Dairy Profile: Wilbar Dairy

Wilbar Dairy
Bill (from left), Brenna, Barb, Blair and Brett Thiel (not pictured, Brice)
Auburndale, Wisconsin
Wood County
300 cows

How many years have you been dairy farming? We have been dairy farming for 23 years on our own, but both of us grew up on dairy farms and worked on dairy farms while attending school. Barb attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Bill attended the UW-Madison Farm and Industry Short Course program.

Tell us about your farm and how it has evolved over the years. Currently, we are milking 300 registered Holstein and registered Brown Swiss cows in a double-8 step-up parlor with sand-bedded free stall housing. We also have 300 head of youngstock. We started out renting a 50-stall tiestall barn in western Wisconsin. We bought Barb’s parents’ cows, 32 head, as they were retiring and moved the cows from eastern Wisconsin to western Wisconsin near where Bill’s parents farmed. We bought a few cows here and there on good registered sales. In 2004, we purchased a farm of our own. We moved 68 cows to our current facility in central Wisconsin in August 2004. At that time, the farm consisted of a 70-stall tiestall barn, a small heifer shed and 40 acres. Calves were raised in hutches. We rented about 150 acres and bought most of our feed and hired all planting and harvesting. We quickly outgrew the 70 tie stalls and built a 78-stall freestall barn in 2009. We then switched cows out of the tiestall barn. Soon we were outgrowing the freestall barn, so we added another 120 stalls in 2012. We also added a heifer barn for weaned calves to 500 pounds. Then finally, we decided we needed to do something about our milking situation. Switching too many cows in the tie stalls was wearing on our bodies. We put in a double-8 step-up parlor in 2015. In 2019, we were sick of feeding 40 calves in hutches, so we built a wet calf barn with room for 60 individual pens, added onto our existing calf barn, and renovated and added onto an existing older heifer barn. We now own 200 acres and rent another 350 and still buy some hay but grow our own corn. We own our own tilling and planting equipment along with some haying equipment including a baler, triple mower and wrapper. We hire chopping for corn silage and some haylage.

Tell us about your family. We have four children: Brice, Brett, Brenna and Blair. All four are active on the farm including milking, scraping, hauling manure, tillage, planting, harvesting, and heifer and calf care. Brice attends Mid-State Technical College in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, for welding. Brett and Brenna attend Auburndale middle and high schools, and Blair is at Auburndale Elementary School. Last year, Brice and Brett did all the tillage and planting. Both run the mower and baler and wrap bales as we feed mostly baleage. Brenna and Blair can be found in the calf barn every night helping Mom. All four enjoy showing our Brown Swiss in 4-H.

What motivates you to keep dairy farming? The lifestyle and being your own boss is a great motivation along with the joy of breeding and raising good quality animals and taking care of them.

What has been the highlight of your dairying career? The highlight of our career is probably that we started with 32 cows, and as of last year, we had grown to 330. We have only bought one or two here and there for fair projects. Last February, we were able to sell 150 cows just to downsize. Today, we are at 300 head.

What do you love about dairy farming? Barb: I love bringing newborn calves into the world, taking care of them and watching them grow up to be productive cows. I also love working with my kids every day. When they were little, it was challenging getting up at 3 a.m. to get chores done before they woke up and toting toddlers around, but I liked the flexibly and spending all day with my kids and teaching them how to care for animals. Now, I love milking or feeding calves with the kids.

What piece of equipment or technology do you wish you had incorporated earlier on your dairy? We wish we had installed the step-up parlor sooner. It would have saved a lot of wear and tear on our bodies, and we can milk so much faster.

What has been the biggest obstacle you have faced in your dairying career and how did you overcome it? Our biggest obstacle was being the first generation on our dairy. We could have continued farming with either of our families but chose to do it on our own. This left everything – from the financial side to the work load – up to Bill and I. It was hard at first not having family near to help, especially when our family began to grow. Fortunately, we moved to a friendly area and have great neighbors. We made great friends.

What has been the best decision you have made on your farm? Barb would say her calf barn and Milk Taxi were great decisions. We used to use 40 calf hutches. Now, we have 50 individual pens in a beautiful calf barn to keep her out of the wind, rain and snow. But the first freestall barn was probably the best decision. Cow comfort is key. Getting the cows in sand-bedded free stalls was the best decision and let us keep growing.

Who has been an inspiration to you during your dairying career? There have been many who have been an inspiration for us. First off, our parents as they were the first ones to give us the bug and were our first teachers. Then, there are some special neighbors, 4-H leaders, vets, nutritionists and employers who continued to teach us.