March 25, 2022 Dairy Star - 1st Section - Zone 2

DAIRY ST R25

Diagnosis then direction

Plourd discusses

Keller survives near-fatal accident

Lake City woman recovers from incident with cow

By Amy Kyllo amy.k@star-pub.com

By Kati Kindschuh kati.k@dairystar.com

MADISON, Wis. – As global economy trends continue to keep farmers on the edge of their seats, industry expert, Phil Plourd, was able to deliver insights and information on the global and U.S. dairy markets heading into 2023.

LAKE CITY, Minn. –Peggy Keller was given a 1% chance of living after a cow crushed her chest. Yet, she is alive today.

Peggy and her husband, Fred, milk 125 cows and farm 320 acres with their son, Brian, on their farm near Lake City.

ing. She had nished scraping and was heading into a side room of the stanchion barn to wait for more cows to come in the barn. A cow was standing with her head in the side room door, blocking her way. The door stood at a 90-degree angle with the cement block wall of the barn.

Phil Plourd Ever.Ag Insights

Plourd was a presenter Jan. 18-19 at Dairy Strong in Madison. He is the president of Ever.Ag Insights.

Plourd began with good news, telling the audience that the “death of dairy” has been wildly exaggerated by the media.

“Per capita, consumption of dairy products in 2021 was reported at 650 pounds per person per year,” Plourd said. “Overall, the dairy story is positive. Total cheese, butter consumption and yogurt is up by consumers, while ice cream has seemingly lost ground.”

Cheese is a big player in dairy markets, Plourd said.

“The pounds of milk that go into cheese versus pounds of milk going to uid milk, cheese has made up the difference in the loss of uid milk consumption,” Plourd said. “From an industry standpoint, we’d rather have people overseas eat pizza with U.S. mozzarella cheese.”

Retailers love cheese and butter promotions, Plourd said, so they are using these product promotions as trafc drivers to continue to get more shoppers in their stores.

Peggy sustained a lifethreatening injury in an accident with a cow in their stanchion barn. Peggy’s injuries included all of her ribs being broken except the top two, a collapsed right lung and a centimeter-sized hole in the right ventricle of her heart.

On Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022, Peggy was helping with tasks for evening milk-

Peggy was standing against this cement wall when she attempted to get the cow to move out of the doorway. The cow pulled her head out of the door, and instead of going to her stall, put her head into Peggy’s chest. With a cement wall behind her and no sorting stick to stave her off, Peggy had nowhere to go.

“I’ll never forget that big cow’s head staring me in the face,” Peggy said. “I could have pushed her out of the way or something. … I didn’t think. I was just freaked out and frozen.”

Brian discovered Peggy around 7 p.m. after hearing her calls for help.

Peggy was taken to the hospital in Lake City and then was airlifted by Mayo One to the Mayo Clinic in Roches-

ter. She needed emergency surgery that night. Medical

Farm & Industry Short Course moves

Historic ag program

nds new home in River Falls

By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com

RIVER FALLS, Wis. –A year after drastic changes were made in the University of Wisconsin Farm and Industry Short Course program, more changes are on the horizon for the state’s storied post-secondary agricultural training program.

The UW-River Falls announced March 7 it would become the new home for the program, restoring it to a residential, for-credit experience, beginning with the 2023-24 school year.

“There was a lot of discussion from the industry about the value of the program, and it was clear that there was a real strong desire to have it be a residential program some-

cal t,” Kelm said. “We started testing the waters, looking at the logistics, and were thrilled when we could put forth the announcement.”

The rebooted FISC program will operate as a traditional 16-week program from Oct. 30 through March 15, 2024. The rst year, the program will be limited to 20-24 students, allowing the school to keep class sizes manageable and for lab sections to be pared down to two groups of 12 for increased one-on-one interaction and hands-on learning experiences.

Twelve residence hall rooms have been reserved for students in the FISC program, Kelm said.

last November, the groundwork began for moving the program.

University of Wisconsin-River Falls students par cipate in hands-on learning experiences at the university’s Mann Valley Farm Dairy Learning Center. The university announced it will be the new home for the Farm and Industry Short Course program. where, and it seemed that River Falls might be a t,” said Dr. Steve Kelm, a professor with the UW-River Falls College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences.

Kelm said that beginning

“I got positive feedback from our administration; we are really a strong ag college, and they felt this was a logi-

“We’re not sure what dorms yet, but we are planning to not have them be all in one area,” he said. “We want these students to have the experience of getting to know other stu-

“All dairy, all the time”™

AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR

Peggy Keller stands in the calf barn March 7 on her dairy farm near Lake City, Minnesota. Keller survived an accident with a cow in the stanchion barn that le her needing 35 units of blood.

dairy market trends from 2022 leading into new year

PHOTO COURTESY OF UW RIVER FALLS CAFES

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Dairy farmers may see a further squeeze on margins in 2023. “Cow numbers are higher than what we had been forecasting and that incorporates into a 200 million pound increase in the U.S. milk supply,” said Mark Jekanowski, chairman, U.S. Department of Agriculture Ag Outlook Board. “Year-over-year, that would be up 2.1 billion pounds.” USDA cut its all-milk price forecast by 20% for the year, averaging $20.45 per hundredweight.

NMPF Board endorses federal order reform

After two years of debate and more than 130 meetings, the National Milk Producers Federation board of directors is giving its support to a proposal to modernize Federal Milk Marketing Orders. This proposal will be submitted to USDA for a federal hearing and a possible producer referendum. Federal orders have not had a signicant change in nearly 25 years.

More farm bill funding needed

A coalition of 400 agricultural groups is asking Congress to provide an increase in funding for the 2023 farm bill. In a letter to lawmakers, the coalition said the recent ad hoc disaster programs do not provide a timely or reliable safety net for farmers. The letter was signed by Farm Bureau, Farmers Union and trade groups representing everything from corn and soybean industries to dairy associations.

Farm bill needs to keep next generation in agriculture

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall testied at the farm bill listening session in Waco, Texas. Duvall said food security and national security should be taken into consideration when developing the next farm bill. “Crop insurance is the cornerstone of our farm bill, and we need to broaden it, modernize it, and update targets and loan dates,” Duvall said. He also emphasized the importance

of conservation programs and keeping younger generations interested in agriculture. “Look around the room at the average age of farmers; we have to do something to make agriculture attractive to young people so they want to come back to grow the food and ber of the future,” he said.

Evers challenges FDA guidance

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration, asking the agency to reconsider its position on the labeling of plant-based dairy replacements. The FDA guidance would allow products made from nuts or plants to be marketed as a dairy product. Evers said inaccurate labeling creates confusion in the marketplace and “threatens one of the core industries within Wisconsin’s $104.8 billion agricultural economy.”

Food prices continue to move higher

While the overall ination rate came in at 6%, food ination is at 9.5%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports athome food prices were up more than 10% last month. Food consumed away from home increased in price by 8.4%.

WOTUS regulatory uncertainty

James Callan Associates CEO Jim Callan said the issue

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Rotary

Rakes Wheel Rakes Tedders

Con nued from AG INSIDER | Page 2 of prior-converted wetlands is a concern. “That is a big issue for folks in the Prairie Pothole Region,” Callan said. “I’ve been on a call with them (the Environmental Protection Agency) where they were asked questions about prior-converted wetlands, and I didn’t think their answers were as solid as they could have been, so I’m worried about that going forward.”

Farmland Preservation Program update

The Wisconsin Legislature is considering a bill that would tweak the Farmland Preservation Program. This proposal would increase the tax credit for farmers who enroll their land in the program and follow specic conservation practices. The timeline for participation also declines from 15 years to 10 years. Rep. Loren Oldenburg of Viroqua and Sen. Patrick Testin of Stevens Point authored this bill.

Short course moves to UWRF

The Farm and Industry Short Couse is moving to University of WisconsinRiver Falls with UWRF Animal and Food Science Chair Steve Kelm overseeing the program. Last year, UW-Madison announced it would be moving from an on-campus certication program to an online non-credit course. The course will be a residential program starting this fall with a class of 24 students.

A favorable spring outlook

World Weather Incorporated Senior Agricultural Meteorologist Drew Lerner offered an optimistic view for the 2023 Midwest crop. “Most likely, the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest will have a fairly good growing season,” he said. Lerner sees the potential for a ridge of high pressure to build in the central part of the country, which could dry out a portion of the Corn Belt and High Plains.

Cheese sticks for adults

Crystal Farms is expanding its snack cheese stock lineup to include two new avors that target adults, Gouda and sharp cheddar. A company spokesperson said the focus on an adult audience is being done “because cheese sticks are a great, well-balanced option for people of all ages.”

Martin moves to USDA

USDA has appointed Prescott Martin III as the senior counsel in the Ofce of the General Counsel. Martin previous-

ly worked as chief counsel for the House Agriculture Committee under former Chairman Collin Peterson

Ag committee approves Rominski nomination

Fifteen months after taking the role, the Wisconsin Senate Agriculture and Tourism Committee approved the nomination of Agriculture Secretary-designate Randy Rominski

WFBF hires Fiocchi

The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation has hired Tim Fiocchi as its senior director of governmental relations. Most recently, Fiocchi was chief of staff for State Sen. Jerry Petrowski

Behnke returns to World Dairy Expo

Lisa Behnke is the new communications manager for World Dairy Expo. This is a familiar role for Behnke who had the same job 12 years ago. Most recently, Behnke was the marketing director for Indiana-based Egg Innovations. Behnke also has experience with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, The Cattle Connection and Ag Source Cooperative Services.

Dunn moves to WCMA

Ryan Dunn is the new manager of business operations for the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association. Dunn succeeds Sara Schmidt, who is now the WCMA membership engagement manager. Previously, Dunn was a grants manager for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Trivia challenge

Lous Pasteur is the 19th century French biologist who created the practice of pasteurization. That answers our last trivia question. For this week’s trivia, how many glasses of milk does the average cow produce in a year? 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.

crack open her sternum in order to do the operation. Her heart stopped on the operating table, and they shocked it six times in order to get it started again.

“I could have died,” Peggy said. “I’m a walking miracle, I’m told. I’m just so thankful that they kept trying to start my heart and didn’t give up sooner because otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

Later, Peggy had the opportunity to meet and thank a member of the medical staff who was there the night of the surgery.

During her medical emergency, Peggy received 35 units of blood. She received two units in Lake City, eight on Mayo One and the rest at the Mayo Clinic. She and her family are grateful they lived near a facility with enough blood to save her life.

Peggy’s daughter was shocked after reading the clinical notes and seeing the amount of blood given.

“She said, ‘If that isn’t a kick in the butt to or an incentive to give blood, I don’t know what is. … It could save a family member’s life,’” Peggy said.

Peggy became fully awake and alert Oct. 12. By the weekend, she was able to walk with a physical therapist. Peggy remained in the intensive care unit for over a week before being transferred to a regular hospital room.

After the accident, Peggy temporarily lost some of her ability to use her motor skills, which made mealtimes, writing and using her cell phone challenging.

“Eating was hard, too, because my hands didn’t function,” Peggy said. “First, I started on a liquid diet and then eventually I had soft foods like Jell-O. And that was even hard to manage the spoon.”

On Oct. 24, after a hospital stay at Mayo Clinic, Peggy was transferred to the hospital in Lake City for rehabilitation. She said the staff in Lake City were excited to see her because they had not expected she would live.

Peggy returned home Nov. 2 to nish her healing process, 25 days after the initial accident. She said she had lost her muscle tone while in the hospital and used a walker and a cane while she regained strength. She was able to do physical therapy to help her navigate steps again too.

A meal train was established within days of the accident and continued until right before Thanksgiving.

Fred is grateful for all the support.

“Thank people for all the prayers, all the food and all the help,” he said.

Several neighbor boys have been helping them with calf chores since the accident.

Fred said the family was not told at rst just how dire the prospects were for Peggy’s survival.

“God didn’t have a place for her in heaven,” Fred said.

After her traumatic accident in the stanchion barn, Peggy will no longer be helping with milking.

“I just told the guys when I was in the hospital that I’m done,” Peggy said. “They understood, but I am willing to help with calf chores when needed.”

Peggy has experienced almost complete healing from the accident. Currently though, she is recovering from two broken wrists from a fall on the ice in early February.

In spite of the accident, Peggy continues to enjoy rural life.

“I still really love living on a farm,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to live in town.”

Dr. Steve Kelm promotes the Farm and Industry Short Course program’s reloca on to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls March 15 at the Professional Dairy Producers annual business conference in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Credits earned in the FISC program will be transferable into the school’s four-year program.

dents that might think differently than they do to broaden out their thought process. I think that it is a good thing for these young students. They may not know it at the time, but these kids usually nd they have broader interests than they might think they do.”

Kelm said he sees value in giving FISC students the platform to share their own story of agriculture during their on-campus experience.

“It is just as important that the other students can learn from the FISC students, to learn from their life experiences,” Kelm said. “To put forth the message for agriculture and the dairy industry, it needs to go both ways.”

For the rst year at least, the revised FISC program will focus on the dairy industry, as Kelm said Wisconsin’s dairy industry has always been the program’s bread and butter.

“Over the years, the program had expanded across other topics, but to start, we are living the motto of learning to walk before we run,” Kelm said. “The majority of the students are part of the dairy industry, so that is what we are going to focus on rst – dairy farm and dairy cattle management.”

Credits earned in the FISC program will be transferable to the school’s fouryear program. Kelm said classes for both programs will be constructed from similar curriculum.

“From a curriculum stand point, the FISC classes will be built in one- to twocredit modules,” Kelm said. “The in-

tent of doing that is to take some of the content area out of existing courses. For example, there might be a semester-long, threecredit course that covers six or seven topics, and we can pull out sub-topics for one- or two-credit FISC classes. Then, if they do wish to transfer into the four-year program, they are pretty easy to stack on each other.”

Kelm is excited for the opportunities that FISC students will have to branch out and participate in groups and activities on campus, such as the dairy club and other student organizations.

“That will be a point of emphasis,” Kelm said. “They will be River Falls students, and that allows them to take part in anything that is offered to our students.”

Kelm said the university is working on nalizing the application and admissions process for the rst class of the revamped FISC program, with a tentative application deadline of June 1.

When determining admissions, Kelm said the school will look at a variety of things, including involvement in other agricultural activities such as 4-H and FFA as well as considering the future plans of each student.

“We want to look at how we can best serve these students, how do we see them tting in and becoming successful members of the dairy industry,” Kelm said. “We will be reviewing their goals and looking for students we can really benet. Within FISC, we need to give some of these students a chance. I am anticipating a wide range of academic ability. Some will be very capable in the classroom; some will be very much hands-on learners where the classroom isn’t a good t for them.”

Kelm said his focus is promoting the program and creating interest, and he encourages prospective students to visit the FISC page on the UW-River Falls website and ll out the request for information. Those requests will be sent directly to Kelm to generate a contact list of prospective students.

“Individuals across Wisconsin and Minnesota realize that we run a student-rst program, and I think people are happy with the prospect of FISC coming here,” Kelm said. “We are very proud of our four-year program, and we want to build FISC correctly, strengthening and adding value to both programs.”

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More than simply a side hustle

Smith, Rosenow diversify on large scale

By Abby Wiedmeyer abby.w@dairystar.com

WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. – Ken Smith and John Rosenow are dairy farmers. But, they have more than their occupation in common.

Both were sparked by an idea that led to large-scale diversication of their respective farms.

Smith and Rosenow shared the stories of their diversication journey at the Professional Dairy Producers business conference March 16 in Wisconsin Dells.

Smith was hauling a load of hay to

his Vermont dairy farm on a hot Saturday when he noticed all the people driving by were off to spend their money somewhere. He thought they should spend it with him instead, and the idea for Moo Thru, a farm-direct ice cream shop, was born. Thirteen years later, Moo Thru has two locations, six franchises and four additional shared locations.

Rosenow was expanding his Buffalo County dairy when the concept of all the manure that would come from the cows inspired him to design a compost site as part of the expansion. Rosenow began Cowsmo Compost in 2005. Today, the compost material is sold in 22 states. A large portion of the business is supplying the organic trade in the Upper Midwest. While their businesses are different, the dairymen shared similar feelings of determination and innovation to diversify their dairy farms.

When Rosenow started trying to sell the compost, he drove around with a truckload of the product and tried to sell it to retailers.

“There’s some kind of feeling when you go into a place and you make a sale,” Rosenow said. “You walk out of there and you have a big smile on your face and you kind of know you’re a … salesperson. But, that’s a different skill set that I never had being a dairy farmer, and I kind of liked it.”

Rosenow said, along with developing a marketing mindset, it is important to create a good product. The compost that is produced on

his farm meets all organic requirements, even though he has a conventional dairy. The manure solids are separated and hauled to a 3-acre blacktop site. The piles are turned when they reach above 131 degrees. Once they are dried, they are formed into a nished pile and sold.

Most of the product leaves the farm in semitrucks, but it is also sold in bags at retail locations and on the Cowsmo Compost website.

Smith said that in order to achieve a good product consistently, people need to be willing to make sacrices.

“I want people to patronize my product, and I’ll do that by not ever putting out a bad product,” Smith said. “My daughter makes all of our ice cream, and she has taken 25 3-gallon boxes and thrown them into the dumpster because she didn’t like the taste of them after it was frozen. You’ve got to be willing to sacrice.”

When starting the ice cream business, Smith said his loan ofcer required a plan on paper. He talked with other ice

cream store owners and got an idea of what equipment costs were but still did not have a concept of whether his plan would work or not. It was also an initial investment of half a million dollars, Smith said.

“You’re already leveraged because you’re a dairy farmer,” he said. “You’ve got to be willing to improvise and make adjustments.”

Smith started by renovating an antique store. He has expanded three times in 13 years. One event that propelled his growth was being featured on the Washington, D.C. morning news. Otherwise, his location on the corner of a four-lane highway offers exposure.

Both Smith and Rosenow said it took a few years to generate a positive cash ow. While it is important to them to have a successful business, they both make sure to have fun with their diversication projects. Smith said it was a big

PHOTO SUBMITTED

The compos ng site at Cowsmo Compost was added to John and Ne e Rosenow’s Wisconsin dairy farm during an expansion. The compost material is sold in 22 states.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Moo Thru is an ice cream business in Vermont run by Ken Smith and his family and employees. They use milk from their Vermont dairy farm to make ice cream, selling it at 12 loca ons.

Con nued from SIDE HUSTLE | Page 8

reason for going into the ice cream business instead of cheese or bottled milk.

“Everybody who comes to me for ice cream comes with a smile on their face,” Smith said. “I’ve never seen a grumpy person standing in line, and I’ve seen as many as 85 people standing in line at once.”

Rosenow shared a similar attitude regarding the compost product.

“One of the criteria when we started this is, any business that we’ve dealt with, it has to be fun,” Rosenow said. “If it’s not fun, then why the heck do it? So, this has been quite a ride.”

Along with a marketing mindset and a desire to make the job fun, Smith said it is important to keep an open mind.

Con nued from PLOURD | Page 1

“The price of butter got to $3.25 at the (Chicago Mercantile Exchange), and late summer we saw aggressive promotions,” Plourd said.

Plourd said retailers benet more from selling a pound of cheese versus a gallon of milk because margins are small for uid milk.

“But, (uid milk) is not as big of a disaster as you might think,” Plourd said. “Fluid milk is down 4% in 2021 and projected to be down 2.3% through November. It’s only 19.5% of milk production in 2021, compared to 34% 20 years ago. Alternative milk has 10% market share of beverage milk sales in 2021, down 2% in 2022. They went backward for the rst time in a long time.”

Fluid milk became less popular simply because consumers have a large selection of options, so consumers are shopping more broadly, Plourd said. Also, the decline in cereal sales led to a decline in uid milk sales.

“The biggest problem for uid milk is that its best friend got sent to sugar jail,” Plourd said. “Pouring a bowl of cereal takes a lot of effort. You need a bowl, spoon, milk, time to sit down and clean up. It’s a hassle for the modern consumer. Sales are down 30% on cereal by volume since 2009, and uid milk is down 26% by volume since 2009.”

Plourd outlined critical factors for 2023.

“Milk prices went down in late 2021, and the U.S. is currently in a downward trend for cow numbers, but in 2022, milk production has bounced back up,” Plourd said. “Cow numbers are up on a year-to-year basis now.”

The question is how much more numbers will go up and for how long.

Plourd also discussed the cost of production between California and Wisconsin as they are the two largest players for milk production in the U.S.

“It’s $3 more per cow on cost of production in California versus Wisconsin,” Plourd said. “Cost of production is $22 per hundred weight in California versus $18.50 per hundredweight in the Midwest.”

Because it is more cost effective to produce in the Midwest, it would make the most sense to continue growing cow numbers in Wisconsin. However, there are other challenges.

“We can’t grow all that much because there aren’t replacement heifers,” Plourd said. “Inventory numbers show 3.7 million heifers, less than 40% ratio to dairy cows – the lowest level by those measures in eight or nine years. The animals are scarce and expensive, which is a barrier to growth.”

Another barrier to growth are the base/excess programs where processors are looking for smart growth from producers.

“My wife lay in bed at night and said, ‘What are we going to do? Nobody’s going to come,’” Smith said. “And I said, ‘Well, it could always be a dentist’s ofce or a used car lot.’ So with that thought, you’ve got to be willing to improvise to make the adjustment work.”

Rosenow related to the feelings of anxiety through dairying but was more optimistic about the compost venture.

“There were a lot of times when we were farming that you stay awake a little bit at night, wondering if we are going to lose the whole thing tomorrow,” Rosenow said. “But the compost business wasn’t really like that. It kept growing, and it was always kind of a delight.”

“Processors are full, so you can ship X, but if you ship X+, you’ll get a penalty,” Plourd said. “In the southwest and northeast, dairy processors have very stringent restrictions, making it hard to grow milk production under these programs. In the Midwest, there’s been enough plant expansion around the edges of the territory to support more cows, but it’s still hard to grow milk production.”

With a record year for dairy exports, cheapest in the world for 2022 but with high prices, $9.5 billion worth of dairy products were exported in 2022, which is 2.8 million metric tons. This is up 27% from ve years ago.

“We exported 15%-20% of U.S. milk production in 2022 as a result of Europe and New Zealand (being) on a limping export market,” Plourd said.

Plourd said this has opened some doors in global marketing.

“Long term, the U.S. has tremendous opportunity, and the situation in Europe is interesting,” Plourd said. “When European quotas went away, milk production exploded, and now it’s coming down because of environmental situations. The European government wants to cut cow numbers by a third, putting the U.S. in a strong position for exports in the next 3-5 years.”

As there are opportunities arising, there are also critical factors to remember.

“The U.S. consumer is approaching 2023 cautiously because ination is a big deal,” Plourd said.

As the job market remains strong, there is still a big gap in unemployment and job openings.

“The job market is evolving, which impacts consumer spending,” Plourd said. “Dollars spent at the gas station are dollars not spent elsewhere. If gas prices go up, consumer spending will shift again.”

Plourd also said we can never underestimate what he called the laziness of the American consumer.

“Post-pandemic, consumers are relying heavily on food delivery services,” Plourd said. “Services like EatStreet or DoorDash continue to hold strong as it’s convenient for consumers to get food delivered to their door. These services have COVID to thank for their boom in popularity as people ordered delivery services when they could not leave their homes at the height of the pandemic.”

In the near future, Plourd said he expects to see strong cheese and butter production and exports as foreign demand remains strong while international production continues to decline. The global scene, as always, has many moving parts.

“It is a pretty amazing story,” Plourd said.

400 COWS

“When faced with the decision to go to two compressors or the HiPer Chiller to cool milk in our two bulk tanks, we decided upon the HiPer Chiller because of its versatility. The HiPer Chiller also allowed us to have saleable milk as soon as the milk hauler arrives. In our opinion, it better maximizes our investment in milk cooling.”

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Ushering in efciency

New parlor keeps Woodards dairying

By Amy Kyllo amy.k@star-pub.com

WINONA, Minn. – Jimmy and Michelle Woodard are working to ensure their future.

The Woodards built a milkhouse and parlor and milked their herd in the new setup Jan. 25. The Woodards milk around 100 cows and own two farms for a combined 435 acres near Winona.

The new parlor is important to continuing the Woodards’ farm. Jimmy said without the parlor, they likely would not have been dairying for much longer.

The Woodards installed a double-8 parallel pit parlor with a BouMatic Xpressway indexing system. The Woodards bought the milking equipment from Lester and Donna Banse who were retiring. They transitioned out of a 21-inch, double-8 stepup parlor.

Michelle said increased efciency and consistency is one of the most important advantages of the parlor, leading to high milk production. The faster milking setup allows their cows more opportunities to rest and eat and less time spent in the holding pen. The Woodards’ old milking system had begun to take up to four to ve hours per milking by the time they transitioned out of it. In their new parlor, milking and clean up takes around 2.5 hours.

The goal of the parlor was that one person could easily take care of milking.

“Ideally, we were looking for it to be a oneperson operation,” Michelle said. “To position ourselves that if something happened to me, or something happened to him, one of us could easily ll in that void.”

The Woodards also hope that less time spent in the parlor will allow Jimmy to get into the eld more.

“Last year, … I didn’t plant any corn,” Jimmy said. “I baled maybe 100 bales of hay. I didn’t have time to get out there. We were grateful to have other family members to assist with our crops.”

Jimmy said the additional time should yield better crops.

“Maybe we get a little better quality or the crop in on time to get better yield,” Jimmy said.

The updated parlor has been in the process of fruition of a long time.

The Woodards bought the rst of their two farms in 1998. They built their 87-stall, sandbedded freestall barn in 2003. Their old step-up parlor was installed in 2005. Originally, the plan was to remain in that setup for ve years. However, the dairy economy of 2009, a stroke Jimmy suffered in 2012 and the building of a 30-stall dry cow freestall barn in 2014 pushed the parlor transition back.

Jimmy said the cows seemed to adjust to the parlor for the rst milking.

“Nobody missed a beat; they all milked out the rst time,” Jimmy said.

The Woodards had six people to help with the rst milking, and the whole process took them two hours. Michelle said the hardest part of that rst milking was getting the cows to be used to the windows in the parlor. The Woodards were milking by themselves after only six milkings.

Michelle said they were concerned their somatic cell count might increase because of the unit switch, but their SCC did not go up when they transitioned into the parlor. The Woodards, who ship their milk to Associated Milk Producers Inc., have an SCC around 150,000.

The Woodards hope to increase their herd and milk 150 cows by this fall. They have been building their heifer inventory so they can transition heifers directly into the parlor. Currently, they have around 60 heifers, half of which are bred to calve in. They also plan to buy around 20 cows in the meantime.

The parlor addition features high ceilings which were built to accommodate their future dream of putting in a vertical indexing system. The parlor has wide, gradual, cement steps going down into one side of the pit and metal steps on the other side. Jimmy wanted the cement steps because he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis four years ago. In the front of the parlor, there are several large windows that add natural light.

Comfort wise, the parlor is heated with a radiant heater Eventually, the in-oor heat will also be ready. The deck and the pit have rubber oor mats.

The Woodards used many contractors for building and installation. Lang’s Dairy Equipment, of Decorah, Iowa, installed the milking system. Jimmy said the last four days before the transition, the dairy equipment installation team was there from 8 a.m. until 11:30 p.m., often with four or ve men working during that time to make sure they would hit the Jan. 25 deadline. During the project, they also remodeled their heifer shed by putting in electricity, water fountains and concrete mangers.

With multiple contractors working on different areas, there were days when the Woodards’ yard was full.

“I’ve got video – seven trucks in the yard and

GRACE JEURISSEN/DAIRY STAR

Jimmy and Michelle Woodard stand outside their new double-8 parallel pit parlor Feb. 17 on their farm near Winona, Minnesota. The Woodards transi oned out of a double-8 step-up parlor.

“Ideally, we were looking for it to be a one-person operation. To position ourselves that if something happened to me, or something happened to him, one of us could easily ll in that void.”

MICHELLE WOODARD, DAIRY FARMER

The Woodards started milking in their new double-8 parallel parlor Jan. 25. They milk around 100 cows and own two farms near Winona, Minnesota.

12 different workers here for two or three days,” Jimmy said.

The Woodards said others looking to undertake a similar project should set clear expectations and dates in place when working with contractors.

Michelle said she is happy with the work the contractors did.

“All of our contractors are just amazing,” she said. “They all did a really great job.”

Because they had multiple contractors, Jimmy said he wanted to foster collaboration.

“We had a meeting prior to start,” he said. “I just asked them to please

respect each other’s time because you all have other work to be doing and other jobs. If you work together, it’ll ow better.”

With every building and renovation project, the Woodards said they try to envision how the current project could tie into a future project.

“So, when we built the other barns, we always left rebar and water lines stubbed out so we could tie in and do the next step,” Jimmy said.

In the future, the Woodards are considering converting the old barn they milked in into housing for dry cows.

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Alemar Cheese Company creates old-world products

By Amy Kyllo amy.k@star-pub.com

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. –Light pours in the windows and the air carries a note of ripening cheese at Alemar Cheese Company. There Charlotte Serino and her team focus on individual details and attention to their cheese.

“Every time someone gets a piece of cheese from us, it’s basically been touched by everyone in the plant with gloves on,” head cheesemaker Serino said.

When it comes to old-world cheese making, Serino said it comes down to not cutting corners. At Alemar Cheese Company, they focus on creating cheeses that are true to their variety, sacricing extended shelf life and other advantages in favor of a cheese that robustly embodies its type.

The company, which started in 2008, partners with Corstar Farm, a predominantly Guernsey, grass-fed family dairy near Litcheld. Alemar Cheese Company purchases all of the farm’s milk, picking it up twice a week and using it to make between

Hand crafted

450 to 1,000 pounds of cheese each week.

Serino said part of what makes Alemar Cheese Company old-world is sourcing their milk from one farm. As an artisan cheesemaker, Serino said she adjusts her cheese-making process to the milk they are receiving. The time of year and fresh cows all affect the milk. She said the milk will be thinner and have less components in the summer when the cows are on grass compared to less volume but higher components on a hay-based diet in the winter.

“You have to adjust some of your renneting, culturing and timing in order to compensate for that,” Serino said.

An advantage of the Guernsey milk is its golden color. Serino said the color of cheese can be important to consumers even though adding food coloring to cheese does not change the avor.

“There’s a reason people add annatto to cheese,” Serino said. “You can give someone white American and yellow American, and they’ll think they taste different because of color. So, the yellow color in the milk is important.”

Serino said she sees artisan cheese making as a blend of art and science. Part of why she enjoys cheese making is that there is room for creativity while also having distinct bounds.

Turn to ALEMAR CHEESE | Page 13

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PHOTO SUBMITTED

Charlo e Serino holds cheese at Alemar Cheese Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Serino has been the head cheesemaker there since 2021.

Bent River, the agship cheese at Alemar Cheese Company, is a Camembert. It is a rind-ripened cheese, which means the mold on the outside of the cheese ripens the inside whereas hard cheeses ripen from the inside instead. Alemar Cheese Company wants their Bent River to be an authentic Camembert. However, because of the intense avor and super creamy texture, it comes inherently with a shorter shelf life due to the chemical makeup of the cheese.

“The sort of theory I outlined with the Camembert is you could make a product that’s stable for six months,” Serino said. “Or, you could try to make something that’s really true to the spirit of the thing.”

Serino said there are different cheese-making techniques that can be used to make a cheese like a Camembert milder or have a longer shelf life such as modulating the fermentation, using a less aggressive strain of mold or adding cream to the milk. However, she said this is not the goal with the Bent River.

The Bent River, Serino said, should be eaten at most three months after being made because the avor prole of it continues to change even after it is not aging. The best window to enjoy the Bent River is between six to eight weeks after it is made because, at this period, there is a good balance of full avors.

“It tastes like butter and mushrooms and broccolis, some mustard greens and a nice bit of umami and, you know, just like funky barnyard avors,” Serino said.

Alemar Cheese Company makes nine cheeses. The Bent River was the rst cheese the company sold. Serino developed their newest cheese, Apricity. She learned the techniques to make the cheese on a goat farm where she previously worked. The cheese has its own unique avor

prole, and the cheese-making process is different from any of the other cheeses Alemar Cheese Company makes.

The company’s staff is comprised of six individuals, including Serino. Many of the staff come from restaurant backgrounds. Serino got started in cheese making by making cheese for herself. When she later worked at the goat farm that produced Apricity and other artisan goat cheeses, she gained many of her cheese-making skills. She also served as a cheesemonger at several grocery stores before joining Alemar Cheese Company in 2021.

Alemar Cheese Company sells their cheese mostly through grocery stores. Their products are also carried at Whole Foods Market, Lunds & Byerlys, Kowalski’s and other locations. Customers can buy cheese directly off the company’s website as well as sign up to be part of their cheese club subscription. The company’s products can even be found in California.

The Food Building, where Alemar Cheese Company has resided since 2019 after moving from Mankato, sells their cheese at the site’s café as part of the menu. Serino said the café gives her an outlet for cheeses she is experimenting with. Currently, she is working on developing a blue cheese and an Emmental cheese, which is a hard Swiss cheese.

Alemar Cheese Company is creating more options in the dairy case. Serino said the uniqueness and creativity within cheese making that they bring is a positive contribution to the dairy community.

“It’s a celebration of avor, Serino said. “It’s a celebration of food. It’s not trying to speed things up and cut corners.”

AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR

Charlo�e Serino washes Good Thunder cheese in beer Feb. 28 at Alemar Cheese Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The company makes nine different ar�san cheeses.

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

Jacob Twohey Stewartville, Minnesota Olmsted County

280 cows

How many employees do you have and what are their duties?

We have one full-time employee and three part-time employees. Our employees are responsible for feeding and bedding calves, scraping crossovers, raking free stalls, cleaning waterers and robot rooms, and miscellaneous tasks around the farm.

What shifts do your employees work? Our full-time employee works from 6 a.m. to mid-afternoon depending on how busy we are that day. One of our part-time employees works varying hours during the middle of the day depending on what her personal schedule allows. Finally, our other two part-time employees switch off working from 4-8:30 p.m. doing night calf feedings and miscellaneous cleaning in the barn.

How do you nd employees? The No. 1 resource we have for nding employees is other employees. Oftentimes, when we need a new employee, we ask our current employees to help nd someone to hire. In the past, we have utilized online hiring platforms such as Indeed and ZipRecruiter to nd potential candidates.

What are qualities you look for when hiring employees? Prior to having robots, we usually did not have the ability to be selective when hiring an employee. Most often, we needed the employee more than they needed our job. Since implementing robots, we have drastically reduced our reliance on employees. We look for employees who are reliable, attentive and eager to learn new things.

What training process do they go through after they are hired? After an employee is hired, we usually have them work four shifts with our lead employee, and then I do a walk through with them to make sure they have a good grip on the job. Additional training shifts are scheduled if necessary. We just started milking with robots last August and have yet to hire a new employee. If we hired an employee today, I would likely do more of the training myself as I am more involved with our employees’ daily tasks now.

What are keys to retaining good employees? Competitive pay, paid time off and a schedule that works for the employee are denitely keys to getting an employee to come work for us. However, the best ways to get employees to stay are being exible with their schedule, being clear with our expectations for them and what they can expect from us, and engaging them with the tasks they do by allowing them to provide input.

What have you learned from your employees? Our employees have shown me the value in teaching the why behind what we do instead of just teaching how to do something.

Tell us about your farm. We milk 250 Holstein cows with four DeLaval V300 robotic milking units and farm 1,300 acres of corn, soybeans, alfalfa and peas. Our milk is sold to First District Association in Litcheld, Minnesota.

Jenna Grulke (pictured with Paul Grulke and Vanessa Achterhof) Baldwin, Wisconsin St. Croix County 560 cows

How many employees do you have and what are their duties? We have 13 employees, including myself. I am the farm manager and handle the nancials, employee management, and hospital and fresh cows. My husband, Paul, is the herd manger, and my sister, Vanessa, is the calf manager and works with the youngstock. My dad and my uncle feed youngstock and clean those pens as well as doing all the eldwork. Joe is our mechanic and allaround life saver. We have seven employees who milk, clean pens, and feed cows and calves.

What shifts do your employees work? They work two shifts, ve days a week, and that is about 10 hours a day. Then, they have one shift for one day and have one day off a week. We milk three times a day, and it take about 4.5 hours to milk. Our morning shift is a little longer as that is when we do our deep cleaning every day. In one shift, I have two milkers and one scraper. The feeder feeds every morning and will milk three nights a week.

How do you nd employees? A lot of the employees I get are family or friends of the ones I already have. This is nice because they hold each other accountable, and we don’t have to worry about them not getting along. We also have a good group of farms in the area that help employees nd jobs and get connected with the right people.

What are qualities you look for when hiring employees? One of the biggest qualities is respect. This is determined the minute they walk in the ofce and how they present themselves. Do they ask how we are doing? Do they have a good hand shake? Are they dressed appropriately? A lot of them will walk right over to my milkers and converse with them – from that you can tell a lot as well. Are they laughing? Are they yelling at them? Are they respecting they are working right now and not stopping them from work? The respect carries over how they treat my cows as well. That is more important to me than respect to us as we can work on that and set boundaries or rules. The cows cannot, and I want the best care for my girls.

What training process do they go through after they are hired? A lot of the training I do with them is hands-on. Most of the time, it is myself and another employee of mine working together to train. Sometimes asking the boss questions is more intimidating

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than asking coworkers. The more questions they ask, the better. It has been a while since I have had an employee who has no experience, but when I have, they seem to catch on fast. On day No. 1, my expectations are high, and that helps them carry their work through and do a good job in their work.

What are keys to retaining good employees? We work side-by-side with all of them day in and day out. As an example, Mondays we are in the parlor marking heads for herd check, and then, the scraper is helping us sort them out for the vet. We are present and talk with them about their concerns or their ideas. A lot of them want to be heard and talked to about decisions on the dairy. They see a lot that we may not see. We cover their shifts whenever they want off, and we then see things that we wouldn’t have noticed doing our daily jobs. It helps them feel important when they have a voice and can feel comfortable talking to us about issues or even ideas.

What have you learned from your employees? Lots! Everyone who steps on this farm has some sort of knowledge to share with all of us. Some employees who have come from other dairies like to share how they did things and sometimes that has beneted us. A little side note, we moved to this facility about 3.5 years ago, and when that happened, we looked to the employees on how to get a schedule and set up everything. So for example, we asked them when they thought we should dry off. We asked if we should do it while milking or after milking to not hold them up. They like it when we can accommodate them as well.

Tell us about your farm. Albedarned Dairy was started in August 2019 in Baldwin, Wisconsin. We moved from a facility in Wilson, Wisconsin. There, we milked 250 cows in a double-8 parallel parlor. When we moved to Baldwin, we doubled in size and had better efciency. We now milk 560 cows in a double-17 parallel Boumatic 2050 parlor, and our milk goes to Associated Milk Producers Inc. We raise all of our calves. The bull calves nish out as steers, and the heifers are raised on pastures year-round. Our heifers are bull bred and cows are bred with A.I. We raise our feed within 25 miles of the dairy. We raise corn silage, corn grain, soybean, oat, grass hay and alfalfa. We bed with manure solids. We have a screw press that gets the manure down to about 65% moisture. Then, these solids are placed in the freestall daily. Cow comfort is huge for us, and manure solids allows us to keep that a high priority.

Jody Miller Avoca, Wisconsin Iowa County

250 cows

How many employees do you have and what are their duties? My husband, Dan, and I work full time on the farm. Our duties include milking, breeding cows, herd health, treating cows, manure hauling, bookkeeping, eldwork and all the farm management. We have ve fulltime employees. Two of our employees are family members, a brother-in-law and one son. Their duties are to mix feed, feed calves, haul manure, help with crops, work as custom baling operators and general farm labor. They start at 8 a.m. with an hour lunch and are usually done between 4-5 p.m. We have three employees whose main job is milking.

What shifts do your employees work? We milk three times per day. I milk the morning shift with one of the employees, and the other shifts are alternated between the other three employees. Each milking shift takes around 3-4 hours, depending on fresh cows, etc. Their duties include milking, cleaning the parlor and milking equipment, pushing feed, scraping manure from the alleys, cleaning waterers, and preparing and cleaning footbaths.

How do you nd employees? Our help found us. Our farm is located out in the sticks. We hosted our county dairy breakfast in 2018, and our employees saw the signs by the main road and came to the farm. We had been struggling with part-time help for years. We used to milk all shifts ourselves and just hired when we wanted a milking off, but it was so hard to nd help. So, we bit the bullet and hired fulltime help, and it has been great. We have excellent employees and now great friends.

What are qualities you look for when hiring employees? Unfortunately, one of the main things we all look for in an employee these days is someone who will show up. We look for people who are good at communicating and willing to take direction. We also look for people who are going to treat our animals right.

What training process do they go through after they are hired? When an employee is hired, we go through every step of the job and work with them

directly for a good week. Sometimes there is a language barrier, and in those instances, we use Google to translate on our phones. We use pictures as training tools and hands-on training. After two weeks, we follow up and answer any questions that may have come up and help with anything they are having trouble with.

What are keys to retaining good employees? With the exception of morning milking, our employees make their own schedules. They work together with days off. When they all need off at the same time, we cover those shifts. We give raises every year. We provide housing, and if housing isn't needed, we pay extra to that employee. Employees receive meat and Christmas bonuses. One of the big things we have found helpful when dealing with employees is to address any problems immediately. It's best not to let things go. We make sure we listen to our employees’ ideas and let them know how much we appreciate them.

What have you learned from your employees? I always try to remember that each employee is a person. I have found that communication is huge. It's so easy for something little to turn into something big. I try to treat them how I would want to be treated. It's important to remember to say thank you for a job well done and to not assume anything. We try hard to make our farm a good place to work. We have heat in the parlor in the winter and big fans in the summer. We have a full break room, bathroom, shower, washer, dryer and employee benets.

Tell us about your farm. We milk around 250 cows three times per day. We have about 100 head of youngstock. We have a DeLaval Champion double-12 milking parlor. Within the last year, we installed the SCR ear tags and activity system and the DelPro system in the parlor. Both systems have been a wonderful addition to our farm. The activity tags have helped with heat detection and knowing the best time to breed the cows. With the DelPro system, we are able to monitor milk yields after every milking and create high and low cow reports, create pregnancy checklists and so much more. We farm around 800 acres of land. We plant corn, alfalfa, soybeans and some wheat. We also do custom work for others. We do custom big square baling, planting and combining. We sell our milk to Scenic Central Milk Producers, and most of our milk goes to Meister Cheese in Muscoda, Wisconsin. We received an award from them for having a 57,000 somatic cell count average for 2022. This is such a huge accomplishment for us. We all work very hard to keep this number down. We couldn't do it without great help.

Jennifer Toberman Patch Grove, Wisconsin

Grant County

700 cows

How many employees do you have and what are their duties? We have

ve milkers who only milk cows and help a little with fresh cows if it’s during hours that the regular guy is not there. There is another employee who is in charge of the calves. We keep our crossbred bull calves, and he takes care of heifer calves too. Then, our assistant herdsman helps me with all the herd health, hoof trimmer, etc.

What shifts do your employees work? Milkers work 6.5-hour shifts, and there are three milking shifts. Usually each guy does two shifts a day, sometimes one. The calf feeder is here from 4:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. pretty consistently. He also helps with the cow feeding in the morning. The assistant herdsman is here pretty much all day as well.

How do you nd employees? They actually came to us. Two of them have been here for 20 years. From there, it’s been word of mouth. If we have an opening, our employees usually nd replacements.

What are qualities you look for when hiring employees? Easy to communicate with, dependable and willing to continue to show up, and can take direction. What training process do they go through after they are hired? They come and milk a few shifts without pay, and that’s their training. The other employees kind of show them the ropes. We also have a translator who comes to the farm, and he also works with me quite a bit if we’re having issues or if we need to work on something. I also have him come and observe employees milking and kind of grade them for their own personal growth to know they’re doing a good job and following the procedures correctly.

What are keys to retaining good employees? Setting goals for them for somatic cell count. All of their housing needs are paid for including utilities, heat and all the appliances in the house.

What have you learned from your employees? There is a ne line between treating them like family and like employees.

Tell us about your farm. We milk 700 cows and crop 1,200 acres of hay and corn. We milk in a double-14 parlor, and our milk is shipped to Grassland Dairy Products.

the ve young ladies crowned Stearns County Dairy Princesses

Five ladies (from left) Kalie Ritter, the daughter of Glen and Leslie of Avon, Lanna Walter, the daughter of Dave and Cathy of Sauk Centre, Grace Woitalla, the daughter of Keith and Patty of Holdingford, Megan Ratka, the daughter of Kevin and Kathy of Cold Spring and Sophia Schiffler, the daughter of John and Kristie of Albany were crowned Stearns County Dairy Princesses at the annual banquet March 11 at the Freeport Community Center. Ritter and Ratka were scholarship winners and Ritter was named miss congeniality.

Ambassadors are Emily Peters, the daughter of Jeff and Melanie of Sauk Centre, Marissa Hartung, the daughter of Mike and Nancy of Opole, and Bethany Gerads the daughter of Tim and Karey of Albany.

Breeding Prole

Genomic testing propels Summit Dairy to the top

John Westra

Summit Dairy

Primghar, Iowa

O’Brien County

850 cows

Describe your facilities and list your breeding management team. Our free stalls are bedded with a mixture of sawdust and ground soybean straw. We milk twice a day in a double-14 parallel parlor. Irene Cancino, our herdswoman, has played a big role in our operation. She keeps an eye on things and makes sure that the cows stay healthy and happy. We also work very closely with our veterinarian, Dr. Beau Bosma.

What is your current pregnancy rate? Our herd’s pregnancy rate is currently 55%. Our current days open is 110 days with 153 days in milk.

What is your reproduction program? All of our breeding is done by Erik Bleeker and Nick Krogman of Select Sires. We have adopted a voluntary post-freshening waiting period of 70 days.

We do all of our breeding based on activity that’s been recorded by our CowManager ear tag system.

How do you get animals pregnant? We never use pre-synchronization. We use ovsynch only rarely, if

an animal doesn’t show any signs of heat by 90 days postpartum.

Describe your breeding philosophy. Don’t overstock the pens and make sure that the cows are clean, comfortable and calm. When you handle the cows, treat them the way you would want to be treated.

What guidelines do you follow to reach the goals for your breeding program? We want to have at least 40 heifer calves born each month. We do genomic testing on all of our cows and heifers and use that information to help us choose sires. We will breed our animals twice with Holstein sires. If they don’t settle after two services, we will switch to Angus sires.

What are the top traits you look for in breeding your dairy herd and how has this changed since you started farming? We look for good feet and legs, good body composition and high milk components. We don’t like frail cows as our cattle have to spend their whole

JERRY NELSON/DAIRY STAR

John Westra, herdswoman Irene Cancino and John’s son, Johnny, stand together March 14 in the double-14 parlor at Summit Dairy near Primghar, Iowa. Summit Dairy milks 850 Holsteins twice a day.

“What I like best about Udder Comfort™ is really two things that are related: The removal of swelling and how it helps with cell counts. We started using it more routinely with our fresh cows 5 years ago. The Udder Comfort Sprayer makes it easy, fast and uses 30 to 50% less spray per application. With more routine use of Udder Comfort, we get better results, seeing consistently lower SCCs, now averaging below 100,000, and the savings from better udder health,” says Matt Nealy. Matt is the ‘cow guy.’ He and his father Steve, cousin Tommy and uncle Tom operate the third generation Nealand Farms, milking 400 cows near Newville, Pennsylvania, MDVA co-op’s 2020 Producer of the Year, recognized for outstanding milk quality, animal care, farm and environmental practices.

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

“It gets swelling out faster

time on concrete. The use of genomic testing has helped us dial in our herd’s genetics.

What are certain traits you try to avoid? Bad feet and legs, bad udders and poor teat placement.

Describe the ideal cow for your herd. She is medium sized, has good body depth, good feet and legs, and a sound, well-attached udder.

What role does genetics have in reaching the goals of your farm?

It has been huge. We have been doing genomic testing for seven years and have used the information it has provided us to help us make deci-

sions regarding embryo work, breeding and culling.

What percentage of your herd is bred to sexed, conventional and beef semen? We have done only a small amount of embryo transfer work over the years. We breed the top 20% of our herd with sexed semen. The rest of the herd is bred twice with Holstein semen, followed by beef sires.

What is your conception rate? Our overall conception rate is 49%. Our conception rate with sexed semen is 48% and 52% with beef semen.

What is the greatest lesson you have learned through your breeding program? Keeping the cows comfortable is key. The cows will do their jobs if you pay attention to them and give them the tools they need.

All of the cows at Summit Dairy wear ear tags that track the animals’ ac vity. Breeding is done strictly based on the informa on that is supplied by the ac vity monitoring system.

What is the age of your heifers at rst service? 13.5 months.

How does your heifer inventory affect your breeding program?

We have plenty of heifers for replacements and are even able to sell a few. This in turn has affected the way we have been able to make our culling decisions.

Tell us about your farm. My wife, Rachelle, and I have four daughters and one son. Our daughters help

on the farm in their own ways. Our son, Johnny, is getting married in the fall and has decided to join our operation on a full-time basis. We have 12 employees, and our herd is 100% Holstein. We are the stewards of the cattle and the land and take care of them the best we can. That’s what the Lord calls us to do; nothing would be possible without him.

JERRY NELSON/DAIRY STAR

John Westra (le ), owner of Summit Dairy, discusses the results of a herd health and pregnancy check with veterinarian Dr. Beau Bosma March 14 at his farm near Primghar, Iowa. Summit Dairy recently adopted a system that involves wai ng un l 70 days postpartum before breeding their cows.

JERRY NELSON/DAIRY STAR

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The chute provides comfort for the cow and easy use for the operator during trimming, breeding, palpitation, and other vet work.

• AHG2011 Automatic Headgate standard

• Front and back Belly Belts provide better animal stability

• Rubber flooring provides safe footing and is quieter creating less animal stress

• Side panels for optimal animal access

• Durable powder coated steel frame with zinc rich primer

• Dimensions: Width - 40”, Length - 92”, Height - 82”

We ship SpeeDee and UPS!

Pine Hollow Farm perseveres for six generations

By Abby Wiedmeyer abby.w@dairystar.com

CASHTON, Wis. – Every morning since he was a young man, Bill Hansen has gotten up early to milk cows. He is not the rst Hansen to do so on Pine Hollow Farm nor will he be the last. The farm has been in the family for 158 years, and the sixth generation plans to continue the legacy previous generations have built.

“I always liked to milk cows,” Bill said. “Even when we work all day in the elds and have to come home to milk cows, I always feel like I got a second wind.”

Bill milks 55 cows with his wife, Lori, and his son, Paul, near Cashton.

While the cows are housed in the original stanchion barn, the farm has seen its share of changes since Bill’s ancestor, Lambert Hansen, purchased the farm in 1865.

When Bill was in high school, he and his dad worked together to complete chores. At that time, the family usually milked around 60 cows, and one year they were up to 80 cows. The

NEW & USED EQUIPMENT ON HAND

ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR

Lori Hansen stands with her husband, Bill, and son, Paul, March 10 on their farm near Cashton, Wisconsin. Paul is the sixth genera on to dairy at his family’s farm. They milk 55 cows.

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milking was done with buckets, and Bill would haul 20 cans of milk to the nearby cheese factory before going to school in the morning.

“We used to have to carry the cans over to the little house,” Bill said. “That’s when they had the cement tank with the water in it, and you’d set the cans in the water to cool.”

Later, a can cooler was installed. Cans would slide into the cooler, and when switched on, it would spray ice water over the buckets to cool the milk. Eventually, a bulk tank was installed, and the family used a Step-Saver to pump the milk from the buckets to the bulk tank.

“I couldn’t imagine doing that anymore,” Bill said.

The farm consists of 200 tillable acres. It is one of the rst farms in the area to utilize contour strips, which Bill’s dad and grandfather implemented in the early 1950s. The strips are planted to a corn and oat rotation, and they stretch a mile long and 70 feet wide in some areas.

Bill started renting the farm from his dad after high school. He and Lori got married in 1986 and had three children: Paul, Ashley and Caitlin. Shortly after they were married, they installed a pipeline in the barn. Bill then purchased the farm from his dad in 2002.

One of the rst improvements Bill implemented was putting up a Harvestore silo. The silo measures 14 feet wide and 48 feet high. They have mostly used it to store ground corn. Bill said he enjoyed watching the construction process.

“When they got done, they raised it up and moved the whole silo over and sat it on the footer,” Bill said. “It was quite impressive.”

In 2016, a total mixed ration was introduced to the farm. They had been using an old-fashioned type of feeding wagon and upgraded when Bill was scheduled to be laid up after back surgery.

“I thought, if I was going to have help doing chores, I wanted something reliable,” Bill said. “We’ve used that ever since.”

Bill said one of the most challenging days in his career was Easter Sunday ve years ago. While running the barn cleaner with the cows in the barn, a capacitor was loose on the manure auger motor. This caused an electric shock to somehow go through the barn and killed 10 cows in their stalls. At the

time, Bill was outside next to the idling tractor, and the auger was also running, so he did not even know it happened. Paul was in the barn pitching a pen pack into the gutter as the chain went around. He called his mother, who was preparing breakfast in the house, so she could alert Bill to switch everything off.

Insurance paid for the cows and the associated electrician fees, but there was nothing that could erase the tragic memory of losing 10 good cows in one moment.

“I would say that would have to be the worst thing we’ve ever had to overcome,” Bill said. “We still don’t know why it didn’t trip the breaker or any-

thing.”

Paul has been taking a more active role in the farm since graduating from high school about seven years ago. Bill said his mechanical abilities have been a good asset to the operation. While Bill plans to help his son as long as he can, Paul will likely take over the management within the next few years. Bill said that future possibly will include an upgrade to a parlor and freestall barn to keep the dairy going.

“Paul plans to take over, and I’ll help him,” he said. “My dad was here until he was 86, and he always helped to do tractor work and stuff. So, I’ll help Paul.”

ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR

Pine Hollow Farm has been in the Hansen family for 158 years. Bill Hansen milks 55 cows with his wife, Lori, and son, Paul, on the farm, which consists of 200 llable acres.

A good eye runs in the family

Witscher brothers each win annual Hoard’s judging contests

By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com

BARRON, Wis. – For youth involved in dairy projects through 4-H or FFA, dairy judging is a rite of passage and a learning experience that takes them far beyond simply evaluating and comparing one cow to another.

That is the case for the Witscher brothers – Ethan, 18, and Ashtin, 10 –of Barron. Evaluating dairy cattle is a skill that comes naturally for the boys, the sons of Joe and Stacy Witscher. Both have had the honor of topping the youth division of the annual Hoard’s Dairyman Cow Judging Contest, a national competition they enter every year with their 4-H dairy judging group.

Ethan won the 2019 contest with a nearly perfect score, obtaining 496 points out of a possible 500. In 2022, Ashtin followed in his older brother’s footsteps, winning the contest by ousting over 8,300 entrants.

“Doing the Hoard’s contest is how

we kick off our dairy judging season for our Barron County 4-H judging team,” Ethan said. “We get together, place the classes, and then our coach, Steve Fronk, has us defend our placings to hi m.”

Cows have been a part of the Witschers’ lives for many years. Joe worked as the herdsman at Indianhead Holsteins for seven years before the herd was dispersed in 2017.

“I have always loved being around the cows and helping my dad on the farm,” Ethan said. “It is just something I like doing.”

Ethan rst forayed into dairy judging when he was about 9 years old. As the little brother tagging along to the practices, Ashtin is already several years into his own dairy judging career.

“I like looking at the cows to decide which one is the best,” Ashtin said. “Then, Steve makes us tell him why we like the ones we do.”

The boys agreed that although they have had success judging the photos published in the annual contest, they enjoy judging in person more.

“When you only have three pictures to look at, it can be hard to get a good idea of what that cow actually looks like,” Ethan said. “It’s a lot easier to see them in person.”

PHOTO SUBMITTED

The Witscher brothers – Ash n (le ) and Ethan – display the awards they have each won in the youth division of the annual Hoard’s Dairyman Cow Judging Contest. Ethan won in 2019, and Ash n took top honors in 2022. Turn

Ethan said some breeds are easier to judge using only photos than others.

“I have a hard time judging the Milking Shorthorns in the Hoard’s contest almost every year,” Ethan said.

The boys and their 4-H teams recently completed the 2023 version of the contest and have hopes of seeing their names among the winners once again.

“I thought I did really good on the Guernsey class,” Ashtin said. “I felt pretty good about the other ones too. Holsteins are my favorite breed to jud ge.”

As an older dairy youth, Ethan has come to see how his judging skills can help prepare him for the career he would like to pursue following his high school graduation.

“Learning to evaluate cows has helped me selecting and mating my own animals,” Ethan said. He has amassed a small herd of ve animals, including three Holsteins, a Jersey and a Guernsey cow he recently purchased from the Hoard’s Dairyman Farm.

Ethan has worked part time for the Grewe family at Valley Gem Farm near Cumberland for two years. There he has been able to put his dairy cattle evaluation skills to practice on a daily basis and has had the opportunity to help care for some of the Grewes’ top cows, including the herd favorite, three-time

World Dairy Expo champion Valley Gem Atlas Malt.

“It is really amazing to be able to help care for a cow like Malt, even though sometimes it can be a little stressful,” Ethan said. “But, it has really given me the opportunity to look at all the pieces that make her as good as she is.”

Ethan is nearing the end of his time as a 4-H dairy judging participant. After he graduates high school this spring, he plans to continue working for the Grewe family into the fall and then heading to Europe to visit some farms.

“My dad has friends throughout Europe who are willing to let me come and stay at their farms and learn how they do things,” Ethan said. “I’m not sure how long I will stay over there, but when I come back, I would like to nd a good herdsman job somewhere.”

Meanwhile, Ashtin will be continuing his own dairy judging career on the home front and is looking forward to soon being one of the more seasoned judges on his team, helping those just starting out.

“I would tell someone just learning to look at things like how big their rib is and to look for the veins on their udders,” Ashtin said. “And, to know how to explain why they made the placing they did.”

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Ash n Witscher poses with the Red and White Holstein calf he exhibited at the Barron County Fair in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. Ash n said he likes judging Holsteins.

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Patti Stadler Birnamwood, Wisconsin Shawano County 90 cows

Tell us about your farm. I farm with my husband, Ervin Jr., “J.R.” We are the third generation to call this farm home. J.R.’s grandfather built the barn in 1936. His parents, Ervin and Carol, purchased it in 1969, and we purchased it is 2006. We farm 430 acres of alfalfa, corn and soybeans. We milk 75 cows with 25 dry cows at this time. Most bull calves are sold within a week of birth, and we raise our heifer calves as replacements or to sell if we have extras. We feed out a few steers each year.

What is a typical day like for you?

The day starts with morning milking, feeding calves, checking on the heifers at the barn south of us and lling the feeder wagon. We eat a light brunch, and then, it depends on the day. I operate the tractor to chop silage, mow the lawn, clean out heifer pens, run for parts and other errands, bookwork or anything that J.R. needs a hand in doing. I also take a meal to my mother each night before heading to the barn to run the gutter, feed calves and milk. Each day is unique.

What decision have you made in the last year that has beneted your farm? With the uncertain times of the pandemic, we have made a conscious effort to be careful with our spending. That has led to better budgeting and, in turn, less stress about money issues.

Tell us about your most memorable experience working on the farm. There are so many to choose from. On our Holstein farm, we breed naturally with a bull loaned to us from the cattle dealer. When J.R. and I assisted a cow with a delivery, a Red and White heifer calf was the result. She grew up and entered the milking string and has had all black and white calves.

What have you enjoyed most about dairy farming or your tie to the dairy industry? I enjoy being in nature and seeing what God has created for us and being able to enjoy most of it. How lucky am I to see the life cycle of all things. Sometimes it is hard to accept, but it makes us better people.

What is your biggest accomplishment in your dairy career? Marrying a farmer, almost 29 years ago, still being married and still being successful farmers.

What are things you do to promote your farm or the dairy industry?

I am not afraid to tell people I am a dairy farmer and answer any questions they have. I love to have kids and their families visit and to give them the full tour of the farm. We give dairy products as gifts and rafe prizes.

What advice would you give another woman in the dairy industry? The mental stress of being involved in the multiple roles of dairy farm life can be exhausting. Don’t feel guilty for enjoying a moment doing something that makes you happy. Find your positive people and hold them close.

What is a challenge in the dairy industry you have faced and how did you overcome it? Time management is always a challenge. We do 95% of everything around here. I am grateful for help from our nephews and family friends. You can plan your day, but it might all change when you open the barn door. Mother Nature throws you a curve ball, or a phone call might. You denitely need to be exible and able to prioritize.

When you get a spare moment, what do you do? I sit down. Seriously, I am lucky to get 20 Thursday nights and a full weekend away to go bowling. I am also a Renk Seed dealer. I love to do yard work, garden and go for walks on our land.

Is custom harvesting an option for your dairy?

By Colleen Carlson and David Bau

There are many factors to consider when making the decision to custom hire harvesting of alfalfa and silage on your dairy. A few of the questions a dairy operator would need to answer are: What is the outlook on your dairy? Do you like cows or are you a cropping, equipment operator and x-it person? Do you have enough labor to attend to both the harvesting and dairying on the farm?

When the next generation joins the farming operation, consider their core interests – cropping or dairying. Similarly, if you are losing the labor source, hiring a custom operator may be more efcient during the busy seasons and the sale of harvesting equipment may be used for another investment. Oftentimes, expanding the dairy system and updating the harvesting and hauling equipment does not t in the same budget.

Using custom operator services can allow a dairy producer to realize the efciency of larger scale harvesting equipment without carrying the high costs of machinery ownership. Most custom operators have their own trained work crews who are familiar with the operation of the equipment and harvest practices.

The following two paragraphs out-

line some considerations.

Milk production suffers due to the time commitments of eldwork. Crops are planted and/or harvested late due to the labor demands of the dairy herd. Your current line of equipment is not large enough to perform cropping operations in a timely manner, thereby limiting forage quality, crop yields, etc. It might be advantageous to lower your cost of production by liquidating some of your eld. Some machinery is only used a few days out of the year.

You have an aging line of machinery and cannot justify the cost of repairs or replacement costs. Your farm labor resources are limited. You would rather work with and concentrate on the cows and leave the eldwork to others. You want to spend more time with your family. You are willing and able to give up some control of your cropping operations. You are willing to enter into a contract that is economically benecial to both parties.

How can you know if hiring a custom operator will be able to lower your costs? The rst step is to understand your own harvesting costs by completing a budget analysis. This will help you better understand the equipment and timeliness cost of the operation. Yet some costs or benets – such as having

uniformity in silage size and quality resulting from lling the bunker in a few days versus a couple of weeks, delaying response to timely cattle chores or missing a child’s sporting event – may not be able to be quantied.

What is the value of timeliness?

When you miss the optimal harvest window, what is lost in crop value? For instance, alfalfa can be harvested at the wrong stage of maturity or get too dry from lying in the eld too long; both result in lower quality forage. This is where a custom harvester can pay off by utilizing equipment and labor most efciently.

How can you entrust one of your most prot-making enterprises to a custom harvester? It takes a great partnership with a great deal of communication.

Seek out a reliable custom harvester well in advance of needing harvesting done. Talk to people who have used custom harvest services. Look over their equipment and ask how it is maintained. Ask about their crews and how they are trained. Ask about the radius they cover and how you will be scheduled with other clients. Share your acreage and crop maturity expectations.

Be prepared to work out a plan for your farm elds, hauling distances and feed storage site. Ask for references and

Dana Adams, adam1744@umn.edu

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Joe Armstrong armst225@umn.edu

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Luciano Caixeta lcaixeta@umn.edu

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Gerard Cramer gcramer@umn.edu

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be prepared to provide a letter of credit from your bank. Sign an agreed upon contract; this protects your interests and theirs as well.

As the producer, communicate your needs to the custom operator so they can integrate that information into scheduling. For example, you may be focusing on forage quality while others focus on total tonnage. Share your expected harvest schedule. A custom harvester will typically have larger, high-capacity equipment, giving a producer a better chance of putting up more optimally harvested forages than a producer with small equipment.

Hiring a custom operator is not for everyone. However, it can be a tool to produce higher quality forage to increase milk production, especially if you are feeling overwhelmed about machinery costs, maintenance and where to nd extra labor. A partnership with a custom operator could improve protability and decrease your stress level.

Thank you to David Bau, Extension educator, ag business management and University of Wisconsin-Madison, for contributions to this article inspired by the Farmer to Farmer Dairy Tour hosted in Carver County in the summer of 2022.

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Feed refusals: How low can you go?

According to the University of Minnesota Center for Farm Financial Management, the average daily feed cost per cow in 2021 was $7 in the Upper Midwest; by my own calculations, it was up to about $7.50 in 2022. These continually rising feed prices have tightened margins for dairy farms. In fact, over the last decade, total feed costs of a dairy herd are a better predictor of protability than milk production. Therefore, reducing wasted feed is critical to farm success.

of factors such as lactation stage, age, body weight and milk production that affect dairy cow intake.

These factors considered, there are opportunities for dairy producers to more precisely target intakes of cows. Here are a few of my recommended strategies for reducing the need for feed refusals. Reduce and account for the variation in TMR dry matter.

By Isaac Salfer U of M

One of the greatest opportunities to reduce lost feed is by limiting refusals at the feed bunk. Dairy producers can learn about this from the beef feedlot industry who have developed approaches to feed cattle to their exact requirements with practically no refusals. It is important to note the differences in management and physiology of dairy cows that prevent implementing the “slick bunk” strategy used on feedlots. For example, milk, and particularly milk fat production, are much less resilient to short term periods of underfeeding, so we necessarily have to be more risk averse when feeding to an expected feed intake. This is especially important because even shortterm periods of limited milk production, especially in early lactation, can lead to reduced lifetime milk production potential. It is more difcult for dairy producers to predict intake on a group of cows than it is for feedlot operators because of the large number

Variations in dry matter of forages and subsequently the total mixed ration are easily the largest factors contributing to differences between expected feed intake and actual feed intake. Corn silage can vary by over 10% from one day to the next, which if not accounted for, results in overfeeding or underfeeding the diet of cows by over 5% assuming corn silage makes up approximately half of ration dry matter. To account for these variations, dry matter of silages should be taken as often as possible and used to adjust the ration. At a minimum, DM should be determined once per week and after weather events such as a heavy rainfall. Ensure the feeding time is consistent. Cows are creatures of habit and become accustomed to eating at the same times each day. Research has demonstrated that altering feeding time of cows outside of their normal feeding time leads to slug feeding which reduces daily feed intake. Keep in mind that 15 minutes of time equates 1% of the day, so even small delays in feeding time can have large impacts on refusals due to reduced time available for cows to eat.

Consider grouping cows based on expected intake and nutrient requirements.

When you or your nutritionist are

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formulating a ration for a group of cows, you are generally trying to meet the requirements of the average cow within that group. Therefore, the larger the variation you have in the nutrient requirements within a pen, the greater the number of cows in that pen that will end up being overfed or underfed.

I recognize the view that “creating a low-producing cow pen creates lowproducing cows,” and I do agree to a certain extent. However, even if you are not dramatically lowering the energy content for the low cow group, creating a separate group of lower production/ later lactation cows allows you to better predict the DM intake of this group. It is also valuable to have a separate fresh group which is fed to a higher refusal rate (4% to 5%) to prevent limiting feed intake of these cows. Intake of fresh cows will generally be less predictable as they begin to approach peak milk production.

Ensure ingredient loading accuracy.

It is easy for small errors in feed loading to add up and impact the accuracy of feed offered to cows. Ensure

that TMR mixer scales are calibrated regularly. Batching can also help reduce the variation in dry feed ingredients at low quantities within a TMR. Using feed management software can also more easily allow adjustment of a diet based on the number of cows in a pen and the dry matter of feeds as well as helping track the variability in load weights.

Increase frequency of feeding and feed push-ups. Research suggests that increasing feeding frequency from one time per day to two times per day reduces sorting and increases dry matter intake, milk production and milk fat. Delivery of fresh feed stimulates cows to visit the feed bunk and it limits the amount of time for cows to sort feed from each feeding. Furthermore, frequent feed push-ups reduce the amount of time cows do not have access to feed, and research has suggested that pushing up feed more often reduces the variability in feed refusals.

Table 1: Approximate cost of feed lost per year at 10%, 5%, 2% or 1% refusals assuming a feed cost of $7.50 per cow per day.

Rebuilding their herd Watermans return to milking

By Abby Wiedmeyer abby.w@dairystar.com

MUSCODA, Wis. – After working hard to convert a beef facility into a dairy setup, William and Danielle Waterman were ready to get their Grade A milking permit in 2020. When they called their eld representative to schedule the inspector, they learned they no longer had a market for their milk.

After unsuccessfully searching for a different market, the couple was unsure how to move forward with their plans to dairy. For a while, they fed a group of 40 calves with the milk they could not sell. Eventually, the calves were weaned and cold weather settled in.

“It was the middle of December, so we just dried everything up,” Danielle said. “It came to the point where we had to sell.”

The couple sold a group of cows to buy feed for the rest of the herd and did the same thing again in spring 2021.

Then, a spot became available with Scenic Central Milk Producers, and the couple had a market for their milk again.

“We nally got on a truck this past fall after we had enough milk to pick up,” Danielle said.

With a market for their milk, the couple has been focusing on building their herd back up. They currently milk nine cows with bucket milkers. The cows are housed on a bedding pack in a Quonset and milked in the old stanchion barn. They are shipping around 800 pounds of

milk every other day.

“Our goal is to be back up to 32 cows by the end of the year,” Danielle said. “We are buying more cows as money comes in.”

William works off the farm as a mechanic, and Danielle works as a eld representative for Scenic Central Milk Producers. Their six children help with chores as well. The couple said their goal is to dairy without accruing debt.

“We’ve been doing it pretty successfully so far,” William said. “We have heifers that are going to be coming in soon now.”

The Watermans have been buying corn silage and extra hay from neighboring dairies. Their farm consists of approximately 74 acres, with 43 being tillable. William plans to add corn silage to the rotation this year. Cows are fed hay in a bale feeder and corn silage in a bunk.

The corn silage is top dressed with a hand-mixed protein supplement consisting of distillers grain, soybean meal, oat, cotton seed and mineral. Cows also get a portion of their protein mix while milking.

Throughout their dairy career, the couple has owned every breed of dairy cows. Right now, they have some of everything except Ayrshire. They also have crossbreds in the herd. They are raising a couple breeding bulls while articially inseminating their herd in the meantime.

“Hopefully by summer, the bulls will be big enough to just be the breeding bulls,” William said.

William grew up working on his sister and brother-in-law’s farm and also helping his aunts and uncles on their parents’ farm before focusing on his career as a mechanic.

“I knew what I was getting into,”

INTRODUCING THE NEXT GENERATION OF PREMIUM DIESEL FUELS

William said. “I just always enjoyed being around cattle and dealing with them, from calves to full-grown cows.”

Along with building their herd numbers back up, the Watermans plan to upgrade the milking facility as well. While it is a bare-bones setup right now, they would like to add a barn cleaner to the gutter and drinking cups to the stalls. There are nine stanchions on one side and seven tie stalls on the other. Danielle said the drinking cups will have an air blow system so the water can be shut off to avoid ooding.

When they reach their goal of 32 cows, some will be housed in the milking facility and some will remain on the bedding pack.

Even though it has not been easy, both Danielle and William said they enjoy the cows’ personalities and working alongside their kids on the farm.

“It’s just been a dream of mine since I was little,” William said. “More or less, it’s something that’s in my blood, and if it doesn’t work out, I just need to see for myself.”

ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR

William and Danielle Waterman stand by their cows March 6 on their farm near Muscoda, Wisconsin. The couple is building their farm from scratch while they both work off the farm. They plan to be up to 32 milking cows by the end of 2023.

Daryl Payne Sullivan, Wisconsin Jefferson County

210 cows

How did you get into farming? I was born and raised on this farm, but even at a young age, I took an interest in cows and what it took to make them better and get them to produce more. After high school, I continued working for my parents and began buying my way into the farm. In 1993, when my parents retired, we had an agreement drafted where my wife, Tammy, and I began buying them out and continued the operations of the farm.

What are your thoughts and concerns about the dairy industry for the next year? Currently, it’s looking like, at least on the producer end, the rst half of the year is going to be somewhat of a bumpy ride. Lower milk prices and higher feed costs look to once again trigger Dairy Margin Coverage payments. The second half of the year had been looking a little better, but futures prices look to be falling off as well. Looks to be another hold on and ride it out kind of year.

What is a recent change you made on your farm and the reason for it? Early last fall, we installed the smaXtec cow monitoring system. We had a different system years earlier, but that system became outdated and obsolete within a short period of time after we installed it. We liked the information we were getting, but this system is far more advanced than the earlier one. Since installing it, we are able to detect health issues with cows far sooner than before and have been able to modify breeding protocols to where we are seeing dramatic increases in conception rates and shorter days open.

Tell us about a skill you possess that makes dairy farming easier for you. Doing all of the farm’s bookkeeping. It is something I enjoy doing, and it allows me to always know the nancial health of the farm and makes purchasing and management decisions easier.

What is the best decision you have made on your farm? I would say the best decision we made was in 1998 when we built our rst freestall barn and moved the cows out of the stanchions. That was

the start of some improvements, like feeding a total mixed ration and switching from having to ll the barn with small square bales of hay to making large square bales, which got us to where we are today. We added a silo and heifer barn in 2001, put a double-8 parlor in the old stanchion barn in 2004, and in the spring of 2016, we moved the cows into our current freestall barn and made other laborsaving changes along the way.

What are three things on the farm that you cannot live without? The three things on the farm I wouldn’t want to be without, other than a skid loader, TMR mixer and tractor, would be: 1. electronic devices (computer, tablet, cell phone). With all the programs we now use for the everyday operations of the farm, it’s hard to imagine getting through a day without instant access to all the needed information. 2. smaXtec system. It’s amazing in the short time that we’ve had the system how much we rely on it for nding health issues with cows, detecting when to breed cows, and the calving alert is pretty cool too. Once we receive the notice that a cow will be calving, you can gure within 12 hours she will calve. 3. The alley scrapers we put in the newest freestall barn. They save us a lot of time every day, and with labor hard to nd, it’s one less job we have to worry about doing. Also, having them run every few hours helps keep the cows cleaner, which has improved milk quality and hoof health.

What strategies do you use to withstand the volatile milk prices? We try to prepare in advance during better times and have a cash reserve put away to help carry us through the rough stretches. Risk management programs also have become important as well as just staying focused on the things you can control and not dwelling on things you can’t.

How do you maintain family relationships while also working together? I would say as far as family relationships go, we all work really well. Trusting that each person knows what needs to be done and how to do their job makes it a lot easier so that no one person needs to be the boss. We can all communicate and together come up with solutions that we all agree will correct the issues.

What do you enjoy most about dairy farming? The day-to-day working with the cows is what I enjoy the most. It’s the getting up each morning and heading out to the barn to see what challenges await you. It’s the changing seasons and the different jobs that come with each season. I have also done the sire selection and A.I. breeding for about 40 years now and still strive to develop better cows that can produce more. This past year, we began genetic testing our heifers and found out that through all the years of A.I. breeding, we had some pretty good animals and now look to build on those genetics going forward. We have begun using a mating service to pair up sires that we choose and nd the best match for our cows and heifers.

What advice would you give other dairy farmers? One thing I have learned over the years is that when planning for changes or an expansion, it is good to go look at what other farms have done and the way they do things. But, denitely what works for one farm doesn’t work for all, and in the end, it’s best to work with

a team of people and design a plan you’re comfortable with and condent your farm can make work.

What are your plans for your dairy in the next year and ve years? This spring, we are putting a robot barn addition onto our freestall barn and making the switch to four DeLaval robotic milking units. At this time, we have no plans to add more cows but look to continue increasing production with our current numbers. This is a change that positions our farm well to continue as a successful dairy well into the future.

How do you or your family like to spend time when you are not doing chores? For Tammy and me, snowmobiling has been something we have done for a long time. Each winter, we try to make at least one trip north and stay active with our local club throughout the year. I also enjoy turkey and deer hunting. I haven’t missed a Wisconsin gun deer season in 44 years. My son, Brent, and I have had success hunting on our farm over the years.

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

The Payne family – Daryl (from le ), Tammy and Brent – milk 210 cows on their farm near Sullivan, Wisconsin. The Paynes are in the process of pu ng a robot barn addi on onto their freestall barn.

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Evaluate nutrition strategies to maximize

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Feed expenditures are the single largest operating expense in a dairy business. Given the current and projected economic environment, it is critical to evaluate on-farm nutritional strategies to determine if any potential changes can improve the dairy’s cash

ow. Milk production is the income generator for a dairy business, so saving 10 cents in feed costs but losing 20 cents in productivity is not a good economic decision. Consider several key nutritional and management strategies to help maximize income over feed costs.

Forage quality

Something to Ruminate On

By Barry Visser Nutritionist

High-quality forage reduces supplemental feed costs. Current forage inventory is established, but the value of harvesting high-quality forages this next season may be greater than ever. Harvesting forages at the correct moisture and maturity is a critical component. Hybrid selection can be part of the solution to improve forage quality, but it needs to be balanced with input costs.

Reduce feed wastage

With current prices, going from 15% to 5% feed shrink accounts for feed savings of greater than 50 cents per head daily. Feed shrink can be dened as any ingredient that enters the dairy but is not consumed by the cow. Some forage shrink is inevitable, but with proper packing and storage practices, these losses can be minimized.

Evaluate ingredient handling and storage as well. Byproducts can be a great buy but may lend themselves to double-digit shrink values under certain conditions. Birds, rodents and wildlife control can also help reduce feed loss, especially with the large volume of snow experienced this winter across much of the Midwest.

Bunk management and refusals

Maximize dry matter intake to maximize milk production. One pound of additional DM can lead to a 2-pound increase in milk production. In some cases, there may be an opportunity to reduce percentage leftovers below 5%. Feed distribution, push-up frequency and overall bunk management need to be excellent to make this happen. Pre-fresh and fresh cow pens are usually exceptions to this approach of lower refusals. Evaluate feed efciency

Feed efciency is an important economic measure used to evaluate the amount of milk produced per unit of feed. Utilizing energy corrected milk will give credit to the milk component contribution. Several factors will impact feed efciency:

– Multiple groups of milk cows versus one group to allow better targeting of nutrients and additives designed to improve feed efciency.

– Overcrowding to the point where performance is negatively affected.

– Cow comfort and heat abatement for milk cows and dry cows.

– Culling strategies to remove low-end producers, especially with current cull cow prices.

– Aggressive reproduction strategies to have more cows in peak lactation.

– Proper particle size and moisture in the TMR and adequate water access.

Assess non-productive assets

Two common non-productive assets related to nutrition expenditures are forage inventory and heifer replacements. If a farm is sitting on eight to 12 months of carryover on a given forage, managers may consider harvesting fewer acres to remove some crop input expenses. With heifer replacements, take a hard look at the number needed versus inventory. In addition, recognize the feed costs associated with calving heifers less than 24 months of age on most farms.

Work with a nutrition consultant to review and netune the feeding program. Any feeding changes that potentially jeopardize milk production or future cow health need to be carefully evaluated; do not sacrice long-term gains for short-term savings. Develop a list of potential changes, evaluate the positives and negatives of each potential change, and prioritize which nutrition changes will have the largest effects on cash ow. In some cases, no changes will be made. In other cases, signicant changes can be made, resulting in greater income over feed costs.

Barry Visser is a nutritionist for Vita Plus.

As fast as a wheel rake. As clean as a rotary rake.

I’m my own worst enemy

By Anna Hinchley Skadahl and Tina Hinchley

Columnist’s note: It is a special relationship that farmers have with their children. We live and work together side by side as they grow up. Often, we inspire them to follow in our footsteps, and they carry on the legacy of the farm afterward. My daughter, Anna, has chosen to take the lead to join us, and we all work together every day.

She has been participating in many meetings and conferences that are available for enlightening and educating us to be better farmers and better people.

Anna shared with me about her experience at her most recent conference, and she wrote the following for you as well.

A good friend of mine, Mark Misch from DCC Waterbeds, encouraged me to apply for the PDPW Cornerstone Dairy Academy. He said if I was accepted to the academy, DCC Waterbeds would sponsor me to attend. This is the second year he has invited me to attend. Last year, I had a scheduling conict, so I didn’t apply. I thought I better take the opportunity. I wouldn’t want to regret not going, and, of course, it is the polite thing to do when someone is offering to invest in your growth. I was apprehensive to apply; I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go.

I am a shy homebody. Home is where I feel most comfortable, and at times, I nd it hard to perform tasks that require me to leave the farm. Besides the stress of not wanting to leave the farm, this conference would also carry the stress of being the rst of its kind that I would attend on my own. I applied and told myself I probably have a 50-50 chance of being accepted.

Well, I was accepted. Oh, no! Now, I had to face my anxiety and attend this conference.

When I say anxiety, for me, it is a shallow, gnawing feeling that sits in my stomach for weeks ahead of the ever-approaching event. After I am worn out by the anxiety, then regret hits. I think to myself, “Why did I even apply for this? I knew it was going to stress me out.” The commitment subconsciously hangs over my head and weighs me down. I work myself into a depression. Worst yet is I couldn’t back out because I paid a non-refundable deposit to hold my spot. I don’t know why I feel this way about social events, but I do and always have.

A few days later, no sooner did I start to subside from thinking about the event and gradually start to relax, but I got a letter in the mail. It was from PDPW. It read that John Haag, a friend and fellow dairy producer who sits on the PDPW board of directors, had given me a membership to PDPW and a cash voucher to spend on any PDPW event. Don’t get me wrong, I was extremely honored to receive the gift, and it meant a lot to me that he thought so highly of me. But now, not only did I need to attend the academy, but I was also a member and was expected to attend another event. For someone like me, this was a heavy load.

Later that week, I received an email from PDPW informing me I was selected to receive a scholarship that would reimburse me a large portion of my entry fee. I thought to myself, “What do all these people see in me that I don’t see in myself? I don’t feel worthy of all this acceptance. Surely there are more ostentatious young agriculturalists who would embrace this experience with open arms.”

The day came to attend the Cornerstone Dairy Academy. My cornerstone pillar was inuential leader, and our rst speaker was Holly Green. She is a behavioral scientist and experienced business leader who spoke to us about expanding our self-awareness and abilities to connect, inuence and thrive. She talked to us about stress and methods to manage stress levels, methods for controlling our emotions and how to develop resilience. I took as much information as I could out of everything Holly said. Her speech was exactly what I needed to help me sort through my feelings of anxiety

around social situations. I can now identify what triggers my anxiety and utilize mental tools I have gained from her talk to suppress those feelings.

In addition to Holly, we also had Hank Wagner, a motivational speaker and dairy farmer, talk to us about how important it is to be grateful and the impacts of being a positive inuence. We also learned ne dining skills and attended one day of the PDPW conference, which is full of great educational sessions.

Overall, the PDPW Cornerstone Dairy Academy was outstanding. I had the most amazing time and highly recommend anyone in the dairy industry to attend. The academy was so great because I had so much room to grow. When I thought everyone had made a mistake

in investing in me, I was wrong. I am exactly the kind of person who needs to attend this event. I am stronger and more condent because of it, and maybe one day, I will be a person who embraces these functions.

I want to thank everyone again for believing and investing in me even when I didn’t. This event changed my outlook on life, and I am a better person for attending thanks to all of you.

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.

Battle of the books

A few months back

I got a new, cool gig

Middle School Battle Books coach Oh boy, this gig was big!

We planned our attack

To read 20 books on the list

Bailey, Stella, Megan, Oliver – the team

Read, read, read some more; you get the gist

Titles and authors

Authors and titles

Read, review, quiz one another

Try to recall each book’s vitals

A better cow for a better future.

Herd Health Profit DollarsTM (HHP$TM) is a new tool to help producerscreate healthy, longer-living cattle in their herds. Emphasis on components, mastitis resistance, udder depth, teat size and placement are a few traits that are included to help boost your herd's profitability!

The Rhino in Right Field Wisconsin tale; the rhino part is true Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish Travels to Puerto Rico; nds his crew

We headed to the future Reading about Cinder, a cyborg gem The Radium Girls, glow-in-the-dark ladies Tragic and horric things happened to them

To Night Owl from Dogsh Written entirely as emails; To:, From: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Big Shot Greg tries to play basketball – what a chum

Catherine, Called Birdy

A young girl from an old English manor Paradise on Fire is a thriller, You meet Addy, the escape route planner

The Night Diary

India becomes Pakistan, sad, yet real events

Alan Gratz’s Ground Zero

His books have such suspense

Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs

A tale of magic, family, monarch butteries

Jennifer Nielsen’s The False Prince Royalty, ghting, drama, three boys in disguise

By

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Hard times, their legacy is their land Gary D. Schmidt’s Okay for Now Vietnam, men on the moon, the holding of a hand

As Brave As You

Grandparents, birds in the house, milk with teeth Lisa Fipps’s Starsh Does the outside matter, or what’s underneath?

There were some great reads

And the discussions were wild and fun Special thanks to our librarian, Teresa She’s a pretty awesome one

Fourteen teams competing in the region Matching sweatshirts, a smile on each face

A day to celebrate that reading is cool

So proud – our team took second place!

7HO16276 SHEEPSTER* 1,29912480

14HO15926 VAN GOGH* 1,23113179

14HO16069 MADURO* 1,21510280

250HO16257 DENALI* 1,19611680

7HO16396 FELIX* 1,19510879

7HO16148 BAMBAM 1,19311579

14HO16036 BART 1,19210580

7HO15913 KAHN* 1,18812079

7HO16176 WAR GEAR* 1,18711679

Jacqui Davison Columnist

Ramblings from the Ridge

Stay informed of FSA programs

By Steve Frericks Stearns County FSA executive director

Seasoned farmers will always tell you that no two years are ever the same. The pending spring of 2023 reminds us just how true this is. Have you completed all your Farm Service Agency documents? Are you interested in a Farm Storage Facility Loan? Have you picked up new ground and need to know if there are any wetland impacts on this cropland? Have you addressed all operating loan funding needs? Now is the time to visit FSA before you hit the elds.

Applying for youth loans: The Farm Service Agency makes loans to youth to establish and operate agricultural income-producing projects in connection with 4-H clubs, FFA and other agricultural groups. Projects must be planned and operated with the help of the organization advisor, produce sufcient income to repay the loan, and provide the youth with practical business and educational experience. The maximum loan amount is $5,000.

Youth loan eligibility requirements are: be a citizen of the United States (which includes Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) or a legal resident alien; be 10 years to 20 years of age; comply with FSA’s general eligibility requirements; be unable to get a loan from other sources; conduct a modest income-producing project in a supervised program of work as outlined above; and demonstrate capability of planning, managing and operating the project under guidance and assistance from a project advisor. The project supervisor must recommend the youth loan applicant, along with providing adequate supervision.

Emergency Relief Program phase 2: This is a tax year-based certication program that provides assistance for producers who suffered a loss in revenue due to necessary expenses associated with losses of eligible crops (excluding crops intended for grazing) due in whole or in part to a qualifying disaster event that occurred in the 2020 or 2021 calendar year.

Qualifying natural disaster events include wildres, hurricanes, oods, derechos, excessive heat, winter storms, freeze (including a polar vortex), smoke exposure, excessive moisture, qualifying drought and related conditions. In general, ERP phase two payments are to be based on the difference in certain farm revenue between a typical year of revenue (2018 or 2019) and the disaster year. Signup began Jan. 23 and goes until June 2.

Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program: The U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing critical support to producers impacted by the effects of the coronavirus outbreak through the Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program. PARP provides direct nancial assistance to producers of agricultural commodities who suffered at least a 15% loss in gross revenue in calendar year 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Payments to eligible producers will be based upon a comparison of the producer’s gross revenue from 2020 compared to either 2018 or 2019, as elected by the producer. FSA is accepting applications for PARP until June 2.

Wool loan deciency payments: With shearing season here or right around the corner, please remember to contact FSA staff to make sure you have page 1 of the CCC-633EZ form submitted before you lose interest in the wool. For wool, these forms are tied to the calendar year, so if you plan on shearing after the rst of the year, make sure you have submitted a 2023 version of the form to avoid losing out on potential wool LDPs.

Timely report ownership and operator changes: Producers who buy or sell agricultural land need to notify FSA as soon as possible following the transaction to ensure timely updating of FSA farm records. Ownership changes require a copy of the recorded deed be submitted to FSA. If you are renting new land, FSA needs a copy of the cash lease before you can be added to the farm and/or be given any information about the farm, such as maps, base acres, yields and program elections. If an operator is dropping rented land, FSA appreciates notica-

tion of this change for keeping records up to date at the FSA ofce. Producers who have transferred their land into a trust also need to timely report this ownership change to the FSA ofce. When an ownership changes to a trust, the trust, grantors or trustee(s) need to provide a copy of the recorded deed to FSA. Ownership changes involving land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program need to be reported to the FSA ofce once the deed is recorded at the county recorder’s ofce. Failure to timely report an ownership change (including land being transferred from an individual to a trust, etc.) for land enrolled in CRP could result in termination of the CRP contract and require a refund of all payments received under the applicable contract. Timely reporting of ownership changes is appreciated. FSA is not notied by the county recorder’s ofce of any land sales and/or ownership changes.

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

JD 9800 2020, Kernel Processor, PRWD, 1287 hrs., 833 CH hrs., #536344 ................ $497,000

JD 8700 2018, Kernel Processor, PRWD, 2327 hrs., 1849 CH hrs., #552442 .............. $284,000

JD 8700 2016, Kernel Processor, PRWD, 1840 hrs., 1103 CH hrs., #525709 .............. $324,000

JD 8700 2018, Kernel Processor, PRWD, 1701 hrs., 1069 CH hrs., #541389 .............. $348,500

Claas 970 2018, Kernel Processor, PRWD, 2257 hrs., 1639 CH hrs., #533174 ........... $299,000

JD 9700 2020, Kernel Processor, PRWD, 1155 hrs., 653 CH hrs., #543646 ................ $503,000

JD 8600 2018, Kernel Processor, PRWD, 1651 hrs., 778 CH hrs., #188792 ................ $342,000

JD 7450 2008, Kernel Processor, PRWD, 5410 hrs., 3720 CH hrs., #547277 .............. $110,500

JD 8800 2016, Kernel Processor, PRWD, 2602 hrs., 1679 CH hrs., #175182 .............. $268,100

JD 8500 2016, Kernel Processor, PRWD, 2231 hrs., 1180 CH hrs., #555984 .............. $259,000

JD 8300 2022, Kernel Processor, PRWD, 30 hrs., #537501 ....................................... $459,000

JD 9900 2019, Kernel Processor, PRWD, 1221 hrs., 884 CH hrs., #550177 ................ $493,000

JD 9900 2020, Kernel Processor, PRWD, 844 hrs., 583 CH hrs., #553436 .................. $508,000

JD 9800 2019, Kernel Processor, PRWD,

Marking time

This has been a long and snowy season with little hope of winter loosening its grip any time soon. It reminds me of the good, old snowstorms when our kids were little. I don’t remember the exact year, but I remember the fun the kids had. They dug snow forts and tunnels in the walls of sliced snowdrifts lining the driveway. The drifts were as tall as the tractor cab when Mark was nally able to make it home to blow us out. The drifts at the farm were up to the roof of the milking barn. Michael decided he would make the barn roof a giant slide, landing in the drifts below. I don’t know how many hours they played King of the Hill, staging attacks on snow piles in the yard.

We don’t have as much snow this year, but there are still signs to remind us it has been a good winter. There are snow piles in every open corner of

the farm. The north side of our house has drifts up to the windows. It looks like the house is snuggled down for a long, slow winter thaw. As Mark and I drove to Arlington the other day, the snow fences running parallel with the road were completely buried. In some places, as I looked out my window, I could only see a wall of snow. At least the roads were clear and dry to travel.

Despite the threat of more snow for the boy’s state basketball tournament, there are some signs of spring pushing back against winter. There is very little exposed ground, and it is a bit too cold for robins to be hopping around, but Mark did see a pontoon boat heading south for warm open waters before the road restriction signs go up this week.

The best sign of spring is the strength of the warming sun as it cuts through the morning fogs,

creating slushy trails between the domes by the afternoon feeding. This is when I discover another end to winter. My damp socks expose the cracks at the wear points in my winter rubber boots as I slosh through the water puddles covering slick icy patches. If I’m not careful, my socks won’t be the only thing wet.

March calves aren’t the only babies on our farm this spring. We had our rst batch of kittens born in the barn. Five new little ones snuggle with their mother and two other cats in a milking towel box lled with straw. We are surprised the kittens can breathe with all of the cats on top of them. Just as they were getting big enough to move around, their mother decided it was time to move them somewhere else a bit more secluded. So much for taming that batch of kittens. Of course, we have discovered that taming cats tends to shorten their life span. They think they should hang out with us in the barn and sleep in a stall. Our cows don’t like to share their stalls very well. We’ve had our share of fuzzy Flat Stanleys.

By Natalie Schmitt Columnist

When we took a break from milking one winter, the cats pretty much had the run of the barn. Every stall was theirs to claim. Now that the barn is full of milking cows, the cats need to nd different places to snuggle.

Mark received a picture on his phone last week. He was confused as to why a picture of a solitary cow standing in our barn would show up on his phone. I took one look and realized it was a reminder of an important moment in his life. It was the day we started milking again.

When we sold the milking herd and springing heifers in October 2020, Mark wasn’t quite ready to hang up the milking units for good. When he glanced around the heifer lot, he saw the promise of a lifetime of breeding decisions walking around. He just had to bring them on line to see how they would turn out. We started milking in March 2021 when Diamond calved. She was the rst heifer to ll a stall in our empty barn. I took a picture to mark the moment. One by one, we lled every stall by the end of that year.

Time seems to be marked by the events in our life, be it weddings, funerals, pregnancies, school years, sales or even long, snowy winters. The memories serve as a point of reference in our timeline of life. Sometimes, we are surprised at how much time has actually passed since a marked moment of time in our lives. Other times, we can be amazed at how much life has been lived between marked moments. It is as if life is strung together by events through history, marking the times of our lives. All it takes is a quick reminder, a photo, of an important moment to reset our clock.

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

Thoughts of days gone by

I help coach our county’s 4-H Dairy Project Bowl Team. If you’re not familiar, project bowl is very similar to knowledge bowl, but instead of general knowledge, 4-Hers are quizzed on their knowledge of all things dairy.

Dairy Good Life

By Sadie Frericks Columnist

At practice last week, we were reviewing the history of the dairy industry. We studied developments such as the invention of the cream separator by Dr. Gustaf de Laval in 1878 and the passage of the Capper-Volstead Act in 1922, which exempts agricultural cooperatives from anti-trust laws. Another invention in 1922, that of the Surge Bucket Milker, by Herbert McCornack, prompted me to offer a personal connection.

I explained that when I was very young, we milked cows with those same Surge buckets. First the strap was draped over the cow’s loin and adjusted for her height and the depth of her udder; then, the bucket was hung and the milker attached. Once the cow was milked out, the bucket was carried to the bulk tank. Or, if you were lucky, your farm might have a step saver to pour the milk into.

The kids on the team commented that milking with buckets seemed like it would be really hard. But, in perspective, we explained, buckets were way easier than milking by hand.

This Surge Bucket moment is just one of a greater collection of moments I’ve been having recently. Moments when thoughts of days gone by are examined in comparison to today. And how, through our insatiable quest for efciency and convenience, there are experiences our kids will likely never have and skills they might never need. Such as:

1. How to water livestock with hoses in the winter. My kids have never known the joy of frozen hoses. Growing up, and during our rst couple years on this farm, there was always at least one group of heifers that didn’t have an automatic, all-weather waterer. Which meant that someone had to both water the heifers and then carefully drain the hose afterwards. Grandpa always drained the hoses twice; it didn’t take me long to follow his example. One improperly drained section, no matter how small, meant the hose had to be coiled and hauled into the milk house to thaw out.

2. How to open a sack of feed the hard way. When I was little, feed still came in gunny sacks. Woven polypropylene bags soon replaced them, then paper. But the stitching used to close the bags stayed the same for a long time. And that stitching required very deft undoing on the correct end of the stitch in order to open the bag. One miscalculated pull on that ne string meant a horrible knot instead of a quickly opened bag. Today’s feed bags all have easy pull strips that take the guesswork out of opening.

3. How to grate cheese.

The whisked eggs were already in the pan for the rst before-school omelet before I realized that there was no shredded co-jack cheese in the cheese drawer. But there was a block of co-jack, so I grabbed the grater and the omelets were saved. So, thankfully, my kids do know how to grate cheese, but I wonder if their future kitchens will be equipped with a grater.

4. How to open a tin can.

We were checking out at the grocery store and one of the girls was helping me place the items on the belt. She saw the cans of tuna I was purchasing and asked, “How are we going to open those cans? They don’t have tabs.”

The clerk, a lady with a little more life experience than I have, chuckled quietly. I told my daughter that we’d used a can opener to open the cans. And when we got home, I proceeded to show her the can opener and how it worked.

We certainly eat – and cook with – fewer canned goods than we did 30 years ago. Will can openers remain relevant?

5. Howto spell.

One of our kids asked me to review their Chapter FFA Ofcer application, which was typed up in a document on their Chromebook. I was offering sug-

gestions and they were typing when I noticed a misspelled word. I started to offer the correct spelling for the word, but my assistance was unneeded. All they had to do was hover over the incorrect word, which was already underlined with a red squiggle, and the word processing app offered the correct spelling.

6. How to write.

I have yet to try it out – and I don’t think my kids have either – but between radio and news coverage, I’ve heard plenty about ChatGPT, the new digital tool that uses articial intelligence to generate written content. The tool can do everything from write an essay to compose an email reply. As a writer and editor and general lover of words, this one breaks my heart.

7. How to nd a hymn.

In church last weekend, I found myself pondering transformations in our weekly services. There are

no longer little placards bearing the numbers of this week’s hymns. The hymnals themselves are gone, too. Which meant no gentle rustling of pages while congregants ipped to the proper hymn. The hymns, the creeds, and the responses are instead shared on the screens in the front of the church.

My parents and grandparents have similar lists that make this one pale in comparison. I was lucky enough to hear many stories of their days gone by while milking with Dad or sitting with Grandpa. I appreciate those stories now, more than ever. And I believe we tell them not out of disdain for today but out of nostalgia. And as a reminder to appreciate the conveniences our forefathers and foremothers labored for us to attain.

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