Looking for a Deal? Check out our Last Chance Deals on pages 8 & 9 of the Second Section
Deals!
DAIRY ST R
Volume 21, No. 20
“All dairy, all the time”™
December 21, 2019
Late harvest a time of challenge, stress
Farmers work well into December to get crops off
“This year’s harvest has been challenging and stressful,” Bacon said. “It’s by far the worst year we’ve ever had in my lifetime for growing crops and putting up feed.” By Stacey Smart Snow came early this year, stacey.s@dairystar.com destroying Bacon’s plans for a timely harvest. He saw over COLUMBUS, Wis. – 15 inches of snow this fall with Farmers with crops still in the the rst of it coming down on elds will not be wishing for a Halloween. To make matters white Christmas this year. As worse, a couple inchdairy farmers in many es of rain also fell on parts of the state work his already wet elds. feverishly to get crops “Nothing off the elds, the last dries up,” Bacon said. thing they want is “It was so wet, then snow after an already the snow would melt, wet fall. and everything turned As of Dec. 9, Ed to mud. As soon as it Bacon, of Columbus, starts to dry, we get still had 400 acres of Ed Bacon more snow and rain.” corn and 200 acres of Bacon norsoybean to harvest. mally starts harvestBacon and his wife, ing corn during the rst part of Julie, milk 150 cows and farm October but did not begin until 800 acres along with around the end of October this year. 1,000 acres they harvest for Turn to HARVEST | Page 6 neighboring farmers.
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
Ed Bacon combines corn the a�ernoon of Dec. 11 in Columbus, Wisconsin. As of Dec. 9, he s�ll had 400 acres to harvest.
Meet the winners of Dairy Star’s Christmas giveaway
Athens boy wins calf, Waupun farmer collects cash By Stacey Smart
stacey.s@dairystar.com
ATHENS, Wis. – Nathan Osborn has not stopped smiling since nding out he was the lucky winner of Dairy Star’s Great Christmas Grand Prize Giveaway 2019. The 12-year-old from Athens heard the good news Dec. 12 when he arrived home from school. His parents, Jeff and Sarah, gave him a paper with the calf’s picture on it and told him this was his new calf. “He started clapping and had the STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR biggest smile on his face,” Sarah said. Nathan Osborn hugs his new Jersey calf, Jazzy Dox Dot 8330, the grand prize of Four days later when the Osborns Dairy Star’s Great Christmas Grand Prize Giveaway. Osborn is the son of Jeff and went to pick up Nathan’s prize, the boy Sarah, who milk 90 cows on their farm near Athens, Wisconsin. was still all smiles. “I’m really happy I won a calf,”
Nathan said. “It feels good.” Nathan is the second oldest of six children, and every child was entered into the drawing at Cloverdale Equipment in Curtiss. His siblings, Katelynn, 14, Ryan, 10, Emily, 8, Carissa, 6, and Jacob, 4, are happy for their brother and excited to see a new animal on the farm, Jeff said. A Christmas present like no other, Jazzy Dox Dot 8330 was born Sept. 8 and comes from Jazzy Jerseys, owned by Dave Endres, in Lodi. Red and White Holsteins are the dominating force at Honey Dew Farms where the Osborns milk 90 registered cows in a tiestall barn and farm 350 rented acres. Nathan is responsible for cleaning mangers, helping feed cows, scraping barns and helping his mom mix feed. Dot will not be the rst Jersey on Turn to GIVEAWAY | Page 5
Page 2 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
DAIRY ST R www.dairystar.com
ISSN 020355 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave. Sauk Centre, MN 56378 Phone: (320) 352-6303 Fax: (320) 352-5647 Published by Dairy Star LLC General Manager/Editor Mark Klaphake - mark.k@dairystar.com 320-352-6303 (ofce) 320-248-3196 (cell) 320-352-0062 (home) Ad Composition Nancy Powell 320-352-6303 nancy.p@dairystar.com Consultant Jerry Jennissen 320-346-2292 Editorial Staff Krista Kuzma - Editor/Wisconsin (507) 259-8159 • krista.k@dairystar.com Andrea Borgerding - Associate Editor (320) 352-6303 • andrea.b@dairystar.com Jennifer Coyne - Assistant Editor (320) 352-6303 • jenn@dairystar.com Danielle Nauman (608) 487-1101 danielle.n@dairystar.com Stacey Smart - Staff Writer (262) 442-6666 • stacey.s@dairystar.com Maria Bichler - Copy Editor 320-352-6303 Advertising Sales Main Ofce: 320-352-6303 Fax: 320-352-5647 Deadline is 5 p.m. of the Friday the week before publication Sales Manager - Joyce Frericks 320-352-6303 • joyce@dairystar.com Jeff Weyer (Northern MN, East Central MN) 320-260-8505 (cell) jeff.w@dairystar.com Mark Klaphake (Western MN) 320-352-6303 (ofce) 320-248-3196 (cell) Laura Seljan (National Advertising, SE MN) 507-250-2217 fax: 507-634-4413 laura.s@dairystar.com Jerry Nelson (SW MN, NW Iowa, South Dakota) 605-690-6260 jerry.n@dairystar.com Mike Schafer (Central, South Central MN) 320-894-7825 mike.s@dairystar.com Amanda Hoeer (Eastern Iowa) 320-250-2884 • amanda.h@dairystar.com Julie Barnes (SE WI and Northern IL) julie.b@dairystar.com Megan Stuessel (Western Wisconsin) 608-387-1202 • megan.s@dairystar.com Ashley Curry (Northeast WI and Upper MI) 920-539-7268 • ashley.c@dairystar.com Deadlines The deadline for news and advertising in the Dairy Star is 5 p.m. Friday the week before publication. Subscriptions One year subscription $35.00, outside the U.S. $110.00. Send check along with mailing address to Dairy Star, 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave., Sauk Centre, MN 56378. Advertising Our ad takers have no authority to bind this newspaper and only publication of an advertisement shall constitute nal acceptance of the advertiser's order. Letters Letters and articles of opinion are welcomed. Letters must be signed and include address and phone number. We reserve the right to edit lengthy letters. The views and opinions expressed by Dairy Star columnists and writers are not necessarily those of the Dairy Star LLC.
The Dairy Star is published semi-monthly by Dairy Star, LLC, 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave., Sauk Centre, MN 56378-1246. Periodicals Postage Paid at Sauk Centre, MN and additional mailing ofces. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Dairy Star, 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave., Sauk Centre, MN 56378-1246.
A glance at what’s inside As the year comes to a close, we talked to farmers in this issue’s “From our side of the fence” feature about what they will remember most about 2019 and what they have planned for 2020. Look for their answers on pages 15-16 in rst section. The Christmas season is always a bright one for the Mickelson family. For the past several years, Craig and Jane Mickelson and their daughter, Sara Amble, have created a Christmas lights display on their 100cow dairy near Black Earth, Wisconsin. See pictures and read about how they create the display and why they do it every year on pages 3-4 in second section. The Browns – Angela, Danielle and Sean – have cover girls in their barn on their dairy near Dodgeville, Wisconsin. A few of the bovines at Ma-Brown Farm have been the star on the front cover of the holiday book for Lands’ End, a clothing and home décor retailer based in southwest Wisconsin. Read on pages 2-3 in third section how the Browns were able to make the connection with the business and what it is like to take pictures with cows for a magazine cover. Farm success goes beyond milk production, somatic cell count and other herd measures. It has become more important to foster a good working relationship with employees of the farm to maintain and improve the dairy. Maristela Rovai, with South Dakota State University, and South Dakota dairy farmer Greg Moes talk about ways to improve employee relations on the farm on pages 12-13 in rst section. In early December, the Midwest Forage Association hosted their annual Tour de Forage meetings across the state of Minnesota. Among the topics and speakers at the event, Jared Goplen and Dr. Dan Undersander talked about alfalfa management. A recap on their presentations can be found on pages 37-38 in rst section and 14-15 in second section, respectively. At the 2019 Minnesota Milk Dairy Conference and Expo, Marin Bozic talked about how happenings in the world are impacting dairy markets. The assistant professor from the University of Minnesota talked about the need to increase exports or decrease cow numbers to keep up with continually growing production. Read more about how trade wars affect dairy and how dairy producers can protect their farms short term on page 11 in rst section. We wish you all a blessed Christmas and look forward to providing you more dairy news as we head into 2020!
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Dairy Star • Saturday, December 7, 2019 • Page 3
It’s all inside... Columnists Ag Insider
Brownsville
Buffalo
Dairy Good Life
ett e Dane
Lafayette Green
Black Earth
Whiteside
Second Section: Pages 3 - 5
First Section: Pages 15 - 16
go
eba
n Win
Racine
Columbus
Late harvest a time of challenge, stress First Section: Pages 1, 6-7
Kenosha
McHenry
Ogle
Kane
Lee
Rock Island
on
Mercer
Hen ders
What will you remember most about 2019?
Walworth
DeKalb
Mickelsons enjoy lighting up their farm
FROM OUR SIDE OF THE FENCE:
on
ens
h tep
Carroll
Rock
e
Grant
Jefferson Waukesha
on
Iowa
S
For additional stories from our other zone, log on to www.dairystar.com
Green Lake Fond Du Lac
Columbia Dodge
Sauk
Jo Daviess
Zone 2
o ag Calumet
eb
nn Wi
Wa sh
d
Successful farm succession planning relies on communication Third Section: Pages 4, 6
Zone 1
Waushara
for
Wisconsin Dells
Richland
ie am Brown
O
aw
Pages 10 - 11 Second Section
Vernon
Cr
The “Mielke” Market Weekly
Oconto
g uta
Adams Juneau
te
Shawano
Wood
Monroe La Crosse
Page 33 First Section
Menominee
Portage Waupaca Jackson
et
Do or
hb Pepin
in
Langlade
Marathon
Clark
Eau Claire
Menominee
aun ee
Pierce
ar
Bo
First Section: Page 39
Dunn
ce
M
Forest
Lincoln
Taylor
Chippewa
ren
Oneida
Rusk
Barron
St. Croix
Dairy Prole: Dusty Ott
Price
Delta
Dickinson
Vilas
Flo
Sawyer
Trempealeau
Wonewoc
Iron
Ke w
ur Polk
Something to Ruminate On
Page 32 First Section
Ashland
Wa s
Burnett
Page 30 First Section
Just Thinking Out Loud
Bayeld
n
Ramblings from the Ridge
First Section: Page 36
First Section: Pages 23, 25
Douglas
Page 27 First Section
Page 31 First Section
Farming a family legacy for Guyrand Farms
ton S he bo Milwaukee Ozauk M yg ee an anito wo c
First Section: Page 28
Ti-Shi Dairy welcomes public for fun, educational Christmas outing
ing
Years of leadership
Women in Dairy: Breanna Buerger
Sparta
qu
Elmwood
Ma r
Pages 8-9 First Section
n
re War
Madison
A look at human to bovine transmission in California, Wisconsin First Section: Page 10
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Page 4 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
Merry Christmas!
I-29
I-29 MOO UNIVERSITY WINTER WORKSHOPS & MIDWEST DAIRY CHECKOFF UPDATES
MOO University
From all of us at Gilman Co-op Creamery
PROSPERITY OF DAIRY CALVES AND HEIFERS: ITS’ RELEVANCE TO THE ANIMAL, THE PRODUCER AND THE CONSUMER
January 6-10, 2020 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: Minnesota Milk Producers Association South Dakota Dairy Producers Iowa State Dairy Association Western Iowa Dairy Alliance Nebraska State Dairy Association
January 6th: Perham, MN – The Cactus January 7th: Brookings, SD - Swiftel Center January 8th: Pipestone, MN, Pipestone Systems January 9th: Orange City, IA – Sioux County Extension Office January 10th: Wayne, NE, Wayne State College, Student Center
WORKSHOP AGENDA
We have Franklin Waterers
9:30 a.m. Registration & Refreshments | visit sponsors
10:00 a.m. - “Why Animal Welfare is Essential for the Animal, the Producer, and the Consumer” Dr. Jennifer Van Os – Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist – Animal Welfare, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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11:00 a.m. – “Incorporation of Pain Mitigation Protocols as part of your Best Management Practices as you Disbud Calves”Pat Gorden, DVM, PhD, ISU Associate Professor, Vet Diagnostic & Production Animal Medicine
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BOOK YOUR SPRING SEED, FERTILIZER AND CHEMICALS IN JANUARY! Also booking twine & net wrap
We’re looking forward to new and exciting things in 2020!
10:30 a.m. – Roundtable discussion
11:30 a.m. – Roundtable discussion
WE ARE LOOKING FOR MILK PATRONS!
12:00 p.m. – Lunch | Midwest Dairy Checkoff Updates | Sponsor Updates 1:15 p.m. – “Two Heads are Better than One: Benefits of Pair or Group Rearing of Calves” Dr. Jennifer Van Os – Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist – Animal Welfare, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Holiday Hours:
1:45 p.m. – Roundtable discussion 2:15 p.m. – “Resource Update of Incorporation of Calf Care & Handling SOP’s” Jennifer Bentley, ISU Extension and Outreach Dairy Field Specialist
Christmas Eve - 7:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Christmas Day - Closed New Year’s Eve - 7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. New Year’s Day - Closed
Gilman Co-op Creamery
FEED & FARM SUPPLY STORE
2:30 p.m. – Hot Wash & Wrap-up 2:45 p.m. – Adjourn There is no cost to attend this program. Pre-registration is requested. Thanks to our supporting dairy associations and industry partners.
Register at: https://2020winterworkshopseries.eventbrite.com
Gilman, MN 320-387-2770
Questions? Contact Tracey Erickson 605-882-5140 Tracey.Erickson@sdstate.edu Jennifer Bentley 563-382-2949 jbentley@iastate.edu
Open M-F 7:30-7, Sat. 7:30-5, Sun. 8:30-1 Good service - fair prices - every day
WWW.GILMANCREAMERY.COM
South Dakota State University, South Dakota counties, and U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating. South Dakota State University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and offers all benefits, services, educa-tion, and employment opportunities without regard for race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizen-ship, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or Vietnam Era veteran status.
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Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 5
ConƟnued from GIVEAWAY | Page 1
May the magic of Christmas fuel your spirit and inspire your dreams
As one year comes to a close, the infinite potential of a new year approaches. May we all find new dreams to chase, new goals to achieve, with friends new and old to guide us along the way.
ASHLEY CURRY/DAIRY STAR
Chad Wierenga (leŌ) stands with Kurt DeBoer, owner of Redeker Dairy Equipment in Brandon, Wisconsin. Wierenga won $1,000 in the Christmas giveaway drawing aŌer registering at Redeker Dairy Equipment. the farm nor is she the rst animal owned by Nathan. Each Osborn kid already has a line of animals started in the barn. “Whichever animal is born closest to their birthday starts the line for that child,” Sarah said. In addition to the Red and Whites, the dairy is also home to a sprinkling of breeds, including Holsteins, Jerseys, Ayrshire crosses, Milking Shorthorn crosses and Brown Swiss. “We always breed everything back to Red and White except for the Jerseys,” Jeff said. Nathan, a seventh grader at St. Anthony’s in Athens, has been growing his herd of Holsteins since he was 2 years old. By January, his herd will have expanded to six head when one of his cows freshens. Up until now, Nathan has been partial to his black and whites. Dot is his rst colored animal. “I’m just excited I won a calf,” Nathan said. “I don’t care what color it is.” Nathan is active in 4-H and FFA, and shows cattle at county fairs, including the Wisconsin Valley Fair in Wausau. Nathan plans to show Dot next summer. “I’m looking forward to breeding
her some day and have her freshen in and start my own Jersey line,” Nathan said. “It will be fun to develop a new breed in the herd.” Jeff said tools and a shotgun were the other items on Nathan’s Christmas list this year, but Nathan is pretty sure the calf will take the cake as best present of 2019. Nathan was not the only person to receive a special Christmas surprise this year. Good fortune also came to Chad Wierenga of Waupun who was the winner of the $1,000 cash prize in the adult category. “I did not believe it when they told me I won,” Wierenga said. “I almost can’t put it into words. I gured I might be one out of how many and didn’t think my name would get drawn, but it did.” Wierenga signed up at Redeker Dairy Equipment in Brandon. It was the rst time he had ever entered the drawing. Wierenga farms with his brother, Jason, and sons, Brant and Coltyn. Wierenga’s dad, John, is retired but still helps with chores as well at the 400cow Wierenga Dairy which also farms 450 acres. Wierenga said he plans to use the money to help pay for Christmas gifts.
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Page 6 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
ConƟnued from HARVEST | Page 1
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STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
This eld of soybeans is part of Ed Bacon’s 200 acres awaiƟng harvest as of Dec. 11. Due to the wet fall, soybeans did not have a chance to dry properly, pushing harvest back for many farmers in the area. “We didn’t plant corn until the end of May, beginning of June,” Bacon said. “We were way behind schedule. We should’ve started planting a month before then.” He is two months behind on soybean harvest, having started Dec. 7. Soybeans were also planted late, and by the time they were ready, it started snowing and the crop never dried, said Bacon. Quite a few farmers in the area are dealing with similar struggles, said Bacon. “There are a lot of acres of soybeans still out,” Bacon said Dec. 9. “Guys are doing corn right now because beans are too wet. Some of the smaller guys are done. But, there are still a lot of acres of crops out there yet for this time of year.” Bacon is normally done with har-
vest by Thanksgiving or the week prior. “We shoot for the weekend before Thanksgiving because we like to be done when deer hunting starts,” Bacon said. “Last year, we were done the rst week in December.” Like Bacon, Ritchie Behm, of Waterloo, cannot recall a worse harvesting year in all his time as a dairy farmer. “It’s been very frustrating,” said Behm, who milks 45 cows and farms 165 acres. “We usually wrap up right after Thanksgiving, but this year, I doubt if we’ll get done before the end of the year. We’ll go into January unless stuff goes perfect.” Behm has 30 acres of corn left to harvest of the 65 he planted. He is doing crib corn, which he said is not as Turn to HARVEST | Page 7
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Ed Bacon’s crew harvests corn Dec. 11 in Columbus, Wisconsin. Bacon said this is by far the worst year he has ever had for growing crops and puƫng up feed.
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Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 7
ConƟnued from HARVEST | Page 6 fast as combining as only two rows can be done at a time. Behm began harvesting corn in early November, but said he usually starts in the middle to end of October. He nished making hay in November which was also later than normal. “I used a baler, and it was all the baler could handle because the hay was too wet,” Behm said. “We green chop until the rst frost normally and are usually done by early October.” This year, his rst-crop hay was late, creating a chain reaction of delays into second and third crops as he also dealt with hay that had been damaged from last winter’s weather. “One week this summer it rained 5 inches, and we couldn’t do anything for 10 days,” Behm said. “It snowed on my hay three times in early November. We got eight inches total and then heavy rains as well – 2 inches in one night.” Behm is hoping for cold weather and no precipitation in order to get his crops in. Despite the late harvest, Behm said his corn seems to be holding up well, and the corn he has taken in had a good test weight. Behm was scouting his corn elds Dec. 11 to see if they would be ready to harvest the next day, and he discovered solid ground with no standing water or ice. For Behm, the shorter days and extra chores this time of year is a challenge for the late harvest. “I don’t like to be on the road in the dark,” he said. “It’s not safe.” Dealing with snow and extreme cold are additional challenges. “Nothing wants to run when it’s below zero,” Bacon said. Furthermore, minor repair jobs around the farm are not getting done
weather in order to nish up. “We need temperatures below freezing to ensure the ground is frozen, and we can’t have snow,” he said. “If we get another week like the rst week in December, we should be able to get done in the next couple weeks. It started drying up, and we nally got a bunch
“If we get another week like the rst week of December, we should be able to get done in the next couple weeks.” ED BACON, DAIRY FARMER
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
Ritchie Behm stands in one of his corn elds yet to be harvested Dec. 11. Behm milks 45 cows and farms 165 acres in Waterloo, Wisconsin, and is hoping for cold, dry weather in order to get his crops in. since Behm is still working on corn. Also, he usually makes 80 bales of cornstalk for outdoor bedding, which he has not yet had the time or the correct conditions to do. End-of-year planning has been delayed for Bacon who has been in the elds instead of getting ready for 2020.
BRINGING DAIRY
“We’re supposed to be meeting to order seed for next year,” he said. “Normally, we’re ordering feed and fertilizer right now and getting stuff hooked up for the following year. We’re behind on that since we’re still trying to get the 2019 crop off.” Bacon said he will need dry, cold
of work done last week, but it’s raining again today.” Making good-quality feed has been hard to do in 2019 because of all the rain. “Everything made this year is not as good of quality as what we normally get,” Bacon said. “We lost a lot of hay the last couple years as winter kill has been another challenge we’ve faced. Mother Nature hasn’t been very nice to us the last two years.” Bacon said a late and drawn-out harvest stresses the importance of getting crops planted on time. He said a neighbor of his whose corn got planted earlier was getting good yields even with wet weather. Both Bacon and Behm are optimistic they will catch up and complete harvest soon. They are also hopeful next year will be kinder.
to Life
2020 District Meetings
JAN 6 – 10:00 AM – Extended program with I-29 Moo University and Minnesota Milk 12:00 PM – Midwest Dairy The Cactus, Perham District 3, Kristine Spadgenske District 4, Ken Herbrason JAN 9 – 11:30 AM Falls Ballroom, Little Falls District 6, Doug Popp JAN 15 – 12:00 PM Zumbrota VFW, Zumbrota District 16, Keith Knutson
JAN 20 – 11:00 AM – UMN Extension “Calculating and Communicating Carbon Footprints” 12:00 PM – Midwest Dairy American Legion, Montgomery District 15, Barb Liebenstein JAN 25 – 12:00 PM St Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm District 14, Megan Herberg FEB 1 – 12:00 PM Tobie’s, Hinckley District 2, Eric Sonnek
No RSVP required.
FEB 7 – 11:30 AM Browerville Comm Center, Browerville District 5, Debi Clasemann FEB 8 – 12:00 PM Hy-Vee, Owatonna District 19, Karen Kasper FEB 11 – 11:30 AM Pizza Ranch, Alexandria District 7, Suzanne Vold FEB 12 – 11:00 AM – Leadership Meeting 12:00 PM – Midwest Dairy Pizza Ranch, Slayton District 18, Dave Schwartz FEB 14 – 11:30 AM The Oaks, Willmar District 11, Jane Remiger
Please call 651-703-1008 or email barnold@midwestdairy.com with any questions. Visit MidwestDairy.com for additional locations and times.
Page 8 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
USMCA deal praised by dairy leaders The action on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement use that base and some of these young guys are trying to has received broad praise from the dairy industry. Na- expand now and they can only have the margin coverage tional Milk Producers Federation President and CEO on the base they had back then. That’s a problem and we Jim Mulhern said USMCA will be a boon for U.S. dairy need to x it.” farmers. “An already good deal for U.S. dairy farmers is FSA stafng is challenged even better now.” U.S. Dairy Export CounAg Insider County level USDA ofces are undercil President and CEO Tom Vilsack said one staffed. According to Agriculture Secretary important change reforms Canada’s controSonny Perdue, getting new people in the versial dairy pricing system and provides roles is challenging the agency. “We need exclusive access to the Canadian market for people. We’re looking to hire people. ToU.S. farmers and manufacturers. “The trade day, with 3.5 percent unemployment, peodeal also strengthens our relationship with ple aren’t going to wait long to be approved Mexico and establishes new protections for for a job,” Perdue said. Perdue is asking the common cheese names,” said the former Federal Ofce of Personnel Management USDA leader. International Dairy Foods for direct hiring authority to cut the process Association President/CEO Michael Dykes in half. believes the new trade agreement will deliver “peace of mind for our businesses.” Farm groups cooperate on farm stress Dykes said USMCA removes the uncertainBy Don Wick training ty seen over the past two years as the deal Columnist Agriculture groups are coming together was negotiated. to help farmers and ranchers manage stress. Farm Credit, American Farm Bureau Federation and DMC enrollment down from ‘19 Ahead of the December 20 deadline to enroll or National Farmers Union are partnering on a program to change coverage in the Dairy Margin Coverage program, recognize signs of stress for individuals who work with the number of dairy farmers signed up for the next four farmers and ranchers. “Loan ofcers are on farms workyears is down signicantly from 2019. Approximately ing with producers every day, and they see rsthand how 23,000 farmers used DMC this past year, but about half this difcult farm economy is causing emotional stress of them did not re-enroll. National Milk Producers Fed- for farmers and their families,” said Farm Credit Couneration spokesperson Chris Galen praised the safety net cil CEO Todd Van Hoose. AFBF President Zippy Duprogram. “Thankfully, milk prices have rebounded here vall said, “Farm Bureau is a family, and when a member as we wind up 2019, but we just don’t know what’s going is hurting, we all feel it and are eager to help. But we to happen with either milk prices or feed costs next year.” may not always know how to spot the warning signs that someone is overwhelmed.” The training is a combination of online and in-person sessions and based on the farm Peterson highlights DMC program During an address at the First District Cooperative stress program developed by Michigan State University annual meeting, House Agriculture Committee Chair- Extension. “By training trusted neighbors and friends to man Collin Peterson said the Margin Protection Pro- recognize and address stress, this program will bring help gram didn’t work and adjustments were made for the closer and make it more accessible when farmers really Dairy Margin Coverage program. “We had to make this need it,” said NFU President Roger Johnson. adequate; if we’re going to save this industry and keep young people and smaller farms in business, this is what Farmers go to inner circle for help The Marsheld Clinic Research Institute surveyed we need to do. Five years from now, people might say it was too good, but that’s better than being too bad.” Pe- 300 farmers in central Wisconsin to gain perspective on terson acknowledged one problem with DMC is for the mental health. The study found farmers are more recepdairy farms that milked from 2011 to 2014. “They will tive to receiving mental health information from licensed
medical providers and their inner-circle of family and friends. The respondents were less receptive to receiving information from attorneys, bankers and commodity groups. The study also found farmers prefer to discuss these issues on a face-to-face basis, rather than through an online webinar or social media.
Credit risk at acceptable levels The Farm Credit Administration is reporting steady earnings and higher capital throughout the Farm Credit System. Credit risk is higher for the year, but it is at acceptable levels. The quarterly report said credit stress is up, but the farm credit system is nancially sound and well capitalized. Johnson to retire from NFU presidency National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson will not seek re-election when his term ends in March. Johnson has notied the NFU board about the retirement plans. The former North Dakota agriculture commissioner has served as president of the organization since 2009. “I’ve spent my whole life in agriculture. Now, we’re going to spend more time with grandkids,” Johnson said. Bragger leads WI Farm Bureau Joe Bragger of Independence is the new president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, succeeding Jim Holte of Elk Mound who was president since 2012. Bragger milks 300 dairy cows and has been on the WFBF board since 2011. Distinguished service recognition The Wisconsin Farm Bureau presented its Distinguished Service Award to Craig Culver and Bob and Karen Schwandt. Culver founded the Culver fast food chain and continues to support agriculture. The Schwandts have been active Farm Bureau members for over 50 years. IDFA awards The International Dairy Foods Association has honored ve individuals for their support of the U.S. dairy industry. The honorees are Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin Congressman Ron Kind, Kansas Turn to AG INSIDER | Page 9
Happy Holidays It’ It’s t’s ’s the time ti of the year to reflect and thank the people who make a d w difference in our lives. We would like to thank you,, our you you, yo o past and future clients for your support! 1-800-887-4634 or (608) 723-4634 John, Jim & Dave Fuller 423 US Hwy 61 North, Lancaster, WI www.fullersmilkercenter.com
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Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 9
ConƟnued from AG INSIDER | Page 8
Senator Pat Roberts, Minnesota Congressman Collin Peterson and chief agricultural trade negotiator Gregg Doud. New award at World Dairy Expo World Dairy Expo is combining its former Dairyman and Dairy Woman of the Year awards into one category. The Dairy Producer of the Year will be part of the WDE recognition programs. Trivia challenge European butter must include 82 percent butterfat. That compares to 80
percent in the U.S. That answers our last trivia question. For this week, when did the tradition of leaving milk and cookies for Santa begin in the United States? We’ll have the answer in the next edition of Dairy Star.
Don Wick is owner/broadcaster for the Red River Farm Network, based in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Wick has been recognized as the National Farm Broadcaster of the Year and served as president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. Don and his wife, Kolleen, have two adult sons, Tony and Sam, and ve grandchildren, Aiden, Piper, Adrienne, Aurora and Sterling.
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Page 10 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
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A case study of Tuberculosis
Seminar looks at human to bovine transmission in California, Wisconsin By Stacey Smart
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MADISON, Wis. – In the spring of 2008, RuAnnMaddox Dairy in Burrel, California, received news that would turn its world upside down. The high-prole registered Holstein farm known for selling top genetics all over the world had tested positive for tuberculosis. It was a nightmare that seemed nearly impossible. By the time it was all over, the dairy would be forced to slaughter 664 cows – 78 of which were scored Excellent. “I remember dropping my drink on the oor when my dad called and told me that one of our cows had tested positive for TB,” said Steve Maddox, one of the farm’s owners and the 2019 World Dairy Expo Dairyman of the Year. Maddox, along with Dr. Darlene Konkle, state veterinarian at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, spoke at the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin Dairy Insights Summit Dec. 5 in Madison. Their presentation, “Zoonotic case study: Tuberculosis,” examined RuAnn-Maddox Dairy’s plight with the disease and also discussed the current state of a Wisconsin farm’s battle with TB. RuAnn-Maddox Dairy milks 3,300 cows and has 4,200 head of replacement heifers and breeding bulls. The farm’s focus is type, production and show-quality animals. Through international merchandising of embryos and cattle, the farm has exported 35,000 head to 40 countries. And through embryo transfer and invitro fertilization, Maddox Dairy has produced 150,000 embryos in the last 35 years. Prior to the TB diagnosis, the Maddox family was selling 3,000 breeding bulls per year. In addition, the dairy is a seven-time national production award winner breeding top-pedigreed cattle. “It was so hard to believe because we were tested every year for tuberculosis and brucellosis until 2003 when California was declared a TB-free state,” Maddox said. “We were a certied TB-free herd and the most tested herd in California history.” In 2007, the United States was getting ready to celebrate the eradication of TB among cattle when an outbreak occurred in California. TB was detected in two herds through slaughterhouse surveillance. The rst herd, located 20 miles from RuAnn-Maddox, contained 4,000 animals. The same strain of TB was found in a second herd of 1,000 animals. The second herd became contaminated from the rst because it had been buying that farm’s cull cattle at auction and adding them to its herd. Both herds were ultimately depopulated. A trace-in and trace-out of all animals purchased and sold by the rst farm led veterinarians to RuAnn-Maddox Dairy. Four of the farm’s animals once sold as 4-H replacement heifers had made their way into the rst herd. Three of them tested negative, but the fourth one had died, making Maddox’s farm a trace-in herd requiring testing. “We were the last herd tested out of 100,000 cows because they didn’t think we would be a problem,” Maddox said. Their nightmare began on April 25, 2008, when a down cow – an 8-year old raised at RuAnn-Maddox that tested negative in 2002 and 2003 – was euthanized and said to be clean. However, upon recheck of the animal, a lesion the size of a half of a pinky ngernail was found. The Maddoxes were told she was positive for TB. RuAnn-Maddox Dairy was placed on immediate quarantine which meant no animals could move on or off the farm to market or private sale except directly to slaughter. A command center was created, and vets pulled from across the country to help with testing. A culture of lymph nodes on the cattle that tested positive was completed June 1, 2008. The TB strain found did not match the other cases in California or any previous TB case in the state. The source was unknown but suspected to come from a human – most likely a visitor or an employee of the farm. The Maddox family was required to test all of their employees for TB. Out of 23 employees tested, seven were positive on the skin test, but all chest X-rays were clear. The farm’s TB eradication program included a tracein, trace-out of the previous ve years. The trace-in portion was small – only 14 animals were purchased in that timeframe. The trace-out, however, was astronomical as the farm had sold 14,000 head to 15 states over the ve years prior. It would require 70 vets working full time to test 400,000 animals at a projected cost of $200 million. In the end, 275,000 head from 175 herds were tested. “They stopped because they weren’t nding anything,” Maddox said. “We shook the foundation to its core because of our prole and the things we’ve accomplished. It didn’t make sense that our farm had TB. De-
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populating our herd would’ve cost $35-$40 million.” During the two-year quarantine, Maddox said the farm’s heifer pens doubled in animal numbers while bulls tripled. Death rates doubled as a result. Maddox feels the rigid framework of the eradication program started in 1917 does not work today. In California, there were three affected herds, two different mycobacterium, a $12 million indemnity and only six lesioned animals found. “We only had the one original cow with TB,” Maddox said. “Usually if you have one, there’s two or three, but they never found more than one at our farm. I now have a certied TB-free herd, which I’ll be testing again in four months.” New employees are tested prior to employment and every two years thereafter. Employees must be declared negative for active TB in order to work at the dairy. When workers go to Mexico, Maddox re-tests at his cost 3-6 months upon their return. All employees testing positive are sent for a chest X-ray. Negative X-rays clear the employee. A positive X-ray prohibits the employee from working until medical release by a physician. Employees are also required to complete an annual TB health questionnaire. In the fall of 2018, TB appeared in a Wisconsin herd – the rst time the state had seen the disease in decades. On Sept. 28, 2018, the National Veterinary Services Laboratories notied DATCP that a 5-year-old cow at a slaughter plant tested positive for TB. “Traceability was our friend in this case,” Konkle said. “She had an RFID840 tag which traced her back to her farm of origin – a Dane County dairy.” The farm was quarantined, and all animals over 2 months of age were tested for TB. Animals that reacted or responded to the test were euthanized and sampled, or sent to slaughter for inspection and sampling, which is when the rst cases on the farm were identied. On Oct. 29, 2018, TB presence in the herd was ofcially conrmed. The diagnosis spurred over 300 traces – in and out – in Wisconsin, and nationwide, 16 states received traces. “We’re still working through some of these traces,” Konkle said. “We’re 90-some percent done. Trying to trace these animals, particularly youngstock, becomes difcult as they’re comingled with different sets of animals and don’t have ID to trace them accurately.” The strain of bovine TB isolated from that rst cow matched the same strain isolated from a human in Wisconsin in 2015. Positive animals removed from the herd also matched this strain. DATCP was contacted by Wisconsin Department of Health Services in 2015 regarding possible herd exposure. The whole herd was tested for TB in May and September of that year, and no positive animals were found. “In hindsight, we should’ve tested the herd again in 2016 and 2017,” Konkle said. “TB is a slow-growing organism that needs time to incubate and manifest itself. In 2015, there were no established protocols for investigating this type of human to animal exposure. DATCP worked with USDA and Public Health to establish a testing protocol based on what we knew at the time about timing of exposure and when the person may have been infectious.” The Dane County herd remains the only TB-affected herd in the state. The dairy is still under quarantine, which is expected to be released sometime in 2020. Once the removal testing (every 60 days) and verication testing (a test 6 months after the nal removal test) are nished with no additional positives, the quarantine will be released. Across the country, six to 12 new cases of TB pop up in cattle herds every year. Multiple challenges stand in the way of TB eradication including wildlife, (a reservoir of bovine TB in Michigan’s whitetail deer is a particular problem for that state’s eradication efforts); undetermined sources of TB, including new genomic strains and human transmission; problems with traceability; mobility within animal systems; and the movement of cattle and dairy products from Mexico into the United States. Prevention is critical, and Konkle emphasized the need for biosecurity to protect herds from TB exposure. Farmers should isolate and test new animals brought into the herd, buy from tested populations, test and isolate cattle re-entering the herd (i.e. contract-raised heifers), establish a TB testing policy for employees, wash footwear, wear separate boot coveralls, keep accurate records and use proper animal ID. There is a continued need and opportunity to work with both public health and animal health professionals on prevention strategies for bovine TB. Bovine TB is truly a one-health issue, and local programs emphasizing both human and animal health might be a way to move forward. More than a decade later, Maddox Dairy has nearly recovered from the devastation of the awful surprise that came their way in 2008. The state has since reinstituted the farm’s TB-free status, and the farm has resumed marketing its cattle.
U.S. dairy impacted by other countries
Bozic talks long-term future of industry By Krista Kuzma
krista.k@dairystar.com
WELCH, Minn. – Marin Bozic said changes in other countries and how the United States interacts with them will impact the U.S. dairy industry. “We need to make sense of the world we live in order to make meaningful decisions moving forward,” said Bozic, assistant professor of applied economics at the University of Minnesota. Bozic presented “Looking into the Dairy Industry Crystal Ball” Dec. 4 during the Minnesota Milk Dairy Conference and Expo in Welch. “I think one of the single most important reasons why it (the long-term dairy future) seems unclear is because there are things there you just don’t want to see,” Bozic said. “If we open our eyes and are brave enough to connect the dots, I think the future is going to be much easier to decipher.” Although the exit rate of dairy farms is the highest it has been since the 1980s, Bozic said producers are creating better cows that continue to produce more and better milk. Because of this, even if the U.S. dairy herd would stay the same, there would be 2.6 billion pounds more milk every year. “Where are we going to nd a home for 2.6 billion pounds of milk?” Bozic said. “Almost half of it needs to nd a home abroad. That’s our main challenge. … Exports are so essential.” Domestically, the United States cannot keep up with people’s demand for milkfat which has steadily increased in consumption per capita since 2014 when butter came into the spotlight as a healthy product. “Americans love butterfat,” Bozic said. However, consumption of skim solids has atlined on a per capita basis. “The U.S. is going to be persistently chronically short on fat, long on protein,” Bozic said. “You know what that means? Kerry Gold Butter from Ireland is probably going to be more on the shelves here.” In order to nd a home for the additional protein, the U.S. dairy herd will need to decrease by 50,000 cows, and exports need to grow for dairies to continue to have a decent margin, Bozic said. Exports will be easier to grow as both New Zealand and the European Union focus more on the environmental impacts of the dairy industries in their countries opposed to growing herd numbers. “If you take New Zealand and Europe out of the equation, there’s an opportunity for us to start exporting more,” Bozic said. Changes in world politics will also affect dairy, Bozic said. In the years Donald Trump has been president, the United States has withdrawn from both the Trans-Pacic Partnership and the Paris climate agreement, the United States is now friendly with North Korea, the country is in a trade war with China, and is not reacting to attacks on the global oil supply chain.
“How does this all make sense?” Bozic said. He said it is important to understand why the United States administration is withdrawing from trade. “Imagine this. There are 10 people sitting around the table and you’re the biggest one. You agree to be bound to the same rules as everyone else. Why do that if you can get your way without going through it all and by going one on one instead?” Bozic said. Marin Bozic Bozic believes U of M professor that is the United States’ strategy. “The trade war is not about ag,” he said. “Ag is collateral damage. This is about other stuff.” While the Soviet Union, turned Russia, used to be the country’s biggest adversary, Bozic said that has now changed to China. “If you can’t comfort them (an adversary) you need to contain them. How do you contain them? You make friends around the world. How do you make friends around the world? You bribe them. How do you bribe them? By making a free trade system in which the U.S. allows people to come to our markets more than we get access to their markets,” Bozic said. While other deals might be made, Bozic does not see a deal being negotiated with China before the next election. Other trends happening are that the United States is now oil independent because of the large reserves of accessible shale oil whereas it used to be dependant on Middle Eastern countries. “We are now the net exporter of oil,” Bozic said. Technology will increase and an aging population, especially in other areas around the world, will mean more automation. “Why would we go to buy products from China that their robots made when we can have robots here in the United states?” Bozic said. “Put these four factors together and you’ll realize we have a brand new world in which we live. Trade wars are the beginning of this new era where the U.S. will not trade for the sake of coalitions. They’ll be going to go to people who have a lot to lose if we are not their friends.” What does this mean for dairy? In the short term, the dairy industry will continue to suffer; however, Bozic said in the long term it means more market access. To get through the turmoil in the short term, Bozic suggests relying on programs available such as the Dairy Revenue Protection or the Dairy Margin Coverage. “When it comes to DMC, any minute you spend thinking whether you should do $9.50 or not is a minute you’re not thinking about where your dairy is going to be in 2030. This is a very important conversation for you to have,” Bozic said. “People who have signed up for $9.50 and have taken the state (DAIRI) program, you should feel good about your decision. Don’t even think twice.”
Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 11
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Ready to bring higher digestibility, more tonnage and more milk to your farm? Visit us at www.alforexseeds.com or call us at 1-800-824-8585. *The increased rate of fiber digestion, extent of digestion and crude protein data was developed from replicated research and on-farm testing. During the 2015 growing season at West Salem, WI and Woodland, CA, the following commercial dormant, semi-dormant and non-dormant alfalfa varieties were compared head-to-head with Alforex varieties with Hi-Gest alfalfa technology for rate of digestion, extent of digestion and percent crude protein: America’s Alfalfa Brand AmeriStand 427TQ; Croplan Brands LegenDairy XHD and Artesia Sunrise; Fertizona Brand Fertilac; S&W Seed Brands SW6330, SW7410 and SW10; and W-L Brands WL 319HQ and WL 354HQ. Also, during the 2015 growing season, 32 on-farm Alforex varieties with Hi-Gest alfalfa technology hay and silage samples were submitted to Rock River Laboratory, Inc., for forage analysis. The results for rate of digestion, extent of digestion and percent crude protein were averaged and compared to the 60-day and four-year running averages for alfalfa in the Rock River database which included approximately 1,700 alfalfa hay and 3,800 silage 60-day test results and 23,000 hay and 62,000 silage test results in the four-year average. **Crude protein=60-day running averages and uNDF240=four-year running average 1 Combs, D. 2015. Relationship of NDF digestibility to animal performance. Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference, 101-112. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5350/f0a2cb916e74edf5f69cdb73f091e1c8280b.pdf.
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Page 12 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
Employee culture leads to better working environment
Rovai provides tips for farm owners to foster lasting relationships By Jennifer Coyne
krista.k@dairystar.com
GOODWIN, S.D. – Greg Moes enjoys going to work every morning. The 30 people he works with enjoy going to work every morning. This mindset is the result of a symbiotic relationship between farm owners and employees cultivated at MoDak Dairy. “We don’t have employees, we have families we work with. This is a family farm,”
Moes said. “That mentality excites everyone. We all look forward to seeing each other at the start of every day.” Moes and his brother, Jim, and their sons, Jacob and Matthew, operate the 2,000-cow dairy in Codington County near Goodwin. The mindset the Moes brothers have and encourage their employees to have is one
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Maristela Rovai conducts an on-farm training during lunch for employees at a dairy in Iowa. Rovai specializes in training Hispanic employees.
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Greg Moes dairy farms with his family at MoDak Dairy near Goodwin, South Dakota. The Moes family makes a point to foster posiƟve relaƟonships with their employees.
that can benet not only the individuals on the farm but also the dairy as a whole. “When (employees) feel respected and heard, they will feel more satised and engaged with their jobs; and it will contribute to the farm’s overall success,” Maristela Rovai said. Rovai, an assistant professor and dairy extension specialist at South Dakota State University, specializes in training Hispanic employees and
developing training programs for this demographic. In her work, Rovai has facilitated events for employers and employees to foster better working relationships. There are several areas to consider when wanting to improve the dairy’s work environment. Understanding culture and language barriers, being aware of inclusivity and nding value in each person, and creating a welcoming, safe
place are all factors farmers should consider. Many dairy farmers are working with people of Hispanic and Latino heritage. In those cultures, greetings and meal times differ from the American society, especially in the workforce. For example, they welcome everyone with open arms and use please and thank you routinely. They also value their Turn to CULTURE | Page 13
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ConƟnued from CULTURE | Page 12 meal times in the way that they would feel embarrassed for eating while also participating in a work training. In these instances, farm owners might be inclined to use greetings, like please and thank you, before giving instructions ensuring the task is done. Farmers may also want to consider having a work lunch where food is prepared and brought to the training. This allows employees to eat comfortably and focus on the presented training. “When employers understand more of their employees’ culture and values, they will have a roadmap on their hands and see more achievements than failures,” Rovai said. “But, we cannot forget it is important for employees to understand the employer’s culture as well.” Farm owners should nd ways to connect with their employees and relay their expectations – through visual instructions on the farm, hands-on training and continued learning experiences. “At times there are 20 to 30 employees and two owners,” Rovai said. “Take the time to learn their culture but also show them American culture. If we work towards understanding, we’ll see that in tangible results, commitment. It’s a win-win situation.” For Moes, he takes the time to work with his employees and show their opinions and thoughts are valued. “Yes, we have our cultural differences, but we all listen to each other,” Moes said. “These guys are professionals in their area of work, and we need to listen to them in that way.” At the dairy, every employee’s photo is hung in the farm break room. There, they are recognized for birthdays and milestones, such as training. At the completion of each training, which happens on a monthly basis, employees receive stickers to showcase their progress. This is one way the Moes brothers demonstrate the worth their employees have to the dairy. “We’ve never really thought much of this picture board until we hired a guy and didn’t get his picture up right away; not on purpose, either,” Moes said. “He asked us what he had to do to have his picture on the wall. For them, it’s become a status symbol.” Rovai agreed. “It is a matter of being loyal and
caring,” she said. “Employees who feel appreciated will always remember the way employers made them feel and will be loyal to them. They will feel at home and help with everything needed.” Moes is also open about his employees asking questions when they do not understand an instruction. The farm owner encourages everyone to be honest and tell him when a piece of equipment breaks down or things do not go as planned. These tactics became a part of the farm’s culture 11 years ago when the Moes family underwent a large expansion of building a new dairy barn. “We didn’t always have this mentality,” Moes said. “When a gate broke, we used to (get upset). That’s all changed. We don’t do that anymore. Instead, we have a saying that goes, ‘If something breaks, it’s because we’re using it, and it’s meant to break at some time.’ Everyone is comfortable here and no one runs away.” Rovai encourages dairy farmers to consider ways they can be more inclusive of their employees. This may be improving the break room environment, having meetings where employees can provide input and share the dairy’s progress, among others. At MoDak Dairy, Moes also checks in with his employees and makes sure they are living in suitable conditions Moes himself would want to live in. Likewise, he helps coordinate dinners where one of the families cook a meal for the entire farm staff once a month. “That’s quite a gathering,” Moes said. “We’re comingling people who have worked with us for 35 years and those who just started days ago. It’s just fun to do and listen to everyone.” These initiatives have helped the farm maintain a somatic cell count of 120,000, and milk components values at 4.1% butterfat and 3.5% protein. While Moes is proud of those accomplishments, he said there is a greater purpose for creating a positive work environment. “It feels good,” Moes said. “We’re hiring outside labor from many cultures, but we’ve never had division. Everyone is treated well, and their jobs and values are respected which makes it fun to be around these guys and gals every day.”
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Page 14 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
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What will you remember most about 2019?
Cheryl Tyrrell Browerville, Minnesota Todd County 55 cows What will you remember most about 2019? The terrible weather that we had. It was hard to get crops planted and harvested. What was the highlight of the year for both your family and farm? That we are still here doing what we have done for centuries. Our daughter Nikki and her husband got their youpick strawberry patch up and running. Describe a challenge you had this year and how you overcame it. We were able to get the crops in, but the corn is still in the ďƒželd. This is the ďƒžrst time in the 45 years I’ve been around that there is still corn in the ďƒželd. What plans do you have for your farm in 2020? We will continue with the tradition of farming, with the Guernsey cows and showing our seven grandchildren the farming life. What are your holiday traditions? How will you celebrate the new year? Our four children and grandchildren are the highlight of our Christmas and New Year’s. We have two grandsons born in December, the 21st and 31st, and we also celebrate the birth of our Savior. Tell us about your farm. Oak Crest Farm was established in 1873. My father-in-law Howard started with the Guernsey cows as a 4-H project. Denny and I own and operate the farm with our eldest Jakin and his wife Amanda, our daughter, Nikki, and sonin-law, Nathan. We have two more sons: Troy and his wife, Heather, live in Duluth where he is a carpenter; and Brent and his wife, Katie, live outside of Staples, and he is a welder. Troy and Brent help when they can. We have seven grandchildren: Lucas, 11, Zachary, 9, Sydney, 8, Scarlett, 7, William, 6, Quentin, 4, and Knox, 2. They are the sixth generation on the farm. Besides the cows, we raise corn, hay, soybean and small grain, and sometimes we have to use our irrigation systems.
Alan Meyer Kenyon, Minnesota Rice County 140 cows What will you remember most about 2019? I will remember putting everything on our farm back together after a tornado came through September 2018. We started milking in our rebuilt barn Jan. 2, but we still had a lot of other things to ďƒžx as the year went on. What was the highlight of the year for both your family and farm? The highlight for the family is that we all stayed healthy. For the farm, it is that we got back to milking. We got all the original cows and fresh heifers back in the barn right away. We worked on repairs until Sept. 18. We had a thank you party on Sept. 20 – the one-year anniversary of the storm – for all the people who helped us. We had supper for people in our shed and served over 200 people. Describe a challenge you had this year and how you overcame it. Throughout this whole process there has been a lot of paperwork with insurance. We just kept working on it to get it done. The weather has also been a challenge, but that’s just the life of a farmer. What plans do you have for your farm in 2020? We plan to catch our breath and keep things status quo after a very hectic 2019. What are your holiday traditions? How will you celebrate the New Year? Our grown children usually go to their in-laws for Christmas so Sharon and I will go to church on Christmas Eve. The next day we will play Mexican train and take the rest of the day off. For New Year’s we will gather with family and friends. We rotate every year who is host it. We sit around, talk and having fun. Tell us about your farm. My wife, Sharon, and I farm together with our son and daughter-in-law, Andy and Samantha, on our farm, Richland Dairy, LLC. We milk 140 cows with two A5 Lely robots.
Kathy Jacobson Detroit Lakes, Minnesota Becker County 50 cows What will you remember most about 2019? The weather deďƒžnitely has made 2019 a difďƒžcult year. The extremely cold, long winter, a late spring and an early fall has made everything difďƒžcult both in the barn and the ďƒželds. What was the highlight of the year for both your family and farm? We were able to go to a Minnesota Vikings game and have a weekend mini vacation off of the farm. The biggest highlight of our farm came Nov. 7 when we harvested the last of our corn and ďƒžnished our ďƒželdwork for the year. Describe a challenge you had this year and how you overcame it. Getting harvest and planting done was a huge challenge this year. We were able to get everything done by working hard and doing everything we could each day and working with our neighbors. What plans do you have for your farm in 2020? We don’t have any major plans to change anything on our farm in 2020. What are your holiday traditions? How will you celebrate the new year? I enjoy baking a lot of goodies and making lefse with the kids. We host Christmas Eve at our farm every year with all of our extended families. New Year’s Eve is usually celebrated on our farm. We’ve celebrated every year with the same good friends for over 20 years. Tell us about your farm. We milk 50 cows and farm approximately 325 acres of corn, alfalfa, wheat and soybean. We farm with our kids: Hannah, 19, sophomore at NDSU, and Ethan, 16, junior at Detroit Lakes High School.
Matt Doelle Fountain City, Wisconsin Buffalo County 60 cows What will you remember most about 2019? My dad retired last year so this was my ďƒžrst year making the decisions. I have been on the farm full time since I graduated high school in 2008. He is on the farm every day helping me. What was the highlight of the year for both your family and farm? For the family, my wife and I welcomed our third child into the world, Ava Kristine. Her brother, Evan, and sister, Bailey, are very helpful with her. Farm-wise, with a lot of help from my retired uncle, we installed a swing-6 parlor into our stanchion barn. Describe a challenge you had this year and how you overcame it. I think we all had the same two challenges: weather and poor prices. The weather is always a challenge, but we decided to make all our hay into haylage and buy our dry hay. And for prices, well, you try to save every penny and not overspend when the prices get better. What plans do you have for your farm in 2020? My main goal is to make as good of quality and quantity of feed as I can. It’s not fun buying feed, but for what land rent is going for it, has been more cost effective to buy than try to rent in my area. What are your holiday traditions? How will you celebrate the new year? On the holidays, I try to get up early and get done with chores so I can spend as much time with family as I can. This is a busy and demanding lifestyle. It’s good to sit back and spend time with those that mean the most in life. Tell us about your farm. It’s a small 60 cow operation that my dad started with nine cows back in the late 70s, and we hope to grow to 100 cows in the future. The cows are milked in a swing-6 parlor and housed in a pack barn. We raise our replacements and grow as much of our own feed as possible.
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Page 16 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
ConƟnued from OUR SIDE | Page 15
A s h l e y Zwald, holding son, Luke Hammond, Wisconsin St. Croix County 850 cows W h a t will you rem e m b e r most about 2019? Looking back, 2019 was a year for the record books. Between the cold wet spring, winter-killed alfalfa, few heat units throughout the summer, and the wet, chilly fall; working with Mother Nature was challenging. In the end, we are very fortunate and thankful for the bountiful harvest considering the conditions. What was the highlight of the year for both your family and farm? For our family, welcoming our new baby and becoming a family of six in October easily tops the list. On the farm, we were highly successful with our breeding strategies in creating top genomic animals. Describe a challenge you had this year and how you overcame it. This year about half of our alfalfa acres presented winterkill issues last spring. To overcome, we came together as a team to determine our new plan of action. We decided what kind of forages to plant to allow for a diet to maintain high production, how to stretch the forages we had, as well as if we could save any elds with interseeding. We plowed under many elds and planted corn and sorghum as well as interseeded Italian ryegrass into some stands to have manageable amounts of new seeding. What plans do you have for your farm in 2020? We are looking forward to and moving into our expansion to a 40-cow rotary parlor and hybrid style ventilated barns. This is a big change for our team, but we are very excited. What are your holiday traditions? The farm keeps our team busy, but we make sure to cut out time for family. During the holiday season, we do an Advent calendar and read corresponding bible verses; go to a tree farm and pick out the biggest tree that we can t in our living room; attend the candlelight Christmas Eve service; open gifts on Christmas Day; and celebrate Christmas with grandparents and siblings. Tell us about your farm. We are nestled in central St. Croix County in western Wisconsin, about an hour from the Twin Cities. Six family members of varying strengths create an amazing team that helps us to be successful at Bomaz Farms. We keep ourselves busy milking 850 Holsteins focusing on genetics and production, doing all of our own eldwork and raising families.
Brett Gregorich Spencer, Wisconsin Clark County 200 cows What will you remember most about 2019? 2019 was a real struggle the entire year. We denitely won’t forget the amount of snow. The rain we received made cropping a real challenge throughout the year. What was the highlight of the year for both your family and farm? We spent a lot of time together as an entire family due to the passing of my grandparents. They started our farm and put so much into it. We were able to enjoy many laughs and memories about the good old days and how far we have all come. Every day we learn new things about our family history and how our farm has grown. It has been a true blessing. Describe a challenge you had this year and how you overcame it. Our biggest challenge was feed. We lost a majority of our alfalfa and new seeding over the harsh winter. We again lost almost all of this year’s new seeding because of all the rain we received this spring and summer. We were able to adjust our rations to feed more corn silage to save on haylage earlier in the year. Mid-summer, we cut back on corn silage and bought western hay to get through the year. This fall, we put up about twice as much corn silage as normal to feed an 80% corn silage ration through next year. What plans do you have for your farm in 2020? We don’t have any major plans coming in the near future. This next year, we are looking to experiment with planting higher digestible alfalfa and are also looking into BMR corn silage. Every year we should try to become a more efcient and overall better farm. What are your holiday traditions? How will you celebrate the new year? For Christmas, and basically every major holiday, we get together with our entire family: aunts, uncles and cousins. Everyone will be bringing something for dinner, and we will share some gifts. Tell us about your farm. We are a 200-cow dairy farm milking Holsteins. We milk our cows three times per day in a double-8 parallel parlor and freestall which was built in 2015-16. We farm 450 acres of alfalfa, soybeans and corn for silage and grain.
Brandi Johnson Poplar Grove, Illinois Boone County 200 cows What will you remember most about 2019? 2019 will be remembered as the year of record rainfall. In all the 70 years of my father-in-law farming, this is the rst time ever prevented planting was taken. What was the highlight of the year for both your family and farm? The highlight of the year for us was our oldest son, Trace’s, wedding in June. We had the reception here at the farm by our pond as we welcomed our new daughter-in-law, Megan, into the family. As far as the highlight for the farm, it was nally seeing some higher milk prices. Describe a challenge you had this year and how you overcame it. Seems like the entire year was a challenge. Obviously, the wet spring started it off, and things seemed to go downhill from there. But, we tried to stay positive and focus on what the next day or week would bring. We are thankful that we took the prevented plant on 1,100 acres. What plans do you have for your farm in 2020? Plans for the future will be increasing cow numbers and production, marketing 2020 crops at a higher price and looking into the possibility of organics in the future on the prevented plant acres, as well as growing some hemp. We are also very excited to be welcoming the sixth generation to our family farm operation as we are expecting our rst grandson at the end of May. What are your holiday traditions? How will you celebrate the new year? Our holidays are always spent with family – enjoying great food and appreciating all that we have to be thankful for. And every year, we usually go to a neighborhood New Year’s Eve party. Tell us about your farm. Our family farm consists of my in-laws, Jim and Connie, my husband, Thad, and I, and our three sons, Trace, and his wife Megan, Cole and Ty. We have a 200-cow dairy with 250 youngstock. We have Holsteins and about half of the herd is registered. Trace and Cole have a 160 Angus and Red Angus cow/calf herd and embryo business plus custom round baling and land rolling. We also cash crop 3,200 acres of corn, soybean and wheat.
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Mark, Pete and Steve Petersen Appleton, Wisconsin Outagamie County 50 cows What will you remember most about 2019? The weather. Winterkill alfalfa, too wet for planting, late planting resulting in crops that didn’t mature, too muddy to harvest and frequent rain made it challenging to dry hay. What was the highlight of the year for both your family and farm? I am surrounded by such great people. Family, farm helpers, veterinarian, nutritionist, crop consultant, A.I. techs and others make life enjoyable. Describe a challenge you had this year and how you overcame it. Feed shortage. We planted BMR sorghum Sudan and teff grass to supply part of our forage needs. We continue to purchase hay and will until the new crop is harvested next spring. What plans do you have for your farm in 2020? To get our forage production back to where it needs to be, and to continue to do our best for our cows, the environment and the community. What are your holiday traditions? How will you celebrate the new year? Farm work has to be done even on Christmas. I’m not married and have no children so Christmas for me is not this Norman Rockwell thing. I reect on the second chapter of Luke on the news of great joy and how powerful the birth of Jesus is. There would be no Black Friday, Christmas lights, carols or Christmas cookies without the birth of Jesus. I do have a number of New Year’s traditions – in fact, I get teased for some of these. I always eat 12 grapes (one for each month) at midnight for good luck. I put a dime above my door on New Year’s Eve for good nancial luck, and I put money in my shoe before bed for the same reason. Tell us about your farm. I farm with my brother, Steve, and my father, Pete. My brother and I are the third generation on the dairy. We milk 50 cows and farm 300 acres of corn, soybeans and alfalfa. In 1995, we switched to no till on all of our crops and also began composting manure which we sell into the retail market for home gardens. In 1988, we began bedding with shredded recycled newspaper in the tiestall barn. It’s a good bedding source that is absorbent and very clean.
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Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 17
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Page 18 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
Repro Leaders
Double Ovsynch program catapults Britannia Dairy’s reproduction Britannia Dairy Kevin and Ben Pearson Flandreau, South Dakota Moody County 1,100 cows What was your average pregnancy rate last year? Our pregnancy rate averaged about 42% for the year. What is your voluntary waiting period for cows? For
heifers? Our voluntary waiting period is 63 days for cows. We breed our heifers at 12 months. We might breed a heifer a little earlier if she is a larger sized crossbred. What is your rst service conception rate? Our rst service conception rate is 54% with sexed semen. It can be up Turn to BRITANNIA | Page 20
JERRY NELSON/DAIRY STAR
Brothers Kevin and Ben Pearson own Britannia Dairy, an 1,100-head Jersey operaƟon located near Flandreau, South Dakota. Britannia Dairy recently received a plaƟnum recogniƟon from the Dairy CaƩle ReproducƟon Council. JERRY NELSON/DAIRY STAR
The tail head of an open cow is painted to give a visual cue for standing heats at Britannia Dairy near Flandreau, South Dakota.
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Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 19
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Page 20 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
ConƟnued from BRITANNIA | Page 18
How many times do you try to breed a cow before you sell her? It could be up to six or seven times for a cow with average production. If she is a top producer, we might service her as many as seven or eight times.
to 60% with beef semen. What is your reproduction program? Do you use a synchronization program? We use the double Ovsynch protocol on all rst service animals. We will use sexed semen for the rst couple of services then switch to beef semen. Open animals are bred 20 hours after receiving a shot of GnRH. In the summer months, we schedule our breeding for the morning when it’s cooler.
Is there anything you have done or changed that brought about a signicant improvement in your reproductive program? Changing to the double Ovsynch program has helped us tremendously. We will also give a cow an extra shot of Lutalyse in the nal week of her cycle which has increased our conception rate by 9% in our rst lactation animals.
How do you observe for heat? For the past 5 1/2 years, we have used the AAct system to help detect heats. Each animal wears a pedometer on a back leg. Information regarding cow activity is gathered by a reader. That info is then sent through a router and to our farm computer. How do you conrm pregnant or open cows? Our veterinarian performs an ultrasound pregnancy check every two weeks. On off weeks, cows that are eligible for a pregnancy check are given a shot of GnRH. If she proves to be open, we can breed her the next day. This enables us to shave a week off her days open. What is your breeding philosophy? How do you select bulls? What traits do you focus on? Does fertility play a role in bull selection? The Daughter Pregnancy Rate is one of the rst things that we look at followed by production
JERRY NELSON/DAIRY STAR
Ben Pearson, co-owner of Britannia Dairy, looks for cows that have been in heat on his 1,100cow Jersey dairy farm. The dairy uses the Double Ovsynch protocol and their veterinarian performs ultrasound pregnancy checks twice a month. and component numbers. We had been using all DPR positive bulls, but that’s getting more and more difcult due to the Jersey Association changing its formula. We monitor the Jersey breed and use only genomic tested bulls. We will sometimes use newly released bulls that don’t yet have a lot of fertility information on them. When we use young sires, we rely on our own data.
How are cows and heifers bred? Do you have a different philosophy for breeding both? Our heifers receive sexed semen for the rst three services and are then breed with beef bulls. Our rst and second lactation cows are bred with sexed semen for the rst one or two services and are bred with beef semen from then on. We use proven bulls on the heifers. We purchase the best bulls pos-
sible and use a computer mating system to help us make our breeding choices. What do you do to settle hard breeders? We will put her in front of a veterinarian and have her checked for cystic ovaries. If she checks out OK, we will use a CIDR on her.
Tell us about your farm. We grew up on a 220-cow Holstein dairy farm in North Yorkshire, England. We moved here in 2007 and purchased this operation which was 450 cows at the time. Our herd is all Jerseys except for a few crossbreds we have purchased. We enjoy the wide-open spaces and the low population here. There are 76 million people living in England which is roughly the same size as South Dakota, a state that has less than 1 million residents. We received a platinum recognition from the Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council. Our operation was one of six dairies across the nation to receive this award.
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Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 21
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Over 1200 items with pictures updated daily • Go to www.mmcjd.com WHEEL LOADERS 14 JD 544B, General Purpose Bkt, 2090 hrs., #158815..........................$15,000 UTILITY TRACTORS 4 JD 5100M, ’18, Cab, MFWD, Ldr Ready, 300 hrs., #152371 ................$61,900 4 JD 6105E, ‘19, Cab, MFWD, Loader Ready, 42 hrs., #151983 ............... $71900 4 JD 5100E, ‘18, Cab, MFWD, Loader, 6 hrs., #151904 ..........................$64,900 4 JD 6110M, ‘18, Cab, MFWD, 233 hrs., #152230 .................................$91,900 4 JD 6130M, ‘19, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, 150 hrs., #152367 .................$99,500 4 JD 5075E, ‘18, Cab, MFWD, Loader, 45 hrs., #151896.........................$48,900 4 JD 5115M, ‘19, Cab, MFWD, Loader Ready, 230 hrs., #151979...........$66,900 4 JD 6110M, ‘18, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, Loader, 418 hrs., #149248.....$89,500 4 JD 5075E, ‘18, Cab, MFWD, Loader, 241 hrs., #151898.......................$47,900 4 JD 6135E, ‘19, Cab, MFWD, Loader, 150 hrs., #152152.......................$82,900 4 JD 6110M, ‘17, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD; Loader, 177 hrs., #145468 ....$97,900 4 JD 5075M, ‘18, Power Reverser, MFWD, 250 hrs., #163843 ...............$42,900 4 JD 5045E, ‘18, Syncro, MFWD, 250 hrs., #163844 ..............................$23,900 4 JD 5115M, ‘18, Cab, MFWD, Loader, 455 hrs., #143690 .....................$69,500 4 JD 6130R, ‘18, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, 216 hrs., #156512................$109,500 4 JD 6135E, ‘18, 455 hrs., #143696.......................................................$84,900 10 JD 6130R, ‘17, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, 310 hrs., #144503..................$99,500 10 JD 6110R, ‘17, Cab, IVT, MFWD, Loader Ready, 270 hrs., #145469 ...$106,900 10 JD 5075E, ‘18, Cab, MFWD, 88 hrs., #147838 .....................................$41,900 10 JD 6110M, ‘18, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, Loader, 150 hrs., #149250.....$89,500 10 JD 5065E, ‘18, Power Reverser, MFWD, Loader, 2 hrs., #140897 ........$38,900 10 JD 5055E, ‘18, Syncro, MFWD, Loader Ready, 2 hrs., #140896 ...........$32,900 10 JD 6130D, ‘12, Cab, MFWD, Loader, 1800 hrs., #165051 ....................$54,500 10 Allis - Chalmers WD45, ‘55, Syncro, 2WD, #163019........................... $1,750 10 JD 6110R, ‘17, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, 189 hrs., #145477..................$98,900 10 JD 6120M, ‘18, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, 12 hrs., #141903 ...................$92,900 10 JD 6110M, ‘18, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, 280 hrs., #149242 .................$87,900 10 JD 5055E, ‘18, Syncro, MFWD, Loader Ready, 2 hrs., #140787 ...........$32,900 10 JD 5075E, ‘18, Syncro, MFWD, Loader Ready, 2 hrs., #140875 ...........$36,900 10 JD 5065E, ‘18, Syncro, MFWD, Loader Ready, 2 hrs., #140790 ...........$33,900 10 JD 6110M, ‘18, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, Loader, 220 hrs., #149246 ....$94,900 17 JD 6130R, ‘17, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, Loader, 294 hrs., #147778 ...$109,500 6 JD 6135E, ‘16, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, 399 hrs., #142599 ..................$71,900 6 JD 3020, ‘69, Cab, Syncro, 2WD, Loader, #163540 ................................ $7,900 6 JD 2040, ‘79, 2WD, #157048.............................................................$11,900 6 JD 6120E, ‘18, 482 hrs., #143694.......................................................$79,500 6 JD 6130R, ‘16, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, 418 hrs., #142596 ..................$99,500 12 JD 5090E, ‘19, Cab, Power Reverser, MFWD, 150 hrs., #153019 .........$56,900 12 JD 5090E, ‘19, Cab, Power Reverser, MFWD, 150 hrs., #153273 .........$56,900 12 JD 6135E, ‘19, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, Loader, 150 hrs., #153284 .....$82,900 12 JD 5065E, ‘18, Syncro, MFWD, 15 hrs., #147837 ................................$33,900 15 JD 6110R, ‘16, Cab, IVT, MFWD, 513 hrs., #144500............................$95,900 9 JD 5400, ‘96, Syncro, MFWD, 6000 hrs., #164957 ..............................$12,900 9 JD 2640, ‘79, 2WD, Syncro, 4055 hrs., #162792 ................................... $8,900 16 JD 6110R, ‘17, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, Loader, 458 hrs., #144496 .....$89,500 16 JD 6120E, ’18, Cab, MFWD, Loader, 198 hrs., #143692 ......................$79,500
(1) = GLENCOE 4561 Hwy. 212
Visit one of our 17 locations in Central Minnesota! (7) = ALEXANDRIA (9) = PRINCETON (4) = ST. CLOUD 1035 35th Ave. NE
(2) = HOWARD LAKE (5) = GLENWOOD 5845 Keats Ave. SW
1710 N. Franklin
(3) = STEWART
(6) = SAUK CENTRE
78412 Co. Rd. 20
5 CIH Farmall 110C, ‘15, Partial PS, MFWD, Loader, 694 hrs., #161390 $49,900 5 JD 6105R, ‘13, Cab, Partial PS, MFWD, 1568 hrs., #156129................$71,900 11 Case IH 585, ‘85, Syncro, 2WD, Loader, 3515 hrs., #162344 ..............$12,995 8 International Harvester 584, ‘78, Syncro, 2WD, Loader, #163021 .. $6,100 8 JD 6135E, ‘18, 476 hrs., #143698.......................................................$84,900 3 JD 6430, ‘08, Cab, Power Reverser, 2WD, 1050 hrs., #161657 ............$49,500 3 JD 6430, ‘08, Cab, Power Reverser, 2WD, 1050 hrs., #161657 ............$49,500 SKID STEER LOADERS 4 JD 320E, ‘17, Cab w/AC, EH Ctrls, JS, 2 Spd; 72” Bkt, 153 hrs., #144216 .$39,500 4 JD 324G, ‘18, Cab w/AC, Foot Ctrls, Air Ride Seat, 2 Spd, Self-Leveling, Aux Hydraulics, 78” Bkt, Reversing Fan, 276 hrs., #161893 .................$44,500 4 JD 320E, ‘17, Cab w/AC, EH Ctls, JS, 2 Spd, Self-Leveling, Aux Hyd., 76” Bkt, Reversing Fan, 36 hrs., #137812 ............................................$42,900 4 JD 324G, ‘18, Cab w/AC, Cab Enclosure, A/C, EH Ctls, Air Ride Seat, Ride Ctrl, 2 Spd, Self-Leveling, Aux Hyd., 78” Bkt, 259 hrs., #162065 ..$45,900 4 NH L225, ‘14, Cab w/AC, Foot Ctrls, Air Ride Seat, 2 Spd, Aux Hyd., 72” Bkt, 1085 hrs., #161493................................................................$30,900 4 Bobcat S650, ‘13, Cab w/AC, Foot Ctrls, 2 Spd, 750 hrs., #155406 ....$33,900 2 JD 326E, ‘15, Cab w/AC, Foot Ctrls, Air Ride Seat, 2 Spd, Self-Leveling, Aux Hyd., 84” Bkt, Reversing Fan, 780 hrs., #153617 ..........................$33,900 2 JD 320E, ‘16, Cab w/AC, EH Ctrls, Air Ride Seat, Joystick, Ride Control, 2 Spd, Aux Hyd., 84” Bucket, Reversing Fan, 290 hrs., #153678 ..........$40,900 10 JD 324G, ‘18, Cab w/AC, Cab Enclosure, A/C, EH Ctls, Air Ride Seat, Ride Ctrl, 2 Spd, Aux Hyd., 72” Bkt, 427 hrs., #162066 ........................$46,900 10 JD 325, ‘09, ROPS, Cab w/o AC, Cab Encl., Foot Ctrls, Hi-Flo, 2 Spd, 6795 hrs., #161494 ..................................................................$16,500 10 JD 328D, ‘10, Cab w/ AC, Foot Ctrls, Air Ride Seat, 2 Spd, Aux Hyd., 84” Bkt., 1226 hrs., #158311 ...............................................$28,900 10 JD 330G, ‘18, Cab w/AC, EH Ctrls, Air Ride Seat, JS, Ride Ctrl, 2 Spd, Self-Leveling, Aux Hyd., 84” Bkt, Reversing Fan, 560 hrs., #159949 ....$48,900 10 JD 316GR, ‘16, Cab w/AC, Foot Ctrls, 2 Spd, Self-Leveling, Aux Hyd., 66” Bkt., 202 hrs., #156291.................................................................$29,900 7 JD 324G, ‘18, Cab w/AC, 2 Spd, Aux Hyd., 78” Bkt, Reversing Fan, 81 hrs., #158283.................................................................................$45,900 6 JD 326D, ‘12, Cab w/AC, Foot Ctrls, 2 Spd, Aux Hyd., Reversing Fan, 2808 hrs., #157643.............................................................................$24,500 1 JD 320E, ‘16, Cab w/AC, EH Ctrls, EH Ctrls, JS, 2 Spd, Aux Hyd., 76” Bkt., 645 hrs., #151636.................................................................$38,900 12 JD 326E, ‘16, Cab w/AC, EH Ctrls, Air Ride Seat, 2 Spd, Self-Leveling, 84” Bkt, Reversing Fan, 432 hrs., #126370 ..........................................$45,900 15 JD 320E, ’17, Cab w/AC, EH Ctrls, JS, 2 Spd, Aux Hyd., 2954 hrs., #158327 .............................................................................................$27,900 15 JD 320E, ‘17, Cab w/AC, EH Ctrls, JS, 2 Spd, Aux Hyd., 2681 hrs., #159774 .............................................................................................$28,900 16 JD 320E, ‘17, Cab w/AC, EH Ctrls, JS; 2 Spd, Aux Hyd., 2811 hrs., #148971 .............................................................................................$23,900 13 Case 1845, ‘82, ROPS, Hand Ctrls, 72” Bkt, 835 hrs., #162368 ............. $9,400 13 NH LS170, ‘01, Foot Ctrls, 66” Bkt, 3444 hrs., #161834 ......................$14,900 13 JD 332E, ‘14, 1019 hrs., #155014 .......................................................$39,500
1140 Centre St.
320-763-4220 5005 Co. Rd. 82 SE
3708 Baptist Church Rd.
(8) = PAYNESVILLE
16069 Hwy. 27 E.
725 Lake Ave. S.
5 JD 320E, ‘14, Cab w/AC, Foot Ctrls, 2 Spd, 72” Bkt, 906 hrs., #152334 $32,900 5 JD 332G, ‘16, Cab w/AC, Foot Ctrls, EH Ctrls, JS, Ride Ctrl, 2 Spd, Self-Leveling, Aux Hyd., Wts, 84” Bkt, 587 hrs., #153227 ....................$48,900 11 JD 320E, ‘16, Cab w/AC, Foot Ctrls, Air Ride Seat, 2 Spd, Self-Leveling, Aux Hyd. 76” Bkt, Reversing Fan, 765 hrs., #164631 .....$34,900 11 JD 332G, ‘18, Cab w/AC, EH Ctrls, Air Ride Seat, JS, Ride Ctrl, 2 Spd, Self-Leveling, Aux Hyd., Wts, 84” Bkt, 150 hrs., #144002 ....................$56,900 8 JD 326E, ‘16, Cab w/AC, EH Ctrls, Air Ride Seat, Ride Ctrl, 2 Spd, 72” Bkt, 835 hrs., #142477..................................................................$33,900 8 JD 320E, ‘15, Cab w/AC, Foot Ctrls, Air Ride Seat, 2 Spd, Aux Hyd., 72” Bkt, 2721 hrs., #164609................................................................$23,900 8 JD 320E, ‘18, Cab w/AC, EH Ctrls, JS; 2 Spd, Aux Hydraulics, ............................ 2916 hrs., #159775.............................................................................. $27900 14 Caterpillar 236D, ‘17, ROPS, Cab w/AC, Cab Encl., EH Ctrls, Air Ride Seat, 2 Spd, 72” Bket, 582 hrs., #161230 ...............................$33,400 14 JD 320E, ‘14, Cab w/AC, Ft. Ctrls, 2 Spd, Aux Hyd., 72” Bkt, 3626 hrs., #153675 ............................................................................$22,900 3 JD 330G, ‘17, Cab w/AC, EH Ctrls, JS, Ride Ctrl, 2 Spd, Self-Leveling, Aux Hyd., 84” Bkt. Reversing Fan, 1175 hrs., #152399 ........................$42,900 COMPACT TRACK LOADERS 4 JD 317G, ‘17, ROPS, EH Ctrls, JS, Aux Hyd., Narrow Rubber Tracks, 57 hrs., #155403 ................................................................................$37,900 4 JD 333E, ‘16, Cab Encl., A/C, EH Ctrls, 2 Spd, Wide Rubber Tracks, 1146 hrs., #155402.............................................................................. $50,900 7 JD 333E, ‘16, Cab Enclosure, A/C, 2 Spd., Wide Rubber Tracks, 84” Bkt, 1105 hrs., #165067.............................................................................$51,900 7 JD 333E, ‘15, Cab Enclosure , A/C, 2 Spd, Wide Rubber Tracks, 84” Bkt, 776 hrs., #157583..................................................................$54,900 7 JD 323E, ‘16, 417 hrs., #155457 .........................................................$46,900 6 Bobcat T590, ‘13, Cab Encl., A/C, 72” Bkt, 705 hrs., #157124 ............$35,900 6 JD 333G, ‘17, Cab Encl., A/C, 2 Spd, Rubber Tracks, 745 hrs., #153697$63,500 1 JD 323E, ‘15, Cab Encl., A/C, 2 Spd, Narrow Rubber Tracks, 845 hrs., #156034 .............................................................................................$40,900 12 JD 333E, ‘14, Cab Enclosure, A/C, 2 Spd, 84” Bkt, 1220 hrs., #159838 $49,595 12 JD CT332, ‘08, 650 hrs., #156976.......................................................$31,900 15 JD 333G, ‘18, Cab Enclosure, A/C, JS, 2 Spd, 688 hrs., #160845..........$70,400 9 JD 323E, ‘17, Cab Enclosure, A/C, Foot Ctrls, 2 Spd, 990 hrs., #162375$41,900 13 JD 317G, ‘18, Cab Enclosure, A/C, JS, 72” Bkt, 50 hrs., #162594 .........$48,900 13 JD 333E, ‘14, Cab Encl., A/C, Hand Ctrls, JS, 2 Spd, Wide Rubber Tracks, 84” Bucket, 1830 hrs, #165057 ...........................................................$46,000 13 JD 333G, ‘18, Cab Encl., A/C, 2 Spd, 715 hrs., #162031.......................$70,400 13 JD 333G, ‘18, Cab Encl., A/C, JS, Aux Hyd., 2 Spd, 328 hrs., #163424 .$74,900 13 JD 333G, ‘17, Cab Encl., A/C, 2 Spd, 661 hrs., #153696.......................$64,900 5 JD 323E, ‘13, 2500 hrs., #156930 .......................................................$29,900 11 JD 333G, ‘18, A/C, 2 Spd, 424 hrs., #153524 ......................................$66,900 11 JD 323E, ‘16, Cab Encl. A/C, Foot Ctrls, 2 Spd, 76” Bkt, 785 hrs., #162339 .............................................................................................$40,900 8 JD 323E, ‘18, Cab Encl., A/C, JS, 2 Spd, 571 hrs., #150764 ..................$48,500
CALL TODAY! (320)365-1653 (12) = AITKIN 1120 2nd St. NW
(10) = LITTLE FALLS (13) = BAXTER (11) = WADENA 62505 US Hwy. 10
7045 Foley Rd.
(14) = ELBOW LAKE
(16) = BENSON
(15) = MORRIS
(17) = MADISON
110 2nd St. NE
23604 State Hwy. 9
380 Atlantic Ave. 516 1st St. E
SEE OUR COMPLETE INVENTORY WITH PICTURES AND DESCRIPTIONS AT: www.mmcjd.com
Page 22 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
Don’t let your cows fall! Get your concrete scabbled and prevent an accident!
Smith’s of Wisconsin
Serving the Midwest over 30 yrs. REFERENCES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
Scabbling makes grooves in your concrete 2” wide and 3/16” deep so your cows ALWAYS have traction.
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Contact one of the following dealers to learn more: IOWA Kramer Bros. Monticello, IA 319-465-5931 Prairie Land Ag Supply Inc. Rock Valley, IA 712-476-9290 United-Suckow Dairy Supply West Union, IA 563-422-5355 Postville, IA 563-864-7417
WISCONSIN Advanced Dairy/Bob’s Dairy Supply Spring Valley, WI 715-772-3201 Ederer Dairy Supply Plain, WI 608-546-3713 Joe’s Refrigeration Inc. Withee, WI 715-229-2321 Mlsna Dairy Supply Inc. Cashton, WI 608-654-5106 Professional Dairy Services Waunakee, WI 608-849-5043
Mondovi Dairy Systems Inc. Mondovi, WI 715-926-5777 West Salem, WI 608-769-2113 The Scharine Group Inc. Whitewater, WI 800 472-2880 Mt Horeb, WI 800-872-3470 MINNESOTA & SOUTH DAKOTA D&D Ag Supply Pennock, MN 320-599-4466
East Central Dairy Supply Mora, MN 320-679-1029 Farm Systems Melrose, MN 320-256-3276 Watertown, MN 605-886-7401 Sioux Falls, SD 800-284-0015 S&S Dairy System LLC St. Charles, MN 507-932-4288 Professional Dairy Systems Wadena, MN 218-632-5416
*0% interest for 30 months, DeLaval equipment only, on approved credit. 1.90% interest for 46 months, zero down. DeLaval equipment only, on approved credit and minimum deal amount of $30,000 is required to qualify for these rates. Subject to special conditions’ and cannot be combined with other promotional offers. 1Estimate monthly charges in connection with the financing of one VMS to a qualified buyer on approved credit on a 7 year term. Includes a residual to be paid in order to obtain full ownership at the end of the term. Offer good until December 31, 2019. Financial Pacific Leasing, Inc., doing business as Umpqua Bank Vendor Finance, is a subsidiary of Umpqua Bank. Products offered by Financial Pacific Leasing, Inc., are not FDIC insured. is a registered trademark of Tetra Laval Holdings & Finance S.A. and “DeLaval” is a registered trade/servicemark of DeLaval Holding AB © 2019 DeLaval Inc. DeLaval, 11100 North Congress Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri 64153-1296. www.delaval.com
Wisconsin Beef Council elects leadership
At the recent Wisconsin Beef Council (WBC) Board meeting, directors elected leadership positions. Val Gaffney, a seedstock producer from Barneveld, was elected to serve as president for the next two years. In this role, she will lead the 23-member board in building on the Council’s mission — to build beef demand that is sustainable for future generations. Gaffney represents the Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association and assumes the president’s role following Arin Crooks, a Lancaster native and Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association representative. “Serving on the Wisconsin Beef Council board allows me to see how our dollar is used to build demand for beef,” Gaffney said. “Social media, creative advertising campaigns and face-to-face visits with everyone involved in the beef industry help the Wisconsin Beef Council make our dollar impactful.” In addition, Rosie Lisowe was elected to the president-elect role. Lisowe is a dairy farmer from Chilton and represents the Wisconsin Farm Bureau. Elected for the secretary-treasurer role was Tod Fleming, Baraboo. He holds one of Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales’ ve seats on the Wisconsin Beef Council Board. In addition to Gaffney, Lisowe and Fleming, three committee chairs and two at-large members were elected to serve one-year terms on the Executive Committee. Those individuals include: – Curt Larson, Baraboo (Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales) — Consumer Information Committee – Eric Johnson, Dane (Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association) — Promotion Committee – Jim Rychtik, Belgium (Milwaukee Stockyards) — Industry Information/Producer Communications Committee – Jay Heeg, Colby (Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin) — At-large member – Amy Radunz, Ellsworth (Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association) — At-large member Crooks will also serve on the Executive Committee as past president. “It has been a busy two years for the Wisconsin Beef Council,” Crooks said. “Most noteworthy is the retirement of John Freitag as our Executive Director and the hiring of Tammy Vaassen into that position. I’m glad to say that our work is paying off as Tammy is doing an excellent job leading the Wisconsin Beef Council.” Individuals who have completed two terms on the board were also recognized for their dedication. They included: Dave Koning, Monroe (Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association); and Matt Bayer, Weston, Wisconsin Association of Meat Processors. The Wisconsin Beef Council Board is made up of individuals who are appointed by statewide organizations, and those individuals either pay the Beef Checkoff and/or collect the Checkoff. Additional board members are listed below. Individuals serve three-year terms. – Dale Bakke, Watertown (Wisconsin Veal Growers) – Chuck Born, Sheboygan Falls (National Farmers Organization) – Allan Cihlar, Mosinee (Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales) – Tina Hinchley, Cambridge (Wisconsin Farmers Union) – Forrest Johnson, Menomonie (Central Livestock Association) – Jack Johnson, Medford (Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association) – Brad Solchenberger, Cazenovia (Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales) – Craig Statz, Waunakee (Milwaukee Stockyards) – Dwight Truttmann, Mt. Horeb (Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales) – Mark Winter, Green Bay (Packer representative, American Foods Group) – Brady Zuck, Ladysmith (Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association) Farm First Cooperative also holds a seat on the Wisconsin Beef Council board and will be appointing a new representative following the passing of Randy Geiger. Individuals who hold ex-ofcio positions on the Board include Cattlemen’s Beef Board members Lloyd Deruyter, Cedar Grove; Bob Mitchell, Wauzeka; and Terry Quam, Lodi. Jeff Sindelar with UW-Madison and Jeff Swenson with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection also hold exofcio roles.
Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 23
Farming a family legacy for Guyrand Farms
AS CLOSE TO INVINCIBLE AS MERE MORTALS GET.
The proven 96.4 HP† Kubota engine powers the beast with 7,961 pounds of breakout force. A wider cab entrance,optimized AC and full-suspension seat provide all-day comfort. And an integrated mainframe and undercarriage handles any terrain, making the Kubota SVL95-2s seem almost unstoppable.
111 50th Ave. West • Alexandria, MN 56308
(320) 763-4994
www.alexpowerequipment.com KubotaUSA.com For complete warranty, safety and product information, consult your local Kubota dealer and the product operator’s manual. Power (HP/KW) and other specifications are based on various standards or recommended practices. *$0 Down, 0% A.P.R. financing for up to 60 months on purchases of select new Kubota SVL equipment from participating dealers’ in-stock inventory is available to qualified purchasers through Kubota Credit Corporation, U.S.A.; subject to credit approval. Some exceptions apply. Example: 60 monthly payments of $16.67 per $1,000 financed. Offer expires 12/31/19. For complete warranty, safety and product information see dealer or KubotaUSA.com. †
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
The Guy family (from leŌ) – Rick, Donna, Hunter, Ruth and Dick – are three generaƟons a part of Guyrand Farm near Sparta, Wisconsin. The Guys built a new parlor and freestall barn to help ensure the future of the farm.
New facility paves way for next generation By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
SPARTA, Wis. – Like many dairy farm families in Wisconsin, the Guy family found themselves facing a crossroads when it came to their aging tiestall barn and were faced with a decision about their future in the industry. “The old barn needed lots of repairs. We either needed to build something new or sell the cows,” said Dick Guy, who is the second of four generations to call the farm home. “I was the only one who was in favor of selling them, so we looked into building a new facility.” Guyrand Farms is located north of Sparta and was originally purchased in 1930 by Dick’s father, James Guy. Today, Dick and his wife, Ruth, operate the farm along with their son, Rick, and his wife, Donna. Rick and Donna’s son, Hunter, will be the fourth generation of the family to operate the farm after he graduates from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville where he is a
“I was the only one who was in favor of selling them, so we looked into building a new facility.” DICK GUY, DAIRY FARMER
freshman majoring in dairy science. “We originally thought to put a parlor into the old barn and build a new freestall barn,” Dick said. “It turned out that the cost for building entirely new was about the same as trying to retro-t a parlor into the old barn.” In the old barn, the Guys were milking 63 head of registered Brown Swiss and Holsteins. The new barn was built to house 100 head, 80 milking cows and 20 dry cows. The Guys moved their herd into the barn in late May 2018.
Labor considerations played into the type of facility that would best suit their family’s future needs. “It’s hard to nd good, reliable hired help anymore,” Dick said. “When I bought the farm from my dad, his advice was to not expand and get too big but to stay small and be able to do the work myself.” The Guys visited several farms with different management styles and types of new constructions before deciding how to build their parlor and freestall barn. “We toyed with the idea of robots for a bit,” Dick said. “But, I wasn’t sold on them, and we would have had to expand to 120 cows. None of us wanted to expand that much. Rick wanted to stay under 80 cows milking. There is some room to expand when Hunter graduates, and we built the barn so it could be easily added on to.” Building the new facility was not without some challenges. The contractor failed to ensure that the oors in the milkhouse and utility room sloped towards the drains, an issue that has left the Guys needing to squeegee the oors. “Rick and I could re-pour the concrete correctly ourselves with no issues,” Dick said. “But, there is in-oor heat so that adds a lot of expense.” The stalls of the freestall barn were also installed incorrectly. They had trouble with cows getting stuck in the free stalls before determining that the stalls were not placed at the correct height and setback, a problem that has since been remedied. The free stalls were poured higher than what their building plans had called for, being closer to 14 inches as opposed to the planned 8 inches. “I wish I would have planned for the pit to be bigger too,” Dick said. “Right now, it has about 40 days of storage, and I should have planned for it to be about twice the size.” Despite the few challenges they have faced, the Guys are happy with their new facility and how it has imTurn to GUYS | Page 25
y r r e M s a m t s i r h C Thank you.
You have been an important part of the blessings that we’ve enjoyed this past year. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you and wish you and your family a most happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. From all the staff and dealers of Byron Seeds LLC
1-800-801-3596
Page 24 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
YEAR END BLOW OUT!
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Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 25
ConƟnued from GUYS | Page 23
proved their dairy farm operation. “My dad told me that if you are going to buy a farm, buy one with good land,” Dick said. “He said that you can build buildings to do what you need, but you can’t build the land. This farm is a good farm; the land is really good here.” Dick said when his father rst purchased the farm in 1930, he paid $14,500. “He kept everything,” Dick said. “It is something to go back and look at those old records and to see how things have changed over time.” With that deep sense of fam-
“My dad told me that if you are going to buy a farm, buy one with good land.” DICK GUY, DAIRY FARMER
ily tradition invested in the farm, Hunter plans to come home after he graduates and hopes to eventually take over ownership. “I hope to someday have an all Brown Swiss, production award winning herd,” Hunter said. “I’m partial to the Brown Swiss I guess because I show them. I think they are friendlier and easier to work with.” Dick and Ruth’s pride in their family’s love of the dairy industry is apparent. “Without Rick, we wouldn’t still be milking cows here,” Dick said. “And, Hunter really loves the cows and enjoys working with them.”
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
A new freestall barn houses the Guys’ herd of Brown Swiss and Holsteins at the family’s farm near Sparta, Wisconsin.
Ruth agreed. “It is so gratifying to see Hunter have a desire to continue carrying on the legacy our family has built with this farm,” she said. Even with the third and fourth generations actively involved in the farm, neither Dick nor Ruth plan to
hang up their barn boots anytime soon. “Everybody asks why we don’t just quit and retire,” Dick said. “Why quit and just sit around? This is in our blood, and we enjoy it.” Hunter said running the family farm is all he has ever wanted to do
in terms of a career. “For me, it’s the love of the cows and the love of doing this,” Hunter said. “I can’t see myself doing anything else. I don’t think I could work at a desk job or a town job.”
Page 26 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
CRP sign up now open until Feb. 28
United States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that the Farm Service Agency opened signup for the Conservation Reserve Program. The deadline to sign up for general CRP is Feb. 28, 2020, while signup for continuous CRP is ongoing. As a reminder to interested landowners, an appointment is required for FSA personnel to assist an interested participant. FSA News & Notes Farmers and ranchers who enroll in CRP receive a yearly rental payment for voluntarily establishing long-term, resourceconserving plant species, such as approved grasses or trees to control soil erosion, improve water quality and develop wildlife habitat on marginally proBy Ryan Brunn ductive agricultural lands. The CRP is one of our na- Stearns Co. Exec. Dir. tion’s largest conservation endeavors and a critical tool to help producers better manage their operations while conserving natural resources. Within the CRP, interested landowners have several choices in evaluating which option may best t for their individual situation. General sign up. CRP general sign up will be held annually. The competitive general sign up will now include increased opportunities for enrollment of wildlife habitat through the State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement initiative. Continuous sign up. While some practices under SAFE will remain available through continuous signup, CRP continuous sign up will focus primarily on water quality within the Clean Lakes, Estuaries and Rivers (CLEAR) Initiative. The 2018 farm bill prioritizes water quality practices such as contour grass strips, lter strips, riparian buffers, wetlands and a new prairie strip. The United States Department of Agriculture will also be working with Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program partners to relaunch CREP continuous options in each state under new statutory provisions. CREP will continue to target high-priority local, state or regional conservation concerns. Grasslands sign up. CRP grasslands sign up helps landowners and operators protect grassland, including rangeland, and pastureland and certain other lands while maintaining the areas as grazing lands. A separate CRP grasslands sign up will be offered each year following general sign up. The period for CRP grasslands sign up in 2020 runs from March 16 to May 15. Land transition. The CRP Transition Incentives Program is an option for producers interested in transitioning land to a beginning farmer or rancher or a member of a socially disadvantaged group to return land to production for sustainable grazing or crop production. CRP contract holders no longer need to be a retired or retiring owner or operator to transition their land. TIP participants may have a lease less than ve years with an option to purchase, and they have two years before the end of the CRP contract to make conservation and land improvements. Previously expired land. Land enrolled in CRP under a 15-year contract that expired in September 2017, 2018 or 2019, may be eligible for enrollment if there was no opportunity for re-enrollment and the practice under the expired contract has been maintained. FSA recently posted updated soil rental rates for CRP. Soil rental rates are statutorily prorated at 90% for continuous signup and 85% for general signup. The rental rates will be reviewed annually. Under continuous signup, producers also receive incentives, including a signup incentive payment and a practice incentive payment. To enroll in CRP, contact a FSA county ofce or visit http://www.fsa.usda.gov/crp. Farm Service Agency is an Equal Opportunity Lender. Complaints about discrimination should be sent to: Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 20250. Visit the Farm Service Agency Web site at: www.fsa.usda.gov/ for necessary application forms and updates on USDA programs.
Years of leadership Cambridge 4-H has been a big part of my family for many years. My mother-in-law, Ruth Hinchley, was a volunteer leader in the club and raised her family to be involved in all that 4-H does for Cambridge. My husband, Duane, and his siblings all showed cattle through 4-H but also participated in many other things the club did throughout the year. Later, my sister-inlaw, Marcia, became the club leader and introduced my children to 4-H. The 4-H pledge: I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service and my health to better living, for my club, my community, my country and my world. This is an organization that is world wide and has enBy Tina Hinchley Farmer & Columnist lightened many youth into becoming responsible, condent and valued citizens. I have been an active volunteer for Cambridge 4-H for over 14 years with the last six years as the club leader. This past September, as the 4-H year was coming to an end and it was time to elect new ofcers to lead the club, I was approached by three parents who were interested in helping in the club leadership roll. I have been asking for several years after my daughters graduated out of 4-H if anyone was willing to step up and take on the roll as the Cambridge 4-H leader. I was so happy to pass the roll of leader to these moms but would still help if needed. Our farm could still be used for activities just as it has been in the past. The direction of the club would be led by three parents who have children that are active in sports and other commitments. The sharing of the role of leader was then manageable and would be able to t into their schedules. We have a very active club, especially during the holidays. We focus on community service projects. These new parent leaders have children who have been in 4-H for many years. They would continue some of the club projects but would also bring fresh ideas and programs to the club for the youth to participate in. The Christmas wreath and roping fundraiser starts at the annual ofcer installation in October. I always buy many wreaths and some roping for our own decorations and to give to our truck and tractor drivers. This year I gave my order to one of the members to add to their list of contacts for the future. These kids work really hard to sell these wreaths, and because they are very good quality of pine boughs, the buyers look forward to having them for their holiday decorations every year. The club ends up with a whole trailer full of wreaths and a big box of bows that are assembled in our shed on the Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend. The fresh sent of pine stays in the shed until spring. This year I watched as the new leaders took control and sorted and made sure every member had all of their orders. If any corrections needed to be made, they handled it. I stepped aside and was pleased to see how smooth it all went. The families delivered their orders, and the customers quickly put up their wreaths along with their other decorations while the weather was mild. Some of the prots will go to purchasing gifts for children in the Cambridge area with a local program called Adopt-a-Child. The youth members select several children’s cards from the Christmas trees at the local bank and plan on spending $30 per child. Many organizations help get gifts for the children insuring all of the Christmas wishes are met.
Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 27
These cards are put on the trees for children who would otherwise not get gifts due to family hardship. The 4-H club members enjoy picking out the cards and purchasing items for the anonymous child. It is always a humbling moment when the members read the cards of what some of these children are wishing for Christmas. Clothes, socks, winter jackets, boots. Things our members have never been without. These purchases are well thought out and practical for the kids to give. The request for toys and books are a lot of fun for the members to pick out and purchase as well. This was the rst year in the last 14 years I did not participate in the Adopt-a-Child shopping trip. It was comforting to know it was all being taken care of, and the community service projects I worked so hard with the members in the past will continue for years to come. I watched all of the posts on Facebook on the planning of the shopping trip. I liked seeing photos
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of the cars full of kids and the smiling faces divided up into groups with shopping carts. The excitement of giving something to someone their age in need kept them pumped up for the whole two hours of shopping. Being involved for so many years in this organization, I have become connected to these community service programs. These are some of the best memories of what 4-H can do for kids and adult volunteers. I will forever be proud and thankful to have been such a big part of the leadership but also condent these kids will continue to carry forward the legacy of what 4-H can do for them and others. I will watch them as the Cambridge 4-H club grows into the future, knowing they are in good hands with the new leadership. Tina Hinchley, her husband, Duane, and their daughters, Anna and Catherine, milk 240 registered Holsteins with robots. They also farm 2,300 acres of crops near Cambridge, Wisconsin. They have been hosting farm tours for over 20 years.
© 2019 Genex Cooperative. All rights reserved. A-22135-19
Page 28 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
Farm hosts event with Santa
Ti-Shi Dairy welcomes public for fun, educational Christmas outing By Stacey Smart
stacey.s@dairystar.com
ELMWOOD, Wis. – Santa Claus is visiting more than the mall these days. He could be found Dec. 7 at Ti-Shi Dairy in Elmwood when the Colbenson family hosted Milk and Cookies With Santa on the Farm . The free Christmas celebration, which took place from noon to 4 p.m., attracted nearly 450 people who came to take pictures with Santa, eat homemade Christmas cookies, have a fresh glass of milk and partake in other activities on the farm. The dairy is owned by Tim and Shirley Colbenson. The Colbensons have four grown children – Ben, Brandon, Brian and Breanna – and milk 240 cows and farm 400 acres. This was their second time hosting Milk and Cookies With Santa on the Farm – an event inspired by an idea Tim saw while browsing the internet. “My wife, Felicia, ran with it and planned the whole thing,” Brian said. “Setting the vision for this event, she’s the hard work and brains behind it all.” In addition to the cookies, milk and big guy in the red suit, the event – which was sponsored in part by the Pierce County Farm Bureau and Pierce County Dairy Promotion Committee – also included a petting zoo containing donkeys, sheep, calves and goats, a cheese tasting, farm tour, hot chocolate and pictures with Santa Claus. Guests also had the opportunity to see the cows being milked in the farm’s double-12 herringbone parlor. “A lot of people haven’t seen that before,” Brian said. During a wagon ride
through the barn, visitors learned facts about the Colbensons’ farm and the dairy industry. A variety of Christmas cookies were made by the Ellsworth High School home economics class and served with milk and eggnog supplied by a small local creamery – Autumnwood Farm – owned by the Daninger family of Forest Lake, Minnesota. “More than 20 volunteers, including neighbors, dairy promotion members, friends and family, made this event possible,” Brian said. “It was a community effort and everyone seemed to have fun. The kids really liked Santa as well as the petting zoo and wagon ride. Watching the cows get milked was something the adults particularly enjoyed. A lot of them have never been around a farm, or if they have, it’s been a long time and a lot has changed.” The event took place in the farm’s heated shop, which Felicia and Shirley decorated with Christmas lights, a Christmas tree, presents and other décor. Last year’s event brought in 300 people, and Brian said he saw familiar faces return this year. Visitors came from as far away as the Twin Cities – a one-hour trip from the farm. Foreign exchange students from South Korea and China attending the University of Wisconsin-River Falls also stopped by. “We enjoy having people at our farm and educating the public about dairy and agriculture in general,” said Brian, whose family also hosted their county’s dairy breakfast on the farm in 2018. “We present a good image. We’re a clean family farm with clean cows, and that helps us gain trust with the consumer.” The Colbensons also like the idea of providing an opportunity that brings families
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Felicia and Brian Colbenson, along with their son, Lincoln, pose with Santa during the Milk and Cookies With Santa on the Farm on their family’s 240-cow dairy near Elmwood, Wisconsin. together at Christmastime. “Christmas is about family,” Brian said. “And, we like giving families an occasion to be together and make memories. Christmas is a very important and special holiday for us as we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We highly value Christmas from a Christian standpoint. And as our family is growing and getting older, we make a point to spend time together, especially at this time of year.” Brian said the people are his favorite part of the event. “I enjoyed seeing different people coming to the farm,” Brian said. “I like learning where they come from, why they came and what they’re interested in. It’s fun to get to know people.” Spreading Christmas joy while educating consumers and community members about the dairy industry is the mission of Milk and Cookies With Santa on the Farm. Because of its success, the Colbensons are planning to host the event again next Christmas.
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Volunteers prepare the cookie table for the Milk and Cookies with Santa on the Farm event at Ti-Shi Dairy near Elmwood, Wisconsin.
Got water? Do not overlook crucial nutrient this winter
Winter has arrived. With it comes snow, ice, wind and cold. These elements present a unique challenge to dairy farmers. Keeping cows healthy and comfortable is key to keeping productivity up and problems low. Likely, the biggest change made in the winter for cows is to their diet. High emphasis is put on By Emily Wilmes energy in the ration in order to avoid University of MN cold stress while maintaining milk production. Cows are likely consuming more total feed in a day as well. An overlooked aspect of this tweaked feeding plan is the importance of water. High energy feeds will require more water consumption. Water is a crucial nutrient – the most crucial nutrient – year round. Cows should naturally seek out water, but there may be factors that cause them to avoid it. The most common factor making water unsatisfactory for livestock is high salinity. High salinity is an excessive concentration of dissolved salts. Other factors that can affect water quality are nitrates, sulfates, alkalinity and toxic elements. The best way to nd out the quality of your water is to have it tested. A quality analysis can test for total coliform bacteria, pH, total dissolved solids, salinity, hardness, nitrates, sulfates and toxins. Knowing what is in your water is important because certain factors can affect cow performance, cause health problems and even lead to death. Besides testing, there are a few ways you can make sure your cows have high quality water. Whether you use large water tanks in a freestall barn or individual drinking cups in a tiestall barn, those water sources should be cleaned regularly. Mold, sediment, feed and even manure can build up in water tanks and drinking cups. Regular cleaning will ensure quality water and could prevent excessive wear and tear on the equipment. If you have any cows that are kept outside or on a lot that is more exposed to the elements, consider if the water may be freezing. Heated waterers are an investment, but they ensure water is accessible. Cows should have access to clean, fresh water at all times. Even the best quality water will not do your cows any good if they do not have adequate access. Even in the winter, cows can consume 20-30 gallons of water per day. A cow should not need
to travel more than 50 feet within a pen to get to water. There should be at least two waterers in each pen, located at different areas to prevent crowding and give better access to every cow. A rule of thumb is there should be 3 inches of linear waterer space for every cow in a pen. If you notice constant crowding around all waterers, you may want to consider adding more to guarantee there is enough access to water for every cow. Key waterer dimensions include a maximum rim height of 34 inches and a water depth of 6 to 8 inches. Research indicates that the amount of water needed by nursery calves depends not only on environmental conditions, but on other factors like the incidence of scours and the amount of milk or milk replacer and starter intake. Water temperature can also affect water intake. First and foremost, make sure your calves always have water; if you notice their bucket is empty, ll it. This is more challenging in winter. Check calves several times a day to ensure they have water. In addition, keep the water fresh. The calf may still have half her bucket left, but if it has feed in it or is dirty she may not drink. Aim to give calves fresh water at least twice a day. Water for calves should be as warm as possible – remember their regular body temperature is 101.5 degrees F – to prevent calves from using too much energy to warm the water once it is consumed. Lastly, regularly clean buckets. Make sure they all get a thorough cleaning between calves. Residues and germs from other calves can wreak havoc on an already immune-suppressed calf. Water is the world’s most critical nutrient. A lot of management decisions about water surround the summer months, but do not forget about water in the winter. The changes to a cow’s diet in the winter makes the need for water critical to maintaining a healthy metabolism. Water quality should be considered, and a test should be done if there are concerns about salinity, nitrates and other issues. In addition, regular cleaning of waterers will sustain water quality and palatability. Access to water should be considered, including position of waterers and linear inches of waterer space per cow. Lastly, the importance of water for calves should not be overlooked in the winter months; extra hauling of water may be necessary to ensure water stays warm enough for calves to drink. Overall, the importance of water for both cows and calves should not be overlooked, especially in the winter.
Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 29
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Parody presents Page 30 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
It wouldn’t be Christmas without me trying to rework a few carols, would it? What follows is a true family effort to parody the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ and ‘I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas’. A simple request for new ideas brought about these farm-specic version of famous songs for the season. I’ll spare you the repetition and give you the fast rundown of them both. I’m certain as many times as I sang them, Cora thinks that ‘pigeon on a poop boat’ is the real last line, and that I really do want heated underpants! On the twelfth day of Christmas, my farmer gave to me… Twelve truckers hauling, Eleven heifers calving,
Ten ducks a-quacking, Nine people working, Eight lines a-freezing, Seven calves a-drinking, Six children running, Five broken gates, Four prowling cats, Three skid steers, Two old dogs, And a pigeon on a poop boat
I want some heated underpants for Christmas I don’t think Santa Claus will mind, do you? He won’t have to search, I like them in light blue Just send them on the next truck That’s the easy thing to Ramblings from the Ridge do
I want some heated underpants for Christmas Only heated underpants will do Don’t want a hat To keep me from the storm I want some heated underpants to wear and to keep warm
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Clinton’s message to others “don’t worry about the cost as it will pay for itself.”
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I want some heated unBy Jacqui Davison derpants for Christmas Columnist Only heated underpants will do No fancy mittens, no eecy lined sweatpants I only want heated underpants And heated underpants suit me too
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There’s lots of room for them in my bib overalls I’d wear them here and wear them there and love them best of all Hope you and yours celebrate the season with some singing, eating, and doing all of the things that carry on traditions and keep the love of Christmas alive and well. Merry Christmas and may your New Year be lled with hope and promise of wonderful things. Thank you for reading. Jacqui and her family milk 800 cows and run 1,200 acres of crops in the northeastern corner of Vernon County, Wis. Her children, Ira, 12, Dane, 10, Henry, 5, and Cora, toddler, help her on the farm while her husband, Keith, works on a grain farm. If she’s not in the barn, she’s probably in the kitchen, trailing after little ones, or sharing her passion of reading with someone. Her life is best described as organized chaos – and if it wasn’t, she’d be bored.
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Subclinical ketosis is a sneaky thief A cow’s dry matter intake is low post-calving. The increased energy demand of lactation outpaces the energy she is consuming, consequently pushing her into a negative energy balance. To meet these energy demands, cows will mobilize fat tissue. This is a normal and natural process that nearly all cows go through in early lactation. The problem arises when a cow is forced to mobilize too much body fat to meet energy demands, resulting in more fat entering the liver than can be effectively completely meSomething to Ruminate On and tabolized. This leads to the formation of ketone bodies which circulate in the bloodstream. Subclinical ketosis is deďƒžned as increased levels of circulating ketone bodies without the presence of clinical signs of ketosis. Most dairy producers would agree that the cost of subclinical disorders can often be By Barry Visser greater than clinical casNutritionist es. Unlike clinical ketosis, subclinical ketosis cannot be diagnosed by outward signs. These cows can easily go undetected and untreated unless blood, milk or urine tests are conducted. Subclinical ketosis has been associated with decreased milk production, reduced reproductive performance, displaced abomasum, metritis, mastitis and clinical ketosis. The economic ramiďƒžcations of subclinical ketosis can be enormous. Canadian research in 2002 estimated each case of subclinical ketosis costs a farm about $78. Research suggests that 30-50% of herds have subclinical ketosis in more than 15% of their fresh cows. The highest prevalence of subclinical ketosis is in the ďƒžrst two months post-calving with the greatest risk in the ďƒžrst two weeks. Cornell research showed the greatest incidence of subclinical ketosis at ďƒžve days in milk. Most herds screening for subclinical ketosis will focus on cows four to 12 DIM. Traditional measurements for subclinical ketosis are based on a simple chemical reaction that takes place when using milk ketone powder and urine ketone paper strips. While these are common cow-side tests, samples may be difďƒžcult to obtain. In addition, lack of sensitivity makes them less-than-desirable tests. Blood sampling is considered the gold standard for subclinical ketosis measurements. One of the ketone bodies that is most easily measured is beta-hydroxybutyric acid (BHBA). Sending blood samples to the lab for BHBA analysis is costly and time-consuming with results generally too late to take individual cow action. Fortunately, we now have cow-side meters capable of measuring blood BHBA within 10 seconds. Meters originate from the human health industry and can measure glucose and BHBA. For fresh cows, it is recommended to purchase the BHBA ketosis strips. Two common meters on the market are Nova MaxÂŽ and Nova Vet™. Results with these meters will be expressed in units of millimole per liter. Cows with blood BHBA concentrations from between 1.2 to 3 mmol/L are in the zone for subclinical ketosis. Readings over 3 mmol/L are generally considered clinical ketosis. It is important to point out that higher-producing cows typically have higher levels of blood ketones than lower-producing dairy cows. This only makes sense. Higher-producing cows mobilize more body fat and are at a higher risk of developing subclinical ketosis. Slightly elevated BHBA values are not always an indicator for subclinical ketosis and fresh cow health problems. If cows are milking very well but testing above the alarm level, observation may be all that is necessary. Assessing appetite, attitude, production and health records can be valuable in determining the course of action. Cow-side BHBA meters can be a valuable tool to identify subclinical ketosis incidence and prevalence within your herd. Meters can be used on an individual cow basis or as part of a herd monitoring system. Work with your veterinarian and herd health team to develop treatment protocols using blood BHBA results. Barry Visser is a nutritionist for Vita Plus.
Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 31
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A single moment Page 32 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
Windows will rattle and walls will shake as many slam the door on 2019. It has been a challenging year with low milk prices, trade wars and excessive weather of every kind. For some, it will become their benchmark year by which all other years will be judged. If you can make it through this year, then you can make it through anything. It can be easy to get hung up on how tough of a year it has been, but we need to jump down off that hook. As I was writing our Christmas letter, I recalled all the things we did despite the tough circumstances which were out of our control. All my memories of 2019 centered on celebrations of love and life. We welcomed a new granddaughter and a new daughterin-law to the family. We celebrated graduations and promotions of our children. We even snuck in a trip to Florida in early May. The bad weather allowed us to enjoy our time warming up guilt free since we
could not be in the elds back home anyway. We said goodbye to several older family members, including Mark’s dad, Ralph, who was 93, by celebrating a long life well lived. We also celebrated milestone birthdays as we inch closer to retirement age. Of these past 365 days, one day sticks out for absolutely no particular reason except for its pure simplicity and wonder. The wacky weather this fall created a mixed-up harvest schedule. We were constantly adjusting on the y. Grain corn was chopped, and silage corn was combined. Nothing was in its proper order or time. We were trying to squeeze in as much work as we could between rains and soggy eld conditions. Then one day, everything aligned. I wish I could have been an eagle oating above the elds that fall day looking down on all of the activity. I bet we looked like an ant colony lling up for winter as we followed corn row trails across the elds
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and back to the farm yard. Or, we looked like an older tractor company commercial. How fortunate we were to have enough drivers and tractors to get several jobs done all at once. It was like a ash mob dance scene with everyone meandering to their spot in the elds. Jason, the custom round baler, lined his new baler and tractor over a row of corn stalks Al had raked Just Thinking Out Loud together. I was leading this charge with the stalk chopper. Austin was across the drainage ditch picking up bales to stack in the yard. Once an area was cleared, Mark started chisel plowing the remaining stalks. We have never covered so much ground in such a short time. Because I couldn’t By Natalie Schmitt do anything else except Columnist drive slowly in loops, I started to notice the little nuances of our situation and enjoyed the wonder. It seems like we are always rushing to get from one job to the next that we miss these simple moments of awe and wonder. Add the commotion of the holiday season to daily farming duties and I have to remind myself to stop and savor the simple moments surrounding me. As I was driving home from church I heard a poem which is a rewrite of 1 Corinthians 13 by Sharon Jaynes. It caught my attention, and I added a few farming style revisions to her words. If I plant my corn rows by the road with perfect precision, the farm yard mowed and landscaped to a tee, the equipment always cleaned and the cattle always clipped but do not show love to my family, I’m just another farmer. If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arrange a beautifully adorned table at mealtime but do not show love to my family, I’m just another cook. If I serve on the school board and creamery board, sing in the church choir and give all that I have to charity but do not show love to my family, it prots me nothing. If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point. Love sets aside the farming to kiss the spouse. Love stops the cooking to hug the child. Love is kind though rushed and tired. Love doesn’t envy another home with coordinated Christmas china and table linens or another farmer’s achievements. Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way but is thankful they are there to be in the way. Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can’t. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always endures. Love never fails. Tractors will break, cattle will go down, crops will fail but giving the gift of love will endure. Is your family being neglected because of a hectic Christmas schedule or unending farm chores? We have all been given different gifts, and love is the action which makes our gifts useful. Love your family well this holiday season and every season. Natalie, Mark and his brother Al, farm together near Rice, Minn. They milk 100 registered Holsteins under the RALMA prex. Their four children are grown up and all involved in agriculture with hopes of someone returning to the farm. For questions or comments, please e-mail Natalie at mnschmitt@jetup.net.
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The gift of self-care
Oh, what joy the holidays bring! Watching children carefully write their letters to Santa and then wiggle with excitement when gift opening arrives. Breathing in the scents of evergreen trees and wreathes and freshly baked cookies. Celebrating with family and friends. Playing Christmas music on full volume. As Andy Williams famously crooned, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” Ironically, though, the holidays can also be the most stressful time of the year. Rushing through and rearranging chores to make Dairy Good Life time for those beloved family gatherings. Budgeting for gifts when nances are already tight. Finding time for all of the extra holiday tasks: shopping, wrapping, baking, decorating, and more. This year, I’ve had more time than usual to get ready for Christmas. But I’m struggling with the frustration of being injured and unable to do my job. I found out last month that two of the tendons in my shoulder tore when the fresh cow trampled me this summer. So I’ve been decorating cookies between physical therapy appointments and the tears have been owing as freely as the smiles. When I get bummed out, I remind myself that By Sadie Frericks Advent is the season of patience. I need to be paColumnist tient with the healing process and have faith that my shoulder will work again. The holidays should also be the season for self-care, but, often, they’re not. We get so consumed with taking care of all the holiday extras. Like nding dress shoes that t your child for their Christmas program at school. And making sure they have treats for their class Christmas party. Note to self: For goodness’ sake, next year sign up to bring treats for a different holiday. What I wanted to say was, we get so busy taking care of everything else that we forget to take care of ourselves. And when we don’t take care of ourselves, we feel twice as stressed because physical stress amplies mental and emotional stress. So, this year for Christmas, give yourself the gift of self-care. There’s no need to wait until January 1 to resolve to take good care of yourself.
Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 33
From Our Family to Yours, Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas!
Brightly wrapped boxes… stockings stuffed with surprises… fresh Christmas cookies… twinkling trees all aglow… Of all the special gifts the holiday season delivers, we appreciate the friendship of good folks like you most of all.
Thank you for letting us serve your needs in 2019 Happy Holidays from all of us at...
Sleep well The holidays are great for throwing schedules completely out of whack, including sleep schedules. It may not be possible to get as many hours of sleep as you need, but there are things you can do improve sleep quality: Avoid using backlit electronic devices for an hour before bedtime. Avoid going to bed on a full stomach by nishing your last meal two hours before tucking in. Sleep in a cool, completely dark room. Wear loose tting pajamas. Eat well One of the best parts of the holidays, at least for me, is enjoying all of the Christmas cookies and candies that are only made this time of year. But too much holiday feasting can overwhelm our digestive systems. And when we overwhelm our guts, we overwhelm our already-overwhelmed-from-the-holidays brains. To stave off holiday tummy trouble, hit the veggie tray rst and then the cookie tray. The enzymes in fresh fruits and vegetables can help improve digestion. Consider giving your guts a break, too. Humans weren’t made to eat 24/7; our bodies need periods of eating and periods of fasting. For most people, the ideal ratio is 12 hours of eating and 12 hours of fasting. If your holiday party has you feasting until midnight, delay breakfast (literally, breaking the fast) until noon the next day. Giving your guts a rest can truly help you feel less stressed. Relax well We tend to carry stress with us in the form of muscle tension. Prolonged muscle tension can cause headaches, neck and back pain, and other issues. We tend to misuse the word relax in our society – implying it to mean chilling out in front of the television or some other non-stressful activity. But the word relax actually means ‘to make less tense’. And that’s what we need for our muscles when we’re stressed out. Slow, deep breathing can help reduce muscle tension. Practicing conscious relaxation can, too. Think about your jaw muscles, then think about releasing them or relaxing them; you should feel the tension drain away. If not, try clenching your jaw, then releasing. You can (and should) do this with every muscle in your body. Heat is another good way to relieve tension. Take a hot bath. Place a hot pack on your neck and shoulders for 10 minutes. Sip a cup of hot tea – the heat warms you from the inside out. Even better, take a sauna. I grew up taking saunas almost weekly. Glen has been working on turning the old wood room in our basement into a real sauna for our family. I can hardly wait to thoroughly steam myself. It will be one of the best Christmas presents ever. Merry Christmas! May your holiday celebrations be joyful – and a little less stressful. Sadie and her husband, Glen, milk 100 cows near Melrose, Minn. They have three children – Dan, 11, Monika, 8, and Daphne, 5. Sadie also writes a blog at www. dairygoodlife.com. She can be reached at sadiefrericks@gmail.com.
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Page 34 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
Hendricksons become rst Minnesota farm to make, sell A2 milk
Business venture to secure dairy market By Jennifer Coyne jenn@dairystar.com
MENAHGA, Minn. – A2 milk is a craze in New Zealand and along the coasts of the United States. And after one farm family’s intuition and drive, the milk is also now processed and marketed in Minnesota. Joel and Amanda Hen-
drickson began processing A2 whole milk Dec. 17 on their 135-cow dairy in Otter Tail County near Menahga. The Hendricksons and their 10 children – Zach, 14, Maddie, 12, Julia, 11, Lucy, 9, Lily and Maria, 8, Lane, 6, Nora, 4, Finn, 2, and Emma, 1 – are the faces behind Ten Finns Creamery. “This was a huge leap, but it’s something we believe in,” Joel said. “This gives people who couldn’t drink milk before the chance to do so. I’m really optimistic about where this is going to take our farm and the industry as a whole.”
JENNIFER COYNE/DAIRY STAR
Joel Hendrickson holds a half-gallon carton which will be lled with his family’s A2 milk. Hendrickson and his family recently started an on-farm creamery at their 135-cow dairy near Menahga, Minnesota.
JENNIFER COYNE/DAIRY STAR
A small holding tank is connected to the packaging machine at Ten Finns Creamery near Menahga, Minnesota. The Hendricksons plan to process about 100 gallons of A2 milk for retail.
Most regular milk has two forms of beta casein protein – A1 and A2 – with A1 being hard for some people to digest. With genetic testing and breeding strategies, farmers can naturally select for the A2 protein and produce a milk product that can be consumed without trouble.
Five years ago, Joel read about the newly discovered protein and companies marketing A2 milk. He and his family then made plans to become Minnesota’s rst exclusive A2 herd and creamery. “We really saw this as our chance to create a more stable market,” Joel said. “With the
industry the way it is, you just don’t know what it’s going to look like in the future.” Amanda agreed. “And, with 10 kids, hopefully someone will see the farm or the creamery as a fuTurn to HENDRICKSONS | Page 35
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Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 35
ConƟnued from HENDRICKSONS | Page 34
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The Hendrickson family (front, from leŌ) – Lane, Nora, Lily, Maria and Lucy; (back, from leŌ) Zach, Joel holding Finn, Amanda holding Emma, Julia and Maddie – are the faces behind Ten Finns Creamery near Menahga, Minnesota. The family recently began markeƟng their A2 milk. ture for them,” she said. To begin, Joel began breeding his cows to bulls with the preferred gene. Then in 2017, the Hendricksons genetically tested their herd and found 60% of the milking cows carried the A2 protein. The remaining 40% were sold as Joel found replacement cows. Before purchasing animals, Joel had them tested to see if they were the right t for his herd. From three farms – and 58 cows – Joel was able to grow his herd to its current size. “It didn’t cost me any more than regularly breeding or marketing animals,” Joel said. “I wanted to create a herd so people could drink my milk, and then maybe someday have a creamery.” Once the Hendricksons had an entirely A2 herd, they looked at their options to create greater value for their milk. They considered shipping their milk to a creamery in north Minneapolis that was not in use, but with the expense to do so, it was more economical to build an on-farm processing site. “About a year ago we decided this was the route we were going to take,” Joel said. “We toured another A2 creamery in Ohio and several on-farm creameries in Minnesota.” The couple worked with the state’s department of agriculture to build a facility that met food processing standards. They also purchased all the equipment from the Minar family of former Cedar Summit Farm in New Prague. “We really got into it at a reason-
“We really saw this as our chance to create a more stable market.” JOEL HENDRICKSON, DAIRY FARMER
able price because we didn’t put up a large building, and we could use used equipment,” Joel said. The facility, including the pasteurizer and packaging machine, can process the Hendricksons’ entire milk supply. However to begin, they will only process about 100 gallons of their milk and ship the remainder to Nelson Creamery. Milk bypasses the farm’s bulk tank straight into a smaller bulk tank within the creamery. From there, a pipeline delivers the milk to the pasteurizer which then transfers the milk
to a holding tank connected to the packaging machine. Then, cartons are lled in a matter of minutes. The facility also has the capability to process butter, which the Hendricksons intend on making. The Hendricksons’ rst saleable cartons of A2 whole milk were created after evening milking Dec. 17. “Now that we’re nally here, it really gives me mixed feelings,” Amanda said. “I’m so excited and this is so awesome, but it’s also really nerve wracking to now have our milk out there.” Each half gallon carton is purposefully designed to educate consumers about the product and the family behind the product. All 10 of the Hendricksons’ children are depicted on the carton which also highlights the family’s Scandinavian heritage. Ten Finns Creamery milk is available at two grocery stores in Menahga, including a coffee shop. The couple also hopes to reach a contract with Mason Brothers Grocery Wholesaler in Wadena which has a ve-state coverage area. “We’ve had stores ask us about our products,” Amanda said. Joel agreed. “We don’t want to be monstrous,” he said. “Our goal is to sell enough to process all of our milk.” While the family has yet to see how their products inuence Minnesota consumers, they are hopeful. The emergence of A2 milk in New Zealand has increased uid milk consumption, and a similar trend has been seen in the United States where A2 milk is already available, said Joel. From 2018 to 2028, the global A2 milk market is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 10.2%, according to Report Buyer’s 2019 report. “At Thanksgiving, my nephews drank our milk. They usually only drink almond milk,” Amanda said. “They couldn’t get enough of it and really hoped it would reach the cities where they live.” Joel agreed. “We’ve had people try it, and it’s just unreal what it did for them,” he said. “Especially for those who couldn’t drink traditional milk.” Wherever this venture takes the Hendricksons, they are proud to have created a product that can be consumed by all and in a way that is teaching their children the value of dairy farming.
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Page 36 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
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Breanna Buerger Brownsville, Wisconsin Dodge County 600 cows Family: Gary and Rae Buerger are my parents. My younger brothers are Bryce, Brady and his wife, Sadie, and their daughters, Hailie and Hazel, and Bennett. We all are a part of the farm and get to work together every day. Tell us about your farm. Gar-Rae’s Dairy is my family’s farm. My brothers and I will be the fourth generation running this farm. I take care of the calves and cows while my brothers run all the land to make our feed. We have gone through many changes since I was a little girl. We went from milking in the stanchion barn to now a double-14 parallel parlor. In 2002, the stanchion barn was turned into a calf barn. Eight years later, we decided to transition into outdoor housing in calf hutches. Many new additions have been made in the last couple of years, and I am excited to see what the future holds for our farm. What is the busiest time of day for you? Mornings are denitely the busiest time of day for me. Every morning you can nd me feeding calves and taking care of the youngstock at the farm. I spend a lot of time with the calves making sure they are healthy and well taken care of. The rest of my morning is spent in the ofce preparing for the rest of the day. I also manage our herd of cows, so I spend a good deal of time with the cows as well. When you get a spare moment what do you do? I love spending quality time with my family and friends. I enjoy spending time riding my horse and being able to share my passion of horses with my niece Hailie. I also enjoy playing volleyball. Tell us about your most memorable experience working on the farm. The rst memorable experience working on the farm would have to be six years ago. We had triplet
Wishing you a
SAFE AND HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON. Agriculture isn’t just a market we serve. It’s what we’re founded on. It’s who we are. And we’re so thankful for the abundance provided by the hardworking individuals who work tirelessly to feed, clothe and fuel the world every day of the year. It’s an honor to serve you. Our team members from Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin wish you a joyous holiday season.
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calves born. All three were happy, healthy babies, and that has been the only time I have had triplets in all the time I have been farming. My second most memorable experience was in the winter of 2012, a winter I will never forget. The morning feedings took extra long digging out calf hutches, trying to get everyone fed and trying not to get frostbite. The cold was bitter and unforgiving. I am happy to report, given the harsh winter, our calves did fairly well. That year makes me thankful for the bearable winters that have followed. What have you enjoyed most about dairy farming or your tie to the dairy industry? I enjoy sharing my passion with others and teaching others about farming. I love working with the cows and taking care of calves. Being able to raise a calf and see her join the milking herd two years down the road is one of my favorite things to see in farming. How do you stay connected with others in the industry? I like to stay connected with others in the dairy industry by following and interacting with dairy groups I am a part of on social media. Dairy Girl Network is one of the largest groups that I follow, with over 5,000 members. Who is someone in the industry who has inspired you? My dad. He has taught me everything I know, and I have been able to work by his side from day one. His passion for animals has denitely been passed down to me, especially his love for cows. His determination and spirit to keep working hard for what you want in life is what inspires me the most. And although it’s not always easy, his effort to always look at the bright side of things and keep a positive outlook on life is one of the most valuable qualities a person can have in today’s farming industry. If you could give a tour of your farm to a prominent woman in today’s society, who would it be? Melania Trump. With everything going on in the dairy industry, I would like to give the rst lady a tour because she has a great inuence in today’s world. It would be a great opportunity to show her what an average dairy farmer of America does day in and day out. She would be able to inuence the minds of the young people in regards to nutrition and dairy in general. I’m not an expert in the eld of nutrition, but milk from a cow does the body good. What is the best vacation you have ever taken? Three years ago, my family took a road trip to Tennessee. We stayed in Nashville for the Packers game and then traveled to Gatlinburg where we experienced the beautiful mountains. One of my favorite things was being able to ride up and down the Smokey Mountains on the back of a horse. I would totally recommend it if you ever get the chance. What are some words you like to live by? “Be happy with what you have while you pursue what you want.” “Don’t try too hard to understand why things happen the way they do. Some things are meant to be accepted not understood.” “Do what makes you happy. Be with who makes you smile. Laugh as much as you breathe. And love as long as you live.”
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Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 37
Holstein Association USA launches all-national awards
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Blexys Crush Budweiser-ET, exhibited by the partnership of Budjon, Vail, AbboĆŠ, Van Exel and Woodmansee of Lomira, Wisconsin, is named reserve junior champion at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin. Budweiser was also named the All-NaĆ&#x;onal Winter Calf by Holstein AssociaĆ&#x;on USA.
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Wisconsin 7. Cross-Wake Ammo Glady, McCulloch Farms, and John and Tammy Wakely, of Rockford, Illinois
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Spring heifer calf Reserve all-national: Duckett Doorman Sierra-TW, Austin Nauman, of Norwalk, Wisconsin 7. Willows-Edge Def Massie, Bonnie Van Dyk, of New Richmond, Wisconsin 9. Stranshome Heztry Allana, Joseph, Zach, Jerome and Darian Stransky, of Owatonna, Minnesota
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Winter heifer calf All-national: Blexys Crush BudweiserET, Budjon, Vail, Abbott, Van Exel and Woodmansee, of Lomira, Wisconsin 7. LLR La Dolce Vita, Tim Woeste, Ricky and Elizabeth Hall, and Luke Olson, of Long Prairie, Minnesota
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BRATTLEBORO, Vt. – Holstein showring enthusiasts had a new honor to vie for in 2019. Holstein Association USA launched the All-National Showcase Program this year. The award is designed to recognize registered Holsteins for exceptional performance in national-level shows held around the country. “Having another recognition program for registered Holsteins is very exciting for us,â€? said Jodi Hoynoski, the executive director of the association’s identiďƒžcation and member services department. “A lot of sports have points-driven contests throughout the season to determine the overall best of the best, and this program mirrors that.â€? Eligible animals must be registered in the Holstein Association USA herdbook on or before Nov. 15 of the award year and will earn points at each national Holstein show they are exhibited at throughout the year. Points are awarded for animals that place in the top 10 of their class at various national shows. The points awarded for each show are based on the size of the show, and bonus points are awarded to animals that are named as a champion at each show. Red and White animals are awarded points only if shown in Black and White classes at the recognized national shows. Ties are broken by determining the animal with the highest placing at the national show with the most total number of animals shown. The 10 animals in each age division with the highest point totals were recognized on Holstein Association USA’s website and will receive a certiďƒžcate acknowledging their placing. The top two animals in each age division will be given the designation of all-national and reserve all-national, and the recognition will become part of the animal’s ofďƒžcial Holstein pedigree. Winners in the Dairy Star’s publication area include: Summer heifer calf 4. NK-Stef Dsty AChosen One-ET, Kelsi R. Steffenhagen, of Darlington,
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Fall heifer calf 8. Har-Mar-T Atmosphere Amy, Frank and Mitchell Thompson, of Ellsworth, Wisconsin 10. Ms Jacobs Doorman Bette-ET, Michael and Julie Duckett, and Pat Conroy, of Rudolph, Wisconsin Summer yearling heifer Reserve all-national: Banowetz Peach Crush, Shawn and Levi Banowetz, of Charlotte, Iowa Spring yearling heifer 4. Red-Brae Doorman Theresa-ET, Elise and Brady Bleck, of Glenbeulah, Wisconsin 7. Ms Mauk-E-Way Rosa-Red-ET, Cole, Ava, Campbell and Royce Booth, of Plymouth, Wisconsin Winter yearling heifer 6. Miss Diamondback Izzy-ET, Noah Bilz, of Dorchester, Wisconsin Fall yearling heifer 7. Milksource Dempsey Amour, Austen Schmidt and Brad Laack, of Cascade, Wisconsin 9. Petitclerc Soloman Tropic-ET, N. Bilz, K. Chambers and K. Schachelmayer, of Dorchester, Wisconsin 10. Arthurcreek Kingboy Chill, B., B., B. and B. Volker and N. Arthur, of Sumner, Iowa Turn to HOLSTEIN | Page 37
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Page 38 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
ConƟnued from HOLSTEIN | Page 37 Milking yearling All-national: Budjon-Vail Solmn Apache-ET, Peter and Lyn Vail and Budjon Farms, of Lomira, Wisconsin 4. Duckett Soloman Leta, Michael and Julie Duckett, of Rudolph, Wisconsin 7. Fairmont Jacoby Ash-ET, Loren and Luke Olson, of Hutchinson, Minnesota 10. Flower-Brook Jry GI-Jane-ET, Andrew Stuewe, of Hamburg, Minnesota Summer junior 2-year-old cow All-national: Heart&Soul Dempsey Raelynn, Milk Source LLC, of Kaukauna, Wisconsin 5. Miss Petitclerc Serena, Garrett and Graisson Schmidt and Ronald DeBoer, of Melrose, Wisconsin Junior 2-year-old cow 5. Sahara Beemer Reese-ET, Budjon Farms, David Dyment and Devans Holsteins, of Lomira, Wisconsin 6. Esperanza-CC Tasha, Esperanza Cattle Co., of Peterson, Minnesota 10. Jacobs Control Brisk-ET, Milk Source, Ransom Rail and Laurie Fischer, of Kaukauna, Wisconsin Senior 2-year-old cow All-national: Milksource Goldwyn Capri-ET, Milk Source LLC and Robert Sabo, of Kaukauna, Wisconsin 4. J-Folts Awesome Hokulani, Michael and Julie Duckett and David Dyment, of Rudolph, Wisconsin 9. Combhaven Doorman Victoria, S. Culbertson, H. Zapalac, Jr., and R. Lauber, of Elgin, Minnesota Junior 3-year-old cow All-national: Fraeland Doorman Bonnie, Michael and Julie Duckett, of Ru-
dolph, Wisconsin 3. Floydholm Mc Emoji-ET, S. and S. Nehls, Crescentmead, La Femme Fatale and Milk Source LLC, of Kaukauna, Wisconsin 4. Idee Doorman Lysa, Michael and Julie Duckett, of Rudolph, Wisconsin Senior 3-year-old cow All-national: Sco-Lo-AF Sid SangriaET, James Ostrom and John M. Vosters, of Kaukauna, Wisconsin 5. Jacobs Doorman Victoire-ET, Milk Source LLC, Ransom Rail, L. Fischer and Legendholm, of Kaukauna, Wisconsin 9. Ms St-Jacobs Dempsey Again, Joseph, Zach, Jerome and Darian Stransky, of Owatonna, Minnesota 10. Ms Beautys Black Velvet-ET, Michael and Julie Duckett, of Rudolph, Wisconsin 4-year-old cow 4. Flower-Brook Atwood Gee-ET, Andrew D. Stuewe, of Hamburg, Minnesota 6. Arethusa Daryl Sienna, Milk Source LLC, of Kaukauna, Wisconsin 9. Ms Apple Arrie-ET, Arrie Syndicate, of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin 5-year-old cow Reserve all-national: K-Land Kilo Black Diamond, Majestic View, G. Lintvedt, R. Shore and P. Probert, of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin 3. Gamblin Armani Glade, Rosedale Genetics, D. Hovden and MB-Luckylady Farm, of Oxford, Wisconsin 6. Ryan-Vu GChip Claudette-ET, Joseph Troy Opsal, of Blue Mounds, Wisconsin
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PHOTO COURTESY OF DAIRY AGENDA TODAY
The All-NaƟonal Milking Yearling is Budjon-Vail Solmn Apache-ET. She was the top-placing milking yearling at World Dairy Expo for owners Peter and Lyn Vail and Budjon Farms of Lomira, Wisconsin. 8. Wirtland Atwood Rya, Maple Leaf Farm and Loren and Luke Olson, of Lewiston, Minnesota 6-year-old and older cow All-national: Co-Vale Dempsy Dina 4270-ET, Milk Source LLC and Ransom Rail Farms Inc., of Kaukauna, Wisconsin 3. Lida-Acres Atwood Annie, Olivia D. and Madilyn B. Johnson, of Pelican Rapids, Minnesota 7. Lafontaine After Amaz Seven-ET, Michael and Julie Duckett, of Rudolph, Wisconsin
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Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019 • Page 39
Dairy prole
with Dusty Ott, of Wonewoc, Wisconsin
Dusty Ott Wonewoc, Wisconsin Juneau County 60 cows
rience for them. Some days are rough, but they learn a lot here on the farm. What advice would you give other dairy farmers? On those rough days when you think, – Why me? Why does everything happen at the same time? Why am I doing this? – you need to remember that we are all in this together. It happens to everyone, and you need to keep your head up. Place your hand on your heart, feel it? That’s your purpose.
How did you get into farming? I’m the fourth generation to milk cows in our barn. It’s just in my blood. What are your thoughts and concerns about the dairy industry for the next year? Things need to change; every tough year that goes by makes it harder and harder for everyone.
What has been the best purchase you’ve ever made on your farm? When my dad bought the rst TMR mixer, and when he bought our Bobcat.
What is the latest technology you implemented on your farm and the purpose for it? Nutrient management program for our crop land so we know where manure and fertilizer does or doesn’t need to be applied.
What has been your biggest accomplishment while dairy farming? The day my 5-year-old son told me when he gets older he wants to be a farmer. I asked him why, and he said, “Because I wanna be like you, Daddy.”
What is a management practice you changed in the past year that has beneted you? We have culled more cows, selling our problem cows quicker. It has beneted us in saving feed in times of feed shortages like this year. What cost-saving steps have you implemented during the low milk price? We cut out some of our calf products we feed to our bull calves that we sell and save them for our heifer calves that we keep. We also put some of our bigger calves on heifer mineral sooner instead of feeding them grower pellets as long. How do you retain a good working relationship with your employees? I work with my parents and sister, working with family isn’t always easy. Try-
What are your plans for your dairy in the next year and ve years? Next year, we hope to have a chopper with a processor on it instead of a processor/ blower. In the next ve years, I would like to own one-half to one-third of our herd. ing to keep my patience longer and keeping an open mind with decisions has made it easier to keep a good working relationship. Tell us about a skill you possess that makes dairy farming easier for you. I took ag power and equipment tech-
nician courses at Southwest Technical College. I also took the A.I. training course through Select Sires. What do you enjoy most about dairy farming? Raising my two boys on the farm. In many ways it is a great expe-
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How do you or your family like to spend time when you are not doing chores? Our family’s biggest hobby probably would have to be hunting. Anything outdoors, riding four-wheelers, checking trail cams, and of course with boys it’s rough housing and football.
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Page 40 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 21, 2019
From all of us at Steinhart’s Farm Service, Inc.
Tis the season!
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