“All
A touchdown for dairy
Haags host Wisconsin Badgers football team to provide education about industry
By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com
MOUNT HOREB, Wis.
When a big, black “On Wisconsin” bus pulled up to their driveway July 22, the Haag family was ready to make a good impression on 25 young men who had never stepped foot on a dairy farm. The men were members of the University of WisconsinMadison football team, and they brought a busload of enthusiasm to the farm.
“This was such a unique promotion of our dairy industry,” Dawn Haag said. “We were able to reach a whole different realm of consumers and make an impact that day. I bet every one of those kids went back and told their mom, dad, uncle and brother what they saw.”
Dawn and her husband, Virgil, farm with their children, Karsen and Kody, near Mount
Horeb. The Haags milk 260 cows with four Lely A5 robotic milking units in a facility built in 2023. The Badger football fans greeted their guests with a big Wisconsin family farm welcome.
“It was a fun farm experience to share something we’re passionate about and proud of with people unfamiliar with the dairy industry, and they were very receptive,” Dawn said “Just a little snippet of their time is all we had. You can’t explain dairy farming in two hours, but you can give them an overview.”
The Haags partnered with Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin in hosting the event that was orchestrated by former NFL player, Travis Beckum. Beckum works for the UW-Madison athletic department and also played football for the Badgers
Turn to BADGER FOOTBALL | Page 2
From eld to milk jug
DeYoung launches on-farm creamery
By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com
WOODSTOCK, Ill. –Grant DeYoung took control of his farm’s future when he launched Cow Valley Creamery last year. The milk processing plant is located on his farm near Woodstock where he milks 10 cows.
Cow Valley Creamery is the only Grade A dairy plant in McHenry County after the region lost two large dairy processors in the last eight years, DeYoung said. Although the young farmer always had a home for his milk, DeYoung said that sometimes it made a 1.5-hour trip to Rockford. Now, DeYoung’s milk stays close to home.
After it is pasteurized and
bottled on-site, the milk is sold at Bull Valley Farm Country Store, located just steps from his barn. The store, which is open seven days a week, is owned and managed by DeYoung’s mom, Michelle Aavang.
“It was either do this or get really big, but I didn’t want to milk a lot of cows,” DeYoung said. “This is better for the future and went along well with my mom wanting to open a store.”
Cow Valley Creamery and Bull Valley Farm Country Store are companion businesses, operating on the farm Aavang bought after renting for many years. She opened the store in December 2022.
Turn to DEYOUNGS | Page 6
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
Grant DeYoung and his girlfriend, Madison Epping, take a break to visit cows on pasture Sept. 3 near Woodstock, Illinois. DeYoung launched Cow Valley Creamery last year — a milk processing plant located on his farm where he milks 10 cows.
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Drew Braam (le ) and Omillio Agard, members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison football team, interact with a cow July 22 at the Haag farm near Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. The Haags set up sta ons around the farm to give the athletes an overview of dairy farming.
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The month prior, after making a connection through DFW, he visited the Haags’ farm with one goal in mind — to milk a cow. The Wisconsin native had never been on a farm.
“We have robots, so we brought out our portable milker and bucket, and he milked her that way,” Dawn said. “He was so enthralled to see a cow and learn about the total mixed ration.”
It was during this visit that Beckum asked the Haags if they would ever consider hosting the football team.
“Part of his job is to give athletes a taste of Wisconsin because they come from all over,” Dawn said. “They try to come up with ways to get them invested in our state, and Travis was excited about this. He’s very down to earth and is a great person. It was really cool to meet him also.”
Six people from DFW came to help the Haags, including Suzanne Fanning, executive vice president and chief marketing ofcer, who kicked things off with an introduction about Wisconsin’s dairy industry. The event was university sponsored, with no cost incurred to DFW.
“We wanted to show them how important the dairy industry is to Wisconsin, and Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin did a really good job of that,” Dawn said.
The Haags had the chance to do myth busting too, Dawn said.
“Some players had the idea this was going to be dirty, but their idea of a dairy farm was very different than what they saw,” she said. “It was good to show our industry in a positive light to break any
misconceptions they might hold about dairy farming.”
The Haags set up stations, and it was a lively day of learning as the athletes and farmers interacted. Only one player, who was from Arizona, had visited a dairy farm before, and he came wearing boots.
Karsen took out a Red & White Holstein named Cheers on a halter. This was the same cow Beckum had milked.
“It was like a swarm of bees when we brought the cow out,” Dawn said. “They
all wanted to touch her and take pictures with her. For many of them, it was their rst time petting a cow.”
The players also had the opportunity to bottle-feed water to calves. The Haags had a portable milker on display and encouraged players to stick their ngers inside one of the teat cups to feel the pulsation.
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“Nobody wanted to do that, but when Karsen’s son did it, one guy said, ‘I can’t let a 6-year-old show me up,’ and so he tried it too,” Dawn said.
Karsen showed the players how she checks the Lely app on her phone, and Dawn said the group was impressed by the technology. Virgil and Dawn split up between each of the robot rooms to give the athletes an up close look at the milking process.
“They loved being in the robot rooms,” Dawn said. “They were in small groups so they could really get to see them.”
A tractor and TMR mixer were on display, and Kody showed the athletes the different ingredients they feed their cows. However, it was the quantity that amazed them.
“They couldn’t believe Kody mixes
22,000 pounds of feed per day,” Dawn said.
The visit was hands-on, with football players immersing themselves in the farm rather than merely observing. They climbed in the tractor and peered into the mixer and stood on top of the bunker pile.
The Haags said they were eager learners, who took a lot of pictures and asked a lot of questions.
“They were very excited and engaged in what we were doing,” Virgil said. “They were also very polite. I was impressed. When they left, every one of the players said, ‘Thank you’ and shook our hands. They were very appreciative of what we did for them.”
Dawn agreed.
“The guys were so respectful and pleasant,” she said. “We were just amazed at how attentive they were, and we en-
joyed watching their reactions.”
DFW and the Haags offered the players snacks of yogurt and cheese.
“Our milk plant, Klondike Cheese (Company), was gracious enough to supply Odyssey yogurt,” Dawn said. “We explained how the milk truck picks up our milk, and this is the nal product, as some of our milk goes into making yogurt. They could see the whole product chain.”
GoodSport, a dairy beverage made from milk permeate, was also available for players to try.
“That drink went over big,” Virgil said. “I don’t think there was one guy who didn’t drink it or at least take a bottle with him.”
DFW also provided promotional shirts, hats and sweatshirts to the players.
“There was nothing left over,” Virgil
said. “The next week when the Badgers went to Platteville for practice, we noticed on TV that they had their Dairy Strong hats on as they walked off the bus.”
Virgil learned from Beckum that the players told their other teammates how much fun they had at the farm and how much they learned.
“I thought that was really nice they told their friends that they missed a good opportunity,” Virgil said.
By sharing their farm with the athletes, the Haags said they` hope to build trust for dairy farmers and dairy products among an audience new to agriculture.
“In our ag world, we think everyone knows about farming like we do,” Dawn said. “We forget there are people even in Wisconsin who don’t have that farm experience.”
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison football team and the Haag family — Darrion Dupree (front, from le ), Xavier Lucas, Sean West, Tyler Jansey, Ryan Cory, Virgil Haag with grandson, Kayson Bentley, Karsen Bentley, Dawn Haag, Dan Bentley, Gretchen Bentley; (middle, from le ) Derek Jensen, Max Lofy, Emerson Mandell, Langdon Nordgaard, Cody Raymond, Drew Braam, Mason Lane, Deed Capper, Hank Weber, James Durand; (back, from le ) Milos Spasojevic, Omillio Agard, Jay Harper and Dillan Johnson — gather July 22 on the Haags’ farm near Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. The Haag family milks 260 cows.
“We’re located on a busy intersection, so it’s a great location,” DeYoung said. “My mom used to sell beef at the farmers market, and she always wanted to have a store.”
It was at this same time that DeYoung, who had plans to become a processor, downsized his herd from 90 cows to 30. Since 2015, he had been milking cows on his grandparents’ farm down the road. He nished building the plant and then reduced his herd again, cutting it in half before moving to the new location the following March.
The venture was economical for DeYoung, who bought all used equipment except for the bottle ller and pasteurizer, which were purchased new.
“The parlor and milkhouse were already here, and next to it was a blank
slate,” DeYoung said. DeYoung took a structure built in the 1950s and transformed it into a modern space for processing milk. He installed new milking equipment and replaced the glass pipeline in the double-2 parlor. He poured new concrete and built new walls and a ceiling for the processing facility, which is connected to the milkhouse and parlor. DeYoung said his bulk tank is considered a milk silo. It does not have a hose chute for a milk truck, but rather, another milk pump is positioned where milk exits the bulk tank, and the milk is ltered again before it is piped to the pasteurizer.
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
Milk bo led at Cow Valley Creamery lines the refrigerator shelf Sept. 3 in the processing facility near Woodstock, Illinois. Grant DeYoung sells his milk on-site at Bull Valley Farm Country Store, which is owned by his mom, Michelle Aavang, as well as at a local grocery store and several farmers markets.
WEB DESIGNS
Milk is heated to 145 degrees for 30 minutes in a 200-gallon pasteurizer. From there, milk is pumped to the bottle ller. The single-head ller pours milk one bottle at a time at a rate of 4 gallons per minute. DeYoung bottles whole milk in plastic containers in three sizes: gallon, half gallon and pint. Once the bottles are lled, the milk is immediately refrigerated.
DeYoung processes 1,000 gallons per month, bottling milk twice a week. Once a month, he bottles three times a week to make chocolate milk.
“I’ve gone up anywhere from 50-100 gallons per month,” DeYoung said. “Every month is better than the previous.”
DeYoung can do the bottling by himself, but sometimes a second person makes the process easier, he said. DeYoung’s girlfriend, Madison Epping, helps him bottle milk. She also helps Aavang in the store.
“It takes 7-8 hours each time we bottle from start to nish, which includes 4-5 hours for pasteurizing,” DeYoung said.
Every time he bottles milk, DeYoung collects a sample of both the raw and pasteurized product. He also sends in a raw sample to a separate lab once a month. The creamery is inspected every three months, and the farm is inspected every six months.
“Dry storage is another thing you have to think about,” DeYoung said. “You need enough room for that. We have a six- to nine-month supply of bottles on hand.”
DeYoung’s herd is pasturebased where cows primarily eat grass and hay but also receive grain in the parlor. His herd includes Holstein/Montbéliarde/Swedish Red crosses, a few Jerseys and one Holstein.
DeYoung farms 100 acres of hay and helps his mom farm 1,000 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat. All of DeYoung’s milk is sold as uid milk. He said he enjoys selling his product directly to the consumer.
“We set our price for milk, and it’s pretty good right now,” DeYoung said. “It was hard to set in the beginning. You don’t want to price it too high, but you don’t want to price it too
low either.”
DeYoung’s milk is also sold at a grocery store and several farmers markets. He calls his product “cream-top” milk because the milk is not homogenized so the cream oats to the top.
“You have to shake it well before use,” he said.
DeYoung said he feels this gives it a better avor.
“It’s thicker and creamier,”
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he said. “Cows being on grass helps too — you can tell the difference through the seasons. Low-temp pasteurizing also helps retain avor. I can’t tell the difference in taste from our raw milk that I used to drink.”
In addition to DeYoung’s milk, Bull Valley Farm Country Store supports local dairy farmers by carrying cheese, heavy cream, buttermilk, sour cream and yogurt that comes from farms in the area.
Along with staples like milk and eggs, shoppers can also get salsa, sauces, jams, pickles, coffee, ice cream, candy, fresh produce in season, apparel, soaps, lotions, candles and more. But the store’s main attraction is the meat, DeYoung said. Beef, pork and chicken are some favorites as well as avored bacon.
“My mom tries to source as much as possible locally while focusing on small family farms and businesses,” DeYoung said. “We have a lot of repeat customers.”
There is an opportunity for growth at Cow Valley Creamery as DeYoung’s pasteurizer is not yet at capacity, and he is thinking about increasing production in the future.
“I could do 200 gallons a day if I wanted to, but I would need 30 cows,” he said. “I would like to get up to more cows and grow with this pasteurizer.”
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Products at Bull Valley Farm Country Store ll the shelves Sept. 3 near Woodstock, Illinois. The store is located on the same farm as Cow Valley Creamery, and in addi on to carrying DeYoung’s milk, it also sells products from area dairy farmers.
Planning for longevity
Juedes prepares to follow in parents’ footsteps
By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com
MARSHALL, Wis. — Heidi Juedes hopes to take over her family’s farm someday. As a result, the 22-yearold is putting in the work to make that happen.
“Within the last eight months, I’ve really stepped up,” Heidi said.
Farming with her parents, Brenda and Rodney, Heidi is the fourth generation on the farm where her father grew up, which dates to 1947. The Juedes family milks 95-100 cows and farms 400 acres near Marshall. Heidi owns half of the cows, growing her ownership in the herd by working on the farm and through the animals she has bred and raised.
“That is how payment for my labor was set up,” Heidi said. “I also receive a portion of the milk check.”
Cows are milked twice a day in a swing-6 parlor built from scratch by Heidi,
her dad, her grandpa and her uncle in 2017. The parlor was retrotted into the stanchion barn and built to Heidi’s height.
“This is way more efcient than milking in the stanchion barn and less pain to your body,” Heidi said.
For the last six months, Heidi has done the morning milking by herself.
“It’s set up for one person, but we usually have two people in the parlor,” Rodney said. “There’s no crowd gate, so you have to move the cows down.”
The stanchions remain intact, and the Juedeses use the barn like a freestall facility — giving cows access to come and go. They run a bedding pack outside through the winter and pasture cows during the summer.
“I try to have the barn open at all times, but when it’s cooler out and the sun is not blazing hot, I lock them out,” Heidi said.
Heidi has a dual role of herd manager and calf manager, handling all tasks with
Wisconsin. Heidi currently has two Guernsey cows and a pregnant yearling and hopes to keep growing this part of her herd.
the cows except for feeding, which is done by her dad. Heidi does the milking and breeding and also manages herd health. Rodney does the bookkeeping, but Heidi is learning that task as well.
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Heidi is a graduate of the 2022 Farm and Industry Short Course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her interest in farming was sparked during middle school when she joined FFA and started
showing dairy cattle.
“It really came through freshman year when we put the parlor in,” she said.
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
Heidi Juedes hugs Iliana, her rst registered Guernsey, Aug. 26 on her family’s farm near Marshall,
“That’s when I knew I wanted to do this.”
Since nishing the program, Heidi and her parents have increased cow numbers from 70 to nearly 100, growing mostly from within.
“You can tell when you’re standing in the parlor that it’s a young herd,” Heidi said. “I want to stay right around 100 cows. The maximum we can have is 120.”
An increase in production is what they are hoping to see next, Rodney said.
Heidi is applying things learned in the Farm and Industry Short Course, particularly on the genetic side, by breeding with sexed semen to increase females. A surplus of heifers has allowed her to be selective, choosing which animals she brings into the milking string.
“We were always sitting around 25-32 heifers,” Heidi said. “Now, we’re averaging 60-70 heifers per year. Last summer, I had 24 born in 3 months time. I picked the ones I want to keep and I’m going to sell the rest as springing heifers. I’m also throwing beef semen into the herd for the rst time on this farm.”
The Juedes herd consists of Holsteins, Red & White Holsteins, Jerseys, Guernseys, HolsteinJersey crosses, Norwegian Red-Jersey crosses and Norwegian Red-Holstein crosses.
“I really like my Guernseys,” Heidi said. “I have two cows and a pregnant yearling, and I hope to keep growing the Guernsey part of my herd.”
Rodney said the herd was 100% Holstein when he started.
“I bought some Jerseys, and I liked them — especially for their calving ease,” he said. “I bought a Jersey bull for heifers, and we multiplied from there. When Heidi started breeding, she threw in other breeds.”
Heidi began making breeding decisions in 2018, and in 2020, she took over the role completely.
The Juedeses rent pen space at a nearby farm to house heifers 6 months through breeding age. Heidi plans to build a heifer shed and is touring farms to get ideas.
“I’m sick of running all over the place and want everything back at the home farm,” she said. “I want to break ground on the shed by next spring and have them home by fall.”
Heidi also helps with eld work, operating the baler for straw, hay and cornstalks. She operates the bagger for corn silage and hauls manure as well.
The Juedes family receives help from several employees, including one full-time milker and one high school student who feeds calves full time in the summer and part time during the school year. An additional part-time calf feeder and two parttime employees complete their team.
Heidi is advancing in her position of decisionmaker and is the main point of contact for the veterinarian.
“I’m making more of the calls now,” Heidi said. “I make the emergency calls and communicate with vets about the products I need.”
She treats cows for mastitis and gives breeding shots for the farm’s ovsynch program.
“I haven’t learned how to do an IV yet, but I’m going to get trained,” she said.
Heidi’s entrepreneurial passion extends to her egg business also — an endeavor she started in middle school. Producing about 20 dozen eggs per week from 50 chickens, the eggs are sold on a selfserve basis out of a refrigerator on the farm. Heidi gains customers through Facebook and has a friend who sells eggs for her at a farmer’s market when she has an overabundance.
As her responsibilities on the farm continue to increase, Heidi is solidifying her career as a dairy farmer. Her parents said they are looking forward to their daughter being the next generation to run the farm.
“We’re going to transition ownership over to Heidi eventually, which is something we have to start working on,” Rodney said. “It’s neat to have someone to keep the farm going. Maybe we can make 100 years here.”
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Class III milk moves higher
Prices for dairy cattle and Class III milk are holding strong. Jenny Wackershauser, a dairy agent and broker with Ever.Ag, said tight cattle supplies are a large factor. “It actually ties a lot back to the beef herd.” With more dairy cows being bred to beef, the dairy heifer replacements are extremely tight, hence the tight dairy market. Demand is also increasing with more processing becoming available. “We’re moving into a very balanced to tight milk market that we have not seen going back to probably 2018.”
Dairy exports turn lower
velop H5N1 vaccines for dairy cattle. “We have a number of companies that have been working on vaccines and one company has now presented sufcient information to the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) to allow me to authorize what I did this week, the rst eld trial of a vaccine for cattle H5N1 for safety purposes.” The eld trials are the next step in vaccine development.
For the rst six months of 2024, U.S. dairy exports have exported 2% less total milk solids than they did during the rst half of last year. Exports are down 12% for dry milk products, down 1.2% for dry whey products and up 23% for cheese. Dairy imports are up nearly 11% from last year. The Dairy Market Report from the National Milk Producers Federation and U.S. Dairy Export Council said the Dairy Margin Coverage margin will average between $11.85 per hundredweight and $12.20 per cwt this year. That would be the highest average margin for a calendar year under DMC since the program began nearly 10 years ago.
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By Don Wick Columnist Ag Insider
A Protectionist trade policy expected under Trump or Harris
Whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris is in the Oval Ofce on January 20, 2025, a more protectionist trade policy is anticipated. Ben Conner, a partner the trade policy consulting rm DTB AgriTrade, made that point during the Next 5 Years Conference. Conner said Trump is advocating for more tariffs. “That’s certainly what he’s suggesting in his campaign promise and it’s in the Republican platform,” Conner said. “It’s questionable what authority he has to do that so we’ll have to see if he gets elected what might happen there, but at the moment it looks like we have to be prepared for more tariffs.” Conner described Harris as a blank slate. There is the expectation another Democratic administration would prioritize climate policy when adopting trade policy. “Clean energy is denitely going to be a focus for her and what that means on the trade front is a little more of an unknown. We just don’t know at this point how Harris would approach that.”
Another Farm Bill Extension Likely
Another farm bill extension is all but a certainty. At the Farm Progress Show, House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson said it was time for the Senate to act. In Thompson’s words, the Senate has 90 pages of ideas but has not taken any real action. The legislation has passed the House Agriculture Committee but does not appear to have enough votes to pass the full House. The farm bill is operating under a one-year extension, which expires at the end of September.
Another farm bill extension likely
Another farm bill extension seems to become more plausible as time progresses. “We’re at the point in the process where we’re going to be forced to probably extend all the appropriations,” said Jay Truitt, president, Policy Solutions. Truitt expects the farm bill will be one of many items lumped into one large omnibus bill. A farm bill debate will nally happen, but Truitt doesn’t expect that to happen until well into next year.
Progress seen for dairy vaccine
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack made a stop at the Farm Progress Show in Iowa. “Since I’m at the Farm Progress Show, we obviously want to make sure that we announce progress,” he said. Vilsack outlined the work underway to de-
Praise for common names initiative
The Chilean government will allow U.S. exporters to continue to market their products using common names, such as parmesan and prosciutto. National Milk Producers Federation President and CEO Gregg Doud describes this agreement as a milestone for U.S. dairy farmers. The European Union and other countries have taken aggressive steps to restrict other countries from using these common food names.
July milk production totals released
In July, milk production in Wisconsin totaled 2.7 billion pounds. That’s down slightly from one year earlier. The average number of milk cows was unchanged from June, but up 1,000 head from July of 2023.
Truterra carbon incentives expand to dairy sector
Truterra has launched a rst-ever carbon program for dairy farmers. Land O’Lakes created Truterra in 2016, offering incentives to adopt climate-smart farming practices like cover crops and no-till. Truterra President Jamie Leifker says this is their rst program for the dairy business. Truterra is working with three dairy companies: Land O’Lakes, Dairy Farmers of America and Bel Brands. “What we want farmers to understand is that we’re owned by a farmer-owned organization that puts a high degree of effort into the delity of our data to ensure that we’re protecting the farmer’s data in a way that they own it; they never lose control of it,” Leifker said. “We’re not calling out specic performance on specic farms. We aggregate the data so we’re protecting the farmer and the efforts that they’re putting into their farm.”
Biofuel from cheese waste
A project is under consideration that would convert waste from cheese manufacturing into sustainable aviation fuel. Burnett Dairy Cooperative in Grantsburg is in discussions with Community BioReneries LLC about this concept. Rather than cooking or steeping biomass like an ethanol plant, this project would be like a microbrewery, using fermentation to produce biofuel.
Wisconsin farmers on national dairy board
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced the appointment of a dozen members to serve on the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board. One of the new members is Tasha Schleis of Kewaunee. Sara Bahgat-Eggert of Clayton was reappointed to serve another term.
Trivia challenge
Strawberry is the most popular milkshake avor in the United States. That answers our last trivia question. For this week’s trivia, what is the theme for the 2024 World Dairy Expo? We’ll have the answer in our next edition of the 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.
The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act
Legislators, industry groups continue to push for its passage
By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Putting whole milk and 2% milk options back on the trays of school lunches is the objective of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act. Since 2012, kids’ choices in the cafeteria have been limited to unavored low-fat (1%), unavored fat-free and avored fatfree milk. In 2017, schools were allowed to start serving avored low-fat milk as well.
In December 2023, the bill sponsored by Congressman and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., to restore whole and reduced fat milk to schools, received overwhelming bipartisan support when it passed in the U.S. House of Representatives with a 330-99 vote.
However, the bill was stopped short at its next destination, the U.S. Senate. Chair of the Senate Com-
mittee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee — Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. —blocked the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act after Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. requested unanimous consent on the Senate oor to pass the Act.
“It just takes one senator to raise their hand and put a hold on a piece of legislation so they can give it another look,” said Rob Rosado, vice president of legislative affairs at the International Dairy Foods Association.
“Stabenow is the Senate Ag Committee chair, so this is her jurisdiction. As chair, she determines what legislation is best for her committee.”
This setback does not mean the dairy industry has given up on getting the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act passed. Legislators in favor of the bill and industry organizations continue to ght for it.
“We’re really excited about the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act,” Rosado said. “We’ve been trying to nd opportunities to get it passed, and hopefully there is a window of opportunity to do that later this year.”
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“It helps me keep track of the cows that need to be bred, and I keep an eye on the days in milk and the days open.”
How long have you been testing with DHIA?
I have been testing with DHIA for more than 30 years. The bene t of nding out how each cow is performing is why I continue to test.
What tests do you use and what do you like about those tests? I use tests for somatic cell count, butterfat and protein. I like to identify the high somatic cell cows so I can take them out of the line and use that milk for calves or something else.
Which is your favorite and why? My favorite test is the somatic cell count test, just so I know which ones I need to keep an eye on. I either treat them, cull them or use them to feed calves.
How does testing with DHIA bene t your dairy operation? It helps me keep track of the cows that need to be bred, and I keep an eye on the days in milk and the days open. I use their records a lot. Each month it gives you a list of cows to breed or which ones need to be pregnancy checked.
Tell us about your farm. We typically have about 90 cows and we milk our herd in a tiestall barn. We grow our own feed, harvesting alfalfa, high-moisture corn and corn silage. We buy our protein from the local elevator. We get help from my dad, Harvey, and my brother, Dan, helps with eld work. We ship our milk to First District Association.
The milk ing robot ’s strong The milking robot’s strong per formance is achieved in performance is achieved in combination with streamlined maintenance, and the abilit y maintenance, and the ability for 24/7 operation with for 24/7 operation with minimum use of consumables minimum use and energy With the and energy. With the Dair yRobot R9500, up to four DairyRobot R9500, up to four boxes can be connec ted to can connected to one supply unit This way one unit. This way they share one vacuum share one vacuum pump, compressor, milk pump, compressor, milk and calf milk line, and tank and calf milk line, and tank connec tion – which means connection – means less equipment and reduced less and reduced system complexit y system complexity.
“Centre Dairy was very easy to work with, we had the robots installed about a year and half ago, and after a slight learning curve, the cows have adapted well and ef ciency and production are up.We are nding it takes less labor and time for each milking.” -
Marc Claseman
Harlan Mauk Howard Lake, MN Wright County • 80 cows
Rosado said this is the rst time the bill has ever had this much bipartisan support across the oor, with all but one Republican voting for the bill and a majority of Democrats voting for it in the House.
Under the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, schools participating in the school lunch program would be able to offer students a variety of uid milks, including avored and unavored organic or non-organic whole, reduced-fat, low-fat and fatfree uid milk, and lactosefree uid milk.
“We believe this bill is important from a nutritional standpoint because whole milk provides all the same nutrients as low-fat and nonfat milk, but more people will consume it,” Rosado said. “That’s the end goal of what we’re trying to do here. We have strong bipartisan sponsors, and we keep going to nd opportunities to move it forward.”
IDFA launched a website campaign for promoting whole milk in school meals. Rosado said there are many resources on the website and ways to contact members of Congress about getting on board with this bill. The public can voice its support for the bill by lling out a form to email to their U.S. Senators,
Pu�ng whole milk and 2% milk op�ons back on the trays of school lunches is the objec�ve of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act. Under this act, schools would be able to offer students a variety of uid milks, including avored and unavored organic or non-organic whole, reducedfat, low-fat and fat-free uid milk, and lactose-free uid milk.
encouraging their support of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act.
According to the IDFA website, milk offers 13 essential nutrients and is the No. 1 source of protein, vitamin D, calcium and potassium in the diets of children ages 2-18. Since the U.S. Department of Agriculture removed whole and 2% milk from schools in
2012, school milk consumption and meal participation have declined.
Measuring consumer support for whole milk is one of the ways IDFA is advocating for the bill. The organization found that 9 out of 10 parents serve 2% and whole milk to their children at home and want it back in schools.
“They want Congress to
do something about it, and we’re going to keep pushing it,” Rosado said.
In September, IDFA is hosting a legislative y-in, to talk about this issue along with others.
“We continue to have our senior executives in D.C. promoting the bill as well, as we try to build more bipartisan support,” Rosado said.
“We’re going to continue to bang the drum for whole milk.”
Chairman Thompson said the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act has now been added to the House Committee on Agriculture farm bill, which passed the House committee in May.
“While we work towards the end of the year, it’s important for the Senate to take action, so we can work out the differences,” Thompson said. “I believe we are close, but the Senate must prioritize this bipartisan legislation.”
Rosado said that Sens. Stabenow and John Boozman, R-Ark., each have frameworks for a farm bill, and Boozman includes the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act in his framework.
“At some point, they’re going to need to sit down with Chairman Thompson and talk about the farm bill in the coming months because the current bill expires Sept. 30,” Rosado said. “Everyone wants to pass a new farm bill by the end of the calendar year, so we really want this to be in that conversation. We’re working publicly and privately to ensure the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act is in the mix.”
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BUILT STRONGER. LASTS LONGER.
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Rosado is optimistic that IDFA is making headway with Stabenow as the organization works to build support for the bill.
“We have a good working relationship with Chairwoman Stabenow and her staff and continue to have conversations,” Rosado said. “We are showing her the nutritional science is there as well as the bipartisan and public support.”
Rosado is hoping for action on the bill when Congress reconvenes after the November elections. If the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act does not pass by Jan. 3, 2025, it would start over from the beginning in the next Congress.
Sen. Marshall was the lead of the bipartisan Senate version of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act and continues to back the bill as well.
“We are still pushing for the measure to be considered before the end of the 118th Congress, hoping that Leader Schumer understands how important it is for nutrient-dense and delicious whole milk to be in the lunchroom,” Marshall said. “If the bill does not come to the oor independently, we will explore opportunities to attach it to another legislative vehicle.”
Another group working behind the scenes in favor of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act is 97 Milk. This non-prot grassroots farmer-led initiative based in Pennsylvania promotes whole milk as 97% fat free and is promoting the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act on its website and social media platforms.
Sherry Bunting is an independent agricultural journalist and volunteer with 97 Milk and the Grassroots Pennsylvania Dairy Advisory Committee.
“We’re working on educating the public about the issue,” Bunting said. “Most people don’t even realize kids don’t have a choice of whole or 2%
milk at school. A big hurdle was for people to see the need for this legislation.”
Bunting said about half of the Senate Ag Committee, including Democrats and Republicans, are signed on as co-sponsors to the companion Senate bill, which contains identical language to the House bill that passed in December.
According to Bunting, Stabenow has not allowed her committee to take up the bill.
“On the Senate side, it has to move out of the ag committee to get to the Senate oor,” Bunting said. “On the House side, the bill moved out of the education committee to the House oor.”
Chairman Thompson obtained a waiver from education chair, Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., that would allow a whole milk waiver act to be included in the farm bill on the House side.
“With that waiver, he did what people said could not be done and made it part of the farm bill,” Bunting said. “The fact it’s in the farm bill makes me hopeful that if we can get a farm bill passed, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act will ride along. This would be the fourth time GT Thompson has put this bill forward over the last eight years.”
Bunting said new this time in the bill is language that makes the fat found in milk exempt from being counted in meal dietary guidelines.
Bringing whole milk back into schools will round out the school meal with a avorful and nutrition-packed option that research shows many kids are already drinking at home.
“We’ve never been this close before,” Rosado said. “It passed the House with huge bipartisan support and has good bipartisan support in the Senate. We feel the time is right for Whole Milk for Healthy Kids.”
WORLD DAIRY EXPO
from our side our side OF THE FENCE THE
How does your family’s farm routine change when school starts?
Chad Wieneke
Adrian, Minnesota
Nobles County
300 cows
How many children do you have and what are their ages? My wife, Teresa, and I have three kids — Alysha, 21, Grant, 19, and Addison, 14. My brother, Kevin, and his wife, Julie, have three kids — Cameron, 20, Sophie, 16, and Connor, 12.
What roles do your kids play on the farm? When Grant got home from his rst year of college, he took on some big roles on the dairy farm. He did the feeding and helped Kevin with the reproduction in the dairy herd. Both he and Cameron probably worked more than 60 hours a week. Cameron doesn’t mind helping with the dairy, but he really likes feeding cattle and running the feedlot portion of the farm. We nish about 1,000 animals a year on Kevin’s place. Both Cameron and Grant are into crop production and help with that in the spring. They come home in March and have a spring and summer internship. They both enjoy the crop production of the farming operation. They like tractors. Alysha goes to college and works at John Deere in Luverne full time. She helps on the weekends with silage chopping and chores whenever she can. Sophie and Connor help when we are chopping hay or corn. Addison has her 4-H chores and shows lambs, and helps whenever we need her.
Do your kids’ responsibilities change when school starts? Cameron and Grant go to Lake Area Technical College in Watertown, South Dakota. They come back every weekend to help on the farm. Alysha helps after work if we need her. The other three are all in high school and active in sports, so we don’t get a lot of help from them.
How do you adapt your schedule to cover extra work when your kids start school? Kevin and I put in a lot more hours when they are gone. We probably add 2-3 hours a day more when the kids are gone.
What is the most exciting part about your kids going back to school? It’s exciting that it’s the boys’ last year of college. They will both be done this spring and plan to return to the farm. Kevin and I try to accommodate each other. When his kids have football or volleyball, I will cover. When Addison has cross-country, he covers for me. We try to make as many sporting events as possible, but we don’t make them all.
What lessons have you taught your kids on the farm? I taught them to have a strong work ethic, and I hope they realize the dairy farm is a great place to raise a family.
Tell us about your farm. Kevin and I run the farm. We milk 300 cows in a double-10 parallel parlor. We also nish out around 1,000 steers annually. We have 1,200 acres and plant corn, soybeans and alfalfa. We are the fourth generation, and our kids are going to be the fth. Our dad, Dale, and mom, Mary, come out to the farm and help when they can.
How many children do you have and what are their ages? I have four: Lucas is a junior; Zachary is in eighth grade; Sydney is in seventh grade; and William is in fth grade..
What roles do your kids play on the farm? Each of the kids has their own jobs on the farm. They primarily only have to do chores in the evening on weekdays. Lucas feeds the heifers and helps with eld work, Zachary takes care of the baby calves, Sydney is my milker, and William feeds hay and lls in where he needs to.
Do your kids’ responsibilities change when school starts? Chores and responsibilities stay the same unless one of them has a lot of homework to get done or an event to get to. Sydney is in volleyball and gone during the week so William lls in. On the weekends then, Sydney makes sure that she helps with the milkings. It also means some of the extra chores that normally get done during the week, now get done on the weekends.
How do you adapt your schedule to cover extra work when your kids start school? It just means that I start chores a bit earlier and adjust the jobs. That way whoever is at home knows which job they need to do and who is covering who. Most times, it still ends up with Mom or Uncle Jakin covering things.
What is the most exciting part about your kids going back to school? The food lasts a bit longer in the house.
What lessons have you taught your kids on the farm? I believe that they have learned responsibility, how to care for animals and the land, time management and how to be a team player. They all know that they have to work together to get the chores done in a timely matter before they can do anything else.
Tell us about your farm. Our farm is a 1,200-acre crop and dairy farm located just outside of Browerville. We milk 35 Guernseys and the kids are the sixth generation to grow up there. It is owned and operated by my brother, Jakin, and me. We grow corn, soybeans, alfalfa and small grains.
Becky Sonberg Osage, Iowa Mitchell County 134 cows
How many children do you have and what are their ages? We have four children; Easton is a junior; Jasper is a sophmore; Lyla is a freshman and Oliver is in seventh grade.
What roles do your kids play on the farm? They all help with all aspects of dairy farming, plus we have more than 200 laying chickens.
Do your kids' responsibilities change when school starts? We dry up the cows starting around July and calve August through December. When school starts, we are not milking as many cows so there is less work. But as the calves start coming, it gets pretty busy. They all get up before school to help with chores. Oliver is the only one doing fall sports this year, so the other three help with chores when they get home. The older two can get out early for work study. Basically they still have the same responsibilities covering daily chores, they are just not able to help with crop work. On the weekends they will catch up with other chores. When winter starts, all of them will be involved in sports activities and not be available after school. This year will be a rst,so we are not quite sure what we will do. We will probably have help from some students not involved with sports.
How do you adapt your schedule to cover extra work when your kids start school? My nephew will be helping with morning chores, and hopefully, we can get some helpers who are not involved with sports activities. I try to do extra work but I am usually running the kids around or attending their activities.
What is the most exciting part about your kids going back to school? I like seeing them involved with their friends, and to be honest, not having to worry about making them lunch. It's crazy when they are home, but it’s a different crazy managing their school lives.
What lessons have you taught your kids on the farm? We have taught them to be hard workers and always help others. They are denitely not afraid to take on work.
Tell us about your farm. We are a second-generation family-run operation, starting in 1977. We milk Holstein cows in a double-8 parallel parlor twice a day and feed out the steers. We also raise corn, soybeans, hay, oats and peas. We sell to Prairie Farms Dairy Inc. All employees are either family or a couple of high school friends of the kids. In the last few years, we have added laying hens to the mix. I also cover vacations/illnesses in various departments at the local hospital/clinic.
Nikki Deyle (pictured with her family Sydney (fromleft), William, Lucas, Zachary and Nathan) Browerville, Minnesota Todd County 35 cows
Robin Oliver (pictured with daughter, Ingrid)
Amherst Junction, Wisconsin
Portage County
180 cows
How many children do you have and what grades are they in? My husband, Randy and I have been together for 17 years, and in that time, we have become parents to eight amazing children. There are ve girls and three boys who are all very active in doing something on the farm. Ethan is 15 and a sophomore in high school. Jessica is 14 and a freshman in high school. Hazel is going to be 13 next month and in sixth grade. Raliegh is 10 and in fth grade. Lillian is 9 and in fourth grade. Elsie is 7 and in second grade. Tucker is 5 and in 5-year-old kindergarten. Ingrid is 2 ½. All the kids attend in the Rosholt School District, except Jessica who is attending Rural Virtual Academy this year. I also have a nephew and two nieces who can be seen around the farm and kind of blend into our crew. Rodney is 14 and a freshman. Evelyn is 10 and in fth grade. Adalia is 6 and in rst grade. They are also attending school in the Rosholt School District.
What roles do your kids play on the farm? Our kids all help on the farm with chores and sometimes they are just supervisors. Our older four kiddos help with eldwork when we need extra hands. Ethan is learning about the maintenance and repair of equipment from his dad. He has also run the chopper this year. The older girls, Jessica and Hazel, help with the calf chores and milking cows. Raliegh does some eldwork and also cut hay this year. As the kiddos get older, they seem to be interested in helping more on the farm and with eldwork. The younger kiddos help with little chores and feeding calves. The youngest, Ingrid, is our supervisor for all chores and making sure it gets done. My nephew helps with eldwork and a little milking when we need it. Jessica is also breeding our cows in the place of Dad when she needs backup. The kids are all a great joy to see grow on the farm and turn into wonderful young adults. The kids are also in 4-H and have a number of projects that they are into doing from animals to cooking to crafts.
Do your kids’ responsibilities change when school starts? Yes and no, as they still help with chores when they get home from school. They know that every second Monday of the month we need all hands on deck as Mom is the general leader for the 4-H club, so we need chores done early. The boys still help with eldwork. The girls still help with milking and calf chores. We do try to get chores done a little early so supper can be made and homework done. It is hard to get farm kids to not run on a farmer’s schedule of long hours when school starts. They love seeing everything going on with
Matt Mulderink and Ashley Ware
Mash Family Farms
Morrison, Illinois Whiteside County
40 cows
How many children do you have and what grades are they in? We have two children. Our daughter, Mykala, is a senior, and our son, Jerry, is a sophomore.
What roles do your kids play on the farm? Mykala helps with all the milking and is currently learning to A.I. dairy cattle. Her ambitions are to continue her education in all aspects of dairy farming as well as learning all other agricultural elds. Jerry is our main equipment operator, including hauling manure and cleaning pens, along with caring for calves. He has begun a small chicken operation that produces eggs and meat. He also cuts rewood to sell.
the farm. They are afraid they might miss something. They enjoy seeing new calves being born and helping them.
How do you adapt your schedule to cover extra work when your kids start school? I am asked this all the time. We just do it. It is a big question from many about how do we do it and run after the kids. I honestly don’t know. I just do. I get a lot of help from the kids and we just keep going. When the kids aren’t here, we do what we can together, Randy and me. If there are things that need to be done with more hands, we put it off until the kiddos get home to help.
What is the most exciting part about your kids going back to school? Mom might get some time to do things she enjoys without the kids. I am always wanting to try to learn how to do things as well. I enjoy reading, crocheting and baking. The time alone allows me to do some of these things or learn new things. The kids do these things as well and I step back and allow them to learn with my help. We do crafty things for 4-H that the kids use for 4-H projects. So we are always trying new things. I think Dad probably walks around lost, as he always has the boys following him around to help him. Tucker loves following Dad, saying, “What do you have for me to do, I am bored, Dad. I need something to do.” He is also the buddy seat rider who complains after being in the tractor for 10 minutes but rides along anyway.
What lessons have you taught your kids on the farm? That hard work is good for you and it teaches you that if you work hard it pays off. We try to teach them that things don’t just get handed to you, but you have to show that you want something bad enough to work and earn it. I think they also learn responsibility as well by having chores to do and animals to look after, that depend on them for their care. The kids growing up on the farm learn and gain so much from all the experiences that they get from following their parents. My husband is very handy and knowledgeable in many things. I believe we try to teach that in our kids when we have to x and repair things ourselves. No matter what it is on the farm, you have to know a little bit of everything.
Tell us about your farm. We branched off the family farms to do our own things. We are a very colorful herd of crossbred cows and heifers. When looking at the cattle the coats are many colors and patterns. We aren’t a herd of just black and white, but a herd of variety. I grew up with just black and white and always wanted something different. So we do crossbreeding on the cows for a hardier cow. We enjoy our herd and their personalities. The cows are all calm and easy going but maybe that is because of the kids always playing with them. We milk in a double-8 parlor and cows are in free stalls. We do have a number of registered cows and breeds for the kids. They like to have them for 4-H projects, but they also will take a cross to the fair. Each one of the kiddos has a breed that they have fallen in love with and work more with. We grow all our own feed for the cows. We have lived here since 2010 and enjoy the area.
Do your kids’ responsibilities change when school starts? There's not much of a change in their daily chores, except for maybe the time that extra chores are done.
How do you adapt your schedule to cover extra work when your kids start school? We do our best to help cover when there are any extra school activities, such as drama and football. We will start a little earlier for chores to try and make it to their school activities when we can. Otherwise, we will try to rotate farm responsibilities so that we all can be supporting the farm and school activities.
What is the most exciting part about your kids going back to school? It gives them a break from the farm, and they get to spend more time with their friends. It is also fun to watch their interests grow outside of farm activities.
What lessons have you taught your kids on the farm? Besides the basic life skills on the farm and a good work ethic, they know how to: garden and preserve food, dehorn, castrate, vaccinate, operate equipment, do basic equipment maintenance, show and work cattle, and care for the creations that God has gifted us with.
Tell us about your farm. Mash Family Farms is a small, family-run farm. We currently milk 40 cows in a stanchion barn and ship our milk to Brewster Cheese out of Stockton, Illinois. We buy all our feed.
Describe your farm and facilities. We are a multi-generational farm that was started in 1861. The owners and operators of the business include Jim and Donna Hoefs and their sons — Jim, Jason and Joel. We sell our milk to Agropur in Le Sueur. Most of the livestock is housed on the main farm site. Our milking herd is housed in free stalls and milked in our double-8 parlor. We raise all of our youngstock and replacement heifers. As part of the operation, we also nish out all our steers. We produce the majority of our forage on acres that are close to the farm.
What forages do you harvest?
We harvest winter rye in the late spring to be utilized in dry cow and heifer rations. Alfalfa is harvested four times throughout the summer and utilized in our lactating cow ration. Our corn silage crop is harvested in September and utilized in all our animal diets. Grass meadows and ditches are harvested and wet wrapped for use in dry cow and heifer rations.
How many acres of crops do you raise? We farm approximately 1,000 acres of cropland. We raise corn, soybeans, spring wheat, alfalfa, barley and peas, new seeding alfalfa cover crop and winter rye.
FORAGE PROFILE
Describe the rations for your livestock. We mix four different types of rations. Our lactating cow ration is composed of corn silage, haylage, alfalfa baleage, cottonseed, soybean meal and mineral mix. The dry cow ration utilizes some of our lower-quality forages including ryegrass baleage, low-quality alfalfa baleage, corn silage, distillers grain and mineral mix.
The heifer ration is similar to the dry cow ration in composition but utilizes a different mineral mix. We also mix a ration for our steer nishing lot that is much lighter in forage but utilizes low-quality forages such as grass to help balance their diet of primarily corn and distillers grain.
grass cover crop. This past year it was nearly 900 round bales that varied in quality because of challenging harvest conditions. We also harvest meadow grass. We aim to harvest at least 1,000 grass bales that vary in quality and moisture.
Describe your harvesting techniques for alfalfa and corn silage. We recently purchased a self-propelled chopper that has changed the way our forage harvesting is handled. Our chopping wagons have been retrotted to be able to continue using them with the self-propelled chopper. More than half our alfalfa crop is chopped into a silo or bunker. The remaining alfalfa is round baled and wet wrapped to be fed as baleage.
Corn silage is harvested in early fall each year. We aim to harvest at 68% moisture and ll multiple bunkers to put up about 13 months’ worth of feed each year.
What quality and quantity do you harvest of each crop? We harvest approximately 3,800 tons of corn silage annually. We try to optimize quality by harvesting at ideal moisture of 68%. For haylage/baleage we run approximately 155 acres of alfalfa annually. We harvest 4-5 crops each year depending on conditions. We harvest approximately 65 acres worth of rye-
What techniques do you use to store, manage and feed your forages. We have four bunkers of varying sizes that store our corn silage and haylage crops. Bunkers are well packed to maximize the amount of forage stored and the quality of feed we produce.
AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR
The Hoefs family — Jimmy (from le ), Joel, Jim and Jason — hold up corn silage Sept. 6 at their farm near New Prague, Minnesota. The Hoefs family milks 250 cows.
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“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
“With fresh cows, we see a lot more udder texture at 2 weeks in milk as edema is pulled out. You can They’re up moving around more. They eat. They drink. They make more milk and higher quality milk.
“The Udder Comfort Backpack Sprayer made us more compliant on our udder health. It’s more user-friendly
(Above) The dairy herd eats total mixed ra�on Sept. 6 at Hoefs Dairy LLC near New Prague, Minnesota. The Hoefs family has four different ra�ons: the milking cow ra�on, the heifer ra�on, the dry cow ra�on and the steer ra�on.
(Right) Rows of baleage lie stacked in front of a bunker Sept. 6 at Hoefs Dairy LLC near New Prague, Minnesota. The Hoefs individually wrap the baleage to allow them to stack bales to minimize the footprint for feed storage.
We maintain three Harvestore silos and two stave silos for storage of haylage and high moisture ear corn.
A large portion of the back of the farm site is used to store individually wrapped alfalfa, rye and grass round bales. Individually wrapping allows us to stack bales three high to minimize the footprint for feed storage. Most forages are mixed into rations for youngstock, milking cows or dry cows.
How does quality forages play in the production goals for your herd? We strive to produce milk high in components and feed accordingly. Harvesting our forages at ideal times and with short harvest windows allows us to put up feed that is higher in quality. This quality forage helps us to minimize the costly inputs needed to balance our rations for all of our livestock.
What are management or harvesting techniques you have changed that has made a notable difference in for-
age quality? Explain. When we switched to baleage many years ago, it ensured being able to produce a quality forage even when the weather didn’t cooperate. The addition of bunkers made forage production more labor and time efcient. Bunkers help us reduce the harvest window to ensure forages are put up at the highest possible quality. The addition of the selfpropelled chopper added additional speed and efciency to our haylage crops and allowed us to harvest corn silage exactly when we wanted to rather than waiting on the schedule of a custom chopping crew.
Describe a challenge you overcame in reaching your forage quality goals. Weather is always a factor when trying to put up good quality forage. With running 155 acres of alfalfa, it can be challenging to make sure all acres are cut and harvested within the sometimes-small dry weather windows Minnesota summers give us.
This past year specically, we saw major challenges in harvesting our 65 acres of ryegrass cover crop. The spring was wet, the crop was thick, eld conditions were awful and the weather didn’t cooperate. It was harvested over a two-week time span, using multiple techniques. By the end of the crop, we conceded to round baling the remaining crop to use as bedding.
FORAGE HARVESTER
AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR
Poised for the future
Vandoskes diversify through show barn, creamery
By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com
CLEVELAND, Wis. —
When Bob Vandoske thinks about the future, he thinks about how he can diversify. This was the inspiration behind a new show barn and creamery that celebrated its grand opening at Vandoske Dairy Farms LLC June 22.
“This idea always intrigued me and helps us compete without getting a lot bigger,” Vandoske said. “My son is a sophomore in high school, and he’s pretty interested in the farm. Moving forward, I knew we either needed to milk more cows or diversify, and I wanted to diversify.”
Vandoske and his wife, Tara, and their three children –Brianne, Reid and Brooklyn — milk 600 cows and farm 1,100 acres near Cleveland with help from 12 full-time employees.
Their new show facility provides housing for show cows and contains an on-farm store selling ice cream, cheese and milk. Vandoske’s Countyline Creamery is connected to a barn where cows reside on bedded packs and are washed and clipped on a regular basis.
Vandoske views the establishment as a country retreat.
“This gives people an opportunity to connect to the farm, see cows up close, and get some ice cream,” he said.
The Vandoskes sell 12 avors of ice cream, including 10 permanent and two rotating avors, which are sourced from Scoops Ice Cream House in Chilton. Homemade wafe cones are made on site by Vandoske’s youngest daughter.
“Making our own ice cream was a thought, but I kind of got cold feet,” Vandoske said. “There’s a possibility we’ll make it someday if the kids take over.”
The menu includes classics such as sundaes, shakes and root beer oats. Next year, the Vandoskes are going to sell milk in glass bottles processed by a nearby farm.
“We’re thinking about starting a grilled cheese line as well,” Vandoske said.
Indoor and outdoor seating at the creamery invite customers to stay awhile. Viewing windows give customers a glimpse into the barn and parlor, but the interaction does not end there. Customers can also step inside the barn for a face-to-face encounter with the
cows.
“At rst, we just planned to put windows looking into the barn, but then we decided to open it up to the public, and I’m surprised by the number of people who come in to take photos and pet the cows,” Vandoske said.
The farm store and show barn share the same roof, but each operates as a separate
business. Tara, who also has a dog boarding business, manages the store that is staffed by high school students and both Vandoske daughters. The store is open Wednesday through Sunday, and Vandoske said the rst couple months in business have been positive.
“Some days are slow, but then the next day is good, so
it keeps your hopes up,” he said. “We have found through trial and error that our busiest times have been between 6-9 p.m. However, with fall fast approaching, we now see our busiest times between 5-8 p.m.”
PHOTO SUBMITTED
The Vandoske family — Tara (from le ), Brooklyn, Reid, Brianne and Bob — gather by their farm sign near Cleveland, Wisconsin. The Vandoskes milk 600 cows and farm 1,100 acres.
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The store is seasonal and will close in October and reopen in April. The Vandoskes use social media and ads on local radio stations to help drive business to the store. The family also hosted Sheboygan County’s Breakfast on the Farm June 15, welcoming about 4,000 people to their farm.
“We haven’t done much advertising,” Vandoske said. “We’re getting our feet wet and seeing where it takes us.”
Next door, the show barn is home to approximately 40 head. In addition to housing the Vandoskes’ show cows, the family is also boarding 12 cows and seven heifers from six clients. Show heifers are housed in a separate barn.
“The boarding supplements income to help pay for the new setup,” Vandoske said.
Cows are primped and pampered and enjoy more than 100 square feet of space per animal in the tunnel-ventilated barn.
“We have an overkill of fans, but for this caliber of animal, we needed it,” Vandoske said.
The barn includes a single-6 parlor, and currently, 17 cows are milked twice a day in this barn. This makes watching the cows get milked another perk of visiting the creamery. The barn also houses 24 good-pedigreed cows, Vandoske said.
“These are not necessarily show cows, but we still want them to receive that extra attention,” he said. “They currently go through the regular parlor.”
The rest of the Vandoske herd is
milked three times a day in a double-8 parabone parlor. The Vandoskes milked 230 cows in a 70-stall tiestall barn before putting in a parlor in 2006. They built their rst freestall barn in 1999.
“I’ve maintained and diversied, but my dad was the mastermind of how we got here,” Vandoske said. “Looking back, we made some good steps, and that’s why we’re still relevant. We keep evolving.”
From the county fair to World Dairy Expo, the Vandoskes show at every level.
“The show side is more of a hobby
sundaes,
that we enjoy doing,” Vandoske said. “We want to keep showing and do a better job at it, so you have to separate the cows. We had a spot for them before, but it wasn’t great. Now, it’s great.”
The cows are fed a meticulous diet, and at night, they are let out on pasture.
“I like looking at cows on pasture, and I think others do too,” Vandoske said.
Vandoske hired Kyle Natzke to manage the show barn.
“He grew up in this industry and has a great reputation, which has helped bring in a number of clients,” Vandoske said.
Vandoske designed the barn. He said he originally wanted it bigger but reduced the size to make it more economical.
“The store had to be state inspected, so there were sacrices we had to make, but what we got and what we
spent was just right,” he said. “I probably should have made more pens, but I didn’t think the boarding would take off like it did.”
A desire not only to diversify but also to educate was part of Vandoske’s vision for the facility.
“It’s not just our job to produce the product,” Vandoske said. “It’s also our job to educate the public on where those products come from.”
Creating a place to showcase their nest cows while sharing their farm with the community was Vandoske’s strategy for the future.
“We’re trying to get people to come out here,” he said. “It’s a trip to the country, and it’s going over well. Furthermore, I would like to bring in the next generation without milking a lot more cows, and hopefully, this will help us do that.”
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
The new show barn and creamery at Vandoske Dairy Farms stands at the front of the farm Aug. 27 near Cleveland, Wisconsin. Vandoske’s Countyline Creamery celebrated its grand opening June 22 in a facility that houses the Vandoske show cows and show cows boarded for clients.
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
Vandoske’s Countyline Creamery is stocked full of ice cream, cheese and milk Aug. 27 near Cleveland, Wisconsin. The Vandoskes sell 12 avors of ice cream, sourced from Scoops Ice Cream House in Chilton, as well as
shakes and root beer oats.
A passion for hands-on learning
Thewis operates Sunshine’s Agriculture Farm Experience
By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
MELLEN, Wis. — Even as a young girl, Kendra Thewis liked sharing her family’s story about their central Wisconsin dairy farm with visitors. This enjoyment continued when she dairy farmed with her husband and fatherin-law in Ashland County.
“I have always liked sharing my story of agriculture,” Thewis said. “There is so much to tell; that has always appealed to me.”
Her appreciation for educating led Thewis to continue her connection to the dairy industry, even after her family’s herd of dairy cows was sold in October 2021.
With her husband, Peter, and their children, Starr and Skyler, Thewis launched Sunshine’s Agriculture Farm Experience in Mellen, a small farm designed to create a learning environment for children and families.
Agriculture Experience Farm, operated by the Thewis family.
Both Peter and Kendra are involved with the Chequamegon Dairy Association, which encompasses Ashland, Bayeld, Douglas and Iron Counties in northern Wisconsin. Peter serves as the group’s president, while Kendra maintains their social media presence.
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“It really was born of all the little misconceptions you hear, like people thinking chocolate milk comes from brown cows,” Thewis said. “I just wanted to play an active role in helping to clear up those misconceptions.”
Thewis chose to share her appreciation of animals with
children, working to teach and educate about farm life in a hands-on manner.
“I wanted to give kids an experience, something that they’ll remember, more than just sitting and doing worksheets,” Thewis said.
Thewis launched Sunshine’s Agriculture Farm Ex-
perience on a small scale during the summer of 2021.
“I started with hosting days that people could come feed calves and goats,” Thewis said. “I would bring a few calves over from the farm. I had goats and pot-bellied pigs here for people to interact with.”
After her family’s cows were sold, Thewis added a couple of milking cows to her fold.
“In 2019 I came across a grant from the Wisconsin Ayrshire Breeders Association for $1,000 to purchase an Ayrshire,” Thewis said. “I applied and was awarded $1,000, which I put towards purchasing Starkissed, and she was carrying Skystar. They are the two cows I have here on the farm today. It took me ve years to get another heifer calf from them, but I nally got one this year.”
While she wants to keep the number of animals on the farm small, Thewis tries to have at least a few members of each species in residence, creating opportunities to talk about the animals and provide that hands-on experience she desires to share.
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Kendra Thewis explains how dairy cows are milked June 30 during the Chequamegon Dairy Day on her farm near Mellen, Wisconsin. Two Ayrshire cows are in residence at Sunshine’s
Each year, Kendra runs on-farm educational programming from May through October.
“In May I open up to school groups,” Thewis said. “In June we do farm camp sessions, where the public can come. We have story times, cow milking demonstrations and calf feeding. We’ve done other things like date nights on the farm and open up for days where people can just come pet and interact with the animals. We also have a sunower eld that people can come walk through … when the sunowers are in bloom.”
Thewis said she prefers the more structured activities, with limited attendance.
“The smaller the group, the more time I can spend talking about the animals,” Thewis said. “I can spend more time with people, educating them and making a more personal connection about our industry.”
This year, the Thewises hosted the rst Chequamegon Dairy Day event in ve years.
“After COVID, we struggled to nd a place to host the event,” Thewis said. “I nally felt like I was in a position to run a great event like that for our community.”
Thewis said her remote location provides a challenge when it comes to drawing crowds for some events, but overall, she believes her educational center is headed in the right direction by lling a need for her community.
“People who visit say good things, and I have lots of returning visitors,” Thewis said. “I just want to make a difference, to help people understand where their food comes from and clear up the misconceptions. It upsets me to hear people speak badly about the dairy industry when most of the time they are simply misinformed.”
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DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR Kendra Thewis talks to visitors June 30 during the Chequamegon Dairy Day on her farm near Mellen, Wisconsin. Thewis and her family operate Sunshine’s Agriculture Experience Farm where they work to share the story of agriculture with their community.
St. Croix County domination
Junior, senior teams top state 4-H judging
By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
MADISON, Wis. — When the scores were tabulated at the Wisconsin 4-H State Dairy Judging Contest Aug. 18, the top-ranking teams in both the junior and senior divisions hailed from St. Croix County.
In the junior contest, the team consisting of Olivia Dittman, Abby Raymond, Kolton Utecht and Macy Weyer placed rst over the team from Rock County. Rounding out the top ve junior placings were teams from Shawano, Columbia and Jackson counties.
The junior portion of the contest was won by St. Croix County’s Dittman, followed by Sean Stetzer of Jackson County, Benny Uhe of Rock County, Tyler Quilling of Dunn County, Macy Weyer of St. Croix County, Bryce Bechel of Pierce County, Ivy Hebgen of Columbia County, Natalie Mauk of Sheboygan County, Drew Stetzer of Jackson County, Sierra McCullough of Green County and Lena Swain of Dane County.
In the senior division, earning the right to represent Wisconsin at the National 4-H Dairy Cattle Judging Contest Sept. 29 at World Dairy Expo was the team from St. Croix County consisting of Sophia Kamm, Stella Kamm, Lilly Peterson and Makayla Weyer. The team is coached by Ellis Frank and Hayden Hauschildt.
“We have such a tight-knit, consistent group,” Sophie Kamm said. “I think that is a tribute to the way Ellis and Hayden have coached us.”
St. Croix County nished 16 points ahead of the second-place team from neighboring Pierce County, which will represent Wisconsin at the All-American Dairy Show Invitational Youth Dairy Cattle Judging Contest Sept. 15 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The Pierce County team consists of Braeden Bechel, Hannah Fesenmaier, Ava Kolodzienski and Abby Thompson. The team is coached by Bob Traynor and Peter Coyne.
Rounding out the top ve placings in the state contest’s senior division were teams from Manitowoc County, Fond du Lac County and Iowa County.
In a tight contest, with the top 10 judges separated by 13 points and the top 15 by 20 points, the overall high-scoring individual in the contest was Hailey Zernicke from Shawano County. Zernicke won a tiebreaker with Pierce County judge Braeden Bechel to take top honors in the contest.
Following Zernicke and Bechel to round out the top 10 senior judges were Logan Harbaugh of Shawano County, Summer Hammann of Barron County, Cameron Ryan of Fond du Lac County, Julia Searls of Iowa County, Lydia Gwidt of Shawano County, Sara Dorshorst of Wood County, Garett Ulness of Manitowoc County, Sophia Kamm of St. Croix
The senior team from St. Croix County — Makayla Weyer (from le ), Lilly Peterson, Stella Kamm, Sophia Kamm and coach Ellis Frank — won the Wisconsin 4-H State Dairy Judging Contest Aug. 18 in Madison, Wisconsin. They will represent Wisconsin at the Na onal 4-H Dairy Ca le Judging Contest Sept. 29 at World Dairy Expo in Madison.
County and Dylan Ryan of Fond du Lac County.
Zernicke, Harbaugh, Hammann and Ryan will represent Wisconsin in the contest at the youth contest held with the North American International Livestock Exposition Nov. 9 in Louisville, Kentucky.
“I thought the contest was really placeable, the animals were really high-quality,” Zernicke said.
Zernicke is a freshman at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.
When she steps on the green shavings of Freedom Hall at the Kentucky Exposition Center, Zernicke will have competed in all three national 4-H judging contests — judging at Expo in 2023 and Harrisburg in 2021 with her Shawano County team.
“I’ve been judging since I was old enough to join 4-H,” Zernicke said. “For a while, my parents pushed me to do it, but now I really do enjoy it.”
The hardest part of competing for Zernicke is giving reasons — not the actual reasons, but rather the prospect of telling a stranger her thoughts.
“I’m not really much of a talker,” Zernicke said. “I try to listen to as many people give reasons as I can, that helps me a lot. I’ve denitely gained people skills through judging. I’m able to have more of a conversation with a stranger now than I could before giving reasons.”
When their team steps on the colored shavings at World Dairy Expo, St. Croix County coaches Ellis Frank and Hayden Hauschildt feel condent they will perform well.
“These girls have been seeing cows well all year long, and they have really progressed from last year,” Frank said. “For most of them, it’s their third year. Three years ago when one of them gave me her rstever set of reasons, she started crying — so we’ve come a long way, and we couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Both Frank and Hauschildt have experience competing in judging con-
see cows really well. We just keep telling them to keep level heads and do what they do best.”
The news that his team won the state contest was a shining moment in a weekend of plans gone awry for Hauschildt.
“I had milking help lined up, but that fell through at the last minute, so I was bummed about not being there, doing chores by myself,” Hauschildt said. “When my phone rang, with another coach calling me with such spirit-lifting news, I was overwhelmed. I started crying. It was just too many emotions at once.”
Hauschildt has condence in his team’s ability to perform at Expo.
“They want to take themselves to the next level,” Hauschildt said. “Sophia and Stella are out there on their farm every day (so) things might come easier for them. But Makayla and Lilly have a passion for it. That is a byproduct of the work Paul and Jenna Grulke put in with the youth of St. Croix County.”
Kamm said she is looking forward to attending the contest with some of her best friends and to see the best cattle.
tests on the colored shavings, and they say those experiences will help them mentally prepare their team.
“We can tell them what to expect, how long of a day it gets to be,” Frank said. “The ve sets of reasons will get a little long, but I have full condence they’ll hit the ground running — they
“It is such an honor to know we’ll be judging such top-level cattle, the best of the best,” Kamm said. “It’s a huge testament, knowing we’ll be down there because we see cattle so well. It’s an opportunity to judge on the colored shavings, (one) that many professional judges don’t get in a lifetime.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF WISCONSIN 4 H
Keeping kids safe on the farm
The farm is a great place to raise kids, but it is also dangerous. About one-third of all farm incidents involve children, and every three days a child in the U.S. dies in a farm-related incident. Prevent your child from becoming a statistic by being proactive about practicing safety on the farm.
Warn children about on-farm hazards. Many of the everyday hazards on the farm are not always obvious to kids. A hazard is a potential source of harm or danger (i.e. an icy sidewalk), and risk is a situation involving exposure to a hazard (i.e. walking across an icy sidewalk). Talk to children about what makes certain areas of the farm dangerous, and what the risks are. Ask them what they think they can do to keep themselves safe.
By Emily Krekelberg University of Minnesota
may want to help with everything, consider the age-appropriateness of certain tasks and the risks involved. Some tasks like feeding livestock, cleaning out pens, and operating machinery will not be appropriate for every child. Think about age, development and body size when considering which tasks to assign. A great resource for determining age appropriateness is the Agricultural Youth Work Guidelines from the National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, which can be found at cultivatesafety. org.
Hazards on the farm may involve machinery, livestock, grain bins, silos and chemicals. Considering the risks of certain farming activities can help us nd jobs on the farm that are safe for kids.
Give children age-appropriate tasks. Kids tend to be very eager helpers on the farm. Although they
Talk with your kids about the types of jobs they want to do and the types of jobs they think they’re ready to do. Before letting a child work independently, be sure they are properly trained in the task and spend some time observing them to see if any changes or adaptations need to be made, or if the child may not be ready for that task yet. Never force a child to do a task they are not comfortable with or that they are not ready to do on their own. Take the time to fully instruct children on a task, its hazards
and what to do if they need help. The investment of time now will make taking on new tasks easier in the future.
Supervise children on the farm. This is critical to keeping kids safe on the farm, whether they are working or not. Over half of child injuries on farms happen to children who are not working but are simply in the vicinity of dangerous activities. For younger children, consider how to set up safe play areas outside using a snow fence or another highly visible material. Post signage around the farm and at
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
driveways to alert visitors to watch for children.
During high trafc times like planting and harvest, put children in safety vests and keep them in an area safely away from the action. When children are helping you with a job or task, be sure to model safe practices and explain why you are doing things that way. Make safety a part of your farm’s culture, and your children will follow your example. Keeping a watchful eye on any kids around the farm is crucial in ensuring their safety.
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 slpore@umn.edu 507-441-1765
Get the most out of your hay
Whether there is an excess of hay or a shortage in your system, efciently feeding it can drastically impact the success of your operation. Hay is expensive, even if you make your own. Avoiding waste can mean you do not have to buy hay or could mean you have excess hay you can sell. Either way, using your hay efciently results in more money in the long run.
Storing hay indoors is the best option for avoiding spoilage. However, it is unrealistic to assume all producers can store hay inside. Most producers cannot keep all of their hay inside, but other strategies can also help reduce spoilage. It is critical to remember that the outer portion of a bale contains a large proportion of the total hay in the bale.
—Limiting cattle to 4-6 hours of access to the round bale feeder in a 24hour window can reduce waste to less than 5%.
—You must create enough space for all cattle to eat at the same time.
By Joe Armstrong, DVM University of Minnesota
—Reducing spoilage reduces waste.
—The outer six inches of a 6-foot round bale contains 25% of the hay in the bale.
—The outer six inches of a 5-foot round bale contains 35% of the hay in the bale.
—Net wrap can help shed more water compared to twine or plastic string.
—B-wrap can reduce spoilage and help maintain quality but requires special equipment.
—Stacking hay can help protect bales from water.
—Plan so you can feed your outside stored hay rst.
—If you have to buy hay, ask if the seller can store the hay inside until you need it. While this conversation is often focused on the cow-calf producer, dairy producers certainly use their share of hay. It is not uncommon for dairy replacements to see hay in a round bale feeder at some point in their development. Round bale feeders can be an important tool for raising heifers, but when given free choice access, cattle waste a signicant amount of the hay available. Producers should consider limiting access time to the feeders to reduce waste. This strategy often requires more round-bale feeders as every animal must be able to eat at the same time.
—In general, cattle waste (remove but do not consume) about 25% of each bale fed in a round bale feeder when they have 24-hour access.
—Limiting cattle to 8-12 hours of access to the round bale feeder in a 24hour window can reduce waste to only 10%.
—Limiting access is dependent on reliably keeping cattle away from the round bale feeders. If you store hay outside and allow the outer six inches of the bale to spoil and combine that with feeding in a 24hour access round bale feeder you are potentially wasting approximately 50% of each bale. This is an alarming amount. Improving hay storage or expanding your feeding operation to limit access can be justied quickly by the savings.
Limiting feed on a per-head basis is best done with the help of a nutritionist to ensure your cattle maintain the proper body condition for their age and meet their nutrient requirements. Success with limit-feeding is entirely dependent on having adequate bunk space.
—For replacement heifers, provide two linear feet per head to minimize competition at the bunk and create a uniform group.
—When feeding replacement heifers on frozen ground, distribute feed to provide at least two linear feet per head of space.
—Processing or grinding hay is the most efcient method for limitfeeding, but rolling out bales on frozen ground is also an option.
Measuring your forage quality allows you to target nutritional goals more effectively by matching forages to animal requirements. This targeted approach improves efciency and gives insight into the need for supplementation. Work with your nutritionist to develop the most efcient plan. Testing your hay this year may also allow for the identication of mold that could hinder production, reproduction or growth. This year has been wet in Minnesota and other parts of the Upper Midwest. This could seriously impact the quality of the hay that was put up. Testing allows you to plan how to utilize potentially compromised forages in your system and avoid feeding the wrong hay to the wrong group of animals.
Interested in listening to this information? Check out Episode 82 — Get the most out of your hay — of the University of Minnesota Extension’s The Moos Room podcast available wherever you get your podcasts.
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How did you get into farming? I was born into it as the third generation at this location. I went to college at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and returned in 1980 to farm with my dad and brother. I was going to be a sportswriter and went to school thinking ag journalism, but I changed my mind. I ran the dairy, and my brother, Dick, ran the crops. We had started a family corporation in 1972, with each of us as shareholders. My son, Dan, has been a shareholder since 2008 and manages the dairy with me today.
What are some of the most signicant ways your farm has changed since you started farming? The biggest change occurred in 2002 when we built the freestall barn and milking parlor and doubled the herd size. We milked in a tiestall barn before that, but we wanted to milk standing up. I was having some back trouble, so we gured out how many cows we needed to milk to do that. We built a double-8 parallel parlor into our existing barn and transformed the rest of the barn into a holding pen.
What was a challenge you faced in your dairy farming career and how did you overcome it? Living through the 1980s and early ‘90s was
DAIRY PROFILE
tough. There were a lot of good guys who didn’t make it in farming because of the high interest rates. We sold off some assets and some of our marginal land and renanced to make it through. It was not much fun. We tightened our belts a bit, and we were lucky. Surviving something like that changes your outlook. It makes you think about how much money you want to spend and how much debt you want to take on.
What is the best decision you have made on your farm?
No-tilling is a practice we have been doing for at least 20 years, and it is denitely the best decision we have made on our farm. We are completely no till, and it has raised our yields on everything — from alfalfa to soybeans to corn. We don’t have prime land, but it’s good land, and we are getting production like you wouldn’t believe. No till is a low-cost option that keeps the ground cooler in the summer and helps it hold water better. This decision positively impacted our whole operation.
What are three things on the farm that you cannot live without? 1) The consultants/ experts we rely on. These include our crop consultant, veterinarian, nutritionist, accountant, etc. It’s hard to keep
up with all these things, so we rely on others’ expertise. 2) DHI testing is crucial. So many decisions are made with it, including culling, breeding and health. 3) Activity monitoring system — I would hate to go without that again. We catch a sick cow so much quicker. We also like the heat detection and calving alert features. We
know when a cow is going to calve within 12 hours — it’s very helpful.
What are your thoughts and concerns about the dairy industry for the next year? The prices of inputs are so high, but this has always been a lowmargin business. We just keep going at it. I think prices will
be better next year. It will be interesting to see what will happen with production, given the shortage of heifers the industry has now. We breed quite a few animals to beef bulls. Dan has been selling beef by the quarters and halves.
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
Gene (from le ), Dan and Dick Lauderdale take a break in the freestall barn Sept. 3 near Elkhorn, Wisconsin. The Lauderdales milk 130 cows on their farm founded in 1908.
Gene Lauderdale Elkhorn, Wisconsin | Walworth County | 130 cows
What strategies do you use to withstand the volatile milk prices? Everything we do we try to do at a fairly low cost, no matter what the milk price is. We watch what we spend our money on. We spend it on productive things and not a new truck, for example.
How do you retain a good working relationship with your employee(s)? Or, how do you maintain family relationships while also working together? We have a couple of part-time employees, and we treat them as human beings. If it’s a dirty job, we’ll do it instead. We try to keep a smile on our faces. With two generations working together, it can sometimes take a while to get everyone on the same page. There are growing pains when you have a family business, but we want to keep everyone pulling together in the same direction.
What do you nd most rewarding about dairy farming? It’s the whole biosphere — how we grow the feed, feed the animals, make the milk, and put manure back on the elds/crops that I nd most rewarding. Also, every year is different, and you face a different set of challenges. You get to be your own boss. However, you can’t leave a job for the next shift because there is no next shift.
Tell us something special about your farm. My family has been farming here for a long time. My great-greatgrandfather settled on the shore of Lauderdale Lake in 1842, and my grandpa bought this farm in 1908.
What are your plans for your dairy in the next year and ve years? Dan is talking about expanding a little. We’ll maybe go to 200 cows in the next couple of years. We currently have a registered Holstein herd and a few Jerseys, but we will probably end up going more to the Jersey end of it as they re-
quire less feed and make less manure.
How do you or your family like to spend time when you are not doing chores? We’re all sports fans and enjoy watching the Badgers, Brewers and Packers. I also like to watch the grandkids’ activities. In addition, I’ve been traveling for the last few years and have been to the Galapagos Islands and Italy. I travel with a group of friends and have made a point of getting away.
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
Chris na Sault, an employee at Lauderdale Farm, milks cows Sept. 3 near Elkhorn, Wisconsin. The double-8 parallel parlor was retro ed into the exis ng estall barn.
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
The original estall barn at Lauderdale Farm stands against a blue sky Sept. 3 near Elkhorn, Wisconsin. The Lauderdales converted the barn into a milking parlor and holding area in 2002.
A life lost too soon
Today as I was driving to take photos for Dairy Star, I called my parents to pass the time. It was a moment of shock when my mom told me about a life-ending crash when a dairy farmer friend’s tractor was hit by a semi.
I wrote two stories at Dairy Star with CJ. He was always so cheerful and ready to visit with me. I’ve known CJ’s family my entire life and it’s impossible to think of his parents having to bury their child in his mid20s. I cannot imagine their pain and I feel insufcient to speak of it. It feels like to say any words inevitably means the words I say will be fully inadequate.
alongside his parents as the next generation. He was an excited and enthusiastic young farmer, and I remember him checking in about when I was going to come out and write the story. That story was published just over a year ago. I’m glad I had the opportunity.
By Amy Kyllo Staff Writer
One of the stories I wrote about CJ described how he dairy farmed
In the year since then, the family had taken their farm into the future, retrotting in an updated parlor. For his parents to add losing a business partner to the grief of losing a child is pretty unthinkable.
I think about the extra chores staring at them and a parlor representing a future that doesn’t look the same. I hope in those moments they feel their community around them. I hope this column lets them know that people far and wide care.
Most days I forget that my days are numbered, but to hear of a guy a year or two older than me passing makes me pause. Most days I forget that the people I love most won’t be here forever. Most days I forget that we’re not guaranteed tomorrow.
The few times I visited with CJ, we always talked about farming. Conversations would often turn to tractors. He really liked the Allis Chalmers brand and always had a few projects going. He named one of his favorites ‘Peaches,’ a tting name for a soft orange tractor. If he didn’t mention Allis Chalmers tractors to you, the Allis Chalmers logo tattooed on his forearm was a dead giveaway to his passion.
As I was sharing the news of the loss with my editor, Mark Klaphake, he said to me “Amy, you and I are so lucky.” He then began to list things like life, food and other essentials I
take for granted.
Please don’t take life for granted today. Go hug your family. Take in the moments. As Mark said, it’s the God-given people in our lives who actually matter.
Working for Dairy Star, I care about the people I write about. Though I am atrocious with names — and even sometimes forget a face — I don’t forget your stories, and I don’t forget the kindness shown to me by so many.
Most days, I’m writing about moments of joy and accomplishment, but it’s in time of loss that my mission feels clear: to be a uniting force to mourn together as a greater community. I aim to let people know they are not alone in the pain and to remind those of us who are complacent in the beauty of our lives to sit up and take notice before it’s too late.
CJ, you will be missed.
Farmer voices in Washington
Where did the summer go? Am I the only one who was not able to cram in everything that was on the list of things to do before school started? We missed out on some of the adventures we were planning, but the seasons and harvest won’t wait. Now it is on to corn silage and preparing for another year of fall school farm tours and, of course, World Dairy Expo visitors. I will be taking phone calls and text messages and trying my best to answer emails periodically throughout the day to make sure I don’t miss anyone interested in coming out to visit. This year, reservations are a must. I will no longer be doing drop-in tours.
By Tina Hinchley Farmer & Columnist
This September and October will be a bit different. We welcomed our rst granddaughter, Piper Marie, Aug. 30. Anna, Kevin and the newest family member, Piper, will be working, or should I say, strolling in the stroller, or riding in her car seat in the Kubota on days when the weather permits it. I will be pulling back on some of the last-minute reservations, where I am not able to group together enough people to make it worth my time and effort. Having a grandchild and spending time with her has shifted many of my priorities. Watching her change each day is so amazing. I am having a hard time leaving the farm to venture off on other commitments with some of the farm organizations that I am a part of.
This year the farm bill is a big part of the conversations farmers should be discussing with the lawmakers to get it passed and not to wait until after the election. If the bill gets kicked down the road any longer our farm programs, the security of our food systems and health care, will be further strained and families throughout the U.S. will suffer. Participating in y-ins to Washington D.C. is the best way to voice directly to the people who can take action to make it happen. These Congresspeople are elected ofcials that represent us, but so often know nothing about the issues we face every day.
One of the topics that will be discussed on the hill today will be the Federal Milk Marketing Order, known
as the FMMO. This order was originally intended to help farmers get the most from their milk being sold to the milk processors. This order is complicated and messy. Over the past two years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been examining and has held hearings on what the players in the dairy industry are looking for. Dairy farmers and dairy processors are looking for different things in the end product of a new FMMO. 2008 was the last time the FMMO was updated and a lot has changed since that time.
The world in which we live has seen a shift in milk consumption, going from families drinking milk in their cereal every morning to grab-and-go items for breakfast. The uid milk drinkers have switched habits and we dairy farmers are now relying on more products like cheese, yogurt and butter to make up the use of our milk.
Little changes can add up to a lot of money when processors are looking for more money for the make allowance. This make allowance is the cost the processors have to make all of the products from the milk whether it is cheese, dry milk, butter and other items coming from our milk. This allowance is how the Class I, II, III and IV milk prices are determined.
Class I is milk used in uid milk products, including whole, reduced-fat, low-fat and nonfat milks. Class II is milk used in heavy cream, cottage cheese, yogurt and condensed products. Class III is milk used to make hard cheeses, cream cheese and other spreadable cheeses. Class IV is milk used to make butter and dry products like non-fat dry milk.
Interest groups that we all belong to, whether it be our farm or milk cooperatives, along with milk processing plants have been involved in the hearings about the need for change for the FMMO. These people from our milk cooperatives are expressing the need for more money to make these products and have given out to lawmakers the higher cost to produce these dairy products. There are many more processor voices in the hearings than there are dairy farmers who are at home milking their cows. This representation of dairy cooperatives and cheese plants outnumber us farmers. The reality is the milk cooperatives are voicing their needs but often
not always speaking about the needs of the farmers that hold them together.
We all know the struggles with the cost of production to milk our cows, the volatility of all the markets from seed costs, machinery, labor and the cost to continue farming. Little differences in just cents pulled from our milk check to ease the cost of the make allowance for the processors will be another painful squeeze to try to get more from our milk checks. We are all working with less money and spending more to make ends meet. Our belts are not going to be able to handle more money taken out for the processors.
Throughout Wisconsin and also the rest of the United States, dairy farmers have been the ones hit. Dairy farms are disappearing, farm families’ lives are crushed and the ripple effect has changed our rural communities. We have worked with less money and found ways to struggle on, and it is time for the processors to get creative and nd a way for them to continue making the products with limited budgets. New product developments that are promoted in retail grocery stores can get consumers excited to try these products. I don’t know if this is just a simple idea from a dairy farmer, but perhaps this could be a family farmer-friendly way to have those make allowances covered. After all, dairy cooperatives and processing plants would not have grown so large without the family farms that supply the milk to make them what they are today.
While I am in Washington D.C. for the next few days, I will be advocating for dairy farmers regarding the FMMO and other farm bill priorities. The farm bill has a deadline for the end of September. I am hopeful that we as a nation can come together to gure out that we are all more alike than different. Our similarities bind us together as dairy farmers. Being less than 1% of the population feeding everyone else, this farm bill is vital for all of us.
Tina Hinchley, her husband Duane and daughter Anna milk 240 registered Holsteins with robots. They also farm 2,300 acres near Cambridge, Wisconsin. The Hinchleys have been hosting farm tours for over 25 years.
Editorial disclaimer: The views expressed by our columnists are the opinions and thoughts of the author and do not reect the opinions and views of Dairy Star staff and ownership.
The power of a simple connection
We sometimes underestimate the power a simple connection can make in one’s life. Those of us writing for this paper, and likely you reading it, connect over the dairy industry. It is our shared adoration and appreciation for all things bovine that brings us to these pages in one way or another. I welcome the chance to connect with someone over a prized book or wonderful author that we cherish. Flowers are often a way to make a person smile and connect with someone that you may not have expected to. My tendency to hoard old cookbooks, burn through a 50-pound bag of our, and throw on a timeworn apron and roll out a pie crust helps me connect with many different generations of women. Life is that much richer with all the people we know, love and connect with.
Recently, our employees had asked about butchering a cow and sharing it among themselves before winter hits. We decided that Maude would be a good t. Despite the hobbles and all the wishing I could muster, she was not moving in the upright direction. Watching these young guys, mostly in their twenties work together — as they had most likely watched the generations before them do — is so neat. I can only pick out a word here and there, but enough to know that some of them paid closer attention to the butchering process grow-
ing up than others did. They were appreciative of the meat, did a good job cleaning up after all the work was done, and brought us a plate of fresh tongue tacos, rice and beans.
Jaime, the one I work most closely with in the barn, mentioned that it was nice to have the cousins all together to help. I thought of how it probably makes their mothers happy in Mexico knowing that they are all getting together up here to carry on traditions she likely worried about them losing.
Last weekend Cora and I were lucky enough to attend a baby shower to celebrate a beautiful human and the new life she is growing. Dana was positively glowing in her delicate ower crown, likely got hugged out and probably had sore cheeks from all the grins and laughter. Ladies of all ages gathered together, connecting despite some having never met one another until that moment. The menu was fancy cookies and good food. The pure joy of knowing a new life is destined to arrive soon, giving Jeremy and Dana their membership cards into ‘club chaos’ (made up of parents) brought us joy. There were collective ooohs and ahhhs over the tiniest clothes that make those of us with elementary students puzzle over how they could have ever been that size. There were also coos of a handful of tiny baby girls that were in attendance and being
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passed from one pair of willing arms to the next. All these things made up a simple, yet important occasion to celebrate, and it was glorious. Our neighbors down the road from the farm had a party to break in their new swimming pool on Saturday afternoon and evening. Live music, a slip and slide, a warm pool, a ping-pong table and tables laden with food and any beverage you could think of (and perhaps some new concoctions) made it a worthwhile place to go after chores. Getting a headcount of children was next to impossible as they were all running in and out, squealing or chasing. Even the littlest one had a walker and was cruising around happily.
Adults were enjoying dancing, the food, one another’s conversations and the re in the driveway. Jason and Heather are newer to the area, but have connected to many through the sporting desires of their son. We love that they’re chill, easy-going humans. Henry has been known to drive his lawn mower up there to ‘hang out’ (also known as a way to get out of more chores). They are great about welcoming him in without pause. It is a gift to have such wonderful people on our road.
I have mentioned our summer intern, Marion, in a couple of my previous columns. Through the beauty of the internet, she found us this past winter. She had wanted to come to a Wisconsin farm for her college-required internship, and lo and behold, stumbled upon our website. After corresponding with my dad for a few months, they decided it would work out for her to come here from France. She ew in on July 2 and will be leaving us Oct. 3. I think it took no more than a few days for us to be sure she was a good t. She is such a joy to have here – not to mention a huge help. She also has a great sense of humor. This alone is an absolute necessity on any farm, but seems to be of high priority on ours during the summer with extra kids and any number of unplanned things happening over the course of a day. Her favorite line of response is, “Why not?” Which, frankly, is the best way ever to react to new experiences. She laughs and shakes her head as she says that “every day is different” as we chase the fatties in for the tenth time, or butcher chickens, or have ve calves in two hours. Her English has gotten better over the past couple months, and I am not looking forward to having to tell her goodbye. While I may be twenty plus years her senior, we sure have connected and had some fun adventures this summer.
As we all head into the busy corn harvesting season, don’t forget to take a moment or two and connect with people. It is a sure way to make both of your days richer.
Jacqui Davison and her family milk 800 cows and farm 1,200 acres in northeastern Vernon County, Wisconsin. Her children, Ira, Dane, Henry and Cora, help on the farm while her husband, Keith, works on a grain farm. If she’s not in the barn, she’s probably in the kitchen, trailing after little ones or sharing her passion of reading with someone. Her life is best described as organized chaos, and if it wasn’t, she’d be bored.
Stagger Tropicana Sheepster
Staphylococcus aureus — A real bugger
Our veterinary practice runs an in-house laboratory where we perform several types of cultures, including milk cultures from the bulk tank and individual cows. Bulk tank cultures are an economical tool for dairy producers to monitor for contagious mastitis pathogens in their herd. The most common contagious pathogens we see in our lab include Staphylococcus aureus and Prototheca.
Veterinary Wisdom
By Megan Weisenbeck Veterinary Wisdom
Over the past 12 months, we have had an uptick in the number of S. aureus positives. S. aureus may be difcult to eradicate in a herd, though I believe it can be wellcontrolled. These are just a few thoughts from my review of literature and experience in practice when it comes to S. aureus.
I’m not sure that total eradication is a good goal. In fact, S. aureus can appear in closed herds. Rather, I would encourage milk quality management strategies to keep contagious pathogens as low as possible. Even though I said eradication might not be a good goal, I would not ignore the detection of S. aureus on individual mastitis cultures or bulk tanks. Bulk tank bacteria measurements are usually reported as
colony-forming units per milliliter, or cfu/ml. Unfortunately, it can be hard to correlate the cfu to the number of cows infected. In our lab, I usually start to have alarm bells when the number reaches 15-20 cfu/ml though I don’t really know how many infected cows that would be, except more than one. Occasionally, I come across bulk tank reports from creameries that do not report zero, but call S. aureus less than 10, which isn’t very specic. I might consider running a bulk tank culture outside of the creamery if the somatic cell count is at or over 200,000 to get a more accurate bacteria measurement.
Mastitis caused by S. aureus produces more damage to milk-producing tissues than other types of bacteria and can decrease milk production by up to 45% per quarter and 15% per infected cow. So not only does it have an impact on SCC, but it can also impact milk production.
Infected cows appear to be an important and permanent source of infection for other cows. However, S. aureus can also be found in areas outside of the udder in the environment, including the hock and udder skin. Infected cows also do not shed S. aureus bacteria every day.
Once a staph cow, always a staph cow? While I’d like to think that we stand a good chance of beating S. aureus, cure rates are low. This is because the bacteria form micro abscesses that are eventually walled off by scar tissue and difcult to reach with antibiotics. One literature review suggests cure rates of only 20%-30% overall across all lactations. Better cure rates are as-
sociated with young cows early in lactation who do not have clinical mastitis at the start of treatment. Because S. aureus is shed intermittently, it takes multiple cultures after treatment to determine if a cow is cured. It is highly unlikely that S. aureus-infected cows selfcure. If you have previously identied a cow infected with S. aureus and she has a negative culture without any treatment, it is more likely that she just isn’t shedding bacteria the day you sampled her.
Parlor procedures are very important in controlling spread, such as creating a staph pen and milking that pen last, changing gloves after milking an infected cow, and using one towel per cow in the prep procedure to avoid the transfer of bacteria.
Fresh heifers can be a signicant source of infection in dairy herds. Why? I suspect culprits such as cross sucking and y pressure cause teat end damage that allows S. aureus found on the skin to enter the teat canal and settle in the udder.
While S. aureus might be a bugger to manage, I do believe it can be dealt with economically in most herds. Monitoring through some sort of bulk tank culture is a good rst step and I encourage all dairy operations to do so periodically and review the results with their farm team.
Megan Weisenbeck is one of six veterinarians at Northern Valley Livestock Services in Plainview, MN. She practices primarily dairy production medicine in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Megan can be reached at meganweisenbeck.dvm@gmail.com.
Kleiss would rent out bulls to farms as herd bulls. Among them was Stardell Valiant WinkenET. As they realized his daughters were good from the 3-4 farms he had serviced, Winken was sent to stud and quickly became a proven bull.
“When the proof came out, it looked pretty good,” Kleiss said.
Heifers from his time as a herd bull were distributed across the nation and helped speed the reliability of his proof.
Winken rose as high as No. 8 Holstein sire in the nation for Total Performance Index in 1989. Kleiss retained ownership of Winken, and over his years at stud, Kleiss received $2 million in royalties which changed his farming operation’s trajectory.
Stardell Chief Adan-ET, another herd bull who Kleiss sent to stud, ranked No. 1 for TPI in 1993.
Stardell Steady Creme Brut-ET was known for siring good feet and legs and components and was sold in the U.S. and England.
With the farm on better nancial standing because of the bulls, Kleiss invested in a beef fattening facility and switched it into a heifer farm. Kleiss bought open heifers, brought them to his facility, bred them and resold them.
“I’ve always tried to make the new revolution come to form,” Kleiss said.
Amid his cattle dealing efforts, an opportunity to sell on the international market opened. A cattle dealer in Indiana was exporting, but the details around registration papers had been an issue, so Kleiss’ name came up to the international buyer who had been working with the dealer. Thus began his 30-year career as an international cattle exporter.
Kleiss sold heifers to Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Egypt, Japan, Chili and Honduras. He sold his last international load to Honduras in 2016. Some heifers were sent via airplane, others via boat. A boatload held about 1,000 animals.
As Kleiss grew his operation, he eventually had around four farms caring for the 500-600 heifers he had on hand.
Part of Kleiss’ success was having registration paperwork with each of his heifers. Kleiss said he estimates his home ofce would have registration papers for between 500-1,000 animals at any given time.
Even on non-registered heifers, Kleiss would get the bull record and the dam’s Dairy Herd Improvement Association data to garner 50% registration papers.
In this, an important part of Kleiss’ operation was Louann, who made sure the paperwork was correct for every animal.
“Everything (was) dotted right,” Kleiss said. With years of international sales, Kleiss gathered many stories. He remembers that heifers sold to South Korea had to have white on their head and be a specic weight. He also remembers an Egyptian buyer rubbing the navels of the heifers to check for pregnancy. Another memory is the time a planeload of heifers exported to Central America was ransomed at the airport.
Kleiss and his grandson, Tim, continue to work at breeding on their dairy genetics they have retained.
“In my brain, I still think I can breed a good one,” Kleiss said.
Though Kleiss is done with international exports, he still sells dairy animals domestically along with beef animals. Today Stardell Farms grows crops and beef, and the sixth generation of the Kleiss family continues the farming legacy.
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Hadwen Kleiss holds the halter on Blossom. All three bulls that Kleiss bred and sent to stud were descendants of Blossom.
In the pursuit of peak performance
Farmers are cultivators of land, caretakers of animals and producers of food for our communities. We take great pride in the legacy that has led us to where we are today. The foundation our ancestors laid has helped to build a dairy industry that is now the most efcient globally. We continue that tradition by constantly striving for improvement — continuing to learn new skills, develop new ideas and disseminate new information in the industry. The complex culmination
The NexGen: Adventures of two dairy daughters
By Megan Schrupp & Ellen Stenger Columnists
of all our focus, effort and knowledge always returns to the basic theme of the dairy farm: cows need to eat, milk, socialize and be comfortable.
At rst glance, most would consider a cow a simple mammal. Even though less than 2% of the U.S. population is involved in dairy and ranch operations, “cow” is commonly one of the rst nouns taught to children, along with cat, dog, horse, and sheep. However, our dairy legacy has also passed down the knowledge that cows are more than just simple farm animals — rather we akin cows to professional athletes. Metabolically and physically, what cows can do is more along the lines of Jim Thorpe, Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Keeping them performing at an elite level is an area of immense interest and investment, which we are constantly pursuing.
For any athlete, nutrition is critical to performance and success. Dialing in nutrition down to the individual essential amino acid, fatty acid and micronutrient prole is more than what the majority of Americans do for their health. Like human professional athletes, millions are invested in facilities that maintain the optimal climate year-round for maximum performance, production, health and comfort.
In addition, an entirely new sector of the dairy industry has emerged to take the basics our ancestors taught us to new heights. Data-driven dairy
decisions are emerging as a pivotal point for the industry. Dairy technology is enabling us to ask questions and learn information that we previously were unable to do. Cows are now monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by things such as individual sensors on collars, ear tags or internal boluses, and also cameras that utilize advanced technology like facial recognition in our facilities. We can now monitor and quantify with data a large volume of very specic aspects of feed intake, reproduction, production, socialization, body condition, health and locomotion. When these major sectors of the dairy are dialed in and operating at peak performance, we are now further using data to explore questions about advanced limits to the performance of our bovine athletes.
Being a dairy veterinarian and dairy farmer is a physically demanding job. I’m sure many of us can recall veterinarians who have sore shoulders, knees and backs. Be it from overuse, repetition — such as the repetition of pregnancy checking or syringe squeezing, a run-in with a wild bovine or a freak accident, we veterinarians also need some maintenance to perform at optimal levels.
In Megan’s case, it’s regular visits to the chiropractor. Throughout her years as a veterinarian, chiropractic care has not only kept her working but also alleviated and healed any injuries that have occurred.
It was the combination of our personal experience of chiropractic, our bovine athletic performance mindset, and on-farm data collection that encouraged Megan to attend Options for Animals: College of Animal Chiropractic to learn about applying chiropractic therapy for our dairy cows. Chiropractic care has emerged as a common critical component of care for elite human athletes. Sports teams such as the Minnesota Twins and Vikings even have chiropractors on staff to support athletes. Chiropractic care in the dairy industry has been increasing in the last decade, and, as with any new skill, we are now exploring how to apply it within our specic dairy. In our next article, we will share more about the chiropractic care of our cows and how we’re using it to maintain our cow athletes, maximize their performance and continue our family’s dairy legacy in this new era.
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.
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‘15 Gehl R220, JS Ctrls, Dsl, 2500 Lift Cap, C/H/ A, 2 Spd, Hydra Glide, 3,125 hrs..............................................$36,250
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Lift Cap, C/H/A, 2 Spd, 270 hrs $49,000
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