Get your copy of our weekly print products at any of these convenient locations.

John Oncken: Longtime farmers leave on their own terms

John Oncken  —  4/17/2008 10:43 am

By 2 p.m. on April 15, the dairy barn at the end of Rose Lane a few miles west of Blanchardville was in the midst of major change. On a normal day, the 55 dairy cows would be chewing their cuds and getting ready for the night milking a few hours away.

On this day, some of the stanchions and tie stalls were empty. By evening all the cows would be gone. There would be no need for Richard, Doris and Dana Laufenberg to even go to the barn as one or more of the family had done for nearly four decades. And next month the state's dairy statistics will record (although anonymously) one less dairy herd in Wisconsin.

Don't weep for the loss of this family dairy farm. Don't feel bad for the Laufenberg family as they leave their chosen profession. Don't blame the farm economy for forcing another small family farm out of business.

None of this happened. In fact, Tuesday was a day of celebration as the family and friends gathered in the basement of the farm home to have a late lunch, laugh a lot and talk about the next chapter in the life of the Laufenberg family.

Richard and Doris Laufenberg began farming near Cross Plains on Richard's home farm. And like many young farmers then and now, the couple soon had the urge to go on their own.

"After a few years I began looking around for our own farm," Richard says. "We came to Lafayette County because land was cheaper."

That was in 1971.

"Yes, we had ups and downs," Doris says. "But all in all everything was good."

"We had a great run," Richard adds.

In 1988 Doris went to work as an aide at the Pecatonica school district. "That was the year of the big drought," she adds.

The Laufenbergs worked together in the barn with Doris the chief calf raiser. The auction bill says "Over their many years of dairying, Doris has raised about 1,100 replacements."

They also shared the outside farm work on their 250 acres of land, with Doris running the chopper.

Non-farmers perhaps don't realize how closely farm families work together. There's the book work done indoors, and lawn care as such things as painting, cleaning or moving furniture. And there's also driving big tractors pulling large machines

Auction day was sunny with temperatures in the high 50s. The kind of day farmers like to think seriously about getting into the field for the first time. On this day, however, a good many farmers, mostly from within easy driving distance, found their way over the steep hills and big downhills to dead-end Rose Lane.

By word of mouth, direct knowledge or from sale bills and newspaper adds the word got around that this was a good dairy herd -- maybe an exceptional dairy herd. So the buyers came.

A look inside the barn at the cows prompted some to make a list of the animals they wanted to bid on. They also looked at the breeding behind the cows and there were records aplenty to ponder.

The Laufenbergs had artificially bred their dairy cows from the beginning to ABS sires. In addition they had their herd analyzed under the ABS Genetic Mating Service and had participated in the young sire program. The couple knew that good breeding along with good records would pay off some day.

Jake and Colleen Thostenson are part of a 180-cow dairy near Brodhead. The young couple in their early 30s had started with 20 cows, went to 40 cows, built a 96-cow freestall barn in 2001 and reached 100 milking cows in 2004 when they built a Double 10 milking parlor. They had marked eight of the Laufenberg cows as possible purchases and hoped to get at least one or two.

"We have an all-registered Holstein and Jersey herd," Jake says. "We're running at a 25,000 pounds of milk average.

The Thostensons are actually running 180 cows through their system as Jake's cousin DuWayne Schartzlow recently moved his 70-cow herd to the Thostenson facility. (He still farms his land a few miles away.)

"It's working well,'' Colleen says, "even though it's two separate herds, we can get away knowing that there is someone at home overseeing the dairy."

Doris and Richard Laufenberg can't remember any really bad days over their farming careers but they easily remember the best day. That was the day the Laufenbergs, who had been married for 18 years, adopted daughter Dana. She was just over 4 months old.

Dana was at the auction. She had taken a couple of days off from her studies at UW-River Falls. Dana has a undergraduate degree in animal science and by December she'll earn a master's in ag education.

"My goal is to be a youth development Extension agent," she says.

Dana returned to River Falls the day after the sale. She earns extra money as a bus driver for the River Falls School District.

There are many stories of small dairy farmers leaving dairying because of economic pressures and being "forced out." Most are false. Most are planned, end a career and are a happy event.

So it is with Richard and Doris Laufenberg.

"We planned to retire a few years down the road," Doris says. "But when our big storage shed caved in on Dec. 15, from the heavy snow and ice, we changed our plans. It didn't seem logical to spend the $80,000 or so to rebuild that building when we wouldn't be farming long enough to pay it off.''

In addition, Richard has long been bothered with severe arthritis that has taken him out of the actual milking process. The Laufenbergs hired help a few years ago.

They agreed the time was right to leave farming. The first five cows in the sale sold for between $2,000 to $2,300 apiece. The highest priced cow sold for $3,700. The years of ABS breeding had indeed paid off, just as the Laufenbergs planned.

"We weren't forced to sell out," Richard and Doris said. "We chose to do it. Now we are moving on to the next phase of our life.''

And, that next phase will be a busy one. Doris can't wait to get to her gardening. Richard is a topflight woodworker and will do some tractor driving during the cropping season. They are avid hunters, attested to by the mounted wild turkey on a wall, the stately pheasant on the table that Doris bagged and the 4-wheeler equipped with gun racks.

There is one less dairy farm in Wisconsin, but it's the result of years of hard work, resulting in success in so many ways.

Dana is happy she can still come home to the farm. (It's rented out.) Doris and Richard can sit on the porch and look at their beautiful pond (or get into their boat) and enjoy life.

Is there anything that could be better?

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  —  4/17/2008 10:43 am