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Expanding for four families
Mullikins grow to support next generation
By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com
WALDO, Wis. — Sometimes, children come back to the farm after working other jobs or having other careers. Sometimes though they never leave, as is the case with the Mullikins.
The desire to farm was strong in siblings, Cody, Jessica and Brett. From the time they were young, the third-generation trio wanted to follow in their parents’ footsteps and pursue careers on the farm.
Today, each one specializes in an area of their family’s dairy as they work alongside their parents, Dan and Shelly Mullikin. The farm is owned in partnership between the ve Mullikins who milk 480 cows and farm 1,200 acres near Waldo.
“Our kids are very dedicated, and Shelly and I are very proud of them,” Dan said.
In August 2023, the family moved into new facilities while
nearly tripling the size of their herd. The growth at Sunrise Acres of Waldo LLP was done to support the new generation.
“All three of our kids got married in a two-year timespan, so we went from one family to four families within two years,” Dan said. “We’re in it for the long haul, and this sets us up for the future.”
Jessica is the herd manager, Brett is in charge of tech and maintenance, Cody handles feeding and crops, Shelly takes care of calves and bookwork, and Dan oversees the entire operation. Cody and his wife, Katie, have a daughter, Evalynn, and also run a trucking business. Jessica is married to Dylan Heimerl, and Brett is married to Brittany. The Mullikins’ spouses do not work on the farm. Instead, the ve family members are assisted by several part-time employees.
Turn
New, improved cheese plant
By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com
PORTAGE, Wis. —
The nal steps in restoring production at the Associated Milk Producers Inc. cheese processing and packaging plant in Portage are underway following a January 2023 re. While improving upon the original design, the revamped facility will feature additional space for packaging and production, and upgrades to heating, ventilation, air conditioning and ooring.
Improvements in plant design will increase production efciency, process ow and product quality.
The plant is organized in two main production areas — natural cheese packaging and processed cheese production and packaging. The area of the plant primarily impacted by the re was the processed cheese operations.
Tyler Banks, AMPI Portage division manager, said the rst step was getting the plant back up and running following the re. Some production lines were back in ac-
tion within six weeks, while others came online later in 2023.
“Once cleanup following the re was complete, the natural department came back online to full production relatively quickly,” Banks said.
The rebuild is being completed in phases with production capacity growing upon completion of each phase. The project is slated for completion in late fall, at which point the plant will return to full production.
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
The Mullikin family — Jessica (from le ), Bre , Dan and Cody — gathers in their new robot barn Feb. 25 on their farm near Waldo, Wisconsin. The Mullikins milk 480 cows with eight Lely A5 robots and farm 1,200 acres. Not pictured is Dan’s wife, Shelly.
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Incorporating technology to reduce labor and increase exibility fueled a switch to robotic milking when building their new barn. Cows are milked by eight Lely A5 robots and average 2.7 milkings daily.
“The hours of labor hired here per day are a lot less now,” Brett said.
The barn contains four pens of 120 cows each with two robots per pen in a free-ow design. Robots are positioned in a row on either side of the feed alley in the center of the barn. First and secondlactation cows are on one side, and mature cows are on the other. A Lely Juno automatic feed pusher conducts regular feed push-ups.
The 460-stall, sand-bedded, tunnelventilated barn is 500- feet by 121- feet. Each pen features a sort pen which has simplied herd health checks, breeding and other cow work.
“The sort pens allow us to work with cows on an individual basis and not disrupt cows we don’t have to work with,” Jessica said.
As a result, the family now does weekly herd checks instead of every other week.
When designing the barn, sort pens were a big question mark the family said.
“It was a big cost and consumes a large area of the barn, but we’re so glad we didn’t cut that,” Dan said.
Every sort pen contains 10 stalls and 12 headlocks. The only headlocks in the barn are located within the sort pens. Cows eat at a feed rail throughout the rest
are milked in robots while
25 at the Mullikins’
pen in a row on either
of the building.
Previously, the Mullikins milked three times a day in a walkthrough, atbarn, 10-stall parlor.
“Rather than upgrading facilities, it seemed easier to start from scratch on a green site,” Dan said.
The Mullikin family waited a long time to get the barn of their dreams.
“It took seven years of planning and design,” Dan said. “COVID happened in there, and we didn’t know if we could sell milk or not, so we put the brakes on the project. Then we struggled to get building materials.”
Dan’s dad, Virgil Mullikin, passed away January 2023 in the middle of the building process.
“I am sorry he never got to see it nished,” Dan said. “He was very progressive and always supportive of technology. At age 88, he would still come over to the farm and make sure they were building everything right.”
The Mullikins said they appreciate the robotic system’s activity monitoring feature which helps detect health issues and cows in heat.
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
Cows
others walk through the free-ow design Feb.
farm near Waldo, Wisconsin. Robots are posi oned two per
side of the feed alley in the center of the barn.
Humbird, WI
Barneveld, WI
Optimal hoofcare for dairy
System
The optimal hoofcare program uses a mat and a automated pump for the application of
Central placement at the exit of the milking area ensures that cows pass over the mat regularly for automated hoof care.
• Skin care for healthy claws
• Ensures good adhesion to the claw
• pH-neutral
• Contains natural extracts (propolis)
• Optimised for the MS AutoHoofClean System • Environmentally friendly
“Cow health is a big benet of the system,” Cody said. “We catch sickness sooner and also have better repro rates.”
To grow their herd, the Mullikins purchased 350 animals.
“Increasing by that much is a lot to take on, and I’m not sure I would recommend doing that,” Dan said.
The Mullikins did two start-ups one month apart. The staggered starts were due to animal availability and waiting on one herd to arrive. It is another decision Dan does not recommend, but rather than rushing, the family felt it was more important to buy quality animals which they found through word of mouth.
Eighty people helped the family during startup on a three-shift rotation.
“We appreciate every one of those people,” Dan said. “We couldn’t have done it without them.”
Their dealer, Central Ag Supply Inc., supplied people to help with startup around the clock.
“Our dealer support during startup was phenomenal,” Dan said. “They stuck with us through everything.”
The Mullikins remain in growth mode as they continue to buy cows to maintain herd size. They will be adding replacements until September when their
STACEY
SMART/DAIRY STAR
A sort pen stands empty with fresh sand-bedded stalls Feb. 25 at Sunrise Acres of Waldo LLP near Waldo, Wisconsin. Each of the barn’s four sort pens contains 10 stalls and 12 headlocks.
own heifers start calving in, pushing the herd to three times its original size.
The Mullikins’ breeding has shifted to focusing on teat placement and length.
“It’s udder, udder, udder for robots,” Dan said. “Before, we focused more on type.”
Growth of this extent has required putting up three times the amount of feed as before.
“Feeding is a big difference,”Brett said. “We chop a lot more corn now, but it’s hard to know how much extra feed you need.”
Having previously done a lot of cash cropping, the Mullikins did not need to grow much in acreage. They went from 500 acres of soybeans down to 120, replacing those acres with alfalfa. More manure to deal with is another factor.
“We used to be able to hose it all, but now we truck it to farther elds,” Dan said. “There are many things to consider with an expansion of this size.”
The farm’s calf population also swelled, going from 15 up to 60. The family bought more hutches and moved them to a new pad. They also got a bigger pasteurizer.
Through growth and grit, the Mullikins are achieving success in their family business.
“I have no regrets,” Dan said. “I would do robots again. This is a whole new system, and I can’t see going back to what we had before. There’s a learning curve, but it’s getting better every day.”
The Mullikins continue to embrace the future while lled with a passion for dairy farming.
“I love the industry and want to continue to see it grow,” Dan said. “Farmers and agriculture are so important to society, and I’m proud of what we do.”
The World’s Best
Processor
AMPI is currently in the phase of relocating HVAC and processed cheese loaf production. The area impacted by the re is being demolished and will become new spaces for operations toward the end of summer. The nal phase of the rebuild will include construction of the new receiving area and the processed slice cheese production area.
The facility’s physical footprint will decrease slightly, but the overall processing space will increase. Banks said a new layout provides better utilization of space. Rethinking trafc patterns and the plant’s operational footprint has made it possible to repurpose areas to make more room for operations and receiving while also creating space to expand production in the future.
U.S. and abroad.
“We’ve developed a reputation for producing award-winning cheese at our Portage plant, and customers appreciate knowing the story behind the products,” Reece said. “AMPI is a dairy farmer-owned cooperative with members and employees committed to providing quality care for land, animals, the co-op and communities — that’s our ‘Co-op Crafted’ promise.”
Tyler Banks
AMPI
Portage Division Manager
“Renovations were focused on improving the processing and production environments to be the industry’s best in terms of design standards and air quality,” Banks said. “At the same time, we considered space to allow opportunities for further growth and exibility with automation.
The project features a variety of improvements, including stainless steel re suppression throughout along with hygienic and sanitary HVAC design.
“Many areas have been designed above industry standards to allow for reliable and efcient operations into the next decades,” Banks said. “At the same time, we are renovating areas that will allow for equipment installation to expand production capacity and future business growth.”
In addition, there will be space to accommodate future investments in new or expanded production equipment.
AMPI’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, Marshall Reece, said customer demand for AMPI processed American cheese slices and loaves and natural cheese shreds and chunks continues to be strong in the
AMPI is headquartered in New Ulm, Minnesota, and owned by dairy farm families from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. AMPI is the largest farmer-owned cheese cooperative in the U.S. Cheese, butter and powdered dairy products are marketed to foodservice, retail and food ingredient customers.
Dairy farmer and AMPI chairman of the board Dave Peterson, who milks 70 cows near Boyd, has been an AMPI member since 1986.
“AMPI has long invested in value-added manufacturing, enabling dairy farmer-owners to capture more value from every drop of milk,” Peterson said. “Owning a processing and packaging plant moves us one step closer to the customer.”
Although the Portage plant does not receive and process milk from member farms, it is an important link for its dairy farmers, providing various product opportunities. The Portage plant receives cheese made at external and internal sources, and Peterson said each AMPI member owns and benets from the facility which they call their “super foodservice” plant.
Production and customer order fulllment are ongoing throughout the rebuild process as AMPI works to restore production to pre-re levels.
“We’re excited to be in this phase where new construction is happening and our visions are becoming reality,” Banks said.
Remaining true to their ideals
Pralles named Wisconsin distinguished Holstein breeders
By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
HUMBIRD, Wis. — For Scott Pralle and Pam SelzPralle, their goal has been to remain focused on breeding a balanced cow — one that can excel at production while staying healthy and troublefree across a long life.
“I believe that cows have to have a strong foundation to do the things we expect of them,” Scott said. “We breed for balance: really good udders, feet and legs and good front ends.”
The Pralles operate SelzPralle Dairy near Humbird, where they milk 450 registered Holsteins, with a rolling herd average of 31,593 pounds of milk, 1,276 pounds of fat and 1,000 pounds of protein. With a breed age average of 110.4%, the herd ranks rst in the nation among herds with 260 or more cows.
Remaining true to their
Pam Selz-Pralle (le ) and Sco Pralle spend me in their freestall barn Feb. 20 at Selz-Pralle Dairy near Humbird, Wisconsin. The Pralles were honored as the 2024 Wisconsin Holstein Associa on’s Dis nguished Holstein Breeders.
breeding philosophy and ideals has earned them many accolades throughout their career, including being named the 2024 Wisconsin Holstein Association’s Distinguished Holstein Breeder, an honor they were presented with at the organization’s annual
convention Feb. 22.
Making the transition from a tiestall barn to a freestall and parlor facility in 1998 required the Pralles to make adjustments to their breeding philosophy.
“Moving into the parlor, the cows needed to be able to
adapt to their environment,” Scott said. “They needed to be more athletic, have better locomotion. They have to have width and strength.”
When the Pralles expanded into their new facility, they purchased two herds of cows to meld with their established
herd — an endeavor Scott said took time.
“It was almost 15 years before I was really satised that I had turned those two groups of cows around to t my breeding ideals,” Scott said. “They were a good foundation, but it took several generations to make them look like my cows.”
To create cows that t their ideal, the Pralles use care in sire selection.
“I wanted to stay true to myself, more down the middle,” Scott said. “I try not to get carried away with the extremes. I focus more on proven bulls than young sires — there is more risk in using young sires. A young sire that doesn’t turn out can haunt you for a long time.”
The Pralles place emphasis on the lineage of the bulls they choose.
“I look at cow families and sire stacks,” Scott said. “If you use a young sire today, you have to be really careful because some of them might have three or four generations of cows that haven’t been scored or don’t have milk records. I don’t y with that.”
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
Over time, the Pralles have modied the linear data they emphasize.
“I probably look more at cheese yield dollars and fertility indexes now,” Scott said. “I have looked a lot at (daughter pregnancy rate), but have been reading that it might not be quite as inuential as productive life. I might start looking at that a little bit.”
Although they make mating decisions using their own parameters, the Pralles said the bull proofs and information gleaned from them are important.
“You have to respect the data, but we rely on the insurance of the cow family” Pam said. “Scott is really particular about the pedigrees and the generations of performance behind them. When you talk to him about bulls, he’ll go back six generations.”
Braedale Goldwyn is the bull that has earned the honors of being Scott’s all-time favorite.
“Goldwyn’s a bull I could always rely on,” Scott said. “If I purchase something, I usually make sure there is some Goldwyn in there somewhere.”
Consistently creating their kind of cow has paid off for the Pralles.
“We’ve never had a lot of health problems,” Pam said. “Health issues start when cows aren’t as strong. We
give them that foundation and provide the best management we can from there.”
The Pralles have learned other dairy farmers appreciate their cows too. Selling dairy replacement animals has provided an additional revenue stream.
“We have a lot of repeat customers because they want to buy cows that will be successful,” Pam said. “By breeding cows with dairy strength, good udders and good feet and legs, we have found people like them because they are trouble-free and they last.”
The success their cows have in other herds is a point of pride for the Pralles.
“The winners of this year’s Distinguished Young (Holstein) Breeder Award, Derrek and Darren Kamphuis, purchased cows from us when they expanded, including a Declan daughter that scored 93 points,” Pam said. “That is cool to have our breeding make an impact on their herd.”
Building generation after generation of cows that reach their maximum potential throughout long lives is where Scott’s passion lies. Pam said her husband is an artisan breeder.
“He is intentional about each mating; he looks for patterns,” Pam said. “There is a mastery to it, just like there is a mastery in athletics or other
things. He really loves the art of breeding dairy cattle.”
Two families rise to the top of the herd as favorites — descendants of Joliam Dundee “Phoenix” 3035 EX92-GMD and those of SelzPralle Aftershock 3918 VG88, who set the national milk record in 2017 with 78,170 pounds of 4.0% butterfat milk.
Phoenix has left her mark on the Pralle’s herd with 32 daughters — 16 of which are scored Excellent.
“Phoenix ushed like a chicken,” Scott said. “Goldwyn worked great on her. Even bulls that shouldn’t have worked, did. She was that consistent. She has Shottle daughters that are scored 93 and 94 points. Half the heifer calves born in the past two months descend from her.”
Aftershock 3918 descends from a cow purchased during the Pralle’s expansion.
“That family had a lot of milk, but it took time to make them the kind of cows we like,” Pam said. “The exciting thing is her daughters are hitting it on all cylinders for type, too. They aren’t show cows, but they are solid, hightype cows.”
Turn to PRALLES | Page 9
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Calves stay warm in a calf barn Feb. 18 at Selz-Pralle Dairy near Humbird, Wisconsin. Calves at the farm are housed in social groups and fed with mob feeders.
Joliam Doc Gypsy 5793 EX-93 stands in the freestall barn Dec. 9, 2024, at SelzPralle Dairy near Humbird, Wisconsin. Gypsy, a daughter of Selz-Pralle A ershock 3918 VG-88, is a herd favorite because of her outstanding type and produc on. herd.”
Of 19 descendants in the herd, 3918 has 14 milking daughters, three of which are classied Excellent. She also has one Excellent granddaughter who produced over 50,000 pounds of milk.
“That cow threw health traits,” Scott said. “Her daughters have over 12,000 days in milk and they’ve never had mastitis or ketosis problems — they’re never in the sick pen for anything. We participated with the Chippewa Valley Technical College for a herd analysis program and one student picked out all those daughters and found they averaged 10 or 12 pounds more than the rest of the
Holding steadfast to their breeding philosophy has allowed the Pralles to create a herd they are proud of, full of solid cows that live long, productive lives and are attractive enough to generate marketing opportunities.
The passion for creating those modern cows, the result of years of careful breeding, keeps Scott looking to the future.
“I don’t watch the older breeders anymore,” Scott said. “I watch the younger ones — they are the ones that push you the most. Those are the guys that keep my re going, the ones I want to stay competitive with.”
PHOTO SUBMITTED
A-Star Services
Canadian dairy export policy under re
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“The pregnancy report is very useful.”
What are some of the DHIA tests you use?
Other than the standard reports, we also receive pregnancy results.
Which is your favorite and why? The pregnancy report is very useful to keep our calving interval where we would like it.
How do you use them within your dairy? We use the production and SCC reports for culling decisions and use the fat, protein, and MUN reports to evaluate feed ration changes.
How long have you been using the DHIA pregnancy test? We have been using the milk pregnancy test for about two years.
What do you like about the DHIA Pregnancy Tests? It’s nice to be able to do the pregnancy test without any extra time or labor.
How does testing with DHIA bene t your dairy operation? We also use the individual somatic cell count scores. This helps us keep our SCC low so that we can receive quality premiums from our co-op.
Tell us about your farm. We milk 95 cows and raise all of our replacements. The cows are housed in sand bedded freestalls and milked in a double 5 parlor. We also have a 40-cow beef herd and raise chickens for Pilgrims Pride. Our farm was started by my father and grandfather in 1937. Two of our children and most of the grandkids work on the farm.
The House Ways and Means Committee focused on expanding trade at Tuesday’s hearing. Former agricultural trade ambassador Gregg Doud, who is now the president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, spoke about the importance of trade enforcement. Doud said 44% of U.S. dairy exports are shipped to our neighbors in Canada and Mexico. “Mexico has largely been a positive trading partner, Canada has not,” Doud said. “Unfortunately, Canada has a long history of attempting to undermine previously agreed-to market access, a trend that has continued under Unites States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Through manipulative tariff rate quota policies and a systemic circumvention of USMCA’s dairy protein export disciplines, Canada has cheated U.S. exporters out of market access benets promised to them under the agreements and has tried to dispose of growing volumes of articially low-priced dairy protein into global markets.” Doud testied the 2026 USMCA review represents a critical opportunity for Canada to reform these practices.
Trade gap is “pathetic”
char and every Democratic member of the Senate Agriculture Committee are asking Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins for more information on the termination of numerous USDA employees. They want a breakdown by state, agency, job position and veteran status. The letter said these layoffs jeopardize the USDA response to avian u and their ability to process farm loans, disaster relief and farm assistance.
By Don Wick Columnist Ag Insider
Greer conrmed
The Trump administration’s new point person on trade was conrmed by the U.S. Senate with a 56-43 vote. Jamieson Greer is an attorney who specializes in international trade. He previously served as chief of staff to former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. In a statement, U.S. Dairy Export Council President and CEO Krysta Harden said Greer “is a champion for American farmers and workers and will bring strong leadership to a critical agency.”
Economic relief on the way
Speaking at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Outlook Forum, Doud emphasized the need for a more aggressive U.S. trade policy, particularly in closing the agricultural trade gap with the European Union. “We import $3 billion in dairy from the European Union and we export $167 million to the European Union; that’s pathetic,” said Doud. “We export 15 times more cheese to Guatemala than we do the European Union. We export more cheese to New Zealand and they’re a major (dairy) exporter with 5 million people.” Doud, who is the former chief agricultural trade negotiator, said the U.S. agricultural trade decit with the EU today is $23.6 billion. He pointed to the $8 billion investment in U.S. dairy processing as evidence of the industry’s potential for growth.
Senate Dems challenge mass layoffs at USDA
Ranking member Amy Klobu-
Speaking at the Ag Outlook Forum, Rollins said USDA plans to release the farm assistance payments by the congressional deadline of March 21. At the end of 2024, Congress passed $10 billion in ad hoc assistance within the overall disaster aid package.
NASDA passes new policy
The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture has updated its policy book. The NASDA members voted for policies to increase support for American-produced biofuels. The group is also advocating for labor reform and initiatives that expand the role of food as medicine. A resolution of support was also given for 2026 being the International Year of the Woman Farmer.
Elanco and Medgene partnering on H5N1 vaccine for dairy cattle
A new avian inuenza vaccine for dairy cattle is moving one step
Calvin & Tammy Beumer
95 Holstein cows • Hillman, MN Testing with DHIA since 1980
Animal Health has an agreement with Medgene, based in Brookings, South Dakota, to bring this vaccine to market. The USDA has already approved Medgene’s vaccine technology platform in cattle, allowing the accelerated development of the H5N1 vaccine. Medgene has existing vaccine supplies to deploy for this purpose. The product is in the nal stages of review for conditional license approval.
Dairy groups sue Attorney General Kaul
The Wisconsin Dairy Alliance and the Venture Dairy Cooperative have led a lawsuit against State Attorney General Josh Kaul, challenging his decision to outsource the department’s environmental litigation work. The case was led in Calumet County Circuit Court.
Hay market holds steady
According to the USDA monthly report on hay prices in the Upper Midwest, the hay market was mostly steady in February. Grade 1 hay averaged $107 per ton for large squares and $101 per ton for large round bales. Grade 2 hay averaged $95 for large squares and $94 for large rounds.
No cows needed
Lab-grown meat has made headlines in recent years, but the world’s rst lab-grown cow’s milk may soon be coming to market. A Boston company is producing what is called UnReal Milk. Rather than coming from a cow, this product is made from cell cultures. It reportedly replicates the
taste, texture and nutrition of dairy milk and is billed as a lower-carbon, cruelty-free alternative.
FarmFirst elects ofcer team
John Rettler of Neosho, Wisconsin, was reelected as president of FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative’s board of directors. Bob Dietzel of East Dubuque, Illinois, is vice president. Wayne Gajewski of Athens, Wisconsin, is treasurer, and Stephanie Hughes of Pittsville, Wisconsin, is secretary.
Geiger elected to farmer-rancher board
U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action has elected ve new board members, including one Wisconsinite. Corey Geiger is a dairy economist with CoBank. He previously served as editor for Hoard’s Dairyman.
Trivia challenge
National FFA Week began in 1948. That answers our last trivia question. For this week’s trivia, what is the home state for Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins? We’ll have the answer in our next edition of the Dairy Star.
Don Wick is owner/broadcaster for the Red River Farm Network of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Wick has been recognized as the National Farm Broadcaster of the Year and served as president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. Don and his wife, Kolleen, have two sons, Tony and Sam, and ve grandchildren, Aiden, Piper, Adrienne, Aurora and Sterling.
Finding excellence through goals, positive culture
Evergreen Dairy Resort wins reproduction award
By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
ANTIGO, Wis. — Paying attention to the details has created a culture of excellence at Evergreen Dairy Resort, and that culture is credited as a foundation of the farm’s success.
Evergreen Dairy Resort near Antigo is home to 1,600 Jersey and Jersey-cross cows. The business is a six-person partnership and managed by the team of John Freund, Connie deRoos, and one of the owners, Mark Moss.
“Evergreen has been continually building and working towards getting better every year,” John Freund said. “In the last three years, we have built a new parlor and added a new freestall facility with modern ventilation. Every time we add a new tool or ne-tune our protocols and training, it helps us get a little better.”
Those efforts were rewarded when the farm was one of four recognized by CentralStar Cooperative Inc. with a ReproStar Award, acknowledging excellence in reproduction while
exemplifying key practices that drive those reproductive successes.
A multi-tiered reproductive strategy is in place at Evergreen Dairy Resort, allowing the farm to achieve its goals.
The top tier of purebred Jerseys are bred to sexed Jersey semen, while the second tier is bred to sexed Holstein or sexed Holstein-Jersey cross bulls. The bottom of the herd is bred to beef sires. In addition to those parameters, a small percentage of animals are used as donors for in vitro fertilization to capitalize on the best genetics within the herd.
All beef animals and dairy bull calves born on the farm are raised for beef, bringing diversication to the farm.
“We base the numbers on our expected usage and needs,” Freund said. “Our next endeavor will be to build a new hospital and transition barn and to modernize the whole calving facility. That will allow us to grow to 2,000 head of milking females. We have recently stepped-up breeding for females, to support that expansion internally.”
The farm’s reproductive statistics include a 40% pregnancy
rate with 63% of animals settling on rst service. A double ovsynch protocol is employed for the rst breeding.
“Those numbers are exciting for us, we believe our future looks bright,” Freund said. “Based on our genetic selections, we believe we can achieve hav-
ing 70% of our cows conceiving on the rst breeding within the next three years.”
The double ovsynch protocol is combined with the use of a DeLaval herd monitoring system as the primary tools for estrus detection. The farm has an 80%-82% service rate.
Cows detected open following the rst service undergo a GGPG double ovsynch program for re-synchronization. According to Freund, 85% of the herd is conrmed pregnant by 126 days
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
The leadership team at Evergreen Dairy Resort — John Freund (from le ), Connie deRoos and Mark Moss — takes a break Feb. 6 at Evergreen Dairy Resort near An go, Wisconsin. The farm was recently recognized with a CentralStar ReproStar Award for excellence in their reproduc on program.
Jersey cows eat Feb. 6 at Evergreen Dairy Resort near An go, Wisconsin. The farm is home to 1,600 Jersey and Jersey-cross cows.
in milk. All A.I., ultrasounds and embryo implantation is done in-house.
“Some might think we’re breeding our cows too early, but that uterus is too valuable to us to wait,” Freund said. “It’s not just about the milk production. Even if that cow could’ve milked a little more, you’re losing that opportunity with that uterus. At 200 days in milk, we quit breeding, no exceptions.”
The reproductive statistics for which the farm staff were lauded are the result of the team’s commitment to achieving the goals set for the herd, Freund said.
“It all starts with the people, and we work hard to create that culture,” Freund said. “Mark, Connie and I work hard to take care of our team, to build that sense of unity. From there we take care of the cattle. Our team takes pride in what they are doing, and it shows. As leadership, we not only set the expectations, but we provide feedback to everyone.”
Freund said he prefers to use weekly huddles over traditional staff meetings to communicate expectations and feedback. The huddles allow team members to voice to leadership what they are seeing, he said, with engagement going both ways.
“We make it public to our entire team how we’re doing,” Freund said. “We have a big dry erase board and write down the most important things happening throughout the month. At the end of the month, we get our ‘grade.’ … We’re Evergreen Dairy — if we have a month where we meet all our goals, all our key performance indicators, we call that a Green Star Month, and we’re all proud
when we meet those goals.”
The farm has been in operation for 17 years, and has employees who have worked at the farm since its inception.
“We have great retention; in the last year we have only had one team member leave,” Freund said. “It’s a happy, positive culture. We have fun and enjoy each other’s company.”
The fruits of their labors are found in the bulk tank. The herd is averaging 5.7% butterfat and 3.9% protein on 70 pounds of uid milk a day.
“We’re getting right around 95 pounds of energy-corrected milk on 45 pounds of dry matter,” Freund said. “When we look at our genetic audits, on paper, it says we didn’t select very well for milk, but what we really selected well for was health and longevity. The reality is we’re an elite milk production herd for Jerseys, getting that kind of milk with that kind of dry matter. Why? Because our cows live a long time and stay productive. We’re getting way more milk than we selected for because our cows are living a long time and that is a real opportunity.”
Lengthening productive life in the herd decreases the number of replacement heifers needed to maintain the herd, allowing more animals to be created for the farm’s beef program, generating revenue Freund said.
“Increasing the productive life of our cows will net us the great gains going forward,” Freund said. “That is how we will keep moving forward, improving the herd by keeping those older cows protable longer.”
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
from our side our side OF THE FENCE THE
How did serving as a dairy princess impact who you are?
Lily Bushmaker
Husband, Mitchell, and daughter, Lainey Coleman, Wisconsin Marinette County
Current occupation: Full-time photographer and beef farmer, part-time help at a local grain farm
Tell us about your role as a dairy princess. I was crowned the Wisconsin Ayrshire Queen in March 2018. I handed down the crown in March 2019. My main role as queen was to promote the Ayrshire breed. This involved attending meetings, shows, fairs, dairy breakfasts, the national convention, etc., and interacting with those in attendance.
What is your background in the dairy industry? I did not grow up on a dairy farm but spent as much time as I could in a barn. I helped friends and family with chores, was an active member of 4-H and FFA, owned and showed registered dairy cattle, spent all of my high school and college years working on a dairy farm, and attended Lakeshore Technical College for an associate’s degree in dairy herd and business management.
Why did you want to be a dairy princess? I dreamed of being a dairy princess from a young age. Instead of playing dress-up as Cinderella or Belle, I had a homemade Wisconsin Ayrshire queen sash I made and wore around with a plastic crown. There was no questioning the thought of running as soon as I hit the age requirement of 16.
Describe a fond memory of your time as a dairy princess. Walking on the colored shavings at World Dairy Expo is always a thrill. I had experienced it previously as an exhibitor but then also got to experience it as Wisconsin Ayrshire Queen. Getting to walk the colored shavings and present medals and awards to the top cows in the breed and industry was nothing short of an honor. I love looking back on the photos from that day and seeing myself and fellow dairy royalty standing proudly next to the champions of the Ayrshire breed that year.
How did serving as a dairy princess impact who you are? From an introvert’s perspective, serving as queen opened so many doors for me. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone running for this position. I spoke in front of large groups of people, which I would never have been able to do previously. I approached complete strangers while promoting the breed and industry at events. Do not get me wrong, these things were a challenge for me at the beginning of my reign, but by the end of my time as queen, they came with greater ease. These learned and practiced skills traveled with me into college, competing at Professional Agricultural Student and Dairy Challenge competitions. These skills also followed me into the photography industry, communicating and working with clients.
What would you say to someone who is considering being an ambassador for the industry? I highly recommend being an ambassador in the dairy industry. It is a great community of people who are here to support you in everything you do. We all want to watch you succeed and are here to help you along the way. I know what it is like to be scared of the position and tasks at hand, but I promise those scary things will benet you more than you will ever realize. The time of your reign will go by fast, but you’ll always appreciate the skills learned and people met along the way.
How do you continue to promote the industry in your life? I may not be directly involved in the dairy industry anymore, but a part of my heart always will be. As a rural photographer, I get to work with dairy farm families often, whether it be capturing family photos in the cow pasture, videographing the nal days of a dairy legacy, photographing the local Breakfast on the Farm host or creating a video to document a robot startup. Farm families are my favorite clients to work with. I love showcasing the greatest industry to be a part of.
Rochelle Ripp Schnadt Husband, Evan, and children, Leighton and Ellery Lodi, Wisconsin Columbia County
Current occupation: Business development for C.O.nxt as well as co-owner of Heartland Craft Grains
Tell us about your role as a dairy princess. I was Alice in Dairyland in 2012-2013. As Wisconsin’s ambassador for dairy and all things agriculture and food, I traveled the state learning more about the segments of agriculture I wasn’t as familiar with (cranberries, mink, ginseng) and sharing those stories and learnings through classroom visits, TV and radio interviews, communicating on social media and guest speaking at in-person events.
What is your background in the dairy industry? I grew up on my family’s dairy and crop farm in Lodi, where my parents and brothers continue to customraise heifers today. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with a degree in agriculture business, spent a semester abroad in the Netherlands and have been working in agriculture marketing and communications my entire career.
Why did you want to be a dairy princess? During my study abroad experience, I developed a much deeper appreciation and returned home with a better understanding and global perspective of the impact of Wisconsin’s dairy and agriculture industry. What I aimed to do in my one year as an ambassador was to share the stories of the agriculture community, helping lift those who humbly served others through their work and offered us so many consumer choices through the diversity of Wisconsin agriculture. For me, I was a farm girl and communications professional with an opportunity to amplify our beloved industry and build connections.
Describe a fond memory of your time as a dairy princess. I was proud to have taught Wisconsin farm boy and farm broadcaster extraordinaire, Orion Samuelson, about Wisconsin pheasants on a trip to WGN Studios. I also returned to my alma mater to give the guest commencement speech. The warm welcomes and smiles shared with Wisconsinites of all ages always brightened my day.
How did serving as a dairy princess impact who you are? Serving as Wisconsin’s 65th Alice in Dairyland has proven to be a key milestone in my personal and professional life. I continue to make connections or reconnect with those I met more than 10 years ago. It also wired me to be a life-long learner, forever curious and nding connections with people and ideas around the world. As a teacher of and ambassador for Wisconsin’s agriculture community, my experiences taught me to think differently about consumer connections to build trust for our industry.
What would you say to someone who is considering being an ambassador for the industry? Absolutely do it. You will build lifelong connections in your network.
How do you continue to promote the industry in your life? As Alice in Dairyland, I was able to promote the dairy industry and all of Wisconsin agriculture. This has fueled my commitment to communicating on behalf of agriculture for my entire career and sparked the desire to promote and sell directly to consumers. My husband and I began Heartland Craft Grains, where we turn grains grown for avor on our family farm into stone-milled ingredients that nourish our customers. It’s turned into our passion, and we love sharing our story and inspiring and informing others along the way.
Carrie Feucht
Family: Husband, Marcus, and children, Kendra, Natalie and Carter Theresa, Wisconsin Dodge County
Current occupation: Territory business manager, Lallemand Animal Nutrition
Tell us about your role as a dairy princess. I was the Wisconsin Holstein Association Princess Attendant in 2011. My role was to promote Holstein Association events and programs as well as the dairy industry. We attended various Wisconsin Holstein events, including shows, conventions, meetings and picnics. We also attended community events to promote dairy, such as local dairy breakfasts, 4-H/FFA activities and more.
What is your background in the dairy industry? I grew up on my family’s dairy farm near Fox Lake. During my upbringing, the farm grew from 100 cows to 500 cows. We started showing grade Holsteins through 4-H. We purchased and leased registered Holstein project calves so that we could show at the Wisconsin State Fair. This led to involvement in the Wisconsin Junior Holstein Association. I participated in dairy bowl and judging through 4-H, FFA and Junior Holstein. I have a bachelor’s degree in dairy science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I was active in Badger Dairy Club, serving as president and the manager of the 17th Badger Invitational Sale. After college, I worked for United Cooperative doing feed sales and nutrition for just over four years. Then I worked for RP Nutrients Inc. for three years, and in May, I will celebrate three years at Lallemand.
Why did you want to be a dairy princess? I wanted to help share the story and opportunities that registered Holsteins had to offer. Being involved in Junior Holstein provided a lot of opportunities for me and my family to build friendships, learn, and travel for state and national Holstein conventions for dairy bowl and award/scholarship recognition.
Amber (Gonske) Wolfe
Daughter of Ken and Alexa Gonske, Pinecrest Acres; siblings, Gerod Gonske, Arlaina Meyer, Allison Rick Rice Lake, Wisconsin
Barron County
Current occupation: Morning host at WJMC Radio in Rice Lake
Tell us about your role as a dairy princess. I served two years as Barron County Junior Guernsey Princess from 1994-1996. I was crowned at our county Guernsey banquet in the fall of 1994. I passed out ribbons for the 1995 and 1996 summer show seasons. At the time, Barron County had huge numbers in our youth dairy program, with a busy local show circuit. We had dairy shows at Chetek, Rice Lake Aqua Expo, Turtle Lake Inter-County Fair, Prairie Farm Dairy Days, Barron County Fair and Ridgeland Community Fair. I helped at the Barron County Dairy Breakfasts, welcoming guests, thanking sponsors and overseeing door prizes alongside our other breed princesses. I was in summer parades and presented awards at our annual Guernsey banquets. I also served as the Wisconsin Guernsey Princess in 1995. I attended district Guernsey parish shows in St. Croix Falls, Seymour and Marsheld; Wisconsin State Fair junior and open shows, where the open show also served as our state show; and World Dairy Expo. I attend sales and herd dispersals, local parades, my local dairy shows, Barron County Dairy Breakfast and other local agricultural events.
What is your background in the dairy industry? I grew up on a registered Guernsey dairy farm in Rice Lake. We averaged 160 milking cows and about the same amount of youngstock. I got involved with showing from a young age, participating in Little Britches at the Barron County Fair. I bought my rst calf in 1987 at a state Guernsey sale hosted by Dale Jensen. I now have as deep as 10th-generation heifers and continue to show them at the Barron County Fair. My family has been showing our Guernseys at Barron County Fair since 1926. I was involved in 4-H, FFA and the junior Guernsey association. I showed as a junior and continue with open class.
Why did you want to be a dairy princess? I grew up mesmerized, watching county and state dairy breed princesses at fairs. It was always tradition for our county princess to compete for Wisconsin Guernsey Princess. That was my rst experience at state convention for the Wisconsin Guernsey Breeders As-
Describe a fond memory of your time as a dairy princess. I don’t have one particular memory that stands out. I do recall a very cold spring show and then we had a crazy hot state show. I recall interacting with a lot of young female Holstein enthusiasts who were excited to meet a real life princess. Handing out awards during World Dairy Expo was a truly awesome experience — not to mention having a front row seat to the entire show. The position also allowed me to travel to parts of the state I had not previously spent much time in.
How did serving as a dairy princess impact who you are? Being a dairy princess allowed me to meet a lot of new people — both those involved in the industry and the public. There is a lot to be said about a large network of connections in the agriculture/dairy industry. The role also helped me to continue to be more condent in speaking in front of large crowds. Being able to communicate with a diverse audience of various sizes is a very important life skill. As we continue to communicate more through technology, the skill of being able to talk to people in person is going to be even more valuable. These skills have helped build condence in myself as well. I’ve used them while giving reasons in dairy judging as well as talking at conferences and even giving a speech at a friend’s wedding. I know a lot of people who have a great fear of speaking in front of others, but it comes fairly easily to me. Along with that is being able to think on your feet. When you are in a public position, you never know what you might get asked so being prepared to answer questions in a well-thought-out manner is very important.
What would you say to someone who is considering being an ambassador for the industry? I would tell them to go for it. The process of running is a great way to build on important life skills like public speaking and interviewing. These are skills that will help you long term in your career and personal life. You also will get to meet people along the way, and the industry is smaller than you think so you never know how the people you meet may come back into your life.
How do you continue to promote the industry in your life? I continue to promote the dairy industry by being involved in my county dairy promotion committee and speaking up for the industry when the opportunity arises. During this time with young children, I have stepped back from coaching dairy bowl and dairy judging, but those are things that I hope to get involved in again as my kids become old enough to participate.
sociation. It was hard for my family to get away for events like that, but that year opened the door for my younger sisters to be more involved on the state level and become future Wisconsin Guernsey princesses.
Describe a fond memory of your time as a dairy princess. Representing Wisconsin in the National Guernsey Queen competition in 1996 was an incredible experience. It was my rst national Guernsey convention, and Maryland was hosting. So many memories; we attended a crab feed along the harbor in Baltimore. Just imagine state princesses wearing bibs, armed with paper towels and trying to gure out how to properly use the mallet. My competition presentation was actually a radio show. We took a day trip to Washington. As we circled the White House, trying to gure out how to get in, many tourists snapped photos of us in our state sashes. We were celebrities. Our escorts for our nal banquet were from the U.S. Naval Academy.
How did serving as a dairy princess impact who you are? Serving as a county and state Guernsey princess helped me grow in public speaking and my passion for the breed. I have denitely taken on leadership roles and stepped up when our state association needs help with youth contests, judging and presenting awards. I have also helped plan Guernsey princess reunions.
What would you say to someone who is considering being an ambassador for the industry? Do it. I am always encouraging young women to run for roles such as Wisconsin Guernsey Princess, Barron County Fairest of the Fair and Alice in Dairyland.
How do you continue to promote the industry in your life? Agriculture is an everyday component of my radio career. I had a program director who would always jokingly refer to me as “Alice in Dairyland’s Best Friend.” My listeners know how giddy I get during June Dairy Month. You never know what I might start talking about on-air — random references to articial insemination, cows in heat, cheese or my girls (my cows). My morning discussion programs have many times featured Alice in Dairyland; Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection secretary Randy Romanski; Barron County Fair; Northern Wisconsin State Fair; Wisconsin Farm Technology Days; World Dairy Expo; Barron County Dairy Breakfast; Tri-County Dairy Breakfast; Polk County Dairy Breakfast; Barron County Farm Bureau; and the Wisconsin Farmers Union. In 2021, I won the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Best Live On-Site Broadcast Remote Small Market Radio Award for remote I did at the Barron County Dairy Breakfast. This year, during National Agriculture Week, I’ll be the emcee for the Barron County Farm City Banquet. I still have a few show animals, one of which is a 10th-generation descendant of the rst calf I bought at a state Guernsey sale in 1987 when I was in fth grade. The Gonske family has been showing our Guernseys at the Barron County Fair since 1926, and I am passionate about exhibiting my Guernseys in open class.
Genetics push production higher for Kollwelters
How many times a day do you milk, and what is your current herd average, butterfat and protein? We milk three times a day, and our herd average is 38,300 pounds of milk, with tests of 4.3% butter-
and 3.1% protein.
Describe your housing and milking facility. All cows are housed in a sand-bedded freestall barn. We have pens for lactating cows, dry cows, transition cows and hospital cows. Cows are milked in a double-9 parallel parlor that we retrotted into our original tiestall barn. All our youngstock four months and older are housed in three different freestall barns.
Who is part of your farm team, and what are their roles? My dad, Jerry, helps me on the farm along with my three daughters — Paige, Brianna and Jaclyn. In addition, we have seven employees, including ve full time and two part time.
What is your herd health program? We do a herd health check every two weeks. Cows receive a Bovi-Shield vaccine once a year and a J-VAC vaccine four times per year. Heifers receive both of those vaccines twice a year.
What does your dry cow and transition program consist of?
First-lactation animals go dry 55 days before calving, and older cows are dry for 50 days. Dry cows are housed in a separate pen in the freestall barn and fed a ration of corn silage and ryelage and a little distillers and mineral. Cows are moved into the pre-fresh pen three weeks before calving, whereas heifers are moved in one month prior to calving. Pre-fresh animals receive a ration of straw, corn silage, and pre-fresh protein and minerals. Animals are moved into the calving pen one or two days before freshening. After calving, fresh animals are moved into our hospital pen for a minimum of one week for cows and 10 days for heifers before being housed with the milking herd. We try not to overcrowd our transition animals.
What is the composition of your ration, and how has that changed in recent years?
Our milking ration consists of 60% forage with a 55%:45% corn silage to haylage ratio. The ration also includes highmoisture corn and protein mix. I am also adding 1 pound of baled hay per animal currently because I have it after baling sixth-crop hay for the rst
Kollwelter and his daughters, Paige
and Brianna, gather next to one of their heifer barns Feb. 27 on their farm near Whitewater, Wisconsin. The Kollwelters milk 240 cows with a herd average of 38,300 pounds of milk, with tests of 4.3% bu erfat and 3.1% protein.
time this year. I have changed the protein content in recent years to get more butterfat. We changed the type of min-
erals and now feed more palm fat. We also started feeding a little dry corn through the summer this past year to help with foot health. Dry corn doesn’t go through the cows as fast as high-moisture corn does.
Tell us about the forages you plant and detail your harvest strategies. We plant haylage, corn silage, oatlage and ryelage. We are going to plant brown midrib corn for the rst time this year. In the past, we always planted conventional corn silage, but now we’re going to give BMR a whirl. We’re switching because the numbers and the experts are saying we should be able to get three more pounds of milk out of our cows. We harvest our forages as fast as we can. We cut it all down in one day and chop the next, and then we are done. Corn silage is harvested in two days. We don’t have a lot of acres, and we also have the equipment to get it done quickly. We have 180 acres of hay and 90 acres of new seeding. I turn the eld over after three years. Almost all our hay is used for haylage, and I take a fth crop every year. We cut hay on a 27-28-day interval.
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Jarrod
(from le ), Jaclyn
“Udder ComfortTM works wonders for our fresh cows or mastitis flareups. For fresh cows, we apply it after each milking until edema is out,” says Peter Bartz of BA-HA Dairy, Glenbeulah, Wisconsin. He enjoys seeing the next generation growing the business for the future. He visited our booth at the 2024 World Dairy Expo with two granddaughters, who are the 4th generation on the farm. His daughter Chelsea loves crossbreds, and their 350 milking cows average 33,000M 4.2F 3.6P, with 77,000 SCC.
“Udder Comfort absolutely plays a role in our milk quality. We use it on any questionable cow. They come right back around, and it brings SCC down. Our treat time is cut. Edema is cut. It just works,” Peter explains.
“We tried other products, but did not get the results we wanted or were used to. That’s why we have continued using Udder Comfort for 20 years,” he shares.
As soon as we take the crop off, we irrigate the eld. Last year, we averaged over 10 tons per acre of dry matter on our hay ground. We consistently run around 60% moisture. Our feed is stored in bags on blacktop.
What is your average somatic cell count and how does that affect your production? Our cell count is 75,000. We only treat a couple cows per year for mastitis, which helps keep milk production higher. Our somatic cell count was around 150,000 until we changed milk processors. In the past, it was hard to get rid of a cow with a high somatic cell count if she was a high producer. When we switched processors, we had an incentive to lower our SCC because we got paid for doing so.
What change has created the biggest improvement in your herd average? Genetics. Every animal is genomic tested, and we have done more and more with genomics over the last ve years. The top 5% of our animals have 65%-70% of the calves born here through our embryo program. Any animal with a Total Performance Index under 3,100 receives an embryo. We are trying to have elite animals across the board based on TPI, which has also helped me earn a premium on the heifers I sell.
What technology do you use to monitor your herd? We don’t really use any technolo-
Cows eat a total mixed ra on Feb. 27 at JC-Kow Farms near Whitewater, Wisconsin. The
for the milking herd consists of 60% forage with a 55% to 45% corn silage to haylage ra o along with high-moisture corn, protein mix and baled hay.
gy in that area. Ten to 15 years ago, we used an activity monitoring system, but it didn’t pan out for us and didn’t deliver enough on the breeding side. I know these systems have come a long way since then, and I have contemplated going back, but we have good enough help here who are monitoring the cows with their own eyes.
What is your breeding program, and what role does genetics play in your production level? We are very into genomics, and we do a lot of embryo work. We work with Sunshine Genetics on a close basis for our embryo
program and herd health. We are focused on production and cow health. We want higher components and milk without having problems with cows. A healthier, more productive animal is what we strive for. This creates a big difference in quality milk as well as fat and protein. Our herd average was higher in the past, but now we focus on higher components and the health of the animals. We have a young herd, so that also brings our herd average a little lower. We use sexed semen or embryos along with a little bit of Angus on problem breeders. I use the highest genomic bulls available and have
attain your production and component level. Genetics, feed and cow comfort. We put up quality feed within the right windows. We have tweaked this over time to get what we want. Our focus on cow comfort includes sand bedding, rubber ooring, fans and sprinklers. Our barn is naturally ventilated, with fans over the stalls and sprinklers over the feed bunk.
had good success doing that. I pick 3-4 bulls every proof run, and whether she is our best or worst cow, she is getting bred to the same bull. I breed for TPI and production. I don’t breed for udders anymore. If she has high enough TPI, she’s going to have type too. The only physical or type characteristics I breed for are strength and feet and legs. To be in the top TPI, a cow has to have health and tness traits. I keep my best heifers and sell the rest, only keeping one out of four heifers that calve.
List three management strategies that have helped you
Tell us about your farm and your plans for the dairy in the next year. I am the third generation on the farm that was started by my grandpa in 1954. I came back in 2002 when we were milking 50 cows. We have a registered herd and never bought an animal to get to where we are today. From my dad to me, we have always used the best genetics. We ship our milk to Rolling Hills Dairy Producers Cooperative. We farm 650 acres, and everything is tiled below and has irrigation above. We also sell replacement heifers and sold 200 head this year. My plans for the next year are to get all the heifer barns full and keep trying to breed more elite genomic heifers. We have had as high as the No. 5 heifer in the breed and have a lot of calves coming out of her. I would also like to put more bulls into A.I. stud. We have put three into stud in the last year and a half. We are also hosting the Walworth County Dairy Breakfast June 14 to give people more knowledge of the dairy industry.
DECORAH, IA
Lang’s Dairy Equip. 563-382-8722
MONTICELLO, IA
United Dairy Syst. 319-465-5931
WEST UNION, IA United Dairy Syst. 563-422-5355
FREEPORT, MN Arnzen Construction 320-836-2284
Hartung Sales & Serv. 320-836-2697
LEWISTON, MN Lang’s Dairy Equip. 507-452-5532
MELROSE, MN Farm Systems 320-256-3276
MENAHGA, MN Dairyland Equip. 218-564-4958
MORA, MN Advanced Dairy 320-679-1029
PENNOCK, MN
WI Fuller’s Milker Center 800-887-4634
MARSHFIELD, WI Podevels Farm Serv. 715-384-6193 800-742-5748 MT. HOREB, WI The Scharine Group 800-872-3470
RICHLAND CENTER, WI Fuller’s Milker Center 800-887-4634 WHITEWATER, WI The Scharine Group 608-883-2880 WITHEE, WI Hoover Silo Repair 715-229-2527
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Prairie Land Ag Supply Inc.
Rock Valley, IA
712-476-9290
United Dairy Systems, Inc.
West Union, IA
563-422-5355
Monticello, IA
319-465-5931
WISCONSIN
Advanced Dairy Spring Valley, WI 715-772-3201
Bob’s Dairy Supply Dorchester, WI 715-654-5252
Ederer Dairy Supply Plain, WI
608-546-3713
DeLaval Dairy Service Kaukauna, WI
866-335-2825
Joe’s Refrigeration Inc. Withee, WI 715-229-2321
Mlsna Dairy Supply Inc. Cashton, WI
608-654-5106
Professional Dairy Services Arlington, WI 608-635-0268
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
Farm Systems Melrose, MN
320-256-3276 Brookings, SD 800-636-5581
Advanced Dairy Mora, MN
320-679-1029 Pierz, MN
320-468-2494 St. Charles, MN 507-932-4288 Wadena, MN 218-632-5416
It all starts with you
Filling fulllment buckets
Schultz speaks at Women in Dairy event
By Sarah Middendorf sarah.m@star-pub.com
HUTCHINSON, Minn.
Empowering women in the dairy industry one speech at a time is a focus for dairy farmer Katy Schultz.
Schultz was the keynote at the Women in Dairy: Farming with Family event hosted by the University of Minnesota Extension and Minnesota Dairy Initiative Feb. 13 near Hutchinson at Crow River Winery.
Schultz is part owner and herd manager at Tri-Fecta Farms near Fox Lake, Wisconsin, where they milk 400 cows and farm around 2,000 acres. Along with keeping track of herd numbers, Schultz also manages the hired employees, whom she calls her farm family.
“My favorite part of being the herd manager is working with the people,” Schultz said. “I love being able to help empower people.”
During her presentation, Schultz talked with attendees about core values and what is going to add fulllment to the “bucket” of their lives.
“You’re not going to ll
all of that bucket at the farm,” Schultz said. “You’re not going to ll all of that bucket in your marriage. You’re not going to ll all of that bucket from your kids. When your buckets aren’t lled, you try and ll it with other things that maybe aren’t as healthy.”
Schultz said being able to do things outside of the farm to ll her bucket is important. For Schultz, public speaking, such as the Women in Dairy event, helps ll her bucket.
Understanding the core values of those on the farm Schulz said can help each team member have a better mindset. She said when her family and employees see they are being valued, everything goes up — production, animal health and quality of life.
“When I invested more in everyone else, I was fullled,” Schultz said.
When someone is getting frustrated, Schultz said it is important to think about three questions to help the situation: do they need to be heard, do they need a hug, and do they want help?
“Being able to have grace and respect has gone a really long way for us,” Schultz said.
Schultz also talked about the communication on the
farm. She said everybody in the day-to-day operation should get a voice.
“Our farm ... looks like it did when I grew up, but it doesn’t feel like it anymore,” Schultz said.
Every day they have a meeting at 9 a.m. that lasts nine minutes. This allows everybody to talk about what they need help with for the day. Asking questions beyond the farm can go a long way as well, Schultz said.
“People are my passion,” Schultz said. “I will do whatever it takes to see them succeed.”
At Tri-Fecta Farms, they also have biannual business meetings. During these meetings, both owners and their spouses have a voice in the business. It is each owner’s responsibility to bring concerns from their spouse.
“We had to gure out a way to strengthen the marriages at the same time to make sure their voices were heard,” Schultz said.
When the agenda is sent out, there is a spot specied for each in-law. Schultz said she wants to know the in-laws’ thoughts and concerns.
SARAH MIDDENDORF/DAIRY STAR
Katy Schultz shares a smile at the Women in Dairy: Farming with Family event Feb. 13 at Crow River Winery near Hutchinson, Minnesota. On the Schultz family farm, they milk 400 cows and farm around 2,000 acres.
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Schultz’ dairy farming story goes back to 1989, when a neighboring farm came up for sale. Her parents decided to buy it and start dairy farming. Before this purchase, they were raising steers and crop farming.
When her parents were building the dairy farm, they contemplated its design not knowing if any of their kids would come back to the farm, Schultz said.
“I am unbelievably grateful to my parents for making sure that we had a successful and viable business,” Schultz said. “Our parents gave us an opportunity to buy a successful business. We didn’t want to be given anything else. They gave us an opportunity of a lifetime.”
Schultz’s parents had requirements for those that wanted to come back to the farm. These included having an
education beyond high school, working for someone else for a time and obtaining a skill nobody else had.
Schultz said her parents wanted to make sure that if something happened and the business did not make it, they had something else to do.
“When you have a skill set that no one else has, you add value to the farm and you feel valued (in return),” she said.
Schultz’s skillset is working with people and making sure they are empowered and feel valued.
Being able to empower those around her is important Schultz said, and has made an impact on her family business.
“When you are improving small little things … it gives you an opportunity to be able to look at your business a little differently,” Schultz said.
SARAH MIDDENDORF/DAIRY STAR
Women listen at the Women in Dairy: Farming with Family event Feb. 13 at Crow River Winery near Hutchinson, Minnesota. Speaker Katy Schultz is part owner and herd manager at Tri-Fecta Farms near Fox Lake, Wisconsin.
Bringing the farm to town
B.Kurt Dairy opens storefront with fresh products
By Dan Wacker dan.w@dairystar.com
BARNEVELD, Wis. — Jan. 18 was the grand opening for the B.Kurt Dairy & Co. storefront in Barneveld. The successful grand opening saw a steady ow of people come through the doors to support the new business.
Owned and operated by Bryanna and Dylan Handel, the dairy farming couple is bringing a farm-to-table approach to their new business, linking consumers to product and producers.
The Handels and their ve children own and operate B.Kurt Dairy, located a half mile outside of Barneveld. What started with 16 cows and a rented barn has evolved to a herd of 65 Jerseys. They own 103 acres and now operate the store in town to help connect customers to the agriculture industry.
At the B.Kurt Dairy & Co. storefront, Bryanna and Dylan sell a variety of farmfresh items. Products include their own B.Kurt Dairy white cheddar and B. Kurt Dairy
sharp cheddar cheeses, a variety of cheeses from Meister Cheese, dairy items including butter, yogurt, cottage cheese and glass jar milk. Other items consist of coffee, oats, seasonings, honey, jams and a multitude of other items, including products from four local meat producers.
The Handels reached out to neighbors and friends about placing products in their store. In total, 29 farmers and vendors are represented. The market provides a way for consumers to purchase more directly from local farmers and producers.
The Handels use a private truck to haul milk from their dairy to Cedar Grove Cheese. Cedar Grove Cheese then produces the white cheddar using only milk from B.Kurt Dairy’s herd of Jersey cattle. B.Kurt Dairy Cheese has been in production since 2018. Starting at 400 pounds, the couple found a market for their cheese and are now producing 4,000 pounds a year.
Bryanna and Dylan found success with their cheese at the Westside Community Market in Madison. This is a market the Handels have
Brian & Eileen Hoefler
Hoefler Dairy • New Vienna, IA
Purchased December 2017
been trying to link together for several years with different on-farm events.
The storefront idea stemmed from the Handels hosting an on-farm farmer’s market once a year. The annual event, which started in 2021, was hosted on their farm the last Sunday in July. The Handels said they saw
an interest from consumers to connect to agriculture.
“People wanted to come and see where their food is from,” Bryanna said. “We wanted to get people involved in agriculture again. We’d talk to people and they’d say, ‘Oh my grandpa is a farmer.’
Well now it’s gotten to the point where it’s their great-
great grandfather who was the farmer.”
At the last three on-farm farmer’s markets, the Handels saw between 300-500 people visit the farm, demonstrating a desire from the public to reconnect to agriculture and support local farmers. With
for straw, sawdust etc.
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• Reduces the time taken to clean out the stalls or the milking cubicles
• Can help to reduce somatic cell count & prevent mastitis
• Time and labor saving
• Save on the amount of bedding materials used
• Clean and dry cow resting surface
“Cleaning freestalls was a dreaded chore before, but now with the BOBMAN everyone wants to do them. It has helped us to save time, reduce labor, and have cleaner stalls. The support from Wille’s has been excellent as well.”
DAN WACKER/DAIRY STAR
Bryanna Handel stands behind the counter at the B.Kurt Dairy & Co. storefront Feb. 18 in Barneveld, Wisconsin. She and her husband, Dylan, opened the store in January to provide a farm-to-table experience for consumers.
Con nued from B.KURT | Page 26 that attendance, the Handels had the idea for their storefront.
“My friends in Sauk City started Ranch & Root (Farmer’s Coop), which is similar to what we’re doing,” Handel said. “We saw that and we thought that our community could use that as well. We are a small business that wants to help create business for other small businesses here in Barneveld. We want other farmers to be successful and this can help with that.”
Along with the onfarm farmer’s market, the Handels have also hosted a two-day farm camp the past two summers. Children ages 4-10 visited the farm and enjoyed two days of agriculture and activities.
the
farmers market and a farm camp
“We wanted to spark an interest in agriculture,” Handel said. “We talked to them about the importance of feed storage and the different ways to store feed such as silos, covering a pile, how baling hay works, loading and stacking the little squares.”
Along with teaching the youth about the daily activities on the farm, Dylan and Bryanna taught self-sustaining skills.
“We had the kids mix all the vinegar, sugar and dill when we made pickles,” Handel said. “The kids mashed the strawberries and added the sugar and preservatives to can (strawberries) and save it for future use. We made ice cream the old-fashioned way. We had a grilled cheese lunch one day where we had each camper try different cheeses to see exactly which one they wanted on their sandwich.”
By providing an experiential learning opportunity, B.Kurt Dairy hopes to reignite a passion for agriculture in their community and help youth learn where their food comes from and how to make their own food.
Through hosting on-farm events and now adding a direct-to-consumer storefront, Bryanna said she hopes to continue to connect agriculture with the public.
“We need to help educate, not just our youth, but society,” Handel said. “That’s why we started our farm camp and have been so active with our community.”
PHOTO SUBMITTED
The Handel family — Roy (front, from le ), Elizabeth, LuAnn and Clyde; (back, from le ) Dylan, Bryanna and Lyle — commemorates the grand opening of the B.Kurt Dairy & Co. storefront in January in Barneveld, Wisconsin. Along with
store, the family hosts an on-farm
to help connect consumers to agriculture.
DAN WACKER/DAIRY STAR
The meat freezer at B.Kurt Dairy & Co. is stocked and ready for sale Feb. 18 in Barneveld, Wisconsin. Bryanna and Dylan Handel partner with 29 farmers and vendors, including four meat producers, to form a direct-to-consumer point of sale.
Affecting change through involvement
Fischer embraces opportunities as president of Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
HATLEY, Wis. — Seeking opportunities for collaboration and leadership came naturally to Heidi Fischer after she left her corporate job to join her husband’s family on their Marathon County dairy farm.
Along with her husband, Jon, and his parents, Mike and Sue, Fischer operates Fischer-Clark Dairy near Hatley, where they milk 1,000 cows.
Curiosity and an eagerness to be involved led Fischer to be elected president of Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative at the organization’s annual meeting in January. The position came after serving six years on the board of directors, including the past year as vice-president.
Fischer said back when she switched out of corporate she felt trepidation going to the dairy farm because of her limited experience. But, curiosity and an eagerness to learn and become involved helped her overcome that.
“I came here not knowing anything about farming,” Fischer said, “I didn’t grow up on a farm. My cousins had a farm down the road, and we would go there and help scrape manure and think it was the greatest thing ever.”
With a young family, Fischer said she had felt she could gain exibility by joining the family farm team.
“I love the farm,” Fischer said. “I love that when the work is done, I can go home with my family — I don’t have to punch an 8-hour time clock.”
Fischer took on calf care responsibilities on the farm.
“It was overwhelming — all the details, the small things that can go wrong very quickly with calves,” Fischer said.
Early on she surrounded herself with those who could provide knowledge.
“We had a great nutritionist who made sure I had the experts in front of me to help in the calf barn, getting the knowledge
Bags,
Heidi Fischer pauses during calf chores Feb. 28 at Fischer-Clark Dairy near Hatley, Wisconsin. Fischer cares for the calves on her family’s 1,000-cow dairy and was recently elected to serve as president of Edge Dairy Farmer Coopera ve.
base I needed,” Fischer said. “I quickly aligned myself with the Professional Dairy Producers to get more education and training.”
With a background that taught her to solve problems and seek solutions, Fischer continually sought out avenues of information, which is how she learned about Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative.
“The story is kind of comical,” Fischer said. “I was in the herdsman’s ofce one night after I was done working, looking online to see what other organizations I could align with. I wanted to surround myself with the right group. Inadvertently, I signed us up to join the Edge (Dairy Farmer) Cooperative. I didn’t know what that entailed or exactly meant, but apparently our eld rep took care of all the paperwork. In the end, my father-in-law was very happy with it, and it made sense for us.”
Fischer embraced everything the cooperative offered, attending meetings and networking with others in the industry. The Fischers hosted an Edge policy picnic event on their farm.
“Being a part of Edge, and some of the other organizations I’m involved in helps me scratch that professional, corporate side I still have,” Fischer said. “It’s been a good outlet for me. It provides balance.”
In addition to the milk cooperative
and PDP, Fischer is involved in Marathon County’s promotional group, Partnership for Progressive Agriculture.
Eventually Fischer was approached about seeking a seat on the cooperative board, an opportunity she embraced, hoping she could impact the industry she had grown passionate about.
“This industry is so volatile — we’re at point where you have to be active,” Fischer said. “It’s easy to sit at home and complain to your neighbor about what is going on, but it’s important to be involved, to network and hear from others. We’ve learned so much from meeting other farm-
ers, whether it is about Edge issues or issues on our own farm. It’s important to get out there and make those connections, to realize you’re not on an island.”
Being active in groups like Edge Dairy Farmers Cooperative can happen on a variety of levels, Fischer said.
“You don’t necessarily have to be a board member to take on a leadership role,” she said. “There are committees and subcommittees, about so many topics and issues. Wherever your passion lies there is an outlet for you.”
Fischer has become passionate about making connections that impact policies and legislation that affect dairy farmers and the dairy industry, sharing her story of being a Wisconsin dairy farmer.
“Most of our legislators, here in Wisconsin and in Washington, D.C., are so far removed from agriculture,” Fischer said. “They have been very receptive, wanting to learn from us. They will call us and ask what we are seeing and hearing in our communities.”
Fischer said she enjoys meeting with legislators both in Wisconsin and in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve made some great headway with the Federal Milk Marketing Orders,” Fischer said. “We were highly involved in some of the testimony and submitting proposals. Sharing the concerns we have as dairy farmers is a real eye-opener for some of the legislators.”
Spreading her message and engaging in policy-making positions is what Fischer said she is looking forward to continuing to achieve during her time as president.
“There will be an avenue for continued conversations,” Fischer said. “We need to continue to educate about the importance and value of our rural workforce and to be the boots-on-the-ground experts they can rely on for feedback and an honest opinion.”
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
How far have we come and how far will we go on dairy technology? We are looking forward to having you, dairy producers and advisers, join us June 1718 at the 2025 Precision Dairy Conference in Bloomington, Minnesota for lively and interactive discussions, informative talks and producer panels on where we are now and where we would like technology to be.
A recent Hoard’s Dairyman article indicated that articial intelligence use in agronomy had an incredible growth over the past 10 years. They reported that only about 3% of ag businesses and farmers used AI in 2015, but now, close to 60% of them are adopting various AI tools. By using AI, farmers can get more data about their elds than ever before and implement more effective practices. Use of drones for disease and pest detection has also grown. Precision agriculture has seen some of the biggest impacts by implementing these technologies.
nate jobs or help workers do their job more effectively and with more exibility? More likely, the latter.
Last month, South Dakota State University hosted the Midwest Dairy Challenge contest, and the students evaluated a very well-managed dairy farm with about 2,800 cows. The employee management and retention on this dairy is outstanding. The farm has recently started to use and test an ear tag for rumination and activity monitoring. I asked the owner his thoughts behind investing in cow monitoring technology, considering his excellent labor force. He told me he sees technology as a tool to help his employees do their work more easily and even better than they have been doing.
Dairy is coming along in terms of technology adoption. It does not have quite as high of an adoption rate as crop production yet but is certainly growing fast. Will precision and automation technology in dairy management elimi-
Late December and early January, I visited some dairy farms in New Zealand using a virtual fencing technology, developed by an engineer who grew up on a dairy farm. These farms no longer need to have an employee to bring their cows from the paddocks to the milking parlor; cows come in by themselves. It is amazing to watch. The system can also estimate dry matter intake and move cows from paddock to paddock as needed, no electric fencing required.
In addition, it monitors cow rumination, activity and location, and farmers are using it for heat detection and health management. Technology can be great. At a recent event organized by University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin Extension, we learned that about 5% of farmers who completed a 2023 survey were using milking robots and 15% were considering installing them, whereas 80% were not planning to add them to their farms. The 15% indicated the main reasons for adoption would be less reliance on human labor and potential increase in milk production per cow. The 80% indicated robots are too expensive and their current milking system is sufcient.
Most likely, the percent of farms in the U.S. using milking automation has grown, but it is still less than 10% of farms. It is not for everyone, but it is ideal for some farms. Impact on farm protability, herd health and owner wellbeing are important to consider. UW Extension indicated that, when considering a transition to robotic milking, there is a need to ask the right questions on these topics: business goals, cost-benet, infrastructure needs, farm connectivity, labor and training, tech support available, adaptability to the
Dana Adams adam1744@umn.edu 320-204-2968
Luciano Caixeta lcaixeta@umn.edu 612-625-3130
Gerard Cramer gcramer@umn.edu 612-625-8184
Marcia Endres miendres@umn.edu 612-624-5391
Brad Heins hein0106@umn.edu 320-589-1711
Nathan Hulinsky huli0013@umn.edu 320-203-6104
Karen Johnson ande9495@umn.edu 320-484-4334
Emily Krekelberg krek0033@umn.edu 507-280-2863
Claire LaCanne lacanne@umn.edu 507-332-6109
Brenda Miller nels4220@umn.edu 320-732-4435
system by workers, stakeholder management and milk production and cow performance goals.
Another technology area in dairy that is growing today is computer vision/articial intelligence, the other AI. There are systems in the market to monitor feed bunks, cow comfort, maternity area and parlor protocols. Individual cow locomotion and body condition scoring with cameras is becoming more accurate, too. A new system in New Zealand using computer vision automatically moves the crowd gate to reduce the space in the holding pen based on the number of cows present, thereby avoiding pushing cows too harshly, and employees do not need to spend time doing this task. It has reduced milking time and lameness prevalence on farms using this system. Another technology developed in Taiwan combines the use of cameras and AI to identify birds and, using a laser beam, remove them from the barn.
How far have we come on dairy technology, and how far will we go? Join us June 17-18 at the Hyatt Regency, Bloomington, for lively discussions and learning more about precision dairy.
Isaac Salfer ijsalfer@umn.edu 320-296-1357
Jim Salfer salfe001@umn.edu 320-203-6093
Mike Schutz mschutz@umn.edu 612-624-1205
Melissa Wilson mlw@umn.edu 612-625-4276
Isaac Haagen hagge041@umn.edu 612-624-7455
Michael Boland boland@umn.edu 612-625-3013
Sabrina Florentino slpore@umn.edu 507-441-1765
Scott Wells wells023@umn.edu 612-625-8166
Erin Cortus ecortus@umn.edu 612-625-8288
Melissa Runck mkrunck@umn.edu 507-836-1143
Marcia Endres University of Minnesota
Tread lightly
�on Feb. 18 in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Luck led a presenta�on describing the poten�al issues of
Tire trafc affects alfalfa regrowth, persistence
By Dan Wacker dan.w@dairystar.com
WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. — Alfalfa, one of the key components to healthy feed and healthy cows, has its own battles to stay healthy.
Some of those battles include pests or drought, but another is entirely dependent on how it is harvested. Battling tire treads and their effect on alfalfa persistence was recently covered by Brian Luck, an associate professor in biological systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In his presentation at the Midwest Forage Association’s hay symposium in February, Luck described the biggest detractors in alfalfa persistence pertaining to tire treads.
Luck shared the differences between road tires compared to agriculture tires in the eld, the effects of tire pressure and how and where tires go in the eld matters.
“The biggest takeaway we had was that road tires are bad on alfalfa,” Luck said. “But changing road tires on a full eet of equipment is often beyond the budget.”
In 2018, Luck and a team of students observed how machines moved through a eld and how many machines were involved during the harvesting of alfalfa. They totaled 1,300 passes made by two choppers, 12 trucks, two mowers and two mergers.
Measuring in pounds per square inch, Luck and his team measured the pressure difference pieces of equipment put on the eld. They measured the effect of a baler, chopper, windrower, semi-truck, merger and a hay wagon.
“The biggest difference we saw
c on alfalfa elds.
was the ag tires compared to road tires,” Luck said. “Ag tires are radial, exible and bouncy. The road tires because of how they’re built, increased the ground pressure applied by the machines.”
When compared, the ag tires applied 220-230 pounds per square inch while the road tires generated 510800 PSI.
The next step for Luck and his team was determining the trafc patterns during alfalfa harvests. Using GPS positioning of the machines, his team determined there were seven different levels of compaction.
The biggest difference the team observed was between the 3-pass areas compared to 5-pass areas and the level of damage incurring on the alfalfa plant.
“We broke it down into areas of compaction,” Luck said. “The rst three inches, then 3-6 inches, 6-9, 9-12, all the way down to 18 inches.”
Using these zones, it was determined that soil resistance is less affected further down in the soil meaning less compaction in the deeper areas. At the end of the year, the team observed higher soil resistance possibly due to dry soil and some of it due to the compaction of the machines. As the process went on, the numbers went down towards the spring of the second year.
“We saw an increase in soil moisture in the spring,” Luck said. “The other part was the soil relaxing over the winter. The freeze/thaw cycle is actually doing a little movement of that soil and reducing the compaction.”
To determine the effect the level of compaction had on the crop, Luck discussed with the farmer what the trafc strategy was for his eld. The farmer asked his drivers not to drive on the same spot twice, attempting to distribute weight across the eld.
Using the GPS tracking of every
DAN WACKER/DAIRY STAR
Associate professor Brian Luck presents at the hay symposium hosted by the Midwest Forage Associa
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Encouraging the best from team members
OCONTO FALLS, Wis. — Every farm, business and family has a unique culture, whether intentional or not. Every interaction with employees, vendors and the public shapes how a team works together, how animals and land are cared for and even how it is achieving nancial success.
Just as modern dairy farming requires planning, building a strong, caring culture starts with intention. The rst step is dening the culture you want. There’s no single answer; every farm has different priorities and personalities. What works for us may not work for you, but being intentional about your culture will set the foundation for success.
enjoy a meal, catch up on farm tasks or simply connect as family members.
Each month, we host a birthday lunch where employees choose the menu, whether grilling burgers or ordering pizza. This is a chance to celebrate the team and focus on personal connections rather than work. These meals create an opportunity to check in on each other’s families, interests and lives outside of the farm.
By Laura Raatz PDP
Our farm’s foundation is our motto: People, Animals, Environment, with people being the most valuable. While our animals and land are critical, our farm wouldn’t be successful without a strong team. As a fth-generation farmer and one of ve owners — including my parents, husband and brother — we treat our 16 employees like family. We also prioritize fun, learning and ideasharing.
Dairy farming is demanding, requiring a 24/7 commitment. We expect a lot from ourselves and our team, so we make sure to balance hard work with moments of connection and celebration. To start, our family commits to a daily lunch together, one hour to
Throughout the year, we capture photos of our team at work and having fun. These moments become part of an annual Christmas party slideshow, a great way to reect on the year together. This event allows us to pause, appreciate our progress and build a sense of shared purpose.
We are always looking for new ways to improve efciency, safety and sustainability, and many of our best ideas come from employees. Each month, we host learning sessions to share new information or refresh protocols for areas such as the milking parlor or calf care. We often collaborate with our local veterinary clinic for expert insights and translation services.
One highlight of these sessions is our Idea Box, a concept that allows employees to submit suggestions for improving farm operations. Each month, we choose one idea to implement, and the employee receives a gift card as
recognition. At the end of the year, we draw a “Big Idea” from all the monthly winners for a special reward. This not only improves efciency but also fosters a culture where every team member’s input is valued.
Just as we track production, nancials and herd health, we also assess our farm’s culture. Some aspects — like having fun — aren’t easily measurable, but we look at indicators such as employee turnover, longevity and labor costs.
My husband, Tyler, has primary responsibility for managing employees. When he decided to work full time on the farm, he set a bold goal: to create such a great workplace that we would have a waiting list of potential employees. While that may seem ambitious, investing in our team and fostering a positive culture makes it a reality.
Finally, communication is at the heart of a strong culture, whether in everyday conversations or structured meetings. Encouraging openness, questions and transparency builds trust and strengthens relationships. A positive culture doesn’t happen by accident. It requires effort, but the rewards are well worth it.
Laura Raatz of Oconto Falls, Wisconsin, and her husband, Tyler, are part owners of Wagner Farms with her brother, Shawn, and parents, Hank and Pam Wagner. Laura is herd manager. Wagner Farms has 950 cows and crops about 1,500 acres.
vehicle in and out of the eld, the worst-case scenario saw 61% of the eld saw a tire at least once, with the average being 49%, give or take 9%.
To reduce the amount of the eld that saw a tire or limit the damage that would be done because of tire treads, Luck and his team conducted a new experiment with tires at 9, 16 and 25 PSI.
“We borrowed pressure mats from the University of Minnesota,” Luck said. “We were able to map out what the tire looks like at those three different pressures.”
Using a 28,000-pound tractor, the study showed that with tires inated to 9 PSI, it affected 6.32 square feet, compared to 25 PSI, a more roadworthy tire pressure, affected 5.35 square feet.
Ten days after the harvest, the regrowth rate was different depending on the eld. The no trafc control group represented the best regrowth rate, with other elds seeing similar yields but likely utilizing stored resources in the plant to compensate for the damage caused by the wheel trafc.
With these trials, Luck and his team developed a tool to determine what would play the biggest factor in alfalfa persistence. They developed the Badger Alfalfa Bashing System. This system featured a pneumatic cylinder that could apply different levels of pressure to better measure the impact on the alfalfa.
The program was written to affect three areas, the plant, the soil around the plant and the entirety of the plant
cylinder.
Through the testing with BABS, it was determined that plants that were not directly hit showed better signs of regrowth. It was also determined that the difference in tire pressure, accompanied by trafc patterns, played a big role in the alfalfa’s persistence.
Minimizing the amount of area in a eld that sees a tire is better for regrowth and persistence. Although it was undetermined if the difference was the impact on the plant or soil compaction, best practices included making more efcient trips into the eld.
Semi-trucks were determined to be the most efcient vehicle because of their ability to haul larger loads, making fewer trips more feasible.
“The biggest takeaway we had was if you can switch from road tires to ag tires, and pulling tractor towed carts will help,” Luck said. “Managing air pressure to put less force on the plant also helps limit the damage.”
The nal practice Luck said to help limit damage caused by tires is to control the trafc. Communicating with drivers about how to drive through the elds, avoiding crossing over rows, traveling with the eld and even maintaining similar trafc paths.
“The similar trafc paths will damage the alfalfa, but we can reduce the 49% of the eld that sees a tire,” Luck said. “We don’t need to go as far as making tram lines, but it limits the amount of the eld that can be used for transportation, which will help with regrowth and persistence.”
Directional Drilling & Land Improvement ent
•
Operation
• Avoidance of identi ed Infrastructure Installation
• Maintain Integrity of Driveway, Roadways, Buildings, and Natural Features
• Little to No Disturbance to Wetlands or Other Sensitives Areas
• Many Unique Installation Capabilities vs. Open Cutting/Digging (Entering under Buildings or Tanks)
• Minimal Site Restoration
Land Improvements
DRAIN TILE DESIGN/ INSTALLATION
DITCH CLEANING & GRADING FENCELINE CLEARING
Changing weather and higher inputs got you down?
Using Drain Tile to manage excess moisture in the soil pro le is the foundation for increasing pro tability per acre.
- Less compaction
- Better soil Structure
- Allows more days per year for eld operations
- More Yields with same or less inputs
Winter manure spreading ordinance possible
Marathon County eyes rule to reduce phosphorous in surface water
By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
WIEN, Wis. — Protecting the natural resources of Wisconsin is a concern shared by many, dairy farmers included. For many years, residents of Marathon County have struggled with the health of the Big Eau Pleine Watershed, which encompasses a vast portion of the western half of the county.
Concerned stakeholders met Feb. 19 in Wien to learn about a proposed ordinance to regulate winter spreading of liquid and slurry manure, which would completely ban the practice in February and March. This would be in an effort to limit the amount of phosphorous entering surface water due to runoff.
“We all want and need clean water in our county to survive, no matter what in-
dustry we are in,” said Marathon County conservationist Kirstie Heidenreich. “The reason we focus so much on phosphorous is because it greatly impairs the quality of surface water.”
According to Heidenreich, 1 pound of phosphorous in surface water can create up to 500 pounds of algae, which plagues the water held in the Big Eau Pleine Reservoir.
“We estimate that between 500,000-750,000 pounds of phosphorous are going through the Big Eau Pleine River into the reservoir every year,” Heidenreich said. “We see the effects of that with phosphorous levels on the western side of the county that are about 3-4 times the state standard. In 2023, we had two samples that were 55 times the state standard.”
Finding the root of
High levels of phosphorous lead to an overgrowth of algae Aug. 13,
the problem is something Heidenreich said must happen now, before it is too late.
“Most of the surface water in western Marathon County is considered to be
303(d) phosphorous impaired by the Environmental Protection Agency,” Heidenreich said. “What that means is that we are teetering on the point where that body of wa-
ter may no longer be able to sustain any type of aquatic
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARATHON COUNTY CONSERVATION, PLANNING AND ZONING DEPARTMENT
2024, at the public swimming beach at Big Eau Pleine County Park near Mosinee, Wisconsin. County conserva onist Kirs e Heidenreich said water samples indicate phosphorous levels are 3-4 mes the state standard.
life — it will have reached the point of no return.”
Heidenreich implored those in attendance — primarily farmers who will be affected by the ordinance — to work together with county leadership to nd ways to prevent runoff from reaching the surface waters throughout the western half of the county.
“It’s very alarming to see those numbers,” Heidenreich said. “It’s very disheartening, we can work to do better, together.”
Together with her colleague, conservation analyst Matt Repking, Heidenreich said the idea of a proposed ordinance restricting winter spreading of manure is in the early stages of discussion.
“We wanted to engage in dialogue with the important stakeholders in Marathon County as we’ve begun to explore ways to improve our surface water quality,” she said. “We are looking for ideas to move the needle on surface water quality, with manure management.”
Heidenreich said they are seeking input from those stakeholders in the county who are impacted by the surface water issues. The ideas that are being brought together come from different management plans developed over the past 20 years.
“There is nothing proposed that is a new idea — nothing that hasn’t already been proposed in this county,” Heidenreich said. “We don’t have any type of ordinance ready to share, there isn’t even a draft form yet.”
Heidenreich said the months of February and March have been identied as the greatest runoff risk by Discovery Farms, the basis for the idea of banning spreading of liquid and slurry manure during those months. Spreading of solid, stackable manure would still be allowed.
Repking said stipulations would need to be in place for emergency applications.
Marathon County is home to farms of all sizes, some of which are already working with restrictions. In 2024, there were 348 dairy farms in Marathon County. Of these, 198 have manure storage facilities, while 150 farms haul manure daily, with no storage.
“When it comes to runoff, it really doesn’t matter where the manure comes from, what size the farm is,” Repking said. “What matters more is how it is being managed.”
Fourteen Marathon County farms are considered concentrated animal feeding operations, which are already limited by restrictions for winter spreading as part of their nutrient management plans and have manure storage. An additional 18 farms are considered livestock siting farms, all having at least 160 days of storage.
Out of the 150 daily-haul farms, 22 have nutrient management plans submitted.
“Using those farms as a sub-sample, the herds range from 25 to 180 cows, with an average of 77 cows,” Repking said. “About 41% of that subsample produce liquid or dairy manure. If a winter spreading ban were put in place, it would affect at least 62 farms in Marathon County — they would have to gure out a solution for their manure for those two months.”
Farms without nutrient management plans would be required to obtain winter spreading permits, working with conservationists and agronomists to identify elds that are low-risk for runoff, outside of the spreading ban in February and March. Repking said the hope would be to encourage all those farmers to develop nutrient management plans.
Monahan HOOF TRIMMING
Repking estimated a 25-cow herd would need storage of 50,000 gallons of manure for 60 days while a 180-cow farm would need about 350,000 gallons of storage.
If a winter spreading ban is put in place, Repking said part of the proposal is to create a line of communication for implementation.
“It would take 3-5 years for it to essentially go into effect,” Repking said. “That is to give farmers enough time to work out solutions or invest in some type of manure storage.”
Heidenreich encouraged attendees to look at the potential benets of a spreading ban.
“How much phosphorus could we reduce if we can get everyone to come together for 60 days, to reduce runoff in our highest risk months?” Heidenreich said. “Looking at the daily-haul farms, it would be almost 16,000 pounds of phosphorous
that we would be keeping out of our surface water. That isn’t counting other farms that have storage but still spread manure during that time because it is perfectly legal to do so right now. That barebones reduction is still a colossal reduction.”
Public Comment Welcome Through April 1
Kirstie Heidenreich Marathon County Conservationist 715-261-6006
Kirstie.Heidenreich@marathoncounty.gov
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Photo taken at Ahlgren Dairy.
A farmer’s best friend
Some religions believe in reincarnation after death and though I personally don’t believe in reincarnation, if I did, a farm dog would be my choice – especially a dog on a dairy farm. Farm dogs get so many privileges in exchange for all of the unconditional love they give. A dog can rub a person’s leg and will get a rub on his head or a scratch behind his ears. Dogs will cuddle up to kids and give them a lick and then off they go to play ball or just run. Farm dogs are never hungry – milk, meat scraps, other table scraps from the house and commercial dog food are always available. They will watch a person eat a sandwich, literally begging for a
piece. They never ask for dessert – just give them a bone.
By Jim Mlsna
The other thing farm dogs share is freedom. It’s almost like we, the farmers, are being rewarded for that freedom. Those dogs rarely ever get tied up or are locked in a room for hours. When we leave the house in the morning guess who is at the door? Ever wonder how those dogs know what their boundaries are? I have watched our custom harvester let his dog out of the chopper and he will be at the end of the eld hours later. The guys driving trucks also seem to enjoy their companions, especially on long days.
I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a farm dog
on a leash. Maybe a puppy. Puppyhood is a challenging time. They are so cute and lovable, but the junk they can drag onto the lawn can irritate some folks. However, this is training time; those puppies learn their name, where they are safe, who they can trust, what they can eat, and where to do their potty training. During this training time they are developing that unconditional love for their boss or the kids. Rarely does that love not come to exist.
Then there is work such as herding animals. Some breeds are natural herding dogs such as blue heelers, but many dog breeds adapt to just being with their caretakers and then become an extension of their wishes. A well-trained herding dog is truly a site to watch. They can move hundreds of sheep by themselves with just whistles from the boss. I visited an Australian ranch with 5,000 sheep and 300 beef cows that had only a four wheeler and a dog to move their animals. I asked the rancher what his dog was worth. He said, “$35,000, but I probably wouldn’t sell him.”
Then there are the dogs who have saved lives – similar to the fellow in the last issue of the Dairy Star. One of my clients, Gary, was rescued from a bull by his dog.
When I was nine years old, my mother and I were saved from a Guernsey bull by our collie, Lassie. She distracted the bull so we could get under a fence after he decided to become aggressive while we were bringing cows into the barn for milking.
Every farmer can probably list his dog as one of his best friends. My kids gave me a male yellow lab which we named Bull. A few months later at a PDPW conference, Donald Driver had this adorable female lab and she joined the farm. Bessie was a great retriever and would follow me into the freestalls, never even slowing down when the manure hadn’t been scraped. Her energy kept all our tennis balls scattered around the farm. Bull was huge – about 135 pounds with a big head. He would babysit a stroller that was parked by the door while Jacqui milked the fresh cows. If a cow ventured too close, he only had to growl. Neither dog ever bit a cow.
Bull and Bessie were parents of 34 puppies. Those pups went to farms and homes all across Wisconsin. One farmer’s son near Tomah had his puppy with him everyday while he mixed feed for 12 years until the couldn’t climb into the cab anymore. Another named Boone became a great shed hunter. For those who don’t know, whitetail deer shed their antlers in January or February each year and some hunters search for those sheds to see if their trophy bucks are still alive. The scent only lasts a few hours or days.
Bull and Bessie lived to be 13 and 12 years old, respectively. That’s not dog years, so if you multiply by seven, you could say they enjoyed long, good lives. They were never tied up, never had a jacket or sweater put on them, and never ran away from the farm. Bessie died two weeks after Bull and both have a place in our pet cemetery on the lawn. Farm dogs generate so much unconditional love that any lonely farmers can see them as best friends.
The ever-frustrating abomasal bloat
As much as I like working with calves, working through an abomasal bloat issue has proven to be one of the most frustrating challenges I have encountered in veterinary practice.
Veterinary
Wisdom
For reference, abomasal bloat is a clinical syndrome that occurs primarily in milk-fed dairy calves. Occasionally, we observe the syndrome in nursing beef calves as well. Calves typically develop acute abdominal bloat, anorexia and depression that progresses quickly to recumbency and shock. Sudden death is sometimes reported as the main sign. Other less obvious signs might include grinding of the teeth, general lethargy, not nishing milk or inconsistent milk intakes (drink all at one feeding and only half or none at next feeding).
By Megan Weisenbeck Veterinary Wisdom
These less obvious signs can also be associated with abomasitis or abomasal ulcers, which can then perforate into the abdomen. In abomasitis, the lining of the abomasum becomes highly irritated or even slightly rotten with air inside the tissue, often with many tiny ulcerations. In cases of abomasal ulcers, there can be many tiny ulcerations and often larger deeper ulcers in the area where the abomasum meets the intestines. Diarrhea is not a consistent sign with abomasitis or abomasal bloat. Often, calves do not have fevers but are described to have “sloshy guts.” It is assumed that the primary cause of bloat and gut damage is Clostridium perfringens, though this is still debated among the industry.
When I work with farms with abomasal bloat or abomasitis problems, I approach the problem by hunting for situations where we “set up C. perfringens to thrive in the calf’s gut.”
Some important things to know about C. perfringens: It does not like oxygen, fat or water. It also
does not survive well in pHs under 5.0 (i.e. the use of acidied milk feeding in some situations). It does like proteins, sugar, anaerobic environments and high osmolarity conditions.
The following reasons are the most common causes of abomasal bloat and abomasitis in my experience:
— High osmolarity: This is a measure of solute concentration. Abomasum muscle is expected to function best in uids of 300 Osm/L. Cows’ whole milk and blood have an osmolarity of 300 Osm/L. High osmolarity uids (over 500-600 Osm/L) can interfere with the smooth muscle function of the abomasum and delay emptying, which creates an opportunity for Clostridium to grow. Examples of high osmolarity uids include hyper- concentrated or poorly mixed electrolytes, improperly mixed or very high solids calf milk replacer, high salt concentrations in water or the addition of supplements or electrolytes to milk replacer or whole milk.
Dirty milk, moldy grain, or dirty feeding equipment: Dirty feeding equipment can inoculate the milk with high levels of bacteria (think bottles, buckets, nipples, feeding utensils or pasteurizers not functioning correctly). Feeding dirty milk or grain can inoculate the gut with unhealthy bacteria. Culturing milk can be helpful to identify areas of contamination. The use of an adenosine triphosphate meter can also help assess cleanliness of feeding equipment. Note that culturing milk replacer or calf milk with additives can be a little challenging to interpret these days due to the use of “good bugs” such as Enterococcus, Bacillus and other microbials that are also able to grow on cultures.
Inaccessible or poorly palatable water (or water with high sodium levels): Water is needed by every calf, every day. Water helps keep the osmolarity of the abomasum normal and provides an oxygenrich environment, which Clostridium does not thrive in. Water is also necessary for protein and lactose digestion. If water is not available, Clostridium can ferment the proteins and lactose instead, creating gas that is not easily expelled. Think of the saying, “dilution is the solution for pollution.”
— Too high or too low total solids of milk fed: I personally prefer solids between 11.8% minimum to 14% maximum. High solids are more of a concern than low solids for me. It is very important to feed water in addition to milk when you push solids over 13%.
— Dirty bedding. There are some instances where poor quality or dirty bedding has been implicated as a potential cause of abomasal bloat and abomasitis. It is important to use good quality bedding because all ruminants tend to graze their bedding, even at a young age.
— Inconsistencies during milk feeding: This might include milk fed too cold (under 100 degrees), inconsistent volumes fed at each feeding or large changes in times at feeding.
— Sudden changes from whole milk to milk replacer powder: This is a concern especially if the solids of the whole milk are signicantly different than the milk replacer powder. I see some farms feeding whole milk for 3-4 days after birth and then switching calves to milk replacer powder. In some instances, the change in solids appears to cause cases of abomasal bloat and abomasitis.
As far as treatment is concerned, I can provide some general tips. Oral penicillin is highly effective against clostridium species without signicantly affecting some of the other normal gut ora. Drenching with plain warm water can also be helpful due to the high oxygen concentration in water. I do not recommend using electrolytes as a part of the initial treatment because oral electrolytes can increase osmolarity and contain sugars that Clostridium use to grow. I would consider skipping one milk feeding to allow the abomasum to empty as ruminants cannot vomit but provide plain warm water instead. Directfed microbials are not particularly useful as a solution for abomasal bloat without addressing the root cause.
Megan Weisenbeck is one of six veterinarians at Northern Valley Livestock Services in Plainview, MN. She practices primarily dairy production medicine in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Megan can be reached at meganweisenbeck.dvm@gmail.com.
Discussing politics in polite company
Mark Twain once said, “Never discuss politics or religion in polite company.” While it’s been 115 years since Twain’s passing, that advice seems as relevant now as it was then. The country has become more and more politically polarized. (Maybe a more accurate way of putting it would be extreme.) I’ve always been more of a ‘screw around and nd out’ than an advice follower, so I’m going to ignore his advice. This month, let’s talk politics. We are members of Organic Valley Cooperative and have been active in the coop, helping where we can since joining it when we switched to being certied organic 17 years ago. Over those years, we’ve had opportunities to talk farming with news organizations, attend a food and beverage trade show, host farm tours for both families and industry people, fence a giant advertisement to be seen from planes
in our pasture and many, many more strange and wonderful opportunities.
The most recent opportunity to come our way was an ask for a couple of Organic Valley farmers to travel to Washington, D.C. with the Organic Trade Association to talk farming with our representatives and senators. My wife, Emily, and our son, Jonnie, jumped on the opportunity and booked a ight to D.C. right away. Not only was it an opportunity to have our voice heard in the federal government but also one to teach the next generation how our government works and see some of the sights in our nation’s capital.
A funny coincidence was that our eldest son, Erik, was ying to D.C. on the same ight as Emily and Jonnie, heading to Vermont to visit his girlfriend he met at the National 4-H Dairy Conference
last fall. That saved me from having to make two trips to the airport to drop people off, and they got to hang out at the airport together while waiting for their ight.
Emily has a passion for politics or maybe I should say effective leadership and governance. We both share a dislike of the partisan nonsense politics often seems to consist of today. She worked for the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation after college, running the young farmers program, and spent a lot of time focused on agriculture and politics.
After we had our rst child, she stepped away from working full time at Farm Bureau but not from following local and national politics.
She happily will talk about agriculture policy all day with respectful people. All that is to say, she knows how the government works and the importance of participation in it.
Emily and Jonnie were in D.C. for three days and had a busy schedule of meetings with senators and representatives from Minnesota and Wisconsin, such as Amy Klobuchar, Ron Johnson, Angie Craig, Brad Finstad and many more. They discussed what we would like to see happen in agriculture policy on a federal level, mainly that existing programs be fully funded. The legislative assistants to our senators and representatives are often as or more important to talk to than the politicians themselves as they are trusted to do the research and advise the politician on how to vote on issues. The group spent plenty of time talking with aides and discussing with them how vital a strong agricultural sector is to our country.
No agricultural lobbying trip is complete without meals and conversation at restaurants in D.C. that showcase the bounty our country’s produce. Jonnie was unimpressed with the quantities of food the restaurants served, as he’s used to meals sized for people who work hard all day outside vs. indoor ofce work, but he said the meals were tasty if not especially lling. They planned to tour the capitol building with Brad Finstad, but he was called to vote on a spending bill, so they missed out on that but did get to walk the National Mall and see many of the national monuments like the Lincoln Memorial, which are neat to see lit up at night.
Until next time, keep living the dream and remember that, in order for a democracy like ours to function properly, the voice of its citizens need to be heard in more ways than just voting for who will be the president.
Tim Zweber farms with his wife, Emily, their three children and his parents, Jon and Lisa, near Elko, Minnesota.
By Tim Zweber Farmer & Columnist
From the Zweber Farm
Spring into growth: starting seeds 101
Spring is perhaps our most favorite season of the year. The warm breezes and strong sunshine renew our souls after the cold, long and dormant winter months. On these early spring days, we are reminded that the upcoming growing season is just around the corner. Many of you, like us, enjoy spending time in the garden on your farm. And so, in this issue, we thought it would be useful to share some tips on starting seeds at home, enabling you to explore
are excitedly sowing in our garden this year.
— Seychelles pole bean is a must for our garden every year. We direct seed it, letting it climb on a wire panel we nabbed from the dairy, enabling us to harvest beans standing upright, all summer long. We source our bean seed from Johnny’s Seeds.
— Blue Hubbard squash is a variety our grandfather swore by, and we do too. It produces very large, extremely hard-walled squash that is by far the most sweet-tasting squash you’ll encounter.
By Megan Schrupp & Ellen Stenger Columnists
new varieties of vegetables and owers not commonly found in local greenhouses.
There are three main things critical for seed growth: soil, water and light. We typically purchase new soil for our seedlings as sterility is critical to avoid algae and mold growth on the soil surface. We source soil that is free of large organic debris, which would otherwise make lling seed trays or soil blocking frustrating.
Soil blocking, a budget-friendly way many gardeners start seeds, is where a metal tool is used to compress and create actual free-standing blocks of soil into which seeds are sown. Our seeds are sown using Winstrip trays developed and sold by Neversink Farm in New York.
In either method, it is critical your soil is moist before lling a tray or blocking. Note that when utilizing the blocking method, soil will need to be slightly more moist but not so wet that when squeezed, water emerges.
Another key to starting seeds is light. Placing seed trays in windows to utilize sunlight for seed growth does not provide enough light. Seedlings may germinate but will quickly become spindly and weak as they grow and stretch upwards towards the sun. We have invested in cheap 4-foot LED lights from Amazon. They’re plastic, unbreakable, use very little electricity, and provide more than enough light to grow healthy, strong seedlings.
Using these tips and tricks, even novice gardeners can start to explore the wide world of vegetable and ower varieties. The following are a few we
— Celery grown in the garden will blow the avor of store-bought celery out of the park. The keys to celery are to start them inside early. They will need a plastic container (we use solo cups) to keep sunlight off the stalks as they grow. A harvest tip is to wash and precut celery into half inch pieces, blanch on the stove for two minutes, toss into ice water, lay to drain or dry slightly, and freeze for delicious celery ready for recipes all winter long.
— Badger Flame beets are known for their mild and sweet avor — and lack of the geosmin gene. The signature “earthiness” of beets (also the reason many are not beet eaters) is caused by geosmin, an organic compound produced by the beet plant.
— Leeks are a great addition to level up your cooking. They can be stored for weeks in a refrigerator to use all winter long. When growing, leeks need the tips of the green leaves regularly cut to encourage the formation of a thicker stalk. This year we are trying a new leek variety called Garleek that combines the sweetness of leeks with the mellow, savory notes of garlic. You can nd this variety at Row 7 Seed Co. — Jewels of Opar is one of the most interestingly beautiful owers we grow. The tiny pink balls on the end of long, slender stems add interest to any ower bouquet. We source some of our rarer seeds on Etsy, which are sold by small ower farm growers.
— Dahlias are a mainstay in the cut ower garden. However, one of the most amazing things about dahlias is the amount of variation in color, size, and shape — there is truly something for everyone. The amount of honeybees our garden attracted was also an unexpected surprise that we found delightful all summer long (and all winter long, through the deliciousness of the honey in our kitchens). Check out Floret Flower for some amazing varieties and also for in-depth information on all-things dahlia.
Megan Schrupp and Ellen Stenger are sisters and co-owners of both NexGen Dairy and NexGen Market in Eden Valley, Minnesota. They can be reached at Nexgendairy@gmail.com.
The NexGen: Adventures of two dairy daughters
VINCENT BILOW, Bilow Farms LLC 100-stall GEA DairyRotor T8900 parlor Malone, New York
“What excites me most about the GEA DairyRotor is the calmness of the cows. They load magnificently on and off the platform and we’re getting wicked milk letdowns. Our cows are happy and so is our team.” Bilow Farms LLC puts their cows and
Five
Hear Bilow’s story