Page 10 • Dairy Star • Saturday, December 10, 2016
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The Marshiks – (from leŌ) Cylie, Jill holding Dominic, Audrie and Brandon – have been milking cows for 2.5 years and have received producƟon and quality awards from their local DHIA and creamery. The Marshiks milk 55 cows on their farm near Rice, Minn.
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RICE, Minn. – Receiving Benton County DHIA’s award for the highest rst year milk production and sixth place lowest somatic cell count through Gilman Co-op Creamery make Brandon and Jill Marshik seem like veteran dairy farmers; however, the couple is only 2.5 years into their dairying career. “It’s denitely an accomplishment for us,” Brandon said. However, along with their accomplishments, there have been plenty of challenges. Brandon and Jill began milking cows in April 2014 and are currently milking 55 cows with their children, Cylie, 9, Audrie, 4, and Dominic, 1, on their farm near Rice, Minn. The Marshiks milk their cows twice a day in a stanchion barn where the herd averages 75 pounds of milk per cow per day and consistently keeps somatic cell count (SCC) below 100,000. “Our lowest SCC was 13,000,” Brandon said. The lactating cows are housed in a sand bedded freestall barn while the dry cows and heifers are on a
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Jill Marshik feeds a calf grain during evening chores with help from her daughter, Audrie.
bedded pack in the same barn, which is bedded every morning and night. “The stanchion barn stalls are too small to house cows regularly,” Brandon said. “We only keep 12 cows in there during the winter to keep things warm.” Between the two of them, Brandon does most of the milking while Jill feeds the cows and calves. “The rest is split up between us,” Jill said. “We work together.” Even their children help where they are able. “I love being home with my kids,” Brandon said. Brandon also breeds the cows with the help of an ear tag monitoring system to catch heats. “I don’t have to watch them as closely,” Brandon said. “If one comes into heat, it alerts me on my phone or computer. We use a clean up bull on the cows that don’t settle to A.I.” The Marshiks own 80 acres of land and rent another 120 acres they plant in corn and alfalfa, and have some of Jill’s dad, Bruce’s, land in alfalfa. “All the crops we grow are strictly used to feed our cows,” Brandon said. “If we fall short on feed, we work it out with Jill’s parents to buy some from them.” After 2.5 years, the Marshiks are in the process of transitioning the bedded pack into sand bedded freestalls and building a lean onto a shed for the dry cows. “We’re doing most of it ourselves,” Brandon said. “We want to save money where we can.” Things at the Marshiks are going well, but they did not start out this way. “It was a journey, that’s for sure,” Brandon said. Neither Brandon nor Jill grew up on dairy farms. The only dairy background they had was Brandon’s work experience on ve dairies during high school, including his uncle’s farm. “I knew I was going to milk cows one day,” Brandon said. For eight years, the Marshiks raised crops and Holstein steers alongside Jill’s parents, Joanne and Bruce Brenny, while Brandon worked full-time at a concrete plant in Elk River, Minn. In the spring of 2013, the Marshiks found their farm, which was going into foreclosure. “This farm popped up, so we jumped on our opportunity,” Brandon said. “It was in rough shape and wasn’t ideal for dairy farming. We needed to x it up if we wanted to use it. We were starting from scratch, but we worked with what we had.” The Marshiks rented the farm for a year and focused on their steers as they made their much-needed Turn to MARSHIK | Page 11