September 24, 2022 Dairy Star - 1st section -Zone 2

USDA announces historical investment in agriculture

Projects to receive $2.8B for climatesmart production practices

By Abby Wiedmeyer abby.w@dairystar.com

ARKANSAW, Wis. – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced details of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program Sept. 14. The program is investing up to $2.8 billion in 70 selected projects under the rst pool of funding.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity for American agriculture to not only improve the bottom line but to improve conditions on the planet,” Vilsack said. “(We want to be) in a position where internationally we can say to the rest of the world, ‘Follow us. We’re leading.’”

Vilsack was joined by representatives from Organic Valley, Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative and The DeLong Co. Inc., who are participating in the program, at a press conference Sept. 15 at the Anibas family farm near Arkansaw.

The purpose of the program is to fund pilot projects that will create market opportunities for American commodities produced using climate-smart production practices. The program comes in response to the challenges facing producers today and a growing demand for sustainably produced products from the export market.

Recipients of the program were selected from more than 1,000 applications from food companies. Originally, $1 billion was allocated from the Commodity Credit Corporation to the project. After receiving so many applications, however, additional funding was set aside for the program.

“Basically, we have a $3.5 billion initiative,” Vilsack said. “What we are announcing is 70 projects in the larger grant pool,

Tragedy strikes Jefferson County dairy

Plucinskis’ barn destroyed in re Sept. 11

By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com

JEFFERSON, Wis. – The hopes and dreams of Derek and Meg Plucinski crumbled to the ground the day their barn caught re. As they helplessly watched smoke and ames engulf the classic red tiestall facility, the couple wondered what the future would hold.

“I cannot believe this happened,” Meg Plucinski said. “It’s all so hard. This is our future, and our kids’ future. Without our milking facility, there’s not much to do. That’s our source of money. But God uses all things for good, so I’m focusing on that.”

The Plucinskis milk 40 cows and farm 300 acres on the organic dairy farm they rent near Jefferson. The young dairy farmers created D&M Family Farm when they began renting

Waupun State Farm, dairy processing plant offer opportunity to prisoners

By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com

WAUPUN, Wis. – From the road, it looks like any other farm. White barns and buildings sit wide open to the world at the end of a long, tree-lined drive. There is nothing to indicate that much of the labor on this farm near Waupun is supplied by men in state custody.

Waupun State Farm is part of the Bureau of Correctional Enterprises. The 360-cow, 1,700-acre dairy farm employs prisoners from the John C. Burke Correctional Center – a minimum security facility in the city of Waupun.

There are no wire fences here. The prisoners get a taste of freedom when they work on the farm.

“Most of the men work-

the farm July 1, 2018. The farm has been organic since 2006.

The Plucinski farm is also home to a variety of other creatures including free-range chickens –100 meat birds and 60 layers –turkeys, ducks, geese, goats and pigs. The family runs an on-site

store where they sell chicken, pork, beef, turkey and eggs grown on their farm.

Sept. 11 was supposed to be a relaxing day away from the farm, but things soon turned tragic. The Plucinskis and their

Outside the fence

children – Wyatt, Fitzgerald, Eleanor and Elvira – were headed to Wisconsin Dells when they got a call from their landlord saying the barn was on re.

ing here are toward the end of their sentence,” said Jason Hensel, farm supervisor. “This is a chance for them to prove themselves.”

Secretary Kevin Carr toured farm and dairy Sept. 8. BCE director Wes Ray led the tour.

“From growing crops to maintaining livestock to producing milk, we’re doing a tremendous job with helping people change their lives and gain meaningful employment when they leave our care,” Ray said.

Forty men from the center work on the farm – 28 on day shift and 12 on night shift. This work release program is designed to help reformed prisoners successfully transition back into their community one day.

Craig, from Washington County, has been working on the farm for four months. He started out scraping manure and moving cows and is now a milker. He starts his shift at 4 a.m. and is done at 11 a.m. In custody since 2018, Craig is scheduled for release October 2024.

“This is hard work,” he said. “I did construction my whole life, but it’s eye open-

“All dairy, all the time”™

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR Wes Ray, director of the Bureau of Correc�onal Enterprises, (le�) and Jason Hensel, supervisor of Waupun State Farm, led a tour Sept. 8 at the Waupun State Farm located near Waupun, Wisconsin. The 360-cow, 1,700-acre dairy farm employs prisoners from the John C. Burke Correc�onal Center.

Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Secretary Randy Romanski and Wisconsin Department of Corrections

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

The Plucinskis’ barn lies in ruins Sept. 14 three days a�er a re took down the 48-stall �estall barn near Jefferson, Wisconsin. All of the farm’s bedding and dry hay for the winter was lost.

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U.S. milk output is continuing to grow but at a slower pace compared to what was expected one month ago. U.S. Department of Agriculture Outlook Board Chairman Mark Jekanowski said his group has knocked 300 million pounds off this year’s milk production forecast based on smaller cow inventories. USDA is projecting next year’s milk output at 228.8 billion pounds. That’s up 1% from this year. “Dairy product demand is relatively strong, especially for cheese,” Jekanowski said.

Consumer dairy prices rise

Retail dairy prices are on the rise. According to CoBank, August butter prices were nearly 25% higher year over year. Milk prices at the supermarket are up 17%, and yogurt is 16.1% higher. Ice cream prices rose 14%, and cheese is up 13.5%. The prices for all food consumed at home were up 13.5%.

Record farm income

The Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute expects U.S. net farm income to reach a record $148 billion this year. That’s twice the level seen just ve years ago. FAPRI said the high commodity prices will buffer the largest ever year-to-year increase in farm production costs.

Ag economy barometer gets boost in August

Farmer sentiment increased slightly in the August Ag Economy Barometer. According to the survey presented by Purdue University and the CME Group, farmers were less worried about their farm’s nancial situation. Center for Commercial Agriculture Director Jim Mintert said commodity prices improved from mid-July to mid-August. Since then, there has been some weakness in prices. Mintert said there are still concerns about what ination

could bring to the farm in 2023. “People are uneasy when considering what margins will look like going into 2023,” Mintert said. “We asked more specically about ination. More producers in this survey are expecting a higher rate of ination than previously.”

The calm before the real storm

Global strategist Jacob Shapiro kicked off the Next Five Years executive conference, saying it will be a time of great volatility. That is not necessarily a bad thing.

“I’m actually pretty optimistic about the next ve years,” Shapiro said. “When you get beyond the next ve years, I get a little bit scared.” While there is opportunity in the short-term for U.S. agriculture, it is not coming from China. Shapiro sees more prospects from in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. “It looks like the U.S. and China are on a collision course,” Shapiro said. “When you look at previous eras where you have rising and falling powers like we have right now, it usually ends in some kind of cataclysmic conict. The last true multipolar era was the 1890s that ended with World War I and World War II; unfortunately, that is the trajectory we’re on.” Shapiro said the next two years will be “the time to buckle your seatbelts” for higher energy prices.

By Don Wick Columnist

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Putin, Xi collaborate

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for a face-to-face meeting in Uzbekistan. In addition to security issues, the two leaders agreed to cooperate more on trade and agriculture.

USDA invests in climate-smart projects

USDA is investing up to $2.8 billion for 70 projects in the rst Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding pool. Climate Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation projects include a market-based program with Truterra to increase adoption of climatesmart farming practices to produce grain and dairy products. Another example would be a Dairy Farmers of America pilot project using the cooperative business model to capture the nancial benets at the farm level. South Dakota State University received $80 million to create marketing opportunities for bison and beef producers who use climate smart grazing and land management practices.

CHS shares prots with ownermembers

CHS plans to return $1 billion in cash patronage and equity redemptions in calendar year 2023. This will be the largest cash distribution in CHS history.

DATCP budget request

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection has released its budget request for the 2023-25 biennial budget. The list includes $2 million per year for county conservation funding, $1 million per year for the Wisconsin Initiative for Agricultural Exports, $200,000 per year for the Dairy Processor Grant Program and $100,000 per year for the Farmer Mental Health Assistance Program.

Northeast organic dairies nd new markets

Nearly 90 organic dairy farms in the northeastern United States received termination notices last year from Horizon Organic. Sixty of those farms have joined Organic Valley and eight have joined Stonyeld. Thirteen dairy farms left the business and at least one shifted to a conventional milk market.

Digital tickets available for WDE World Dairy Expo is introducing new digital admission passes. The digital tickets can be purchased before Expo. WDE General Manager Laura Herschleb said this is a move toward efciency. “Expo recognizes that attendees only have so much time to spend at the event and they want that

time spent on the grounds not waiting in line,” Herschleb said. WDE will be held Oct. 2-7.

Leopold Conservation Award to be presented this fall

The nalists have been selected for the Wisconsin Leopold Conservation Award. The $10,000 award is presented each year by the Sand Country Foundation, American Farmland Trust, Wisconsin Farm Bureau and Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin. Full Circle Farm, of Seymour, Wisconsin, has nearly all of its 240 acres in pasture, building soil organic matter while sequestering carbon. Joe Hovel, of Conover, Wisconsin, is the president and founder of Partners in Forestry Landowners Cooperative and works to protect ecologically important habitat. Noll’s Dairy Farm, of Alma, Wisconsin, restored and manages an ecologically rare dry bluff prairie and practice conservation on their farm. Tomandl Farms, of Medford, Wisconsin, hosts pasture walks at their three dairy farms where they highlight the benets of conservation and rotational grazing. The award will be presented in November.

WFBF nalists named

The Wisconsin Farm Bureau has named four nalists for its Outstanding Agriculture Professional Award. The nalists include Christa Hoffman of Shawano County, who is a business development administrator for URUS. Amy Silver of Green County is an agricultural lender at State Bank of Cross Plains. Julie Sweney of Dodge County is director of communications and marketing for FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative. Julie Wadzinski of Barron County is a farm operations instructor at Northwoods Technical College. This award recognizes agricultural individuals who have not received most of their income from a farm in the past three years. The award will be presented at the WFBF annual meeting in December.

Trivia challenge

Grilled cheese is the most popular cheese recipe in the United States. That answers our last trivia question. For this week’s trivia, who invented chocolate milk? We will have the answer in the next edition of Dairy Star.

Don Wick is owner/broadcaster for the Red River Farm Network, based in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Wick has been recognized as the National Farm Broadcaster of the Year and served as president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. Don and his wife, Kolleen, have two adult sons, Tony and Sam, and ve grandchildren, Aiden, Piper, Adrienne, Aurora and Sterling.

“We don’t ever get away,” Plucinski said. “We do all the work ourselves around here, and all week we planned to take this trip that Sunday.”

The Plucinski family left their house at 8:15 a.m. and by 8:54, they received the dreaded call.

“We only got to Waterloo and made it back to the farm by 9:25 a.m.,” Plucinski said. “We could see the re from the hill when we drove down the road. It was a big re, and the smoke was so thick, it was hard to see the house. I remember thinking, ‘I can’t believe this is happening; this is our farm.’”

Pieces of their future are now scattered everywhere. But, Plucinski does not view any situation as hopeless. Her undaunted faith is seeing her and her family through this nightmare that life has thrown their way. Thankfully, no people or animals were hurt in the re. Cows were on pasture, and the only animals in the vicinity of the re were seven calves huddled in the back of a nearby hoop barn that started to melt.

“The smoke went in the opposite direction, so all the calves were ne,” Plucinski said. “Derek was down there all day checking on them. The kids and I were in the house. We just stood and watched in disbelief out the window.”

Numerous re departments worked to extinguish the re that raged persistently on a miserably wet and rainy day. Days later, the remains of the barn still smoldered. The cause of the re is not yet known.

“It was an emotional moment with it being 9/11,” Plucinski said. “That’s signicant to us and seeing all the retrucks here really struck a chord.”

When nding a temporary home for their cows, the Plucinskis had to choose organic. For this reason, they were unable to move the cattle to Plucinski’s parents’ farm. Milk cows are being housed a half hour away at another organic farm that is on the same milk route as the Plucinskis. Derek drives back and forth to help with milking.

“We have to try and get organic feed,” Plucinski said. “All of our bedding and dry hay for the winter was destroyed in the re. It’s a lot of labor to make small square bales, and poof; they’re gone. Lots of people are offering us feed, and I feel bad turning it down, but we can only feed organic. A big chunk of our income comes from being organic.”

None of their equipment was damaged, and Plucinski said they have crops to harvest, which they are thankful for. The Plucinskis recently expanded their herd, buying 25 cows as they work toward their goal of milking 75 head. The couple is transitioning to seasonal calving and is currently in the middle of their calving window.

“The last two months were really tight with milk and money,” Plucinski said. “The cows were just freshening, and now, they’re gone. We needed that money.”

A shamble of dreams lies where the 48-stall tiestall barn once stood. Little treasures are strewn about in the rubble, like the red gate Plucinski recently purchased and the milk cart she bought

her husband for his birthday.

“There’s a lot of sentimental value there, but I know what each item costs too, and everything adds up,” she said. “I look at it all and see money that’s gone. It’s tough seeing where the calving pen once was. I always set my kids there to play with the calves.”

The barn is a complete loss as well as a grain bin containing oats and peas that was just harvested by the Plucinskis. One of the silos was lled with ames and will not be used for corn silage this year.

“We loved the beautiful old barn,” Plucinski said. “It was full of nostalgia. I loved that it was handmade by people, not machines. There was so much history here.”

The Plucinskis had removed the stanchions from the barn, and nine months ago, they put in a 6-stall walk-through milking parlor on one end of the barn.

“It was extremely devastating watching an excavator smash what we just built,” Plucinski said.

“It was a homemade system that was really well set up for Derek to milk alone because we couldn’t get help.”

Seeing the generosity of their community has been a bright spot in the darkness, as people reach out with donations of food, money and gift cards.

“People want to help, and we are so grateful,” Plucinski said. “We have complete strangers sending money through Venmo or dropping stuff off at our house. But, there’s also so much power in prayer. We believe in that. We don’t know what our future holds, but we feel a sense of community holding us up.”

On the day of the re, help also came spilling in from every direction.

“There were people everywhere along with cattle trucks lined up to move cattle,” Plucinski said. “It brought me to my knees in gratitude. When something like this happens, you see the amazing people that are out there. From those working in the industry to a neighbor driving by, you see the people who truly care from their heart.”

While smoke continues to billow from the ruins, an eerie silence lls the farm.

“Our goal right now is to rebuild,” Plucinski said.

But, not owning the farm has thrown another wrench into an already bad situation.

“We were getting ready to buy the place on a land contract and were in the process of transferring ownership from our landlord,” Plucinski said. “We had until the end of the year to button everything down. Now, I don’t know what will happen. If we can’t get the cows back here in a reasonable timeframe, we won’t be able to rebuild, and that’s terrifying. The farm is our everything, but we stand to lose it all.”

Uncertain of the future, the Plucinskis are holding fast to their faith and praying that a new beginning on the farm they have called home for the last four years is in store for their family.

“Please keep praying for us,” Plucinski said. “We can feel the prayers and feel God’s hand working here. We trust his plan.”

PHOTO SUBMITTED

The Plucinski family –(from le ) Meg holding Elvira, Fitzgerald, Wya and Derek holding Eleanor – milk 40 cows and farm 300 acres near Jefferson, Wisconsin. The organic farmers’ dairy barn was destroyed in a re Sept. 11.

Producers in all 50 states will participate in the program including an array of commodities. The USDA expects more than 50,000 farmers to participate in the effort and up to 25 million acres of land across the U.S. to be impacted with climate-smart practices. Vilsack said he expects 100 new market opportunities to become available. It is also anticipated the program will bring the agriculture sector’s carbon footprint closer to neutral.

“We are hopeful that by the time it’s all said and done, roughly 50 million metric tons of greenhouse gas, or CO2 equivalent, is either prevented, eliminated or stored,” Vilsack said.

The program is voluntary, provides incentives for participation without penalizing early adopters, educates the markets to get a higher value for products produced and also encourages partnerships.

Universities, environmental groups, farm groups, processors, retailers and energy companies are just some of the groups forming partnerships in the program. The partnerships are encouraged so data can be accurately collected and analyzed, thus ensuring appropriate value to the outcomes.

Nicole Rakobitsch, sustainability manager at Organic Valley, said the funding will take the company’s carbon insetting program from a one-year pilot program to a multi-year program. Within ve years, she anticipates there will be more trees planted, solar energy systems on farms, increased use of diverse cover crops, increased intensity of grazing and use of feed supplements to reduce entire emissions on dairy farms.

Tim Trotter, CEO of Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative, said the funding will allow farmers to be innovative with their on-farm practices, which should allow the next generation to carry on within the dairy industry.

Matthew Woods, of The DeLong

ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack speaks at a press conference Sept. 15 at the Anibas family farm near Arkansaw, Wisconsin, about the U.S. Department of Agriculture Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodi es program that was announced Sept. 14.

Co., said the funding will be used to offer per acre direct incentives for farmers who use climate-smart practices on those acres.

“It’s going to cover things like cover crops, nutrient management programs, no till and windbreak establishments,” Woods said. “We are going to be recording on-farm data from those acres that they enroll.”

Vilsack said when he came back to the department, one of the rst things that landed on his desk was a report that indicated 89.6% of farms in the country do not generate the majority income for the family on the farm.

“This means that those farms, somebody’s working off the farm,” Vilsack said. “We can’t say that we’ve got a completely successful model if only 10% of the folks in agriculture are able to make a living off of what they do and what they love to do. So, our task at USDA is to gure out more and better markets.”

GRAPHIC SUBMITTED

a.m. and is done at 11 a.m. In custody since 2018, Craig is scheduled for release October 2024.

“This is hard work,” he said. “I did construction my whole life, but it’s eye opening all that goes into farming. I grew up in rural Wisconsin with farms all around me, but I was never on a farm before here. I’ve learned a lot about cows, and I’ve learned to be patient.”

Craig said time spent working on the farm helps with his rehabilitation.

“I like being able to get away and feel like a normal person a little,” he said. “You have a lot of time out here to reect on yourself. When you’ve been in prison and come to the farm, you realize what you’re missing. It’s wide open here, and I think it makes you feel better about yourself.”

The recent completion of a $6.5 million investment in Waupun State Farm is propelling the operation into the future. A transition barn built in 2021 houses dry and pre-fresh cows as well as the herd’s highest producing animals.

“This barn is focused on cow comfort and a healthy environment, offering superior ventilation,” Hensel said.

The 170-stall barn contains sand and straw bed pack areas. One side is for highproduction animals milking 90 to 130 pounds per day. The

other side of the barn houses dry cows pens for cattle one to two weeks away from calving.

In addition, the facility project included increasing manure pit capacity from 1 million gallons to 4 million gallons.

“The bigger manure pit allows us to more carefully and

cost efciently manage manure and its placement on our acres,” Ray said. “We have to take good care of the land.”

Cow comfort and highquality animal care are top priorities at Waupun State Farm. DATCP inspects the farm every other year, and the facility regularly receives high marks

and awards for farm operations and quality milk production, Romanski said.

Cows are milked twice a day in the farm’s double-10 herringbone parlor and average 90 pounds of milk per cow per day. All cattle on the farm are bred with A.I.

“Genetics are important to

us,” Ray said. “We breed for the quality replacement heifers.”

Eleven state employees, including Hensel, work at Waupun State Farm alongside the prisoners.

Hensel grew up on a dairy farm near Fond du Lac and has worked at Waupun State Farm for 20 years; he has been the farm supervisor for six years. Each employee is a security position. For example, Hensel is a lieutenant, and the BCE’s agriculture manager is a captain. All staff have a security background and are equipped with the training and experience necessary to diffuse a potential negative situation.

The privilege to work outside the fence depends on where a person is at in their sentence and when their return home is scheduled. Each one is reviewed by the center superintendent and warden. Offsite approval is earned through a record of good behavior, compliance and rule following. The prisoners are workers on the BCE farm, which makes starting pay is $0.55 an hour with the potential to earn $1.65 per hour.

Donald, from Dunn County, takes care of calves and has been working on the Waupun State Farm for nine months. He works 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and his responsibilities include newborn calf care, clean-

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

Donald, a prisoner from the John C. Burke Correc onal Center, bo lefeeds a calf Sept. 8 at Waupun State Farm near Waupun, Wisconsin. Donald has been working on the farm for nine months and typically works 12-hour days caring for the calves.

ing and bedding hutches, and feeding calves. Calves are fed pasteurized milk out of treated and fresh animals that is distributed through a portable milk dispenser.

“There’s more to farming than I thought,” said Donald, whose rst job on the farm was a second shift milker. “I had never been on a farm before I came here, and I’ve learned a lot about cattle and calves. I don’t mind the long, 12-hour day. I’m grateful to be out here and be part of a team.”

Donald has been with the Department of Corrections for two years and is scheduled for release September 2023.

“This is my fourth incarceration, but the worst is behind me,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of changing, and it’s all for the better. I like being out here and being productive rather than sitting and dwelling on what I don’t have. I’m thankful for this opportunity. The freedom to be here all day and work with the calves is awesome.”

Anthony, from Cincinnati, Ohio, has been on the farm team for three months. He started as a scraper and now works at the equipment operator level mixing feed and feeding cows.

“I was a carpenter for 20 years, and that’s hard work in itself,” he said. “And, then I come here and have a whole new respect for farmers.”

Anthony has spent eight years with the department and is scheduled to be released next June.

“I put myself in this position,” he said. “It’s my fault. But, I like it here on the farm. I’m not behind a fence. When you’re in prison, you have lots of time to reect on your past. Hours

and days in a room changes how you think and feel. I’ve learned a lot of patience and learned it’s possible to work with others and accept people for who they are.”

The BCE also operates a dairy farm near Oregon, Wisconsin, that milks 180 cows. Milk from both farms is shipped to Waupun Dairy, which is also part of BCE. The dairy processing plant opened in 1994 and is located adjacent to the John C. Burke Correctional Center. Twenty-six inmates work at Waupun Dairy as well as ve civilians.

Waupun Dairy produces skim milk, vanilla and chocolate ice cream, and sherbet in orange and lime avors which they supply to correctional and mental institutions in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Working on the farm or at the dairy is a form of rehabilitation and an opportunity to learn work skills and life skills, increasing the likelihood of one’s success when reentering society. Many return to their community and never misstep again. However, some will nd their way back to prison more than once.

“We work as well as we can to closely replicate private sector job selection and employment,” Ray said. “We want to get persons in our care thinking, feeling and behaving like they’ll need to in order to succeed when they go home. We are focused on these men’s successful futures. If working at the farm or dairy is an advantage to them, then it’s an advantage to their family and the whole community when they return home.”

HARD DEMANDS HARD-WORKING DIESEL.

Partying with pizza

Winghaven Pizza Farm celebrates ve years in business

By Abby Wiedmeyer abby.w@dairystar.com

GALESVILLE, Wis. – Among the emerging craft beer and wine scene developing through southern Trempealeau County sits Winghaven Pizza Farm. The land that the Grover family claimed in 1852 near Galesville has seen a lot of changes during the last 170 years, most recently emerging as a rural venue to offer pizza.

Rob Grover, along with business partner and friend Greg Roskos, opened Winghaven Pizza Farm in 2017 as a way to utilize the land that was so dear to the Grover family and honor the love of food that Roskos’ late mother instilled in him. This combination produced a special place where local residents can enjoy a stone-red pizza, live music, drinks and a sense of community.

“With our heritage and knowing that there are so many farmers that have long legacies, we really wanted to be a part of supporting that,” Grover said. “To support the people in our community (who) have supported us is important.”

Winghaven cooks homemade, stone-red pizzas in a food truck on the property. On a busy night, Grover and Roskos, along with their staff which includes Grover’s sister, Sarah, will cook as many as 130 pizzas and host close to 300 people.

Recipes for the pizzas are developed by Roskos and Sarah. During a three-day weekend, the farm will typically go through 75 pounds of cheese. They use a three-cheese blend and mozzarella.

“We are pretty committed to getting the cheese from Wisconsin if we can,” Grover said. “We are kind of chasing prices right now like a lot of people.”

The top selling pizza is what they refer to

as the local classic, which includes pepperoni, sausage, green peppers and mushrooms. The group will also have specialty pizzas on occasion, such as the loaded mac and cheese pizza which is the September feature. Toppings include macaroni and cheese, pulled pork and barbecue sauce.

“We love our specialty pizzas,” Grover said. “But, we also know that especially in a rural area, you need the every-man’s pizza.”

Pizzas are cooked in a commercial food trailer that houses ve stations. A garlic butter is brushed on the crust before moving to the pizza maker, who assembles the sauce and toppings. Next, the pizza is put in an electric stone oven to bake. Baking takes about three minutes. Once nished, the expediter boxes the pizza and announces the name of the customer to come pick it up.

The oven cooks the 14-inch pizzas at 650 degrees.

“It makes a really crispy, aky crust,” Grover said. “We really like it. The electric oven is nice because it doesn’t put off any smoke.”

Guests eat on picnic tables in the renovated, three-sided barn and listen to a live band while they wait for their orders. They can enjoy drinks from the bar and fresh cheese curds from Ellsworth Creamery while they wait.

A lot of times, as many as 50 people show up at once when they open at 4 p.m. This sometimes creates over an hour wait for pizza.

“That’s why we have a band and a bar,” Grover said. “We’re not fast food, but it is good food and a great experience.”

Grover said that part of the experience people enjoy is the scenic farmland.

“It’s been a lot of dairy farmers that have held these elds together through generations,” Grover said. “One of the things that make people want to come out here is we’ve held on to our rural character and that wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for

ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR

The Grover siblings, Rob and Sarah, stand outside their pizza farm Sept. 14 near Galesville, Wisconsin. The siblings run an outdoor pizza venue with Rob’s business partner, Greg Roskos.

“One of the things that make people want to come out here is we’ve held on to our rural character and that wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for local dairy farmers.”

ROB GROVER, WINGHAVEN PIZZA

local dairy farmers.”

The connection to the dairy industry is also evident when neighboring farmers come for a pizza after chores. Grover said he considers dairy farmers to be partners in the pizza business.

“Without dairy farmers putting out a consistent product that people want to use, and having proximity to those products, we wouldn’t have a business,” Grover said. “We’re a pizza farm not a potato soup farm.”

Grover said purchasing trends of consumers in his area have evolved to

supporting more local vendors over the last couple years.

“The impulse to support local got so intense when (the coronavirus pandemic) hit,” Grover said. “People more than ever want a story and to know where their food comes from.”

Grover and Roskos hope to increase production as demand increases. Possibilities include upgrading the food trailer to accommodate cooking more pizzas. They also hope to add more frozen ice cream products and diversify the cheese curd avors.

Which favorite The SCC our favorite because it use it to ensure quality of milk. The too so those are

How does testing with DHIA bene t your dairy operation? It helps us monitor production and assists us in keeping our SCC low. It also aids in our breeding program.

Tell us about your farm. Brian’s parents, years ago, rented/or did shares on this farm and milked here for a period of time before they found their forever farm. Many years later, in 2000, Brian found himself here purchasing the farm. He started milking in 2002. I joined him in 2012 and a perfect farming match was made. It warms our hearts that we are milking in the same barn his parents once did.

Sauk Centre, MN Buffalo, MN 763.682.1091

What are some of the DHIA tests you use?

“It helps us monitor production and assists us in keeping our SCC low.”

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Guests enjoy pizza at Winghaven Pizza Farm near Galesville, Wisconsin. On a busy night they will serve 130 pizzas.

Keeping dairy in the cards

Ninnemann Enterprises embraces robotic retrotted tiestall barn

By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com

WAUSAU, Wis. –

The Ninnemann family of Wausau wanted to continue dairying on their Marathon County farm; but they knew in order to do so, they would have to make some changes.

Ninnemann Enterprises is a fth-generation family dairy farm operated by brothers Herb and Fred Ninnemann, along with Fred’s three sons, Aaron, Adam and Alex. They recently retrotted their 115-cow tiestall barn into a 125-cow freestall barn equipped with two Lely A5 robotic milking systems.

The Ninnemanns shared their retrotted barn during an open house Sept. 8.

“My dad and my uncle are getting older, and we needed to reduce the amount of physical labor they were putting in,” Aaron said. “My brothers didn’t want to milk cows for the rest of their lives, and I work full-time off the farm too.”

Automation has

intrigued the Ninnemanns for a few years, but they said investing in a new facility to make that transition was not possible for their family farm.

“I called up Seehafer and asked them if they had ever successfully put robots into a tiestall barn,” Aaron said. “I was surprised to learn they had, and he gave me some places to go tour. Adam and I went to one, and we were sold. We knew how we were going to move the farm forward as a dairy.”

Retrotting their existing facility made nancial sense for the Ninnemanns.

“We had a nice barn that was in good, solid shape,” Adam said. “We have a stationary mixer upstairs in the barn. Our manure lagoon was connected to the barn and in excellent condition.

Retrotting allowed us to work with what we had rather than take on the debt that would come with a new building.”

An addition to the tiestall barn was made to house the robots and add

extra stalls.

In order to complete the renovation, the Ninnemanns sold their herd of cows in May 2021, keeping only a handful of dry cows. The family spent the next three months working on turning their tiestall barn into a

freestall barn.

Aug. 22, 2021, marked the startup of the new system for the Ninnemanns. The brothers agreed the transition went well.

“The rst week the hours were long, but it wasn’t really hard,” Adam

said. “The cows adjusted and settled in pretty well, all things considered.”

To restock their herd, the Ninnemanns purchased 75 cows from one herd

PHOTO SUBMITTED

The Ninnemann family – (from le ) Alex, Aaron, Adam, Herb and Fred – converted their 115-cow estall barn into a 125-cow robo c freestall barn on their Wausau, Wisconsin dairy.

Turn to NINNEMANN

to add to their own dry cows that were calving back in. Once those initial cows became accustomed to the routine of robotic milking, they lled out the remainder of the herd with cows purchased at livestock sales.

The cows exit the robots through a foot bath, which Aaron said runs each day from morning until the afternoon.

“We might run it too much, but we have also seen zero foot issues,” Aaron said. “The cows are now only trimmed after dry off. Running the foot bath has just become part of the routine.”

Cows are fed a total mixed ration three times daily using carts. Along with the milking robots, the Ninnemanns also purchased an automatic feed pusher.

“We run the Juno every hour on the hour,” Aaron said. “It’s maybe a little more often than it needs to be, but we found it was complicated keeping track of where it was in its schedule and knowing when we could go through with the carts to

put out more feed.”

To convert the stalls in the tiestall barn, they installed exible stall dividers and placed mats in each of the stalls.

“We really liked the exibility of the dividers but also how sturdy they are,” Adam said. “The cows really aren’t able to get themselves caught under the stalls, and they seem very comfortable laying in them.”

Stalls are bedded by hand daily. The Ninnemanns bed with a paper byproduct. That byproduct is then mixed with lime to make a bedding that the Ninnemanns have been happy with thus far.

“We weren’t interested in the wear and tear on the equipment that comes with sand, and we have an earthen lagoon,” Aaron said. “This is heavy enough it stays up in the stalls, there isn’t a lot of dust, and it absorbs really well.”

Because of the single-row setup, an alley scraper was installed that runs continuously to keep the freestall walkway clean.

“Taking care of the herd is easily a one-person job even with feeding and bedding by hand,” Adam said. “Everything just works out very efciently.”

Despite the jobs that require manual labor, Aaron said they could not be happier with their choice to install the robotic milking system.

“You learn so much about the cows from the robots,” he said. “The data is astounding, and I really enjoy looking at and analyzing it.”

Fetch cows have not presented much of an issue for the Ninnemanns. When cows that are late in their lactation start stretching out their robot visits, the Ninnemanns let them go as long as 14 to 16 hours before seeking those cows out.

Considering the added technology has allowed his family’s dairy farm to continue, Adam said others should consider changing the way they farm as well.

“If someone is thinking about robots, I would encourage them to just pull the trigger and do it,” Adam said. “We have no regrets looking back. It really changes your life in the best possible way.”

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR

The Ninnemann family used exible stall dividers to convert their estall barn into a freestall barn. They milk 125 cows.

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR

Cows at Ninnemann Enterprises eat a total mixed ra on Sept. 8 during an open house at the Marathon County farm near Wausau, Wisconsin.

F r o m O u r S i d eFrom Our Side

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

Dan Bragger Independence, Wisconsin

400 cows

Is there certain equipment maintenance that you believe is vital to ensure farm safety?

The biggest part is training people and knowing how to handle the various machines. Also, realizing who can handle certain situations based on their experience.

What are some of the biggest safety concerns farmers need to consider? Be aware of your surroundings, and remember to slow down when driving through yards and be conscientious of other people.

What are some words you try to live by with farm safety? There is zero tolerance for accidents. You don’t want anyone to be injured; you always want to be cautious and think ahead of time about what could go wrong and do what you can to prevent it. Keep shields in place, make sure the equipment you are using can handle the job, and keep warnings in place.

What is the worst accident or near accident that happened on your farm? After that accident, how did that change your protocols? Fifteen years ago, I lost the lower part of my leg. I was in too much of a hurry and wasn’t thinking about what I was doing. My leg got caught in an auger that I stepped into when it was dark. It was early in the morning on the day before Christmas, and I was thinking about everything else. I forgot to turn the switch off and stepped right into the auger. Now, I have a prosthesis. I learned to slow down and prioritize what I am doing and not everything else that’s going on.

Tell us about your farm. We raise chickens with Pilgrim. My brother and his wife have a pullet barn. I have two broiler barns with my wife. We have the dairy. We raise soybean, hay, corn and some rye. We run about 1,500 acres.

Troy DeRosier Osceola, Wisconsin 160 cows

Is there certain equipment maintenance that you believe is vital to ensure farm safety? Power take-off shields as well as any other shield covering a moving part are vital.

What are some of the biggest safety concerns farmers need to consider? Manure pits are deadly. Make sure people, pets, animals, etc., can’t get into them. Silo gases are also deadly. A neighbor recently suffered complications from silo gas from a pile he had packed the day after lling; it was a totally calm morning.

What are some words you try to live by with farm safety? Take your time, and be alert to your surroundings. We have one life to live. Don’t cut it short. Your family needs you.

What is the worst accident or near accident that happened on your farm? After that accident, how did that change your protocols? I fell into our under-barn manure pit and lived. Now, all accesses are completely covered at all times, and we take no short cuts that are at all risky. When I was much younger, I witnessed a farmer I was helping get caught in a PTO; it totally destroyed his leg, but he lived. It only took a second, and his life was changed forever.

Tell us about your farm. We milk 160 cows and are a non-GMO dairy with a creamery on the farm. We process about one-third of our production into uid milk, cheese and butter. We have a slatted oor barn with tunnel ventilation. We milk in a double-12 parallel parlor. We farm 750 acres.

Cody Bode (holding his son, Rhett) Gibbon, Minnesota 600 cows

Is there certain equipment maintenance that you believe is vital to ensure farm safety?

If you keep up on maintenance, you will have less accidents.

What are some of the biggest safety concerns farmers need to consider? When working with livestock, you always need to be careful. Animals can be unpredictable. And, anytime you work with tractors or skid loaders, the operator has to be mindful of their surroundings.

What are some words you try to live by with farm safety? Stop and look.

What is the worst accident or near accident that happened on your farm? After that accident, how did that change your protocols? My father got his ankle in a silo unloader, and thankfully, it shut off right away because it wasn’t working properly. He survived, but, we have since eliminated silo storage.

Tell us about your farm. We milk 600 cows with my uncle, father, myself and about 20 employees. We raise our youngstock and harvest our own feed.

Turn to OUR SIDE | 16

What are some of the biggest safety concerns farmers need to consider?

Krista Dolan Dodgeville, Wisconsin 260 cows

Is there certain equipment maintenance that you believe is vital to ensure farm safety?

All equipment should be properly maintained before or after each use to ensure that all parts are operating correctly.

What are some of the biggest safety concerns farmers need to consider? A farm is a dangerous place for people of all ages. It’s important to be aware of your surroundings on the farm when operating machinery. You also need to take into consideration your clothing when

working around machines with moving parts.

Do not wear loose clothing, keep your hair tied back if it is long, and keep shoe laces tied, etc.

When operating a piece of equipment, you need to be knowledgeable about the terrain. Take into consideration your speed and parking, etc.

What are some words you try to live by with farm safety? Go the extra mile even if it is going to take you ve extra minutes. It could be worth it in the long run.

What is the worst accident or near accident that happened on your farm? After that accident, how did that change your protocols?

In August 2017, my oldest son was caught in a power take-off at the age of 9. The shirt he was wearing was too large for him, and it got caught as he went to shut off the broken chopper

box. He was own to the University of Wisconsin Children’s Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, with severe injuries. After eight months of healing and therapy, he made a full recovery. We couldn’t be more thankful. After the accident, we threw away any farm clothing that had holes, made sure all clothing was properly tted to the person wearing it and removed strings from hoodies. We also took the time and replaced all the power take-off shields on the chopper boxes that we owned to make sure they were in proper condition.

Tell us about your farm. My husband, Ryan, and I co-own Dolan Farms LLC with his parents, Paul and Mary. We have two sons, Kaleb and Gage. We milk 260 Holsteins two times a day and raise all our replacement heifers and feed.

Tom Gregory Kimball, Minnesota 670 cows

Is there certain equipment maintenance that you believe is vital to ensure farm safety? Keep the power take-off shaft shields in proper condition, and clean windows in cabs to see people and equipment around you. Keep re extinguishers where needed.

What are some of the biggest safety concerns farmers need to consider? Be aware of your surroundings. People become distracted by walking, talking and not paying attention. People stare at cellphones and are unaware that you might not be able to see them while running equipment.

What are some words you try to live by with farm safety? Always be careful when operating large or small equipment. Be careful of your surroundings, people and so forth. Haste makes waste. Don't fully trust the animals because you never know what they are capable of doing.

What is the worst accident or near accident that happened on your farm? After that accident, how did that change your protocols? My granddaughter sipped some detergent. We were not sure how much. My daughter, after reading the label, called 911 and rescue came. It was decided that she should go to the hospital for further examination. She was observed for half a day at the hospital; luckily, she was OK. Now, we keep all chemical and detergents out of reach of children.

Tell us about your farm. Mill Creek Dairy is a family-owned dairy. The farm is owned by Ed, Nic, Tom and Donna Gregory. We have around 700 cows. Our dry cows and pregnant heifers are held on a leased farm site. Our heifers at breeding age are kept on another farm site until conrmed pregnant a second time. Our milking herd, barns and feeding site is on the east side of the road. Tom and Donna's home sits on the west side of the road and is where cows calve and calves are kept until breeding age. We have seven full-time employees and seven part-time employees. We farm about 450 owned and rented acres. Extra feed is bought from surrounding farms. All extra manure is used on surrounding farms as well.

Harvesting Quality Forages

Quality forage maintains production

Dave Stelter Wood Lake, Minnesota 300 cows

Describe your farm and facilities. We have a freestall barn that we bed with sand. Our cows are milked in a double-6 parallel parlor. We farm about 750 acres.

What forages do you harvest? We harvest alfalfa, corn, rye and forage sorghum. We double crop oats, triticale or rye after our wheat is harvested. I sometimes interseed sorghum sudangrass into alfalfa that’s going out of production. We plant cover crops and harvest them as hay that we will feed to our heifers.

How many acres of crops do you raise? We have 400 acres of corn, 200 acres of alfalfa and 150 acres of rye or wheat. With a little luck and a little rain, we will use double cropping to harvest three crops every two years from every acre. We have also been transitioning a couple of farms over to organic crop production.

Describe the rations for your livestock. Our milking herd is fed a total mixed ration of corn silage, earlage, haylage, distillers grains and amino acids. Our youngstock is fed corn silage, grass hay, millet hay and straw. Cover crops make good feed for our youngstock. None of our heifers get a TMR until they are 11-12 months old. We feel this helps with rumen development.

JERRY NELSON/DAIRY STAR

Dave Stelter, his daughter Sadie and their family, farm 750 acres and milk 300 Holsteins in Wood Lake, Minnesota. The Stelters’ number one goal is harves ng quality forages.

“We have been using Udder Comfort™ for 10 years. We use the lotion when we show, but we also use the blue spray at the dairy on all fresh animals after each milking for a week after calving,” says Scott Stempfle in an interview after being notified as one of our World Dairy Expo ‘gallon drawing’ winners.

Scott and parents Paul and Jody have a 750-cow dairy near Maynard, Iowa. As herd health manager, Scott enjoys seeing the progression from a mating that produced the calf to seeing her develop into the milking herd. Many in this registered Holstein herd go back to Butlerview Roy Glamorous.

“Transition at calving is the most important part of a cow’s lactation. Udder Comfort is an important tool to get her through that transition and into her milk faster,” says Scott.

“We stick with what works, and we have always had really good results with Udder Comfort. It brings edema down and softens udders to milk faster and easier so cows get a healthier and faster start in their lactations.”

—

We harvest about 7,000 tons of corn silage, 1,000 tons of earlage and about 1,500 tons of haylage. We usually make more than 600 tons of sorghum silage and 500-600 tons of cover crop silage. We bale a lot of our alfalfa as dry hay and chop the rest.

Describe your harvesting techniques for alfalfa and corn silage. We bought a hay tedder and have found that tedding helps our hay dry faster. We have a large square baler that we use to make hay. I recently purchased a used selfpropelled mower, and that has

done a lot to help speed up hay harvest.

What techniques do you use to store, manage and feed your forages? We store our earlage in the Harvestore silo and bag the rest of our chopped forages. We store our big square bales in our hay shed and keep the big round bales of cover crops outside. Jason Prins, our nutritionist, and Jacob Bierstedt, from Chandler Feed Co., help us stay on top of things by sampling our forages often, especially when we open a new bag. The guy who feeds our cattle with our twin-screw vertical mixer wagon does a great job. He has been with us for 26 years.

How do quality forages play into the production goals of your herd? Harvesting top quality forages is my No. 1 goal. I have my own chopper, so I can chop when the crop is at its peak condition. Our rolling herd average has been holding mostly steady, but our milk components are very high and continue to go up. Quality forages are key to maintaining good milk production. Our pregnancy rate is over 30%, and we try to stay close to 160 days in milk.

What management or harvesting techniques have you changed that have made a notable difference in forage quality? It seems like the windows of harvesting time are getting smaller, but our equipment can go over more acres faster. We focus on the digestibility of our feedstuffs and plant high starch brown midrib corn hybrids for silage.

Describe a challenge you overcame in reaching your forage quality goals. When we ll a bag with haylage, we have found that it’s best to take small bites than large bites. Our goal is to chop 40-60 acres of alfalfa per day, which is about what we can accomplish in three hours. It’s a challenge to merge the windrows at just the right moisture. When we bag corn silage, we shoot for 65% moisture. We can ll three bags per day with corn silage, which works out to about 1,000 tons.

JERRY NELSON/DAIRY STAR

Dave Stelter chops corn silage as his daughter, Sadie, drives alongside with a silage wagon near Wood Lake, Minnesota. Despite a challenging growing season, this eld of corn was es mated to have a yield of 180 bushels per acre.

JERRY NELSON/DAIRY STAR

Sadie Stelter unloads freshly chopped corn silage into a conveyor as bagger operator Sco Hall keeps an eye on things. The Stelters shoot for 65% moisture in their corn silage.

JD 637 2011, 32 ft., 3-Section Folding, 9” Spacing, #546437 $29,000 IH RMX340 2009, 35 ft., 3-Section Folding, 9” Spacing, #181151 $29,400

JD 637 2011, 42 ft., 5-Section Folding, 9” Spacing, #523980 .... $29,500

Landoll 6230-36 2013, 35 ft., 3-Section Folding, 9” Spacing, #532829 $32,000

Case IH 330 2010, 30 ft., 3-Section Folding, #542361 ............. $36,900

JD 2623 2013, 3-Section Folding, 9” Spacing, #546216 $37,500 2011, 30 ft., 3-Section Folding, 11” Spacing, $39,900

JD 3-Section Folding, 11” Spacing, #275921 $39,900 5-Section Folding, 9” Spacing, #523876 $49,900 3-Section

IOWA

Prairie Land Ag Supply Inc. Rock Valley, IA 712-476-9290

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

WISCONSIN

Advanced Dairy/Bob’s Dairy Supply Spring Valley, WI 715-772-3201

Ederer Dairy Supply Plain, WI 608-546-3713

DeLaval Dairy Service Kaukauna, WI 866-335-2825

Preparing for World Dairy Expo

As the days get a little shorter and mornings start to feel a little crisper, I always think, “It’s starting to feel like Expo weather.” As fast as time ies, we are already near the end of September and ready to ip the calendar to October.

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

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

Professional Dairy Services Arlington, WI 608-635-0267

Redeker Dairy Equipment Brandon, WI 920-346-5579

The Scharine Group Inc. Whitewater, WI 800 472-2880 Mt Horeb, WI 800-872-3470

MINNESOTA & SOUTH

DAKOTA

Advanced Dairy of Mora Mora, MN 320-679-1029

Farm Systems Melrose, MN 320-256-3276 Brookings, SD 800-636-5581

S&S Dairy System LLC St. Charles, MN 507-932-4288

Professional Dairy Systems Wadena, MN 218-632-5416

World Dairy Expo, for many, is a family reunion paired with a weeklong celebration of dairy cattle. It’s a time to see people we only see once a year. I love being able to see friends’ babies in person instead of on social media, watch as a young couple always seems to get engaged during Expo, and stop and listen to stories from those who’ve been coming to Expo for longer than I’ve been alive. WDE is a cattle show, but it’s a lot more to so many of us.

By Kati Kindschuh Staff Writer

As a kid growing up only an hour from Madison, Wisconsin, it was always exciting to take a day off of school to go with my parents, walk through the tradeshow, admire the cattle in the barns and eat a grilled cheese sandwich as we watched the show in the coliseum. In my 26 years, I’ve only missed a handful of Expos, and I don’t intend to break that streak anytime soon.

But, before anyone heads to Madison, there’s a lot of work that happens at home. Weeks prior to the show, we are rinsing heifers to ensure they grow enough hair on their topline. Not to mention the countless walks to make sure they are well exercised but also glide seamlessly on the colored shavings. The preparation to get animals ready for WDE is a marathon not a sprint. We are working at it for a long time. As we get a little closer to Expo week, we’ll clip everyone so there isn’t as much to do at the show.

Plus, all summer we’re looking for grassy, longcut, dry hay to feed. This type of grass hay helps heifers build plenty of ll and rib when it comes to show day. As a kid with my dad, I remember opening up a grassy bale months after it’d been put in the mow with that sweet smell still locked inside. He’d say, “This will make great heifer hay for shows.” And, it’s true. At a show, I enjoy catching that smell of the sweet grass hay in the feed cart.

Getting ready for WDE takes a lot of work with the cattle, but there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes tasks that need to be done to make sure the people have everything they need while at the show. It’s packing the trailer with a slow cooker for show day meals to feed everyone, enough coffee cups to supply a small army and red solo cups to enjoy a hard day’s work at night. Not to mention, the last-minute shopping sprees for white pants and shirts because last year’s are too small or badly stained. Every show mom has their own magic recipe to get stains out of show whites. But, it never fails that someone has a wardrobe issue before going to Expo.

As a Dairy Star employee, getting ready for WDE means packing dress clothes for business meetings, plenty of business cards for networking events and, of course, a notebook just in case I run into a great story idea while walking the grounds. For me, it’s a great time to network with some of the best and brightest in the industry, so I prepare to make sure I represent Dairy Star as the premier dairy publication that it is. I’ve enjoyed being part of the World Dairy Expo Daily Edition the last two years. So many of us in the cattle barns look forward to reading the Daily Edition each morning with our coffee, and it’s been special to be part of that paper leading up to the show.

If you are heading to Madison Oct. 4-7, stop by our Dairy Star booth in the coliseum to say hello or nd me in the barns. It’s truly my favorite week of the year, and I am excited to see all of our hard work with the paper and the cattle pay off.

Over a century of progress at Breezy View Dairy

Each generation of Eichelkraut family puts individual stamp on farm

By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com

BELLEVILLE, Wis.

–

When Breezy View Dairy celebrated its 101st birthday this spring, the Eichelkrautfamily threw a party and invited the neighborhood. They cleared the hay mow to make room for a barn dance and partied with a live band until the cows came home. Three hundred people joined the festivities just months after Darren Eichelkrautbecame the farm’s ofcial owner.

“It was a lot of fun, and we got to meet a lot of people,” Darren said. “We have new neighbors who wanted to meet us, and they were so happy to be invited. There aren’t many dairies here anymore, and people watch us closely.”

Darren milks 52 cows and farms 280 acres near Belleville with help from his dad, Junior. Darren is the fth generation on the century farm he took over in 2015. Darren’s wife, Nicole, works off the farm, and the couple has a daughter, Aria, and a son, Merik.

Like his dad and every generation before him, Darren is making improvements to the farm while also holding onto techniques of the past he nds useful. From planting triticale to

implementing intensive grazing, Darren has a love for simplicity and appreciates a mixture of old and new.

“To simplify has worked very well, but it’s hard to do,” Darren said. “Many magazines and newspapers say you should do the opposite. They say you need concrete and technology. But, I nd the more you have, the less time and money you have.”

Maintaining the farm as a self-sufcient operation was important to Darren.

“Two of us can handle almost all the work,” he said. “The more you can do yourself, the better. My wife is planning on working into the farm in the future as well. She likes the animal end of it, and the goal is to have her here full time eventually.”

Breezy View Dairy was certied organic in 2010 – a move that helped the farm remain in the Eichelkrautfamily. Darren’s stipulation before taking over was that things had to change.

“I saw my dad struggling to make ends meet farming conventionally, and I told him we have to do something different,” Darren said. “And, we decided

organic was the way to go.”

Junior was happy to make the change to organic.

“You don’t know what kind of day that was for me when Darren said he wanted to take over the farm,” Junior said. “It was fabulous. When your dreams come true, it’s one of those unforgettable times.”

Personal property, such as feed, machinery and livestock, was transferred to Darren who had already started purchasing new equipment. He owned the heifer herd and a handful of cows when he made the nal purchase of the farm on a land contract Feb. 1. To Junior’s delight, his son is successfully try-

ing new things on the farm.

“There was new rebirth into the farm when Darren took over, as I watched him change things, and the changes were good,”

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

Darren Eichelkraut and his dad, Junior, stand in the estall/stanchion barn where they milk 52 cows and farm 280 acres at Breezy View Dairy near Belleville, Wisconsin. Darren is a  hgenera on farmer who took over the farm in 2015.

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Junior said. “That’s always needed in a next generation transition. I certainly did different than my dad, and he did different than his dad, etc. Granted, some things do stay here forever.”

Replacing corn in the cows’ diet with triticale is a signicant change Darren made.

“Triticale is a big source of grain for us now as we remove corn from the ration and downsize our row crops,” Darren said. “We’ve scaled back on protein and grain and are not pushing cows as hard. Financially, it works just as well if not better. I have a 5-year-old kid and a 7-year-old kid, and I like to be able to go do stuff with them rather than live on a tractor.”

Cows average 55 pounds of milk daily and are getting most of their feed from pasture and hay. Darren feeds a lot of baleage. First crop was put up in wrapped round bales, and Darren uses a trolley system to feed the bales in the barn in the winter. One bale covers 50% of the cows’ feed needs.

“I can get 25 acres of baleage done in a day,” Darren said. “We get much higher quality feed, and it doesn’t beat us up. We make small square bales out of second and third crop if weather allows.”

In the winter, Darren feeds 12 pounds of corn and 5 pounds of triticale. When grazing, cows are fed 8 pounds of corn and 5 pounds of triticale. All corn is put up as high moisture, and Darren would like to feed it only in winter when it is freshest.

“I want to switch to feeding 8 pounds of triticale and no corn in the summer,” he said. “Triticale is our protein source, and it’s higher in protein than corn. The cows really like it.”

Triticale is planted behind corn, and Darren said weeds do not grow on those acres.

“It’s simple to combine and also

makes beautiful straw,” he said. “It’s scary to get away from high production; people say you can’t do that. I grew less corn than I wanted to one year, but it worked out. Giant ragweed is a problem with row crops, and being organic, we have to remove it by hand. We’ve reduced a lot of labor by reducing row crops. Our lowered cost of inputs far outweighs our loss in production.”

Junior agreed.

“Being organic also helps,” Junior said. “We get a steady milk price; it’s not uctuating like the conventional market.”

The Eickelkrauts ship their milk to Westby Cooperative Creamery. When going organic, the Eickelkrauts also began crossbreeding.

“The herd was 100% Holstein, but now we go for a three-way cross,” Darren said.

The cross the Eickelkrauts prefer is Holstein-Montbéliarde-Norwegian Red or Holstein-Jersey-Norwegian Red.

“They have nice pasture genetics and do good on a lower energy diet,” Darren said. “You still end up with duds, but overall, we’re very happy with these crosses, especially when you come back to Holstein. We get a nice, smaller, more compact, sturdy Holstein. They still put out the milk and give nice components. And, the vigor of the crossbred calf is amazing. We don’t lose calves.”

Each generation of Eickelkrauts has also enhanced their grazing techniques. Junior cut pastures smaller compared to what his dad did, and Darren took it to intensive grazing, moving cows every 12 hours or at each feeding.

“I tore fences out and made pastures larger, and now Darren is putting fences back in,” Junior said. “He’s even putting dividers in the grain bins and restoring and bringing back stuff his grandpa had.”

To offer shade on pastures that have

no trees, Darren uses a sun shade that moves with the cows from pasture to pasture. He has no permanent pastures but rather rotates all pastures out with crops.

“I’m now at a point where we have more acres than we need, and I’ve been able to play with cover cropping,” Darren said. “Next spring, I plan to experiment with different cover crops like heavy legumes and brassicas. We’re very grass dominated here.”

Heifers are on pasture in the summer and are fed baleage and grain in the winter.

“I have very low raising costs for youngstock,” Darren said.

Junior and his wife, Jeannie, took the farm over in 1976, starting out with 40

cows. In 1988, Junior did a barn addition and remodel, adding 10 stanchions and extending the barn 40 feet. He also widened and lengthened the stalls in the 1921 barn and increased cow numbers to 53.

Currently, the barn contains 25 tie stalls and 27 stanchions, and Darren plans to convert the remaining stanchions in the barn to tie stalls before winter.

“When Darren came on, it was good to let him take the reins,” Junior said.

“It’s very important for the next generation to do it their way. I’m here for advice if he needs me.”

As the Eichelkrautfarm begins a second century, Darren looks toward the future with excitement in continuing his family’s rich tradition of dairy farming.

STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR

Breezy View Dairy celebrated its 101st birthday this spring. The farm has been cer ed organic since 2010 and has been in the Eichelkraut family since 1921.

Sisters share passion for dairy

Bue, Stetzer team up to judge Central Wisconsin State Fair

By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com

MARSHFIELD, Wis. –

Growing up on their family’s Milking Shorthorn dairy farm, sisters Katie Bue and Carla Stetzer have always been involved in showing dairy cattle and in dairy judging.

“Anything to do with dairy cattle seems to largely come from passion,” Stetzer said. “Unfortunately, the numbers are dwindling, so for me it is important to keep the kids excited and help them grow that passion for the dairy industry.”

The two sisters teamed up to judge the Central Wisconsin State Fair junior show Aug. 24 in Marsheld. Stetzer placed the Holstein, Red and White Holstein, and Ayrshire classes; while Bue placed the Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Jersey, Milking Shorthorn and the any other breed classes. The two conferred for the selection of supreme champions and the winners of the bred and owned awards.

“We see the cows a lot the same,” Stetzer said. “We can have natural, easy discussions that are very open and honest about our opinions.”

The sisters from Hixton

had only judged together for one show prior to the CWSF.

“The rst time, we were just chatting about what we had coming up and realized we were both judging the southeast Minnesota youth show,” Bue said. “Luckily we had talked, so that we could drive together.”

Bue and her husband, Charlie, along with their children, Kyra and Tanner, operate Wide Open Farm near Hixton where they milk 35 registered Holsteins and Milking Shorthorns. Stetzer works as a program specialist for CentralStar Cooperative. She lives near Alma Center with her husband, Dan, and their three sons, Jay, Drew and Sean; they raise show heifers at Game Day Farm.

Both Bue and Stetzer grew up participating in the 4-H dairy project in Jackson County and attended many dairy judging practices and contests before they each attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls where they were members of the school’s judging team.

Stetzer dove into judging

shows soon after her graduation, while Bue said she took longer following graduation to begin judging shows.

“I was more hesitant,” Bue said. “It took me a while to jump out of my comfort zone and start judging shows.”

Both sisters said judging

youth shows is a highlight for them.

“I really enjoy working with the kids,” Bue said. “I like to see them take pride in the work they have done.”

Stetzer agreed.

“I try to make being in the show ring lighthearted and

fun,” Stetzer said. “I don’t want the kids to feel stressed or nervous about showing their animals.”

Both Stetzer and Bue typi-

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR Carla Stetzer (le ) and Ka e Bue evaluate Oliver Andres’ senior doe in the dairy goat show Aug. 24 at the Central Wisconsin State Fair in Marsheld, Wisconsin.

cally judge three shows a year.

“It is something that I enjoy doing, and I don’t want to lose that joy by being overbooked,” Stetzer said.

Both Bue and Stetzer have served as the associate judge for the World Dairy Expo International Milking Shorthorn Show. Bue was the associate for Lynn Harbaugh in 2013 while Stetzer was Brian Behnke’s associate in 2018.

Bue recalls making Lands-Brook Christina EXP grand champion of the show in 2013.

“That is something I will never forget; Christina nally winning after being reserve champion so many times,” Bue said. “As a life-long Milking Shorthorn breeder, that was really a special moment.”

Bue also recalled a 2-year old who had a rough trip traveling to the big dance.

“Peter Cate had a senior 2-yearold that I thought would be quite a cow some day, but she hadn’t taken the trip from New Hampshire well at all,” Bue said. “I had her way down the line. I told Peter I really liked his cow, but that just wasn’t her day.”

That cow’s day did indeed come a couple of years later. Cates Ruben Tulsa Time EXP won the breed’s Triple Crown challenge, winning three national show championships in a year, not once, but twice.

Stetzer recalls the cow she and Behnke selected for grand champion with a smile too.

“Maple Fudge of 12 Oaks was our champion cow,” Stetzer said. “That was a great story, too, and having her come

out as our champion was really awesome.”

Stetzer said Maple Fudge was purchased by junior member Ashley Brandel as a calf at the Wisconsin Dairyland Milking Shorthorn sale. Added to that, Maple Fudge is sired by a bull that Stetzer and Bue’s father sold.

After all of their judging experiences, the sisters have some advice to would-be judges.

“You have to be strictly yourself,” Stetzer said. “You can’t worry about pleasing anyone but yourself. Start with smaller shows to build your condence. It is easy to sit on the sidelines and critique what the judge is doing in the middle of the ring, but going out and doing it is another thing.”

Both sisters agreed that the prospect of giving reasons on the microphone can be daunting.

“Keep your reasons short and simple,” Stetzer said. “Once the animal is past you, stop talking about her. Just be done and move on to the next animal.”

Bue agreed. She said she likes to take the time to go down the line, talking to each exhibitor about their animal.

“Showing is a lot of time, work and money,” Bue said. “Each exhibitor deserves to know what I was thinking about their animal.”

Most importantly, both Bue and Stetzer said if judging is an interest, do so.

“You have to start somewhere,” Bue said. “You just have to get out of your comfort zone and jump out there and do it.”

DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR Carla Stetzer explains to Jasmine Hebert why her Holstein calf won the class during the dairy show Aug. 24 at the Central Wisconsin State Fair junior show in Marsheld, Wisconsin.

Stephanie Hammerly Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin County cows

Family: My husband, Joel, and I have two children, Hannah and Hunter.

Tell us about your farm. Dreamstone Dairy was founded in 2015 with the purchase of Ja-Bob Armani Satin P-RC from the rst #PolledPlace Tag Sale. Our focus is on breeding for polled, red and A2A2. We have a small farm at my father-in-law’s located ve minutes outside of the tourist town of Wisconsin Dells where we raise calves, breeding bulls, dairy steers and a few milk cows and dry cows. We also direct market our dairy beef to consumers. Calves are housed in calf hutches, and older animals are on pasture and bedded pack. Our milk cows are cared for by my family in Monroe, and breeding-age heifers are on pasture with one of our partners that we own cattle with in Minnesota.

What is a typical day like for you on the dairy? I begin each morning caring for our young calves. We have a few milk cows that are milked with a portable milk pump, and the milk is used to feed calves. I also work on paperwork for registrations, genomics, polled and A2A2 testing, and manage our farm records. Weekends often involve working on farm projects.

What decision have you made in the last year that has beneted your farm? Working with friends and family to help us care for our animals has helped us out tremendously. With both of us working off the farm and raising two young kids, we appreciate those who support our dream of owning cows and raising a family around farming.

Tell us about your most memorable experience working on the farm. My most memorable moment has been seeing our daughter, Hannah, enjoy showing and promoting the dairy industry. She showed her rst cow this year, and some of her animals were included in dairy promotion events at Harvard Milk Days and Wisconsin State Fair.

What have you enjoyed most about dairy farming or your tie to the dairy industry? I enjoy being able to share our passion for farming and cows with our children. Growing up on a farm, I also wanted to share this with my family one day. To see their eyes light up with excitement about the farm, cows and tractors means so much. I enjoy each time a new calf is born, especially when they are red and polled. To see cow families improve from one generation to the next is rewarding, and I enjoy researching pedigrees and evaluating bull proofs.

What is your biggest accomplishment in your dairy career? Starting my own business promoting Polled Dairy Cattle has been my biggest accomplishment. With the support and encouragement of several mentors in the dairy industry, I launched the #PolledPlace all-breeds magazine and have managed several sales featuring polled genetics. I also have a booth at World Dairy Expo, which is the highlight of my year to promote and share what is available for polled genetics both from breeders and the A.I. industry.

What are things you do to promote your farm or the dairy industry? I am passionate about dairy promotion and am grateful for the opportunities to share more about dairy farming with consumers. A couple of highlights include providing cows for Dairy Lane and calves for the Discovery Barn at Wisconsin State Fair. I also promote Polled Dairy Cattle through the #PolledPlace all-breeds publication and the #PolledPlace Tag Sale. Dreamstone Dairy is promoted using social media along with a website. We also promote our dairy beef by donating to events or sharing as a donation to silent auctions.

What advice would you give another woman in the dairy industry? Say yes to the opportunities to share your dairy story and promote the industry you love, especially when your family can be involved too.

When you get a spare moment, what do you do? I enjoy spending time with family and friends. I also like to attend dairy and agricultural events.

www.extension.umn.edu/dairy

Is a robotic milking system right for you?

ing dairy industry. If this change is part of a generational transition plan, work with an advisor to determine if the investment provides nancial stability for the retiring generation.

A dairy farmer must also decide how many more years they are going to milk cows. A large investment in a new facility is a long-term commitment to remain in the dairy industry.

saved? The most successful farmers take the time they save milking and re-invest it into better managing the cows, harvesting better forage or another high-value activity. This will manifest itself in higher production.

tems provide lots of data that can assist in herd management.

By Jim Salfer U of M

Robotic milking systems are often touted as the wave of the future, but are they the right choice for you? Most farms are happy with the decision to install robotic milking systems, but other farms with robots struggle and question why they made the change. There is nothing magical about robots. Installing robots is simply an economic decision to trade milking labor for capital invested in a more expensive milking system. Here are some points to ponder when considering a robotic milking system.

Think about what your business and personal goals are, and what you want the business to look like in 5-10 years. Also, determine what the long-term size of your farm is and if that size is right for you. The primary goal of installing robots should be established, whether that be an improved lifestyle, minimized hired labor, expanded potential labor pool, maximized productivity per robot or something else.

Some of these goals have tradeoffs and will affect performance expectations. Decide if the changes allow you to remain competitive in the rapidly chang-

A farm’s cash ow needs to be considered. Robots primarily pay for themselves through high milk production per robot per cow and reduced labor costs. But, many farmers don’t save as much on labor as they hoped.

The three factors that affect the change in milk production when switching to robots are the barn effect, milking frequency effect and labor sparing effect. Older research shows that increasing milking frequency from two times a day to three times a day will increase production about 8 pounds per cow per day. This also assumes cows are milked at eight-hour intervals, and the increase will be less with uneven milking intervals. Getting the right cows milked at the right time is key to robot performance. The barn effect includes factors like less time away from the pen, more comfortable stalls and potentially more stable cow groups.

Reduction in labor takes a number of things into account.

How will you spend the milking time

Will the farm actually realize lower labor costs? If hired labor is reduced, the savings can be used to make robot payments. However, if the entire workforce is family labor, no money from the labor savings can be used to make robot payments unless the family’s standard of living is decreased. This can be a challenge if a new generation is added at the same times as robots are installed unless there is a concurrent increase in herd size. Other options can be that a family member works off the farm, another enterprise is added, the cow herd is expanded or greatly increased cow productivity.

Hybrid systems (milking in a parlor and robot) can have higher milk per robot. If your current milking system is working well, milking fresh, treated or even a salable milk group of cows will improve cash ow, but time exibility will be reduced.

Develop the skills to x the robots. If you have the time and skill to repair the robots yourself, this will keep them running and will decrease repair cost. Service technicians should periodically tune-up the robots to make sure they are running at peak efciency.

Make use of all the data. Robot sys-

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

Joleen Hadrich jhadrich@umn.edu 612-626-5620

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

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

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

Kevin Janni kjanni@umn.edu 612-625-3108

Maintenance costs will be higher. You are purchasing equipment that is expected to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Robots contain sensors, lasers, 3D cameras, computer boards, valves and other expensive parts you can’t buy at the hardware store. Feed costs will be higher, especially if a custom pellet is fed. How much depends on amount of pellet fed, formulation and pelleting and delivery costs.

Are you prepared to the challenges of robots? Items to consider before installing robots include:

– Someone always needs to be oncall to respond to phone alarms.

– Managing milk quality can be more challenging, especially contagious organisms. High somatic cell count can be more difcult to troubleshoot.

– Feeding management is trickier. Feeding management must be excellent to keep cows moving in the barn and to keep fetch cow numbers low.

– Training heifers can be a pain.

– Are you ready to give up some control? The most successful robot managers work with the cows’ natural behavior to maximize performance.

Robotic milking is a great choice for many farmers. It is worth thinking about if your goals and management style will lead to success.

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

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

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

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

Erin Royster royster@umn.edu

Isaac 320-296-1357

Jim

Mike

Emma

Melissa

Teaching at twilight

McFarlandale Dairy hosts community for on-farm event

By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com

WATERTOWN, Wis. –

Running an exemplary operation that combines state-of-the-art facilities with exceptional management is what the McFarland family is known for. Devoted to top-notch cattle care, a focus on efciency and cleanliness is at the heart of McFarlandale Dairy, which made the farm an ideal choice to host the public for a special evening of education and fun Sept. 1.

The McFarlands, who milk 900 cows and farm 1,200 acres near Watertown, opened their farm up to the community for the Agricultural Community Engagement On-The-Farm Twilight Meeting – one of four held throughout Wisconsin this summer. About 135 people attended the event sponsored by Professional Dairy Producers, and for some, it may have been their rst time on a dairy farm.

The free event took place from 6-8:30 p.m. and included a farm tour, ice cream and a discussion with the McFarland family and local elected leaders. Five stations were featured on the tour, highlighting the milking parlor, transition barn, manure pit, feed center and calves.

Peter and Cindy McFarland farm with their daughter, Christine Bender, and her husband,

Robb. Christine is the sixth generation on the McFarland farm, which was established in 1852.

Peter’s mother, Donna McFarland, is involved with the dairy as well.

“It’s denitely a full team effort to make everything work here, and we have a great relationship with three generations on the farm,” Christine said.

Christine is a partner in the business and manages both cows and people. The owner of a dairy nutrition consulting business, Robb is also active on McFarlandale Dairy, serving as the farm’s nutritionist and helping in other areas as well. The Benders have a 2-year-old daughter, Annabelle, and are expecting their second child in December.

“I’m lucky that I get to bring my daughter to the dairy with me every day,” Christine said.

The Dodge County dairy has added cows and facilities in recent years with expansion on the horizon. A new freestall barn was built last year with plans to double the building’s size next year. In addition, a heifer barn went up in 2020.

“The farm has experienced a lot of growth the last few years to accommodate our growing family and keep up with the global demand and competition in the dairy industry today,” Christine said.

Cows are milked three times a day in the dairy’s double-12 par-

lor, which runs around the clock milking 115 cows per hour. The farm has 15 employees, and three employees milk on each shift. The farm lls both of its 6,700-gallon bulk tanks daily, and milk is picked up twice a day. Cows average 98 pounds of milk per cow per day.

The farm’s three freestall barns contain sand-bedded stalls

to maximize comfort. Shortly after Christine returned home, she and Robb were able to help design a new transition cow facility with cow comfort and efciency in mind.

“Designing a transition cow barn correctly takes a lot of thought and planning,” Christine said. “We looked at many other dairies and decided to build what

was right for us and our size dairy. The barn is sized appropriately for our herd, and we discussed how it could be expanded for a growing herd.”

Built in 2017, the barn contains two straw-bedded packs and

PHOTO SUBMITTED

The McFarland family – (from le ) Peter, Cindy, Chris ne Bender holding daughter Annabelle’s hand and Robb Bender – milk 900 cows Watertown, Wisconsin. McFarlandale Dairy is a sixthgenera on farm established in 1852. MCFARLANDALE

Con nued MCFARLANDALE

two prefresh pens to keep heifers separate from mature cows. A maternity ofce stores fresh-cow supplies near the maternity and fresh pens. The transition barn is tunnel-ventilated to ensure yearround comfort, and large fans over the freestalls produce an 8 mph wind to keep cows comfortable while resting. In addition, sprinklers at the feed line turn on above 73 degrees. When building this barn, the McFarlands remodeled their original freestall barn to be tunnel-ventilated as well.

The transition barn also features a calf warming room with a washer and dryer, two pasteurizers, a refrigerator and upright freezer. The calf warming room was recently expanded from three pens to ten pens.

In 2021, McFarlandale Dairy built its third freestall barn, which features a neutral pressure ventilation system. Fans blow air in on one end and along the side walls while fans on the other end wall draw air out. The barn was built as half of a barn, and the family hopes to build the other half in 2023.

“We decided not to build another tunnel-ventilated barn because we noticed cows don’t want to lie by the curtain inlet in the winter on the coldest day, and we get a little snow that sneaks in,” Christine said.

All cows are bred using A.I., and the farm welcomes approximately 90 calves per month – 30 of which are sexed Holsteins, and 60 are Angus. A genomic sample is taken at birth to pinpoint which animals have the best genetics.

“We breed for a moderatesized, efcient cow and only produce as many Holsteins as we need to maintain our herd size,”

Christine said.

The farm’s reproduction program has benetted from the use of an activity and rumination monitoring system conducted through SCR ear tags.

“We used to tail chalk, but this system has eliminated a lot of labor and money,” Christine said. “We have phenomenal repro numbers now.”

Longevity is a prime goal at McFarlandale Dairy, and one pen at the farm is specically for cows 7 years of age and older. The oldest cow on the farm is 13.

“It is in our best interest to keep these cows as long as we can,” Christine said. “We need to do right by them and make sure they last a long time. Environment, management and genetics all play a role in ensuring this happens.”

Barns are scraped three times a day, and manure is sent to the farm’s 7-million-gallon pit. The McFarlands crop 700 acres of corn for silage and 500 acres of alfalfa. After corn is taken off, they no till a cover crop into the eld and then spread manure over the top.

“This helps keep our soil healthy,” Peter said. “We want something growing on the soil all the time.”

Cows are fed a total mixed ration containing 40% corn silage and 20% haylage. Cottonseed is fed at a rate of 3 pounds per cow, while canola meal – their main protein source – is fed at 5 to 6 pounds per cow.

“Canola is a better buy for cows this year,” Robb said.

Each cow also receives 1.5 gallons of whey permeate in the ration along with vitamins and trace minerals.

“Whey permeate is high in sugars and is sweet,” Robb said. “It tastes good, and the cows really like it.”

Heifer calves are raised onsite until around 6 months of age before being sent to a custom grower. At 22 months, they return to McFarlandale Dairy as a springing heifer. Calves are housed in outdoor hutches and fed milk replacer three times a day –at 8 a.m., 4 p.m. and midnight.

Payge Dahlke is the farm’s calf and heifer manager.

“Adding the midnight feeding helped improve health by allowing the calves smaller, more frequent meals,” Dahlke said.

From the hutches, calves move into a three-sided heifer barn that is open to the south. The two-year-old building features a front manure alley and bedded

pack with split curtain and air tube.

“It’s easy for one person to clean and bed in this barn that allows great ventilation for calves 3 to 6 months old,” Christine said.

The Twilight Meeting also featured biology and conservation specialists from Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever who spoke about soil health and management and the benets of cover crops while demonstrating how runoff impacts various eld types. Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Secretary Randy Romanski and the 75th Alice in Dairyland, Taylor Schaefer, were also present and said a few words along with representatives from the Wisconsin Towns Association and Wisconsin Counties Association.

Showcasing their farm to the public allowed the McFarlands to connect with their community.

When asked what their favorite part of dairy farming is, the McFarland family offered various reasons why they love the occupation so much. For Peter, working with family is his favorite.

“I am very blessed,” he said. “I’ve had aunts, uncles, parents, my wife and another generation with tremendous interest in the farm.”

Cindy agreed that family is the best part of the job; she watches Annabelle full time.

“My granddaughter makes every day a sunny day,” Cindy said. “I also like seeing the next generation making changes. … It’s fun seeing them do their thing, and I can’t wait to see what’s to come.”

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Cindy McFarland gives an overview of the milking parlor at McFarlandale Dairy during the Twilight Mee ng Sept. 1. Cows are milked around the clock in the double-12 parlor.

Sam Radke Wilton, Wisconsin County

How did you get into farming? I was born into it. I am the fourth or fth generation. After high school, I went to Southwest Technical College for the agriculture power technician program. I wanted to get that for a backup and to help myself on the farm by being able to work on equipment.

What are your thoughts and concerns about the dairy industry for the next year? I am a little worried about bigger farms getting a grasp and smaller farms fading.

What is a recent change you made on your farm and the reason for it? Last year, we put ex stalls and mats in half of the freestall barn. We did this to achieve cow comfort and cleanliness. It has worked so well that we are putting them in the other half this year. The cows love it.

Tell us about a skill you possess that makes dairy farming easier for you I have always been mechanically inclined, and I am able to x my own equipment. Any time I can save by not sending something to the implement dealer really helps.

What is the best decision you have made on your farm? Buying an electric feed cart to feed the heifers. I used to feed with poly carts, and it took an hour and a half to feed. It’s a lot easier now.

What are three things on the farm that you cannot live without? My four-wheeler because it’s nice for chasing cattle, fencing and going between elds. My skid loader because it is so easy to pick up and move stuff with it. My pickup truck because I use it every day to go between the two farms, run to town for parts or hauling the skid loader between farms.

What strategies do you use to withstand the volatile milk prices? We watch our spending and plan accordingly. We always gure on low milk prices and try to make a cushion when the price is higher.

How do you maintain family relationships while also working together? I work with my dad, Keith, and my uncle, Kurt. Working with family can be a hassle, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Sometimes you have to pick your battles and hold your tongue. Sometimes things come out anyway.

What do you enjoy most about dairy farming? I like being able to call the shots and be my own boss. Every day is kind of the same, but one little thing can change the whole day.

What advice would you give other dairy farmers? Try not to let the little things tear you up. At the end of the day, you can only do so much. It makes a big difference to take an hour out of the day to do something relaxing even if it’s driving to town for parts or going for lunch.

What are your plans for your dairy in the next year and ve years? In the next year, I want to get a bin up to store shell corn and get away from picking corn. I bought a combine last year to go toward that goal. In the next ve years, I hope to buy at least half the farm and start to make updates.

How do you or your family like to spend time when you are not doing chores? I go tractor pulling with my Ford 9000 in the summer. I go to local pulls and compete in the farm stock classes.

USDA offers support for beginning farmers, ranchers

By Steve Frericks Stearns County FSA Executive Director

Harvest is upon us which brings the opportunity to celebrate the fruits of endless labor throughout the year.

Producer reports in the ofce suggest excellent tonnage on corn silage yields and early soybeans show promising yields. What a difference a year can make. If you are planning to plant a fall-seeded cover or forage crop, visit with the local Farm Service Agency ofce about reporting requirements prior to Nov. 15. If you are interested in learning about the benets of fall-seeded cover crops, visit with the local soil and water conservation district and the Natural Resources Conservation Service about options.

Most importantly, stay safe this fall. We enjoy working with each of you and would like to well into the future. Make safety priority No. 1.

The rst 10 years of a farming or ranching operation are tough. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recognizes the need for dedicated support to help make sense of all the information coming producers’ way. Each state has a beginning farmer and rancher team headed up by a state coordinator. The coordinator helps producers who have operated a farm or ranch for less than 10 years navigate USDA and partner resources. Liz Ludwig is the Minnesota coordinator and can be reached at liz.ludwig@usda. gov or 507-373-7960, ext 2.

FSA’s beginning farmer direct and guaranteed loan programs provide an opportunity for qualied applicants to secure loans from funding set aside for producers who meet the following conditions:

– Has operated a farm for not more than 10 years.

– Will materially and substantially participate in the operation of the farm.

– Agrees to participate in a loan assessment, borrower training and nancial management program sponsored by the FSA.

– Does not own a farm in excess of 30% of the county’s average-size farm.

Ensure a farm meets conservation compliance

The term sodbusting is used to identify the conversion of land from native vegetation to commodity crop production after Dec. 23, 1985. As part of the conservation provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985, if you are proposing to produce agricultural commodities (crops that require annual tillage including one pass planting operations and sugar cane) on land that has been determined highly erodible and that has no crop history prior to Dec. 23, 1985, that land must be farmed in accordance with a conservation plan or system that ensures no substantial increase in soil erosion.

Eligibility for many USDA programs requires compliance with a conservation plan or system on highly erodible land used for the production of agricultural commodities. This includes FSA loan, disaster assistance, safety net, price support and conservation programs; NRCS conservation programs; and Risk Management Agency federal crop insurance.

Before you clear or prepare areas not presently under production for crops that require annual tillage, you are required to le Form AD-1026, Highly Erodible Land conservation and wetland conservation certication, with FSA indicating the area to be brought into production. The notication will be referred to Natural Resource Conservation Service to determine if the eld is considered HEL. If the eld is considered HEL, you are required to implement a conservation plan or system that limits the erosion to the tolerable soil loss for the predominant HEL soil on those elds.

In addition, prior to removing trees or conducting any other land manipulations that may affect wetlands, remember to update form AD-1026 to ensure you remain in compliance with the wetland conservation provisions. Prior to purchasing or renting new cropland acres, it is recommended you check with the local USDA Service Center to ensure the activities will comply with the HEL and wetland conservation provisions.

This old lady’s ies

I am so sick and tired of ies.

The rain was coming, and we knew not to start harvesting corn silage until after the storm passed and the soil soaked up all the moisture. We were pretty surprised to get 6 inches of rain when the last storm cell was hanging in our area for more than two days.

Steady sprinkling added up, everything got very green again, and all the ies on the farm came into the barn. They have been doing the congregating thing on the posts and rails in the barn when it cools down at night. A swarm of them pile up on each other, making it very easy for me to pat them with my gloves to kill a bunch at once. It is satisfying to go right down the rail and watch them all fall off dead.

as it was at that moment, I did laugh when the little boy said with a sly grin, “Well, now you have to eat a spider.” I played into his game, and I said, “I guess that is what I will have to eat for lunch.”

As the tour continued around the farm, it was great fun for us to keep up the story as we saw the cat, the chickens, turkeys, pigs and then the cow.

The other families had older children, and they all knew the story too. We all recanted the whole line at the end of the tour giggling and laughing about how silly it was. They were adding on the animals the old

lady was going to eat.

All of the adults knew the old lady was me. One mother thought it was mean to call me the old lady, but I know to a 5-year-old, I am an old lady.

We ended the tour on the wagon ride back to the shed singing the whole song from start to end. Tina Hinchley, her husband Duane and daughter Anna milk 240 registered Holsteins with robots. They also farm 2,300 acres of crops near Cambridge, Wisconsin. The Hinchleys have been hosting farm tours for over 25 years.

By Tina Hinchley Farmer & Columnist

Now with harvesting corn silage, there are more ies than ever coming in with the corn. These ies nd the barn a warm hideout until morning. I have some y spray I use in the milkhouse and robot rooms, and now, I am spraying over the posts and rails hoping this will do the trick to kill them on contact. I sprayed around the door on our porch, by the calves, by the pigs and even in the dumpster. To say that I hate ies would be an understatement.

The other day, I was hosting a tour for a couple families. As we were walking into the barn, I opened the door and held it while everyone led into the robot room. I took a deep breath to start to tell them about the cows coming into the robot, and I swallowed a y.

This is not the rst time, but this time, I had to cough and try to not let everyone notice what had happened.

Well, one of the kids knew exactly what happened, and he looked at me and asked if I swallowed a y. The boy and his dad looked at each other and smiled, because they had just read the book based off the song, “I Know an Old Lady (Who Swallowed a Fly).”

So as the story goes, the old lady then eats a spider to capture the y, and then it continues on and on with other animals that the old lady eats. So as funny

For the love of apples

I am aware that the general public has already moved on to the pumpkin-avored craze that happens this time of year, but here at the farm, I’m into the apples. I’m partial to Wolf River apples. They are beautiful, tart and perfect for baking, though their claim to fame is truly their size. They can be as big as a man’s hand, to the point where it only takes two or three to make a pie. We have a very old, towering Wolf River apple tree right out the door at the farm along with a miniature beside it. When we were young, Dad would put the elevator up into the tree (then shimmy up it) and coerce us kids to stand on the ground with baseball gloves and gunny sacks, ready to load up. It was a clever

apple-picking strategy. This past summer, the farm invested in a boom truck, and I’m already planning to make good use of it for picking those high-ying fruits at the top of the tree.

Our Wolf River tree only produces heavy every other year. During the off year, there are apples just not near as many. This year is the on year, and boy, oh boy, do we have a bumper crop. One of the rst wicked storms this summer split the ancient tree in half, but to our joy, the tree is connected enough to keep producing apples.

What follows are some of our favorite apple recipes. I promise they will not disappoint. There’s something about the smell of apple treats baking

that lls a house and brings about a feeling of comfort no candle can come close to. Perhaps instead of making a treat and taking it to a friend, assemble and deliver it to their house to bake and warm both their heart and home.

Happy apple season.

Betty’s apple cake

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 cup oil (for a twist do half applesauce and half oil)

3 eggs 2 cups all-purpose our 1 teaspoon baking soda Dash of salt

By Jacqui Davison Columnist

3-4 peeled, sliced apples (for big apples, use 2-3) Dash of cinnamon

Combine rst three ingredients, add the dry ingredients. Mixture will be thick. Gently stir in apples. Grease and our a 9-by-13 pan. Pour into pan and bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. When cool, dust top with powdered sugar. This cake lasts less than 24 hours at our farm. Denitely a crowd favorite.

Fresh apple cookies or bars

1 1/3 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened 1 egg 1/4 cup milk

2 cups all-purpose our 1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon each: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup old-fashioned oatmeal

1 cup peeled, chopped apple

1 cup raisins, craisins or nuts (optional)

Mix sugar, butter, milk and egg by hand in large bowl. Combine our, salt, soda and spices. Add to wet mixture and mix well. Add oats, raisins and apples. It will be thick to stir. I encourage you to mix it by hand; it will end with thicker results. If mixture seems dry, add a bit more milk. I prefer to make these in bar form, using a greased jellyroll pan, baking at 375 degrees for 15-17 minutes. This recipe was adapted from a Wisconsin Apple Growers 1965 cookbook, which is a real treasure.

Flavored homemade applesauce

Grease a slow cooker. Wash and quarter apples. Peeling is optional. Place apples in slow cooker, and sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent some browning. My mom’s trick to making delicious avored applesauce was using a box of Jell-O. A cranberry Jell-O packet (add in some real cranberries too), strawberry or raspberry all make delicious smelling and tasting applesauce. I tend not to add additional sugar when using a large box of Jell-O. Sprinkle your chosen avor on the apples and pour just under a cup of water over the top. Cover and set slow cooker to low. They soften nicely on low for about eight hours or on high for four. Of course, this timeline is dependent on the type of apples you use. Some have more water content and make for runny sauce; the Jell-O will assist in thickening. If sauce is too watery when done, cook with the lid off to help some water evaporate. An immersion blender or food mill will make your apples into nice, smooth sauce.

Jacqui and her family milk 800 cows and run 1,200 acres of crops in the northeastern corner of Vernon County, Wisconsin. Her children, Ira, Dane, Henry and Cora, help her 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.

Ramblings from the Ridge

Precautions with fall cutting alfalfa

As we welcome the ofcial start of fall this week, alfalfa decision-making is in the rearview mirror for some. However, several farms may be considering a fall cutting. In some cases, this desire is fueled by reduced forage yields throughout the summer or terminal stands leaving production. In other instances, the previous cutting occurred several weeks ago and current alfalfa stands are more than 2 feet tall.

overwinter and regrow in the spring. Unfortunately, this doesn’t allow enough time for the vegetation to regrow and normal dormancy reactions to resume. When to take a fall cutting

Something to Ruminate On

For most regions of Minnesota, a nal summer harvest the rst week of September will allow sufcient time for alfalfa to undergo the dormancy reaction before killing temperatures arrive. We are now past this target date and in the middle of what some would call the critical fall period (Sept. 7 to Oct. 15) when it is risky to cut alfalfa. Note these dates differ for other regions as they are dependent on the date of the killing frost.

forage quality in the next year’s rst cutting, but if it’s harvested early enough, the reduction in quality is minimal.

Leaving the fall growth over winter is benecial because it catches and holds snow cover and moderates soil temperature uctuations during winter and early spring. Alfalfa may break dormancy too early or experience plant heaving due to extreme soil temperature uctuations.

By Barry Visser Nutritionist

This regrowth was a common theme in the fall of 2021 as well. We had plenty of reports of winterkill and poor stands this spring that we don’t want to see repeated. Here are some considerations for fall alfalfa cutting that can affect winter survival and next spring’s vigor. Fall dormancy process

Alfalfa is a perennial plant that depends on fall dormancy to prepare for winter survival. Shortening daylength and declining temperatures in the fall trigger alfalfa to undergo a dormancy reaction that decreases vegetative production and develops crown buds that serve as the source of the rst spring regrowth. Alfalfa metabolism also changes in the fall as it stores energy in the roots in the form of starch and sugars. Starch is converted to sugars, which allows the plant to live during the winter.

Disruption of the dormancy reaction by cutting in September to mid-October (depending on region) affects alfalfa winterhardiness and its survival. Plants cut during this sensitive time stop storing energy and instead expend energy on regrowth. Cutting causes fall regrowth of crown buds that would normally

When nal harvests are delayed until later in October, we can minimize risk. This coincides with the date of the rst alfalfa-killing frosts (23 to 24 degrees) in many regions. Beyond this date, vegetative regrowth will be minimal.

Alfalfa growing degree day research is another method that can be used when considering a fall cutting. Fall alfalfa harvest research is based on a window of 500 to 200 GDD (base 41 degrees). If fall-cut alfalfa accumulates at least 500 GDD before going into the winter, it will have good carbohydrate reserves. This data matches well with the rule-of -thumb to harvest at least ve to six weeks before the killing frost.

A late fall cutting can be taken if the alfalfa does not accumulate more than 200 GDD before a killing frost. This will allow the alfalfa to enter the winter with good carbohydrate reserves. The tricky part is to guess when a killing frost will occur and what dates will fall within 200 GDD prior to the killing frost date. Therefore, if the hay is needed, most will wait until at or after the killing freeze to cut. Advantages of stubble going into winter

Sometimes farmers are concerned that the fall growth will smother and kill the stand over winter. Experts say this does not happen with a legume such as alfalfa. Rather, leaves freeze and eventually drop off the plant. The old, fall stem growth may impact

Harvesting past mid-October removes stubble from the eld. Alfalfa cutting height of 5 to 6 inches is recommended to aid in winter survival as it collects snow, which can insulate the soil. If your equipment cannot be set high, set it as high as you can. Even without snow, this stubble can insulate the soil from the sun’s energy that can warm the soil and expose the plant to excess cycles of thawing and freezing. Stubble can also disrupt ice sheeting and prevent smothering of plants, which all contribute to winter survival. Increasing the mower height to allow for more stubble is one solution. Some producers leave uncut strips within the eld to help catch snow, which may help as well.

Proceed with caution

Taking an alfalfa cutting in the late fall always comes with inherent risk, but that risk may be enhanced if the eld has already been stressed by intensive summer cutting, pest issues, low soil fertility, drought stress or poor soil drainage.

A vigorous, healthy stand is more tolerant of fall cutting than a stressed and weakened stand.

Cutting alfalfa during the critical fall period can be tempting due to the apparent high quality of the forage in the fall and sunny fall conditions. This is especially true if farms are short on feed or trying to reduce expensive non-forage byproducts. If you decide to cut this fall, work with an agronomist or nutritionist to determine the best time for a specic geography.

Barry Visser is a nutritionist for Vita Plus.

Celebrating anniversaries

What do you do when your wedding anniversary falls in the middle of harvest season? You give thanks that on at least one day you outranked all the demands of the cows and farm for him to make it to the church on time to say, “I do.”

We are not always able to celebrate on our anniversary day, but that has become a blessing. If we did something every year, nothing would be special. It would just be another routine. This way, I can remember the different ways we have celebrated over the years.

We chose to get married in September because it seemed to be a family tradition. Both our parents and Mark’s grandparents were married this month. All would eventually celebrate 57 to 63 years together. We gured the odds were in our favor, and we seem to be on the right track as we wrap up our 35th year together and start another silage harvest season.

Some of my favorite anniversary celebrations focus on a meal I didn’t have to cook. We have dressed up (red satin dress and suit) for a romantic dinner at a fancy restaurant in the Twin Cities; we have plopped down on the couch with pizza and cheap wine in sweatpants after milking. One special celebration included a babysitter for the three kids, dinner at a supper club and a tornado traveling through the area. The next year, we celebrated with our four kids.

Despite the special celebrations, most of our anniversary meals have been a quick sandwich between loads of corn silage. We generally don’t even stop to eat together, but we still irt through dusty tractor windows as we pass in the eld. It makes you feel like you’re back in junior high school with the giggles as the cutest boy in the class gives you a wink.

All this anniversary tradition started the year we were married. Mark is the only one who operates the

chopper around here. He wanted to have the silos lled before our wedding regardless if the corn was dry enough or not. He nished lling on Thursday. We were wed on Saturday. We were back from our honeymoon on Wednesday to top off the silos after they had settled. Apparently, the corn wasn’t dry enough. The silos ran all winter and long into the spring. That’s when I knew we would never do that again. The harvest would outrank the anniversary celebration.

Mark and the chopper pulled into the elds on Monday morning, our anniversary day. He is starting in the corn eld on the north side of the driveway. There goes my green privacy fence. Now, we’ll start to hear the trafc whizzing past our place as people go about their lives and new adventures.

By Natalie Schmitt Columnist

When he started in the elds, I started harvesting from the garden. I need to do a better job of planting dates that don’t have harvest conicts. Corn silage time means the grapes and apples are ripe too. So, the rush is on. Luckily, we have Austin home, so I have some spare time to process apples and make grape jelly between chores.

It feels like we’re in the middle of running a marathon which started with the spring eldwork. As with any long race, there comes a point where you hit the wall. You’ve come too far to turn back; yet, you can’t take another step forward. But, you know if you take just one more step, you’ll be closer to nishing the race. You take a deep breath hoping it will lighten your body as you move the next foot forward. You know the end of the harvest race is just around the corner if you keep moving forward.

When we were rst married, Mark promised me things would slow down during the winter months. We could take some time off to celebrate our anniversary then. The only thing I see slowing down during the winter months around here is us. Maybe this winter will be the year when we nally nd a break in the farm routine to reconnect and slow down.

I was able to get a taste of what it is like to take a break. A few of my high school girlfriends and I met in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to celebrate our new decade of life. Three of them were vacation experts. They had their routine of the pool, hot tub, beach and dinner. The other gal and I haven’t vacationed much and didn’t know how to take it easy. So, we walked miles up and down the beach as the ocean tried to tickle our toes. All I could think was how much I needed to get Mark here to hear the roar of the ocean and to soak up the warmth of the sun-dried sand.

We don’t always need to escape to far off places to recharge and reconnect, but we do need to take time to break the daily routine and celebrate the wonders around us. We may not celebrate the anniversary day, but we treasure the years.

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

“Our

Just

Fairy tales, part one

Once upon a time, there were three dairy farm kids who loved to show their cows at local fairs.

Well, actually there still are three dairy farm kids, but their show season has come to an end for this year.

These are the tales of their season.

not so much.

Monika prefers to show cows (over calves and heifers), so we looked through the barn for another cow to show. It just so happened that one night, Galadriel was standing right next to Cadillac. Galadriel has aged like ne wine. She grew from a moderate, correct 2-year-old into a remarkable 3-year-old. After a couple days of deliberation, we nally took Cadillac and Galadriel out into the yard. I told Monika to forget what she knows about each cow and use her dairy judging skills to decide which cow would place higher.

By Sadie Frericks Columnist

Two and a half years ago, Daphne was the rst kid out to the barn after school and claimed a new red and white heifer calf as hers. She named the calf Daisy and spent many hours in the calf pen with her – petting her, brushing her, and hugging her.

Much to her disappointment, there was no show that summer for Daphne and Daisy. There was no show for Daisy last summer, either, as she was going through what we call the uglyduckling stage.

This year, Daphne nally got to show Daisy. As Daisy got closer and closer to calving, she started blooming into the cow we expect her to be. She was only fresh a couple weeks at our county fair and still milking off some edema, but that didn’t deter Daphne. She walked Daisy around the ring with 2.5 years’ worth of anticipation and pride.

There’s an old country song by The Forester Sisters that croons the line:

“Just in case you ever change your mind/ If you suddenly decide to give me one more try/ I’ll be waiting in the wings, just looking for a sign/ Just in case you change your mind.”

This song is Galadriel’s story. We knew she was a special calf when she was born, but she wasn’t quite big enough to show as a fall calf or a fall senior yearling. When she calved in that fall, our excitement grew even more. But, again, we weren’t sure she was mature enough to show as a 2-year-old. We also had hesitations about showing a later lactation cow. In the end, she was passed up for Cadillac, another 2-year-old

Monika was planning to show Cadillac again this summer. She enjoyed showing Cadillac last year. And, since Cadillac is Cherry’s daughter, there are lots of high expectations for Cadillac in the show ring.

But when Cadillac calved in this summer, she just didn’t look the part. Some cows age like ne wine; some

Galadriel didn’t place as high in her class or the state fair lineup at our county fair as Monika wanted her to, but she did earn Monika a state fair trip, which lead to another decision. Should she show Galadriel as a dry cow, since she was supposed to go dry Aug. 11, or take a chance and show her in milk? Galadriel didn’t look a day past 120 days in milk at our county fair, but there was concern about whether she’d hold that condition until the state fair.

Monika decided to take the chance and keep Galadriel in milk. It turned out to be a decision well made. Galadriel placed second in her class at state fair and earned a purple ribbon. Monika beamed with joy. When the cows came back for overall, Monika and Galadriel were pulled out, and Galadriel was named reserve champion cow of the grade Holstein show. Monika’s smile was mega-watt.

And, then to ice the cake, Galadriel cooperated enough during the preliminary round of showmanship for Monika to advance to the nal round. After Monika’s experience with her heifer and showmanship at the state fair last year, she set a goal of advancing to showmanship nals. Monika thought she had a decent chance with Cadillac, because Cadillac leads like a dream. But, Galadriel is quite a bit more spirited, so when she switched to Galadriel, her condence tempered.

By the time the nal round of showmanship was done, Galadriel was too. But you’ve never seen a girl happier to place last in a round of showmanship. The medal around her neck shone as brightly as her smile.

The end.

Actually, we hope it’s not the end. Daphne and Monika are already making plans to parade Daisy and Galadriel around the ring again next year.

More fairy tales to come in the next chapter.

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