LOOK INSIDE FOR OUR CENTRAL PLAINS DAIRY EXPO PREVIEW EDITION!
2 DAIRY ST 5R C E L E B R A T I N G
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Y E A R S
March 11, 2023
“All dairy, all the time”™
Volume 25, No. 2
Locking Finding their way in a price First-generation farm approaches a for milk decade of dairying By Abby Wiedmeyer abby.w@dairystar.com
STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
Brady (leŌ) and BreƩ Weiland milk 1,150 cows near Columbus, Wisconsin. The Weilands use forward contracƟng to ensure protability and have 75% of their milk contracted for 2023.
Weilands ensure protability through forward contracting By Stacey Smart
stacey.s@dairystar.com
COLUMBUS, Wis. – Fifthgeneration dairy farmers, Brady and Brett Weiland, have plans to purchase the family farm from their parents someday. To ensure this dream becomes a reality, the brothers do not leave their profits to chance. Locking in milk prices through forward contracting is a strategy they use to help guarantee the farm’s protability from one year to the next. “Protecting the balance sheet is the No. 1 reason why we contract our milk,” Brady said. “It’s a good feeling to know that next year at this time we’re going to be able to pay the bank, ourselves and our employees, and we’re still going to be in operation. A couple guys in their 20s who are trying to buy the business from Mom and Dad can’t afford to go backward.” The Weilands milk 1,150 cows between two dairies near Columbus with their parents, Roger and Tammy, and Brett’s wife, Emiley. The family farms 500 acres and buys the rest of their feed from neighbors. Unwilling to be at the mercy of the market for 100% of their milk check, the Weilands have prices
Turn to MILK | Page 10
WILTON, Wis. – When Bronson Schultz graduated from college in 2014, he decided it was now or never if he was going to farm. “I either had to make a go of it or go nd a different job,” Schultz said. “If you want to farm, you have to try. You better make it go, or you have to start working and put your money in a 401(k).” Almost a decade later, Schultz is farming with the help of his girlfriend, Maddie Schmidt. The couple milks 40 cows in a tiestall barn near Wilton. The farm is home to Holsteins, Brown Swiss and a couple Jerseys. They have taken inten-
tional steps to keep the dairy going. Schultz was able to purchase the facilities and 1.8 acres from a neighbor to get started. He lived with his parents down the road and purchased the barn and 32 cows. “It was as bare bones as it could be,” Schultz said. “We started with a barn full of cows, a skid loader and a manure spreader. I had a tractor and a handful of heifers too. It did not equate to much.” Schultz said it was convenient to be living nearby, and it was a way to get started without a lot of debt and without having to work in a partnership or rent a farm. For the rst two years, all the feed was purchased from neighboring farms. Schultz said it was important to keep a good relationship with Turn to SCHULTZ | Page 7
ABBY WIEDMEYER/DAIRY STAR
Maddie Schmidt and Bronson Schultz stand in their Ɵestall barn Feb. 25 at their farm near Wilton, Wisconsin. The couple milks 40 cows on their rst-generaƟon farm.
Dairy Pride Act back in play Sen. Baldwin reintroduces labeling bill By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Dairy Pride Act has found its way back to the halls of the U.S. Capitol. The act, otherwise known as the “Defending Against Imitations and Replacements of Yogurt, milk and cheese to Promote Regular Intake of Dairy Everyday,” has been introduced to Congress in 2017 and again in 2021, and requires the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to enforce rules that already exist within the department, said
Sen. Tammy Baldwin
Sen. Tammy Baldwin. “You don’t have to go further than the dairy case at your local grocery store to see that the dairy case is now occupied with all of these plant-based imitations calling themselves milk or cheese or yogurt,” Baldwin said. “Those are very specic
terms with standards of identity that the FDA enforces.” In response to last month’s draft guidance issued by the FDA regarding the use of the word milk in labeling of non-dairy, alternative plant-based beverages, Baldwin (D-WI), along with Sens. James Risch (R-ID), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Peter Welch (D-VT), reintroduced the Dairy pride Act to the Senate Feb. 28. The bi-partisan legislation is also cosponsored by Sens. Mike Crapo (R-ID), Angus King (I-ME), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Tina Smith (D-MN). The purpose of the Dairy Pride Act is to require nondairy products made from nuts, seeds, plants and algae to no longer be labeled with
dairy terms such as milk, cheese or yogurt, Baldwin sa id. “Wisconsin dairy farmers work very hard to produce products with high nutritional value that meet all the standards set out by the FDA, and then you have all these imitation, plant-based products getting away with using dairy’s good name without having to meet those standards,” Baldwin said. “The Dairy Pride Act would make the FDA do its job and enforce dairy standards that they are already supposed to be enforcing. I think it strikes many as almost absurd that we have to introduce a bill to tell the FDA to do its job, but Turn to DAIRY PRIDE | Page 6