When Mike and Emily Branagan’s farming partner and mentor, Ted Seaver, passed away, they were told they had big shoes to fill. But one friend gave a little encouragement that has had a long-lasting impression. “They might have big shoes to fill, but Mike’s already got the boots on. He just needs to tie them up.”

When Steve Edstrom started Sugar Hill Dairy in 2001, he was milking eight cows in order to produce enough milk to reach the paddle in the bulk tank. Edstrom, who hadn’t grown up in the dairy industry, started out hand-milking his cows and raising heifer calves to increase his milking string until he had enough cows to move into a real facility.

Just about all dairy producers now know someone with robotics, but at Good-Vue Farms in Goodridge, Minnesota, the Hanson family not only has robotic milkers – a robot mixes the herd’s feed as well.

Raising calves in the Florida heat is no easy task, but Lindsey Rucks is rising to the challenge.

John Bennett and Michael O’Farrell, West Branch, Michigan, are dairy farmers on opposite ends of careers – O’Farrell is just beginning while Bennett is closer to the exit sign of semi-retirement.

What essential skill do military veterans have that dairy farmers need? Flexibility, according to two retired army officers – one now a grazing mentor and the other his apprentice.

Glenview Dairy in Odessa, New York, is finding success in a new facility constructed with the cow in mind. As Daryl Martin, the dairy’s general manager, simply states, “We do it for the cows.”

Quiet and reserved. Observing more than interacting. That’s how Josh Coates, long-time employee for Bosscher Dairy in McBain, Michigan, and U.S. Army 72nd Mobility Augmentation Company veteran, rolls.

Dairy farming is hard. Farming solo is even harder. But farming on your own after you’ve lost your soul mate? That takes a special kind of strength. In 2015, Amanda Peckins Leik learned how strong she really was.

Fighting to maintain low somatic cell count (SCC) is a battle in itself, but after the abnormally harsh winter of 2016-2017, Idaho dairyman John Wind is in a quality tug-of-war to return to his previous somatic cell count of under 100,000.