July 8, 2023 Dairy Star - 2nd Section

The stars align for farm transfer

Czechs nd way to place dairy in safe hands

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

FOLEY, Minn. – Although Mark and Brent Czech are only distantly related, they have come to know each other well. On April 1, Mark retired from dairy farming, selling that part of his farm to Brent after a year of planning for the transition. Mark’s wife, Shelley, said the agreement with Brent seems ideal in timing and structure.

“It’s a good match,” Shelley said. “We are really lucky.”

Three times each day, 600 Holsteins are milked on the farm in a double-8 parallel parlor. The milk rst goes to the cooperative in nearby Gilman and then is hauled to First District Association in Litcheld.

In the sale of their dairy, Mark and Shelley have maintained ownership of most of the cropland – on which they grow soybean, alfalfa, wheat and grass hay – and the equipment needed for continuing that business. Brent has purchased the dairy operation and the buildings on the farm.

“Brent approached us ve years ago, and we started talking about it,” Mark said.

“We had grown feed for

him in the past. Then he came to us last March (2022) and said that he’d like to make it happen.”

Brent and his family own several dairy farms through their business, New Heights Dairy. Mark and Shelley’s site is now an additional satellite dairy within that business. Mark said he likes that the farm will remain a dairy farm.

“I’m 65, and I don’t have kids choosing (to take over the farm),” Mark said. “I really wanted (the dairy) to go to the next level. Brent wants to do that. I believe Benton County is a good place to raise dairy cattle.”

Still, letting go of the dairy is difcult. A lot of history, memories and hours of hard work have been involved. Mark’s parents, Joe and Claudette, were the rst generation on the farm. Now in their 90s, they live a few miles down the road. Joe comes every day to help with eldwork or other tasks.

As a boy, Joe had wanted to be a farmer, but he needed to make money rst. His own dad had died young, and the family struggled to make ends meet. Joe quit school as a young teen to nd work. He and his broth-

er stowed away on an ore ship docked in Duluth.

“Back then, you kind of snuck on a ship and hid,” Mark said. “Once you were out in Lake Superior, they couldn’t really throw you off. If you were a good worker, you stayed on.”

Joe stayed on for 12 years. That work led to him receiving training for servicing steam boilers, which he did in the St. Cloud area until he was in

his early 60s. He bought the farm site in 1954, and he and Claudette milked seven cows and farmed the land’s original acreage while Joe also worked full time off the farm and even served a two-year stint in the military after being drafted in 1959.

As Mark and his three siblings grew up, they began helping with running the farm.

“Dad milked before he went

to work, and we kids did evening milking and other chores,” Mark said. “Dad would rest after work and go bale hay or whatever was needed. It always worked out, and we always farmed.”

By then, they were milking 32 cows in their stanchion barn. When Mark graduated

Turn to CZECHS | Page 4

MARKET REPORT FOR MONDAY, JUNE 26TH SALE

ALEX CHRISTEN/DAIRY STAR Shelley and Mark Czech stand in the freestall barn June 27 on the dairy farm they recently sold near Foley, Minnesota. Mark grew up on the farm and has milked cows there most of his life.

from high school in 1976, he went to technical college for a diesel mechanic course. Afterward, he was employed by a John Deere equipment dealership in St. Cloud, where he worked for eight years.

Like his father had 25 years earlier, Mark bought his own farm.

“I bought the farm down the road in 1979,” Mark said. “I didn’t really want to dairy farm; I wanted to crop farm. I always liked the iron part of it – machinery and all of that.”

About that time, Mark also began dating a town girl from Foley named Shelley. They married in 1982.

While balancing his job as a mechanic with farming, Mark began to rethink things.

“It always looks greener on the other side,” Mark said. “I had a good job ¬– it wasn’t that I didn’t like what I was doing – but I’m the kind of guy who likes to control his own destiny.”

Dairy farming was calling him.

“His heart’s been in the farm; that’s how he was raised,” Shelley said.

Mark joined with his father to farm full time. The cows continued to be milked at the home farm while heifers and calves were raised at Mark and Shelley’s farm. Shelley took a full-time job through the Farm Service Agency and worked there for 32 years but also helped with milking and farm chores as needed. The Czechs began buying more cropland and going, at that time, from milking 70 cows in the stanchion barn to building the parlor in 1998 and increasing the herd to what it is today.

“Once you build a parlor and a holding area, it’s really simple to expand,” Mark said. “You just keep building barns. At that time, we milked twice a day and did the eldwork. Now we milk 24 hours a day and have designated people for milking, so it never quits.”

Shelley said that Mark’s dad was always a role model for them, encouraging them to be progressive and take risks.

“He would always tell Mark to build a barn or do things – to go for it,” Shelley said. “He’d say, ‘You have to be like a turtle. You stick your neck out if you want to get somewhere.’”

When Mark’s parents retired in 2003, Mark and Shelley moved to the main farm. Now they are building a new home and machinery shop about a mile from the farm with the move-in planned for the end of summer. Looking back, both said the time went fast.

“I still can’t believe we sold our cows, our house, our shop and all the buildings,” Shelley said.

The couple said what they most appreciate is how the new owners have treated the farm’s employees, many of them Hispanic, by offering all of them the chance to remain in their positions. Most have stayed on. Knowing their employees can keep their jobs brings comfort, but the Czechs will miss them.

“They’ve been like family,” Shelley said.

Mark agreed.

“We pretty much eat lunch together every day; once we move, that will be the hardest part,” Mark said. “It’s ne until you start talking about it. Then I get choked up.”

The Czechs also raised two daughters, Cassie and Jodie, on the farm.

“Our daughters worked hard on this farm,” Shelley said. “(Mark) even made them come home early from prom so that they could milk cows in the morning. We wanted to reward them by doing something with the family.”

Now that they have sold the dairy, the Czechs surprised their daughters, each married with three children, by announcing they are taking the whole family on a trip to Cancun. Afterall, the dairy will continue in good hands when they are gone.

“We know our cows are going to be in good shape,” Shelley said. “Bottom line, it was a good transaction. We are blessed, and we couldn’t have found better owners to buy our place.”

Mark agreed.

“We want them to succeed,” he said. “I am going to be working closely with Brent, growing the feed for the dairy herd. I hope this farm just keeps growing, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to.”

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Mark Czech (le ) and his father, Joe Czech, look over their farm in the fall of 2018 near Foley, Minnesota. They were the rst and second genera ons on the farm, which Joe purchased in 1954.

Caprine Farming

Reinventing their place in the industry

Lewans launch dairy goat farm after selling cows

By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com

THORP, Wis. – Although they just entered the world of dairy goat farming in March, Matthew and Chasity Lewan of Thorp are not strangers to the world of dairy farming. The Lewans sold their herd of dairy cows in 2013.

“The bank kept wanting me to get bigger, and I did not want to get bigger,” Matthew Lewan said. “We were milking about 30 cows and wanted a loan to get some equipment, and the bank said we needed to milk more cows, so we went up to milking 50 cows in a 30cow barn.”

After two years of switching over 20 cows, Lewan wanted to add on to his barn to make the workload easier to manage.

“To get a loan to add on to the barn, the bank wanted me to add more cows again,” Lewan said. “That seemed to defeat the purpose, and I said enough of that, sold the cows

and paid off the original loan.”

The Lewans kept their heifers, planning to begin milking cows again, but when that time came, no processors in the area were taking on new milk, so the heifers were sold.

For the next several years, the Lewans crop farmed. They began playing with the idea of re-entering the dairy industry as goat farmers.

“My brother-in-law milks cows and goats and kept telling us that milking goats was the route we should go,” Lewan said. “He said the goat market is steady, and they are more protable too.”

In 2017, they began buying kids after coming to a tentative agreement to ship milk to Montchevre.

“That was about the time that Saputo was buying Montchevre, so I couldn’t get a denite answer,” Lewan said. “But, we went ahead and started getting ready, hoping it would work out.”

When those rst goats were ready to breed, the Lewans checked back in with Montchevre, only to learn that the company would not be able to take on their milk, so that herd of goats was sold to Chas-

ity’s brother.

The Lewans did not let the idea die and continued working toward their goat dairy.

They connected with Larry Hedrich of Quality Dairy Goat Producers Cooperative in Chilton. After a couple of years of

waiting, they received the answer they were looking for.

Turn

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR

The Lewan family – Chasity holding Malachi, Ma hew holding Summer, Jedidiah and Savanna – stands in front of their herd of dairy goats June 20 on their farm near Thorp, Wisconsin. The Lewans began milking goats in March and are currently milking 140.

“We got the go-ahead from Larry about a year and a half ago, so we started buying some goats again and getting things ready,” Lewan said.

Those goats began kidding earlier this spring, and the Lewans began shipping milk to Quality Dairy in late March.

“We had to get to 300 pounds a pick-up to be able to get picked up,” Lewan said.

The Lewans, along with their children – Shania, Shaylie, Kenay, Sydney, River, Savanna, Jedidiah, Summer and Malachi – are milking about 140 goats in a 13-unit parlor, with another 30 goats left to freshen yet this year. They are currently shipping about 4,000 pounds of milk per week, which is picked up twice each week.

The goats are fed a diet of protein pellets and hay. In addition to the herd of goats, the Lewans also run a hay business.

To house their newly formed herd of dairy goats, the Lewans are in the process of building a barn. After several years of sitting empty, the old dairy barn on their farm had deteriorated.

“For what it was going to cost to get this barn back into shape, it made

just as much sense to build new,” Lewan said.

For the time being, the milking herd is housed at Matthew’s brother’s farm nearby while the barn is being utilized for raising the kids.

The Lewans are in the process of building a hoop barn that will house about 300 goats and has a parlor attached to it.

Like with many building projects, the Lewans’ new barn has run into delays caused by shortage of labor and certain materials.

“We were supposed to be into the barn by now,” Lewan said. “I’m just about done with eldwork, so then I’ll have to start doing some more of the work myself to help speed things along. It’s frustrating, but what can you do?”

Now that they are up and running, the Lewans said they are happy with how their dairy goat farm is shaping up and are looking toward the future.

“We’ll get up to 300 and see how it goes; we’ll decide from there if that is where we want to stay or if we want to continue to grow,” Lewan said. “We’ll just wait and see how it goes and what the kids might want to do in the future.”

We

Give us a call to schedule a visit.

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR

The Lewans’ herd of goats waits to be milked June 20 on their farm in Thorp, Wisconsin. The farm has its milk hauled to Quality Dairy Goat Producers Coopera ve in Chilton, Wisconsin.

“My brother-in-law milks cows and goats and kept telling us that milking goats was the route we should go. He said the goat market is steady, and they are more protable too.”

MATTHEW LEWAN, DAIRY FARMER

The “Mielke” Market Weekly

By Lee Mielke

Midwest cheesemakers see boost in demand

U.S. milk output is simmering, not cooling yet and certainly not boiling over, but was nudged higher by stronger output per cow, especially in the Midwest. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest preliminary data has May production at 19.875 billion pounds, up 120 million pounds, or 0.6%, above May 2022. The 24-state total, at 19 billion pounds, was up 146 million pounds, or 0.8%, above a year ago.

The April 50-state and top 24-state totals were revised up 22 and 23 million pounds, respectively, up 0.4%, instead of the 0.3% originally reported for the 50 states, and up 0.6% in the top 24 states, instead of the originally reported 0.5%.

May cow numbers totaled 9.43 million head, unchanged from the April count, which was not revised. The herd was up 23,000 head from January and up 13,000 from a year ago. The 24-state count was also unchanged from April and was 24,000 head above a year ago.

Output per cow averaged 2,108 pounds, up 10 pounds or 0.5% from May 2022 in the 50 states and up 11 pounds to 2,126 pounds, or 0.5%, in the top 24 states.

California was still below a year ago, at 3.64 billion pounds, down 24 million, or 0.7%. Output per cow was down 10 pounds, and cow numbers were down 3,000. Wisconsin put 2.79 billion pounds in the tank, up 35 million pounds, or 1.3%, from a year ago, thanks to a 35-pound gain per cow offsetting the loss of 4,000 cows.

Idaho edged out Texas for third place, with 1.48 billion pounds, up 44 million, or 3.1%, from a year ago, thanks to 17,000 more cows and a 10-pound gain per cow. Texas output, at 1.44 billion pounds, was up 0.8%, thanks to a 15-pound gain per cow. Cow numbers were only up 1,000, reecting results of that devastating re.

Michigan was up 2.1%, thanks to 8,000 more cows and a 5-pound gain per cow. Minnesota was up 2.5% on a 25-pound gain per cow and 1,000 more cows. New Mexico was down 3.8%, on 10,000 fewer cows and 10 pounds less per cow. New York was up 2.1% on 7,000 more cows and 20 pounds more per cow.

Oregon was down 2.1% on a loss of 3,000 cows, though output per cow was up 5 pounds. Pennsylvania was off 0.6% on 1,000 fewer cows and 5 pounds less per cow. South Dakota was up 6.2%, thanks to 12,000 more cows; however, output per cow was down 5 pounds. Vermont was up 0.5% on a 10-pound gain per cow. Cow numbers were unchanged. Washington was up 0.6%, thanks to a 20-pound gain per cow offsetting the loss of 1,000 cows.

HighGround Dairy said, “The slowing of the milking herd foreshadows what is likely to come in the second half of the year: declining cow numbers on a monthly basis and potentially versus prior year, causing output to come close to parity.”

Robo Bank senior dairy analyst Lucas Fuess said in the June 26 Dairy Radio Now broadcast that farm margins are a real concern, considering the June Class III futures is just below $15 per hundredweight while cost of production nears $20. He expects that will pull milk output lower, possibly below year-ago levels.

“Hopefully, some pullbacks in U.S. milk production by the end of the year will cause a little price recovery,” Fuess said. However, with drought threatening the corn crop, relief from high feed prices may be in question.

USDA released ofcial solicitation awards for Phase 2 of the American Agriculture to Feed Kids & Families program. Deliveries are to be made Oct. 1 through June 30, 2024, according to HGD. “The initial solicitation was for 47.696 million pounds of cheese, of which 80% has been awarded to six dairy companies that presented bids,” HGD said. HGD called it “sizable but slightly less than the solicitation and over a nine-month period, which will limit how this impacts U.S. cheese prices.”

Stressed nances are keeping dairy culling rates high. The latest Livestock Slaughter report shows an estimated 249,100 head sent to slaughter under federal inspection in May, up 5,500 head from April and 23,900, or 10.6%, above May 2022. Culling in the ve-month period totaled 1.363 million head, up 75,600, or 5.9%, from the same period a year ago.

The week ending June 10 saw 57,300 dairy cows go to slaughter, up 5,500 head from the previous week and 6,900 head, or 13.7%, more than a year

ago. Year-to-date, 1.447 million have been culled, up 72,000 head, or 5.2%, from a year ago. StoneX said, “Total cattle slaughter continues to be weak so dairy cows are holding a larger share of the beef market than it did a week ago.”

Checking the elds, the latest Crop Progress report shows 96% of U.S. corn was emerged, as of the week ending June 18, up from 93% the previous week, 2% ahead of a year ago as well as the ve-year average. 55% was rated good to excellent, down from 61% the previous week, and compares to 72% a year ago.

Soybeans were 92% emerged, up from 86% the previous week, 11% ahead of a year ago and the veyear average. 54% of the crop was rated good to excellent, down from 59% the previous week, and 14% behind a year ago. Eyes are on the weather as 64% of the corn crop is now reported to be under drought.

Tuesday’s Global Dairy Trade weighted average was unchanged, after slipping 0.9% June 6 and May 16. The event saw 44.9 million pounds of product sell, down from 50.97 million June 6. The average metric ton price crept to $3,479, up $80 from June 6.

Butter saw the biggest change, up 5.5%, after inching 0.5% higher June 6. Anhydrous milkfat was up 0.5%, following a 1.8% advance. Cheddar was down 3.3%, after jumping 7.4% June 6. Skim milk powder was up 2.3%, after holding steady. Whole milk powder was unchanged, following a 3% decline.

StoneX said the GDT 80% butterfat butter price equates to $2.3802 per pound, up 12.9 cents, and compares to CME butter which closed Friday at $2.42. GDT cheddar, at $2.0563, was down 6.1 cents, and compares to Friday’s CME block cheddar at $1.4050. GDT skim milk powder averaged $1.2098 per pound, down from $1.2498, and whole milk powder averaged $1.4387 per pound, down from $1.4390. CME Grade A nonfat dry milk closed Friday at $1.1325 per pound.

Analyst Dustin Winston said North Asian purchases, which include China, fell with volume down signicantly from the last event and about half of the volume purchased a year ago. SE Asia volume was

slightly lower from the last event, but up from last year by 43%.

Meanwhile China’s latest dairy import numbers had key commodity imports “bouncing all over the map,” according to HGD. The largest jump over prior year by volume was in whey, at 125.7 million pounds, up 27.9% from May 2022. The U.S. remained the primary supplier, according to HGD.

Whole milk powder and skim milk powder imports, at 115.8 million and 70.7 million pounds, respectively, were up 9% and 24.6%, respectively. HGD said, “While not quite as strong as the impressive volumes shown in 2021, SMP imports did remain positive against prior year, with New Zealand accounting for 36% market share versus just 19% last year. U.S. share was down 33%.”

Butter imports were down 3.1% and cheese was down 4.6%. HGD reported that “lactose imports remain elevated due to infant formula usage domestically” and “was anticipated as it was recently approved for use and the price is right.” Lactose imported from the U.S. was up, with a 76% market share.

Cooperatives Working Together members accepted 33 offers of export assistance this week to capture sales of 3.8 million pounds of American-type cheese, 22,000 pounds of anhydrous milkfat and 6.6 million pounds of whole milk powder. The product is going to customers in Asia, Middle East-North Africa, Oceania and South America and raised 2023 exports to 23.6 million pounds of cheese, 594,000 pounds of butter, 24,000 pounds of anhydrous milkfat, 31.2 million pounds of whole milk powder and 4.1 million pounds of cream cheese.

CME dairy prices remained under pressure in the Juneteenth holiday-shortened week as traders awaited Friday afternoon’s May Cold Storage report, which I will detail next week.

The cheddar blocks saw some recovery, marching to $1.41 per pound Thursday, but closed Friday at $1.4050, up 3 cents on the week, rst gain in four weeks, but 68.50 cents below a year ago.

The barrels nished at $1.50 per pound, 2.50 cents lower on the week, 64.75 cents below a year ago and 9.50 cents above the blocks. CME sales totaled 14 loads of block on the week and only three of barrel.

Midwest cheesemakers reported a boost in demand this week to Dairy Market News. Italian-style producers said slower orders in the rst half of the year have begun to improve. Cheese is steadily moving though customers are less hesitant to hold some inventory at prices at or below $1.50 per pound. Milk remains available with some suppliers selling into cheese plants to avoid milk disposal, essentially looking for processors to cover freight costs. “There is a clear shift in tone regarding the recently voluminous offerings,” DMN said. Some cheesemakers say that recent weeks were much busier with calls from milk handlers, and some said this was the rst week of the year that there were no extra spot milk loads offered.

Western cheese demand is steady from food service although some noted downticks. Retail demand is relatively steady. Sources indicate steady demand from Mexican purchasers and moderate to atter demand from Asian buyers.

Cash butter slid to $2.3475 per pound Wednesday, lowest since April 14, but closed Friday at $2.42, up 5.50 cents on the week but 49.50 cents below a year ago. There were 10 sales on the week.

Midwest butter makers report demand is steadily, seasonally and slowly ticking higher. Cream multiples are holding generally steady, and butter plants say offers have quieted noticeably but they expect more selling of cream in the near-term.

Western cream multiples moved higher this week, though some stakeholders expect slight nearterm tightness in cream, while plenty is currently available. Butter manufacturing is strong to steady. Food service and retail demand are steady and export activity is “moderate,” DMN said.

Grade A nonfat dry milk closed at $1.1325 per pound Friday, lowest since April 18, and 65.75 cents below a year ago, with ve sales reported on the week.

Dry whey fell to 26.50 cents per pound Thursday, lowest since June 2, down a penny on the week and 21 cents below a year ago, with 31 sales on the board.

Dairy margins slid further the rst half of June on a combination of lower milk prices and higher projected feed costs, according to the latest Margin Watch from Chicago-based Commodity and Ingredient Hedging LLC. The MW said, “The USDA’s ERS reported April dairy exports totaled 482.2 million pounds, a decline of 68 million pounds or 12.4% from last year.”

“It was the third consecutive month of yearover-year declines following a full year of growth in which dairy exports achieved all-time highs,” the MW said. “Slowing demand, particularly from Asia, has weighed on the export market. Cheese exports to South Korea of 7.9 million pounds were down 53.9% from last year and the lowest April volume since 2016. Dairy exports to Mexico however of 124.6 million pounds were a record for April and up 15% from last year.”

“Continued appreciation in the peso relative to the dollar to a seven-year high has stimulated demand,” the MW said. “Conversely, a slowdown in China’s economy has weighed on demand there. The slowdown in powder demand is shifting production to butter and cheese.”

The July federal order Class I base milk price was announced by the USDA at $17.32 per hundredweight, down 69 cents from June, $8.55 below July 2022, and the lowest Class I since October 2021. It equates to $1.55 per gallon, down from $2.22 a year ago. The Class I average stands at $19.42, down from $23.69 a year ago, and compares to $16.31 in 2021.

Speaking of uid milk, April sales took a beating. The USDA’s latest data shows packaged uid sales totaled 3.4 billion pounds, down 6.7% from

April 2022, biggest drop since March 2021, and followed a 0.7% slippage in March.

Conventional product sales totaled 3.2 billion pounds, down 6.5% from a year ago. Organic products, at 219 million pounds, were down 8.8%, and represented 6.4% of total sales for the month.

Whole milk sales totaled 1.2 billion pounds, down 2.7% from a year ago, but up 0.2% year-todate, and represented 34.3% of total milk sales for the four months. Skim milk sales, at 173 million pounds, were down 11.3% from a year ago and down 7.9% year-to-date.

Total packaged uid sales for the four months amounted to 14.3 billion pounds, down 2.7% from 2022. Conventional product sales totaled 13.4 billion pounds, down 2.8%. Organic products, at 951 million, were down 1.4%, and represented 6.6% of total milk sales for the period.

The gures represent consumption in Federal Milk Marketing Order areas, which account for about 92% of total uid sales in the U.S. Competition from a variety of newly introduced beverages, including the plant-based varieties, lifestyle changes in general, plus the spring ush and school closings all result in more milk going to the vat, churn or dryer, adding to the income woes of dairy farmers.

In politics, the nation’s largest dairy cooperative, Dairy Farmers of America, announced it will end its membership with the International Dairy Foods Association. At issue is IDFA’s decision to proceed with its single-issued petition to modify the FMMO system.

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Grain Markets

July 5, 2023

Other Oats Soybeans Corn

Grain markets have seen some crazy volatility in recent weeks. On May 18, December corn futures dropped to $4.90, rallied to $6.26 on June 21, and dropped back to $4.90 after the June 30 Planted Acres report. That is a $250 per acre crop value swing for a crop farmer that produces 185 bushel per acre corn.

One of the most important things that I have learned over the years in trading commodities is to have a plan, keep orders in front of the market, and try not to second guess everything when fundamental changes are creating volatility. Even with a plan and discipline, successful execution can be difficult when markets are moving with such wild fundamentally driven momentum.

The spot dairy market has been very disheartening at the CME Group in recent trading sessions. The block and barrel spot cheese prices in the low to mid $1.30’s is projecting a Class III settlement value of $12.78 using current whey prices. Class III futures continue to hold a premium to cash projections but fade away as the reality of the cash market forces prices lower.

Given current costs to produce milk, it appears that financial losses in milk production will soon be near alltime record levels. It is very likely that some producers

could be getting paid near $10/cwt mailbox in the next several months at a few of the plants that have struggled with pay prices. If you are one of the unfortunates that are shipping milk to a plant that is paying $2-3/cwt under Class III you could see an unbelievably low pay price for your August milk check if cash cheese stays at current values. With cost of production running above $18.50-21.00 for most producers that is going to burn away working capital quickly.

Powder markets remain heavily pressured with spot nonfat dry milk trading near $1.10 and whey in the mid 20 cent range. For whey this is likely below cost of production for manufacturers which raises the question at what point do they just start dumping it down the drain forcing producers to take another hit on their settlement checks.

Butter remains the one bright spot in the milk market. It is somewhat surprising though with U.S. butter prices in the mid $2.40’s and $2.20-2.35 EU and NZ prices. Butter exports continue to slow but domestic demand seems to be holding up for the moment.

Joe Spader

Area Hay Auction Results

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Naked Cow Dairy aims to rise again

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

HAWI, Big Island, Hawaii

– Monique van der Stroom runs a one-woman operation, personally delivering her artisan cheeses and butters to customers on the Big Island in Hawaii and shipping products to other customers on the neighboring islands.

Her business, Naked Cow Dairy, sells its food creations to mostly owners of restaurants and small specialty food stores.

Van der Stroom said she does not mind forging her own path.

“I came to Hawaii 32 years ago by myself, right out of college,” van der Stroom said.“My goal when I went to college was to travel. I wanted to learn dairy science and go to different exotic places and apply that dairy science.”

Her real passion, van der Stroom said, is working with animals and dairy farming. She has

Undeterred in Hawaii

managed to keep that passion alive as she has faced adversity and has had a front-row seat in watching Hawaii’s dairy decline.

When she and her sister, Sabrina St. Martin, were told by their landlord in 2018 that he would not be renewing their lease for farmland and buildings they were renting on the island of Oahu, the pair faced a crossroads. They had been running the only cow dairy farm and artisan cheese creamery on that island since 2008. Also, they had just days before purchased 20 more cows from Big Island Dairy, which had closed its 1000-cow dairy operation on the island of Hawaii, or “the Big Island” as it is referred to there. The sisters had been planning to increase production.

Suddenly, they had to decide what to do with their cows and business.

“All the other dairies on all the other islands had closed,” van der Stroom said.

Except for one.

The Big Island still had one last dairy farm – Clover Leaf Dairy – which now held the title of being the last cow dairy farm in the whole state. Van der Stroom reached out to them.

“Clover Leaf Dairy agreed to milk and house my cows until I could nd a suitable property to move to and start over,” Van der Stroom said. “My cows went straight to their dairy and were being milked with their cows while I was trying to nd land (on the Big Island) and rebuild my place.”

She also began buying milk

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from them so that the sisters could resume making cheese and butter.

In 2019, van der Stroom found land to lease near the town of Hawi where she could house her reduced herd.

Then the coronavirus pandemic arrived.

“When COVID-19 hit, it really shut down most of our (creamery) accounts because most of them were restaurants,” van der Stroom said.

Her sister decided to move to the mainland and pursue a different career. Van der Stroom went solo.

In 2021, she found an old building off-site to repurpose into a creamery, but in 2022, she had to nd new land for her cows once again when her landlord decided to sell the land at the going rate for Hawaiian property, a price too steep for van der Stroom.

However, van der Stroom was not ready to give up. She found pasture land for her small herd of seven cows where they could dry wait until she could build a barn and begin milking.

“I still have my cows, and I do intend milking again,” she said. “Production (of cheese) is

OK, but it’s not what I most like. I went to college for animal science, so I really wanted to work with the animals, not as much with the cheese and butter – but it pays the bills.”

Since her sister was the main cheesemaker while van der Stroom managed the milking, her friend, Adrian Buff, who is an artisan cheesemaker from Missouri, often ies out to help van der Stroom. Other than Buff, van der Stroom does everything on her own.

Turn to HAWAII | Page 13

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PHOTO SUBMITTED

A member of Monique van der Stroom’s herd of cows has a view of the Pacic Ocean as it grazes near Hawi on the Big Island of Hawaii. Van der Stroom operates Naked Cow Dairy on the island where she produces ar san cheeses and bu ers.

Naked Cow Creamery produces Gouda-style and Alpine-style cheeses with local ingredients added such as Hawaiian chili peppers and pink peppercorns. Other products include Fromage Blanc, which is a soft cheese spread, and smoked Guava cheese, made by using guava wood for the smoke. The creamery also produces a variety of avored butters including tropical toasted coconut butter and kona coffee butter.

“We also make a little bit of labnei, which is a yogurt cheese,” van der Stroom said. “I’m working on getting certied so that we can make yogurt.”

When she was growing up, van der Stroom’s family lived all over the world. Her father worked in international construction, so the family moved as the jobs changed. Besides living all over the U.S., the van der Strooms lived in Greece, Scotland, Austria and Iran. When they lived for a time in the Upper Midwest, it was near Hastings, Minnesota.

“It was the coldest place I’ve ever been in my life,” van der Stroom said.

Wherever they moved, her father tried to nd houses in the country and acquire animals.

“In Minnesota, we had a barn and had sheep, chickens and a horse, but I’ve always been draw to livestock and farming from a very young age. I don’t know why.”

Her father has relatives in Holland who dairy farm.

“They have a 50-cow dairy,” van der Stroom said. “When I was in college, I actually spent a summer there on that farm –working, making silage and milking cows.”

After college, when van der Stroom was offered a job at Pacic Dairy in Oahu, a 1,400-cow dairy, she took it.

“I managed the dairy for 14 years, but that one closed down too,” van der Stroom said. “A big farm like that won’t come back. That’s when I started my own.”

Naked Cow Dairy was launched in 2008.

All these years later, as van der Stroom makes cheese on the Big Island, she plans her dairy farming comeback.

“My barn in Oahu was a brick-andmortar barn, but I’m looking at a mobile parlor,” van der Stroom said. “I know they do that a lot in Europe, but not a lot is available here. I did see one in California.”

The milking setup would be on a trailer and hauled with a tractor from pasture to pasture.

“It’s kind of like a 20-foot container on a chassis,” van der Stroom said. “I’m looking at something like that because I don’t want the huge investment of a building. If you do it on pasture, there are fewer wastewater issues. The nice thing is you don’t end up with a big, muddy spot where cows go milk all the time because you are continuously moving the parlor.”

She does not need a barn to house the cows because of the Hawaiian climate.

“We have windy, rainy weather sometimes, but there are trees that the cows can go hide in,” van der Stroom said. “There are no barns needed here at all.”

Van der Stroom said she feels strongly about keeping dairy farming in Hawaii.

“We are basically a tiny dot in the middle of this vast ocean,” van der Stroom said. “If you look at Hawaii in that aspect, we are so vulnerable to so many things, and we are not self-sustainable in food production – and we could be because we have a 365-day-a-year growing season. It is important that Hawaii become sustainable in food production more so than any other state in the U.S.”

She said she remembers back to 9/11 when Hawaiians realized that vulnerability. “When 9/11 happened, there was nothing that was coming to the islands; everyone was panicking because we only have two weeks of food on the island at any one time – that’s to feed everyone here and all the visitors,” van der Stroom said. “So, it’s scary. I kind of blame the legislature for not doing more to keep the dairy farms operating. Once you lose those dairy farms, they don’t come back.”

Van der Stroom is determined to be the exception.

“I’m just kind of hanging on until I can get back up,” she said.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Calves have their ll of milk near Hawi on the Big Island of Hawaii. They are part of a small herd owned by Monique van der Stroom, who hopes to begin milking cows again soon a er moving her creamery business from Oahu to the Big Island.

A day in the life of the Staudingers

District show preparations ll June 27

By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com

REEDSVILLE, Wis. –Blue Royal Dairy was a urry of activity the day before the farm’s cattle were to head to the District 10 Holstein show. Clippers were buzzing, kids were leading animals, and the trailer was getting lled with hay, straw and other supplies to take to the show.

The Staudinger children and the friends who show with them are a hands-on group, taking full responsibility for their show animals.

“They do all the work,” Brian Staudinger said. “I help with feeding and other things as needed.”

Brian and his wife, Angie, and their children – Eli, Ethan, Isaac, London, Lexis and Graysen – milk 2,300 cows and farm 2,800 acres near Reedsville with Brian’s parents, Bob and Mary Kay. The

herd consists of Holstein, Red and White Holstein, Jersey and Brown Swiss. The Staudingers show at approximately seven shows each year – from their county fair up through World Dairy Expo.

“Our summer is stacked with these kinds of things versus sports,” Brian said. “The kids do a few sports but not many. They’re either working on the farm or with their cattle.”

The Staudingers were taking 16 head to the show that would be held June 29 at the Manitowoc County fairgrounds. Competition for their district show comes from the counties of Manitowoc, Sheboygan, Calumet, Fond du Lac and Winnebago.

Eight people would be showing the Staudingers’ string that included two cows and 14 heifers and calves. Each Staudinger child would take the halter as well as friends of the Staudingers – Abby Schul-

tz and Alanha Sholten. Angie said it would be Graysen’s rst time showing, and the almost3-year-old was going to help lead a March calf.

Although not until the end of August, the county fair was also on the kids’ minds. Lexis tended to her sheep, Salt and Pepper, while her twin sister, London, along with Eli and Isaac, worked with the pigs they will be showing at the fair. Eli, who will be a senior in high school this fall, has been doing the pig project since fth grade. The kids walked their pigs and gave each one a bath.

“The kids wash their pigs and walk them each day to build muscle tone and endur-

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

The Staudinger family – Lexis (front, from le ) and London; (back, from le ) Angie, Ethan, Isaac, Eli and Brian – milks 2,300 cows and farms 2,800 acres near Reedsville, Wisconsin, with Brian’s parents, Bob and Mary Kay. On June 27, the family was busy preparing a string of 16 animals for their district Holstein show. Not pictured is the Staudingers’ youngest daughter, Graysen.

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

Lexis Staudinger brushes her lamb, Salt, June 27 on her family’s farm near Reedsville, Wisconsin. Lexis will be showing Salt at the Manitowoc County Fair in August.

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

Brian Staudinger gives Lexis and Isaac pointers as they prac ce leading their calves June 27 on their farm near Reedsville, Wisconsin. The children were preparing for their district Holstein show, which would be taking place two days later.

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ance,” Brian said. “Our kids show dairy, pigs and sheep, so our county fair ends up being fairly competitive that way.”

Brian, Eli and Isaac headed to the fairgrounds a little after 9 a.m. to set up their area for the district show. They bedded down their section with help from Aaron Breunig and his two sons and returned to the farm about 10:45.

Ethan spent the morning doing clipping touchups, starting with heifers and nishing up with the cows.

“Clipping is a process; it’s an art,” Brian said. “It’s only Ethan’s second year doing it, so he’s still learning.”

In the afternoon, the Staudingers organized their fair box.

“We need to make sure we have the right blades in the clippers, etc.,” Brian said. “Ethan will be blowing up toplines for himself for the rst time.”

At the Northeast Wisconsin High Protein Show in Shawano a week prior, Ethan won supreme champion with a Jersey cow named Krahn Girls Tequila Festivity.

“That was a highlight of our showing career,” Brian said. “We’ve never experienced anything like that before.”

Festivity was also named supreme champion last year at the Manitowoc County Fair. In the same year, one of the family’s Brown Swiss spring calves, Silver Royal J Favorite, was nominated All-American honorable mention.

“That was also a rst for us,” Brian said. “We like a combination of production and type, and we breed to have the best of both worlds.”

Showing is a family affair that Brian and Angie enjoy sharing with their children as they continue to develop their show herd.

“From the last ve years to now, it’s incredible to see the quality of animals we’ve grown into in a short period of time,” Angie said. “We’ve come a long way, and I’m excited to see where we’ll be ve years from now.”

Turn to STAUDINGERS | Page 17

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

Eli Staudinger leads his spring calf June 27 on his family’s farm near Reedsville, Wisconsin. The calf was one of 16 head going to the district show that would be taking place two days later.

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR Isaac Staudinger loads hay in the trailer to take to the District 10 Holstein show June 27 on his family’s farm near Reedsville, Wisconsin. Isaac and his siblings spend much of their summer preparing and showing animals at various shows.

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

Ethan Staudinger nishes clipping a cow while Abby Schultz holds the tail out of his way June 27 on his family’s farm near Reedsville, Wisconsin. Ethan spent the morning ne-tuning animals the family would be taking to the District 10 Holstein show the next day.

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

London Staudinger gives her show pig a bath June 27 on her family’s farm near Reedsville, Wisconsin. London and some of her siblings show pigs at their county fair, and leading up to the fair, they walk and bathe the pigs daily.

The Staudingers bed down their area with help from Aaron Breunig and his sons June 27 at the Manitowoc County fairgrounds. The group was preparing a sec on to t two cows and 14 heifers. STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

Abby Schultz clips the head of a Red and White Holstein summer yearling June 27 at the Staudingers’ farm near Reedsville, Wisconsin. Schultz, a friend of the family, is currently in her ninth year of showing.

Looking back with laughter

Fetters recalls unproductive day

By Tiffany Klaphake tiffany.k@dairystar.com

MILACA, Minn. – Making hay can be stressful to any dairy farmer, but Dave Fetters has learned the hard way that sometimes it is better to stop, laugh and try again the next day.

Fetters was only 16 years old when he and his brother, Donnie, bought their dairy farm from their parents. They milked 30 cows in a tiestall barn at their farm near Milaca.

They had only been farming for a couple of years, and it was time to make rstcrop hay.

It was 10 a.m., and the brothers and their dad, Millard, had completed morning chores and nished breakfast. They headed back out the door for a productive day in the eld.

“My brother had this big day planned, and the hay was cut and ready to go,” Fetters said.

Millard took off with a tractor and rake while Donnie and Fetters started baling with their Farmall 400 tractor and atbed wagon. Donnie drove the tractor and baler, while Fetters was on the wagon stacking bales.

“We got 50 bales baled, and then the plunger arm broke on the baler,” Fetters said. “So, then we had to stop, take that apart and run to the parts store. We took a plunger arm off an old baler to x ours; then we started baling again.”

By now it was 1 p.m., and the brothers were nally able to start baling again.

Once their dad was done raking hay, he came over and started driving tractor for the boys as they stacked the

bales.

The trio had just nished their second load of hay for the day.

The wagon was full of 120 neatly stacked bales. Fetters was sitting on top of them and Donnie was sitting on the baler as their dad drove them back to the other end of the eld.

“Dad turned too sharp, and that caused the wagon to overturn,” Fetters said. “The bales fell right off the wagon, and I was on the top. I was like, ‘Oh here I go!’”

For once, luck was on their side, as neighbors came walking by on their way to go shing in the river nearby. They joined in to help unload the wagon, tip it back up and then restack the 120 bales one by one.

After an hour, the task was done, and the Fetterses were able to continue baling. However, their good luck was short lived.

“We got to the next eld, now on our third wagon, and we got a at tire on the tractor,” Fetters said. “We stopped, but my brother said to just keep driving; he was mad.”

With a at tire on the Farmall 400, the Fetterses continued and were able to complete the third wagon of hay for the day.

“When we were done with that load, we were hooking up to another wagon to do the fourth load, and then the other front tire went at,” Fetters said.

By now it was 6 p.m., and so the team decided to leave the tractor in the eld, bring home the wagons full of hay and do the rest of their evening chores.

However, the day was not over just yet.

The brothers went to unload the rst load of hay only to have the main drive chain on the elevator break.

Turn

Dave Fetters

“We stopped and got that xed and moved onto the second load,” Fetters said. “Then the little number 40 roller chain would not stay on, and we barely got done unloading that load. My brother was so mad.”

The next morning after chores were completed, the brothers went to Gotvald Implement and purchased two innertubes for the tractor and a chain for the elevator. Once the elevator and tractor were xed, the brothers went back to baling.

“We didn’t start baling until one in the afternoon,” Fetters said. “But, we still ended up baling 700 or 800 bales

instead of the 300 maybe 400 like the afternoon before. Everything went three times better the next day.”

While Fetters greeted each mishap with laughter, Donnie was a little more determined to get things done and grew frustrated. Once both brothers decided to take a slightly slower pace for making their rst-crop hay, things went much smoother.

“It helps to give it a good laugh instead of getting mad or frustrated,” Fetters said. “We were in such a rush, and it just didn’t work out like we planned. Now, we both look back and laugh.”

FOR SUCCESS.

“It helps to give it a good laugh instead of getting mad or frustrated. We were in such a rush, and it just didn’t work out like we planned. Now, we both look back and laugh.”

DAVE FETTERS, DAIRY FARMER

DAIRY ST R25

A look back at 5, 10 and 20 years ago

Dairy Star brings you top stories from past issues

5 years ago

Quals install 60-stall robotic rotary parlor

The Qual family of Lisbon, North Dakota, installed a 60-stall GEA Dairy ProQ robotic rotary parlor, which was one of the rst ones installed in the United States. The system was placed in a newly built 320- by 360-foot barn and was ready for milking cows in December 2017. The herd went from 800 cows to 1,350 cows as the family transitioned to the new milking facility. At the time, Qual Dairy was run by brothers Alan and Rodney Qual; Alan’s sons, Jon and Mark; and Rodney’s sons, Tyler and Nathan.

A drive for quality genetics

Wayne Peters and his wife Josie worked full time together on their dairy farm near Lake City, Minnesota, where they milked 140 cows. The pair were working to increase the genetics on their farm. They started genomic testing the herd and using sexed semen on the elite heifers and cows and beef semen on the rest of the herd. The couple set the goal of having no Holstein bull calves and just having Holstein heifers or Angus calves within 10 years with hopes of marketing their genetics to others in the industry.

Oldenburg hopeful for career change

Loren Oldenburg, a Vernon County dairy farmer, ran for Wisconsin State Representative in 2018. Oldenburg and his wife Linda milked 50 cows and operated a 320-

acre farm near Westby, Wisconsin. Some of the issues Oldenburg hoped to address if elected were improvement of rural roads and Wisconsin’s shortage of milk processing capacity. Oldenburg’s leadership experience included service on numerous boards and committees with various agricultural cooperatives. He went on to win the seat in that year’s November election.

A special breed

for Nelson

Hannah Nelson was crowned the 2018 National Red and White Queen during the National Red and White Convention held in St. Charles, Illinois. Nelson, the daughter of Marc Nelson and Tracy Mitchell of Ellsworth, Wisconsin, lived on a hobby farm with her mother and three siblings where they raised Holstein, Red and White and Jersey show heifers. Nelson also worked at her grandparents’ 80-cow registered Holstein dairy farm. At the time she was crowned, Nelson was a student at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, majoring in dairy science.

10 years

Thirty-seven MN dairies receive state grants

Two of the 37 Minnesota dairy farms that received Livestock Investment Grants in 2013 belonged to Robert Schuft and Joseph Neft. Schuft used the grant to help pay for converting his compost barn to a freestall barn. Neft used the dollars to help pay for putting in free stalls in a barn that had a bedded pack. The grants were made possible through the Agricultural Growth Research and Innovation fund established by the Minnesota State Legislature to advance Minnesota’s agriculture.

Lucky to be alive

Travis Tollerud was on the road to a full recovery after being crushed between a tractor and a pickup Jan. 7. Tollerud milked 200 cows along with his brother and parents near Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. In the accident, Tollerud suffered a broken pelvis, a torn bladder, a chipped vertebrae and a bone fracture above his tailbone. He spent three weeks in the hospital and one month laid up at home before being allowed to start walking with crutches. By July, Tollerud was back to doing chores as normal except for milking cows.

20 years ago

Finding the niche

Tom and Marcia Nagel were not sure if their two children would be interested in taking over the family farm. However, after their son, Justin, graduated from high school in 1999 and their daughter, Suzanne, graduated from college in 2001, both Nagel kids returned to the farm to work full time. Together the family milked 260 cows and operated a 960-acre farm near Spring Valley, Minnesota. Justin was in charge of mixing feed, breeding and managing the crops. Suzanne was in charge of the cows and heifers and did most of the milking. Both parents helped as needed but had stepped aside to let their children take the reins.

Pawlenty visits New Ulm

In 2003, Gov. Tim Pawlenty was the guest of honor at Associated Milk Producers Inc. and the New Ulm Farm City Hub Club’s Dairy Days Celebration event in New Ulm, Minnesota. Pawlenty, Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau and Agricultural Commissioner Gene Hugoson participated in the activities of the day, such as dairy trivia and a cow-milking contest. They also listened to concerns and questions from the audience about the dairy industry in Minnesota.

Frazee, MN Becker County

ANDREW INGVALSON

175 cows, 600 acres

We finished our second crop for our cows. We have some second crop to cut, but I’m waiting to cut that because we plan to feed that to the heifers. We haven’t been doing a lot in the fields. I’ve noticed in the last couple days the corn is starting to curl. It’s probably shoulder high. The third-crop hay is coming back pretty good, but it will start to suffer if we don’t get any rain. The pastures are starting to burn up. Some of the meadows are made and the road ditches are being cut. Hopefully, we can do heifer hay next week.

Rice, MN Benton County

ALAN VANNURDEN

600 cows, 1,400 acres

The corn under irrigation is over head high. The corn not under irrigation is hanging in there and is closer to shoulder high. I plan to finish cutting second-crop hay today (July 5). We started cutting on Monday. We plan to chop it all. The hay under water is nice, but on the hills and the sand, it’s not doing much. We had 1.2 inches of rain last weekend, and the crops really greened up after that. Some corn came up after that rain and is 4 inches tall. Some soybean fields in our area are nice, but others are struggling. I was down in Texas recently, and their corn is all in roasting ears. They are done with wheat and planting sorghum.

New England, ND Hettinger County

ARIANN DOE

250 cows, 5,530 acres

We are working on firstcrop hay, but it keeps raining. We have made 100 bales so far. We have 100 acres of hay lying in the field. It’s our No. 1 priority right now. We round bale most of it. Every time it dries out, it rains. We had a little hail last Thursday that hit our grain corn pretty bad. The barley, oats and durum look pretty good. The oats are starting to head out. The corn is knee high, and the canola fields around here are nice and yellow. We’ve been spraying the durum and the oats.

Sleepy Eye, MN Brown County

BENJAMIN SEIFERT

350 cows, 450 acres

We cut second-crop hay June 21. We chopped it all and put it on a pile. It was a good stand. The corn is out and above the ankles. The earlier planted corn is variable in height from waist to head high. The sandy parts of the fields are starting to show signs of dryness, and the corn is curling and a little off-green. The soybeans are 6 inches to 1 foot in height. The wheat in the area is mostly heading out. There are quite a number of road ditches being done. Grass hay and spraying are next for us.

Salem, SD McCook County

DENISE KURTH

40 cows, 250 acres

Our second crop of alfalfa is growing well, and we plan to start cutting it next week. The corn is booming along since we got that shot of rain last week and is about one to two weeks from tasseling. The soybeans look good but could use another inch of rain. Our pastures are hanging in there. We have a grasshopper problem. The hoppers have eaten everything in my garden ¬– the tomatoes, the peppers – and have even stripped the leaves off the rhubarb.

Goodhue, MN Goodhue County

CHARLIE DICKE

200 cows, 850 acres

The drought conditions are not horrible, but the knobs and bad fertility areas are showing up now. We did second-crop hay the last week of June, and it was a very good yield. We also planted 150 acres of sweet corn that same week. We put our planter down as far as we could go, but there is a chance it won’t grow. The first 3-4 inches of soil are hard and dry. Our peas are looking really good this year with huge pods.

Orange City, IA Sioux County

LANE HETTINGA

130 cows, 75 acres

The corn is about as tall as me, and some of it will start tasseling in the next week or so. The soybeans and the corn look amazing considering how hot it’s been. Most of the second crop of alfalfa has been cut. The alfalfa looked pretty decent for the most part although it was somewhat spotty depending on if it got under a particular rain shower. It sure would be nice to get another good rain.

Anamosa, IA Jones County

DOUG FAIRBANKS

380 cows, 600 acres

The rain we got bought us some time and was a big morale and mental boost. Right before it rained, we applied our final nitrogen to lateplanted corn. After the rain, I sprayed the late-planted corn. The late May and June planted corn has been hurting, and everyone has some corn they do not like. Any mistake that usually you could get away with, such as compaction, the stress is making it show. I am hoping to take third-crop hay in mid-July.

Chilton, WI Calumet County

MATT REDETZKE

250 cows, 450 acres

We have had about a half-inch of rain in the last two weeks, all in three different rain events since July 1. There has been some other stuff that has gone around us. Everything looks really good, for how dry it is. I’m actually quite impressed. The only fields that are lacking some are our grass-clover mix hayfields, of which we haven’t taken a second crop yet. The rye we planted last fall and the row crops all look really great, though.

Cuba City, WI Grant County

RICH HOUZNER

54 cows, 600 acres

We just started cutting second crop yesterday. We have some areas that are very good and some knolls that are nonexistent. We got triticale and peas done. It yielded 45% to 50% of a normal yield. This was better than some friends I heard from. There is a little bit of rain in the forecast this week, but we don’t believe anything until we see it. A lot of impactful decisions are being made right now. I contracted 5,000 bushels of corn to buy for this fall. I can do more with corn than I can without. I’ve just got to have a little piece of mind that we can fill in a void if we have to.

Hay

MITCHELL SCHAEFER

230 cows, 400 acres

We cut second-crop hay June 29 and chopped it July 1. We ended up with a pretty good yield. The 2 inches of rain we got last month really helped, and it was a pretty good crop. We also cut new seeding with second-crop hay, and it looked better than I expected. There were some thinner spots, but overall, it wasn’t bad. On June 30, we side-dressed corn for nitrogen. Our crops still look decent; I can’t complain.

TIM VOSBERG

140 cows, 380 acres

We got rain last weekend, and there was rain all around us this weekend. The crops are doing much better now. They look wonderful. The sparse corn still looks sparse, but at this point, we’ll just get what we can. Our best corn is about waist high. That’s pretty good for us. We got all the second crop off, and it was a big crop. We filled just shy of 500 feet in a 9-foot bag. We might run out of room for storage, but that’s a good problem to have. I’m going to cultivate my beans again this week. Pretty much everyone around here is done with second crop, and we’re heading towards the dog days of summer.

RON & COLIN WUSSOW

100 cows.

1,400 acres

We have had nothing here in the last two weeks. Rain has been forecasted, but everything breaks apart over towards Wausau before it gets here. We have one job left of second-crop hay to finish up by Antigo, and they did get a half an inch of rain there this morning. All the corn around here is waist-high. The corn up on the hills is starting to curl again, pretty badly. The 15-inch soybeans have canopied, and the 30-inch soybeans are starting to. The soybeans are actually taking the heat and dry weather better than the corn. That is unusual; it is usually the opposite.

ALAN AINGER

300 cows, 1,100 acres

Not that far south of us, they got big rains July 2, but we didn’t get anything. We’re kind of hurting. Some cornfields that looked good for a long time are starting to get uneven now from the dry weather. We’ll do third-crop hay the week of July 10. It looks OK, but it’s going to be short from drought stress if we don’t get any rain. Wheat is coming on fast and turning in a hurry.

Cecil, WI Shawano County

Stratford, WI Marathon County

Harvard, IL McHenry County

Elroy, WI Juneau County

Caring through collaboration

Precision Dairy Conference session focuses on sustainability

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

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Collaboration in data and carbon emissions forms part of the future of sustainability in the dairy industry.

The Precision Dairy Conference hosted three short sessions June 20 in Bloomington on sustainability and included an extensive audience question and answer session with the three presenters.

Tim Taylor, one of the presenters and CEO of Vyla, a neutral connecting platform in the food and agriculture industry for sustainability performance, grew up in Silicon Valley back when it grew produce, not software companies.

Taylor has an entrepreneurial background that includes software and understands the importance of data collaboration in dairy’s hyper competitive marketplace to accomplish a sustainable future of agriculture.

“Trust and collaboration are foundational to make an ecosystem more efcient,” Taylor said. ... “I’m challenging all of us to say when you meet somebody, ... ‘You’re my collaborator, you’re my teammate, even if you work for a different company.’”

Taylor said that within the concept of data sharing and collaboration also must come data privacy for farmers.

“If we’re not sharing data between

platforms, we’ll have this continued siloed industry,” he said. “Maslow’s hierarchy of dairy is data privacy, but then you have to get into integration and sharing. Otherwise, we won’t make progress.”

Mike Jerred, global technology manager for dairy for Cargill Inc., also values collaboration but in a different area of sustainability: carbon footprint. Collaboration around carbon footprint exists in two areas. One, collaboration means each area of the supply chain is working together to reduce the carbon footprint. Second, collaboration means creating information that documents carbon footprint improvement over time.

“This is all about collaboration,” he said. “One entity within the supply chain is not going to solve this. If we’re going to reach the consumer, if we’re going to be able to reduce our carbon footprint overall on the supply chain, we have to build the connections. ... This is all about being able to work together ... so that we can actually capture a lot of that opportunity that exists. ... that we’re actually talking to consumers and can actually show them what we’re doing.”

Jerred said full lifecycle carbon assessments will be essential in the future. Eventually, carbon footprint may enter into farm decision making as farmers assess both the nancial and carbon implications of a decision.

For now, Jerred said tracking enteric methane is a rst step. With this in mind, he presented information on greenhouse gas emissions by sector. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency statistics,

The World’s Best TMR Processor

updated April 28, agriculture accounts for 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Of this 10%, manure management represents about 11%.

Jerred said enteric methane production can be predicted by ration. Something his company has been working on is a diet sustainability report within their nutrition software. Though this is an important step, Jerred said just looking at enteric methane could miss a greater issue.

“We’re going to have to be doing lifecycle assessments if we want to know the full carbon footprint,” Jerred said. “There may be something that we do right on the nutrition side that reduces enteric methane, but all of a sudden, that increases the carbon side of it in the lifecycle assessment if we’re getting an ingredient from a long distance away.”

Some possible solutions Jerred suggested for reducing enteric methane production include changing cows’ fermentation patterns, inhibiting the growth or activity of microbes that produce methane, using feed additives that convert or use methane, and utilizing hydrogen to alleviate methane output.

Already, the dairy industry has made great strides in carbon neutrality. Jerred said that from 1944 to 2007, the dairy industry saw a 63% decrease in carbon footprint, and from 2007 to 2017, the industry experienced another 19% decrease in carbon footprint.

For some, methane and carbon credits have become a moneymaker. Dennis Haubenschild, a dairy farmer from the Princeton area, built the rst anaerobic digester in the state of Min-

nesota almost 24 years ago.

Haubenschild’s father purchased their farm in 1952, but the farm had depleted soil from potato farming. Sustainability and manure management has been part of Haubenschild’s story from the beginning when his dad would make them move manure if they spread it in the wrong place.

“(That) non depletable renewable resource called manure (is what) everybody calls waste, and I only say it’s waste if you wasted it,” he said.

For Haubenschild, sustainability means carbon neutral.

Haubenschild said the digestor can create biogas from a day’s worth of manure from 100 cows that contains energy equal to the energy represented by a barrel of oil.

Not only does the digestor get energy out of manure, it also makes the manure go from 50% nutrient availability to closer to 60% or 70% nutrient availability, Haubenschild said.

“The electricity is kind of a frosting on the cake,” he said.

Haubenschild has been selling electricity for 23 years.

Taylor, who is an outsider to the dairy industry, said he is optimist the dairy industry has the ability to make positive climate and sustainability change.

“There’s opportunity and threat in sustainability for the dairy industry,” he said. “We need to own it. We have all the tools in the room to make it happen. We can go about pursuing collaboration in the dairy industry, and we can lift the industry.”

AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR

Tim Taylor (from le ), Dennis Haubenschild and Mike Jerred visit together June 20 a er their presenta ons and audience Q&A at the Precision Dairy Conference in Bloomington, Minnesota. The trio presented on sustainability in the dairy industry.

DAIRY CALENDAR

In response to questions from producers and industry surrounding the legislation signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, the Dairy Extension Team at Iowa State University will be presenting a webinar in conjunction the Iowa State Dairy Association, “Raw Milk For Human Consumption: Issues To Consider” from 6-9 p.m. July 12. This free webinar will be geared toward dairy producers and potential producers interested in the new rules surrounding raw milk sales. Interested producers and potential producers are encouraged to attend by pre-registering at least on hour prior to the program at: https://go.iastate.edu/SIHLB6.

The 2023 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days is 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 18-20 in Baraboo, Wisconsin. There is plenty to see and do at the show. There will be tours and exhibitors.

The Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Dairy Team’s dairy webinar series continues from noon to 1 p.m. July 19. Dr. Jennifer Van Os will discuss heat stress in dairy cows and calves from an animal welfare perspective, including recognizing how cattle tell us they need help beating the heat.

There is no fee to participate in the webinar; however, preregistration is required at least one hour before the webinar. Register at https://go.iastate.edu/JL5XPT.

Minnesota Milk presents Summer Escape from 3:30-8 p.m. July 19. An event for the whole family that includes a dairy farm tour, water ski show and social.

The day will start off with a tour of Sandhill Dairy’s newly installed robots with the Dombeck Family in Perham, Minnesota. Light snacks and drinks will be provided after the tour. The fun will continue with a water ski show put on by Big Pine Lake Water Ski Team. After the show, there will be a social, and we will dine on the shore of Little Pine Lake.

The Minnesota Milk Cup golf tournament is 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. July 20 at the Perham Lakeside Golf Course in Perham, Minnesota. This event brings together farmers and agricultural businesses for a day of fun and camaraderie. For more information, visit mnmilk.org.

The I-29 Moo University 2023 dairy webinar series continues from noon to 1 p.m. July 20 with a focus on milk margins.

The webinar will feature Dr. Gonzalo Ferreira, associate professor at Virginia Tech. Ferreira will note that indications show that margins are not promising in the near future and that close attention to nancial management is as critical now as it was during previous periods.

There is no fee to participate in the webinar; however, registration is required at least one hour before the webinar. Register at https://go.iastate.edu/X1XRNI.

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SomeStuff Udder

News and Dairy Views from across the region

Beginning farmer tax credit expands to incentivize land transfer Owners of agricultural assets that lease or sell to beginning farmers in Minnesota may be eligible for the beginning farmer tax credit, which is open for applications through the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Rural Finance Authority.

Those who have previously applied should take note of the new application deadlines for rentals (July 17) and sales (Nov. 1). Additionally, recent legislative changes have resulted in several updates to the program to further incentivize farmland sales:

An increase in the tax credit amount to 8% of the sale price for buyers and 12% if the buyer is an emerging farmer (previously 5% for all).

A new maximum tax credit of $50,000 (previously $32,000).

Direct family members such as parents, grandparents and siblings are now eligible for farmland sales.

Qualifying applicants can include individuals, trusts or qualied passthrough entities renting or selling land, livestock, facilities, buildings or machinery used for farming in Minnesota to a beginning farmer.

A beginning farmer is dened as a Minnesota resident with the desire to start farming or who began farming in Minnesota within the past 10 years. They must provide positive projected earnings statements, have a net worth less than $979,000 and enroll in, or have completed, an approved farm business management program.

To be eligible for the tax credit, both the asset owners and beginning farmers must submit applications.

Beginning farmers are also eligible for a nonrefundable Minnesota tax credit equal to the amount paid for FBM tuition, up to a maximum of $1,500. This tax credit is available for up to three years.

Full eligibility requirements and application materials can be found online. Questions may be directed to Jen-

The District 8 Holstein Show will be 9 a.m. July 26 at the Stearns County Fairgrounds in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. The judge is Andy Stuewe. The show will be held with the Stearns County Fair open class and FFA dairy show. Exhibitors will be from Benton, Kandiyohi, Sherburne, Morrison, Stearns and Crow Wing counties.

All animals exhibited must have a Holstein Association USA identication paper and be accompanied by certicates. The show will follow state health requirements. Area Holstein breeders as well as junior, 4-H and FFA members are encouraged to participate. A youth showmanship contest will be at the conclusion of the show. Contact Mary Swart of New London for more information on exhibiting. Exhibitor information also available on the District 8 Holstein Show Facebook page. Entry deadline is July 19.

The Minnesota Holstein Association Field Day is July 29 at Olmar Farms in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. Olmar Farms is excited to host members at their farm where Holstein enthusiasts can gather for good fellowship and educational experiences. Attendees will get to participate in a judging contest, listen to a stray voltage presentation and receive a complimentary meal from a local smokehouse.

ny Heck at Jenny.Heck@state.mn.us or 651-201-6316.

NMC seeks National Dairy Quality Award nominations

Nominations are open for the National Mastitis Council’s National Dairy Quality Awards program. This program recognizes dairies that excel in producing high-quality milk. Nominations close Aug. 31.

Coordinated by NMC, the NDQA program recognizes U.S. dairy producers who market milk with a low somatic cell count and low standard plate count. Additionally, judges evaluate dairy producers’ systems of monitoring udder health, milking routine, protocols for detection and treatment of clinical and subclinical cases of mastitis, and strategies for overall herd health and animal welfare.

Dairy industry professionals – including veterinarians, extension agents, dairy processor eld staff and consultants – are encouraged to nominate dairy herds that exemplify milk quality excellence. To nominate a dairy producer, visit https://www.nmconline. org/ndqa and complete the nomination form. Dairy producers cannot nominate themselves or their peers.

The nomination form asks for: herd size, rolling herd average (pounds of milk, fat and protein), DHI testing, SCC and SPC averages, SCC and SPC high monthly average, bulk tank SCC and SPC testing frequency, clinical mastitis incidence, culling data and cow deaths. Milk quality numbers are based on the 12-month period – June 1, 2022May 31.

Judges will name approximately 50 nalists. Finalists, along with their nominators, will complete a nal application. The Platinum winners receive national recognition, complimentary lodging and registration, and a travel stipend to attend the National Mastitis Council 63rd annual meeting, Jan. 29Feb. 1, 2024.

University of Minnesota Extension is hosting a Central Dairy Field Day from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 8 at Funks Midway Day near Melrose, Minnesota. Learn how forages, robots, their reproduction enterprise and farm management styles work together toward the success of this farm. A complementary lunch will be provided. Register at https://z.umn.edu/CDFD23. Contact Dana Adams for questions or comments at adam1744@umn.edu.

The North American Manure Expo is the premier event in nutrient management research, innovation and solutions. The expo returns Aug. 9-10 in Arlington, Wisconsin.

This two-day show features equipment from manufacturers and service providers. The rst day focuses on industry tours and manure agitation demos. The second day features educational sessions and time and space for you to meet with vendors, chat with colleagues and view demos. New this year is our on-site, interactive safety and operations knowledge tour allowing attendees and industry experts to review and discuss key safety topics seen during transport or in-eld. Register at www.manureexpo.com.

Con nued from CALENDAR | Page 27

DC-1125 DUMP CART

Summer grilling

I was visiting a friend in town late one afternoon when I started to notice a delicious smoky scent oating through the neighborhood. People were stoking up their grills to start making supper. It was almost like a supper challenge between backyards as to who was making the best meal. Needless to say, I went home very hungry to start up my grill too.

Now, I’m not the most comfortable with grilling. I tend to throw the meat on the grill and head back to the kitchen to nish prepping the rest of the meal. The smell of smoke generally reminds me I might have been in the house a bit too long as ames engulf the burgers or steaks on the grill. That is why I checked in with my kids for their grilling tips and tricks for this week’s recipes.

Jonathon is probably considered the grill master of the crew. He started grilling for me when he was in high school. I think he was tired of overdone burgers and burnt steaks. Today he grills year-round with his Traeger grill. His favorite tool for grilling is a digital thermometer. He says his steaks are always just right and never overcooked. I’m looking for one to help me grill a perfectly medium rare steak.

According to the Traeger grill website, there are ve different ranges for level of doneness. Rare is 120-130 degrees. Medium rare is 130-135 degrees. Medium is 135-145 de-

grees. Medium well is 145-155 degrees, and well done is above 155 degrees. You should always pull the meat off the grill at the low end of the scale as the meat will continue to cook as it sets. When you pull meat off the grill, place a tent of tin foil over the plate of cooked meat to allow the meat to set and nish cooking.

When Katie was learning how to grill, she forgot to keep an eye on the burgers. They ended up way past 155 degrees. They were so well done that our dog Bailey wouldn’t even eat them. Katie has come a long way since then. Her favorite seasonings in her burgers are Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and onion akes. Jonathon will add an egg to his burger meat.

Michael will grill more than just meat. He will wrap veggies in tin foil to cook on the grill while the steaks are sizzling. He is into grilling his whole meal outside. Potatoes with salt, pepper and garlic powder drizzled with a bit of oil wrapped up in tin foil is so quick and easy.

We all learned to start seasoning with Lawry salt. Jonathon has since discovered Pork Barrel BBQ seasoning and rub. In a similar way, I like to use Martin County Magic on my pork chops and other meats. It is sold by the Martin County Minnesota Pork Producers. A pork chop is naked until I use some Magic on it.

One day, I hope to venture out of my comfort zone and try grilling pizza. For now, I’m going to stick with steak, burgers and brats … the perfect summer foods.

Cheesy ‘Juicy Lucy’ burgers

courtesy of the Certied Angus Beef website

1 1/2 pounds ground beef (80/20 blend is ideal)

6 slices American cheese, cut into quarters to create four equal stacks with six pieces of cheese

3 cloves garlic, nely chopped (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)

1 teaspoon Worcestershire

sauce

1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Canola cooking spray

4 buns

In a large mixing bowl,

combine ground beef, garlic, Worcestershire, salt and pepper; mix lightly by hand. Form beef mixture into eight equal size balls of meat. Using two squares of parchment paper or wax paper, place ball of meat between paper and atten to 1/4-inch thick using a heavybottomed skillet or pan to evenly press balls into patties.

Once patties are pressed, it is time to ll them with cheese. Spread one stack of cheese quarters over one patty, leaving about a 1-inch uncovered area around edge of patty. Place another patty on top of patty with cheese. Pinch the meat together around the edges to seal tightly. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Spray burgers with a light coat of cooking spray. Grill or pan sear over high heat 3 minutes per side. Once ipped, use a toothpick to poke a small vent in the center of the burger to allow steam to escape. Grill second side for 3 minutes.

Transfer to cool side of grill or 350-degree oven to nish cooking to an internal doneness of 160 degrees (about 5-8 minutes). Remove from grill or oven and rest at least 3 minutes to allow cheese to set before eating.

Tequila fajitas courtesy of the Certied Angus Beef website

1 3/4-2 pounds ank steak, cut in half lengthwise

2 limes

1/2 cup tequila

3 garlic cloves, chopped

5 tablespoons olive oil, divided 3 jalapeno peppers, cut in half lengthwise and seeds removed

8 our tortillas

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved and/or 2 ripe avocados, diced 3 tablespoons Triple Sec 1/4 cup minced cilantro Zest limes, reserving zest for later. Juice limes.

Combine tequila, lime juice, garlic and 3 tablespoons olive oil. Marinate steak in zipper-locking plastic bag for 2 to 4 hours in refrigerator.

Preheat grill to high. Remove steak from marinade; discard marinade. Season steak with salt and pepper. Grill to desired doneness. Let steak rest 5 minutes and slice thinly across the grain.

Grill jalapenos esh side down until charred and slightly soft; mince and combine with steak strips.

Wrap tortillas in foil and place on top shelf of closed grill to warm. Combine tomatoes/ avocados, reserved lime zest and Triple Sec. Heat remaining olive oil in large sauté pan. Turn off heat, add tomato mixture and toss gently. Add steak mixture and cilantro; toss gently to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately with warm tortillas.

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

Food columnist, Natalie Schmitt

Taco salad

From the kitchen of Jenny Conway of Lansing, Iowa

1 5-ounce package Doritos

1/2 pound hamburger, browned, drained and cooled

Onion

2 tomatoes, cubed

1 ounce black olives, sliced

1/4 head lettuce, torn

1/2 pound cheese, shredded Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup milk

Taco sauce

Mix first seven ingredients together in a large bowl. Then in a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, milk and taco sauce. Pour over the main ingredients in large bowl. Stir well and serve.

Triple layer cookie bars

From the kitchen of Keri Salber of Browerville, Minnesota

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 2/3 cups flaked coconut

1 can sweetened condensed milk

12 ounces chocolate chips

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

In a 9-by-13 pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle crumbs evenly over butter. Top with coconut then sweetened condensed milk. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until lightly brown. In small sauce pan, melt chips with peanut butter. Spread evenly over hot coconut layer. Cool 30 minutes. Chill thoroughly.

Disappearing marshmallow bars

from the kitchen of Keri Salber of Browerville, Minnesota

1 cup butterscotch chips

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups flour

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups miniature marshmallows

2 cups chocolate chips

Melt the butterscotch chips and butter in a pan. Cool to lukewarm. Add flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla and eggs. Fold in marshmallows and chocolate chips. Spread into a 9-by-13 greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Do not over bake. Center will appear jiggly but will firm up upon cooling.

All special auctions are on CattleUSA.

SPECIAL FEEDER CATTLE, BRED BEEF COW, BEEF BREEDING BULL AUCTION

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

EXPECTING 600-800 HEAD!

DAIRY CATTLE AUCTION

Wednesday, July 12, 2023 at 11:00 am

COMPLETE RETIREMENT HERD DISPERSAL

135 Holstein Dairy Cows and Springing Heifers. (120) Parlor/freestall milking cows in all stages of lactation, a very milky herd of cows, cows will sell on test 83# 4.0BF 3.0P 150scc. 45 years of AI breeding, using top sires, currently through Genex with registered Holstein clean up bull used. Extensive vaccination program. A young herd with 55% in the 1st & 2nd lactation. (15)FANCY Holstein Springing Heifers also selling! Coming from Brian & Fred Keller, Lake City MN REPUTATION DAIRY CONSIGNMENTS

5 Registered Jerseys Dairy Cows. Just fresh, 2 year olds. Headlock trained, cows sell on test, bunk fed, headlock trained. Owner sold excellent herd of Jersey Cows at Premier. Reputation consignor. Coming from Chuck Seyforth, Mondovi SPRINGING HEIFERS

7 Holstein Cross, Jersey, and Jersey Cross springing heifers. Crossed with Montbeliarde, Swedish Red and Jersey. Freestall/headlock adapted. 100% AI sired and AI bred many years, predominately using Genex and Semex sires. Due July-August. Herd is on a full vaccination program. Reputation consignor. Coming from Grant DeYoung, Woodstock Illinois

SPECIAL FEEDER CATTLE, BRED BEEF COW, BEEF BREEDING BULL AUCTION

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

EXPECTING 700-800 HEAD!

DAIRY CATTLE AUCTION

Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at 11:00 am REPUTATION DAIRY CONSIGNMENTS

60 Registered BROWN SWISS Dairy Cows. Fresh 2 year olds, parlor/ frestall! More information coming soon!

45 VERY FANCY FRESH 2&3 year old Jersey/Holstein Cross parlor/ freestall cows! The EXTREMELY FANCY kind. Cows avg. 84# 5.2BF, 3.66P, scc 140. 2 and 3 year olds! All TOP cheese merit Jersey and Holstein bulls through Select Sires. Many A2A2 sires. Extensive vaccination program. Owner previously sold many top cows at Premier to very satis ed buyers! Reputation consignor! Coming from Kemper Dairy, Mauston, WI

SPECIAL

HEIFER AUCTION

Wednesday, July 26, 2023 at 11:00

Always a great selection of dairy cattle at Premier Livestock and Auctions! DRIVE-INS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME! PLEASE HAVE IN BY 10:30 AM

Weekly Highlights at Premier

Another busy week at Premier Livestock, selling 3,150 head!! Tuesday we sold 265 dairy heifers on our special monthly dairy heifer auction, with mostly open heifers bringing $120-150 per #. Holstein shortbreds $1,2001,775. Wednesday we sold 260 head of dairy cattle, with two herds. Market was strong on the better cattle, lower on the lesser quality. High quality fresh cows $1,850-2,500. Top Jersey cross cows $1,750-2,300. Good quality dairy cows $1,400-1,825. Top springing heifers