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DAIRY ST R
Volume 24, No. 7
May 28, 2022
“All dairy, all the time”™
Spring derecho causes unexpected damage Dairies grapple with aftermath of May storm By Jennifer Coyne jenn@dairystar.com
BRUCE, S.D. – The weather has been anything but normal for much of the Upper Midwest, and a dangerous springtime storm only added to the chaos. On the early evening of May 12, a severe derecho pummeled eastern South Dakota and west central Minnesota with wind gusts of more than 100 mph and sheets of rain blanketing the landscape, according to the National Weather Service. “A couple of years ago, we had a part of a building roof go down in a heavy snow load,” said Wim Hammink.
“We thought that was a big deal. That was peanuts compared to this.” Hammink and his family milk 4,000 cows at Hammink Dairy LLC in Brookings County near Bruce. Within the herd, 3,200 are milked in a 60-stall rotary parlor. Roofs collapse, no injuries at Hammink Dairy At about 5:30 p.m. that Thursday, the storm tore through the farm with roofs and building support beams crumbling against the hurricane-like winds. “We knew it could be severe because there was a big wall of dust coming up from the south,” Hammink said. “We lost power before it was even by us. As soon as the storm came, calf hutches started ying by.” The most signicant damage occurred at the family’s south farm site where the roofs of the rotary parlor and holding pen collapsed with cows beneath. Fortunately, the structure of the rotary and gates within the holding pen Turn to STORM | Page 6
PHOTO SUBMITTED
The roof of the parlor room collapses onto the 60-stall rotary parlor May 12 at Hammink Dairy LLC near Bruce, South Dakota. An evening storm pummeled the area with wind gusts exceeding 100 mph.
A new venture
Bartholome family hauls their own milk By Kate Rechtzigel kate.r@dairystar.com
KATE RECHTZIGEL/DAIRY STAR
Jim Bartholome and his employee, Victor Gonzalez stand in front of their new milk truck May 19 at Bartholome’s farm near Goodhue, Minnesota. The family has been hauling their milk as Bartholome Transport for the past year.
GOODHUE, Minn. – Due to increasing milk hauling prices and the taking away of subsidies, Jim and Lisa Bartholome began looking at the start of a new venture and researching the possibility of hauling their own milk to help offset costs and nd a solution to some of the challenges dairy farmers face today. “It just made economic sense to do it ourselves,” Jim said. Bartholome Farms, owned and operated by Jim and Lisa, is a fth-generation family farm homesteaded in 1861. They have four children – Samantha, 21, Madison, 18, Austin, 15, and Dominic, 13 – who help on the family farm. Their farm is located near Goodhue, and they farm 520 acres of corn and alfalfa. They also
harvest winter rye as a double crop. They are milking 500 cows three times a day and have been hauling their milk as Bartholome Transport for the past year. They started transporting their own milk May 1, 2021, with one truck and trailer. “It has been a smooth transition for us overall,” Jim said. “We are very thankful to have a valuable employee who enjoys hauling milk and to have a good creamery that is willing to work with us.” They are hauling full loads of milk to their creamery located 80 miles away in Le Sueur. “We are producing a full load of milk every 32 hours, and with us having two 4,000-gallon tanks on-site, we are hauling two days on, one Turn to BARTHOLOME | Page 7