Argyle dairy stays small, and likes it that way
Kurt "Buzz'' Flannery was optimistic about the future of dairy farming 11 years ago and he still is today.
Back on May 29, 1997, Flannery, then 29, bought four cows at a herd sale by Roger and Jill Biddlingmaier of Monticello. Each cow cost in the $1,600-$1,700 range, a lot of money in the low milk price era of the late 1990s.
The basic cheesemilk price on which all dairy producers were paid was $10.70 in May 1997, which is $8.62 per hundredweight below the $19.32 of today.
"I came to buy high quality cows," Flannery said at the time. "They are milking well right now and will make me money down the road. You get what you pay for."
Today, the Flannery home near Argyle is warm and cozy on a cool, dark, foggy February day as Buzz introduces his wife Kimmy and their four children Sloan, Hayden, Payton and Breann.
Buzz well remembers what he said 11 years ago but also notes the changes.
"For one thing, I wasn't married at the time," he says with a laugh as his four youngsters crowd around his legs and his wife smiles.
Kimmy is a Blanchardville farm girl who attended Madison Business College and worked at an insurance company and a development company in Madison before getting a job at a Brodhead factory.
"I never liked to work indoors and was happy to move to the dairy farm and milk cows," she says. "And it is a great place to raise our children."
The Flannerys are milking 75 cows today, 15 more than that day at the auction 11 years ago.
"I never have had any interest in going big," Buzz says.
But Flannery admits he has gotten bigger on one way -- he runs a custom hay and corn chopping business that covers about a 10-mile radius. This enterprise has picked up over the years. "More farmers are hiring custom operators instead of buying big machinery," he says. "Oh, and we also raise a few Holstein steers on our farm."
Kimmy, who says she enjoyed working with cows at home growing up, does most of the milking. Her parents, Terry and Karen Erickson, still dairy and raise beef at the home farm.
" Buzz is really more of a machinery guy," she says with a chuckle. "That's OK."
The Flannerys still milk twice a day in their tie-stall barn and run about a 22,000-pound herd average.
Some years ago they demolished a couple of concrete silos, went to plastic bags as silage storage, bought a bagger and went to a total mixed ration (TMR) feeding system. A mobile feed cart is used to distribute silage in the barn.
As with most dairy farmers, the Flannerys depend on outside expertise. Tom Weaver of Cuba City is their nutritionist; Badgerland Farm Credit of Darlington helps with the finances and IBA provides them with dairy supplies, including paper towels for prepping cows at milking time.
The Flannerys live on Buzz's home farm. And, as he did 11 years ago, Buzz still shares farm equipment with his brother Harlan and cousin Marco. His mother Marilyn lives nearby.
Buzz says his father, John Flannery Sr., was an old school farmer who helped his three sons and a cousin get started farming.
"I bought the home farm on a land contract," Buzz says. "We have four years to go to pay it off."
"Each of the farms have milk cows and we farm about 2,000 acres all told," Buzz says. "Just like we did 11 years ago."
Buzz and Kimmy Flannery and their four children make a great farm family. They are proud of their farm and of their lifestyle. A big screen TV, computer and beautiful home make them modern in most every way.
And they are optimistic in their farming future -- just as Buzz was 11 years ago.
"Agriculture has its ups and downs," Buzz says. "But so does most every other business."
What is the future of dairying?
Had that question been asked of a dairy farmer in May 1997, he may have provided one answer, with maybe two or three other possibilities. A government statistician would have answered based on pure numbers, averages and trends. An economist would have given three or four answers with lots of maybes and ifs. And a farm organization would have answered based on history, committee meetings, and current membership and officer philosophy.
Most of the answers 11 years ago about the future of dairying were based on what individuals or groups wanted to see happen, rather than what was actually going on.
Even then dairy producers were expanding and mechanizing their operations. They weren't abandoning the family farm, they were just reconfiguring it. Other farmers chose to follow traditional dairying with less borrowed money, limited hired help and lots of their own labor.
Pure and simple, right or wrong, like it or not, the move to bigger dairy operations was happening in Wisconsin, the Midwest and everywhere. It's no use arguing whether big or small dairy operations are better. The answer is neither or both. The future of dairying will be a combination of big and small each with the possibilities of success or failure.
In 1997 there were 24,566 dairy farms in Wisconsin. Now there are 14,000. Buzz and Kimmy Flannery are among those who chose to stay small and are example of success. But it isn't only size that counts and it isn't by luck. It's devotion, skill, ambition, smarts, optimism, management and family.
The Flannerys have plenty of that.
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 Oncken
Buzz and Kimmy Flannery milk 75 cows at their Double K Dairy near Argyle. Kimmy does much of the milking, using paper towels for udder preparation.
