John Oncken: Clark County is heart of Wisconsin dairy land (with photos)

John F. Oncken  —  7/10/2008 9:49 pm

Chances are most folks living in southern Wisconsin view Clark County as being "way up north," somewhere near Hayward or maybe Cable and being part of the state's big lakes and forest area.

They'd be wrong.

Clark County is located right in the middle of Wisconsin. Pittsville, in adjoining Wood County, is considered the geographical center of the state. Yes, there is lots of forest and recreation land in Clark County but first and foremost, it's the biggest dairy county in Wisconsin with more than 1,000 dairy farms and 62,000 cows.

A small group of bicyclists called Wright Riders toured parts of Clark County on their annual tour in late June. As a member of the group, and former county agricultural agent in Clark County, I arranged this year's tour to see some of that dairy industry. The five days of cycling included more tour than high mileage.

After three days of visiting the growing Mennonite farming area extending over several townships near Thorp and Withee, a visit to one of Wisconsin's newest and most publicized cheese factories was next on the schedule.

Brothers Sander and Rolf Penterman and Rolf''s wife, Marieke, decided they had no future as dairy farmers in the Netherlands although they had been raised on dairy farms. High land prices ($30,000 per acre) and milk quota costs ($25,000 per cow) made it impossible to buy land in their home country. So they began looking for a farm in the U.S. or Canada.

Sander Penterman, who worked for three years at the well-known Jon-De Farm at Baldwin, was for three years the subject of a major sales effort by Dean Doornink, one of the owners of the 1,700 cow dairy, to convince him that Wisconsin was the only place to build a dairy herd.

Sander, Rolf and Marieke took that advice, found a modern dairy near Thorp and began milking 350 cows in May 2002. The herd has since expanded to 650 milk cows, milked three times a day on the 350-acre dairy.

Early on, the Pentermans began thinking of adding value to their milk and Marieka especially missed the cheeses she had known in Holland.

Marieke, a farm wife with lots of ambition, began the process of learning about making cheese and becoming a cheesemaker. She contacted the Wisconsin Dairy Business Innovation Center, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to growing specialty and artisan dairy businesses, for technical and marketing assistance and began the process of becoming a licensed cheesemaker.

A cheese factory was built that is connected by an underground pipeline to the milking parlor, and in November 2006 they made their first vat of Gouda cheese.

Just a few months later, Marieke's Gouda was judged "Best of Class" at the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest, and in 2008 received a second place at the World Championship Cheese Contest.

That's a lot of success in a very short time, especially for a family milking so many cows and raising four children under the age of five. Marieke credits Dan Carter, Norm Monsen and Andrea Neu and others at the innovation center for helping her put Holland's Family Cheese together and developing the business. For information and cheese, call (715) 669-5230 or go to hollandsfamilycheese.com.

The next stop on the 2008 bicycle tour was at Meyer Manufacturing in Dorchester (population 842) in the northeast corner of Clark County. This was a most logical stop as this family owned company makes and markets forage and manure equipment for the dairy and livestock industry.

Like so many farm equipment companies, Meyer Manufacturing was started by one man -- Alvin Meyer -- a farm boy who worked for a local auto dealer. He began repairing farm equipment, which led to the founding of Meyer Manufacturing in 1944.

In 1951, Meyer patented what is believed to be the first ever self-unloading forage box, a system that has prevailed in the industry ever since.

The firm employs about 135 workers today, many of whom commute from 20 to 40 miles away.

Meyer's children, Larry, Don and Judy, joined the company in the 1960s and Larry's son Troy and Don's son Chad are the third generation at the company. Many building additions have been made to the plant over the years with another in the making.

"As our forage boxes and manure spreaders get bigger our space needs get bigger," Don Meyer says. " And those are our leading products."

From that humble start in a small shed in 1944, Meyer Manufacturing has grown to be a supplier of farm equipment to farmers in the U.S. and worldwide.

Our final tour day included a visit to Grassland Dairy Products, located in the center of Clark County amidst the rich farm fields between Greenwood and Loyal.

Company President Dallas Wuethrich and his sons Tayt and Trevor are the third and fourth generation to operate this family owned creamery.

It all began with the emigration of John S. Wuethrich from Switzerland to Mayville to make butter. In 1902 he moved to Greenwood and in 1904 began the John Wuethrich Creamery Co. Soon after he began raising registered Holstein cows under the name of Distinction Farms.

His sons, John D. and Allen, were born in the early 1900s and later moved into managing the growing creamery.

John D. considered his dairy herd of great importance and led it to a top position among the nation's Holstein herds. His sons, Dallas and Devere, and daughters, Diane and Dawn, were well-known in the show ring at the county and state fairs.

In the early 1970s John D. had thoughts of selling the butter business, but after Dallas expressed a determination to join the company he reconsidered and the father-son team assumed full ownership of what is now known as Grassland Dairy Products.

Today, the company is recognized as the largest independently owned butter processing operation in the nation. In addition to making a wide variety of butters for countless stores and food service companies across the nation, the company manufactures dried milk and buttermilk, milk protein concentrate and butter oil for the world market.

Several years ago, Grassland Dairy Products acquired plants in Nebraska and Utah. More than 300 employees work in the three operations.

Beginning in August, the company will begin making cheese in the former Greenwood Milk Products Cooperative that was purchased on May 1. The facility, located in nearby Greenwood, will process some 1.5 million pounds of milk daily, much of it coming from the 850 farmers who sell their milk to Grassland.

Three family owned companies -- Holland's Family Cheese (two years old), Meyer Manufacturing (64 years old) and Grassland Dairy Products (104 years old) -- each family-owned and operated and located within about 30 miles of each other, are great examples of ingenuity, ambition, business acumen and hard work. Visiting them made the trip more about touring than cycling, but it was a great week.

John Oncken is owner of Oncken Communications, a Madison-based agricultural information and consulting company. He can be reached at 222-0624 or e-mail jfodairy@chorus.net

John F. Oncken  —  7/10/2008 9:49 pm