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2 DAIRY ST 5R C E L E B R A T I N G
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Y E A R S
June 10, 2023
“All dairy, all the time”™
Volume 25, No. 8
Celebrating a golden recovery
Jensens to host Polk County breakfast 4 years after storm By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
COMSTOCK, Wis. – In a matter of moments, a wind storm tore through the Polk County farm owned by Neil and Janice Jensen and their daughters on the evening of July 19, 2019. Nearly four years later, the Jensens feel they are nearing the completion of their rebuilding efforts and are ready to welcome visitors to their farm for the Polk County Dairy Breakfast June 17. The Jensens, along with daughter Jillian Tietz, milk 140 head on their Idle Gold Guernsey Farm near
Comstock. The storm that hit northwestern Wisconsin that day caused some level of damage to every structure on the Jensens’ farm. The National Weather Service conrmed two tornados, with wind speeds up to 90 mph, touched down in the area. “I was feeding and heard the radio station saying the Barron County Fair was being evacuated because a tornado had been spotted about 30 miles due west of the fairgrounds in Rice Lake,” Neil said. “That had it headed right in our direction. It was milking time, and we had cows in the parlor, but suddenly the sky got dark and green. It really did
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
The Jensen family – Neil (from leŌ) and Janice Jensen and daughter Jillian Tietz – are preparing to host the Polk County Dairy Breakfast June 17 on their farm near Comstock, Wisconsin. The Jensens milk 140 cows.
sound like a freight train, so storm had passed, the Jen- the house roof missing and we headed to the basement.” sens emerged from their water from the pouring rain When the brunt of the basement to nd a portion of Turn to JENSENS | Page 6
Near-fatal collision cannot hold dairywoman back
ries required an airlift to a hosMarschall pital in Madison, Wisconsin. survives internal The airlift occurred as soon as a plane could be found as the decapitation to weather conditions did not alfor helicopter or ground return to the farm low transport.
By Amy Kyllo
amy.k@star-pub.com
AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR
Rebeckah Marschall smiles with her dad, Dan Schroeder, in the milking parlor April 25 on their farm near Caledonia, Minnesota. One of Marschall’s rst concerns when she woke up aŌer a near-fatal accident was if the milk tester had been called because they were supposed to test the day aŌer her accident.
CALEDONIA, Minn. – Rural rst responders from Caledonia were already in the ambulance when they were called to the scene of Rebeckah Marschall’s car crash. “They told me that I didn’t have another two minutes,” Rebeckah said. “They got to the scene, and they picked my head up and I gasped for air.” Rebeckah was struck on the driver’s side at around 55 mph in the late afternoon in snowy weather conditions Dec. 16, 2022, on her way to work on her family’s dairy farm. Within six hours, her inju-
There, they worked to stabilize her head and neck which had suffered what the medical team called internal decapitation. Rebeckah said the doctors described her injury as a complete separation of the skull base from the cervical spine which required them to do an occipital cervical fusion procedure. The neurosurgeon had never seen or performed the type of surgery Rebeckah needed and had to rely on studying two medical journal articles about the surgery during her transfer. The family was informed of this immediTurn to MARSCHALL | Page 8