The Great Christmas “GRAND” PRIZE
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DAIRY ST R “All dairy, all the time”™
Volume 20, No. 19
HasƟngs Co-op, Plainview Milk Products Co-op merge By Andrea Borgerding andrea.b@dairystar.com
HASTINGS, Minn. – As of Dec. 1, Hastings Cooperative Creamery in Hastings, Minn., will be operating under Plainview Milk Products Cooperative in Plainview, Minn., in an agreement made by both cooperatives to merge the two creameries. Both plants will continue processing milk under Plainview Milk Products Cooperative’s by-laws and all patrons from both co-ops will be retained. “That was a key point for us,” said David Buck, president of Hastings Cooperative Creamery board. “Plainview agreed to take all of our 85 patrons.” The Hastings Cooperative Creamery board began discussing options in March when markets for the plant’s milk were becoming less. In the past, Hastings had been marketing excess uid milk to plants throughout the region. Hastings handles 20 million pounds of milk a month. They bottle white and chocolate milk , half and half, whipping cream and egg nog under the Valley View Farms label. Buck said nding a market for their milk has been a challenge for the past year and a half. “We started looking at working together with someone else,” Buck said. “Plainview Milk Products looked like our best option. Merging with them meant allowing us to diversify. Hastings processes mostly uid milk, and so we needed to do more with our milk.” In August, the Hastings board approached Plainview Milk Products. “We were open to working Turn to MERGER | Page 6
November 24, 2018
Five years after starting over
Madejskis reect on barn re, rebuilding process By Brittany Olson
brittany.o@dairystar.com
CHETEK, Wis. – A fourrow freestall barn is quiet with the ambiance of contented animals, except for the sound of clinking headlocks and cattle ambling up and down the alleys, at the Madejskis’ farm east of Chetek, Wis. For Dennis and Sue Madejski, who milk 90 cows on their Rusk County dairy farm, seeing a barn full of cows after losing nearly everything to a barn re Oct. 26, 2013, might be a dream come true. “We lost everything except our house, machine shed and two Harvestore silos,” Dennis Turn to MADEJSKI | Page 5
BRITTANY OLSON/DAIRY STAR
Sue and Dennis Madejski milk 90 cows near Chetek, Wis. AŌer a re destroyed many of their faciliƟes in 2013, they built a new freestall barn, heifer barn and double-6 milk parlor.
Propelling towards the next generation Robots provide exibility for Haag Dairy By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
PHOTO SUBMITTED
The Haags – (from leŌ) John, Josh holding Kayleigh, Julie and Melissa holding Kelsey – recently retroƩed their exisƟng freestall barn to include two DeLaval robots on their farm near Dane, Wis.
DANE, Wis. – Robots seemed to be the logical answer to the Haag family when they were looking to increase the exibility in their lives and to solve future labor issues before they became a problem. Haag Dairy is home to John and Julie Haag, and their son, Josh, and his wife, Melissa, along with their two daughters, Kayleigh, 4, and Kelsey, 2. The family milks 115 cows, mostly registered Holsteins with a couple registered Guernseys near Dane, Wis. The herd is milked using two robots that were put into operation Aug. 13, retrotted into the farm’s existing freestall barn that was built in 2006 when Josh rst began buying into the farm. “As the girls start to grow up and start to be involved in activities, we want the exibility to be able to be present for that stuff,” Melissa said. “We still love dairy farming and milking Turn to HAAGS | Page 6