“All dairy, all the time”™
Nonstop fresh feed
Baus family automates mixing, distribution with Lely Vector system
By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com
MT. CALVARY, Wis. —
Cows at Tower View Acres LLC never go hungry with two mixing and feeding robots continually delivering feed to each pen. Since installing the Lely Vector automatic feeding system in July 2024, the Baus family has improved efciency in feed mixing, feed distribution and cow ow through their robotic milkers.
“Cows have fresh feed all the time,” Jason Baus said. “There’s no slug feeding anymore, which means we don’t have big groups coming up to eat at the same time. This frees up the robots, and we’re able
to harvest more milk per day because it leveled out trafc ow around the barn.”
Baus farms with his wife, Diana, his parents, Ron and Mary, his sister, Stephanie, and four part-time employees. The Baus family milks 220 cows with three Lely A4 robots and farms 580 acres near Mt. Calvary.
The Baus family installed a robotic milking system in 2016 when building a 6-row freestall barn and expanding from 90 cows. An addition to the barn houses the new feeding system. The Baus family, along with Central AG Supply Services, hosted an open house
From ames to restora on in 19 days
Schmuckers’ cows return to rebuilt barn three weeks after re
By Amy Kyllo amy.k@star-pub.com
ST. CHARLES, Minn. —
On March 31, Jacob and Barbara Schmucker’s herd returned to a rebuilt barn less than three weeks after a re destroyed the original barn.
“I still hear that (re) in my sleep, crackling, popping,” Jacob Schmucker said.
The Schmuckers milk by hand 16 organic cows, with a capacity for 22, alongside their seven children near St. Charles. They farm 127 owned and rented acres, raising corn, soybeans, oats, hay and pasture. In addition to their milking herd, they have a poultry barn with a capacity of 10,000 laying hens. The Schmuckers also own 40 horses and colts, for their own use and to train and sell as well.
with 122 men from four communities working to rebuild.
“It gives you a mood lift to have all these people come,” Schmucker said. “It makes you feel really small because everybody comes and works for you, but at the same time, it makes you feel good that you’re part of something like that. It’s part of our culture.”
The re started Wednesday, March 12, around 8:25 a.m. after milking. It started in the diesel engine room next to the milkhouse, which powered the bulk tank cooling mechanism.
Schmucker was in the milk house when he discovered the re and tried to put it out through the window from the milk house to the engine room.
“I just jerked open the bulk tank and started dipping milk out through that window,” Schmucker said. “(The re) went down, but then I heard it burning upstairs, and it was already in the hay mow.”
Schmucker and his family moved the 50 head of cows, youngstock, horses and foals out of the barn in about ve minutes with the help of their blue-heeler dogs barking and chasing the animals. Schmucker said the dogs
re,
The Schmuckers, who are members of the Amish community, had a barn raising eight days after the
PHOTO COURTESY OF ST. CHARLES
JOURNAL Flames billow from the haymow of Jacob and Barbara Schmucker’s barn March 12 on their farm near St. Charles, Minnesota. The barn re started around 8:25 a.m. The Schmuckers milk 16 cows.
PHOTO SUBMITTED
The Baus family — Mary (front, from le ), Ron, Devin and Noah; (back, from le ) Lauren, Jake, Stephanie, Nora, Jason and Diana — takes a break by their Lely Vector automa c feeding system Oct. 20, 2024, at Tower View Acres near Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin. The Baus family milks 220 cows with three Lely A4 robots.
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and
March 18 to showcase their new feeding system.
Cows average 104 pounds of milk per day with 7.31 pounds of solids on 2.4 milkings. The farm averages 7,300-7,600 pounds of milk harvested per robot per day. Baus said they are seeing an increase in milk production, and he feels a bigger milk benet is coming.
The mixing and feeding robots are all-in-one machines providing feed mixing and delivery along with feed push-up services. The Baus family’s machines, named Moober Eats and Dairy Dash, continuously push in feed and monitor feed heights. Once feed levels reach a certain threshold, the system will begin mixing a batch of feed.
At the center of the automatic feeding system is the feed kitchen, where ingredients are stored and mixing takes place by the two mixing and feeding robots. The kitchen includes ve feed bunkers — two for haylage, one for corn silage, one for straw and one for cottonseed. Small bins containing additives and minerals and large outdoor bins for ground corn
and minerals are also part of the kitchen.
Following a recipe for each ration, a crane grabber pulls ingredients from the feed bunkers and deposits them into the mixers. Flex augers deliver feed to the mixers from the indoor and outdoor bins. The mixer constantly blends as ingredients are added. After all ingredients are in, a post mix is done to achieve optimal concentration and blending of feed.
Once mixing is complete, the mixer heads to the barn to dispense feed. It takes 30 minutes to mix a batch and 15 minutes to feed a batch. The mixer adjusts its dispensing speed depending on the height of the feed to ensure even dispersal. The two mixers communicate with each other, and the second mixer will bring more feed to the barn if needed. If feed is required at multiple fences, the mixers will take multiple batches.
To ensure the freshest feed possible, 1-4 days’ worth of feed is stored in the bunkers, depending on the time of year.
The crane grabber deposits feed into the mixing and feeding robot March 18 at Tower View Acres near Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin. It takes 30 minutes to mix a batch and 15 minutes to dispense.
by
STACEY SMART /DAIRY STAR
WI
Optimal hoofcare for dairy
“In the winter, the kitchen is packed full of feed, so we don’t have to open the doors as much,” Baus said.
When a bunker is getting close to empty, Baus gets an alert on his phone. The system will not mix new feed until the bunker is lled. Before, the farm had spent 3-4 hours per day loading, mixing and feeding. Now, it takes 1.5-2 hours per day to restock the kitchen with fresh feed.
Previously, the cows’ bunks were sometimes empty by 4 or 5 a.m. but the cows were not fed until 6:30 a.m. This lag created a rush on feed when a new batch was delivered. This, in turn, caused a backup at the robotic milkers. When feeding in full batches, a line of cows 8-12 deep would line up at the robots at one time. Now, lines are short, with 2-3 cows waiting. Instead of feeding a large batch of feed once a day, fresh feed is consistently arriving in front of cows in smaller batches.
The barn is broken into nine feed fences, and Baus can customize the amount of feed for each area or fence. A full batch lls the whole feed fence. In smaller sections, the system dispenses smaller amounts. Rations can be split between feed fences if those areas receive the same ration.
Their system is mixing about 25,000 pounds of feed per day for a total of 21 batches. They feed three different rations — one for milk cows, one for dry cows and one for
pre-fresh cows 14 days before calving.
“There are no refusals,” Baus said. “Everything is tuned in.”
The system’s precision in mixing has also resulted in feed savings, Baus said. The automated system removes human error in measuring, keeping recipes close to 100% accurate.
“When you ll a conventional mixer, it’s easy to drop in an extra 100-200 pounds as you’re getting to the end of the corn silage and trying
to feather a little into that last bucket,” Baus said. “This system is grabbing smaller bits and dialing it in more accurately on a dump. The bigger it is, the more chance of human error, whereas the automation side keeps retrying until it gets closer.”
Baus said exibility has been the biggest benet of the automatic feeding system as they can now better prioritize and adjust their workow.
“As long as there is feed in the kitchen, you can ll it any
time of day,” he said. “If it’s raining in the morning, we don’t have to bring feed in until later. Previously when the bunks were cleaned out by 6:30 a.m., the cows needed to get fed before doing something else. Now, they’re never out of feed because the system is always bringing out a batch.”
(Below) A mixing and feeding robot delivers fresh feed to cows March 18 at Tower View Acres near Mt. Calvary,
were vital as the smoke got to the point where they could
“We had just enough time to get everything out,” Schmucker said. “By that time, it was high time to be out of there.”
The re went wild in the hay mow, helped along by a southeast wind.
“You’re thinking, ‘No, this can’t be happening to us,’ but it is,” Schmucker said. “It’s your worst nightmare come true.”
The re department arrived and kept water on all three siloes and was able to save them, including the silo built into the middle of the barn. A nearby grain bin was half full of oats, and the Schmuckers discovered oats burning inside a week after the re. They discarded three gravity boxes of grain to end the re.
Schmucker and his family moved to the farm and started dairy farming less than a year ago, in May 2024. After moving in, they also built a chicken facility and doubled their ock. Previously, they had crop farmed and raised 5,000 laying hens.
“That was pretty tough to move here, buy the farm and then lose a barn right away, but now we’re going to have a nice barn,” Schmucker said. “It’ll work out.”
The barn had housed the farm’s water supply. A water tank in the hay mow served as a water tower-style system to supply water to the dairy and horse barn and the chicken barn. Within two hours of the re, a neighbor had a tanker truck of water at the farm for the chickens.
The Schmuckers let the barn burn
for two days. On Friday, March 14, Schmucker said people were in his yard wanting to get the rubble cleaned up and to have a construction crew get the new barn’s blocks laid by Saturday night.
“I had thought we would maybe wait a week or so … but people came and went to work and said, ‘Let’s go.’” Schmucker said.
They used the old barn’s footings and by Saturday evening, March 16, all 1,800 blocks were laid.
The next week they hosted a barn raising. The barn was already built up to the hay mow oor when they started, Turn to SCHMUCKERS
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Amish men work on rebuilding Jacob and Barbara Schmucker’s barn March 20 on their farm near St. Charles, Minnesota. One hundred and twenty-two Amish men came for the barn raising that day.
AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR
Cows stand in their stalls April 8 at Jacob and Barbara Schmucker’s barn near St. Charles, Minnesota. The Schmuckers operate an organic dairy farm.
AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR
Sunlight illuminates the barn April 8 at Jacob and Barbara Schmucker’s farm near St. Charles, Minnesota. The Schmuckers’ barn burned down March 12, and by March 31, they had a new barn built and the cows back on the farm.
and by the end of the day, most of the roof was on, 50% of the steel side wall was in place and some cement had been poured.
Schmucker said he has helped at similar Amish community events before, but never one with this many people.
“That was something to see,” Schmucker said. “There were three guys managing people. That’s all they did.”
Besides rebuilding, the Schmuckers were assisted in other ways by their Amish community and their non-Amish neighbors. Schmucker said many people dropped off supplies for the barn, like 5-gallon buckets, wheelbarrows and pitchforks. They received enough food to feed the barn raising crew and their families and for the Schmuckers to eat for three weeks without hardly having to cook.
On March 31, the cows were back in the new barn. The cows had been housed at two neighbors’ farms and the Schmuckers had helped with chores.
The rebuilt barn is similar to the old one. The Schmuckers reversed the side of the barn the cows are on, making the cow side closest to the milk house instead of the horse side. The Schmuckers also plan to rebuild the engine room for cooling, separate and away from the barn, to reduce re hazard.
“Hopefully it never happens again, but if it does, it would at least give us a little time,” Schmucker said. “If we would have had 15 minutes, we would have got (this re).”
The Schmuckers are thankful for the community support.
“Without that there’s no way we could get to this point in this short of time; absolutely impossible,” Schmucker said. “It’s a good thing.”
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Prayer kicks off spring eldwork
Tractor blessing a prelude to planting
By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com
JEFFERSON, Wis. —
On April 12, farmers from Jefferson County were sent forth into another season of eldwork with a special blessing. Standing amid tractors of all kinds, the farmers participated in a prayer service at the cusp of planting season.
Driving their tractors to St. Mark’s Ev. Lutheran Church in the heart of downtown Jefferson, area farmers took time out of busy schedules to pray for a safe and fruitful planting during the “Blessing of the Tractors.” Prayers were said for farmers, their families and the community as part of the event designed to uplift agriculture and farmers.
About 30 tractors were parked outside the church and more than 70 people in attendance for the event that started at 9 a.m. with a welcome by its founder, Dale Gaugert. Gaugert said it was a beautiful lineup of tractors and a good mix of colors before him.
Gaugert used to be the owner of several John Deere dealerships, and although retired, he continues to take calls from farmers.
“Over the years, Jefferson County farmers have not only
been good customers, but more importantly, we have become great friends,” Gaugert said. “The tractor blessing solidies that friendship.”
The blessing was hosted by the Rev. Christopher Raiford.
“It’s a great opportunity to uplift the ‘Faith of a Farmer’ who puts one’s trust in God and Mother Nature to bring life to tiny seeds planted each spring.” said Raiford in a press release. “With 7,000 people working in an agriculture-related industry in Jefferson County, we hope the community will come out to see the big equipment and the big hearts who power it.”
Aaron and Melanie Kutz and their children — Kinsley, Brynnly, Zakary and Hadley — attended the “Blessing of the Tractors” in 2024.
“It wasn’t so much about blessing a tractor, but rather, the tractor represents the blessing of our whole operation,” Melanie Kutz said.
The Kutz family milks 2,100 cows and farms 1,800 acres near Jefferson, about three miles from the church. The tractor they brought was a John Deere 8370R they use for planting corn and cutting alfalfa.
Aaron’s parents and brother and sister-in-law.
“We use that tractor for making food for our cows so that we can make a good dairy product,” Kutz said. “We know the Lord is in control of everything, and we need his help. We wanted him to bless the start of our planting season, which is one of our busy seasons on the farm.”
ed Kutz Dairy LLC in 1972 with one heifer calf. Today, Kutz and her husband farm with Aaron’s parents and his brother and sister-in-law.
Kutz’s father-in-law start-
“The blessing was very cool and kind of emotional,” Kutz said. “We pray together every night as a family, but this was different knowing all those other farmers were there praying for the same reason.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PETER CURRAN
The Kutz family — Zakary (front); (middle) Brynnly; (back, from le�) Melanie, Kinsley, and Aaron holding Hadley — stands next to their John Deere 8370R tractor April 20, 2024, at the Blessing of the Tractors in Jefferson, Wisconsin. The Kutzes milk 2,100 cows and farm 1,800 acres with
Farmers par�cipate during the prayer service at the Blessing of the Tractors event April 12 at St. Mark’s Ev. Lutheran Church in Jefferson, Wisconsin. About 30 tractors were parked outside the church, and more than 70 people a�ended.
We all want a good, safe season and want to bless our dairy farms. When you bring farmers together, it’s always a good thing, but to do it for a blessing with everyone on common ground who are all in the process of planting, makes it a really neat experience.”
There are about 1,098 farms in Jefferson County on more than 190,000 acres. The most widely planted crops in the county are corn and soybeans.
“This year’s turnout was outstanding,” Gaugert said. “We had the largest John Deere tractors — a 620 horsepower on wheels or tracks — and the largest Case IH tractors they build on tracks. It was such a good mix. We also had a couple of antique Allis Chalmers tractors there.”
A retired Catholic priest brought his 1941 Farmall A tractor to the blessing.
“He’s all about ag, and this event ties together not just our church but other churches as well,” Gaugert said.
Each tractor donned a sign indicating the family name and number of years they have been farming. Retired farmers and people from the community joined in prayer with the farmers as well as a 4-H student who brought his miniature goats to partake in the blessing.
Ralph Lassa of PremierBank and Peter Curran also said a few words.
The theme of Curran’s speech was, “Farmers are lucky.”
“Farmers live independently, together, sometimes miles apart,” Curran said. “Yet, they are still a community. A neighborhood noted by the number of silos on the horizon… Farmers are lucky. And, so
Rev. Christopher Raiford says the blessing at the Blessing of the Tractors April 12 at St. Mark’s Ev. Lutheran Church in Jefferson, Wisconsin. Prayers were said for farmers, their families and the community.
are all of us. Because all our roots run through a farm. … Farmers are lucky to have a business partner in God.”
Following Curran was the blessing by Raiford, who also read the poem, “So God Made a Farmer,” by Paul Harvey. After the blessing, attendees stayed for refreshments and fellowship.
“There was a lot of good camaraderie among the farmers who were there,” Gaugert said. “They hung out together and talked. It was good to see. The weather was beautiful. We couldn’t have asked for a better day.”
Gaugert held the rst “Blessing of the Tractors” in 2013. It was not until 2024 that the next blessing took place.
“I thought it would be a one and done, but then last year, I got to thinking, maybe we should have it again,” Gaugert said.
Gaugert said he is hoping for a good crop again this year for Jefferson County farmers.
“The event gives farmers an opportunity to come and see a good group of local farmers they probably haven’t seen for a while and the chance to compare notes as they talk about getting ready to go planting,” Gaugert said.
“The tractor blessing closed with a reminder that when you eat, you should thank God and thank a farmer.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF PETER CURRAN
PHOTO COURTESY OF PETER CURRAN
Dairy plant expansion pressures market balance
California milk production has slipped, but other states are seeing expansion. “Those states that run from I-29 through the Texas Panhandle, we’re continuing to see some ongoing growth there as new plants come online,” said Ever.Ag principal Mike North In North’s view, this national trend will impact the dairy markets. “As we talk about cheese production, the number of new facilities that are coming online right now is such that by the end of the year we’re going to have 360 million pounds of cheese that do not have a home,” he said. Domestic or foreign demand will need to grow signicantly to get ahead of that supply curve. The demand outlook is complicated by the current tariff strategy.
Supply, demand report released
ing, the elimination of the McGovern-Dole and Food for Peace grant programs and many rural infrastructure programs for waste treatment, drinking water and electric power. An OMB spokesperson said no nal decisions have been made.
dollars in commodities from last year waiting to be sold, but also have started spring planting and rely on stable markets for their planning,” she said.
“100% condent”
According to the April U.S. Department of Agriculture’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Report, the forecast for 2025 milk production was increased to nearly 227 billion pounds. That’s due to a slightly higher milk output on a per-cow basis and a larger milk herd. The forecast for exports was raised due to higher butter shipments. Imports are expected to decline in response to the new tariffs. Class III milk prices are lower, with lower price expectations for cheese and whey.
County government ofce closures proposed
By Don Wick Columnist Ag Insider
A government executive is reporting that the Trump administration is planning signicant cuts at the USDA, including ofce closures at the county level. The publication got access to documents from the Ofce of Management and Budget for the 2026 scal year. In the document, OMB orders USDA to develop plans to consolidate county-based Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Rural Development ofces. Budget savings would also be made by reductions in research fund-
Trump discusses potential farm labor solutions
During a cabinet meeting, President Donald Trump said there would be some relief for farmers who employ immigrants lacking legal status. It will involve a process. “We’re also going to work with farmers, that if they have strong recommendations for certain people, we’re going to let them stay in for a while and work with the farmers and then come back and go through a process, a legal process.” The USDA reports that more than two-thirds of U.S. crop workers are foreign-born. Many of them came to the country through the H-2A visa program, but ofcials estimate that 42% of the workers are undocumented. Trump’s comments during his cabinet meeting are, though vague, the most detailed the administration has provided on the fate of the nation’s farmworkers without legal status.
Senators press U.S. trade ofce on impact of tariffs on farmers
Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin and 17 of their colleagues have sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer seeking information on the administration’s tariff agenda. The lawmakers want to determine if an analysis was done to consider the tariffs’ impact on agriculture. “Are you looking at just what the president wants to do that day or are you actually looking at how this affects farmers?” Klobuchar said. Baldwin said the tariff strategy has been chaotic. “Farmers not only have billions of
are the lactation report, herd summary
Those give me most of the information that I’m looking for.
Which is your favorite and why? The rst one I go to is the somatic cell count report, both herd and individual. It helps me cull problem cows.
How do you use them within your dairy? We use the production and SCC reports for culling decisions and use the fat, protein, and MUN reports to evaluate feed ration changes.
How does testing with DHIA bene t your dairy operation? It gives me paperwork to track all the cattle and reports on which cows to breed. It’s just great information to track everything for your herd. You have a lifetime of information on them, where they came from, when they born, their sire and dam, and so much more.
Tell us about your farm.
My wife Becky and I and our children milk 40 cows. We also farm 220 acres of corn, wheat and alfalfa. My dad comes out and helps as needed too.
After meeting with the Italian prime minister in the White House, President Trump said he is 100% condent there will be a trade deal between the U.S. and Europe. This was the rst face-to-face meeting with a European leader after the aggressive tariff schedule was imposed and later put on pause.
Rollins, Thompson tour Pennsylvania dairy farm Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson toured a Pennsylvania dairy farm Tuesday. Rollins told reporters the administration’s tariff policy is “disruptive,” but she believes it will be a short-term adjustment. Rollins said she hopes it won’t be necessary, but President Trump is ready to provide nancial assistance to farmers if they are hurt by the trade situation.
Judge weighs in on funds enacted by Biden
A federal judge has ordered USDA and four other agencies to release funds from the Ination Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law enacted under former President Biden. The judge, who was appointed by President Trump in his rst term, said presidents are entitled to enact their own agenda, but agencies do not have unlimited authority to restrict programs passed by Congress during the previous administration. This includes a variety of ag projects focused on conservation, funding for blender pumps and biofuel production and broadband.
Driving dairy demand
The Midwest Dairy annual report highlights how the dairy checkoff built trust with consumers, in-
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Glen Christen
40 cows • Sauk Centre, Minnesota Testing with DHIA since 1977
The three main reports that I use
and heifer calf listing.
Marco’s Pizza, Pizza Ranch and Godfathers. The cheese promotions drove an additional 3.4 million pounds of milk sales.
Dairy export excellence recognized
The U.S. Dairy Export Council has announced the winners of its Excellence in Exports Awards. Actus Nutrition, which was formerly known as Milk Specialties Global, was recognized for introducing U.S. caseins and caseinates to the global market. David Ahlem of Hilmar Cheese Company was honored for developing innovations in dairy exports.
A new CEO for Hilmar Cheese Company
Greg Schlafer will take over as president and CEO for Hilmar Cheese Company July 1. Schlafer spent six years in a similar capacity for Foremost Farms. Hilmar Cheese CEO David Ahlem will step down after leading the company for nearly 10 years.
New leadership for cheese group
Nasonville Dairy Plant Manager Kim Heiman will take over as president of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association July 1. Heiman previously served in this role from 2017 to 2019. Tim Omer of Emmi Roth is wrapping up his 2-year term as WCMA president.
Trivia challenge
The loose ap of skin on the underside of the dairy cow’s neck is known as a dewlap. That answers our last trivia question. For this week’s trivia, what is the brand behind the iconic blue siloes that dot the countryside? We’ll have the answer in our next edition of the Dairy Star.
Don Wick is owner/broadcaster for the Red River Farm Network of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Wick has been recognized as the National Farm Broadcaster of the Year and served as president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. Don and his wife, Kolleen, have two sons, Tony and Sam, and ve grandchildren, Aiden, Piper, Adrienne, Aurora and Sterling.
Excitement, passion for the next generation
Kruschke melds both
into breeding philosophy
By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
NEW RICHMOND, Wis. — Each newborn calf at Crisdhome Holsteins represents the careful consideration Jack Kruschke put into creating that particular mating, and his hope for what the future may bring.
Kruschke, along with his wife, Jade, and their two sons, Brantley and Beckett, milks 65 registered Holstein cows on his family’s St. Croix County dairy farm near New Richmond.
“My passion is trying to breed the kind of cows I like,” Kruschke said. “I like cows with balanced frames, cows that are functional and don’t have obvious faults. Some people call what I like show ring type, but it’s really functional type, too.”
Kruschke said he prefers a somewhat smaller cow.
“I’m denitely leaning more towards a 59- to 60-inch young cow and mature cows around 62 inches,” Kruschke
Jake Kruschke stands among his herd Feb. 24 at Crisdhome Holsteins near New Richmond, Wisconsin. Kruschke said he enjoys the challenge of ma ng his herd to produce the kind of cow he admires.
said. “They really don’t need to be much bigger than that.”
To create those cows, Kruschke’s focus starts on the cow family, then moves to choosing complementary sires.
“I really like those families with the long string of Excellent cows in the pedigree,”
Kruschke said. “I pay attention to sire stacks, but I would rather take a cow family over the sire stack, even when choosing bulls.”
Kruschke said this pattern has held true throughout his career as a registered Holstein breeder.
“The four bulls I’ve used
the heaviest in my life — Durham, Doorman, Lambda and Sidekick — are all sired by bulls that aren’t typically show bulls,” Kruschke said.
“On the bottom side, they all have deep pedigrees.”
Kruschke prefers to use proven bulls rather than relying on genomic young sires.
“I like seeing daughters, at least heifers, of at least 80% of the bulls I used,” Kruschke said. “I want to see daughters I like, with at least one specic trait I think will work on my cows. If I pick a young bull, I go with my gut — does it make sense, am I excited to use him? Would I want him as a female in my herd?”
There are a few lessons Kruschke said he has learned the hard way.
“Never use a bull with an obvious fault,” Kruschke said. “I had always promised myself to never use a bull that sired bad legs, but I broke down and used (one). … Once you use a bad-traited bull like that, it can consistently transmit that bad trait.”
Kruschke said he used the bull because he was an outcross, and he had saw good animals out of him at World Dairy Expo. He said he thought he maybe could get away with it because he had focused on good legs for so long. However, out of around 15 animals sired by that bull, only two scored Excellent.
“Both were out of 94-point cows, and neither was nearly as good as her dam,” he said.
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
Kruschke said he tries to avoid the extremes when selecting bulls, instead concentrating on selecting complementary traits and keeping his selection simple. Kruschke aims to limit the number of service sires he uses to 8-10 at any given time.
“I think the udders in the Holstein breed have gotten so consistently good I don’t necessarily place emphasis there because the differences in the top bulls are minimal,” Kruschke said. “I try to avoid traits like extreme rump angle, and I look at ex to the hock.
Those are areas where there is a large degree of difference among bulls. It’s an old school way of thinking about it, but if you pick the right bulls, it should work.”
Kruschke is a proponent of beef-on-dairy breeding.
“It’s done exactly what we needed it to do,” Kruschke said. “It’s shrunk down heifer inventories to make our heifers worth more. … We can make great genetic progress in the Holstein breed in 10 years by consistently breeding the worst third of our cows to beef.”
Kruschke utilizes beefon-dairy breeding differently than many.
“I use sexed semen on my older cows that I love, the ones I want heifer calves out of,” Kruschke said. “I either put an embryo or use Angus semen on the bottom third of my heifers.”
Pursuing his passion of breeding a herd of high-quality registered Holsteins has not been easy for Kruschke. Questions about how to continue his family’s tradition of dairying into the future required Kruschke to move
his cows off the farm in November 2023, housing them at four nearby farms, while the remainder of the cows were sold.
The experience caused Kruschke to re-evaluate and refocus his efforts before his cows slowly began returning to the home farm in June 2024. He said reducing the herd was a difcult task, with decisions based largely on the completeness of the pedigree. He retained older high-scoring cows he could continue to breed from.
“It is good to feel uncom-
fortable when it comes time to sell one,” Kruschke said. “If you think she’s at the bottom of your herd, and it’s still uncomfortable to sell her, that means the cow that is one above her, that’s a really good cow you’re keeping.”
Kruschke said at any time he could face further reduction or a dispersal, causing him to think more about the marketability of his herd.
“I think in terms of ‘If I have to sell the cows,’ which is probably a good way to always think,” Kruschke said. “What bulls can I use to make them the most valuable? I think about who would be Lot 1 if I had a dispersal. She should be the cow that you need to focus on, to ush to increase her inuence.”
The past two years have impacted Kruschke.
“The whole process has taught me an immense amount of patience,” Kruschke said. “I was so excited to get the cows home, but with the transitions, they all really just needed to calve back in. I’ve felt so many times like it’s been one step forward and two back. I can see where I want to be, and I know I’ll get there, but I want it to happen faster. I’m excited to calve my next group of heifers in, and I’m excited at what the future might hold.”
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
Cows stand in the barn Feb. 24 at Crisdhome Holsteins near New Richmond, Wisconsin. Jake Kruschke focuses on breeding balanced cows and crea ng deep cow families.
from our side our side OF
When did you get started with spring fieldwork?
Jeff Shallow Lena, Wisconsin
Oconto, Wisconsin 40 cows
When did you or when will you get started with spring eldwork? We got started April 15-16 by hauling out our manure storage. We spread a light coating on our cover crop rye we planted last fall. Soil conditions are not yet ready for tillage and planting.
What crops do you raise, and how many acres of each do you have? We raise alfalfa, corn and soybeans, ideally keeping 100 acres in alfalfa, 50 in corn and 50 in soybeans.
What kind of equipment maintenance and preparations do you do before spring eldwork starts? We usually check stuff over after spring work when we are cleaning it up and address whatever needs attention. That way, the following spring, all we need to do is grease and check tire pressures.
What is the latest and earliest date you have started in the eld? The latest was last spring in 2024 when we hosted Oconto County’s Breakfast on the Farm. The rst corn was in the ground June 11 — not bad for being a parking lot two days earlier. The earliest of my 47 years of farming was April 19, 1990. The spring weather is always unpredictable, and we just have to roll with it. On April 15, 2018, we got 31 inches of snow with a blizzard, but we were planting corn one month later, May 18.
Who is involved during spring eld work? My son, Lewis, and I pretty much do all the eldwork, but it truly is a family affair. Lewis does most of the planting, and I do all the spraying. Daughter Darcy holds down the fort in the milk barn, and wife, Darlene, is the Gator gopher. We have a new cab companion this year with my 3-year-old grandson.
What’s the most recent change you’ve made in seeding or eld management practices? One thing we did was lower our seeding rate for soybeans from 140,000 to 126,000. We also switched to minimum tillage in corn and no-till soybeans into a rye cover crop. We use the cover crop as an additional feed source, and it is nice not having to go over the eld again with tillage. The main reason we switched the seed population is that we were having trouble with white mold. Fewer plants mean more air ow, greatly reducing white mold’s impact on yield. For the rye, no-tilling into a cover crop helped signicantly with weed suppression. The extra organic matter also helps with moisture retention.
Tell us about a unique spring eld work memory you have. One spring morning before I was married, my mother was over helping me with the Dairy Herd Improvement Association testing. She asked me what I planned to do the rest of the day, and I told her I had about ve things I should do today — surprise, surprise. She said, “Is there anything I can do to help? I can drive a tractor for you if it doesn’t have a cab on it.” I only had two tractors at the time, and neither had cabs. She was used to driving their old John Deere 50, which I had purchased with the farm. I topped off the gas, hooked up a 10-foot drag behind it and put her in a 12-acre eld. Away she went, her scarf tied under her chin. She nished by noon. To this day, every time I work in that eld, I think of that day.
Tell us about your farm. My wife, Darlene, and I farm with our son, Lewis, his wife, Skhyler, and kids, Thaddeus and Della, and our daughter Darcy. I purchased
Paul Halderson (middle, pictured with Ted (left) and Joel) Galesville, Wisconsin Trempeleau County 1,250 cows
When did you or when will you get started with spring eldwork? We’ve been pumping manure for two weeks now and started putting down anhydrous ammonia this week. We’re hoping to get seed in the ground later this month. The hay looks good this year, so we won’t add new seeding. We plan on planting corn between the 25th and the end of the month.
What crops do you raise, and how many acres of each do you have? We raise 2000 acres of corn and a couple hundred acres of soybeans and 500 acres of hay.
What kind of equipment maintenance and preparations do you do before spring eldwork starts? My sons, who work on the farm, do all our maintenance as it is needed. When we get into the eld, our goal is not to have any breakdowns, so we do a lot of preventative maintenance. My son says that, if you don’t take time for maintenance, maintenance will make time for you.
What is the latest and earliest date you have started in the eld? The latest we had gotten in was the May 10. That was a really wet spring, and it rained quite a bit. Even last year was a late start, given how much it rained. The earliest I’ve been in the eld was at the end of March, planting oats. That was a few years back. Who is all involved during spring eld work? My two sons, Joel and Ted, do all of the planting of our crops. I usually do the alfalfa planting. We have the help of some retired people who help us on the farm during planting season.
What’s the most recent change you’ve made in seeding or eld management practices? We went to 20-inch rows on our corn two years ago. There’s been a trend for narrow rows for corn silage. We had higher yields when we experimented on green corn, and since making the switch, we’ve had higher yields overall.
Tell us about a unique spring eld work memory you have. Two years ago, we bought a 24-row, 20-inch planter. When I started, I was using a 4-row, 38-inch planter, and comparing those two is incredible. The difference from where we were when I started to where we are now is tremendous.
Tell us about your farm. My two sons, Joel and Ted, and I are the primary partners. My two grandsons, Brycen and Brody, are also starting to get involved on the farm with us. Joel’s brother-in-law, Ben Henderson, runs his own 30-cow dairy and works for us nearly full time. My youngest son’s father-in-law is retired, and he helps us quite a bit; some retired truck drivers also haul the feed and milk for us. We have 14 full-time employees who we couldn’t run our farm without. We operate a 1,300-cow dairy, currently milking in a 28-stall internal rotary. This summer, we’ll be moving to a 40-cow external rotary that we’re pretty excited about.
the farm from my dad in 1978, upon graduation from high school; I’d been farming it since I was 16. Our farm consists of 220 acres, which are all connected. My family was steeped in agriculture. I have four brothers and three sisters, and all but one dairy farmed. We are currently in the process of transitioning the farm to the next generation.
Cleveland, Wisconsin Manitowoc County 600 cows
When did you or when will you get started with spring eldwork? We are a pasture-based farm that grazes milk cows and youngstock. On April 16-17, we spread a nitrogen-based fertilizer mix on our permanent pasture. We also started no-tilling paddocks with grass and a bit of legume April 17. The rst thing we do in the spring is reintroduce seed into the paddocks. It’s been a cool spring, too cool so far to do any other planting. We have 125 acres needing new seeding alfalfa, but none of that land has been worked yet. Cows typically go out to pasture between April 1-15. We often do new seeding and no-till planting during the last two weeks of April. We usually plant corn in the middle of May. This year seems to be sort of on schedule. We’re about 3 miles from Lake Michigan, and in our area, it seems we are about a week behind our neighbors who are 5 miles west of us. Lake Michigan sort of holds us back a little, but in the summer, we don’t burn up either as the lake effect keeps us cooler.
What crops do you raise, and how many acres of each do you have? We farm about 1,000 acres, 525 acres of which are in permanent pasture, covering 150 paddocks all within a mile of our milking center. We have 475 acres of cropland and raise 150 acres of corn silage and 325 acres of an alfalfa/grass mix for making hay and haylage.
What kind of equipment maintenance and preparations do you do before spring eldwork starts? All of our tractor repair work and maintenance is done in the fall. This is when we take the tractors into the dealer, change oil, etc. The same is true for our spring tillage equipment. In the fall, we put new teeth on the diggers and make other repairs.
Gary Sutter (right, pictured with his son, Joel)
Mount Horeb, Wisconsin Dane County 600 cows
When did you or when will you get started with spring eldwork? We started with eld work the rst week in April, about the 8th. When the weather breaks, we try to get our manure pit empty. Then, we’ll get in the elds after that, depending on when the weather is good enough.
What crops do you raise, and how many acres of each do you have? We raise about 1,000 acres of corn, 500 acres of soybeans, a little over 100 acres of wheat and about 500 acres of alfalfa.
What kind of equipment maintenance and preparations do you do before spring eldwork starts? We go through the corn planter pretty well, checking for possible maintenance issues. We check out the machinery, change oil and get everything greased up. We replace what’s worn out so we can be ready to go when the weather allows.
What is the latest and earliest date you have started in the eld? Years ago, when we planted a lot of oats, we started planting the middle of March and, after we had
What is the latest and earliest date you have started in the eld? March 27 is the earliest we ever let the cows out to pasture while May 3 is the latest. April 10 or the rst week of April is the earliest we have ever seeded alfalfa, while the rst week of May is the latest.
Who is all involved during spring eld work? My brother, Robert, manages all our eld work and our pasture system. His son, Peter, is our chief maintenance person. We work with certied agronomists, Adam Kolb and Chris Reichert, who help manage all our nutrient management requirements and cropping system. One of our employees, David Mueller, who has his own beef and crop farm, also helps with our cropping program. Those ve people are the heart and soul of our cropping program, eldwork and prep and maintenance of our pasture system. Our nutrient management plan is extremely important to us. Our primary goal is to keep the waters of Wisconsin safe. We adhere to strict management in the application and utilization of manure as part of our fertilizer program.
What’s the most recent change you’ve made in seeding or eld management practices? We have gone to doing more passes at smaller doses across the eld of nutrient applications. We’re trying to match the fertilizer we’re putting on with the demands of the crop as it’s growing versus putting one big application down at one time. Putting on only the amount of nutrients needed as a plant is developing and growing has directly affected water quality on the land. Also, when putting land into alfalfa, we are sometimes custom tailoring the alfalfa/grass clover mix to the varying soil types on the land where we’re growing alfalfa.
Tell us about a unique spring eld work memory you have. The most enjoyable part of spring eldwork is getting our cows back out on pasture. The big picture is that there is a beginning to planting and an end to planting. It’s very fun to get started, but it’s also fun to nish. Overall, spring eldwork is an awesome experience.
Tell us about your farm. Founded in 1850, Saxon Homestead Farm is a fth-generation family partnership owned and operated by Robert and Kathleen Klessig, Karl and Liz Klessig, our families and our hardworking employees. We are a pasture-based farm practicing rotational grazing. Our crossbred herd consists of a tri-cross of Holstein, Jersey and Norwegian Red breeds. We breed 60% of our cows to Black Angus and sell those calves into the beef market. We milk twice a day in a midline double-28 herringbone parlor and ship our milk to Sargento.
our oats in, we got two feet of snow. We had to wait for that to melt off before getting back to the rest of the crops. The latest we’ve gotten into the eld was early May. Our soil dries out fairly easily, so a few days of warm, windy weather helps us get in the elds faster.
Who is involved during spring eld work? I have ve guys who help me quite a bit. They rotate and drive different tractors. They are a couple of retired farmers and farmers who still want to help me out by being on the tractor.
What’s the most recent change you’ve made in seeding or eld management practices? I’ve used more cover crops. We’ve used more rye where we chop corn now. If that works out well, there’s not a ton of compaction from where we haul manure, and we no-till that area.
Tell us about a unique spring eld work memory you have. We had a wet spring a few years ago. We had gone to a wedding, and some of our guys were helping chisel plow and got into a wet spot. When I saw it, the tractor was buried up to the axles, if not deeper. That was a pretty stressful moment. They called me at the wedding to tell me the tractor was stuck. We waited until the next day, but we used a cable and got it unstuck.
Tell us about your farm. We milk our 600 cows three times a day in our parlor. My son, Joel, is our herdsman and takes care of the cows; he does a really good job and has a really good eye for our herd. We have a couple of good milking crews and some others who help with our eld work. We have about a 31,000-pound milk herd average, and we breed the lower 25% to beef bulls.
Karl Klessig (left, pictured with his brother, Robert)
How many times a day do you milk, and what is your current herd average, butterfat and protein? We milk twice a day. Our March 2025 rolling herd average was 30,318 pounds of milk, 1,287 pounds of butterfat and 978 pounds of protein, with tests of 4.2% butterfat and 3.2% protein.
Describe your housing and milking facility. We have a tunnel-ventilated freestall barn and a double-8 herringbone parlor that was built in 2010. Everything was designed for the utmost in cow comfort and ease of handling cows alone. The stalls are head-to-head, with an 18-foot span and 52-inch width. We use sand bedding and have a high-quality air curtain that keeps the barn from freezing in the winter. The ceiling is insulated to help maintain a more constant temperature and help reduce variations in feed intake during the hottest and coldest days. We also have sprinklers. Our gates and headlocks were designed to enable one person to move cows from pen to pen if needed.
Who is part of your farm team, and what are their roles? We have a great team that works well together. My husband, Brian, is the feeder and crop guy. He also keeps everything in working order. I manage the dairy side of things.
TOP PERFORMERS
Eye, Minnesota. Olmar Farms milks 130 cows in a double-8 herringbone parlor.
We have two trainees from Japan who stay with us for a year. They not only learn the tasks of doing chores, but also learn treatment protocols and other skills they will need to take a leadership role in their jobs back in Japan. We also have 2-3 other part-time employees
to help with chores. Most often, they are high school students or people looking to pick up a little extra work.
What is your herd health program? We installed CowManager about four years ago. At that time, we went to herd health
checks every three weeks. We vaccinate newborns with CalfGuard and Nasalgen 3-PMH. Older calves and pre-breeding heifers get Bovi-Shield Gold FP 5 L5 and Ultrabac 7. We give ScourGuard 4KC and Ultrabac 7 to dry cows and booster Bovi-shield to milking cows pre-
breeding. The entire herd gets EndoVac three times per year.
What does your dry cow and transition program consist of? We have a one-group dry period that is balanced more for the pre-fresh group. Our dry period is 45 days. Cows conrmed with twins or that have had high somatic cell count are given a 60-day dry period. The ration is wheat straw and corn silage balanced for dietary cation-anion difference. We try to do just-in-time movement to the calving pen since we only have two smaller than optimal pens for calving. Post calving, they go into a pack pen in the milking barn until they clean and have at least two milkings. Then they go into the fresh pen. Fresh heifers and multi-lactation cows are mixed together. Our fresh heifers are well-grown and we have no issues with mixing them. The pre-fresh heifers are housed in our old freestall barn and get the same ration as the dry cows.
What is the composition of your ration, and how has that changed in recent years? We have a small fresh group, a high group and a late lactation group. The high group ration is 50% forage and the other groups are
Brian and Jill Nelson of Olmar Farms, Sleepy Eye, Minnesota | Brown County
130 cows
RUTH KLOSSNER/DAIRY STAR
Jill Nelson sits on a feed bunk April 18 at Olmar Farms near Sleepy
“We have been using Udder Comfort™ at least 10 years. I always have it in the parlor, and our milkers put it on any suspect cow with any hardness, flakes, or mastitis,” says 5th generation dairyman Mike Draxler, herd manager at the 700-cow Lofty Acres Dairy, Glennwood City, Wisconsin, where he farms with his brother Chuck, father Joe, and a lot of good employees. Mike’s wife Rebecca handles calf care, and their 4 children are also involved.
“Getting Udder Comfort on right away as soon as we see a problem, we find a huge percentage of those cows never get to the hospital or treatment pen. I like the Udder Comfort blue because the color identifies the cow, which means she gets extra attention and follow up. We tried other brands, but this one just works better than anything else out there,” Mike explains.
“It’s worth the cost because it works the best. Fewer animals in the treated pen is the biggest thing, and our 65,000 SCC shows this. Udder Comfort and attention to detail absolutely contribute to our milk quality,” he adds.
high forage. We feed brown midrib and, more recently, Enogen corn silage. Last year, we started feeding cover crops and will continue to explore that as a costsaving and soil preservation strategy. We have a few pounds of dry hay, corn silage and haylage diet. We balance for amino acids and volatile fatty acids, which have been instrumental in increasing components very quickly. We let the cows tell us what is working and what is not. I’m a big believer in Quality Liquid Feed, which keeps the cows from sorting, among other benets. We also feed OmniGen and Rumensin. In the past we had a rst lactation group, a high group and a small low group. This strategy was OK, but we struggled getting heifers started well. We also ended up with more heavy late lactation cows and felt our feed costs were higher than we wanted. Now we have a small prefresh group and a larger high group and low group.
Tell us about the forages you plant and detail your harvest strategies. In a perfect world, we harvest all of our alfalfa as haylage at 67% moisture and maturity to hit 22% protein and 160170 relative forage quality. But we don’t work in a perfect world. We do our best to maximize quality with a top-performing inoculant from Chr. Hansen. A good inoculant pays for itself in quality feed, reduced shrink and better stability in the feed bunk. For corn silage, we continue to try different strategies to maximize starch content and ber digestibility. Most recently, we have been alternating rows of BMR and either Enogen or a high-starch variety of corn. We like Enogen for using as the rst bag in the fall. The starch is more available with a shorter fermentation versus other types of corn silage. We use bags for nearly all of our forages and do use 1-2 silos as
our pad space is limited. Piles are convenient, but for a farm our size, we feel it has more potential for quality issues.
What is your average somatic cell count and how does that affect your production? Our SCC ranges from 85,000-140,000. Keeping udders healthy is critical for maximizing production.
What change has created the biggest improvement in your herd average? Fixing our stray voltage problem in 2017
and clearing out the damaged cows in the ve years after has been huge in quickly increasing our herd average. This is an often-overlooked cause for all types of herd problems. One example of the immediate change we saw in our herd was an 18-pound increase in milk production over the summer months with no increase in dry matter intake. The energy that should have gone into milk production was being used by the cow to stay alive when we had stray voltage. Our RHA had dropped to 25,214 pounds of
milk, with 3.8% butterfat and 3.1% protein in 2017 after a 9-year battle with it. It took nearly ve years to almost completely turnover our herd to nally have a healthy herd. As a result, our current herd is quite young. We look forward to having more high-producing old cows once again and seeing where our production can go.
RUTH KLOSSNER/DAIRY STAR
Cows eat total mixed ra on April 18 at Olmar Farms near Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. Olmar Farms uses tunnel ven laon, sprinklers, an air curtain and sand-bedded stalls in their freestall barn to maximize cow comfort.
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What technology do you use to monitor your herd? We use CowManager and closely observe the herd while we work with them. There is still no replacement for a good eye to nd those off cows. We do not use a shot program for breeding except on hard breeders. Our voluntary waiting period is dependent on the cow. It can range between 60-10 days in milk. It is hard to dry off cows giving over 90 pounds of milk per day.
What is your breeding program, and what role does genetics play in your production level? For over 80 years our breeding goal at Olmar Farms has been to breed every animal to be high type, high production and long living. If you consistently make every bull selection and mating based on those goals, you will attain a consistent herd that meets those goals. We do not chase the current trait of the day. Instead, I focus on selecting bulls that will make the next generation better. I use all of the tools, including genomics. I don’t look for the highest Total Performance Index and Net Merit Dollars. Instead, I look for bulls who will sire daughters that match up to what the paper says. I insist on proven cow families as I have been burned by using the “hottest” bull and ending up with daughters that just don’t meet our standards to be a mother of our next generation. It’s easy to stack high NM$ on top of high NM$ to boost those numbers, especially by using bulls from shorter generation intervals. If a bull mother has been through a base change, her son’s numbers can be a bit lower for us to use because, on paper, she is at a disadvantage. In our experience, carefully chosen bulls from proven cows outperform daughters of much higher bulls born from 1-2 generations of very young, unproven cows. I really like to
see classication scores of Very Good young cows and Excellent old cows in the pedigree. I also look for 2-year-old records over 30,000 pounds with high test in the pedigree. The current bull proof model is known to penalize older genetics even when their daughters prove to be top performers. Most of the bulls we use would fall in the range of 2,800-3,100 TPI.
List three management strategies that have helped you attain your production and component level. There are so many little things that all add up to big things. Forage quality is key to consistent high production. Having an analytical person mix the feed will ensure the cows’ feed is mixed right every time. Cow comfort is important. It may not be feasible to build a new facility, but improved comfort can be attained even in older facilities with some thought. It’s also critical to get the young calves started right. We feed pasteurized whole milk and an accelerated feeding program to get the most growth in the early months of life. We calve at 24 months with well-grown heifers ready to compete in a freestall group with mature cows. We look at herds doing better than us and see what they are doing to meet their goals. Another key thing that has helped us reach our goals is to reach out and ask for help. Sometimes we can get in the way of our own success.
Tell us about your farm and your plans for the dairy in the next year. We are excited to see what this year brings. We will be starting our own creamery where we will make artisan cheese. We hope to have Compass Rose Creamery’s rst cheese ready for debut late summer. We are also looking forward to being the showcase herd at the Minnesota State Fair.
MINNESOTA DAIRY INITIATIVE
RUTH KLOSSNERDAIRY STAR
Jill Nelson moves a calf April 18 at Olmar Farms near Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. Olmar Farms selects bulls for breeding based on high type, high produc on and longevity.
CRISIS IS AT OUR
DOORSTEP
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BOTTOM LINE DAIRY’S
New technologies can save time, boost productivity
As we work to continuously improve our dairy farms, there is a seemingly endless list of technologies and equipment that promise to boost protability, efciency or production. Identifying the right t for an operation isn’t always easy, especially when it involves a nancial investment, as well as time and resources, to learn new systems and processes.
My uncle and father merged their cow herds in 1999. Beginning in 2008 and focusing on improving animal health and labor efciency, we built new barns and facilities, including a heifer barn, calf barn and manure system. We’ve also adopted several technology systems over the years — herd health and activity tracking, as well as a herd-management and feed-management system. While you can’t literally see the investment in these systems as you can with new facilities or equipment, they require as much consideration and can have the same or even greater impact on animals, team members and the bottom line.
there are several perspectives to consider, including protability, animal health, milk production, pregnancy rate, labor efciency, employee morale and more. A balance must often be struck, but if a technology can deliver tangible improvements in two or more areas, that’s a win.
We’ve invested in an activity and herd-health system because of reproduction challenges we have had. Despite trying several protocols and working with veterinarians and consultants, our herd’s pregnancy rate wasn’t where we wanted it, milk production was suffering and cows spent too many days in milk.
Jake Hoewisch Dairy farmer
We try to be on the “leading edge” and not the “bleeding edge” when adopting new technologies. While the specications for each system are different, several principles guide our decision-making process.
New technologies need to check multiple boxes.
Financial impact is only one spoke on the wheel. Depending on the system,
Adopting new technologies was a huge turning point for us. We could see each cow’s data on our phones and desktops and make decisions based on their activity level and other factors. Identifying cows in heat for more effective breeding had ripple effects, too, including reducing costs for hormones, lessening labor for injections and breeding, improving production and reducing expenses from missed cycles.
We’ve always said, “If only cows could talk,” and with these tools, it feels like they are nally able to talk to us, and we can adjust to better meet their needs.
Make sure everything connects and works together.
The rst question to ask about any new system is whether it can work seamlessly with existing nancial and herd
management programs. Even the most advanced software isn’t worth it if it requires double entry or manually updating information.
The data collected should be both valuable and usable.
There is no shortage of information on today’s farms; the value comes in being able to access it and put it to use.
We made the transition to our current feeding software based on a recommendation from our nutritionist. The benets from a time and efciency standpoint were signicant, but even more important was the ability to look back and track feed weights and deliveries.
We can talk about the importance of consistency and feeding exactly to ration specications, but when the ration isn’t followed and the data shows the impact on feed intake and production, that’s a real lightbulb moment. And, because I know our employees have the tools and accountability to feed precisely as outlined, that frees me up from daily feeding chores.
Another example is seeing the effect of moving a cow to the up-close pen 14 days before calving instead of 21 days. When you’re able to compare the production and health data for each animal to her herdmates, it provides a clear picture and enables producers to make herd health and management changes that have a lasting impact.
Don’t limit yourself to the initial use of a technology.
While we typically adopt a technol-
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The Dairy Signal ® Online, noon - 1 p.m. Visit www.pdpw.org to participate in live-streamed event. Audio/video recordings also available free.
ogy for a specic reason, it often has a lot more to offer. To get the full value of a system, spend time exploring the functions and tap into customer service teams and training to unlock new tools and insights. Don’t settle for what you rst learned when you bought it — be open to the updates and new features that come along.
Jake Hoewisch of Waupaca County, Wisconsin, is the fth generation to own and operate Hoewisch Homestead Dairy LLC, with his wife, Jennifer, parents and uncle. They milk 150 registered Holstein A2/A2 cows, with a focus on milk quality and low somatic cell count. In 2018, they diversied with a meat-to-table beef business, H&S Tasty Acres LLC, owned in partnership with another family, and have a custom manure drag line and baling business.
A man with many hats
Novak diversies into dairy
By Dan Wacker dan.w@dairystar.com
HIGHLAND, Wis. — Jeff Novak began the endeavor of starting his own dairy after establishing a portable welding business, a custom chopping enterprise and a meat production business with beef cattle and hogs. Adding these extra hats has made for a balancing act for the husband and father.
“It’s important to be diverse,” Novak said. “I like variety, and I don’t like having all my eggs in one basket.”
Novak and his wife, Kayla, established Whispering Pines Dairy LLC in October 2024 near Highland. The couple milks 31 cows. The Novaks wanted a place for their son, David, to grow up, akin to how they had grown up. Novak attributes his ability to manage his array of enterprises to Kayla.
“I couldn’t do all this without my wife,” Jeff said. “She does a lot of the milking when I’m in the eld. Before we were married, I wouldn’t have thought about the pigs,
or even the dairy.”
Novak grew up on his family dairy farm, a quarter mile away from the farm he and his family own. The son of a third-generation farmer, Novak worked on his family farm throughout his schooling, as well as helping other neighboring farms with eld work. Kayla grew up in upstate New York, working on her family’s beef farm.
Novak’s family farm sold the cows in 2022, before he was ready to start his journey into dairy. Now the couple work side-by-side with their young son, David, sitting on a bucket nearby, supervising.
“I always liked the cows,” Jeff said. “I liked milking, and I wanted to get back to it.”
Novak’s journey in business began in fall 2013, when he went to Southwest Wisconsin Technical College in Fennimore, where he took classes in welding.
A year later, Novak wanted to get back out in the elds. At 21 years old, he bought a John Deere 4040 and a John Deere 459 round baler in spring 2015, and a second small business was born.
“When I got started, I had a customer call because the guy he had hired didn’t show up,” Novak said. “I went out there and got his straw baled and now that customer has been with me ever since.”
Being dependable for his customers is a characteristic Novak hangs his hat on. It has helped him grow his custom business from one client to the double digits he will be working with this year. He has added multiple round balers and a big square baler and can now tackle cutting, raking, merging, baling, chopping and wrapping.
“When I get those calls, I look at it as someone who has a need and needs it to be taken care of, the same way I do when I need someone to help me out,” Novak said. “I always try to put myself in their position and hope to have a satised customer when we’re nished.”
With his custom work gaining traction, the young entrepreneur eventually became a beef and pork producer as he tries to bring the farm one step closer to the customer.
DAN WACKER/DAIRY STAR
Kayla holding David and Jeff Novak stand April 12 on the front porch of their home near Highland, Wisconsin. The Novaks started a dairy in October 2024.
Novak has three sows and raises between 80-100 feeder cattle. He bought his rst farm in 2018 as a place to start raising his feeder cattle, and houses his hogs at a neighbor’s, halfway between his two facilities.
“I love trying new things and experimenting,” Novak said. “We’ve had a good experience so far.”
This is an avenue that he can see continuing in the future, helping provide high-quality, responsibly raised products for families like his, bringing people closer to their food.
“There’s denitely a demand,” Novak said. “The customers who are going to farmer’s markets and trying
to buy more directly, those are the people I’m currently looking for. I want to provide quality products. I raise my animals the old-fashioned way, without growth hormones. I want to sell a quality product, the same product I want my own family to eat.
Now, family has once again inuenced Novak’s business plans.
“When the opportunity came to get (dairy) cows back in this barn, I knew I had to take it,” Novak said. “I wanted a place to raise my family and teach them to work and be committed to something. I think having a dairy farm is a good way to do that.”
DAIRY ST R
Grand Prize Winner will be announced Thursday, May 1 on KASM 1150 AM at 8 a.m.
From farm to squat rack
Van Dyk twins excel in powerlifting
By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
NEW RICHMOND, Wis. — A curiosity to try something new has grown into an activity that twins Lane and Landon Van Dyk believe will follow them throughout their lives. Competing on their high school’s powerlifting team has inspired the boys to work towards a lifetime of increasing their strength.
Lane and Landon live with their parents, Chris and Rikki Van Dyk, on the family’s 65-cow St. Croix County dairy farm near New Richmond. The twins, sophomores at New Richmond High School, recently completed a successful season competing in the 114-pound weight division, built on a foundation of growing up working on the farm.
Powerlifting rst came across Landon’s radar as he listened to a seventh grade teacher, who coaches the school’s powerlifting team, talk about the sport.
“My teacher talked about how accomplished the team was,” Landon said. “I thought it sounded interesting, and I was really looking forward to joining when I got to high school.”
Landon’s entry into the sport was delayed by a hip surgery to correct is-
Lane (le ) and Landon Van Dyk take a break April 12 on their family’s farm near New Richmond, Wisconsin. The boys have enjoyed increasing their strength by par cipa ng in their high school’s powerli ing program.
sues remaining from a previous surgery in 2018. The original surgery had been done to remedy a dislocated hip caused by severe hip dysplasia.
“I wasn’t able to join until the middle of the off-season between my freshman and sophomore years,” Landon said. “When I could start, I was limited to bench press only at rst. It was the end of the off-season before I could start attempting squats or deadlifts. The
coaches are really good about watching and making sure everything is good with my hip while I lift.”
While his brother was sidelined as a freshman, Lane investigated the activity at the pressing of his parents.
“My parents wanted me to try to do something new,” Lane said. “I didn’t really want to until after I spent some time talking to the coaches.”
Powerlifting is a popular sport in New Richmond, with a large program that has seen success. Both boys enjoy the atmosphere of encouragement and camaraderie they have experienced as part of the team.
“I like the social aspect of the team, hanging out with friends and the coaches,” Landon said. “I would have never
thought I would be able to accomplish what I have so far.”
The competitive powerlifting season runs from November through March, but the sport requires year-round training to continue building and growing, Lane said. During the season the team lifts weights four days a week. During the off-season, Saturday practices are eliminated.
“During the off-season we do the same things, except we typically lift lighter, with more reps, to keep our strength without risking injuries,” Landon said. “It’s whatever the coaches decide for the day. It’s not a lot different, except there aren’t as many people lifting. If you do another sport, the coaches tell you to focus on that sport.”
Lane agreed.
“The coaches have us lift a percentage of our max during the season,” Lane said. “When we lift heavier, we do fewer reps, only two or three; lifting lighter we do six or seven.”
Both boys appreciate how their coaches challenge them to continually improve.
“Before our last regional meet, I was trying out for a 285-pound deadlift opener,” Lane said. “The coach told me that looked too easy. At that time, my max was 310 pounds. He told me to walk away, he put a mysterious weight on, I thought it was maybe 295 pounds. When I lifted, it was 305 pounds, just ve pounds below my max. At the meet I attempted 310 and 325 pounds.”
When lifting for a meet, Landon said the goal is to lift as heavy as possible, with the goal of setting a new per-
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
What a time to be in Rome
On the Thursday before Easter, I was in Rome. Our group was organized by the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin. Our group consisted of dairy farmer couples from the states of Colorado, Texas, Indiana, New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
On Thursday we spent over two hours in the morning wandering through the Roman Colosseum ruins. The structure was built before Christ was born and was used for entertainment of the Roman politicians and emperors. The lowest level in the center in the colosseum housed various animals from giraffes to lions to dogs to elephants to horses. There also were prisoners housed in that area who became gladiators. There was even an elevator in the area to lift the animals up to the oor of the arena. Some animals were coerced to ght against each other, such as a lion against elephants. Gladiators fought to death against other gladiators.
By Jim Mlsna
today — Roman numerals of course. The best seats were close to the arena and reserved for the emperor and the politicians. The worst seats were for the poorest people — up very high with poor visibility. The structure held 60,000 to 80,000 people. At one time all the stone surfaces were covered with marble, but during the medieval times that marble was stolen to build other projects. Water owed into the structure up to the third story. The Romans had built an aqueduct system that brought water from the mountains of northern Italy to Rome. Part of the aqueduct system exists today.
the city of Rome. It was formed in the late 1920s. Before that time, many city states were under control of the Vatican throughout Italy. Vatican City is the smallest country in the world consisting of approximately 121 acres yet it probably has the largest and most expensive collection of art statues and tapestries in the world. It is guarded by Swiss guards whose uniforms were designed by Michelangelo, an artist from the 1500s. An average of 4 million people visit the Vatican each year. Every 25 years the Vatican celebrates a Jubilee, which is happening this year. Many more visitors come in the Jubilee year.
the chapel because the ashes cause damage to the frescoes. The Sistine Chapel has positive air ventilation and the humidity is strictly controlled.
Saint Peter’s Basilica is one of the largest churches in the world. It was started in 1506 and has a capacity of 20,000 seated or 60,000 standing. The dome is 448 feet tall and is supported by four huge columns. It was designed by Michelangelo when he was in his seventies. Visitors are able to climb to the top of the dome and observe the entire city of Rome while standing on the very top of the dome.
The colosseum structure itself is a marvel. It stands over four stories tall — each story about 20 feet high — with seats on the lower area for the emperor and the politicians. The stalls in the lower level were covered with a wood oor. There were 76 arches for entrance into the colosseum with each having a number carved into the stones above it that are still visible
About 15 members of our group left the Colosseum to tour Vatican City and Saint Peter’s Basilica. We were able to get some pizza and gelato at small shops on the way. Almost all major historical sites and churches in Italy require a ticket which must be purchased in advance if you want to see inside of a church or a tourist attraction. Ticket rates vary from $25-$800, so if you travel, be sure to check those tickets out in advance. We met our tour guide in an alley about four blocks from the Vatican. He led us past thousands of visitors who were in line waiting for tickets. Once inside we were given headsets so we could hear our guide describe our walk through the museums.
The Vatican is a city state within
SUPER SPECIALS
Many of the statues in the museum were created in early Rome, well before the birth of Christ. I’m not very interested in statues, but the fact that an artist with a hammer and a chisel can create a symbol of a human is beyond my imagination. Some tapestries on the walls were about 20 feet high and 75 feet long and depicted historical scenes. Many were sewn by teenage children and took 7-9 years to complete. Who has that kind of patience today? Even the oors had mosaic artistry in them then.
Then there was the Sistine Chapel with paintings on all the walls and the ceiling. It took Michelangelo eight years to paint the ceiling; all the time laying on his back working 15 hours a day. There are many stories created in the paintings from the origin of man to judgement day. It’s amazing how brilliant the colors are still today, hundreds of years after the paintings were created. Photos are not permitted in
Saint Peter’s Basilica is believed to house the tomb of Saint Peter under the main altar. He was martyred by the emperor Nero because a re had destroyed a large part of Rome. Nero had started the re, but blamed it on Christians and many were consequently martyred. Many of the scenes and paintings in the Basilica seem to have gold or bronze within them. There are stories belonging to each one. Many Popes lived during the construction of the Basilica; each one had ideas and often the engineers changed and then the designs changed with them.
As I nish this writing, Pope Francis died at 1:30 a.m. our time. It is iconic that we walked precisely under the balcony where he gave his Easter Blessing. We took pictures looking from the Basilica where 120,000 people attended the Easter Service. History has a way of making history.
sonal record. The morning of each meet starts with a weigh-in, a challenge for Landon, who is close to moving up a weight class.
“I have trouble making weight,” Landon said. “A week before the meet I cut out bread, no carbs and I eat a lot of celery. One of the meets, I had to lift at 123 pounds because I couldn’t get under the limit for 114.”
Competing in the meets, each lifter has three attempts each for bench press, deadlift and squat. The highest weight of each is combined for a nal weight, used to determine placings. In the event of a tie, the tie-breaker goes to the lifter who is the lightest.
“You have to keep the lift under control at all times,” Landon said. “You have to be able to lock in, hold it until the ref calls it and then maintain control when you bring it down.”
Lane said the opening lift is generally something the athlete knows they can hit, but is still challenging.
“The second attempt, the coach usually puts right below your max,” Lane said. “If you hit that, they’ll go just over your max, so that will be a new personal record if you hit it. If you fail a lift, they keep you at that weight to try again.”
Lane topped his weight class in three regional meets — held at New Richmond, Osceola and Elk Mound — before going on to place fourth at the
state competition and third at the national competition, both held in Appleton. He lifted a combined total of 645 pounds at the national meet.
“At the beginning of my freshman year I was lifting roughly 315 pounds total,” Lane said. “The beginning of this year I was lifting at 580 pounds. The off-season goals I’m working on are a 160-pound bench, a 225-pound squat and a 355-pound deadlift. If I can hit a 355-pound deadlift at 114 pounds next year, that would be a state record.”
Landon placed third at two regional meets at 114 pounds and placed second at another competing at 123 pounds. He placed 11th at the state meet and sixth in the national meet. He plans to move up to 123 pounds next season, working towards his off-season goals of a 160-pound bench press, a 220-pound squat and a 320-pound deadlift.
With a 27% improvement from the beginning of the season through the end, Landon was named the team’s most improved male lifter.
Both boys agree that lifting has become an integral part of their lives.
“It helps to nd someone who has been in the sport a similar length of time and is a similar weight to compete with in practice,” Landon said. “People do their best when they have friendly competition to push them to keep working harder.”
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Lane Van Dyk locks in a deadli March 7 at the Wisconsin High School Powerliing Associa on state meet in Appleton, Wisconsin. He placed fourth.
Devoted to caprines
4-H meeting starts Shisler family on journey of dairy goats
By Dan Wacker dan.w@dairystar.com
HOLMEN, Wis. — After Alyssa Shisler’s dad encouraged her to attend a 4-H meeting in 2017, something sparked inside Alyssa and she wanted to start working with dairy goats.
That meeting led Alyssa on a journey to earn the 2023 Wisconsin State Fair Premier Dairy Goat Exhibitor award and be named the Wisconsin Dairy Goat Association’s youth representative in 2023 and 2024. Recently, she earned the American Dairy Goat Association’s national youth representative alternate honor.
“When I started, I didn’t know what I wanted,” Alyssa said. “I just wanted to pet goats and the family I was working with saw something in me. … I would not have ever thought I’d be at the national level of anything, much less state or local competition.”
In her role with the ADGA, Alyssa acts as the youth representative at the national convention and national show. She will help lead other youth who are beginning their venture
with the association and will present the pottery and medals for the winning goats at the national show.
She and the national representative from California have quarterly papers and will have similar responsibilities at the upcoming national show.
“It was a cool competition because all the competitors were so supportive of each other,” Alyssa said. “It was nerve-racking because you didn’t know who was observing your actions until you got into the in-person interview on the last day.”
Along with a representative position, Alyssa has also cultivated relationships across the country.
Alyssa got her start in dairy goats with the Nerby family who she met through 4-H.
“I instantly fell in love with their Nubians,” Alyssa said, “I got their number right away to potentially buy goats and I told her I needed to talk to my parents.”
In lieu of buying goats right away, Alyssa’s dad, Rick, and his wife, Robyn, agreed to let Alyssa work on the goat dairy two days a week, which eventually turned into Alyssa
going to the farm every day.
When it was kidding season, the family asked Alyssa if she would like some goats of her own. Alyssa and her family bought two and the Shislers began to create their own dairy goat herd.
Rick and Robyn decided to ditch plans to build their dream home, and instead the Shislers
built a dream home for their family of goats to further support Alyssa, and her sister, Alexa, who had also taken an interest in dairy goats. The dream home for the Shisler family has turned into a family enterprise with 54 goats and the experience of working side-by-side as a team.
“Everything in our barn we
put up ourselves,” Robyn said. “In July of 2020, it was the four of us and my dad. Every screw, nail and board that was installed went up with our own hands. We even dug the 100foot trench to get power and water run out to the barn.”
DAN WACKER/DAIRY STAR
The Shisler family – Alyssa (from le ), Robyn, Rick and Alexa – stands in their goat barn March 30 near Holmen, Wisconsin. Alyssa rst got involved with dairy goats a er a 4-H mee ng and the family now owns 54 goats.
For Rick and Robyn, having a dairy goat farm was not on their agenda, but a life in agriculture was something they appreciated, and they value the hard work and dedication it takes to make it work.
“I was a country boy at heart,” Rick said. “Anytime we had a day off from school or on the weekends, I was calling up my aunt and uncle to come up to the farm. Having a place where we can help teach hard work and dedication, that’s what we wanted to do.”
It has been a learning experience for all involved. Although Rick spent time on his aunt and uncle’s farm, goats were not part of the equation. The original Shisler farm had dairy cattle when Rick was younger, and now houses beef, pigs and horses.
Alyssa’s passion for goats and her involvement with the ADGA have helped her learn from people all over the country, as well as the family that helped her get started.
“When I was announced as national alternate, Kim Nerby (who helped me get started) was the rst one to run up to me and give me a hug,” Alyssa said. “She was so happy for me.”
What started as two Nubian goats from the Nerbys, now has Alyssa working with other breeds as the Shislers continue to expand their dairy goat herd, adding Saanens to their herd two years ago. Alyssa wanted to add them for their milk production and mellow
personalities.
“We feed all our milk to the babies to get them growing, and now we don’t have to buy store milk,” Alyssa said.
“When I saw the Saanens, I knew I wanted to add them to our herd.”
Family support and support from others in the dairy
goat community have continued to support Alyssa’s passion, as well as helping her maintain a leadership role within the organization.
“My support system has helped me so much,” Alyssa said. “When I told my family I wanted to get into this, they picked up and supported me
DAN WACKER/DAIRY STAR
Alyssa Shisler kneels next to a member of the herd March 30 near Holmen, Wisconsin. Recently, Shisler earned the American Dairy Goat Associa on’s na onal youth representave alternate honor.
and helped me in countless ways. They support me but denitely teach me that if I’m going to do it, I’m going to put my own money, time and effort into it.”
That message is something Alyssa’s parents have attempted to instill in their girls. Alexa is working with goats of
ROOTED IN THE HEART OF OUR AGRICULTURAL
her own, hoping to continue in Alyssa’s footsteps.
Joining a 4-H meeting eight years ago has transpired into relationships and experiences Alyssa never imagined she would have as goats have led the Shisler family to building a barn, a herd and their family connection.
Working toward champion show heifers
For many youth and adults alike, spring and summer mean an occasional break from the daily routine to head to cattle shows and exhibit their best animals. It takes a well-grown, well-balanced heifer with a deep, open rib to stand near the top at most heifer shows. While pedigrees and genetics matter, most heifers aren’t just born to be champions — they are developed through months of hard work.
While this column is specic to raising and feeding show animals, some principles apply to all heifers.
Success starts at birth
Sound management practices need to be implemented on day one to allow the animal to achieve its genetic potential. Maternity pens need to be clean and dry. One gallon of high-quality colostrum should be given as soon as possible after birth. Navels should be dipped in 7% tincture iodine.
Continue development after weaning
Something to Ruminate On
The goal in the post-weaning period is to continue building bone and lean muscle mass. Some equate this to training a well-conditioned athlete. Grain needs should be monitored based on body condition and individual heifer metabolism. To meet amino acid requirements, top dress with high-quality protein sources, which can include soybean meal, canola meal, blood meal and/or a variety of bypass soybeanbased products. Provide clean, accessible water continuously.
By Barry Visser Nutritionist
Accelerated milk or milk replacer programs work well to maximize growth during the rst few months of age. Offer a high-quality starter free choice until 3 months of age. No hay is typically fed during this starter period as it will impede starter intake and rumen development. The volatile fatty acids produced from consuming calf starter are essential to rumen papillae development for maximum growth and performance. Clean, fresh water should be offered within a few days of age to maximize starter digestion and intake.
In most cases, little or no silage will be fed to show heifers as it can limit rib development. Lots of hay is the key to the expression of the show heifer’s deep, open rib. The type of hay is as important as the ingredients in the grain mix. Hay must be clean and free of mold. Grass hay typically works best, although some mixtures with alfalfa may benet younger heifers. Keep in mind, high-quality grass can be highly digestible and increase body condition.
Feeding straw as a primary forage source can work for weight loss situations. It is very important to ensure proper mineral and vitamin fortication during this period. The best solution is to prevent the animal from getting too heavy by monitoring body condition, carbohydrate intakes and forage quality.
Management considerations
Keep all heifers clean and dry. Proper ventilation is critical throughout all stages of life. Fans to move air can yield better hair quality but be mindful
of drafts on younger animals. Keep pen group sizes small with less competition. Keeping heifers of similar age together will also help.
Throughout the life of the calf and heifer, separating stress events — such as pen moves, weaning, vaccinations and dehorning — will prevent setbacks in performance. Work with your veterinarian to develop a sound vaccination program for benets at home as well as potential exposures at shows.
Exercise is critical for yearling heifers to develop lean muscle. It is also important for blood ow, supplying nutrients to cells. Grass pastures are typically not ideal. If this is your only option, it is important to keep grass mowed short and limit the amount of time a heifer can eat grass each day. Dirt lots offer an ideal exercise area with little chance of gaining weight from grass intake.
It is time to get started
It’s not too late to pick out show heifers and start developing them to their genetic potential. Clip the long winter hair coats as the weather warms. For many, this has already happened as we’ve seen a few days above 70 degrees. In season, keep body hair short and work with topline hair often. Wash heifers frequently to improve hair quality and increase the animal’s comfort level. Soap should only be used a couple of times per week, and make sure it is completely rinsed out each time.
Great show heifers require sound management and a keen eye to customize the best feeding strategy for each heifer. While this will take some time and effort, it may result in a purple ribbon hanging above that heifer.
Barry Visser is a nutritionist for Vita Plus.
Putting family farms rst
Reisinger shares thoughts on rural U.S. at Ag Day
By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
MADISON, Wis. — Brian Reisinger is concerned about the decline of family farms on the U.S. landscape each year.
“A lot of people in this country have forgotten about the impact that our farmers have,” Reisinger said. “We all know no farms, no food. I talk to people who might know something about farming, who maybe grew up on a farm or in a rural community, and I also talk to people who believe their food comes from a store.”
Reisinger wrote about the answers and solutions he found to declining farm numbers in his book “Land Rich, Cash Poor.” Reisinger shared his ideas during the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation’s Ag Day at the Capitol program March 26 in Madison.
“We dove into 100 years of farm history,” Reisinger said. “(We) condensed it down to nd the hidden eras of history making our farms disappear. Then we wove those issues with our family’s own story.”
Reisinger said he has found his passion in helping people understand what is happening in America’s rural communities and how that impacts everyone.
“(My dad) told me to remember to thank the farmers,” Reisinger said. “Nobody’s really thinking of the farmers anymore, in terms of putting our family farms rst in this country — family farms of all types and sizes.”
Throughout his research, Reisinger pinpointed three areas where he believes the U.S. has failed its farm families.
First on his list are the economic crises that have occurred throughout the past 100 years — the Great Depression, the farm crisis of the 1980s, the recessions of the 2000s up through the coronavirus pandemic.
Second, Reisinger cites government policy making as one of the issues.
“There is a lot of good policy making that is done here in Wisconsin by people who understand agriculture, but there are also challenges,” Reisinger said. “Throughout our country’s history, both parties have made a wide range of policy mistakes.”
Reisinger said the 1980s farm crisis era was the result of a myriad of conicting policies.
“We had government gures on both sides of the aisle that were really pushing farms to get bigger or get out,” Reisinger said. “They were pushing debt to do that. In a few years, they made that debt more expensive by increasing interest rates to try and control ination. You can argue for or against each of those decisions, but when you do one right after the other, tens of thousands of farms were wiped out.”
Technology is a third area of cause Reisinger said.
“Technology is a huge part of our advancements in agriculture, but a lot of that technology
doesn’t work for all of our farms,” he said. “A lot of the technology is leaving many of our farms behind.”
Reisinger said the good news is that there are solutions to solve the issues. These solutions capitalize on the resil-
DANIELLE NAUMAN/DAIRY STAR
Brian Reisinger shares thoughts from his book “Land Rich, Cash Poor” March 26 at the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federa on’s Ag Day at the Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. Reisinger researched 100 years of farm-related issues, intertwining them with stories of his family’s southwest Wisconsin farm.
Page 36 • Dairy Star • Saturday, April 26, 2025
Con nued from REISINGER | Page 35 ience of American farm families, despite the impacts of economic crises, governmental policy and technology persisting.
Reisinger said throughout the last 100 years, on average, 45,000 farms have been lost each year, with 70% of all farms lost since the 1920s.
“That has had so much impact,” Reisinger said. “It obviously affects our rural communities, the farmers still holding on. It affects our schools, even the people who have never set foot in a barn. It affects our food supply.”
Creating entrepreneurial opportunities and developing new markets through research and product development will help stabilize the position of the American family farm, Reisinger said.
In his travels, Reisinger spends time reaching out to consumers, sharing the story of the American farmer.
“I’m trying to debunk issues, helping people understand that the increasing prices they see in the grocery store don’t mean the farmer is doing any better,” Reisinger said. “We don’t have as many farms as we should to supply our food. There are fewer businesses that get our food from the farm gate to the table; those industries are more concentrated.”
Reisinger said putting American family farms rst is the key to solving many of the issues that plague society, from affordable food to the environment.
“Almost every decisive issue in this country, farmers can help,” Reisinger said. “There are more people in this room, doing things to help the environment than anybody could imagine. There are lots of problems that could be solved if people engaged farmers in creating the solutions.”
“I’m trying to debunk issues, helping people understand that the increasing prices they see in the grocery store don’t mean the farmer is doing any better. We don’t have as many farms as we should to supply our food. There are fewer businesses that get our food from the farm gate to the table; those industries are more concentrated.”
BRIAN REISINGER
While solutions exist, Reisinger said implementing them is daunting.
“Everyone has to jump in the water at the same time, not only the family farms, but the consumers and even the people who have it out for American agriculture,” Reisinger said. “We have to get everyone rowing in the same direction.”
Reisinger said he nds hope in the two million farms that still exist in America, 96% of which are family owned.
“Even though we’ve made farming not work in this country for so long, for so many years, those family farms still remain,” Reising said. “Just imagine what family farms could do if we could just make it work for them again?”
USDA expediting $10 billion in direct assistance
By Steve Frericks | Stearns County FSA executive director
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is issuing up to $10 billion directly to agricultural producers through the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program for the 2024 crop year. Administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency, ECAP will help agricultural producers mitigate the impacts of increased input costs and falling commodity prices. Authorized by the American Relief Act 2025, these economic relief payments are based on planted and prevented planted crop acres for eligible commodities for the 2024 crop year. To streamline and simplify the delivery of ECAP, FSA will begin sending prelled applications to producers who submitted acreage reports to FSA for 2024 eligible ECAP commodities soon after the signup period opens March 19, 2025. Producers do not have to wait for their pre-lled ECAP application to apply. They can visit fsa.usda.gov/ ecap to apply using a login.gov account or contact their local FSA ofce to request an application once the signup period opens.
Eligible commodities and payment rates
The commodities
Wheat - $30.69
Corn - $42.91
Sorghum - $42.52
Barley - $21.67
Oats - $77.66
Eligible oilseeds:
Canola - $31.83
Crambe - $19.08
Flax - $20.97
Mustard - $11.36
Upland cotton & Extra-long Rapeseed - $23.63 staple cotton - $84.74
Long & medium grain rice - $76.94 Safower - $26.32
Peanuts - $75.51
Sesame - $16.83
Soybeans - $29.76 Sunower - $27.23
Dry peas - $16.02
Lentils - $19.30
Small Chickpeas - $31.45
Large Chickpeas - $24.02
reported 2024 crop year acreage or led a notice of loss for prevented planted crops must submit an acreage report by the Aug. 15, 2025, deadline. Eligible producers can visit fsa. usda.gov/ecap for eligibility and payment details.
Applying for ECAP
Producers must submit ECAP applications to their local FSA county ofce by Aug. 15, 2025. Only one application is required for all ECAP eligible commodities nationwide. ECAP applications can be submitted to FSA in person, electronically using Box and One-Span, by fax or by applying online at fsa.usda.gov/ecap utilizing a secure login. gov account.
If not already on le for the 2024 crop year, producers must have the following forms on le with FSA:
• Form AD-2047, Customer Data Worksheet.
• Form CCC-901, Member Information for Legal Entities (if applicable).
• Form CCC-902, Farm Operating Plan for an individual or legal entity.
• Form CCC 943, 75% of Average Gross Income from Farming, Ranching, or Forestry Certication (if applicable).
• AD-1026, Highly Erodible Land Conservation and Wetland Conservation Certication.
• SF-3881, Direct Deposit.
Except for the new CCC-943, most producers, especially those who have previously participated in FSA programs, likely have these forms on le. However, those who are uncertain and want to conrm the status of their forms or need to submit the new CCC943, can contact their local FSA county ofce.
If a producer does not receive a pre-lled ECAP application, and they planted or were prevented from planting ECAP-eligible commodities in 2024, they should contact their local FSA ofce.
ECAP payments and calculator
ECAP payments will be issued as applications are approved. Initial ECAP payments will be factored by 85% to ensure that total program payments do not exceed available funding. If additional funds remain, FSA may issue a second payment.
ECAP assistance will be calculated using a at payment rate for the eligible commodity multiplied by the eligible reported acres. Payments are based on acreage and not production. For acres reported as prevented plant, ECAP assistance will be calculated at 50%.
For ECAP payment estimates, producers are encouraged to visit fsa.usda.gov/ecap to use the ECAP online calculator.
Farm Service Agency is an equal opportunity lender. Complaints about discrimination should be sent to: Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., 20250. Visit www.fsa. usda.gov for application forms and updates on USDA programs
Where did time go?
and greasy spoons. It was also great companionship over all those miles. I always felt safe traveling in a convoy, the lingering effects of “Smokey and the Bandit.”
Just Thinking Out Loud
I slipped down home to Illinois before the Easter/spring planting rush to host a dual bridal shower for my two nieces. As I was counting up the number of trips I’ll be making this year for showers, weddings and a class reunion, I realized it was payback for not making any trips home in 2024. It just seems harder to slip away from our dairy farm now that I’m taking care of all the calves and I’m an emergency relief milker. When Mark and I were milking together and much younger, my absence didn’t make a dent in the chores, so I could leave with very little guilt. That guiltless feeling didn’t last long into the 900-plus-mile round trip with four children under the age of 8. It feels like yesterday. Where did the time go?
By Natalie Schmitt Columnist
What has really gotten me to looking back over the years are all the major milestones we seem to be hitting. Last year, Mark planted his 51st corn crop. He was only 14 when he hooked up his dad’s four-row-wide planter to the John Deere 530 narrow front tractor with no cab. That spring, more than corn seeds were planted. A desire to farm was reinforced every day as the crops grew. Mark was hooked. He knew he wanted to farm, but he now knew he could farm.
The drive to have the next generation farm spurred Mark’s dad to build a new tiestall dairy barn to keep the boys interested. When I rst started coming around to the farm, it was always called the “new” dairy barn, even though it was 15 years old. Next year, the “new” barn will be 55 years old, but it still seems like it was just built a few years ago.
When someone starts talking about the ‘70s, it feels like it was 15–20 years ago, not 50. Even the 1990s are 30 years ago, a fact I’m reminded of every year as our children enter their third decade. Does that mean I’m getting older too, or are we just getting closer to the same age?
As I was driving back home from the bridal shower weekend, I was struck by the date, April 14. I was making this same northbound trip a few years earlier.
Sherry Newell had just hired me to join her farm broadcasting team in St. Cloud, Minnesota. I packed everything I owned (which wasn’t much) into my ‘77 T-bird and started zigzagging from the corner of southeast Iowa to catch I-35 north to Minnesota. That was 40 years ago. Where did the time go?
My route has never changed, but the roads and surrounding view sure have. My rst trip north took 10 hours driving through every small Iowa town on 2-lane roads until I could open it up on the interstate. The speed limit there was 60 (a remnant of the gas shortage crisis). I talked on my citizen band radio with truckers on tips for sneaky bears
Over the years, I have been able to reduce the trip to eight hours. Google says I could do it in seven, but my bladder has changed over time and says otherwise. The new speed limit of 70 mph has helped, but I was driving over the limit back then, so that may just be a wash. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Sam Walton of Walmart was negotiating the Highway of Saints between St. Louis, Missouri, and St. Paul, Minnesota, to facilitate his new distribution center in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, the point of my route where I shift from heading west to north. He wanted 4-lane highways between the two cities to help move his products.
Today, there are only 10 miles of 2-lane roads on my 483-mile trip: ve from our farm in Rice and ve to my farm in Stronghurst. When I dreaded driving through all those small towns, I didn’t realize what a great treat they were in breaking up my long travels. On a 4-lane highway, you just drive with very little to see; thank goodness for cruise control. However, the way things are changing, I may be able to sleep at the wheel and still arrive safely with articial intelligence smart cars.
Probably the biggest change has been around the Twin Cities on I-494. When I rst drove up here, I felt like I was in the wilderness. Where was the city, let alone the Twin Cities? There were swampy areas, tamarack trees and no buildings lining the interstate. Today, that area seems to have been swallowed up by the metropolitan area. The only sign of green grass is the manicured corporate campuses. Everything else has been covered with concrete and asphalt. There is no longer a sense of northern wilderness. It seems like these buildings have always been here. Where did the time go?
Now, Austin is starting to take on the spring planting job at our farm. He has been busy nding new equipment to t his production goals. Mark eventually grew to a 6-row planter and a tractor with a cab. His biggest leap was to liquid fertilizer instead of using a bushel basket to manually ll the fertilizer boxes. He literally moved every ton of fertilizer from a gravity box to his planter. Austin has expanded to a 12-row planter and a front-wheel assist tractor with a cab to drive through the elds. We’re just waiting for a couple of warm spring rains to set the stage for a great growing season to come.
As their four children pursue dairy careers off the family farm, Natalie and Mark Schmitt started an adventure of milking registered Holsteins just because they like good cows on their farm north of Rice, Minnesota.
Chicken and egg lessons
For being a dairy farm family, we sure do talk about chickens and eggs a lot.
Last summer, Monika and Daphne started an egg business partnership. Daphne tends the hens and collects the eggs. Monika packages and markets the eggs. They started with orders from teachers and staff at their schools. Then, during the summer, they brought their eggs to the farmers’ market in town.
Their enterprise was super helpful during our spring and summer ush of eggs. And, it’s proving to be crucial again this spring.
We have even more eggs this spring than we did last year. Partly because we added another group of 4-H project hens to our ock and partly because of our hens’ new palace.
First, don’t do the math. Just like it’s never a good idea for dairy farmers to calculate how much they get paid per hour, it’s not a good idea for small-ock chicken farmers to calculate their prot per carton. Monika keeps a detailed spreadsheet of egg orders and income, but I can almost guarantee that our expenses and the value of our time exceed the four dollars the girls collect for each dozen sold.
This past winter, our egg harvest dropped off precipitously. The weather uctuations surely had an impact, but I also quit climbing into the big square bales in the shed to collect from the hens’ self-appointed nests. Most of the hens were still laying – we just weren’t nding the eggs before they froze.
By Sadie Frericks Columnist Dairy Good Life
We got by for awhile by using the frozen eggs I had stashed in the freezer two summers ago. Frozen eggs denitely look a little odd once thawed, but they worked perfectly for our weekly pans of egg bake. We also discovered this winter that ground beef seasoned with sage, garlic, salt and pepper tastes just like ground pork when added to egg bake. We used up our supply of ground pork and have a freezer full of ground beef, so that’s what prompted us to give it a try.
The day Monika reported that there was only one package of frozen eggs left in the freezer, I picked up a dozen eggs at the store. That was a tough pill to swallow. Paying $6 for a dozen eggs when you have dozens of laying hens at home felt ridiculous.
The next day we decided it was time to remedy our situation and a plan quickly formed. Using some building materials we had on hand, Glen and the kids turned the straw bay in our heifer shed into a enclosed coop. With protection from the wind, a heat lamp and a set of nesting boxes, our hens now had cozy quarters and a dedicated place to lay their eggs.
We moved most of our hens into their new palace. Within two days, we were collecting more eggs than we could eat. Within a week, the girls were marketing eggs again.
Some of our wilier hens retained their free range status. Interestingly, though, shortly after the ock was split, we started nding more eggs in the nest boxes used by the free range hens. I now suspect that our box-to-hen ratio was the reason so many hens made nests in the bales instead of laying in the nest boxes. Lesson learned.
We’ve learned a few other chicken and egg lessons, as well.
Second, don’t count your chickens before they hatch. I know this is the most overused cliché ever, but it was especially true when it came to nding baby chicks for this year’s 4-H project. Avian inuenza took a serious toll on the baby chick supply chain. The hatchery we’ve been doing business with for years had limited availability — and in some cases zero availability — for hybrid egg layer chicks. We found another hatchery and placed an order, but delivery was pushed back due to supply issues. So we placed an order at our original hatchery, but on the day Daphne should have received the chicks, no package arrived – with zero communication from the hatchery. On one hand I felt bad for the folks at the hatchery, because they clearly were having issues, but on the other hand I absolutely couldn’t believe that their lack of customer service was reality. Long story short, Daphne was nally able to get both white and brown egg layers from the new hatchery. They’ll be adding eggs to our supply in another month or so.
Third, do keep laying hens for the joy of it. Chickens are delightful. We all enjoy their antics — from the way they chase after each other when one nds a tasty morsel to the way they burrow into the shavings to dust bathe. And picking eggs is like having an Easter egg hunt every day — even when we’re only picking from the nest boxes. Thanks to the multi-breed hybrids added to our ock each year by broody hens, we now have a beautiful variety of shell colors. Sorting eggs into cartons feels like creating art.
Fourth, do nd lots of ways to enjoy eggs. As mentioned above, we really like egg bake and have been switching it up with variations like supreme and meat lovers. Most mornings, I pretend I’m a short-order cook in an egg restaurant. Dan likes simple omelets — just three eggs whisked with a pinch of salt, cooked in a covered pan, and then folded over co-jack cheese. Monika likes fried eggs stacked with a slice of Havarti cheese. Daphne likes omelets, too, but with bacon crumbles added. (The same as Glen.) But lately, the girls have been asking for scrambled eggs, so I’ve perfected small-batch scrambled eggs. I still prefer eating eggs for lunch — fried and made into an eggwich with sauteéd spinach, Havarti cheese, and black garlic.
