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John Oncken: Green County dairy tour showcases young farmers

John Oncken  —  9/04/2008 12:27 pm

There is a quiet revolution in progress in rural Wisconsin. There are some folks who say that dairy farmers are old, nearing retirement with no one to replace them and that all dairy farms are expanding to become mega-farms. They are dead wrong.

Attend any farm meet centering on manure management, record keeping, cropping, new facilities and farm management and count the crowd. You'll find young farmers of every kind: Husband-and-wife teams, father-and-son partnerships, recent college and UW Farm Short Course grads and sons and daughters of those farmers who are readying to retire.

Every time you see a new freestall barn being built, be assured there is a young farmer behind the construction.

Attend a farm building seminar or farm tour put on by the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin, or the Dairy Business Association and look at the crowd. You'll see young faces -- men and women -- everywhere. They are taking notes, asking tough questions and gathering information for a new building, a better accounting system or a method to save labor, money or time.

The recent Green County Area Dairy Modernization Tour is a good example.

Six dairy farms from Monroe to the Illinois state line opened their doors to visitors who could come and go as they desired and spend as much time as they wanted.

Green County agricultural agent Mark Mayer has put this program together almost annually for about 12 years. This tour does not always feature the absolute newest and cutting edge dairy facilities. Rather, visitors can see a variety of buildings and equipment that is very modern and actually in use.

In contrast to a bus tour where a schedule is a must, visitors on this tour can stay as long as they want and can ask one or one hundred questions of the owners. It's not only a tour but a small group discussion.

I had time to visit only two of the farms, both of which drew a steady crowd of visitors.

Blaine Binder is a 28-year-old dairyman who recently built a 42-by-120-foot dairy calf building for heifers up to 22 months of age on 119 acres he owns between Albany and Monroe.

The open-front building with curtain walls, a wheat straw bedding pack, lots of ventilation, headlocks for a close-up view of each animal and a concrete slab in front for easy feeding is similar to many across the state that have been built in recent years. Dairy producers know that a cool, dry, easy-to-maintain facility makes for healthy and fast-growing calves.

Binder's new facility is located a couple of miles from his home farm, where his parents, Keith and Cindy, live. That's where the 110-cow milking herd is located and where a 119-stall freestall barn is under construction. Heifers are trailered between the farms.

David Meier, his son Duane, an Albany High School senior, and son-in-law Andrew Houlberg live nearby and came for a close-up look at the heifer barn.

The Meiers and Houlberg run separate dairy herds of about 60 cows each and farm 400 acres. It's a bit of an unusual arrangement in that they share land and machinery in a 50-50 overall partnership.

No, they aren't planning any immediate buildings, but they wanted a close-up view of the heifer barn in case they do get in a building mood.

Just a mile west, the Brugger Dairy LLC, with a 384-cow freestall barn, new Double 16 Herringbone parlor, million gallon lagoon and sand bedding drew a constant flow of visitors.

Roger and Karen Brugger began farming at this site in 1980. A year-and-a-half ago, they sold the farm to their sons Brian and Dave who formed Brugger Dairy LLC.

Brian and his wife, Teresa, have two children: Eric who is a welder at Kuhn-Knight at Brodhead and Kala who lives in Connecticut. Dave and his wife, Barb, have a son named Josh who is a full-time employee of the dairy, while brother Nick attends MATC and brother Lance is a freshman at Albany High School.

Like all expanded dairy operations, the owners have separate responsibilities to make the farm operate efficiently. Here Brian Brugger (a UW-Madison Farm Short Course graduate) is the herdsman while Dave is in charge of feeding and fieldwork.

The brothers admit that their million-gallon manure lagoon is too small for their herd size, so they will soon begin construction of an additional lagoon of equal size to allow longer-term storage.

The other four tour sites also drew big crowds according to Mark Mayer. "We figured 250 people all told were on the tour," he says. "Most of them only get to visit two to three sites."

Bedrock Bovines of Brodhead is owned by Jeff and Brad Williams, who over the past half-dozen years have grown their dairy from a tie stall operation with less than a 100 cows to 870 cows in two free stalls, one of which is cross-ventilated.

They have hosted many tours because of their mechanical sand removal system.

Malcook Farms Inc. of Brodhead featured a new 280-stall freestall barn and a double 12 parlor built into the old barn. Duane Malcook and sons Scott and Steve milk 280 cows.

Hickory Hill Dairy is owned by Hickory Daniels, who milks 160 cows in a new three-row freestall with a Swing 12 parlor. It's on a small acreage on a farm owned by his parents at Juda.

The final site was Mill Hill Dairy of Juda, owned by Neal and Lisa Boeke. The farm features a 150-cow bedded compost barn with the old barn converted to a calf facility.

Mayer says tour-goers came from 15 counties, as far east as Kenosha and northeast to Sheboygan County. "Farmers seem to like the format," he says. "They like to ask questions and find out what works good and what works not so good."

The Green County tour started in the early 1990s, with 12 or so being held over the years. Mayer explains that he has a lot of help in planning the event, particularly from the members of the Green County Milk Council.

"They are a great sounding board for me," he says.

The result in terms of people attending this and other dairy meetings across the state bodes well for the future of Wisconsin dairying. It's young, vibrant, growing family with a strong spirit of optimism. They are cautiously growing, but not to mega-dairy size. Those who look to labor-saving and cow-comfortable facilities realize that bad knees, hard work and restless cows don't make for successful dairying long term. So they are going about making changes!

John Oncken is owner of Oncken Communications, a Madison-based agricultural information and consulting company. He can be reached at 608-222-0624 or e-mail jfodairy@chorus.net

John Oncken  —  9/04/2008 12:27 pm