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Young generation spurs family farm expansion

John Oncken  —  8/10/2007 7:49 am

Dairy farming is a dynamic and growing segment of Wisconsin's agricultural economy. It's a business increasingly populated by young, ambitious entrepreneurs willing to manage people and money and use the latest in technology.

Latest statistics compiled by the USDA 's National Agricultural Statistics Service show that three-quarters of Wisconsin's dairy farmers plan to be milking cows by 2012, a quarter of them with bigger dairy herds.

Facility expansions and improvements totaling $1.07 billion -- half for dairy cow housing and over $220 million for manure handling -- are planned over the next five years.

As with most growing family businesses, the younger generation is providing the push for modernization and expansion. Dairying is fortunate to have over 85 percent of its farm operators under the age of 60 with 37 percent under age 40.

Triple D Farms LLC of Mineral Point is one of those progressive dairy operations owned by a young family in an expansion mode.

Gerald and Andrea Dannenberg bought a rundown dairy near Mineral Point in 1975 after milking with his family on a rented farm in Illinois. "We wanted to own our dairy," Gerald says. "Two years later we built a 50-cow tie-stall barn.''

In 1996, sons Bruce and Dan, both still in high school, bought a crop farm a couple of miles from their parents' farm. Dan lived there while milking 115 cows as an employee on a nearby farm owned by Norb Schaaf. Meanwhile, Bruce was dairying with his parents on the home farm where expansion plans were being considered.

Two years later, Schaaf suggested that the Dannenbergs purchase his farm, which Bruce and Dan proceeded to do. They formed an LLC and Bruce quit his part-time job at a local feed mill.

Today, Triple D Farms (dad Gerald joined in 2002) milks 250 cows, has a new free-stall barn and a custom forage harvesting business. Bruce is 30 years old, Dan is 27 and Gerald 57.

How did it all come about?

First and foremost, Gerald and Andrea had confidence in their sons. "I let them go and watched," Gerald says. "I knew they could do it and I stood behind them all the way."

"We both wanted to farm," Bruce says. "And we both attended the UW-Madison Farm and Industry Short Course, the best thing we ever did."

The family credits several outside advisers for help in putting the current dairy operation together. They also credit Schaaf, the former owner of the farm where the dairy is located who gave them the opportunity to buy the farm.

"He had faith in us," Dan says.

John Graf of the Farm Service Agency in Lafayette County helped the Dannenbergs with young farmer loans and business planning. Steve Fleming and Tom Daly of First Banking Center in Darlington, and Rod Wautlet of Agri-Business Consulting in Madison helped them with business planning.

"They knew what to do and how to make it all work," Bruce says.

"Our friends and neighbors helped us so much in the early days," he adds. "When we had equipment breakdowns, they loaned us what we needed to get the cropping done."

The Triple D operation is split up three ways.

Bruce oversees the cows, finances and paperwork. Dan runs the custom harvesting operation which includes a New Holland forage harvester and three modified semi trailers. He harvests 1,000 acres of hay and 1,000 acres of corn.

Gerald is the calf manager and helps milk. The young calves are moved to his farm (the original home farm) and are raised in hutches and moved into freestalls and the remodeled dairy barns as they grow.

Much has changed since the Dannenbergs purchased the 80-acre dairy farm in 1998.

"The buildings needed renovation," Bruce says. "We gutted the original dairy barn and made it into a 112-cow freestall and milked 135 cows until 2006."

In early 2007, a new 4-row, 167-cow freestall barn was constructed and 150 cows were added to the herd. The cows -- half of which are first calf heifers -- are milked three times a day in a Double-6 milking parlor that was in good condition and except for some rerouting of the exit aisles has remained unchanged.

The family lives within a few miles of each other. Gerald and Andrea, an elementary school teacher in Darlington. live on the home farm with Anastasia (age 8) and Laurianna (age 3), daughters they adopted from the Ukraine. Another son, Peter, lives in Illinois where he works in construction. Bruce, Sarah and daughter Isabella (10 months) live in a new house nearby. Sarah works as an ag loan processor at Heartland Credit Union in Platteville/Dodgeville. Dan and Liz, and their son Tucker (10 months) are building a house on the farm purchased in 1996. Liz is manager of Sienna Crest, an assisted living facility in Mineral Point.

Triple D Farms is a unique family dairy operation that is based on many of the same factors that other successful expanded dairies have utilized:

• Parents willing to give their sons and daughters responsibility and authority. Too often dad and mother retain the checkbook "forever" and look at the children as kids for far too long. Often the young generation gives up on ever being able to take over and goes somewhere else, to farm or into another career. Then the parents say, "The kids were just not interested."
• Sons who love farming, wanted it as a career, and let their parents know. They also were willing to accept debt at an early age and pay it back. And then, move ahead again.
• Use of outside advisers and a willingness to change if the relationships didn't work. If the fit is right, progress is made and a solid business can result.

Look, read, visit, listen and learn. Bruce Dannenberg has been a regular attendee at PDPW tours and programs. He spends a lot of time reading and on the Internet.

The Dannenbergs are optimistic about the future of Triple D Farms and in dairy agriculture. Future plans call for adding a fourth silage bunker and going to 300 milking cows.

This successful and progressive dairy farm family is far from unique in its makeup. Almost every expansion dairy farm is made up of parents and sons and/or daughters. Farmers near retirement age don't build bigger dairies but families do.

So the next time you hear someone talk of how "There are no young people in dairying," don't believe it. Look around, talk to people who work with farmers and travel the countryside and you'll see that Wisconsin dairying is dynamic, growing and the people behind it are young, ambitious and confident of their future.

John Oncken is owner of Oncken Communications, a Madison-based agricultural information and consulting company. He can be reached at 222-0624, fax 222-7775 or e-mail jfodairy@chorus.net.

John Oncken  —  8/10/2007 7:49 am