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    GARNAVILLO, Iowa – Mark Troester often told his daughter, Anna, that she could always come home. After leaving the farm for college, jobs in two states and travel to four countries, she took her dad up on the offer, bringing along a husband she added to her life, David Wilson.
    Back on the Troester farm since 2016, David and Anna were named Clayton County’s 2022 Outstanding Young Dairy Producers at the county’s annual banquet in Elkader April 8. David is full time on Maars Dairy, the farm owned by Anna’s parents, Mark and Rondee Troester. Anna works off the farm while raising Lewis, who will be 2 years old in August.   
    “I’ve always had a love for the cows and for helping Dad,” Anna said. “Growing up here was a blessing; there’s nothing like coming home to your own herd and family.”
    David grew up in Pennsylvania. His father worked for an artificial insemination company but also farmed with his wife, Barb, at Rose-Edge Holsteins. After graduating from Penn State University, David worked for Genex and then CRV USA.
    Anna attended the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and landed a dairy genetics job at AMS Genetics in Maryland. Later, she worked for the Red and White Dairy Cattle Association, located across the street from David’s place of employment in Madison, Wisconsin. The two were introduced by a mutual friend and married in 2019.
    Since returning to the farm, David and Anna have worked for Anna’s parents and own cows within the herd, mostly Brown Swiss and a few Holsteins.
    Rondee had a long career as a teacher and is now retired; she has a passion for dogs. But Mark was always a dairy farmer.
    “My dad, Oscar, was hurt when I was 8 years old, so I’ve been milking since I was 9,” Mark said. “I’m ready to move on now. At one point, I hadn’t missed a milking for seven years.”
    Physical challenges for Mark have relegated him to outside work, while David is the primary milker of the 95 cows in the 102-stall tiestall barn.
    The farm has been up and down with cow numbers through the years.
    “We started with 26 cows, then 46, then we added 56 more stalls,” Mark said.
    Prior to expanding, the family also had 150 ewes.
    A pipeline was installed in 1991. In 2011, the Troesters sold the top half of the herd, continuing to milk 40 cows. Soon after, they got 20 cows from a friend and 20 more from a cousin and were back to a full barn.
    David and Anna’s registered cows carry the Rose-Maar prefix, which combines David’s parents’ farm name, Rose-Edge, with the Troesters’ Maars Dairy. They hope to develop a small show herd of their own.
    David brought Brown Swiss to the longtime Holstein herd and began focusing on genetics and herd health. One of those cows, Rose-Edge GPS Enter TW, earned her second Excellent classification – the couple’s first homebred Excellent.
    David and Anna have high hopes for their Brown Swiss herd, using embryos from Top Acres Garbro Wanda ET, EX-91, EX-92-MS, which are due to be born this fall.
    They also have a long line of Red and Whites with good genomic scores, which they hope to develop more fully. David said they have set some goals for themselves.
    “I’d love to breed something that does well at Madison,” David said. “And, we would like to start selling some of our genetics.”
    Anna agreed.
    “It will be nice to see something do well for someone else,” she said.
    Some of their cows are shown by local 4-H kids. But, they hope to have Rose-Maar B Parton *RC in the Iowa Holstein Futurity this summer.
    Anna utilizes social media to promote their animals and farm. She also is involved in dairy promotion, including serving on the Midwest Dairy Iowa Division board and the Clayton County Dairy Promotion Committee. She is a delegate for Associated Milk Producers Inc. and serves with David on the cooperative’s young cooperator steering committee.
    The farm participated in Adopt-A-Calf through the Discover Dairy website.
    Recently, Anna helped put together an event with an Undeniable Dairy Grant for her employer, CJ Moyna & Sons. It led to 3,000 people enjoying dairy products.
    As they envision how their future in dairy might look, the Wilsons are watching Lewis enjoy his early years on the fourth-generation farm.
    “He’s always out here, hanging out in the milkhouse, seeing the cows or riding with Papa,” Anna said.
    David said it is nice to carry on the tradition.
    “I’ve always liked dairying,” David said. “But it’s especially great now with Lewis with us.”

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