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Several readers of my last article emailed me with a question I have repeatedly heard from customers and audiences for many years: Are there traits or characteristics which are common to successful dairy farms?
If you were to ask 100 different industry professionals and dairy producers, you would undoubtedly see 100 different lists of attributes most closely linked to success. The following are among the most common traits I observe in consulting with dairy operations across the U.S.:
Age: 46
Location: St. Paul, at the Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota
Your dairy industry background: I grew up on an 80-cow Holstein dairy farm on the Trent River, just outside of Campbellford, Ontario. The farm was originally established in 1835 and purchased by my great grandfather in 1922. The deed describes the transfer of “Blackie” and “Marigold,” the cows.
My cousin and his wife, Ben and Lori Godden, currently operate the farm.
Age: 49
Location: Mesa, Arizona
My background in the dairy industry: I was born and raised on a 50-cow dairy, hog and beef farm in southwest Wisconsin. Through college I continued to work on the family farm and in 1989 purchased the dairy and hog farm from my parents.
Age: 51
Location: Ancramdale, New York
My dairy’s history: Tollgate Holsteins started shipping milk in 1986. We’ve belonged to Agri-mark Co-op from the beginning. We ship 1.7 million pounds per year and milk 60 cows and have won the Platinum National Dairy Quality Award three times.
Editor's note: Click here to read Stewart-Peterson CEO Scott Stewart's review of Great by Choice.
In January 2008, I sat next at the dinner table with a Colorado dairyman who was explaining the intricacies of his strategy to sell two bull calves for a heifer calf in order to rapidly expand his dairy herd size.
The other dairymen dining with us were amazed by his scheme, which relied on a never-ending supply of capital, a bull market for milk (the all-milk price was $20.50 at the time) and lots of risk.
Just over one year later, in the heart of the Great Recession, I read how that same producer’s business and his herd were being dispersed.
For the last few years, agriculture has been discussing the terms animal welfare, animal rights, animal husbandry, animal handling and stockmanship.
They all have unique meanings and nuances to different audiences. Stockmanship is a term more common in the beef cattle industry and can be defined as the art and science of handling cattle, or any other farm animal, properly.
For many dairy owners and employees, stockmanship skills have been honed over time and become intuitive. Others working with dairy animals have old habits or simply lack adequate training.
Heather Porter Engwall, director of National Product Communications for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, shares information on the Dairy Days of Summer with PD Editor Karen Lee. This micro site was developed to direct anyone living in or visiting Wisconsin to the many dairy-related events taking place in the state. PD
Can't get enough June Dairy Month? Click here to search our site for related articles.
My clients, Frank and Janelle, are dairy farmers in California. They have been married for 15 years and have three children: Jason, Katie and Fred.
They milk roughly 3,000 head and farm 500 acres. Soon after they were married, they purchased life insurance on each other to provide survivor income – in other words, Janelle owns a policy on Frank’s life and vice versa.
Since then, their wealth has increased significantly. Based on their net worth (around $15 million not including death benefits of the life insurance), there will be an estate tax due on the survivor’s death.
Editor's note: Penn State dairy student Hannah Wentworth has been providing monthly updates through the Progressive Dairyman Extra e-newsletter about her study abroad experience in New Zealand this spring.
Scroll down below to see links to her other columns, or visit her blog at www.pafarmgirladventures.blogspot.com.
Starting from Wellington, New Zealand, April 15-19 with 80 other Lincoln University agriculture students, I was on route for a study tour of the north island’s west coast.
Editor’s note: The following is an open letter to the dairy industry submitted by Utah dairyman John Nye.
We have been in the dairy business for more than 30 years. Half of that time was spent on a typical New England freestall operation, the remaining time on a large Western purchased feed, drylot type of dairy.
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