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Volume 18, No. 18
Mathisons take over farm, build new facility By Brittany Olson
brittany.o@dairystar.com
CUMBERLAND, Wis. – When Kyle and Sara Mathison got married in the summer of 2012, they joined together their equally strong love for dairy farming as well as each other. However, something was still divided – their 100-cow dairy herd. Even though they had begun renting an additional barn in 2010, it was not part of the big picture for the Mathison family because erecting a new barn was the end goal. After growing their herd, and the birth of their son, Grant, in 2014, plans began for a new freestall barn in the winter of 2015 with ground being broken earlier this year.
November 12, 2016
Worth the wait
In September, the Mathisons brought their cows home to a 116-cow freestall barn and a swing-10 milking parlor, with the vacuum pump turning on for the rst time in mid-October. “We had 65 cows at the home farm with his parents, Wayne and Heidi, and we were renting a barn with an additional 40 cows a few miles away,” Sara said. “I did the majority of the milkings at the rented barn.” In addition to building a new barn, the young couple wanted to build equity in return. “Our cow and heifer numbers were rising. Renting wasn’t supposed to be a long term solution and it wasn’t building equity for us,” Kyle said. Kyle and Sara’s initial goal was to build a freestall barn BRITTANY OLSON/DAIRY STAR Kyle and Sara Mathison, holding son, Grant, milk 100 cows in a newly built swing-10 parlor and and switch cows in and out of 116-cow freestall barn on their farm near Cumberland, Wis. Turn to MATHISONS | Page 6
An upswing in the A century of dairy cows future market in Cozy Valley
Cropp tells ag lenders all-milk price Bonitz family could average $17.16 in 2017 By Ron Johnson
ron.j@dairystar.com
DUBUQUE, Iowa – Look for milk prices to strengthen a bit in 2017. That’s the main thrust of a presentation by Bob Cropp, an emeritus professor of agricultural economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Cropp spoke Oct. 25 at the Thirtieth Annual Tri-State Agricultural Lenders’ Seminar in Dubuque, Iowa. Cropp told approximately 200 lenders he forecasts the U.S. allmilk price to average $17.16 per hundredweight next year. If it happens, that would be above the expected 2016 nish price of $15.89. Cropp thinks the all-milk price will start at just above $16 in January and nish at about $17.75 in December. In between, he expects the price to rise steadily, reaching a peak of about $18 in November, before weakening slightly toward year’s end. As its name implies, the all-milk price covers all milk used in the manufacture of all categories of dairy products. But the Class III price is the one that matters most to Wisconsin farmers, and to a certain extent to those in Minnesota and Iowa, since it applies to milk that’s made into cheese. Approximately 80 to 90 percent of the milk produced in the Badger State winds up in cheese vats. Cropp expects January to deliver a Class III average of $15.84, with it rising to $16.40 in October. In between, he expects a low of $15.30, with the price rising steadily into the fall, before slipping to
Turn to PRICES | Page 5
farming in Ashland County for 100 years By Brittany Olson
brittany.o@dairystar.com
MELLEN, Wis. – Every morning, when David and Stephanie Bonitz see their children off to school and head out to the barn, they are surrounded by the wooded and picturesque Penokee Hills of northern Wisconsin. The Bonitz family milks 40 cows north of Mellen, Wis., in an area known locally as Cozy Valley. With the winding rivers and tall trees of the nearby hills, the name ts. “My family came over from Germany 100 years ago, and we started dairy farming, then went to beef when my dad, Rick, took
BRITTANY OLSON/DAIRY STAR
Stephanie and Dave Bonitz milk 40 cows with their ve children near Mellen, Wis. over,” David said. “After that, when I started farming, I went back to dairying.” David purchased a group of springing heifers the spring of his senior year of high school, and by that summer the pipe-
line was humming in the tiestall barn on the home farm he renovated. “A lot of people leave this area after high school. They get Turn to BONITZ | Page 11