on the milk check in the last couple months,” Brady said. “In 2020, when COVID hit and milk dropped to $11, things looked rosy because we had DRP and 1.5 protection factor along with 40% of our milk covered through forward contracts.”

At Weiland Dairy, locking in the price of milk goes hand in hand with locking in the price of inputs.

“Inputs are a big part of it,” Brett said. “We wouldn’t lock in 75% of our milk if we didn’t have 75% of our inputs covered. You don’t want to lock in milk and get bit because inputs go up real high. We want protection on both sides.”

The Weilands have feed prices locked in for the entirety of 2023. They do a lot of physical contracts with their milk, locking in one price for six or 12 months.

“We have dry corn bought through November of this year, and soybean meal is locked in too,” Brady said. “Like milk, we layer in on feed also.”

Dedicated to riding the ups and downs of the market, the Weilands use forward contracting to continually push their farm successfully into the future.

“At the end of the day, you have to do what’s right for your business,” Brett said. “Know your numbers and ensure you can be in business another year from now.”

Editorial disclaimer: Futures and options on futures trading involve signicant risk and are not suitable for every investor. Information contained herein is strictly the opinion of its author and not necessarily of Ever.Ag and is intended for informational purposes.

DHIA FIELD REPRESENTATIVE PROFILE

What counties or area do you cover? We cover southwest Minnesota, northwest Iowa and southeastern South Dakota.

What do you enjoy about the farmers you work with? We just like getting to know a lot of different people from different areas. We get to talk to them every month and see what they are doing. Most of the farmers we work with are like family. For example, I have a wake tonight for a farmer who I test for whose mom passed away. She helped milk the evenings when I went there to test.

35

What do you like about your work for DHIA? We really like being independent to set our own schedule. We also get tremendous help from the ladies in the milk lab and the of ce; when we have a problem, they can help us out. It really works well.

What do you do in your free time? We enjoy working in our ower gardens and spending time with our grandkids. Our whole yard is ower gardens. We have thousands of tulips that bloom early in the year, and after that, we have others that bloom throughout the year. We have three grandkids in South Dakota.

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Cheryl and Daryl Hook

years with DHIA

“Most of the farmers we work with are like family.”

Milk procurement & field service manager Bongards

Pizza from the prairie

Pietz’s Kuchen Kitchen churns out Italian classic

By Jerry Nelson jerry.n@dairystar.com

SCOTLAND, S.D. –Few small, independent food businesses can claim they go through 500 to 750 pounds of cheese to make pizzas each week. But that is exactly the case for Lori and Roger Pietz, who own and operate Pietz’s Kuchen Kitchen of Scotland.

Roger and Lori got into the pizza-making business via a circuitous route.

“We started making and selling kuchen in March of 2008,” Roger said. “That was the culmination of a dream that was in the making for 20 years. When I was a boy, I would stand on a stool and watch my mother make kuchen. I knew that if we could develop a kuchen recipe that was close to Mom’s, I could sell it.”

Kuchen is the German word for cake. There are numerous types of kuchen; the kind that is made at Pietz’s Kuchen Kitchen includes a custard-like lling that contains cream and fruit. Kuchen

is considered by many to be a dessert.

The South Dakota Legislature designated kuchen as the ofcial state dessert in 2000.

Pietz’s Kuchen Kitchen soon developed a following and became widely known for its delicious kuchen, kolaches and meat rolls. Kolaches are a round Czech pastry that are traditionally made of sweetened yeast dough with a fruit lling in the center.

“We have shipped our products to every state except Hawaii,” Lori said. “We have also had visitors from nearly every state stop by for a visit of our kitchen facilities. Many people who are vacationing to South Dakota learn that kuchen is the state’s ofcial dessert. They want to have the full South Dakota experience, so they … and drop in for a visit. They usually buy some of our products too.”

Roger and Lori decided to take the plunge into making pizza in 2019. It took them some time to develop all the different types of pizza they now offer.

“We experimented quite a bit with our recipes before we settled on their nal versions,” Lori said. “Our family and our four full-time employees were our taste testers. They really enjoyed that part of their jobs.”

Roger and Lori decided

to name their lineup of pies South Dakota Pizza.

“We use as many South Dakota-sourced ingredients as possible in our South Dakota Pizzas,” Lori said. “This includes such things as the South Dakota-produced axseed and the honey that we

include in our pizza crust.”

Cheese is the star ingredient of every pizza. Roger and Lori did not have to look far for a source of this all-important component. Dimock Cheese, a small artisanal cheesemaker, is located about 35 miles north of Scotland.

“We asked the folks at Dimock Cheese if they could supply the cheese for our pizza, and they immediately said yes,” Lori said. “It was a natural t for everyone concerned.”

Pietz’s Kuchen Kitchen offers more than a dozen pizzas, including three breakfast pizzas.

“We are now working on a recipe for a taco pizza,” Roger said. “We hope to introduce it soon.”

Lori said the products sold are handmade and contain no articial preservatives.

“Our grandsons grew up in the kitchen, so they know how to make kuchens and kolaches,” Lori said. “We make everything from scratch, including our marinara sauce, and we use as many natural ingredients as possible.”

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Roger and Lori Pietz started making kuchen in 2008 at their business, Pietz’s Kuchen Kitchen, in Scotland, South Dakota. They began to make and sell their South Dakota Pizza in 2019.

Roger said their pizza is unique.

“There’s nothing else like them,” he said. “Our pizzas might cost a little bit more, but we feel that their quality is unmatched.”

Pietz’s Kuchen Kitchen churns out about 2,000 pizzas per month along with about 2,000 kuchens.

“We purchase our cheese in blocks from Dimock Cheese and shred it ourselves in our big mixer,” Roger said. “We will make 1,000 pounds of pizza dough at a time. On a normal day, we will whip up about 300 pizzas and 500 kuchens.”

There are presently between 70 and 80 retail establishments and pubs that carry South Dakota Pizza. Roger and Lori hope this number will soon grow.

“We became a federally inspected facility last year, so we can now sell our products across state lines,” Roger said. “Our pizzas and kuchens have

proven to be popular for fundraisers. For instance, the Yankton High School band recently placed an order for 1,000 items that they will use to raise money.”

It was only tting that one of the rst retail establishments to carry South Dakota Pizza was the store at Dimock Cheese.

“South Dakota Pizza is our bestselling item in our frozen food section,” said Kim Tiede, retail store manager at Dimock Cheese. “We sell thousands of pizzas per year. The Mammoth Three Meat and the Homesteader’s Supreme are the most popular.”

Roger and Lori continued to be surprised, yet satised, with their delicious success.

“I never thought that our pizza would reach this level of success,” Roger said. “It has been a lot of hard work, but we love it.”

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Lori and Roger Pietz make more than a dozen types of pizza, including three breakfast pizzas. Their Barnyard Bacon and Egg Breakfast Pizza has proven to be popular.

F r o m O u r S i d e From Our Side O f T h e F e n c e Of The Fence

Heather Mullikin Keane

Mullikin Meadows LLC

Wauzeka, Wisconsin Crawford County

44 cows

What social media platforms do you use?

Facebook started as a way to share our journey with family and friends. I quickly noticed how much joy the posts brought to others, even helping to keep our morale high in tough times by seeing how far we've come these past two years.

Why do you choose to share information on social media? My brother and business partner, Andy Mullikin (Crystal Anderson), and I started the dairy back up on our third-generation family farm in 2020. Our story has been special to us, our parents, Mike and Julie Mullikin, and our whole family. I've logged photos and videos along our journey. We work so hard to care for the animals, the facilities and the land. Social media is a way to share the joy of our journey.

How often do you post and what kind of information do you share? I was posting photos of our animals and farm a few times a week. Then, I started being intentional about sharing our journey in weekly "Moosings from the Meadows" along with the photos. Now, I try to post a Facebook reel every two weeks sharing everything from playful calves to making hay and morning chores with my dad and hero, Mike.

What is the most unique social media post you have made about your farm? This January, I made a post that was two years in the making. The rst calf born on our farm in January 2021 calved in her rst calf. The video shows the ear-to-ear smile on my brother's face when she was a calf to the smile on his face two years later as she calved in.

What ag-related social media accounts do you follow? Dairy farmers milking 50 or fewer; dairy farmers milking under 250; Kickapoo Grazing Initiative; Grassworks: Ask a Grazier Group; and Farm Direct Wisconsin.

In what ways do you think social media helps or hurts the dairy industry? Social media can be an amazing way to connect farmers. Farming can be isolating and is often misunderstood, and social media is a place where community can be found, wisdom shared and myths debunked. As for the dairy industry, I've seen posts that make me frustrated because of how they can be used and manipulated to shame and denigrate the dairy industry.

Tell us about your farm. We rotationally graze a herd of 44 Jersey cows on 44 acres. We milk in the 40-stanchion barn where my dad and grandpa milked their Holstein herds for about six decades. We plant and grow 40 acres of corn and 30 acres of an alfalfa/meadow grass mix. Our milk is picked up by Scenic Central Milk Producers and goes to Meister Cheese in Muscoda, Wisconsin.

Why do you choose to share information on social media?

Aaron Gierok

Independence, Wisconsin Trempealeau County 45 cows

What social media platforms do you use?

YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

All are @Gierok Farms.

YouTube is the main social media platform I use to share day-to-day life on our dairy farm. I post 10- to 20-minute videos along with shorts that are about 30 seconds long. I use Instagram, Facebook and TikTok to promote those videos and share extra photos and shorts from our farm.

Why do you choose to share information on social media? To advocate for agriculture. I also use social media to connect with the consumer and show where food comes from. It helps build a stronger ag community. It's a way to express my creativity. How often do you post and what kind of information do you share? We post three videos a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The videos highlight our day-to-day lives. For example, milking, feeding, cattle care, planting, haying, harvesting, logging and trips off the farm. Some videos are very informational, while others are just a relaxed video blog.

What is the most unique social media post you have made about your farm? Unique videos we have made would be, “Milking on a small dairy farm,” from a year ago. It highlighted the beauty of grazing dairy cows and milking in a stall barn. Another unique set of videos would be our corn picking videos. Not a lot of people do that anymore, especially with an old mounted corn picker. What ag-related social media accounts do you follow? I follow a wide range of ag social media inuencers from all sectors along with many of the large brands in agriculture. I use social media as a tool to stay in touch and to learn new things from other parts of the world or different sectors of agriculture.

In what ways do you think social media helps or hurts the dairy industry? Social media helps the dairy industry by giving the experts a voice. It allows the public to hear their unltered opinions and to see the positives and negatives within the industry while getting the entire story. Social media can hurt the dairy industry when misinformed and uneducated individuals talk about the industry. But that's the beauty of what myself and other social media members are doing. We have the ability to educate and inform the general public and consumers.

Tell us about your farm. We milk a mixed herd of 45 cows with the primary breed being Holstein. We raise our replacement cows and then some. We graze our herd during the summer. We milk in a tiestall barn with Surge one-touch units. Our milk goes to Associated Milk Producers Inc. in Blair, Wisconsin. We grow alfalfa, oats and corn, which are used to feed our dairy herd.

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Amy Karpinski Waupaca, Wisconsin Waupaca County

200

cows

What social media platforms do you use?

I use Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to follow ag-related accounts. TikTok has become huge in the last year for people sharing their agrelated stories. It's fun because you can add music and lters to make it one of a kind. I currently only use Facebook to share our farm’s story. I use it to show daily chores or share fun facts.

Why do you choose to share information on social media? So many people have no ties to agriculture anymore. It’s important to show how modern dairy farms operate and to inform people that dairy is not scary.

How often do you post and what kind of information do you share? I slack at posting regularly, but I try to post at least once a month. I will post anything that has been happening lately on the farm.

What is the most unique social media post you have made about your farm? I’m not sure it’s unique, but everyone seems to love it when I post about Bones, our resident pet cow. We joke that she is internet famous. The public just likes the fact that we have a cow on our farm that is just there, living her best life.

What ag-related social media accounts do you follow? There are too many to count. I like following other farmers who are sharing their stories because it’s always interesting to see how different each and every farm is.

In what ways do you think social media helps or hurts the dairy industry? Social media is crucial to the dairy industry. If you think back to the 1990s, you always saw a “Got Milk?” advertisement on the TV. Nowadays, you don’t see much for dairy represented in the media. Just about all of the population is on some form of social media, so why not use these platforms to shed light about a dying industry?

Tell us about your farm. My husband and I are the fourth generation on our dairy farm. We milk in a double-9 parallel parlor, hire all of our crop work done by custom operations, and our heifers are raised at a heifer grower from 5 months old up to two months before calving. Our milk is shipped to Agropur and made into delicious award-winning cheese.

Sue Dettmann

Dettmann Dairy Farms

Johnson Creek, Wisconsin Jefferson County

525 cows

What social media platforms do you use? We have accounts on Facebook and Instagram. We use them for posts about what we are up to on our farm and sometimes in our general lives.

Why do you choose to share information on social media? I have always loved taking pictures of our kids and the activities at the farm. I started the Dettmann Dairy Farm pages to share what we were doing on the farm so I could reach a wider audience than through my personal page. I’ve had a lot of fun interacting with the people who comment on our posts. I love to hear stories from people who grew up on farms reliving their memories through our posts and answer questions people have about what we do. There are many people out there who don’t have a farmer in their life who they can ask when they have questions about the food they are eating, so being accessible and showing them what we do can help ll that void. Thankfully, my family members and the other workers on the farm have been understanding when I take my phone out to capture what they are doing in the eld or with the animals. So much of what I post wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for them.

How often do you post and what kind of information do you share? I generally post daily, especially in the summer when we are doing more eldwork. I share posts about what we are working on, although many times, there is a lot more going on at our farm. I just can’t be in ve different places to capture it. It’s been fun to see how the posts perform. Some people are very interested in the animal posts, some in the eldwork and equipment posts, and some are interested in everything.

What is the most unique social media post you have made about your farm? We went through a re in January 2018 in which our milking parlor building burned. I took pictures as we tore down the mess and rebuilt the parlor, dealt with our milking cows being housed at two other local farms, and the day we were nally able to bring them all home again. On the oneyear anniversary of the re, I posted a video slideshow of pictures to show all of that from start to nish. While it might not be the most amazing post, it’s one of the posts that means the most to me. It takes me from when we were watching the re departments try to get the re out, wondering what it would take to get through that time, to the day those cows came home and our parlor came back to life. The encouragement we received through comments on the posts during that time helped us keep moving forward, showing that social media’s impact can be felt both ways.

What ag-related social media accounts do you follow? My Facebook and Instagram accounts are lled with so many other accounts that I follow, it’s hard to narrow them down. I love the content that is shared and the insight people bring to topics. Just a couple of my favorites: I’ve followed Dairy Carrie the longest. She’s our neighbor and friend and also the person who encouraged me to start a page for our farm back in 2015. Iowa Dairy Farmer has so many interesting videos and posts about dairy farming and has a relatable way of explaining information. This’ll Do Farm is one of the non-dairy accounts I’ve been following a lot lately, learning about how they raise pigs.

In what ways do you think social media helps or hurts the dairy industry? Social media can help the dairy industry by being a route to allow everyday farmers to share their stories and how they do what they do. There are a lot of rumors and inaccuracies being told about how we do things, both on purpose from people with different agendas and on accident by people who don’t know how to understand things they see as they drive by. I’ve encountered many people who want to know more about how crops are grown and animals are raised. When they learn from us and repeat what they know to others, it becomes a ripple effect of knowledge. In that same regard, I’ve been following accounts of other farmers and ranchers who raise crops and animals I haven’t known anything about, and it has been fun to learn from them and have a look inside their lives.

Tell us about your farm. Our farm is owned by my husband, Mike, and I along with his dad, Tim, and step-mom, Amy. We milk about 525 cows three times a day in a double- 12 milking parlor. We also raise our replacement heifers. We farm about 2,000 acres, growing corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa. Our milk is shipped through Dairy Farmers of America.

Kyle Abel (pictured with Brittany Abel) Abel Acres Dairy Farm Loyal, Wisconsin Clark County

350 cows

What social media platforms do you use?

I use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for my personal social media consumption. As far as sharing, I only use Facebook (@Abel Acres Dairy Farm) because of my familiarity with the app. If I would decide to expand my social media presence, I would get involved in YouTube next. I have heard it is very user friendly.

Why do you choose to share information on social media? It started as something therapeutic for me. It’s a great place to journal events in your life so you can reect on them later and is a great way to share what is going on in your professional or personal life with friends and family. It’s easy to convince yourself when you are working long hours by yourself that you are alone in the world. I found through sharing that more people are interested than I realized; I just had to reach out. Since I started gaining more followers, I started to think about where I wanted to take this and why. I’ve always thought about our farm in terms of where my son, Derry, future children, or nieces and nephews could take things if they would want to be involved. I see this no differently than any other expandable market. If one should so choose, they have a potential brand started they could build off of whether that leads them to be a niche butchery or creamery in need of a marketing outlet or being a social media inuencer. I have a niece who seems to show interest in online inuencers and videos, and even though she may not show any interest in being a traditional farmer, she may be interested in being a part of this. That to me is fun. As hard as working with family can be, it can also be one of the most rewarding experiences.

How often do you post and what kind of information do you share? I try to post something every day. It helps people to stay engaged and is a nice diary of what I am up to. I’ve gone through several phases of what kind of page I want to be: educator, product reviewer, industry promoter, etc. At this time, I am settled on just showing and discussing what is going on at the farm. People love to see the cows and hear about what we provide for them. That also is the content that creates the most negative comments. It’s a double-edged sword. Polarizing content goes both ways.

What is the most unique social media post you have made about your farm? I made a video about all the farms between my home and our farm and how most of them have left the industry. If I remember right, there were at one time 13 dairies on the 5-mile drive, and there are now only three milking cows. It was eye-opening to even me how different things must have looked 50 years ago in Wisconsin when we had 48,000 dairies. Now, there are fewer than 8,000.

What ag-related social media accounts do you follow? I follow TDF Honest Farming. Derrick is an amazing steward of our industry. I also follow Iowa Dairy Farmer, So She Married a Farmer, Megan DairyGirl, Hillcrest Farms Inc., Gregorich Farms, NY Farm Girls, Millennial Farmer and “Field Rows” when I need a laugh. There are a ton more, but these usually ll my feed.

In what ways do you think social media helps or hurts the dairy industry? Social media can really help our industry to show there are relatable and caring people behind the products and not just some nameless, faceless evil person making consumers’ food. People fear and mistrust what they can’t see. Some people are not going to agree and still not like our industry, and that is OK too. I’ve used the phrase, “Mind your own plate.” I will never judge a person’s dietary choices if they are tolerant of my own. There is potential to do harm on social media if you spread hate and anger. Those things can be contagious. I do not get involved or tolerate that on my page. Negative or combative comments will get a person blocked or deleted. It may hurt my growth, but it’s my choice. I am always open to honest questions but not hateful ones. Anytime you put out content, it can be misinterpreted or misconstrued. There are hateful people out there who are waiting for one of us to make a mistake.

Tell us about your farm. Abel Acres Inc. is a third-generation family dairy farm located in central Wisconsin. The farm started in 1958 by Ron and Alice Abel, was purchased by Perry and Julie Abel in 1994, and as of this spring is owned by Kyle and Brittany Abel. We are blessed to have a great team including family, an irreplaceable gentleman who’s been with us for more than 20 years and staff who have become like family over the last 5-10 years. We milk 350 cows. We milk 150 cows with three DeLaval robotic milking systems. Two units were installed in 2016 and the other in 2022. A fourth unit will be installed in May. The other cows are milked in a double-6 step-up parlor built in 1997. Our herd is primarily Holstein with about 5% being Red and White Holstein. We have one Brown Swiss named Mulan and two Jerseys named Cooper and Derby. We have about 700 animals at any given time including newborn calves to cows. We farm 785 acres and are looking to expand when opportunities arise. We grow roughly 350 acres of corn, 300 acres of alfalfa and 100 acres of soybeans yearly. Our milk is sold to Land O’Lakes. We have had a long relationship with them.

Prole

Solid management yields protable results at Kieler Farms Inc.

Dr. Dan Kieler

Kieler Farms Inc.

Platteville, Wisconsin

2,000 cows

Describe your facilities and your breeding management team. We milk in a 50-stall rotary and with a 12-row cross-ventilated barn since 2018. Brandon Klein is our Select Sires technician, and Dan Meisen is the herdsman who takes care of all the reproductive shots.

What is your current pregnancy rate? It is 37%.

What is your reproduction program? The voluntary waiting period is 72 days. All cows are bred rst service using double ovsynch. Klein walks and chalks daily. Cows are given a pre-pregnancy GnRH shot a week prior to pregnancy check and are ultrasounded at 29-36 days.

Do you use a synchronization program? Yes. All rst service is bred off double ovsynch. Open cows go through regular ovsynch.

Describe your breeding philosophy. My goal is to get all cows pregnant as efciently as possible to the proper bull based on genomics.

What guidelines do you follow to reach the goals for your breeding program? Compliance and automation. We use a wand and RFID

system to identify cows on shot and herd check days to rapidly, correctly and efciently get the work done.

What are the top traits you look for in breeding your dairy herd and how has this changed since you started farming? I look at cheese merit, combined fat and pro-

tein, dairy wellness prot dollars, and sire conception rate and daughter pregnancy rate.

What are certain traits you try to avoid? I like to avoid animals with poor health traits, poor reproductive traits and slow milking speeds because we have a smaller rotary parlor.

Describe the ideal cow for your herd. A moderately sized cow with good reproductive traits and good production with sound feet and legs and proper udder conformation.

What role does genetics have in reaching the goals of your farm? Genetics and genomic testing is helping us reach our goals of shipping the most pounds of solids possible. All animals are genomic tested to determine which will receive sexed semen, and the rest are bred to beef. Genetics are just as important on the beef semen we put in too. I

ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR

Leah and Dan Kieler stand by their farm sign Feb. 28 at their farm near Pla eville, Wisconsin. The Kielers milk 2,000 cows and farm 4,500 acres.

“Using the Udder ComfortTM Battery-Operated Backpack Sprayer every day the past 3 months made us more compliant with our fresh cow protocol for better udder health. We’re getting our fresh cows sprayed more consistently with Udder Comfort 3x/day for a week after calving. Our SCC came down from 165,000 to 137,000. We run a really full freestall, and if we do get clinicals, they clear faster and don’t become herd health manager at his family’s 750-cow Registered Holstein dairy near Maynard, Iowa.

“We really notice a lot more udder texture and veination at 2 weeks in milk if they are sprayed consistently and right away, compared with 3 to 4 weeks in, if they are not,” he adds.

“This Sprayer is smooth. It puts a nice, even, effective coat of Udder Comfort on the udders.

“It gets under the udder, broadcasting over the ligament and around the teats, where you want it,” says Scott.

“We have relied on Udder Comfort over 10 years as the best tool to get cows through transition and into milk faster with healthier udders. We always talked about getting milkers to stick to the protocol. The Sprayer does that,” he explains.

“The Sprayer is more convenient and user-friendly than I thought it would be. It holds a lot of product, charges fast, holds the charge well, so it’s always ready in the parlor. It’s easy to grab, turn on, and go.”

really look for marbling and ribeye size when selecting a beef bull as all our crossbred calves are being nished and sold on a grid marketing system.

What percentage of your herd is bred to sexed, conventional and beef semen? Our herd is bred approximately two-thirds beef and one-third sexed semen. No conventional Holstein semen is used. We currently do not do any in vitro fertilization work, but it is possible in the future as we get some higher genomic animals.

What is your conception rate? How does this differ with different types of semen? Our conception rate is around 50% on beef semen and 48% on sexed semen. We also only use 4M sexed semen on cows.

What is the greatest lesson you have learned through your breeding program? Getting cows pregnant is one of the most important things to do on the farm. It is important to be monitoring short- and long-term trends. When something isn’t working as well as it should, develop a plan and take action.

What is the age of your heifers at rst service? I will start breeding heifers at 11-12 months of age. I really try to focus on accelerated and rapid growth program on heifers, making sure they have proper protein and calories at all growing phases. Heifers also receive Synovex C implants at 3 and 7 months of age.

How does your heifer inventory affect your breeding program? I want to maintain a certain number of heifers per month, and I watch inventories. But, I mainly limit my numbers by watching conception rates and limiting the number of sexed services on a weekly basis through a system I put in DairyComp.

Tell us about your farm. We are a family farm in Platteville, Wisconsin. Owners are Louis and Ann Kieler, Eric and Leah Kieler, Matt and Renee Clark, Drs. George and Jackie Kieler, and myself, Dr. Dan Kieler. We milk about 2,000 cows and raise our replacements and crossbred bull calves. We also have a 160 beef cow-calf herd and farm around 4,500 acres.

ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR

Cows are milked in the 50-stall rotary parlor Feb. 28 at Kieler Farms Inc. near Pla eville, Wisconsin. The parlor was implemented when the family built a new site for 2,000 cows.

ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR

Dr. Dan Kieler checks a cow Feb. 28 at his farm near Pla eville, Wisconsin. Besides being a veterinarian, Kieler is part owner of Kieler Farms Inc. with eight family partners.

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Larson’s proposal pops with barn as the backdrop

By Abby Wiedmeyer abby.w@dairystar.com

ALMA CENTER, Wis. –

When Bailey Larson’s parents went on their rst full week of vacation in 27 years, she and her boyfriend, Adam Nordgaard, agreed to take care of chores. When Larson’s parents returned from their California getaway, it was to nd the couple happily engaged.

About half way through the week, Larson was nishing the evening milking when Nordgaard arrived to feed the cows.

“He asked me to come look in the manger in front of one of the cows,” Larson said. “Thinking something was wrong, I went over and started looking. He handed me the sweetest note.”

After reading the note, Larson turned around and found Nordgaard on one knee, asking her to marry him.

“I couldn’t have pictured a more perfect engagement,” Larson said.

Larson and Nordgaard have their own farm 20 minutes from Larson’s

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ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR

Adam Nordgaard and Bailey Larson stand in Larson’s parents’

dairy barn Feb. 26 near Alma Center, Wisconsin. The couple was recently engaged while doing chores for Larson’s parents while they were on vaca on.

parents where they raise 150 head of beef cattle from 500 pounds to nish. Some are owned, and some are custom-raised for another farm. Nordgaard also owns Legacy Livestock, a cattle hauling business. The couple farms 150 owned and rented acres at their farm.

Even so, Larson remains rooted in the dairy industry by serving on the dairy committee of the Jackson County Fair Board. After graduating from the University of WisconsinRiver Falls with a degree in dairy science, she took a job as a teacher for a year before taking a job for Premier Livestock managing consignment herds.

“I enjoyed teaching, but I wanted to be around cows,” Larson said. The couple is planning to have a winter wedding in January 2024. The ceremony will take place in a small church in Northeld with a reception following. They hired the same band to play at the wedding that was playing the night they met at a local bar.

“We gured a winter wedding would be more accommodating to the people we plan to have attend,” Larson said.

While her parents are in no hurry to retire, the prospect of Larson and Nordgaard taking over the farm is an option when that time comes. Larson’s parents milk 26 cows in a tiestall barn near Alma Center and have been on the site since 1980. Larson was raised on the farm and remains involved today.

For now, the couple is happy with their farm and visits to Larson’s parents, and they have time to think about what the future holds.

“Our farm is about 20 minutes away which doesn’t seem like a lot until you drive it two or three times a day,” Larson said. “So that is something we’ll have to gure out eventually.”

Larson visits her parents often, and she and her mom enjoy painting barn quilts. It is something they experimented with during the pandemic to pass the time. Now, there are several decorating the buildings.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Bailey Larson shows off her engagement ring in her parents’ barn where she recently got engaged to Adam Nordgaard. The couple helps on her parents’ farm near Alma Center, Wisconsin, where they milk 26 cows.

“He asked me to come look in the manger in front of one of the cows. Thinking something was wrong, I went over and started looking. He handed me the sweetest note.”

BAILEY LARSON

A purple ribbon tradition

Long-time county sale series celebrates 35 years

By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com

MARSHFIELD, Wis. – Thirtyve years ago, it was not uncommon for county Holstein organizations to band together and host a sale to help their members and other area dairy farmers market breeding stock from their herds. As the dairy industry has changed, that tradition has slowly waned.

One of the longest-running local sales is the Purple Ribbon Classic hosted and managed by the Wood Area Holstein Breeders. The 35th edition of the series was held March 4 in Marsheld with great success, boasting an all-time high average of $4,556 on 50 head. Cattle sold to nine states and one Canadian province.

The top-selling individual in the sale, at $22,500, was Lot 1. Ms Turbo Tempt Me-ET was the consignment of Milk Source LLC and Ransom Rail Farms Inc., of Kaukauna. Tempt Me was the purchase of the partnership of Winright Holsteins, Riverdown Holsteins and Aija Holsteins, all of Ontario, Canada.

“Our committee is honored by the continued support from our consignors, buyers and the local dairy community,” said Paul Lippert, Purple Ribbon Classic committee co-chair. “Our sale has come a long way in the last 35 years, and we are excited to continue the tradition for many more to come.”

The storied history of the sale dates to 1988 in Portage County when it was rst established as the Portage County Purple Ribbon Heifer Sale and was hosted by the Portage County Holstein Breeders.

They teamed up with the Wood Area Holstein Breeders, and eventu-

ally, the sale was moved to the Central Wisconsin State Fairgrounds in Marsheld. Cattle are housed in the World’s Largest Round Barn.

Lippert, along with co-chairs Nicole Pralle and John Hartman, head up a committee of over 20 Holstein enthusiasts from the Wood Area Holstein Breeders.

In addition to the adult Holstein

members who handle the planning and details of the event, the junior members of the organization chip in to provide much of the labor for the sale while the cattle are on the grounds.

This was the eighth year Lippert has served in such a capacity, but like many of his fellow committee members, his involvement in the sale goes back nearly as far as he can remember.

“I took over as a chair on the heels of the many years of work Dennis Bangart put into the sale,” Lippert said. “He laid a great foundation for transitioning the sale into the event it is today; the work he put in has made it easy for us to continue to grow it.”

Lippert said they continue to host the sale every year because of a large, active group of junior members. The sale is a fundraiser to support the juniors.

“Keeping the next generation engaged in the dairy industry and the Holstein breed is really important to all of us,” Lippert said.

Funds from the sale are used for a variety of purposes, including im-

provements to fairground facilities and other projects that impact the local dairy industry as well as beneting the area’s youth by subsidizing junior members attending the annual Wisconsin Junior Holstein Convention, supporting members of the various judging and dairy quiz bowl teams, and youth attending the Wisconsin Junior State Fair each year.

The area breeders also benet from the opportunity to showcase their best genetics in front of a large audience of potential buyers.

“The sale brings people to the area, and it really draws attention to the great Holstein breeders we have here in central Wisconsin,” Pralle said. “It is just as much about the people as it is about the cattle.”

Lippert said having a successful sale the rst weekend in March in central Wisconsin takes a great deal of planning and even more luck.

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR Wood County Junior Holstein member Wya� Dorshorst presents the top-selling animal, Ms Turbo Tempt Me-ET, to the crowd while ringman Lynn Harbaugh scans the crowd for bidders at the Purple Ribbon Classic March 4 in Marsheld, Wisconsin. The animal sold for $22,500.

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR

Purple Ribbon Classic commi�ee co-chair Nicole Pralle (from le�), commi�ee co-chair Paul Lippert, Amanda Gehrke, Paul Kuse, Alison Gartman, holding EZ-Wi� King Doc Daffodil, commi�ee co-chair John Hartman, Kenni Olson and Stephanie Hughes celebrate Gartman’s winning of a grant March 4 in Marsheld, Wisconsin. New this year, the Purple Ribbon Classic awarded the $1,000 grant to a junior member to use toward the purchase of a heifer in the sale.

“We really have an amazing group of people who work to make this sale happen, and that has been the case ever since it started. It is because of the hard work of all of those individuals, and that foundation that was laid 35 years ago, that it has been such a successful event for so many years.”

PAUL LIPPERT

“We just prepare as best we can and have plans in place for bad weather,” Lippert said. “We partition off the part of the round barn we use. We wash in the milking parlor, and we use bullet heaters to help with the cold.”

The sale has always focused on selling heifers, so the sale crew does not have to deal with the logistics of milking while the cattle are on the grounds.

Like all long-term successful events, the Purple Ribbon Classic has changed and grown over the years, making improvements and additions to continue its viability.

“About 25 years ago, we brought in another Wisconsin Holstein breeder, Tim Natzke, to help with sale selections,” Lippert said. “Tim has really been able to help us improve the group of animals sold in the sale and added some out-of-state markets for us. We’ve added some other sale staff members from outside of the area more recently, too, to help widen our market potential.”

In more recent years, the sale committee chose to use Cowbuyer, which provides live online bidding services during the sale.

“Cowbuyer really opens up bidding from outside of the area,” Lippert said. “There are only so many people who can carry phone bids, and it is a good insurance policy if we would have bad weather and people couldn’t make it to the sale.”

Lippert said the goal of the sale is to have animals that can be competitive at all levels and t every budget.

“We want to have good, solid, project calves available for our junior members, and we want to have those next-level heifers that create interest and demand too,” Lippert said. “We used to have to work to get those really good heifers. When things go well, it snowballs. People want to consign because the sale has developed such a good reputation.”

An added feature this year was a grant provided to one young person to put toward the purchase of a heifer from the sale. The committee determined it would open the application for the $1,000 grant to junior members from throughout the state. From 17 applications received, the committee selected Alison Gartman, of Sheboygan, to receive the award. With her grant money, Gartman selected EZ-Witt King Doc Daffodil, a junior 2-year-old due later this spring from an Excellent granddaughter of 2005 World Dairy Expo grand champion Holstein Budjon Redmarker Desire EX96-4E-GMD.

“We really have an amazing group of people who work to make this sale happen, and that has been the case ever since it started,” Lippert said. “It is because of the hard work of all of those individuals, and that foundation that was laid 35 years ago, that it has been such a successful event for so many years.”

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR

Sale-goers view the heifers offered at the Purple Ribbon Classic in the World’s Largest Round Barn March 4 in Marsheld, Wisconsin. This year’s annual sale marked the 35th year of its existence.

Katie Reineking Plymouth, Wisconsin Sheboygan County 60 cows

Family: My dad, Steve, and I are on the farm full time, and my mom, Patti, and brother Scott, both work off the farm but also help. I also have my own photography business I do on the side.

Tell us about your farm. We milk 50 Holsteins in a tiestall barn with AIC Expresso automatic take-offs. Our newborn calves are raised on milk replacer in Calf-Tel pens in our heifer barn. They are weaned at about 2 months and are moved to bedded pack pens. At breeding age, they move into free stalls and are bred through A.I. Our dry cows are also housed in this building in free stalls. We raise corn and alfalfa on about 200 acres and store feed in bags and Harvestore silos. We mix a partial mixed ration of corn silage, haylage, high-moisture corn and protein mix, and we top dress the rest of the highmoisture corn and protein. Heifers are fed a total mixed ration and hay. About 75% of the herd are Red and White Holsteins or red carriers and also registered.

What is a typical day like for you on the dairy? My main focus is working with the cows. I do both milkings every day by myself unless I have other commitments. I work with my dad on getting everyone fed and getting the barns cleaned. My mom feeds the calves in the morning and at night, but I check on them, bed them and take care of them as needed. I also do all our breeding and take care of newborns or sick cows as needed. I mix feed for the cows in the afternoon and every other day for the heifers. I bed the pack pens and add sand to the free stalls as needed. I go to sessions in the afternoons or evenings and will work on photography or 4-H dairy things in the afternoon or before I go to bed, depending on the time of year.

What decision have you made in the last year that has beneted your farm? I switched from Calf Guard to First Defense Tri-Shield paste on my newborn calves and have had much

less incidents of calves getting a bout of scours at 1 week old. They just keep cruising along once they hit the ground now.

Tell us about your most memorable experience working on the farm. I have a lot of great memories growing up on the farm and spending time with my grandparents and parents, but one of my most memorable is when my dad bought me my rst calf at the Great Northern Sales Arena. I was so excited to have a calf of my own and still have many descendants in the barn from her today that are all very special to me.

What have you enjoyed most about dairy farming or your tie to the dairy industry? Seeing all my hard work and decisions come to fruition and all the people I have met and opportunities I have received.

What is your biggest accomplishment in your dairy career? I’ve been attending World Dairy Expo for many years and always dreamed of being able to grace the colored shavings with one of my own animals. This past fall, I was able to exhibit my rst calf at WDE and place in the top half of my class while also being able to be an ofcial photographer for WDE.

What are things you do to promote your farm or the dairy industry? I have worked with the Wisconsin Holstein Association princesses and Sheboygan County Fairest of the Fair to take pictures for them throughout the year for the past couple of years. I also chair the 4-H junior dairy project for Sheboygan County. I work with others on the committee to put on activities for the kids and work with them throughout the year. I have also been able to cover other events and work for other businesses to help tell their story through pictures I have taken.

What advice would you give another woman in the dairy industry? Never stop learning and be open-minded.

When you get a spare moment, what do you do? I love to cook and bake when I get the chance and try out new recipes.

www.extension.umn.edu/dairy

Silage management does not end after harvest

One of the largest expenses for a dairy is the feed bill. Each Holstein dairy cow consumes approximately 50 pounds of dry matter daily to meet milk production needs. Of her total mixed ration, typically 50% to 60% can be ensiled forages. Many dairy producers put up silage or baleage after harvest and feed this part of the ration daily without another thought. Just like a silage bunk or bag will differ in moisture or crude protein from year to year, feeding practices and feed analysis might be worth further examination.

to change over time. To continue feeding high-quality silage, producers should monitor management factors such as silo feed-out and silo management during storage. These crop and management factors impact each other and the quality of the feed that arrives in the bunk during both the ensiling and long-term management of silage.

By Dana Adams U of M

Throughout the year, dairy producers send silage samples to feed labs to better understand the quality of what they are feeding their cows. Both crop factors and management factors can inuence the nutritive value of the silage coming out of the eld. Crop factors that impact the quality of silage include moisture content, buffering capacity and sugar content. Some common management factors that are important to monitor during harvest include chop length, silo packing speed and silage pack density. The silage that has been stored can continue

In mid-winter, little can be done to alter silage moisture content, chop length and packing speed that occurred during ensiling. Steps that can be performed to monitor and maintain silage quality include managing how silage is fed out and the silo itself. Creating and maintaining an anaerobic (no oxygen) environment with low pH limits the activity and growth of spoilage organisms. However, exposure to even a small amount of oxygen allows yeast to grow. Yeast converts organic acids and residual plant sugars to carbon dioxide, water and heat. This results in higher silage pH, which allows bacteria, yeast and molds, once inhibited by the acidic environment, to grow. These organisms consume nutrients and produce heat. To collect the highest quality silage from a silo or bag, the daily removal rate must be kept ahead of aerobic spoilage. This delicate balance can be navigated by sizing storage structures to forage needs. The removal rate is determined by environmental temperatures and the density

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of the silage mass, which affects the rate at which air permeates the forage.

All exposed surfaces of the silage mass allow oxygen to enter, therefore warranting a plan of attack to maintain silage quality. Properly packing and sealing structures limit exposure to oxygen, creating an anaerobic environment and limiting loss during storage. Once silage is taken from the silo and is exposed to oxygen, it begins to heat and spoil. The time it takes for this to occur is referred to as anaerobic stability. Anaerobic stability can be affected by spoilage organism populations, temperature, forage dry matter, or forage species, to name a few.

Management of the silage face is also extremely important due to its exposure from the time the bunk is opened until it is emptied. It can be thought of not as a proverbial sprint but as a marathon. Minimizing oxygen exposure can be accomplished by evenly removing silage from the face and maintaining a smooth vertical surface, perpendicular to the ground. Consciously working toward this goal can make this routine task really count toward maintaining high-quality silage.

Silage quality can vary throughout a pile or throughout a bag. Regular silage testing allows producers to know, rather than guess, if what they think they are feeding is in fact what the ration is pro-

Dana Adams, adam1744@umn.edu

320-204-2968

Joe Armstrong armst225@umn.edu

612.624.3610

Luciano Caixeta lcaixeta@umn.edu

612-625-3130

Gerard Cramer gcramer@umn.edu

612-625-8184

Marcia Endres miendres@umn.edu

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viding. Typically, silage samples arrive at a feed lab and receive a standard analysis. A lab’s fermentation analysis can be a more in-depth look into that feed. It can explain if excellent, average or poor fermentation has occurred. In some cases, it can qualitatively explain the poor nutritive value, high refusals and therefore low intakes by the herd. Now, a fermentation analysis should not be relied on alone but instead paired with a standard chemical analysis. Together, they can be used to evaluate if good fermentation occurred in a silage sample. Fermentation analysis may be used in identifying intake or performance issues. Feed and fermentation analysis can be used as a tool for making management decisions.

Silage management is a marathon and not a sprint. It requires a strong start composed of appropriate chop length, silo packing speed and silage pack density during ensiling. To maintain that highquality silage, strong silage management also requires maintaining an anaerobic environment through minimizing oxygen exposure to the pile or bag face. Starting with a quality silage, mindfully maintaining the silage face and regular sampling work together to allow producers to keep their ration on track and reach the herds’ potential.

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Dairy technology: What is out there?

In January, Torsten Hemme, CEO of IFCN Dairy Research Network and his team, along with Walt Cooley, vice president of operations for Progressive Publishing and editor-in-chief at The Cow Tech Report, organized a virtual event: the rst Global Dairy Tech Mapping. During this event, they shared a dairy tech map they created, a compilation of logos including approximately 190 dairy farm tech companies around the world. They classied them as small, medium or large based on how many cows are using the technology, with 71 companies in North America and 67 in Europe. There are so many technologies at different stages of adoption.

– About half of the virtual live attendees were concerned about the impact of reduced milk prices in 2023 on the farmers’ ability to invest in new technology.

– About half of the participants would like to see more technologies in farm management and about 20% chose health management or supply chain.

Plan to join us June 20-21 for the Precision Dairy Conference in Bloomington, Minnesota. Dairy producers, we want to have your participation. Cooley will be presenting an updated version of the dairy tech map.

By Marcia Endres U of M

Over 900 people registered for this event, which shows the high interest on this topic across the dairy supply chain. What about dairy producers? I do not know how many of them attended, but I think it is important that companies connect with dairy producers to identify needs they have and nd solutions to their challenges. Technology is here to stay, but every farm has different needs. Some might use very little technology, and others might be fully automated, use data integration, animal monitoring and so on.

Some key points from this dairy tech event:

– Software, automation and sensors are the most noticeable technologies on the map.

– Companies are focusing primarily on technology for overall farm management, health and feeding, with some more recent additions on data integration.

– Data ownership and data using rights will become a more important topic in the future.

– Ination, interest rates and world conicts can be challenges to attract funding for dairy tech development.

The theme of our conference is “Partnering with tech to improve dairy farm protability and sustainability.” Technology will not completely replace human labor and management. However, as a partner with humans, it can provide data for making the right decisions, help with labor challenges, make farm management easier, help improve animal health and welfare, demonstrate sustainable practices and more.

At the conference, we will have a dairy tech spotlight that will include types of newer technology in the U.S. market. One technology that is becoming more common is the use of computer vision. Cameras have become more affordable and articial intelligence and machine learning techniques are making it possible to detect and analyze for various things on the farm. At the session, we will have three companies using this type of technology.

One of the companies uses computer vision for monitoring employees in the parlor and checking for protocol compliance among other things related to milking procedures. Another one is using computer vision to detect lameness and to record body condition score automatically as cows leave the parlor. Lameness continues to be one of the most important animal welfare problems on dairy farms, and early, objective detection will certainly help

reduce lameness, which improves not only animal welfare with less pain but also improves protability with greater milk production. In addition, consumers want good animal care and less animal pain and suffering. A win-win-win! The third company uses computer vision to detect mastitis automatically with current installations in rotary parlors. A cow-side and farm ofce technology that can test the milk for mastitis pathogens and provide suggestions for the best antibiotic treatment for each case of mastitis will also be presented.

The session will also include an internal bolus that can monitor temperature, activity and rumination, a dairy management software company and a data-integration software company. With so much data coming from many sources, the producers need to have an easy way to use that information to make informed decisions.

Many factors inuence what is important when deciding to use or not use technology. Of course, one has to consider the need for each type of technology. Is it going to benet the operation’s bottom line? The level of comfort and skill using the technology is also important. A handy farmer or employee who can x minor issues themselves goes a long way to save money and making sure there is less downtime. We need to understand the economics of the technology. Will there be a return on investment? How much risk are we willing to take, especially with new technologies? Relationship, expertise and proximity of technology suppliers is also a key deciding factor. The farm needs to have the infrastructure needed to run the technology appropriately and effectively. The technology needs to be robust, reliable and withstand the farm environment.

Please join us in June for a discussion on dairy tech. This will be a neutral space for us to learn from each other and conference presenters, many of them being dairy producers sharing their experience with technology.

Nate Isensee Norwalk, Wisconsin Monroe County 40 cows

How did you get into farming? My grandpa had a farm. I grew up here and stuck around.

What are your thoughts and concerns about the dairy industry for the next year? Pay price of milk is always a big concern. I also wonder what will happen with the cost of inputs.

What is a recent change you made on your farm and the reason for it? I bought eight beef cows for extra cash ow.

Tell us about a skill you possess that makes dairy farming easier for you. I can look at a cow and tell if something is wrong with her. It is one advantage of having a small herd.

What is the best decision you have made on your farm? Putting up another silo. I avoid a lot of mud by not using bags.

What are three things on the farm that you cannot live without? My skid loader because it does everything. Everybody needs one. A good manure spreader to keep everything cleaned up. My cordless tools like the impact wrench. It makes xing things very convenient.

What strategies do you use to withstand the volatile milk prices? I don’t do any impulse buying, and I don’t buy what I don’t need.

How do you retain a good working relationship with your employees? Just roll with the ow. I don’t work with too many people; it’s mainly just me.

What do you enjoy most about dairy farming? Being my own boss and being outdoors.

What advice would you give other dairy farmers? If you can live without it, don’t buy it. If you have to use a pitchfork, then use a pitchfork.

What are your plans for your dairy in the next year and ve years? In the next year, I am going to pour more concrete to make a feed room next to the newest silo. In ve years, I plan to still be in business.

How do you or your family like to spend time when you are not doing chores? I enjoy high school sporting events, snowmobiling and looking for deer sheds in the winter.

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Garbage dump delights

I have always had great respect for garbage. The piece of furniture I have had longest and has gone with me every time I have moved is an old stereo cabinet my dad pulled from the dump south of Melrose, Minnesota, when I was a kid. It has been renished once by him and once by my husband – and I love it. In size and sturdiness, it is perfect for holding games inside and heavy lamps or knickknacks on top.

By Jan Lefebvre Staff Writer

My husband, Mark, is a respecter of garbage as well. When he was growing up on his family’s dairy farm, he, his brother, Greg, and the Goodin boys down the road would race on their bicycles to the dump in Dayton, Minnesota, to retrieve old bicycle parts. Then, they would recongure their bikes, using the parts to soup them up or make pedaled works of art. They even named their group the Dump Diggers.

When I married Mark and moved to his family’s farm, I soon learned some townsfolk think of rural farming areas as places to dump things, both of the living and the nonliving variety.

Since our farm was located near a spreading suburbia, people often dumped tires, couches, appliances and mattresses along the gravel roads around our farm and elds. I suppose some dumpers thought because farmers have equipment to move their garbage and land to store it, maybe they wouldn’t mind taking care of a little extra refuse. Others probably didn’t even give dumping a second thought.

The strangest dumped things were of the living kind in the form of pets no longer wanted. Various animals, often clearly former house pets, appeared from time to time. This was sometimes good and sometimes bad, for both farmer and animal. The animals lacked collars but had clean coats, clues they were most likely dumped off. No one ever came looking for them or posted signs with their photographs.

A dog that appeared one day from a probable drive-by received the name Rex or Ricky – Mark can’t remember which – and it had a keen sense of herding. Grateful for a second chance and liking the farm, he enthusiastically kept alert, ready to help move cows whenever needed. However, after a few weeks, he disappeared into the night.

Another dumped dog that wasn’t given a name and didn’t deserve one passed the time getting into the steer pen and chasing the steers around, upsetting them. Let’s just say he suffered an untimely end.

Snoopy, a cat named by my nephew because of its coloring being similar to the Peanuts character, was a jolly, purring dump-off who loved to be scratched behind the ears, unlike some of the inbred farm cats that were wary of most people. The farm cats all had patchy black and white fur and looked perpetually startled, but they were sly survivors. We called them the checkered kitties, naming none individually.

Poor Snoopy, however, suffered from farm inexperience. One day he walked over to me and revealed that half of his tail had been recently chopped off. My husband said it had happened in the silage blower fan, which began to turn while Snoopy was snooping in it. Mark had heard the shrieked meow and had seen the bloody aftermath.

Snoopy’s feelings quickly recovered. He didn’t seem too bothered by his new look. Afterall, now he matched a few of his also-dumped peers who had suffered similar cosmetic surgeries. The farm-born cats, taught by their mothers who were taught by their mothers, never seemed to lose body parts.

Our farm itself had a dump pile, hidden at the bottom of a steep hill. One day Mark and I strolled there for a look down history lane. Sitting between tractor parts, busted crates and other rusted farm items was a 1957 Chevy Mark’s uncle had wrecked back in the day. It still looked pretty cool. When we peaked in a doorless dishwasher, Snoopy was taking a nap in it, his stub tail sticking up behind him.

When the Lefebvre family sold the farm, we said goodbye to the dump pile, but that didn’t end my love of garbage.

Recently, Mark and I sold our home and the 11 acres we had lived on since we moved from the farm so many years ago. Our twins, Emma and Jackson, were 5 years old then. Now, they are 25.

Mark and I joke that we have become minimalists, getting rid of almost everything and moving to an apartment in downtown St. Joseph, Minnesota.

My stereo cabinet made the cut and came with us. It now holds our television.

In St. Joseph, the businesses around us all have huge outside garbage bins, but don’t worry; I’m not tempted. I love a good city dump, but I am not a dumpster diver.

Safety sense

Tonight, I had a weird sense of fear, almost a panic feeling. It came over me when driving into Walmart. There was a customer coming from the store carrying what appeared to be a gun case. As I parked, I watched him open his trunk and start moving stuff around.

The instinctual fear within me had my senses on high. Was it a gun case? What could he be doing in his trunk? Could he be loading a gun?

Could it just be a shing rod case? But, what if it is a gun? These thoughts took just seconds to run through my brain.

Shortly after, a younger woman came running up behind him, and they were arranging things together in the trunk.

What did she have in her bag? It was small; could it be ammunition?

They hopped in the car and drove around the parking lot and back up to the front of the store.

I was just watching what was going on. There was no way I was planning on walking into the store when my mind was telling me to wait. I sat still, watching and waiting, until the car exited the parking lot. My heart was pounding, and I know it sounds silly, but I listen to my gut feelings. If it doesn’t seem right, I stop. Am I paranoid? I don’t think so.

I have an app on my phone that is called NewsBreak. It is my method of getting news because I don’t listen to the radio or the news, so this serves as a quick look at what is happening locally, nationally and throughout the world. I am able to read about the earthquakes, derailed trains, tornadoes and also mass shootings. A mass shooting is dened as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.

Shootings have taken place in schools, churches and at public stores and businesses. There is a mass shooting somewhere in the United States almost every day. Jan. 1, there were ve mass shootings. Someone shooting into a crowd isn’t even headline news any longer. Shootings can happen anywhere at any time.

I am not a fan of guns. We have a gun, but I couldn’t tell you how to load it much less how to use it to euthanize an animal. I make my husband, Duane, put down a cow.

My parents never had guns. My grandfather was a pheasant, duck and goose hunter, but guns were never out in the open and were kept locked.

My son-in-law, Kevin, is a good hunter. He has taught my daughter, Anna, how to hunt with a gun and a bow. They have gone on hunting trips for alligators, iguanas and everything from pheasants to wild boars. Both have taken safety courses, and they have a hunting camp at their place every fall for deer season. The guns are stored in a safe, and the vibe is all about a good hunt. Safety is never compromised. They are trained and comfortable handling, carrying and transporting their guns to where they are hunting. It is a hobby that gets them off the farm for a vacation and recreation.

Annually at Christmas, Duane receives a gift card from Cabela’s with a large amount to spend. Anna suggested this might be the year we spend it on a handgun and some training on how to use it.

It might be time for me to get over my fear of guns. Would we be better to have a gun, or would it be just another thing we put in the safe? Would I wear it or keep it in my purse? If the situation arose, would I be able to use it? I still don’t know if I would be able to be comfortable carrying a weapon. So, we spent the gift card on a great pair of binoculars instead. I will think about purchasing a handgun for next year when we get another gift card.

The gift of fear that I perceive when something or someone doesn’t feel right is my body telling me to watch out. It is the tingling in my neck, the sense

that something bad could happen. I consider it my safety sense, and I don’t ignore it. I respect that my instincts can predict things I am not even aware of. It is better to wait in the car, leave an area or get away from the person who just feels wrong to be near. I don’t consider it rude; I consider it safe, and it could save my life.

Tina Hinchley, her husband Duane and daughter Anna milk 240 registered Holsteins with robots. They also farm 2,300 acres of crops near Cambridge, Wisconsin. The Hinchleys have been hosting farm tours for over 25 years.

By Tina Hinchley Farmer & Columnist

Spring by many other names

Mud season is here.

The time of year when attempting to keep a clean kitchen oor becomes absolutely pointless. Dog tracks make circles around the island. They have yet to gure out how to wipe their feet on the rug. Peanut can open the door, yes, but wiping paws is out of the question. The “I just needed to grab something to eat quick” tracks from children muck up the oor by the refrigerator.

Outside, the ice is still evident in places, looking as if a thin layer of epoxy has been poured over the gravel. Almost invisible, it keeps one waddling like a penguin out of concern for your body and the bruises a fall would most denitely cause. The rain we received last week has melted much of the snow, revealing just how much gravel and lawn was plowed up with the last snowstorm. As I sit and write this column, the heavy, wet, slushy snow that fell overnight sporadically slides off of the uppermost roof of my

house landing with a thud and a shake on the porch roof outside the kitchen windows.

Spring also means syrup season. Our neighbors and friends, the Duneks, enlist the help of all three boys to chase leaks in their system of hoses strung throughout the woods. They love to hang out with Craig, and he can handle Henry’s constant barrage of “How?” and “Why?” Ira and Dane are almost professionals now, having wandered the lines for Craig the past few years. Henry is eager and willing to be a part of the syruping crew. Oftentimes, we trade children. They get my boys, and I get to borrow a few of their little ones to come up to the farm to play with Cora.

This time of year, play equals climbing the mountainous sand piles near my hospital parlor. Road restrictions are on, and we are ready to keep the cows bedded. Cora and Henry decided that launching off the sand piles on a sled was a genius idea a couple weeks ago. Mom put the kibosh on repeating that

feat after Cora came to the barn with ripped overalls from the barbed wire fence below the road. She was unfazed about the incident: “Mom, you can just sew them back together.” I told her I only sewed clothes, not faces, and sledding off the sand pile was now illegal. Another part of sand season is that somehow every sand mountain explorer manages to get gritty sand particles all the way down to their innermost layers, and by the time

I pick up all the clothing tossed off on the way through the house, I have a load of laundry.

February was almost a vacation in the barn as far as fresh cows were concerned. I averaged about 10 cows in my hospital parlor all month. It was wild. It always seemed like there should be more, especially after the calving tornado that was January. March is expected to be quiet as well, with only 80 calves due. I was taking advantage of the warmer weather last week and heading off to clean some waterers out, explicitly telling Monique (on her third calf in the maternity pen) that she should get the job done while I was gone. I look forward to cleaning waterers out in the spring. Yes, they smell beyond disgusting, but the scrubbing and scooping of months of sand and cud build-up bring instant gratication.

By Jacqui Davison Columnist

As I headed back up the alley, there was Monique pacing in the pen. No baby. I locked her up and started inspecting the situation. Two babies. One breech, one in the preferred position. I wiggled calf No. 1, a heifer, out and gave her to her mom to lick the life into her. I started rearranging calf No. 2’s legs so I could pull it out safely and realized I needed two right arms. I called Peter and asked if he was ready for some quality time. He arrived with string cheese, a bag of Gardetto’s and, most importantly, another right arm. With him pushing the calf’s butt forward, I worked to get the legs up. We climbed the gate next to Monique to try and reach deeper; we tried to bump the calf around from the outside; we wiggled the calf this way and that an inch or two. An hour and a half later, after feeling as though I had given birth myself, we were successful. Heifer No. 2 was delivered, alive and well. By that time, Peter was covered with all the gooeyness that is part of the birthing process, and I had been blessed with a manure shower of epic proportions. I was cautious the entire time I was maneuvering the calf inside Monique and then let my guard down during the excitement of retrieving the second leg. That was when she pelted me. Splat. Bam. It was all over the top of my head, in my ear and down my shirt. I was a disaster. But, the calves were out and all was well. Peter gave me his bag of Gardetto’s, and Jaime said she would deal with the calves so I could go shower. I was rather odiferous. I could barely stand myself.

Happy mud-ice-calving-sand-spring season. Try to stay upright on the ice, keep your ears clean, take your boots off when you traipse into the house, and don’t try sledding on sand piles.

Jacqui and her family milk 800 cows and farm 1,200 acres of crops in the northeastern corner of Vernon County, Wisconsin. Her children, Ira, Dane, Henry and Cora, help her on the farm while her husband, Keith, works on a grain farm. If she’s not in the barn, she’s probably in the kitchen, trailing after little ones or sharing her passion of reading with someone. Her life is best described as organized chaos, and if it wasn’t, she’d be bored.

Ramblings from the Ridge

Too much information

Humans like simple, straightforward information.

For example, when we are ill and do not know why, we likely would go to the local doctor for help. The doctor might order one or more tests, and we might patiently await results. Most of us like results like positive or negative, and do not like results like most likely or maybe. However, in medicine, whether human or veterinary, even a simple positive does not necessarily mean certainty; thus, we need to be careful in interpretation. We veterinarians regularly see clients use interpretations of test results in ways that might cause one to make the wrong decision because it is hard for us to understand why positive might not actually mean positive, for example.

Tests have some inherent characteristics. Sensitivity refers to the ability of a test to correctly nd a positive result. For example, if you use on-farm culture to diagnose mastitis pathogens, the culture system might have 70% sensitivity to detect Staph aureus. That means the test would detect 70% of the truly positive samples. Specicity refers to the ability to correctly identify a negative result. So, for example, if the culture system has a specicity of 90%, it would correctly identify a negative result 90% of the time, but 10% of the time it would identify a true negative sample as Staph aureus positive. Tests also have something called positive and negative predictive values, which mean the actual sensitivity and specicity depend on the true prevalence in the sample population. This means, for example, that a test for Johne’s disease that has a specicity of 90% might not actually nd 90% of the true positives every time. If the population of tested animals have a really low rate of

true infection, the positive predicted value might be lower, and if nearly all of the animals actually have Johne’s, the positive predictive value might actually be substantially higher than 90%. This can be hard to get one’s head around, but it is important.

Let’s go back to the on-farm culture test. The Minnesota Easy Culture System II is probably the most widely used and best on-farm milk culture system. This test has two available systems, a Bi-plate and a Tri-plate. Perhaps we have a result that we think is Streptococcus uberis. We make the diagnosis and treat the cow according to the on-farm protocol. Is this appropriate? Unfortunately, it is not. According to a paper by Royster, et. al., (Journal of Dairy Science, 97:3648-3659), the Bi-Plate and Tri-Plate had high or intermediate sensitivity for the broad categories of no growth, gram positive, gram negative, Staph. aureus and Streptococcus spp., but both tests had poor sensitivity and specicity to identify more specic categories, such as Strep uberis. From the paper, “The results of this study suggest that using the Bi-Plate or Tri-Plate to identify specic bacterial species, other than Staph aureus, will frequently lead to inaccurate results and should not be attempted.” Thus, our test result may not actually be correct, and we should not make the diagnosis of Strep uberis even though the interpretation looks pretty clear.

There is another problem with test results. Let’s say you want to compare inseminators’ performance on your farm, and you decide to look at each breeder’s conception rates. You are pretty sure that each breeds the same type of cows, e.g. standing heats versus timed breeding, so you think that Joe’s conception rate of 52% is much better than Tony’s rate of 46%. You are likely correct in judging that the sensitivity and specicity as well as positive and negative predictive values of pregnancy diagnosis are very high, especially when combined with observations over time, such as a cow coming back into heat or not. However, the problem here is the certainty of knowing the results are really different might be very low. How can this be? The answer lies in the inability of a cow to be a little pregnant or a little open. Pregnancy is what we call a binomial outcome, meaning yes or

no, or one or two. What if Joe and Tony each only inseminated 15 cows? There are not many possibilities of results with so few cows. In fact, one might need hundreds of breedings to actually tell the difference between a 46% and 52% conception rate. To understand this better, we use something called condence intervals. Anyone who has looked at the BREDSUM command by inseminator in DairyComp305 should have noticed those little bars on the graph of results. The bars represent the “real” results, meaning the results we can be sure are correct with 95% condence. So, for example, if Joe’s bars range from 44% to 60% and Tony’s range from 38% to 54%, the bars overlap, and we cannot say the results are actually different. We should make decisions based on these results with great caution.

These are just two examples of test results that may lead us to make the wrong decision. These results are really too much information and should be ignored rather than acted upon. For help interpreting any test results on your dairy, ask your veterinarian. They are experts in this area and can help.

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.

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Veterinary Wisdom

Turning 40 with a Colombian vacation

Last month, I left you guessing what mountainous, warm, Spanish-speaking place we’d be visiting with dairy farms. The wait to nd out where is over. I’m sure the suspense was keeping you up at night.

We visited Colombia for my 40th birthday. I’ve wanted to go there since I saw pictures of Colombia in papers and magazines. Many people reminded us to stay safe when we mentioned our vacation plans, and many people assume the country is mostly jungle. But, it has a bit of everything from snowy mountains to warm beaches to temperate forests and, yes, deep jungle; although, we stuck to the mountainous area in the middle of the country.

We ew into the city of Rio Negro outside of Medellin, Colombia, and stayed in a hostel near the airport our rst night there because the best ight leaves Minneapolis at 6 a.m. and doesn’t get to Colombia until 10:30 p.m. Most of the day is spent sitting in Miami. The next morning, we woke up and got a big breakfast at the hostel/ car rental/parking lot/gas station/taxi restaurant. It seemed pretty typical for businesses to be two to 10 different things all at the same time. Our cab driver showed up just as we nished our cups of coffee and hot chocolate to take us to pick up the motorcycle we rented to get around the country.

The cab ride through the city of Medellin was fun

as we got to see most of the large city tucked in a mountain valley. The trafc was crazy with every inch of road occupied by vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles and people. I was glad someone else was driving. After an hour ride from the southeast corner of the city to the northwest side, we arrived at the home of Jeff Cramer, an expat Colorado guy. After being a successful professional photographer for years all over South America, he started a motorcycle rental and tour business in Colombia. We packed a few clothes and our rock-climbing gear on the bike with Jeff wondering if we were crazy. When we told him we intended to climb to the top of a well-known granite monolith that is a tourist

attraction in a nearby town, he decided we were crazy and wished us luck but said he wasn’t worried about us as anyone goofy enough to want to do that would have no problem with anything else they’d encounter.

On our rst day of riding the motorcycle, we discovered a couple things about Colombia. There are no straight or at roads as you are always going up or down a mountain and following the winding path of a river. Also, mountains are rather geologically unstable so at any time a perfect four-lane highway may have a 3-foot deep dip in it or, inversely, a big berm that you would go airborne off of if not avoided or gone over slowly. The mountain also

Inside Every Seed is the Potential for an Incredible Harvest

tends to slide down onto the roads or the roads slide down the mountain. The highest speed road we encountered was 80 km/h, which is slower

with our years

than some people drive gravel roads in Minnesota. The challenge of moving goods around the country became clear to us pretty quickly and explains a lot of how people live and work there.

We rode the backroads around Medellin in a big circle, stopping to admire the cows and pastures often. We never did stop and chat with any dairy farmers unfortunately. Our Spanish-speaking skills are good enough to get around and have simple conversations, but we quickly found out that we don’t speak nearly enough Spanish to drop in unexpectedly and discuss dairy farming with anyone.

The areas that were drier and also hotter had beef cows and large ower farms. The areas with more rain, and thus better pastures, had the dairy herds and avocado plantations. The biggest herd we saw maybe had 50 milking cows. So, at least in that region, there are not large farms. The dairies were all part of a cooperative called Unilac, and milk was stored in cans in sheds along the road for pickup by a milk truck. Where the cows were actually milked we did not see other than a guy hand-milking a cow next to his house. We saw one Brown Swiss and the rest of the dairy cows were Holsteins or Jerseys. Often, the cows watching us ride by were Holstein-Jersey crossbreds.

Until next time, keep living the dream, and maybe go check out dairy farms somewhere new. There’s always something to learn.

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

From the Zweber Farm

Taking stock of dairy’s strong history

Our dairy industry was built by generations of hard work, grit, determination and innovation. In the course of the daily activity on our farm, we often fail to remember how hard previous generations labored to not only make a living but to create our dairy industry.

The NexGen: Adventures of two dairy daughters

By Megan Schrupp & Ellen Stenger Columnists

Recently, we embarked upon an adventure that gave us a small glimpse into the history of our industry. It has allowed us a fresh perspective of what our ancestors experienced and an appreciation of some small things we take for granted. We now understand what Maya Angelou meant when she said, “If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going.”

Cream separators were invented in Sweden in 1880 by Gustaf de Laval. De Laval devised the rst mechanical cream separator that used centrifugal force to separate cream from milk. Historically, separation was done by simply waiting for the cream to rise to the top of the pan and then skimming it off or draining the milk from the bottom. This invention and the Babcock test, a method for determining the percentage of fat in whole milk or cream, is credited with changing the entire trajectory of the dairy industry.

Over a decade ago, we purchased a McCormick Deering 3-S cream separator developed by the International Harvester Company in 1940. At the time, we thought it would be a necessary addition to our collection of antique dairy equipment, as cream separators were once a staple on every dairy farm in the country. Income was generated from the sale of cream rather than uid milk itself. The cream was rst separated on each farm, loaded into cans and sold to the local creamery.

Recently, we’ve been giving more thought to the origins of our food; even as farmers, we discover how little we’ve experienced. During this time, we happened upon our old separator, which had been forgotten under a tarp in the back shed. Upon further investigation, we concluded that our separator was in pretty good shape and something should be done with it. Incredibly, it contained

all the necessary stainless steel parts for actual operation. In our rst column, we mentioned that we milk some Guernseys, a breed that our grandfathers milked generations ago. How interesting it would be to process Guernsey milk and separate the cream as our ancestors did almost a century ago. However, before we could undertake that adventure, our separator needed some care. Our neighbor, an experienced restorer of antique tractors, gave the separator an overhaul with new coats of original maroon-colored paint, a few new gold decals to go along with some of the originals that remained and a thorough polishing of the stainless steel parts. As in any adventure, a surprise also occurred. While rummaging through an antique store in northern Minnesota, our father, Vern Becker, found the instruction manual for our 3-S model.

Armed with 10 gallons of fresh Guernsey milk, we were ready. Our owner’s manual instructed us on how to correctly assemble the separator. The most crucial part of the assembly was the bowl, containing 30 individual stainless steel dividing disks. When spun at a high rate, these disks separate the cream from the milk. The manual also aided us in providing careful instructions for the operation of the separator, regulation of the density of the cream, and cleaning and maintenance of the motor, clutch and gears. Slowly, we poured our milk into the supply can on top. We started the motor, opened the faucet and drained the milk into the dividing bowl. Running at 1,725 rpm, skim milk began quickly pouring out of the lower spout. After what felt like ages, the cream sluggishly began creeping out of the upper spout, markedly thicker and slower than any of us expected. The other surprise was the color difference between the extremely pearl white skim milk and the Guernsey cream’s deep golden color. As we stood there watching the separation in action, a thought occurred to us. A century ago, we would have needed to hand crank this separator at 60 rpm for all our milk every day before it was sold for processing. How much work that must have been. The labor savings that occurred when technology, such as a motor, was applied would have been incredible. The plethora of things on our dairy we use every day to accomplish mundane tasks were once life-changing innovations. The hard work of the generations before us, the smart-thinking innovators who created solutions and advances in our industry, is something we should all pause on and remember where we once were and where we are today.

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

Redeker Dairy Equipment Brandon, WI

Seehafer Refrigeration, Inc. Marshfield, WI; Sparta, WI

Stanley Schmitz Inc. Chilton, WI

Glencoe,