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Dairy St r Milk Break
Volume 26, No. 22
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January 11, 2025
“All dairy, all the time”™
Harvesting Transitioning from dad to daughters natural gas Goedken prepares Lango Dairy for next Dairies pair with generation Novilla RNG to power By Dan Wacker dan.w@dairystar.com city of Sioux Center By Emily Breth
emily.b@star-pub.com
MAURICE, Iowa — After two years of planning and construction, the West Branch project of Novilla RNG LLC has two renewable natural gas digesters in operation and is now injecting RNG into the city of Sioux Center’s lines. The digesters receive manure from four dairy farms. The rst is Maassen dairy, a 2,000-cow dairy operated by Aaron Maassen and partners, Adam, Stefan and Lee Maassen, near Aaron Maassen Maurice. The Dairy farmer other three sites are operated by the Hoogland family. Two of the Hoogland dairies are located near Orange City and one is located near Maurice. There are a total of 4,500 cows milked at the Hoogland family’s three sites. One digester is located on Maassen’s farm, which processes manure from his cows and one of the Hoogland farms. The other is located at one of the Hoogland dairies. “I’m just happy that we’ve gotten to this point and it’s operating and producing gas,” Maassen said. “That’s exciting. I give Novilla RNG a lot of credit for following through with it and how they’ve gone through the construction phase.” Digesters were originally used in water treatment plants. Dairies started utilizing digesters in the 1970s but became popular on dairies beginning in the 1990s. At rst the gas was used to run an engine to generate electricity. Now they have evolved into making puried renewable natural gas to power cities. Turn to MAASSEN | Page 6
HOPKINTON, Iowa — Just off Quarter Road in Hopkinton sits Lango Dairy, a 170-cow dairy owned by Tim Goedken. The rst-generation farm was founded in 1992 as a 44-cow tiestall operation. Goedken has expanded the herd to its current size and now milks in a double-8 parabone swing parlor. He is passing the business to his daughters: twins, Sarah and Tara, and their younger sister, Courtney. “They’ve always been involved and had their re-
DAN WACKER/DAIRY STAR
Tim (from leŌ), Courtney, Tara and Sarah Goedken gather Dec. 18, 2024, on their farm Turn to GOEDKENS near Hopkinton, Iowa. Goedken’s daughters have come back to the 170-cow dairy aŌer earning college degrees. | Page 7
Mlodiks embrace dairying Simplicity, tenacity key to generational farm By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
Andrew (leŌ) and Arnold Mlodik gather on their family’s century dairy farm Dec. 20, 2024, near WiƩenberg, Wisconsin. The Mlodiks milk 50 cows and farm 400 acres in central Wisconsin.
WITTENBERG, Wis. — Andrew Mlodik has been dairy farming his entire life, and as the fth generation on his family’s Marathon County dairy farm, he cannot imagine living his life or raising his family any other way. Andrew milks 50 cows in a tiestall barn on the Wittenberg farm that has been in the family since 1913, shipping milk to Mullins Cheese. He farms together with his father, Arnold, who works full time off the farm with a contractor for the U.S. Postal Service. Andrew’s sister, Erin Mlodik, helps on the farm with milking. “There is a lot of history here on the farm and in this area,” Arnold said. “We have been honored with the Century Farm Award at the state fair and by the Diocese of La Crosse and Marathon County.” Turn to MLODIKS | Page 2