Breeder Profile: Lonely-Mile Holsteins

District 4: Lonely-Mile Holsteins

by Brittany Olson

In a county as rich in dairy as Clark County, a mile of country road with only one dairy farm seems like a bit of an anomaly. However, one farm family incorporated that quirk as a piece of their farming legacy.

For the last several decades, the farm that Jade Pinter has called home near Curtiss has been fittingly named Lonely-Mile.

“When my mom registered her first heifers, she had to have something that worked for both the national Holstein and Ayrshire associations. After multiple letters to both, they came up with LonelyMile because they were the only ones on this mile,” Jade said.

Jade is the third generation to milk cows at LonelyMile, where she helps her parents, Jeff and Jill, as much as she can outside of her job at AgCountry Farm Credit Services in Medford. All three Jeff & Jill Pinter, Lonely-Mile Abso Memory, daughter Jade, daughter Joni Eskandary, and son Justin. Pinters graduated from UW-River Falls College of Bulls currently residing in cold storage in the Pinters’ semen tank Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences; Jeff majored in include King Doc, Artist, Altitude-Red, Crush, and On Point. agricultural education with a minor in animal science, Jill majored “Our goal is to breed high type, long-lasting cows that can milk in animal science, and Jade majored in agricultural business with a with good udders and feet and legs, and last in any environment and minor in dairy science. perform well,” Jade said. “We’ve sold a few heifers and cows recently,

Jill’s parents were the original owners of the dairy, having and the cows have gone Very Good for their owners. Most of our purchased the farm in 1958. Jeff and Jill assumed ownership of sales have been through word of mouth.” Lonely-Mile in 1981. Since then, the farm has grown to 90 cows and While the family farm has been in existence since 1958, Registered 420 acres for alfalfa, corn, and soybean production. The Pinters also Holsteins took a little longer to make their first appearance at Lonelyhave an employee, Nelson Ray Hoover. Mile. Jill’s first registered animals were Ostland Image Smokey and

“[My grandparents] milked 50 cows in the beginning, and then an Ayrshire named Countrylane Candy; Jeff’s first purchase, Colby my parents expanded to the new 77-cow tiestall barn in 1990,” Jade Happy Crystal Jewel, was Grand Champion of the Purina Beutina said. Royal in the early 1970s.

In addition to the tiestall barn, heifers and dry cows are housed Jade’s first registered animal was Elm-Park Sugarcube-Red. in a freestall barn bringing the total number of cows at Lonely-Mile Registered Holsteins have more than made their mark for the to 90. The Pinters’ rolling herd average is 27,000 pounds of milk per Pinters, particularly Lonely-Mile Sarabeth EX-92 3E with a lifetime year on a ration consisting of haylage, corn silage, high moisture production of 378,000 pounds of milk. Sarabeth’s daughters and corn, and some dry hay. granddaughters still grace the farm with their presence today.