March 9, 2024 Dairy Star - 1st section - Zone 1

“All dairy, all the time”™

Dairy industry continues to grow in SD

Recent data shows large increase

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

PIERRE, S.D. — The dairy industry’s growth trend in South Dakota rolls on, according to a press release Feb. 13 from the South Dakota State News.

As of January, the total number of dairy cows in the state equaled 208,000, the press re-lease said. This represents a 70.5% increase since 2019 and a population that more than doubles that of 12 years ago when it stood at 90,000.

Tom Peterson is executive director for South Dakota Dairy Producers. He summed up the reason his state has seen success in growing its dairy industry when many other states have not.

Tom Peterson Executive Director, South Dakota Dairy Producers

“In a nutshell, the growth was the result of commitment from the dairy industry and dairy community, including processor investment to create plant capacity, dairy farmer investment to ll the capacity, and the entire dairy industry creating infrastructure and support for the growth in cow numbers,” Peterson said. Creative planning, he said, helped to foster the upward trend.

“If we go back around 20 years in the early 2000s, South Dakota’s dairy cow numbers hit an all-time low at just under 80,000 milking cows and a trend that put dairy (in the state) in real peril,” Peterson said. “A future-thinking group of stakeholders came together with a vision to turn the dairy industry around and not just survive but create a path to grow South Dakota into a recognized dairy state.”

Finding common ground

Iowa dairy farmers to lead National Young Cooperators Program

By Abby Wiedmeyer abby.w@dairystar.com

CLINTON, Iowa — Matthew and Hannah Lansing are combining their experiences of growing up on dairy farms to grow their network and be a voice for fellow producers. The pair was elected to serve as chairperson for the National Young Cooperators Program as representatives of Prairie Farms Dairy Inc.

The Lansings want consumers to know that just because farms look different from the road, they often face similar challenges and work toward similar goals.

“We’re excited to have this platform to share our story as well as gain leadership to help us along the way,” Hannah said. “(We’re also excited to) meet other producers that share the same struggles we do.”

A new chapter

Schefers brothers decide time is right to sell herd

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

LAKE HENRY, Minn. — When Schefers Brothers LLC sells its 55 dairy cows later this month, it will be the rst time that cows have not been milked on the farm since 1943.

It will be a big change for brothers Ralph and Ken Schefers as well as for Ken’s wife and son, Julie and Jason, who own and operate the dairy farm near Lake Henry. However, they said the time has come for the next chapter.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Ma hew and Hannah Lansing a end the cheese contest held during the Naonal Milk Producers Federa on na onal mee ng. The Lansings were selected to serve as chairperson for the Na onal Young Cooperators Program. The Lansings work with Hannah’s family on the farm, where they milk 1,200 cows and farm over 5,000 acres.

MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Ralph, Jason and Ken Schefers stand in their estall barn Feb. 27 near Lake Henry, Minnesota. Ralph and Ken have been milking cows together since 1979 and recently decided to sell their herd. Jason is a partner on the farm.

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The Lansings work with Hannah’s family near Clinton. Matthew works on the dairy full time while Hannah works for a feed nutrition company. Blue Hyll Dairy is home to 1,200 milk cows and over 5,000 acres of crops. The Lansings work in partnership with Hannah’s dad, Marty, and uncle, Mike.

Marty runs the day-to-day operations for the cows and employees while Mike handles the business and cropping portion of the operation. Hannah said it is a family-run operation with her grandpa’s siblings and cousins helping along with Matthew.

Matthew and Hannah joined the operation one year ago. Before that, Matthew worked in genetic sales for four years with a focus on managing heifer inventories, reproductive performance and synchronization programs. He also served as team and budget manager.

Hannah travels to various farms around the Midwest focusing on the nutrition.

“That also provides a unique perspective coming into this as a chairperson as well,” Hannah said. “We can see different stories from these farms that we interact with. We had an opportunity to come home, which was always our dream, to be involved in the farm.”

The Lansings plan to take on an ownership role in the farm eventually. Leaning into the topic of transition has been eye-opening for the couple as they realize how much there is to learn. They

Cows are sorted to the

rail

Blue Hyll Dairy near Clinton, Iowa. Ma hew and Hannah Lansing were

to serve as chairperson for the Na onal Young Cooperators Program. are working with consultants in the industry to explore early steps they can take to make as smooth a transition as possible since the older generation could be a decade from retirement.

Figuring out the next steps for the farm’s future is a topic that a lot of farmers struggle with, the Lansings discovered.

“We felt we were alone and the

only farm experiencing this,” Hannah said. “As we talked to different people, we found that they are all experiencing the same things, just in different capacities. So, connecting with these people to see how they’re dealing with their transition can give us insight into our future as well.”

Turn to LANSING | Page 5

PHOTO SUBMITTED

palpa on

for breeding or health assessment on

selected

Matthew agreed.

“A lot of it right now is up in the air,” Matthew said. “Right now, we’re trying to absorb and learn as much as we can while they’re still here working alongside us. We’re just taking it day by day and learning as we go.”

Duties as chairperson for the Lansings will include attending the National Milk Producers Federation board meetings and speaking on behalf of farmers as well as attending other dairy events like World Dairy Expo. There will also be a meeting in June in Washington, D.C., which will focus on dairy legislation.

“That will be cool for us because that’s something that neither of us is very familiar with,” Hannah said. “When you’re a farmer, you focus on the day to day of the farm and not necessarily everything that’s going on around you.”

Matthew said he is also looking forward to learning more about the Federal Milk Marketing Order, how to increase labor options for the industry and product expansion.

“What are some things that we could do in the future to keep dairy a place that people want to come work and they want to be a part of this industry?” Matthew said. “And, how do we innovate to get more products to these millennials and (members of Generation Z) and into their life as something that they need to have to continue sales and protability within the dairy industry?”

Hannah said it was important to her and Matthew that they run for the role of chairperson as a couple so they could effectively bring both their perspectives

to the table.

“There’s power in numbers,” Hannah said. “We complement each other well and provide unique perspectives that we each have. (By) growing up in the dairy industry, but on different farms and different sales routes, we’ve gotten to experience a lot of different things.”

Matthew agreed.

“It’s learning as we go and nding a plan and a path along the way,” Matthew said.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

A calf is born at Blue Hyll Dairy near Clinton, Iowa. Ma hew and Hannah Lansing work with her family on the farm, where they milk 1,200 cows and farm over 5,000 acres.

“I consider ourselves fortunate we were able to go that long and have had family working together and good quality employees,” Ken Schefers said. “It was hard work, but it was fun.”

terest in the different breeds and even the color.”

Ralph agreed and said registered cattle t their operation better.

The Schefers brothers have dairy farmed together since 1979 when they combined their herds, and they will continue their other operations on the farm after the cows are sold.

“We are going to do some cropping and raise some steers,” Ken said. “Jason wants to remain part of the operation as well.”

As the brothers wrap up their dairy farming careers, they can look back to successes they have had, and they have a number of awards as well as recognitions from their co-op to show for it.

“I’m most proud of that one, when we got platinum,” Ken said, referring to an award they received for low somatic cell counts.

Ken said they have worked hard to reach and maintain low SCCs and credited his dad, Leander Schefers, with always focusing on clean cows even though he did not have any way to measure SCCs when he owned the farm.

“Dad always had one of the cleaner (barns),” Ken said. “Our parents were always a little bit fussy about being clean, and there was always an interest in quality.”

When the brothers took over, they began to focus on genetics and started building a registered herd, using the prex RaKen.

“I liked the registered end of it,” Ken said. “I always had more of an in-

Today, their herd’s average SCC is 89,000, production is at 27,630 pounds, butterfat 1,210 pounds and protein 932 pounds.

“When we started here, our cows averaged 600 pounds of fat,” Ken said.

Ralph said they also have bred for characteristics that helped make their cows better for milking.

“We used to use a lot of udder supports at one point — we had about a third of the herd that had them on — and now we haven’t had one in 10 years,” Ralph said. “We have always done the corrective breeding, more now than in the past, but we sit down after chores at night and look through the bull book and look at the cow’s weak points and try to nd a bull that nicely ts her.”

Ralph handles reproduction, and another of Ken’s sons, Jonathan, does the sire selection and the registrations.

The Schefers family has also incorporated conservation methods. In 2014, their dairy became one of the rst certied farms in the Minnesota Agriculture Water Quality Certication Program. Ken serves on the Stearns County Soil and Water Conservation District board, being elected in 2020.

“We always wanted to do as good of a job as we could, and that goes for everything,” Ken said. Turn

MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Ken Schefers does computer work Feb. 27 on the dairy he operates with his brother, Ralph, and his son, Jason, near Lake Henry, Minnesota. Ken and his wife, Julie, started milking in 1975.

The farm came into the Schefers family when Leander bought the site in 1943 and began milking six cows by hand. Ralph and Ken remember helping their dad and their mom, Rosa, milk 21 cows, using milking stools in the tiestall barn that was expanded and upgraded in later years and is still used today. The original part of the barn has half-logs for its beams.

Ralph graduated in 1975, bought the cows from his dad and began his career on the home site. He said he always knew he wanted to be a dairy farmer.

“I had a passion for it always,” Ralph said. “I remember my dad used to sing in German while we milked, and I always liked at the end of the day when you thought you did things right and everything was taken care of. I liked doing the best we could.”

The same year that Ralph took over the herd at home, Ken and Julie started acquiring and milking cows in a rented barn at a different site.

In 1979, Ralph formed a partnership with Ken and Julie. They expanded the barn on the home farm to allow for a bigger operation, adding 48 cows. They also built two silos. With Ken and Julie living in the farmhouse and Ralph living across the road, they handled the work together.

As Ken and Julie’s family grew, the barn became a hub of activity with their four sons and one daughter each taking turns with chores.

“Some preferred feeding more,” Ken said. “Everyone had a milking at night.”

Julie, Ken and Ralph handled the morning milking. Julie did the record keeping. Leander and Rosa continued to help at the farm after they moved to town.

“Dad came out a lot and did most of the eldwork for many years,” Ken said.

The farm’s success was a true family effort and became a third-generation farm in 2013 when Ken and Julie’s son, Jason, joined the partnership after several years working in construction.

With Ken and Julie’s kids now grown, Ralph and Jason milk cows with the help of one employee. Ken mixes feed and washes buckets. A high school student works two hours at night. Julie helps where needed and still handles the books.

However, Ken is now 72 and Ralph 66, and the physical toll of dairy farming is a challenge. The time has come to sell the cows.

“It’s got to the point where it’s hard for us older people to get the work done,” Ken said. “It’s also getting more difcult to nd people to work in stall barns who have the skills to

run the equipment.”

Ken has a plate in his back and has had two knees replaced. Ralph has arthritis. Running the dairy operation would be too much work for Jason to do alone.

So, the farm will go on without the dairy cows. The decision is difcult, the brothers said, because they have loved dairy farming.

“It’s been a great pleasure, and it’s going to be hard,” Ken said.

Schedule-wise alone, the change will be big for Ken and Ralph, considering they can remember only one day when they both missed milking. That was in August 2021 when they went to a Willie Nelson concert.

Looking back, the brothers said they appreciate the people they have worked with in the industry.

“You’re not alone,” Ken said. “It’s a community. You need all of them to make the farm work.”

Mostly, the Schefers brothers said they feel gratitude for their long career.

“It’s a gift,” Ralph said. “It’s a job you can do for 50 years and still learn things. Farming keeps you humble. … I like that.”

Mark Klaphake contributed to this article.

MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR

Ralph Schefers preps a cow during night milking Feb. 27 on Schefers Brothers LLC near Lake Henry, Minnesota. The Schefers brothers are selling their herd in March.

Moo-ving forward with A2A2

Cows and Co. Creamery now bottles milk

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

CARRINGTON, N.D. — In recent years, research has shown that some people previously identied as lactose intolerant are, in fact, not so. They simply have trouble digesting the A1 protein that is in much of the milk we consume, which is often the A1A1 or A1A2 variant for beta casein.

This has opened an opportunity for a niche market within the dairy industry for milk without the A1 protein — A2A2 milk.

With this in mind, Cows and Co. Creamery, a gelato and cheese processing business in North Dakota, began bottling and marketing A2A2 milk on a small scale last month with plans to grow the venture.

Casey and Maartje Murphy own Cows and Co. Creamery, which is located on their farmstead near Carrington.

The Murphys, along with Maartje’s mother, Conny Van Bedaf, as well as two other full-time workers, run the creamery with assistance from up to 20 part-time employees.

Milk for the enterprise comes from Van Bedaf Dairy, which is about 3 miles away. Here, Maartje’s brother, Piet Van Bedaf, her father, Corne, and 23 employees milk 1,500 cows and grow feed on 1,200 acres. Another brother, Dries, helps there as well. The cows are milked in a double-24 parallel parlor.

The bottling venture at Cows and Co. Creamery could not have happened without a supply of A2A2 milk. That is where Piet Van Bedaf comes in. For about ve years, he has been breeding his farm’s herd using only A2A2 bull semen to convert the herd to producing only A2A2 milk.

“At the same time, we started testing our heifers being born to conrm whether they were A2A2 or not,” Van Bedaf said. “There was potentially a market in the future (for A2A2 milk), and genetics-wise, it was not holding us back in any way — A2A2 bulls are just as good as non-A2A2 bulls — so we didn’t think we were giving anything up in that aspect.”

Today, about 75% of all rst- and second-lactation heifers at Van Bedaf Dairy have been tested and proven to

be producing A2A2 milk. The farm is getting close to its goal of being 100% A2A2.

“People have the thought, and there is some data to suggest, that Jerseys and Brown Swiss have a higher tendency to be A2A2, but that doesn’t always seem to be the case,” Van Bedaf said. “We have some Brown Swiss in our herd, and

some of them are A1A2. Our herd is 99% Holstein, and we are using only Holstein bulls.”

The Van Bedafs are careful to pen off cows that have been tested and proven to produce A2A2 milk to ensure the 1% of the farm’s milk that is used at Cows and Co. Creamery is A2A2. The rest of the farm’s milk goes to Cass Clay Cream-

ery in Fargo.

“We have two pens, each consisting of 170 cows, that are 100% A2A2,” Van Bedaf said. “If the creamery needs milk on a certain day, we milk those cows into a clean tank, and then, they load milk out of that tank.”

PHOTO SUBMITTED Casey (le ) and Maartje Murphy stand in the café at Cows and Co. Creamery, which is located on their farmstead near Carrington, North Dakota. The café is open two Saturdays per month and draws 500-600 customers each me.

The stakeholders came from many sectors of the dairy industry.

“This group (included) … dairy farmers, state ofcials, South Dakota State University leaders — especially the department of dairy science — processors, dairy supply companies, nancial institutions and SDDP,” Peterson said. “Due to the efforts of all involved, processing capacity expanded to create an estimated need of 85,000 additional cows to ll the newly created capacity. While a lofty goal, the cows came more quickly than many could have realized, surpassing the original goal (and) leading to just over 200,000 in total today.”

“Even with time to plan, growth always has some challenges which arise. Examples of that continue to this day in terms of higher construction costs, ination and occasional supply chain issues with materials and components needed for construction, be it on-farm or with processors expanding.”

Marv Post Board Chair, South Dakota Dairy Producers

Most of the increase has been in the size of herds as opposed to the number of herds.

“South Dakota, like most states, has seen an overall decline in number of farms over the years; the state has leveled off at around 145 permitted dairy farms for several years,” Peterson said. “The growth in cow numbers has been a mix of new-to-South Dakota farmers as well as existing farms willing to expand to grow into the capacity available.”

Peterson said there are reasons for the increases coming in that form.

“Like most segments of agriculture, dairy farming is very capital intensive, limiting the ability to just jump into rst-time farming,” he said. “That said, a number of existing farms have expanded to create opportunities for nextgeneration family to be involved with the farm.”

Marv Post is board chair for SDDP and has been involved in the association’s efforts to pro-mote dairy. He said the long-term plan for increasing dairy in South Dakota included infrastructure and other support systems.

“Processing and an available market are generally the limiting factor when it comes to growth in dairy,” Post said.

“When the South Dakota Dairy Drive vision created by key stakeholders in the dairy industry took shape (in 2012), the balance of new processing capacity being added, along with cow numbers growing to ll that new capacity, sparked the growth curve upward. In addition to the efforts of the entire dairy industry, readily available forage and feeds and an overall business-friendly environment in South Dakota create a great place to dairy with a reasonable cost of production.”

Post said stakeholders not only needed to create and execute a plan, but they also had to accept that it would take time to see effects.

“Plant expansions are at least a twoto three-year process at a minimum, which also gives a window for other related work to take place, including new farms being constructed,” Post said.

Dana Munyon is the public affairs specialist for the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. She said the state’s government has striven to make South Dakota a dairyfriendly state.

“Our taxes are low; our regulations are common sense and provide certainty,” Munyon said. “Both of these are key components of successful industry development.”

Munyon said clarity in regulations helps dairy producers and others navigate through those regulations.

“South Dakota works hard to provide a consistent and straightforward regulatory framework encouraging compliance and protecting our natural resources for our kids and grandkids,” Munyon said. “Our producers know if they come to South Dakota and follow the rules they will be able to build and grow their businesses.”

Looking to the future, Peterson said he expects continued growth.

“There is a current plant expansion of approximately 3 million pounds (of milk) per day slated to be completed in early 2025, which equates to somewhere around 30,000 cows, so growth will continue into the immediate future simply based on that,” he said. “The mindset remains the same for South Dakota in that balanced growth is still the goal as long as it makes sense.”

That will include adjustments as unpredictable things happen.

“High building costs, interest and ination have created a cautionary look forward along with periods of lethargic demand,” Peterson said. “However, the dairy industry has a history of being optimistic, and there is a sense that these challenges will be addressed, creating future opportunities.”

Munyon said the state’s government also remains positive about dairy’s future in South Dakota.

“The Governor’s Ofce of Economic Development made a concerted effort to grow the dairy industry,” Munyon said. “In addition, expansions in processing capacity and the availability of feed and water have helped the dairy industry thrive in South Dakota. Since 2010, we have seen consistent growth in our dairy cow herds and, based on our strategic location in the center of the country, DANR believes the industry will continue to grow.”

Buffer bill signicantly increases penalty

A bill moving through the Minnesota House would dramatically increase the penalties for violation of the state buffer law. Failing to plant vegetation on land bordering water would rocket from $500 to $10,000. The Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee approved this bill on a party-line vote, and it will now move to the Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee. South St. Paul Rep. Rick Hansen is the bill’s sponsor.

Marginal drop in milk production

Ag Insider

Arab Emirates, to monitor and advise U.S. trade negotiators. “NMPF supports a holistic work plan on agriculture that includes an equal commitment to increasing market access and limiting domestic support,” said Gregg Doud, president/CEO, NMPF. Doud previously served as the chief agricultural trade negotiator during the Trump administration.

NASDA considers trade opportunities in Cuba

Milk production in the 24 major states totaled 18.3 billion pounds in January. That’s down less than 1% from one year ago. South Dakota milk production rose nearly 11%. Over the past year, South Dakota farmers added 21,000 cows to the state dairy herd. Minnesota milk output declined 0.8%. Minnesota cow numbers dropped 5,000 head.

By Don Wick Columnist

A trade delegation from the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture traveled to Cuba this past month. There were seven state ag leaders on the trip, including Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen. This delegation met with government ofcials and private industry representatives to discuss opportunities for collaboration between the U.S. and Cuba.

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Consolidation trend continues in Minnesota

The average Minnesota farmer in 2022 was 57.1 years old, up from 56.5 years old when the last Census of Agriculture was done in 2017. Farm numbers statewide declined from 68,000 to 65,531. In 2022, Minnesota farms reported an average net income of $141,869, more than twice the $65,753 in the last report.

DMC enrollment begins

Enrollment is underway for the Dairy Margin Coverage safety net program. This U.S. Department of Agriculture program compensates dairy farmers to offset milk and feed price differences. Rules have been changed to allow eligible dairy farms to make a one-time adjustment to their established production history. Sign up continues through April 29.

It’s not business as usual

Farmers are facing a very different economic landscape today. Commodity prices are lower and interest rates are higher. “It’s not business as usual,” said Tony Jesina, senior vice president of crop insurance, Farm Credit Services of America. “Farmers need to take a look at some different options than may have considered in the past.” Firstly, it is important to know the cost of production. Secondly, Jesina concentrates on the cost of production relative to the market. That data may require adjustments in the farming operation. “Maybe it’s how your debt is structured; maybe there’s a way to restructure or rebalance your debt so that the cash ow is more in line with where your revenue’s going to be going forward,” Jesina said. Ultimately, a risk management plan is needed to protect the bottom line.

Ag census continues trend to larger farms

The Census of Agriculture reafrmed the trend toward larger farms. Farmers National Company Senior Vice President Matt Gunderson said the census is generating a lot of discussion. “It’s creating a conversation within production agriculture and internally in terms of what does that look like for the next generation, how does that look from a generational planning perspective and brings to the forefront the importance of estate planning,” Gunderson said.

World Trade Organization ministerial ends without ag agreement

World Trade Organization negotiations went into overtime at its ministerial meeting in Dubai but failed to reach consensus on agriculture or any other major trade initiatives. In an apparent reference to the Hamas-Israel war and the Russia-Ukraine war, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the summit occurred “against an international backdrop marked by greater uncertainty than at any time I can remember.” India pushed for an expansion of its public stockholding program, a policy used to purchase, stockpile and distribute food to needy people. This program is promoted as a food security measure, but the United States describes the public stockholding plan as an expansion of trade-distorting policy. The U.S. Dairy Export Council and National Milk Producers Federation were represented in Abu Dhabi, United

A volatile time for exports

The latest agribusiness review from Rabobank cites the ongoing conict on the Red Sea as causing global shipping capacity to tighten. Most shippers are avoiding that region and adding emergency risk surcharges. The report said this will be another year of volatility for anyone managing logistics. Uncertainties over the U.S. election and potential labor disruptions on both coasts are expected.

Winterkill possible this month

A lack of winter snowpack shouldn’t be a huge issue for alfalfa stands in the Northern Plains yet. University of Minnesota Extension forage agronomist Craig Sheaffer foresees bigger problems if drastic temperature uctuations continue. “Watch out for March; March is a killing month,” Sheaffer said. “If alfalfa breaks dormancy, starts to grow, and we encounter low temperatures, there is a very good chance that we’re going to have some killing of those new shoots that are formed in the spring.”

Bongards receives $20M in nancing

Bongards has been awarded $20 million in New Markets Tax Credit nancing to expand its cheese and whey processing facility in Perham, Minnesota. The funding is from Rural Development Partners, which receives the allocation from the U.S. Treasury Department.

Yogurt gains qualied health claim

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the rst-ever qualied health claim for yogurt. It recognizes the potential connection between the regular consumption of yogurt and a reduced risk of type-2 diabetes. International Dairy Foods Association Senior Vice President of Regulatory and Scientic Affairs Roberta Wagner reacted by saying, “Dairy products continue to demonstrate they are central to healthy, balanced diets for all people of all ages.”

Sjostrom receives University of Minnesota honor

Lucas Sjostrom has been awarded the Golden Graduate Award by the Gopher Dairy Club. Sjostrom serves as managing director and executive director for Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative and Minnesota Milk Producers Association. Sjostrom is also a co-founder of Redhead Creamery, which is known for its artisan cheese.

Trivia challenge

The average American consumes 180 slices of pizza per year. That answers our last trivia question. For this week’s trivia, how many gallons of milk does the average American consume every year? We will have the answer in our next edition of Dairy Star.

Don Wick is owner/broadcaster for the Red River Farm Network of 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 sons, Tony and Sam, and ve grandchildren, Aiden, Piper, Adrienne, Aurora and Sterling.

Dairy Margin Coverage enrollment is open

The enrollment period for the 2024 Dairy Margin Coverage program began Feb. 28 and ends April 29.

DMC is a safety net program offered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For those who sign up for 2024 coverage, payments may begin as soon as March 4 for any payments that triggered in January.

The Farm Service Agency has revised the regulations for DMC to allow eligible dairy operations to make a one-time adjustment to established production history. This adjustment will combine previously established supplemental production history with DMC production history for those dairy operations that participated in Supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage during a prior coverage year.

DMC is a voluntary risk management program that offers protection to dairy producers when the difference between the all-milk price and the average feed price (the margin) falls below a certain dollar amount selected by the producer. In 2023, DMC payments triggered in 11 months including two months, June and July, where the margin fell below the catastrophic level of $4 per hundredweight, a rst for DMC or its predecessor Margin Protection Program.

FSA has revised DMC regulations to extend coverage for calendar year 2024, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, and to provide an adjustment to the production history for dairy operations with less than 5 million pounds of production. Dairy producers can establish one adjusted base production history through DMC for each participating dairy operation to better reect the operation’s current production.

Dairy operations that established supplemental production history through Supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage for coverage years 2021-23 will combine the supplemental production history with established production history for one adjusted base production history.

For dairy operations enrolled in 2023 DMC under a multi-year lock-in contract, lock-in eligibility will be extended until Dec. 31. In addition, dairy operations enrolled in multi-year lock-in contracts are eligible for the discounted DMC premium rate during the 2024 coverage year. To conrm DMC lock-in coverage or opt out in favor of an annual contract, dairy operations having lock-in contracts must enroll during the enrollment period.

DMC offers levels of coverage, even an option that is free to producers, minus a $100 administrative fee. The administrative fee is waived for dairy producers who are considered limited resource, beginning, socially disadvantaged or a military veteran. To determine the appropriate level of DMC coverage for a specic dairy operation, producers can use the online dairy decision tool.

Payments are calculated using updated feed and premium hay costs, making the program more reective of actual dairy producer expenses. These updated feed calculations use 100% premium alfalfa hay.

For more information, visit the DMC webpage or contact your local USDA Service Center.

“Accurate results, it’s safer and less stressful on the cow.”

What do you like about the DHIA Pregnancy Tests?

We like the milk pregnancy test because it has accurate results, it’s safer and less stressful on the cow, it’s safer for us, and we have less vet bills.

How long have you been using the DHIA pregnancy test? Since it came out, maybe around 2013. We switched 100 percent to it and haven’t looked back.

Why did you choose to use it? We chose to use it because we didn’t like separating cows every month for pregnancy checks.

What are some other tests you use through DHIA? We do the normal monthly testing, and manure sampling yearly.

Why is testing with DHIA valuable to your dairy?

The value we get out of it is seeing the performance on a cow level, making culling decisions based on SCC, fat, protein etc. Also, the record keeping of cow and heifer events has helped better our management.

Charlie Dicke

Dicke Century Farm • Goodhue, MN • 200 cows

Tell us about your farm. I farm with my dad, Lyle, and mom, Shannon, on about 800 acres. We like trying new rotations of crops and utilize no-till practices. I have a sister in Buffalo, New York and a brother in Idaho dairy farming. We milk in a double-9 parallel parlor, with sandbedded free stalls. We raise our own replacements, utilize Cowmanager on all animals, and sell our milk to First District Association.

763.682.1091 www.mndhia.org

Maartje Murphy said the A2A2 milk used at Cows and Co. Creamery is processed in a particular way.

“Using a licensed milk transfer truck, we go to the dairy, ll it up and bring it to the creamery,” Murphy said. “Our milk is vat pasteurized, kind of the old-fashioned way of low temperature for 30 minutes, and we don’t homogenize our milk, so it has that cream line at the top.”

Their bottled milk, Murphy said, has already received positive feedback from customers.

“Vat pasteurized is a nice, happy medium, knowing that it’s safe and everyone can enjoy it, from young to old, and still have that fresh avor and cream on the top,” Murphy said. “We’ve had a lot of people say they have been able to drink our milk (who previously could not drink milk). There isn’t too much research on it yet, but it seems to be a good thing and is getting people back to milk.”

Cows and Co. Creamery was born from a part-time business Murphy, then a college student, launched with her mother ve years ago at Van Bedaf Dairy.

“Throughout my childhood, we traveled back to the Netherlands to visit family, and lots of gelato shops and on-farm cheesemakers were there,” Murphy said. “It was inspiring, and I thought that would be fun to do in Carrington, especially because we had so much milk.”

After taking a weeklong course in gelato making, daughter and mother began making the product in 2018.

“We renovated my mom’s side of the garage to be a little dairy processing facility, and that’s where we started making gelato,” Murphy said.

They purchased a gelato cart from

Wheels of Gouda cheese wait for customers in the cooler at Cows and Co. Creamery near Carrington, North Dakota. Maartje Murphy and her mother, Conny Van Bedaf, began making the cheese in 2022 as a nod to their Dutch heritage.

Italy, and Murphy began selling their product, Duchessa Gelato, at events.

Sales of Duchessa Gelato led to the purchase of their farmstead in 2021

where they renovated a shed to launch Cows and Co. Creamery and their new full-time occupation. Murphy’s career in nursing and her husband’s career as

a physical therapist were put on hold.

“Now, we’re both medical professionals turned cheese and gelato makers,” Murphy said. “We always say we’ll keep our licenses up just in case people stop eating cheese and gelato. You never know.”

The creamery’s cheese, which Murphy said they began producing in 2022, was also inspired by the Netherlands.

“Gouda cheese is a Dutch cheese, and my mom has a little history of making it when she was younger and worked at a creamery in the Netherlands. And in her college years, she went to New Zealand and worked with Dutch dairy farmers who made Gouda cheese,” Murphy said. “I went to the Netherlands in February 2021 to a dairy farm run by family friends who made Gouda cheese, and they showed me how they made it.”

Murphy bought the necessary equipment from the Netherlands, and then she and her mom practiced.

“From there, it was trial and error,” Murphy said. “I always tell people … our cows produce good quality milk, so when you have a really good-tasting base product, it’s not that hard to make something taste good.”

Today, Cows and Co. Creamery also makes fresh cheddar curds. The on-site store is open every day and operates on the honor system. There, customers can purchase gelato, cheese and bottled milk. The site also has a commercial kitchen and cafe with a coffee bar that is open two Saturdays per month and draws 500-600 customers. In March 2023, the creamery opened a shop at Brewhalla in Fargo where customers can buy scoops of gelato in 12 avors or purchase pints of gelato along with the creamery’s other products.

Turn to COWS & CO. | Page 13

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Piet Van Bedaf pushes up feed in the summer of 2023 at Van Bedaf Dairy near Carrington, North Dakota. For ve years, Van Bedaf has been conver ng the milking herd of 1,500 to producing A2A2 milk, some of which is now bo led and sold at Cows and Co. Creamery.

“We’re trying to bring some of the European, Dutch products here, and drinkable yogurt is a thing there that I miss,” Murphy said. “We are testing strawberry and mixed berry drinkable yogurt, and hopefully, we will be coming out with that soon.”

This summer, a building project will begin at Cows and Co. Creamery to expand its café and processing room and add refrigerator and freezer capacity. The expansion will also give more space for customers to see the processing and aging rooms to better understand what goes into making the products they are purchasing.

To further connect people to dairy, the Van Bedafs began offering tours of their dairy farm. This led to Van Bedaf starting a YouTube channel, North Dakota Farmer, which posts videos mostly about the dairy farm but also the cream-

ery. Murphy said dairy outreach and support of their community are important to her family.

“It’s been an honor to have people travel from all over to not only visit the creamery but to also support other businesses in town … and then connecting the consumer to my family and our cows has been really nice,” Murphy said. “They can tour the farm and see how we milk cows nowadays, because it’s very different from what it used to be, and a lot of people don’t get the chance to see that anymore.”

Murphy said she is happy they made the choice to raise their family in Carrington and build a business that melds so well with her family’s dairy farm.

“We love what we do,” she said. “It’s a pretty fun gig.”

from our side our side OF THE FENCE THE

Why did you decide to serve as a board member, and how has that involvement benefited you?

Ken Herbranson

Battle Lake, Minnesota

Otter Tail County 500 cows

What board do you serve on, and how long have you served? I have been on the Lakes Community Cooperative board for over 20 years.

Why did you decide to serve on this board?

We need farmer voices represented at each of the various local, regional and state boards. One of the mainstays of a co-op are the equities earned by the members. As member-owners, we should be involved in the decision-making process.

How do you nd time for meetings and duties amid dairy farming? Busy people always seem to make the time. It is a matter of priorities; somebody needs to step up and serve on these boards. It’s not always easy nding time, with the schedule of dairy farming, but we make time because it’s important to have dairy farmers on our dairy cooperatives.

Tell us the best experience you’ve had since being appointed to this board. I used to be on the Midwest Dairy board for many years, and one year, they sent me to China. That was when Tim Pawlenty was governor, and he went on a trade mission to China and brought industry representatives with. We promoted exporting dairy products to China. There are a lot of people in China to feed. That was denitely a high-water mark for sure.

How has being involved within this organization beneted you? I get to meet other dairy farmers. I have learned a lot from other farmers. We would do the same thing day in and day out if we didn’t get out in the industry and see what other farmers are doing and learn why they are doing it that way. I have also met higher-ups in the industry and across the state. I have met Gov. Pawlenty and Gov. Dayton. It widens your horizons. I have gained a lot by getting involved. That betters our farm and general knowledge about the industry. It takes a lot of time to attend meetings and gather information for the board, but it’s worth it.

What do you enjoy most about this role? It’s nice to be a part of the decision-making process. Any business needs to stay relevant in the industry, and it’s important to know what they are doing. The networking with others in the industry is a plus. Being involved is not always easy, but it needs to be taken seriously. We need good people to step forward and take on these roles.

Tell us about your farm and your plans for your dairy this year. My brother and I and our wonderful team of about a dozen employees milk 500 cows in a double-20 parlor. Our employees are key to our success. We have good leadership within our employees so that we are able to do what we do each day. About 15 years ago, we worked with Dr. Les Hansen with the University of Minnesota and did a study with crossbreeding Holsteins, Montbeliarde and VikingRed cattle. We found success with it and have continued the ProCROSS program ever since. We grow our feed, growing corn, soybeans and alfalfa. We ship our milk to Bongards.

Mark Bechtold Rockville, Minnesota Stearns County 300 cows

Which board do you serve on, and how long have you served? I have served on the Minnesota Dairy Herd Improvement Association board for around eight years.

Why did you decide to serve on this board? They were looking for members, and my cousin told me I should take my turn. I want to have DHIA around, so I need to put in my time. If everybody contributes a little, things are a lot easier.

How do you nd time for meetings and duties amid dairy farming? Everybody at the farm has to pick up the slack for me. Sometimes it’s a struggle. We meet around six times a year. The meeting dates vary quite a bit. They send out an email to see which dates t best for everyone. Our meetings start at 10:30 a.m. and are done by 4 p.m. We usually go over the nancials at the end of the year and the budget at the start of the year.

Tell us the best experience you’ve had since being appointed to this board. We just hope we are helping the general manager and can make somethings easier for him. We continually get people out to test cows. It’s great knowing the cows are being tested every month.

How has being involved within this organization beneted you? It’s nice to talk to farmers, especially as we seem to be further and further apart. You get to hear a lot of different ideas. I learn how different farmers solve their problems.

What do you enjoy most about this role? I have really enjoyed meeting the different testers. I’ve met eld reps, and they are interesting to talk to about their experiences. They have a lot of enthusiasm that is so important to the livelihood of dairy producers.

Tell us about your farm and your plans for your dairy this year. I have been working here since I got out of high school. We milk 300 cows in a double-10 herringbone parlor. We have one-third of our cows in a freestall barn and two-thirds of our cows on a bedding pack. There are six full-time people. We farm around 500 acres and raise corn and alfalfa. We ship our milk to Land O’Lakes. My mom, LeMay, and my sister, Mary Ruth, live on the farm as well.

Keith Welgraven

Ruthton, Minnesota Pipestone County 100 cows

Which boards do you serve on, and how long have you served? I have been the treasurer of Aetna Township for 30 years. I have been on the Pipestone County American Dairy Association board for about ve years, a trustee on our church board for two years and a FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative delegate for several years.

Why did you decide to serve on these boards? I like to be involved. I enjoy visiting with and meeting people.

How do you nd time for meetings and duties amid dairy farming? Getting time to serve can be challenging as my cows take most of my time. I do enjoy getting things accomplished and meeting new people.

Tell us the best experience you’ve had since being appointed to these boards. I would say that my best experience is serving on our county ADA board, because we try to be active with our community to tell the dairy story. I’ve been blessed to meet and work with many nice people and gained many good friends.

How has being involved within these organizations beneted you? The main benet has been seeing old friends and making new ones. It’s fun to have an inside look at how things are run. I have an excuse to get away from the farm for a little while when the board meeting is located far away.

What do you enjoy most about these roles? I enjoy being involved with our local community. I help the ADA serve ice cream at the Pipestone County Fair. It’s great to see the smiles on kids’ faces when you serve them ice cream. We had 13 avors last year, and some people came back several times in a day so that they could try them all. I guess we are all kids when it comes to ice cream.

Tell us about your farm and your plans for your dairy this year. Our farm has Milking Shorthorn and Holstein cattle. We farm about 450 acres and raise corn, alfalfa, soybeans, oats and rye. We have a parlor and freestall setup. The farm was started by my dad and mom, Bert and Alvina, in 1968. My wife, Jeanna, and I operate it now. Our daughter, Katelyn, is a freshman at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota.

Jeff Hammerand

Bankston, Iowa

Dubuque County

170 cows

Which boards do you serve on, and how long have you served? I am on the District 8 Iowa Holstein Association Board and Iowa Holstein Association board of directors. I have served for 20-25 years. For the local board, duties include planning and scheduling meetings, making agendas for meetings, partaking in execute meetings, and hosting and planning state conventions, picnics and state shows. State board duties include carrying out state business, and helping plan and host two national Holstein conventions. I also co-chaired the Dairy Bar for the 2014 National Holstein Convention. My wife, Tammy, and I have also been chairs of the Iowa Junior Holstein Association for 15 years. Duties there include running food stands, meetings and state junior conventions as well as coaching juniors for national convention contests. For the Iowa State Dairy Association Princess Board, I just completed a six-year term. Duties there include organizing and improving princess contest and trying to make each princess appearance more impactful, informative and educational for consumers.

Why did you decide to serve on these boards? As a family, we believe it is important to give back and encourage the youth of our industry. If you are going to give back, you might as well do something you are passionate about. I am passionate about teaching young people, so they have a more informed future and will pay the passion forward.

Leah Kurth

Cosmos, Minnesota Renville County

150 cows

Which boards do you serve on, and how long have you served? I have been involved with the McLeod County American Dairy Association for about eight years. I’m the sitting secretary but have also been the president and vice president. I have been involved for two years on the McLeod/Renville/Sibley Dairy Herd Improvement Association board. I am the secretary/treasurer/vice president. I have been involved in the Region 7 Dairy Show Committee for ve years. I have been a McLeod County 4-H dairy supervisor for one year. I am also the association manager for the Hutchinson Area Bowling Association where I oversee all leagues and association operations. Previously, I have been a part of the First District Association Young Cooperatives Board as well as co-chair for the 2023 Minnesota State Holstein Show.

Why did you decide to serve on these boards? Serving on these boards and being involved in these activities allows me to get off the farm and make a difference within my community. It allows me to network and meet people in the dairy community who share the same passion and drive that I do.

How do you nd time for meetings and duties amid dairy farming? Luckily, most of the organizations I am involved with hold their meetings during the day. For most of the responsibilities I have for these organizations, I am able to do them during the day between chore times. On the rare occasion that an event runs during chore time, my husband and kids are usually able to pick up some of my slack, which I appreciate.

How do you nd time for meetings and duties amid dairy farming? It is a family affair. My wife does a lot of chores. Also, I have my daughter and son-in-law’s help. We get stuff done as a family. You have to be willing to make the extra effort.

Tell us the best experience you’ve had since being appointed to these boards. Watching our juniors as their friendships and passion grow throughout the years. Also, seeing them earn national championships in dairy bowl and jeopardy isn't too bad either. Being co-chair of the Dairy Bar for the National Holstein Convention was a challenging yet worthwhile experience, which we are receiving compliments on 10 years later.

How has being involved within these organizations beneted you? It has given us a chance to serve and meet many incredible people as well as help grow the youth of our industry and ignite their spark. The chance to network and learn from others has been quite valuable. We use some of the pieces of information learned along the way from other directors on a daily basis. There is a sense of satisfaction in being able to serve others.

What do you enjoy most about these roles? Relationships. The opportunity to meet people with our same passion and build upon that is priceless. Watching the juniors join at 9 years old, a little apprehensive, and then not only grow up but also grow in condence. Along the way, watching them become lifelong friends gives me great pleasure. Working side by side with the District 8 Holstein group; they have become some of our very best friends.

Tell us about your farm and your plans for your dairy this year. We milk 170 cows with my brother and niece in his swing-11 parlor. We concentrate on breeding good registered Holstein and Brown Swiss. Our milk is shipped to Scenic Central Milk Producers. We have recently started using some of our heifers for embryo recipients to improve and diversify our genetics even further. Tammy is employed by the neighbors as a calf care giver. We also own 110 acres in Bankston, our home location, that serves as the feed for our dry cows and youngstock.

Tell us the best experience you’ve had since being appointed to these boards. Our ADA board has been motivated the last few years to try new things and improve our association and royalty program. In February, we hosted almost 50 people in our rst Dairy Royalty Workshop. We invited our local and surrounding county royalty to join us for a workshop that was educational and engaging. It was a huge success, and we are looking forward to hosting this annual event. A close second for me, and worth mentioning, was co-chairing the 2023 Minnesota State Holstein Show with my friend, Alison Rickeman. If you haven't planned and hosted a state show before, the amount of work and planning that goes into a successful state show on a county level is no joke. Luckily, we have a passionate and driven local association, so the show went off without a hitch.

How has being involved within these organizations beneted you? The people and connections that I have made during my years within these organizations have paved the way for the future. The ability to get in the community and promote the dairy industry helps mold the way consumers portray our industry.

What do you enjoy most about these roles? I am a pretty social person and love planning and organizing events. I enjoy all the people who are involved in these organizations and the passion we all share. When you get enough people together with the same passion and drive, it's amazing the things you can accomplish.

Tell us about your farm and your plans for your dairy this year. Myself, as well as my husband, Bill, own and operate KurthKine Holsteins near Hutchinson, Minnesota. Our kids, Larkun, Livia, Briecyn and Taelyn, make up the bulk of the workforce. We have occasional part-time help. We milk around 150 cows in a double-8 herringbone parlor. The cows and breeding/pregnant heifers are housed in a sand-bedded freestall barn about 1 mile south of our home farm. All calves and young heifers are housed at the home farm. We ship our milk to First District Association. We farm around 175 acres of crops, typically corn silage and alfalfa, that is all used for feed purposes. Our main goal for 2024 includes building a heifer facility for our milk and weaned calves.

Page 18 • Dairy Star • Saturday, March 9, 2024

Andrew Gathje, pictured with Emily Gerber

Pleasant Grove, Minnesota Olmsted County

60 cows

Which boards do you serve on, and how long have you served? Since graduating from college in 2019, I have decided to serve on the Olmsted County American Dairy Association, Olmsted County Dairy Herd Improvement Association, the Board of Elders at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chateld and the Chateld FFA alumni. The Olmsted County ADA has been a part of my life since 2021. The board of elders at church became a part of my life in late 2020 as well as the Chateld FFA alumni. I was elected to the county DHIA board in 2023.

I am on the board for the Miracle of Birth Center at the Olmsted County Fair. I started doing overnights at the Miracle of Birth Center in 2021. My role on the county ADA board has resulted in the promotion to the chair position which had not changed hands in Olmsted County for over two decades. Last year, I served as the vice chair. Since I joined the board of elders at church, I have served as the parliamentarian.

Why did you decide to serve on these board? I was an avid member of 4-H and FFA. Being involved in those organizations aided in the development of a strong internal desire to promote agriculture and give back to the community. I knew I wanted to give back to 4-H and FFA to some degree. However, serving on the DHIA and ADA boards for Olmsted County never crossed my mind. I joined the ADA board after I was interviewed by Krista Kuzma, who suggested that the ADA board was looking for younger members to join. I was elected to the DHIA board for Olmsted County after being encouraged to run for a position on the board by my milk tester, Ron Lange, and have enjoyed socializing with dairy farmers in the county. In 2020, I was elected to the board of elders after being asked by another elder on the board if I would be interested.

How do you nd time for meetings and duties amid dairy farming? Without my brother and my dad, I would not be as involved in boards and activities outside the farm as I am. Granted, there are times where we are busy and stepping away from the farm isn’t an option. However, my brother and I work well together and make sure we allow each other the time off we desire to have. Thankfully, since most of the members of the ADA and DHIA boards have dairy cows, the meeting times are late enough at night where asking for time away from the farm is not necessary.

Tell us the best experience you’ve had since being appointed to these boards. Taking part in organizing the Dairy Night baseball game that the Olmsted County ADA puts on every year with the Rochester Honkers. This event is my favorite due to the fact that roughly 1,000 people of all ages show up every year and are able to partake in opportunities throughout the evening that range from petting cows to catching a free cheese stick that’s tossed into the crowd from local dairy princesses. The cow milking contest between the two teams that evening is another activity that is looked forward to. Now that I am the chairman of the county ADA board, I look forward to being at the helm of coordinating this event.

How has being involved within these organizations beneted you? My involvement in all these boards has allowed me to advance my skills related to leadership and conict

resolution. Being involved with the board of elders at church has challenged me to step out of my comfort zone in regards to my faith and make the choice to correct aws I possessed. Being able to increase my social network has also been a fantastic improvement due to my involvement. As I continue to advance where I stand in life, I am impressed what opportunities can await in life simply based on who you know at the right time.

What do you enjoy most about these roles? The simple opportunity to step away from the farm for a few hours, see people I normally don’t get to see and partake in activities I don’t always get to do on a daily basis on the farm. It is important to get off the farm once in a while to decompress and maintain a proper state of mental health.

Tell us about your farm and your plans for your dairy this year. I farm with my dad, Andy, and brother, Ben, in Pleasant Grove Township. We milk about 60 cows, have 73 pairs of beef cattle and nish about 100 steers per year. We also cash crop about 600 acres of corn, 400 acres of soybeans and have about 140 acres of alfalfa for feed. We milk in a 46-cow stanchion barn, but my brother and I hope to build a freestall barn. I milk most of the cows and fulll a majority of the livestock duties, especially in the spring and fall. My brother mixes the total mixed ration and feeds calves in addition to his cash cropping duties. Dad lls in wherever he is needed. We ship our milk to Foremost Farms, and our milk is mostly used for either cheese production or is sent to the Kemps LLC plant in Minneapolis.

David Smude

Lastrup, Minnesota

Morrison County

70 cows

Which board do you serve on, and how long have you served? I have served on the Sunrise Ag Cooperative Board for the past seven years.

Why did you decide to serve on this board? I was approached by a few people, so I gured I’d give it a try.

How do you nd time for meetings and duties amid dairy farming? The meetings are usually scheduled around everyone’s schedules to make it work.

Tell us the best experience you’ve had since being appointed to this board. Getting to go to the First District Association in Litcheld, Minnesota, to tour the new plant. How has being involved within this organizations beneted you? I have been able to meet and talk to different people about farming.

What do you enjoy most about this role? To be involved in my cooperative.

Tell us about your farm and your plans for your dairy this year. My wife, Joni, and I, along with our ve kids, milk 70 cows in a tiestall barn. We have 40 beef cows and usually plant 300 acres of corn, 150 acres of soybeans and 70 acres of alfalfa. Our milk is shipped to First District Association in Litcheld. This year, our plans are to put a CowManager system in.

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“They

“If you don’t have cow comfort, nothing else seems to matter. We minimize stresses at calving on her feet and legs, making sure she has feed and water and a good place to rest, she’s clean and she’s dry.

“That leaves the udder as the next thing to take care of, and with Udder ComfortTM they transition a lot more smoothly,”

Maynard, Iowa, milking 750 95 pounds of 4.2 fat milk.

“For 10 years we used Udder Comfort periodically. At the 2022 World Dairy Expo, they talked me into trying the Udder Comfort Battery-Operated Backpack Sprayer. I didn’t think it insisted, and they were right!

SCC fell from 165 to 137,000.

“We also notice any clinicals that do show up, clear faster, and don’t

“Now, we continue to use it 3x/day on all fresh cows for a week after calving. If we have a mastitis cow or high SCC, or anything not perfectly normal, we spray it on

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It charges fast and holds the charge, always ready for use in parlor, headlocks or freestalls.”

TOP PERFORMERS

Craig Carncross, of Wargo Acres

Consistent ration, attention to detail help Carncross achieve herd average over 34,000

How many times a day do you milk, and what is your current herd average, butterfat and protein? We milk three times a day. Our herd of registered Holsteins average 34,620 pounds of milk, 4.26% butterfat, 1,474 pounds of butterfat, 3.38% protein and 1,169 pounds of protein. We have one cow over 400,000 pounds of lifetime milk, three cows over 300,000, and more than 20 cows over 200,000. Our fastest cow to get to over 300,000 is 7 years old. She made 40,000 pounds of milk as a 2-year-old and has been making 45,00050,000 pounds ever since.

Describe your housing and milking facility. Our cows are housed in sand-bedded free stalls and milked in a double-8 herringbone parlor. We built this barn in 2007 and switched to milking three times a day in 2009. Cows are organized by age and size more than production. We have a 2-year-old pen, a younger mature pen, and an older mature pen or high group. We feed one ration to the milking herd, and in total, we feed three rations: one for milk cows, one for dry cows and one for post-fresh cows. Most of our heifers are on-site, but all of our pregnant heifers are sent to a custom heifer raiser.

Craig Carncross pauses for a photo Feb. 22 in the freestall barn on his farm near Lodi, Wisconsin. Carncross milks 459 cows three mes a day and has a herd average of 34,620 pounds of milk, 1,474 pounds of bu erfat and 1,169 pounds of protein.

Who is part of your farm team, and what are their roles? I own and manage the farm. My parents are invested in the dairy but

are retired now, which is a recent change. My dad continues to drive tractor and haul cattle. Ryan O’Leary helps me with

the day-to-day management of the farm, including herdsmanship duties and crops. Ryan runs our repro program as well. He

also helps manage our team of employees. Jimmy Rodriguez is another key employee. He is our feed mixer and is a talented guy in the shop, and some of our success comes from him doing a good job mixing feed and his attention to detail. We also have seven other employees, some of whom are cross trained in more than one area.

What is your herd health program? We work with vets from Lodi Veterinary Care to conduct a herd health check every other week. On Mondays, we do pregnancy checks, and on Wednesdays, we do lung ultrasounds on young calves. Both days also provide an opportunity to take care of any miscellaneous issues. We run an aggressive vaccination program and give boosters with all of our vaccines. Milk cows receive multiple modied live vaccines and a general broad-spectrum clostridium vaccine. Every cow receives at least three J-5 vaccines for mastitis prevention per lactation. We try to pass all the immunity from dry cow vaccines on to the calves through colostrum.

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

JD

JD

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Case

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JD 1760 2008, 12 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #577255

JD 1760 2011, 12 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #577544

JD 1770 2001, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #571373 ......................................

JD 1770 2000, 12 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #571891 ...................................... $24,000

JD 1775 2018, 12 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #570817 ....................................

JD 1775 2022, 12 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #574581 ....................................

JD 1795 2023, 24 Row, 20 in. Spacing, #573347 ....................................

Case IH 2150 2019, 12 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #575403............................ $139,900

JD 7200 1994, 12 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #576034 ...................................... $15,500

JD 7200 1995, 12 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #577205 ...................................... $12,900

JD 7200 1993, 12 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #578066 ...................................... $12,700

JD 1770NT 2012, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #562337 .................................. $71,900

JD 1770NT CCS 2014, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #571366 ........................... $97,900

JD 1770NT CCS 2013, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #571367 ......................... $109,900

JD 1770NT CCS 2008, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #574675 ........................... $89,900

JD 1775NT 2022, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #549842 ................................ $389,900

JD 1775NT 2022, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #565368 ................................ $269,900

JD 1775NT 2023, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #566196 ................................ $369,900

JD DB60

JD DB66 2003, 24 Row, 22 in. Spacing, #577083 ...................................... $63,500

JD DB80 2012, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #571885 .................................... $232,900

Wil-Rich PT2200, 24 Row, 22 in. Spacing, #572626 ................................ $32,100

INTEGRAL PLANTERS

JD 1710 2000, 12 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #564510 ...................................... $15,500

JD 1720 2003, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #567177 ...................................... $37,000

JD 1720 2005, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #569419 ...................................... $41,500

JD 1720 2009, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #569760 ...................................... $41,500

JD 1720 CCS 2019, 12 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #569017 ............................... $89,900

JD 1720 CCS 2019, 12 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #569018 ............................... $79,900

JD 1725 CCS 2023, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #564619 ............................. $184,900

JD 1725 CCS 2022, 24 Row, 30 in. Spacing, #572638 ............................. $154,900

Moore Built 24 22, 24 Row, 22 in. Spacing, #576259 ............................. $34,500

Moore Built 24R22 2000, 24 Row, 22 in. Spacing, #566760 ................... $25,000

PULL-TYPE SPRAYERS

Redball 580, #576038............................................................................. $12,500

Redball 680, #569340............................................................................. $10,000

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Row, 22 in. Spacing, #576258 .................................... $479,000

Rock Valley, IA 712-476-9290

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

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WISCONSIN

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

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

Professional Dairy Services Arlington, WI 608-635-0268

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The Scharine Group Inc. Whitewater, WI 800 472-2880

Mt Horeb, WI 800-872-3470

MINNESOTA & SOUTH DAKOTA Farm Systems Melrose, MN 320-256-3276

Brookings, SD 800-636-5581

Advanced Dairy Mora, MN 320-679-1029

Pierz, MN 320-468-2494

St. Charles, MN 507-932-4288

Wadena, MN 218-632-5416

What does your dry cow and transition program consist of? Our dry cows are housed in a separate barn from the milking herd. Mature cows are dry for 50 days, and 2-year-olds are dry for 60 days. Dry cows are on a diet that we cut with a fair amount of wheat straw and use anionic salts to run a little negative balance for the animal, mostly for our fresh cow preventative program and calcium metabolization. Once cows are dry, we try to leave them alone. Hoof trimming and vaccines are done beforehand. We try to stay out of the dry barn and not create additional stress. The dry barn is close to the parlor, and we have people do a loop around the barn to check for fresh cows when bringing in cows for milking. We practice just-in-time calving, moving cows from sand-bedded free stalls to the maternity pen when ready to calve. Cows are placed in a post-fresh group for two weeks after calving. We step up the diet for post-fresh animals and feed a more energy-dense ration but not to the level of the milking herd. We try to move them in with the rest of the herd by three weeks post-calving.

What is the composition of your ration, and how has that changed in recent years? We feed a simple ration of mostly homegrown forages, shell corn and protein mix. We grow low lignin alfalfa and brown mid-rib corn silage as well as conventional corn silage. We don’t feed straight BMR silage because we don’t want to put all of our eggs in one basket out in the eld. We have had luck blending the two. We focus on having a consistent ration, balanced for amino acids. We try to check dry matter on forages every week. Our ration also includes byproducts such as cottonseed and malt sprouts, which we feed alongside alfalfa to stretch our forages. Furthermore, we add oat hulls in the dry cow ration to make it more palatable and get more roughage without adding more pounds of straw. We need every acre of alfalfa and corn silage to feed our cows, and there is not much left over.

Tell us about the forages you plant and detail your harvest strategies. We have 200-300 acres of corn silage, and most of it gets chopped. We try to get all the corn in the ground in a short window and work hard to be consistent. We chop at the

right moisture and process it well. We’ve dialed in to get our corn silage and process as close to perfect as possible. This has helped us get more pounds of milk. We switched to low lignin alfalfa ve years ago. We haven’t changed our cutting strategy, but we’re not getting as excited if we don’t have the right weather window. Sometimes we wait ve days or even seven days. We try to be patient and not worry about owers showing up. We let it put on more growth so as not to short us on tonnage. We used to put up more potent forage with a relative feed value of 200. Now, we strive for consistency versus high-power feed. Low lignin alfalfa tests lower but feeds better. We went 35 days between cuttings last year because it was dry here. The last couple of years, we have been at a relative forage quality of 150 and a RFV of 135145. It doesn’t seem to have hindered our ability to get milk out of the cows. With more heifers and a barn full of cows, we need the tonnage. We are not adding enough land to match the mouths we have to feed. Our goal above all else is to be consistent. Low lignin helped make our rst-crop hay more similar to third and fourth crop. We try not to have four unique forages and only make minimum ration adjustments. When we went for higher quality, we fell short on that. We would knock it out of the park on one crop and stumble on the next. We have a better window to get it right with low lignin. We start hay around Memorial Day and are done with four crops by the beginning of September. Low lignin is put into the best alfalfa genetics; therefore, we are growing a lot better plant compared to 10-20 years ago.

What is your average somatic cell count, and how does that affect your production? We ship our milk to Grande Cheese Company, which places an emphasis on quality, and having a somatic cell count under 150,000 is always our goal. We have spent a lot of time on employee training, and last year was the rst year that our cell count was under 100,000 for 12 months in a row. Currently, it is at 85,000. It is rare for us to treat a case of clinical mastitis. Three to four years ago, we got it down to 2-4 cases per month. Now, that’s our number for every six months. We try to screen heavy in the post-fresh pen. For the past four years, we have done selective

A cow is milked in the double-8 herringbone parlor Feb. 22 at Wargo Acres near

dry cow therapy. There is some risk to that, but we use teat sealant on those cows. We are committed to training and retraining milkers, and it is creating good results. We have dropped our antibiotic use over 70% in dry cows. We only treat cows that have had a SCC over 200,000 on any test. Now, only 35% of the cows get antibiotic dry cow treatment. When SCC stays low, there are less cows on that list to treat. As soon as we get lax on training, we fall behind. Production has improved quite a bit by not having clinical mastitis cases, which are such a crash on the lactation. If a cow is milking under 75 pounds a day, she better be pregnant and not far from dry off. Five years ago, that number would have been 60 pounds a day, and 10 years ago, it would have been in the 40-pound range. Our next number is probably going to be 80 pounds. We get a lot of production out of our 2-year-olds as well as our mature cows. We’ve closed the gap a lot between rst to second lactation. I’m proud of keeping cows around a long time, and cows in their third to fth lactations are our best milkers.

What change has created the biggest improvement in your herd average? Feeding a consistent ration has had the biggest impact on our herd average. Feeding a ration with higher ber digestibility has also helped. We have big frame Holstein cows that are perfect for eating a lot of pounds of forage. For that kind of diet, consistency is key. How cows come out of the transition period and bounce back from the stress of calving has also made a difference in our herd average. We try to leave cows alone, and getting out of their way has been successful. We have no extra pen moves and only handle cows when they are up for a vet check. We are also consistent with vaccination and repro activities. Employees are doing a good job

in the parlor, so we don’t have to see a cow in the sick pen.

What technology do you use to monitor your herd? We have mechanical takeoffs and no electronics in the parlor, but it’s on our radar to consider. If we get bigger, that will become more important. We had monitoring collars for seven years but stopped using them. We use feed software for ration mixing, and it works really well. Our feeder likes seeing 98%-99% accuracy, and we can zone in and see how he is doing. This software also helps us track feed inventory. We don’t have a scale here, but we bring in a lot of feed. This way, we can monitor what got into the farm and monitor shrink. It has helped with feed consistency.

What is your breeding program, and what role does genetics play in your production level? We breed our herd for production and components with a heavy dose of type. I want the full package: a pretty, healthy, long-lasting cow that can milk. We look for bulls that are at least 1,000 pounds of milk with a good udder composite. Hundreds of bulls t those parameters, but then we eliminate bulls based on SCC, daughter pregnancy rate and productive life. That leaves us with 20-40 bulls to pick from. We then have a third tier of traits we look at, including health traits, a bull’s conception rate and A2A2 preference. Longevity is also a big deal to us. Genetics plays a huge role in production; however, Holstein genetics are light years ahead of management. I enjoy chasing cuttingedge genetics, but the idea of getting milk that way seems foolish as it takes so long from conception to the milking string. From a management standpoint, we do a better job than we used to of unlocking the genetic potential of each animal.

List three management strategies that have helped you attain your production and component level. The rst is attention to detail with cows. I am quick at knowing if something is not quite right. It has taken time and effort to get others on the same page as me. Secondly, we follow through with protocols. We train and re-train so that everyone is working toward the same goals and knows what we’re trying to do on a day-to-day basis. Finally, we place a priority on calf health. This is a focus for us, and we have spent a lot of effort and time on that area in the last few years to raise a better calf. We’re turning pneumonia cases into what we did with mastitis. It has gotten better, but we need to keep working at it. We’re seeing the results in that our 2-year-old pens are now lled with these calves that have grown up, and they are doing well.

Tell us about your farm and your plans for the dairy in the next year. I am the third generation on this farm, which my grandparents bought in 1946. Wargo Acres was incorporated in 1975. We farm 500 acres, which is mostly alfalfa and corn, and a little wheat. There are two cow families that most of our cows descend from, and we sell about 100 head per year. We’ve unlocked our component level. This winter, we had a 4.5% butterfat and almost 3.5% protein. Our focus is more on total pounds of solids per day than pounds of milk. We have been consistently over 7 pounds for quite a few years, and we have even gotten to 8 pounds. We are looking at doing a modest expansion soon with a larger expansion plan in the works to better utilize our workforce and direct load capabilities. We are in the beginning stages of talking about our next barn and even possibly adding on to the parlor.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREW HETKE PHOTOGRAPHY

This pair of ET sisters pictured in 2021 at Wargo Acres near Lodi, Wisconsin, are classied Excellent and have each produced more than 1 ton of bu erfat in a lacta on and are over 200,000 pounds of life me milk to-date. Both cows represent the kind of ca le Craig Carncross strives to breed.

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

Lodi, Wisconsin. Employee training is a focus on the farm and a contribu ng factor to success in achieving high produc on and components.

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University of Minnesota alumnus, students honored

Sjostrom is chosen for Golden Graduate Award

By Sherry Newell Staff Writer

ROSEVILLE, Minn. — Accepting the Gopher Dairy Club’s Golden Graduate Award Feb. 25, Lucas Sjostrom shared his philosophy to “be transparent, take the high road and do the right thing.” That mantra has allowed him to pursue a dairy-focused career since his University of Minnesota graduation in 2009.

Each year, at the club’s banquet, the club singles out a graduate who has put his or her degree to good use impacting the dairy industry, with Sjostrom as the 15th recipient. Incidentally, he was a member of the club’s executive committee when the award was established.

The Lafayette native has been executive director of the Minnesota Milk Producers Association for seven years but began his post-collegiate work in Vermont. There, he worked in government relations and communications for Holstein Association USA before moving to a role at Hoard’s Dairyman in Wisconsin.

By 2013, Sjostrom was back in Minnesota, pursuing a master’s degree in animal science and writ-

ing for Dairy Herd Management. At that time, he and his wife, Alise, moved to her home dairy farm near Brooten, where the couple started a farmstead cheese plant with Alise’s parents, Jerry and Linda Jennissen. Redhead Creamery has since won worldwide accolades for its artisan cheese.

Now, the foursome is preparing to launch Redhead Creamery Spirits, offering a value-added market for the farm’s whey through an on-farm distillery and restaurant. It is a business Sjostrom joked about as he accepted the GDC honor.

“We should all have learned how to make liquor from milk,” he said, drawing a chuckle from the crowd.

In some ways, he said, his role at the farm and creamery are similar.

“There are many, many times I can bring my experience to one of those hats from another,” Sjostrom said. “But, there are also times that I have to disclose my bias. Overall, it’s probably been one of the most useful understandings I’ve had — especially in my understanding of whey. I expect if you spent a few days in a whey plant and saw products go

SHERRY NEWELL/DAIRY STAR

Lucas Sjostrom, execu ve director of the Minnesota Milk Producers Associa on, receives the University of Minnesota Golden Graduate Award Feb. 25 during the Gopher Dairy Club banquet in Roseville, Minnesota. Sjostrom and his wife, Alise, are from Brooten, Minnesota.

out the door, you’d get it. But as one of the largest prot drivers of the past three decades for Minnesota, I believe we can do more … to help innovate and push even further.”

Sjostrom’s credentials were presented by Robin Kinney of the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation, who praised his variety of work in the industry. Kinney said Sjostrom is able

to explain one of the most complex dairy issues — milk marketing — simply. His role with Minnesota Milk and Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative has involved him in extensive lobbying and policy discussions, including the most recent Federal Milk Marketing Order hearings.

Sjostrom, for his part, urged the GDC banquet crowd to call their legislators and the University of Minnesota Board of Regents about agricultural issues. He said it is time to invest in the university’s efforts that stem from the St. Paul campus.

In addition, the club singled out student scholarship winners and recognized dairy judging and dairy challenge accomplishments.

The $2,000 Douglas Siem Memorial Award was presented to GDC’s highest-ranking scholarship recipient, Jacob Harbaugh, of Marion, Wisconsin. The club awards multiple scholarships each spring to incoming members of the club.

Three club members were recognized with awards reecting their role in club activities.

Ben Styer, of Menomonie, Wisconsin, received the R.W. Touchberry Award as outstanding junior in animal science.

Brady Gille was recognized with the Dylan Fulton Outstanding Rookie Award. Gille is from Sobieski.

Winning the Dr. Bill Mudge Outstanding Senior Award was Isaac Rott of Elgin.

Joining the ranks

Leidings are added to list of Gopher Dairy Club Distinguished Service Award winners

By Sherry Newell Contributing writer

ROSEVILLE, Minn. — Each year, when the University of Minnesota dairy judging team arrived for practice sessions at Shir-Man Holsteins near Fountain, they found the animals clean and clipped as if ready for a show.

That kind of preparation was unusual for student teams that traveled around the region preparing for their national contests. But the reputation for going above and beyond to offer a top-notch judging practice helped Todd and Stacy Leiding, owners of Shir-Man Holsteins, earn the Gopher Dairy Club’s 2024 Distinguished Service Award.

The award was among the honors presented Feb. 25 at the club’s annual banquet in Roseville.

Club member Kelsey Biel, of Harmony, for whom the Leidings were mentors, presented the award.

“These people are really the epitome of what we look for in qualications for this award,” said Biel, who was one of the student judges who benetted from the Leidings’ efforts.

But the Leidings also saw themselves as beneting from the relationship with the university’s dairy club.

“It was great to get to know the young people over the years,” Stacy said. “It was a good excuse to get the farm cleaned up and the cows washed

and clipped. It was also kind of fun to hear them talk behind the cows.”

Prepping for the judging team’s visit was a tradition developed when Stacy’s parents, Tillman and Shirley Fingerson, hosted practices on the same farm during her 4-H years. The Leidings joined the dairy in 1995 and bought the herd in 2008.

For more than 30 years, judging teams from the university, 4-H and FFA came to the farm. The tradition ended in 2022 when the Leidings dispersed their milking herd to focus on heifer raising and crop farming. The two dairy enthusiasts now also hold off-farm jobs.

The couple had been members of the judging team during their own University of Minnesota careers. Todd was on the 1989 team, and Stacy earned All-American honors for being among the top 20 collegiate judges at the national contest in 1991. They were active in GDC, with Todd once managing the club’s Minnesota State Fair dairy bar.

“Those were good times we had,” Todd said. “Our fondest memories are of those times.”

The Leidings’ daughters, Haely and Kayla, followed in their parents’ footsteps. Both girls were members of the collegiate judging teams that practiced at the farm.

While the Leidings had attended previous GDC banquets, the trip to the Twin Cities was different this year. Without having to rush home for milk-

ing, they made it an overnight adventure complete with attending a concert. That kind of freedom is one thing they are enjoying with dairying behind them.

“We miss the cows, but we’re doing some things we haven’t done over the last 30 years,” Todd said.

Kayla continues to own some of the Leiding cattle, housed with her inlaws, the Sextons. As evidenced by a

Shir-Man cow winning champion at the 2023 Midwest Fall National Show, the Shir-Man breeding continues to gain recognition for those who purchased cattle from the farm.

In at least one more way, the Leidings’ contribution to dairy judging continues: Stacy is approaching her 30th year of coaching the Fillmore County dairy judging team.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Kelsey Biel (le ), of the University of Minnesota Gopher Dairy Club, presents Stacy and Todd Leiding with the club’s Dis nguished Service Award Feb. 25 in Roseville, Minnesota. The Leidings are alumni of the club and have hosted dairy judging team workouts on their farm for many years.

Eliminating operator error in a ration

Bischof shares tips for mixing the intended feed

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

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Are dairy cows actually eating the total mixed ration that their caretakers think they are?

Travis Bischof, nutrition and production specialist at Form-A-Feed, wants that answer to be yes.

“There are three different rations (on a dairy farm),” Bischof said. “There’s the one you get on your paper, there’s the one that is mixed by the feeder, and then there’s the one the cows eat.”

Travis Bischoff Nurtrition & Production Specialist, Form-A-Feed

Bischof presented “Deliver the Ration You Want, Every Day” Jan. 12 at the Destination Innovation 2024

Form-A-Feed Dairy Conference at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester.

Bischof’s presentation included tips on mixing, good feed storage setups, mixer maintenance, the cost of dry matter shrink and refusals, and a discussion of stabilizers.

Mix time on a TMR is important, Bischof said.

He worked with one dairy farm that switched feeders. Before the switch, the farm had a 1% variation in the TMR shaker box across the length of the feed delivery area. However, this farm saw a 15% difference out of a shaker box across their delivered feed area when the new mixer was over mixing the TMR.

“That mixing time after that last ingredient can be critical as to how accurate your mix is staying when you deliver it,” Bischof said.

Another thing to consider for a consistently delivered TMR is mixer size.

Some dairy farmers have purchased larger mixers to speed up feeding time. However, these large mixers sometimes are too big to properly mix smaller batches for groups such as heifers or dry cows. If the feed does not reach high enough on the screw, it will be difcult to get it mixed.

Bischof said some dairies have seen success by giving their fresh cows the same ration as their rst-lactation animals. This increases the amount of mix, allowing it to blend better.

Conversely, overloading the mixer can also cause problems. Bischof said most mixers can get the feed fully mixed in about four minutes after the nal ingredient.

Bischof said it is also important to make sure that the mixer is equipped with the manufacturer’s recommendation on knives.

“There’s a certain number of knives that they want in the mixer to properly mix feed,” Bischof said. “These aren’t just for cutting. They’re to help make sure you get the right ro-

tation as you’re mixing feed.”

Bischof said it is important to keep knives sharp as well as making sure the right number of knives are in the correct places.

Other mixer maintenance includes the kicker plates, screws, doors that close completely and accurate weigh bars.

Mixers should be loaded using the same rotation per minute across all operators. Bischof said most mixers are designed to be loaded at about 1,800 tractor RPMs. He said failure to have consistent RPMs can affect the mixing and consistency.

Feed variation across bunkers can affect rations. For example, Bischof had a farm that had a 17.4% moisture variation across their haylage bunker face and a 5.3% protein variation. Bischof said this farm had small elds along wood lines with a mix of grass and alfalfa, which contributed to the variation.

With moisture variation in the teens, the ration could vary greatly. For every amount of feed with supposedly 10 pounds of dry matter, the wettest section had 7 pounds of dry matter while the driest section had 12.23 pounds of dry matter for the same amount of as-fed feed, Bischof said.

Bischof said this farm would face their pile, push the feed to the center and mix it on top of the pile to counteract the variation.

In the storage shed for non-forage commodities, Bischof said feed tucked all the way into bays out of the weather is good. He said to remember to switch the feed forward and rotate it. He also said dairy producers should place the mixer on concrete to create a at area for mixing and reduce the possibility of dirt going into the bays.

Bischof spoke on how shrinkage can be costly for dairy farms. For example, if a 250-cow dairy loses 1 pound of dry matter per cow per day for approximately 500 pounds of as-fed feed, this could cost between $11,000-$12,000 a year.

To help reduce shrinkage in bins, Bischof said lengthening the tubes coming off bin conveyors can help to prevent wind from blowing the feed into the yard instead of the mixer.

Tightening feed refusals can also save money. For example, Bischof had a dairy which had about 5% refusals. Bischof said he gured that if they could tighten this by 1%, the farmer would save around $150,000 per year.

TMR stabilizers were another topic of discussion. Bischof said in the summer, he pays attention to whether the TMR is heating. Water from sprinklers can affect stability. Bischof said using stabilizers can be good when not a lot of feed is being pulled off the pile in warm weather.

He said for dairies using earlage and high-moisture corn, they might want to put stabilizers in earlier in the season. He also said some dairies use it in the winter to preserve two-day mixes.

“We’re targeting not only keeping a TMR fresh and stable throughout the day for the cows but then keeping it a little more stable the next day when heifer groups are being fed the leftover TMR in their rations,” Bischof said.

Leading with humanity in the digital space

Thompson-Weeman presents do’s, don’ts of social media

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

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Creating a positive social media presence for animal agriculture centers around dairy farmers bringing themselves and their whys to the discussion.

This was the message of Hannah Thompson-Weeman in her presentation, “Harness the Power of Social Media Engagement.” The president and CEO of Animal Agriculture Alliance spoke at the Destination Innovation 2024 Form-A-Feed Dairy Conference Jan. 12 at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester.

“Why do you do what you do?” Thompson-Weeman said. “What is the greater purpose? ... Why did you become a farmer? It’s about feeding people. It’s about getting to work with your family every day. It’s about having something to pass along to the next generation.”

practices are ... to why you do what you do,” Thompson-Weeman said. “(Explain) why you’re committed to doing the right thing every day and putting that human face on it.”

She said it is important to listen to understand versus listening to respond. Failure to do so may result in a response to a misperceived concern the other person does not even have. Using good listening also helps to identify whether or not it is an opportunity for positive engagement.

Thompson-Weeman showed results of Google searches around animal agriculture to illustrate the number of anti-animal agriculture results that people interested in knowing more about animal agriculture encounter.

“Have some empathy for the fact that they might even have tried to do their due diligence and get questions answered, and they have to sort through this type of misinformation,” she said.

Thompson-Weeman said sometimes the loudest voices answering people’s questions are those sharing a negative view of animal agriculture.

animals to be well cared for, which is certainly a value that we can share.”

Thompson-Weeman said undercover video campaigns continue to be an issue. She said often the videographers are showing a normal, veterinarian-approved practice, such as hoof trimming, but presenting it out of context.

“You add the dark lighting, the dramatic voiceover and Sarah McLachlan song in the background, it can start to take a different tone to someone who’s not sure what they’re looking at,” Thompson-Weeman said.

Thompson-Weeman said an attack area from activist organizations is nutrition. She said the nutritional aspect of animal protein is why some people keep it in their diets even if they feel guilty about it.

Other targets for activists include environmental impact, antibiotic use and diseases transmitted from animals to humans.

Thompson-Weeman said farmers should not shy away from a topic because it is contentious. She said sometimes these are the topics that should be talked about to give balance to the negativity.

their mind,’” Thompson-Weeman said. “For the extremists that we’re talking about, those folks are not your customers. They don’t buy dairy. They never will. They’re not looking for information. They’re looking for a debate.”

The don’ts of social media that Thompson-Weeman shared included avoidance of industry jargon and speculation.

Thompson-Weeman also said farmers should avoid speaking poorly of other types of farming or production methods. Instead, she said to lean into the concept of choice for consumers and farmers.

“A rising tide lifts all boats,” Thompson-Weeman said. “Negativity does the opposite for all boats as well. ... If they hear something negative about one type of dairy, they’re just going to start getting concerned about dairy as a whole.”

The session covered ThompsonWeeman’s do’s and don’ts of social media and examined the current landscape of agriculture advocacy and animal rights activism.

Thompson-Weeman’s rst point of the do’s of social media is sharing the why.

“We’re a very science-driven industry,” Thompson-Weeman said. “We want to jump to, ‘Well, here’s the white paper. Here’s the science behind this.’ ... That doesn’t resonate with people. ... They want to connect with another human, person to person, not a paper, not data, not science.”

Thompson-Weeman said when engaging on social media, use shared values and show empathy. Then, within this context, ask permission to share and tell your personal stories backed by science.

“(Try) thinking beyond just the what do you do as far as what your

“We’re coming from a place of understanding that someone might just genuinely have questions or even concerns,” Thompson-Weeman said. “(We are) coming from a place of empathy and shared value when we do try to connect with people.”

Thompson-Weeman said to think about what emoji would represent the other person in the interaction.

“Are they the angry face?” Thompson-Weeman said. “Are they the questioning face? Are they the scared face? And what does that mean for the potential discussion you’re going to have with them?”

Thompson-Weeman said people think and care about animal welfare. Topics such as cow-calf separation, stocking density or anything in which an animal’s natural order is disrupt-ed are areas of concern.

“Their perception of how animals should be cared for starts with their cat or dog,” Thompson-Weeman said. “They might have a very different version of animal welfare than all of us, but they really care about animals and want

“We need to make sure that we are coming out of a place of sharing information,” Thompson-Weeman said. “(This means) engaging, not thinking that everybody needs to think the same way we do and come to the same conclusions.”

Thompson-Weeman said to focus energy on shifting the moveable middle people and to not waste energy on extremists.

“Someone always is sitting there thinking, ‘But, I might be able to change

Thompson-Weeman said farmers using social media should claim their social handles on every platform. Otherwise, others may squat on their handle, posting negative things in their name. She also suggested creating a comment policy where hateful or profane content is not allowed.

When sharing on social media, Thompson-Weeman said to use a message house concept. She said the main overall message is the roof, which is supported by pillars of proof points. Thompson-Weeman said to look for analogies with which the other person has experience and to use repetition.

“By the time you’re getting sick of saying something, it’s probably just sinking in for the rst time,” Thompson-Weeman said.

Hannah ThompsonWeeman Animal Agriculture Alliance

www.extension.umn.edu/dairy

Tune-up for farm vaccine protocols

I attended the Carver County Dairy and Beef Expo looking to reunite with colleagues, learn about highlighted topics and network with producers.

While sitting through the packed Beef Quality Assurance training, I thought, “I bet there are things dairy producers could use a refresher on. What are forgotten behaviors that could use a tune-up?”

Like anyone with a daily routine, tasks around the dairy become rote and repetitive. These comfortably slip into the “we’ve always done it this way” category. This article will remind herd managers about important practices regarding vaccine handling.

By Dana Adams University of Minnesota

A safe place to start is to read labels. It is not ashy or new, but it remains true. The vaccine labels change and always contain directions for use, storage guidelines, administration and dosage. This guidance can change, and the label is the place to ensure you get what you are paying for. The label outlines the drug’s temperature restrictions, mixing directions and expiration dates. It is worth taking 3-5 minutes to know what all that money you spent requires you to do for that drug to be benecial for your animals.

One of my favorite parts of this training is practical and applicable suggestions for producers. All of us have been in the situation, debating, “Can I put the vaccine on the window sill by the chute? It’s just for a minute.” The best practice is not to expose vaccines to conditions outside the labeled temperature ranges. It may be 31 degrees outside the barn, but on the dashboard of the farm truck, where your vaccine was placed, it was 85 degrees. I also know that many producers would not pause when placing a vaccine in a band of sunlight next to the calf pen. Though it is easy, this is not advisable. Well, what is a herdsman to do? A convenient plastic foam cooler can be used to protect your vaccines from light, freezing and thawing. By lining it with ice packs and using a towel or cardboard as a divider, products can be protected from slushing or freezing.

Cow-side is far from the only place these vaccine temperature uctuations can occur. Everyone is familiar with the farm fridge. It has three rusty corners and is frequently 25 years old, leaving the house because it could not keep things cold. If the fridge cannot

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maintain a consistent temperature, is it worth the risk of damaging expensive vaccines or the downstream effect on your milking string?

Producers should be encouraged to place a thermometer in the refrigerator to gauge performance and consider equipment that is more reliable. It is also important to note that some animal health products cannot be frozen and thawed safely — read the vaccine’s label to know the danger zone. When they go through that process, they release endotoxins, which can be harmful and cause serious complications, including death. It is rather easy to treat vaccines like they are indestructible but that is not the case.

Many farmers are familiar with how to prepare vaccines. Keep in mind that shaking vigorously can damage the product, releasing endotoxins. Aggressive mixing can be swapped out for rolling it between your hands, swishing it around in the vial, both clockwise and counterclockwise, and turning it upside-down several times. If the vaccine or animal health product needs to be mixed, mix only what can be used in an hour or less. Some prod-

Dana Adams adam1744@umn.edu 320-204-2968

Joe Armstrong armst225@umn.edu 612.624.3610

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ucts are viable for a limited time once mixed. Mixing it as you use it helps ensure its effectiveness and reduces product waste when unforeseen delays happen, and as every farmer knows, that is not the only time delays happen.

Lastly, make sure to clearly label syringes and have separate syringes assigned to specic products. In the moment, it is all too easy to mix up syringes, and labeling, simply put, helps. While on the subject of reusable equipment, sanitize using heat, never with detergents where residues can damage or destroy medication products. Needles are another often-overlooked issue. The best practice is to change needles every 10-15 animals and every time the needle is relled from the bottle. Making these practices standard prevents needles from becoming contaminated, dull, developing a bur or bending. Needles are cheap, compared to the cost of vaccines and animal health.

Vaccines are a tool in every producer’s toolbox. Each of these can yield the desired outcome with an understanding of when, where and how to use the tool best.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isaac Haagen hagge041@umn.edu 612-624-7455

Michael Boland boland@umn.edu 612-625-3013

Sabrina Florentino slpore@umn.edu 507-441-1765

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Top 5 most viewed robotic milking episodes

For three years, starting in January 2021 and ending in December 2023, we hosted a dairy producer using robotic milking systems once a month for an informal virtual discussion.

We all learned a lot from these producers, and we are grateful they were willing to join us and share their experiences. We recorded the episodes and uploaded to our YouTube channel.

Our top 5 most-watched episodes were: Nos. 8, 17, 1, 19 and 5, in that order.

What are some of the key messages and management practices they shared?

By Marcia Endres University of Minnesota

Episode 8: This farm in North Dakota has a robotic 60-stall GEA DairyProQ robotic milking carousel. Jon indicated that the reason they chose a rotary rather than box systems was because they did not want to reinvent the wheel and wanted to keep management the same. They have one person in the parlor and one person bringing cows to the holding pen. Jon told us they have 11 additional modules — the robotic milking units — that they can swap in 15 minutes with one that needs to be repaired as needed. He indicated that good feet and leg health are key to make sure cows can use the rotary efciently. About 10% of their herd is manually attached, primarily cows in late lactation, but this is not very much labor in their experience. In the type of system they have, the same teat cup does the pre-

dipping, milking and post-dipping, so all the worker has to do is attach each quarter. Their dairy also has sort gates that help with using their automated foot bath system and breeding cows, etc. The barn has a robotic feed pusher and automatic scrapers. They have waterbeds with green separated manure solids on top. Cows also have collars that monitor rumination, activity and feeding time, which is helpful in identifying cows that need attention.

Episode 17: This is a smaller herd with two Lely robots in Minnesota. Sam, a young Ph.D. nutritionist, along with his wife and his wife’s parents, decided to build this new 120-cow dairy. They have a naturally ventilated freestall barn with fans and sprinklers, deep-bedded sand stalls, automated manure scrapers and a robotic feed pusher. They bed every 5-10 days and use a skid loader rake to level stalls every ve days. Those same ve days, they run cows through a long foot bath at the end of the barn. They decided on free-ow cow trafc for simplicity and fetch about 5% of their cows daily. He indicated that having a large, open area in front of the robots helps timid cows get milked and reduces fetching. They do not use custom formulated pellets. Instead, cows are supplemented in the robots with corn gluten pellets and ne-ground, farm-grown corn. Cows average 2.8 milkings and 1.3 refus-

als per day. Milk quality sometimes can be a challenge in robotic systems, but they installed somatic cell count testers which help identify cows that are high, which they conrm with the California mastitis test. They hope to do on-farm culture.

Episode 1: We were pleased that Dave from Minnesota agreed to be our rst guest. They milk their cows with eight Lely robots. They expanded from four to eight robots as it was a labor challenge having the older parlor and robots at the same time. After transitioning all cows to robots, they have only three full-time employees to do everything except heifers from 3 months of age until they come back prior to calving. This dairy pre-trains heifers twice a day by manually bringing them to visit a robot and giving them a small amount of feed. Heifers get used to the sounds and to being in that box, which has helped improve adaptation to the robots after calving. Dave indicated they traded labor for parts, maintenance, repairs and supplies, and they are on call 24/7. Finding and managing people was very difcult. Dave focuses on identifying problem cows daily, sorting them and taking care of them as soon as possible.

Episode 19: A unique aspect of this dairy in Minnesota is the retrot they used for their barn. One pen has two Lely robotic milking systems and the other has ve robotic milking systems. The smaller pen houses the fresh cows and is also used to train heifers. This pen usually has 55 cows

per robot, whereas the large pen has 65 cows per robot. It will be hard to describe all the details here, as they use a unique sorting system with Grazeway gates. Watch the episode for more details on their cow management. The dairy has a manure separation and composting system inside the barn. Brad told us that milk production increased by 15 pounds after they transitioned to robotic milking. This dairy uses robotic manure collectors that not only vacuum the manure but also spray water which makes the oors less slippery. They have a robotic feed pusher they named George.

Episode 5: This dairy in Chile is the largest robotic box milking system in the world with 90 DeLaval robots. When Odriom was our guest, they had 72 robots. They have a barn built in 2014 with eight VMS robots and one robot per pen. They retrotted their freestall barns with either two robots — tandem — or three robots — toll booth — per pen in different phases afterward. One major message he had was that the toll booth conguration is much better for cow ow, and it is what they recommend for retrots. The cow ow in the tworobot barn is quite unique. Again, hard to describe here, so watch the episode. They chose guided-ow cow trafc because of labor management. They use one robot for fresh cows and training heifers for 20 days after calving using a batch milking approach.

Agriculture on parade

Bluff View Elementary welcomes farm procession for ‘I love to read’ month

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

LAKE CITY, Minn. — Cheering children stand on the sidewalk by Bluff View Elementary in Lake City Feb. 2. Their shouts encourage the honking of horns of every kind, from soft toots to blaring honks. On the street in front of them passes a parade of agriculture vehicles and equipment, from a tractor and mixer to a dairy supply truck, sprayer and skid loader.

The parade kicked off the school’s “I love to read” month with a focus on agriculture. In February, students learned about aspects of agriculture through a boot library, a visit from Princess Kay of the Milky Way and a book about pizza read to them by FFA students.

Kindergarten teacher Marie Kruse was the organizer for the month.

“It’s always been near and dear to my heart that farming would be part of my teaching,” Kruse said.

Kruse grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. Her grandparents sold the dairy cows when she was in middle school. They made a transition to cash crops, which had been started by her dad before she was born.

After receiving a grant to attend the 2023 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference, Kruse said she returned with ideas to incorporate what she had learned.

“So many of (the students) are three to four generations away from the family farm,” Kruse said. “We used to have lots of kids who came from farms, and now, we don’t have very many at all.”

Jeremy Holst, a dairy farmer who participated in the parade, agreed.

“We’re a small town, but they’ve (kids) never been on a farm before,” Holst said.

Kruse suggested an agriculture theme for the “I love to read month,” which focuses on a different theme each year.

Kruse called Mark Ryan, the location manager/grain buyer at Ag Partners in Lake City, with the idea of an ag-

riculture parade for the children. He helped to coordinate a variety of participants.

“The ag industry is so open-armed,” Kruse said. “(You) send out a few emails and make a few phone calls and everybody’s eager to

help. It’s so amazing. I love it.”

Holst heard about the parade through an email his wife received from Kruse, who was their daughter’s teacher last year.

“It was a pretty cool idea

what she was doing to help promote agriculture,” Holst said.

Turn to AG PARADE

AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR

Dairy farmer Jeremy Holst and his son, Lane, smile as they sit in a tractor Feb. 2 a�er the agriculture parade at Bluff View Elementary in Lake City, Minnesota. Holst said it is good to get kids excited about agriculture.

Con�nued from AG PARADE | Page 32

Holst connected with a few of his farmer friends and businesses his farm works with to invite them to be in the parade.

On parade day, Holst and his young son, Lane, were in the parade driving a tractor hitched with a manure spreader. They borrowed it from a farmer friend who lives closer to town.

Holst was one of at least three dairy farmers to participate.

“It’s good to get the kids excited about agriculture, whether dairy farming or any sort of agriculture,” Holst said.

Jeff Bremer was another dairy farmer participating. He drove a tractor and mixer a little over 6 miles to join.

“We have to get them more involved in knowing where all their food comes from and what it takes to make it,” Bremer said.

The parade included about 20 participants. Most of the vehicles gathered in a church parking lot before starting the route past the school.

Holst said some of the children held signs thanking the agriculture industry, which was nice.

“I think the kids enjoyed it,” Holst said. “They like to see the big tractors and trucks and (hear) the honking horns.”

Kruse said they lmed the parade and plan to use the footage to make a video with a short explanation of what each vehicle and piece of equipment does.

Before the parade, Kruse lmed herself in a tractor reading a book about machinery at Midwest Machinery Co. in Plainview. The video was distributed in the classrooms where it could be played before the parade.

The parade was the beginning of a month of agriculture festivities. Each week focused on an aspect of agriculture and included dairy, agriculture careers, meat animals and crops.

For dairy week, Kruse asked Princess Kay of the Milky Way Emma Kuball to make six classroom visits. During lunch, the school drew the names of seven children to share their meals with Kuball.

Kruse also asked dairy farm kids to submit photos and make a video.

FFA students read a book about pizza to the children and explained

that everything on a pizza comes from a farm.

The author of the children’s book “Farm Boots,” Lisl H. Detlefsen, also paid a visit to the school. To highlight the theme, the school created a boot library that included boots from various professions along with ip charts and descriptions to explain why they are worn and who wears them.

“We really want them to walk away having a better understanding of where their food, their clothes and all the products they use come from,” Kruse said. “We are trying to build more of a background for them, not only of the things farmers do for us but also the agriculture piece itself, including all the different organizations and careers.”

AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR

Students watch the agriculture parade Feb. 2 at Bluff View Elementary in Lake City, Minnesota. The parade kicked off an agriculture-themed “I love to read” month for the school.

AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR

Dairy farmer Jeff Bremer smiles by his tractor and mixer Feb. 2 before the agriculture parade in Lake City, Minnesota. Bremer traveled a li�le over 6 miles to par�cipate.

Being raised on a dairy farm is a special gift. Countless lessons are taught — an appreciation for life, an understanding of death and a respect for everything that comes in between. On a dairy farm, those lessons are best and most frequently taught by four-legged educators.

March 13 marks the birthday of one of my earliest — and most favorite — educators. Licorice was born 41 years ago, when I was 8 years old, at my grandpa and grandma Kroning’s farm in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin.

Licorice’s birth was long-awaited. My dad had promised me that if our cow, Lea, had a heifer calf, it would be mine. Those were the days before sexed semen and ultrasound, so I remember spending a lot of time trying to be good so Lea would have a heifer calf for me.

When the phone call from Uncle Rick came, telling us Lea had indeed produced a heifer calf, my excitement bubbled over as I told him I was going to name the calf Licorice. He told me she could not be named Licorice; she was not black enough.

That was the day Uncle Rick learned that being a black calf was not necessarily a requirement for the name Licorice, and the 8-year-old won out.

Licorice was an eye-catching, correct calf. She earned a spot with the rest of the show heifers at my grandparents’ farm, housed in a barn on the farm next door.

That barn was struck by lightning and caught re that summer. My grandparents lost a few heifers and all the bulls they were raising to sell as herd sires. Fortunately for Licorice and I, the show heifers spent the night outside, and she was spared harm.

Even though I was not present to witness the re, that night is the reason I cannot sleep during lightning storms. I sit and watch the barn, and I keep a set of sharp bolt cutters hanging where they will be easy to access.

That summer also marked my rst time showing anywhere other than our county fair. Licorice and I made the trip to the District 3 Holstein Show in Lancaster, where we placed third in a large class of over 30 March calves. It was the rst time I met Ray Kuehl, as he judged the show. Ray would come to be someone I would look up to and hold in great respect.

My parents started milking cows on their own that fall, and Licorice made the trip with the rest of our cows to our newly rented farm in Norwalk. Having Licorice with me every day was the most wonderful thing I could think of at that time, and our bond began to grow.

I turned 9 and was able to join 4-H.

I was excited for the prospect of showing Licorice at our county fair. She was a big junior yearling, and I had not grown nearly as much as she had. I had trouble keeping her head up, but she was my pride and joy. Getting ready to go to the ring, my dad cautioned me not to set my expectations too high, but I have always been the competitive type. I grabbed the lead strap and headed to the ring telling him, “We’re gonna win.” And, win Licorice did. Licorice calved in the next spring, of course, with a bull calf, but she became a good cow. My dad decided we would try our hand at taking a few cows to our District 2 Holstein Show. As fate would have it, Licorice came in heat the day of the show. She jumped me in the ring and knocked me down, and my dad came to take over. Dr. David Dickson was the judge and later said he couldn’t believe he’d missed the commotion. Licorice won her class at the district show that day, and we entered her for the Wisconsin Championship Show to be held later in July, where she placed fourth in the junior 2-year-old class.

In 1988, Licorice was due to calve in July during a hot and dry summer. She picked July 15 to calve, overdue several days. That day still holds the record for the high temperature. She calved late that afternoon, with a heifer calf who came upside down and backward. We managed to save the calf, and I thought to name her Lucky.

Despite everything we did to keep her cool, Licorice suffered from heat stress. By about 11 p.m., my dad was satised that we had Licorice headed on the right path, and we left her to rest for the evening. He checked her at 2 a.m., and while she had not cleaned yet, she was up and eating hay. When we went to the barn to start chores at 4:30 a.m., we found Licorice dead.

To say I was heartbroken is an understatement. Those two days are days that I remember each year. I renamed my little calf and called her Little Licorice.

The lessons I learned from Licorice are many.

I learned the magnitude of the gift God gives us through his creation. I learned the importance of caring for that gift, on the good days and the bad. I learned of the love the animals have for you, as their caretaker, and the joy experienced when those animals are successful. I learned of the unspeakable pain when you lose that animal you have poured your heart and soul into. Ultimately, I learned how to cherish the gift, holding the memories of each experience close to your heart.

Reading with a big thank you

As February is the month of love, it has given me the opportunity to reect on what I love about my position this year.

Of course, there are all of the incredible dairy farmers who inspire me every day to represent them the best that I can. This month, I have met so many amazing students and teachers not to mention the love I have for all of the cows that make our job as dairy farmers worth it.

On the Road with Princess Kay

I started February at the St. Paul Winter Carnival Vulcan Victory Torchlight Parade. I was joined by my state fair friends, Fairborne and Fairchild, as we walked through the unusually warm parade. However, it was not quite warm enough this time to wear a dress through the parade, like I did for the St. Paul Winter Carnival King Boreas Grande Day Parade. I still had a wonderful time meeting princesses from all over the state and even princesses from Wisconsin. The remainder of the month was lled with classroom visits and book readings.

By Emma Kuball 70th Princess Kay of the Milky Way

February was “I Love to Read Month,” so I was invited to be a guest reader at several schools this month.

I started at Bluff View Elementary in Lake City, Minnesota. I met with all of their students from kindergarten through fth grade. We read dairy-themed books and also talked about dairy farming and my role as Princess Kay.

I was also honored to be the reward for the Bluff View star students also. We ate lunch together and played a few agriculture-themed games. It was denitely one of the highlights of my year so far. I also saw what one of the kindergarten teachers is doing to teach about agriculture in her classroom. Not only does she have a farm toy set in her room, where students can play with tractors, grain bins, barns and cows, she also organized an agriculture parade with farm animal balloons and tractors. I know that these efforts will have an incredible impact on her students’ understanding of agriculture.

The next week, I visited Lincoln Elementary in Faribault, Minnesota. I was visited a kindergarten class, and I was the mystery reader for some of the third, fourth and fth grade classes. I read a book about dairy products with the kindergartners, and we made thank you cards for dairy farmers. I love doing this activity because it shows me what they learned. There were a few cards that showed it raining because we talked about how dairy farmers need to take care of the cows even when it’s raining or snowing.

My nal appearance for the month brought me to 50 classrooms via a Zoom book reading coordinated by Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom. I was a celebrity reader sharing “Tales of the Dairy Godmother: Chuck’s Ice Cream Wish” followed by lots of insightful questions from the students.

As I said earlier, I have had the students make thank you cards for dairy farmers. I have been sharing these on social media for “Thank a Dairy Farmer Thursdays,” but I would also like to share some here.

It has become one of my favorite parts of the visits because the students put so much care and thought into their cards. It is important that all of you get to see how much the students care about the work that you do. Here is what a few of the students at Zion Lutheran School wrote.

Charlie wrote, “Thank you for making food for us. I love you.” Another student wrote, “Thank you for all of your work. Thank you for the milk. Thank you for all the things that you do for us.” Olivia showed us that we don’t have to write a long thank you for it to be impactful. She said, “Thank you for all you do.” Taylor wrote, “Dear dairy farmers, thank you so much for making ice cream, milk, cheese and sour cream. Thank you so much for all of your hard work.”

I hope that these notes brighten your day like they do mine, and I want you all to know how much our students in Minnesota care about the work you do for all of us.

Princess Kay of the Milky Way, Emma Kuball, serves as the Minnesota dairy community’s goodwill ambassador. Kuball grew up in Waterville, Minnesota, working on her family’s sixth-generation dairy farm. She attends the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, studying agriculture education, and looks forward to becoming an FFA advisor. She enjoys reading, crocheting and baking. Her parents are Nate and Shannon Kuball.

Princess Kay is active doing school visits, representing dairy farmers and sharing the importance of dairy farming and dairy foods at appearances across Minnesota.

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Old, young friends

My wife and I are at an awkward, in-between age. Many of our contemporaries have become grandparents, yet at the same time, we have young friends who are having babies.

This can lead to some interesting gift buying decisions. One day we might be purchasing a baby present that conveys the message, “Congratulations, and here’s hoping that your diaper issues are minimal.” The next day might nd us purchasing a retirement gift that conveys pretty much the same sentiment. It all depends.

I have nothing against babies, although in my opinion, they should be born at about a year of age. That is when babies start to become interesting; you can teach them tricks, they’re pretty much self-propelled and are learning how to talk. The part about learning how to talk can be a powerful incentive for a guy to watch his language. That’s always a good thing.

I grew up among kids. I found them to be fascinating subjects for study and even made friends with a few of them. But, after I achieved adulthood, the whole idea of children lost its luster.

That is, until my wife whispered into my ear one evening the news that she was expecting.

The revelation caught me totally off-guard. “Expecting what?” I sputtered. This, I quickly learned, is a woefully inappropriate response.

Children — at least this one specic child — suddenly became the focus of our entire existence. My wife purchased enough baby clothes to outt an entire hospital nursery, and I squired her around to an endless series of doctor’s appointments. At one point, the doctor showed us a sonogram which, to my eye, contained nothing but a collection of formless blobs.

We were told that these nebulous blotches were our child.

“In that case,” I said, “I want my money back. That doesn’t look like anything.”

That’s when I discovered that there is a wide range of thoughts that should never be verbalized in the presence of an expectant mother. Especially in the presence of the one to whom you are married.

As punishment for my numerous blunders, I was forced to attend Lamaze classes. With my wife, of course.

The instructor began by telling us all about the birthing process. I was a dairy farmer, so none of the information was new to me. Many of our classmates listened intently, asking numerous questions, exuding an aura of wide-eyed wonder. It appeared that up until then they believed that babies were delivered by The Stork Express.

By Jerry Nelson Columnist

Our son was born on time and with minimal bother, at least as far as I was concerned. My wife would probably tell a much different story.

As soon as our son arrived, I asked the all-important question that’s on every new father’s mind: Will we be able to claim him as a dependent on this year’s income tax return?

Turns out that this was yet another of my many ill-conceived questions. It also turned out that the answer was yes.

Our eldest son was born very late in the year. I assumed that we would be allowed to claim only 6/365th of a deduction for him since he was born six days before New Year’s Day.

Leland, our tax guy, had a very different view regarding this issue.

“If he didn’t live with you, who did he live with?” he asked.

I liked the way Leland thought.

It wasn’t long before our second son came along. The following two decades rushed by in a blur of icky diapers and skinned knees, too much work and too little money, visits from the Tooth Fairy and visits to the pediatrician.

My wife would no doubt contest the fact that I had anything at all to do with any poopy diapers. But if that were true, why is the image of a horrifying diaper changing ordeal permanently seared into my brain?

OK, so I changed one stinky diaper once, but the experience was enough to change me.

It’s nice to have friends who are our age, people who know what AARP stands for and purchase antiaging products in bulk. Pals who don’t need to have Watergate explained to them and know that Alice Cooper is actually a guy.

But it’s also nice to have friends who would throw a body check to snag a case of Pampers that are on sale and think that six hours of uninterrupted sleep would be an over-the-top luxury.

It takes monumental faith and vast amounts of energy to bring a child into this world and raise him or her. But, it appears that growing older requires no effort at all.

Jerry Nelson is a recovering dairy farmer from Volga, South Dakota. He and his wife, Julie, have two sons and live on the farm where Jerry’s great-grandfather homesteaded over 110 years ago. Jerry works for Dairy Star as a staff writer and ad salesman. Feel free to email him at jerry.n@dairystar.com.

Dear

Warm barns

In my neighborhood, a warm dairy barn used to mean a tiestall or stanchion barn, and those barns had temperatures well above freezing even on the coldest winter days. As freestall barns became the norm, almost all were designed to be cold. Cold usually means natural ventilation with an open ridge and open eves. On very chilly winter days, the temperature in those barns might only be 10 degrees warmer than the outside temperature, for example.

Cows did not seem to mind, unless the sand in the stalls froze, were covered with snow or alleys developed signicant buildup of frozen manure. Humans mostly did not like cold barns in the winter. We had to wear so many clothes that we could no longer get through the pass-throughs. Some of us could barely t through normal-sized doors. Plus, we needed thick gloves or those big chopper mitts, which really made it hard to draw up 2 cc of GnRH and inject it into the neck of a cow, for example. But, we adapted because we knew it was best for the cows.

Recently, farmers have pioneered ways to keep naturally ventilated barns warmer in the winter. The most successful efforts use power ridge vents instead of a completely open ridge. Most farmers leave the eve vents open when remodeling, but some make the vents smaller. Some others even close the eve vents. Some farmers add insulation to non-insulated roofs, and others do not. However, if done correctly, power vents do seem to result in signicantly warmer barns in winter without signicant detriment to animal health and production.

Humans really like these barns.

There are challenges, however. First, when it is really cold, the screens over the power vents may freeze up and require thawing, which is accomplished by turning the fans off until the frost melts. This can create challenges to animal health. Second, particularly in barns where the eve vents are closed, farmers may need to regulate the curtain openings much more frequently. This commonly happens as the outside air temperatures rise above roughly 20 degrees, but the temperature when the curtains need to be opened varies between barns. If farmers do not open curtains, the barns may become very humid and smelly. Summers also create challenges.

According to retired Kansas State University agricultural engineer Joe Harner, these barns are warmer in the summer. There is simply no way that power vents spaced 40 feet apart, for example, can remove as much air as a 24-inch-wide open ridge. However, my own observation is that if the barn did not have an insulated roof before, adding insulation may make the barn cooler during late morning and early afternoon on sunny, hot days. Harner is correct that these barns do not remove as much air on hot, still afternoons as an open ridge would and, thus, probably are hotter in the afternoon and retain heat much longer as the outside temperatures drop at night. Still, even with these challenges, most producers are happy with the results.

When used in calf barns, the results are less clear. Trying to keep a newborn calf barn signicantly warmer than outside air usually results in poor air quality and impaired animal health. Calves do not generate much heat, so barns need to be kept very tight with a few vent fans running on very cold days if one wants to keep them warm.

Of course, one could add heat, but doing this while maintaining adequate ventilation is not economically feasible for most farms. However, power

JD

vents might work in calf barns if enough fresh air is brought into the barn. Installing positive pressure tubes is one way to get this done. Four exchanges of air per hour is the recognized minimum standard of winter. It may be that this is too low or too high, but any power ventilation system should be designed to maintain at least four changes per hour in very cold weather.

This applies to calf and cow barns. In general, keeping calf barns cold seems to be the best practice for animal health. It is, however, imperative that calves in group housing inside cold barns have jackets and deep, dry bedding. Truthfully, no one really knows how to mechanically ventilate calf barns in such a way that both humans and calves are warm and healthy during winter in the Upper Midwest.

For now, it looks like we can keep freestall barns warmer than we used to think without negatively affecting cow health and production. That has made life easier for farmers and their workers on those frigid winter days.

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

Learning new things

I will never tire of learning new things. Maybe that’s not surprising as I think, all people are naturally curious. In college, there was a saying the professors and every motivational speaker at conferences would say: “Keep your saw sharp.”

They weren’t referring to woodworking equipment, although it is a very good idea to keep those saws sharp as well if you want to do your best work efciently. They were talking about skills and knowledge, which not so coincidentally also are important for doing a task well.

There are a number of teeth on my proverbial saw I didn’t get around to sharpening near as early in life as I wish I had.

The most recently discovered one I’ve been vigorously ling in an attempt to get it razor sharp is my understanding of the nancial world.

For many years, when our kids were young and we put most of our time and money into the farm, we didn’t have enough money at the end of the month to worry much about where the little left over went.

We bought the insurance policies our representative told us were a good idea to have and made extremely modest investments in retirement and savings accounts. Had I spent more time learning about insurance, investing and banking, I would have made a number of changes earlier which I am

making now because what happened yesterday is not worth dwelling on. It’s best to just get things straightened out and move forward.

One of the lessons I’ve learned is that the world is full of ways to spend and invest money. Many of them will yield a return, but some return pennies and some return dollars. The risks and returns aren’t always obvious or connected. Reading prospectuses for investments and contracts for policies is tedious and often confusing without a lot of Google searches to sort out what various terms mean but is super important. What someone is looking to sell is maybe the best option of their limited tools they can offer but not necessarily the best option for you.

I recently read the book “The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns” by John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard Group Inc.

A quote that stood out to me in the book was, “In investing, you get what you don’t pay for. Costs matter.”

I had always known that a portion of our investments went to pay management fees, but the idea of a number as small as 0.15% mattering much didn’t occur to me. After realizing how fees add up to huge numbers over time and seeing how funds we picked failed to live up to even half of their historical returns, we’ll be changing a number of our investments. Similar to cattle numbers growing exponentially if you don’t sell any and have low death losses, money will accumulate faster and faster as compounding interest works its magic. But, if someone keeps stealing a percentage of the calves each year, that growth gets held back. Thankfully, monetary investments growing don’t require building more barns and buying a bigger manure spreader.

As for insurance, I’ve learned that it’s a wise thing to have. However, if you can get the most things covered for the least expenditure, do that. There are a large quantity of complicated insurance products out there to do simple things, and they are best avoided. In the end, the less debt a person has, the less insurance they need to carry to cover that risk. How to balance paying for insurance while also paying down debt quickly is a discussion for someone far more qualied than me.

The next dull saw tooth I’ll be working on is taxes. I have had only a general understanding of taxes and hire a professional to help. We do what she suggests at tax planning time and hope we saved enough up to cover the bill. I would prefer to have a much better understanding of actions to take throughout the year to minimize taxes but also maximize our farm’s protability. Wish me luck on learning more about that topic. I’m going to need it.

Until next time, keep living the dream, and keep your literal and gurative saws sharp. You need both types in top shape to stay in the dairy business. It hasn’t

any easier.

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

Proving passion, purpose to policy

Winter is receding, and these recent warm days have us preparing and planning for the quickly approaching growing season.

In this annual tradition, we nd it exciting and comforting to retreat into our dairies and focus on what is occurring within our farm. Back to the goals we’ve set, tasks the warmer weather allows and hobbies laid aside with last year’s frost.

Our thoughts and focus on any burdens and upcoming challenges to

The NexGen: Adventures of two dairy daughters

Policy decisions can encourage or discourage actions through legislation. Right now, we are witnessing policy actions that will determine how we address agriculture’s response to climate change, among others. Agriculture has enormous potential to provide climatefriendly solutions to current climate change challenges, but we must be a part of the conversations that are taking place. We must be present as a rst-hand witness and face of agriculture to those making these decisions that will affect our family businesses. We must be present at the table where initial policy decisions are developed.

By Megan Schrupp & Ellen Stenger Columnists

agriculture and the dairy industry tend to fall to the wayside as the excitement of warm weather unfolds. However, it is imperative that we remain focused on things that aren’t always enjoyable but are crucial to our dairy businesses. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Those small things that make us uncomfortable help us build courage to do the work we do.”

National Ag Day is March 19. It was created to remind Americans of the importance of agriculture in our daily lives. National Ag Day is also the Minnesota Farm Bureau’s scheduled Day on the Hill — a day when dairy men and women can step outside their comfort zones and bring their stories of agriculture to those in our Capitol.

It is often intimidating to join events such as these. Last summer, we took part in a Young Cooperator y-in in Washington, D.C., with other dairy men and women from across the U.S. During the two-day meeting, we met with senators, house members and their staff, conversing on dairy policy issues and providing an account of the dairy industry to those directly involved in decision-making positions.

It was intimidating but ultimately very rewarding. This upcoming day in St. Paul, Minnesota, will most likely be similar. When considering the opportunity to attend such events throughout the year, we remember that ultimately, the way we choose to farm is dictated by society and the government.

A great example of the implications of climate policy decisions and their direct effects on generational farms can be witnessed within the European Union.

It’s been fascinating and disheartening to witness the situation unfold. We have all most likely learned of the numerous farmer-led protests, conversations and legislation taking place regarding the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.

Most recently, farmer protests occurred with the meeting of the EU’s agricultural ministers in Brussels, Belgium. When farmers fail to be heard or are not intimately involved in initial conversations, policies are developed that directly affect family farms — sometimes to the peril of multi-generational family businesses.

Last year, reports of Ireland’s goals to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 spurred rumors of further government-led forced culls of up to 200,000 cattle to achieve those goals and more farmer protests. Thankfully, Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2024 is open for review from the public once again until April 5. This is a critical opportunity for those involved to voice their concerns with policy-makers before the nal decisions are made.

Let these events remind us of the gravity of the effects of policy decisions and inspire us to set aside our daily duties to attend conversations and events this year with legislators and decision-makers. Let our experiences and innovations showcase the exceptional attributes that agriculture can not only provide to our local communities but also to the greater climate solution. Let them inspire you to step outside your comfort zone, even if it is a small step, to be part of these conversations.

Your voice matters. Speak up.

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

MIGUEL GARCIA | PARLOR MANAGER, DOUBLE P DAIRY

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