Over a century of progress at Breezy View Dairy

BELLEVILLE, Wis. – When Breezy View Dairy celebrated its 101st birthday this spring, the Eichelkrautfamily threw a party and invited the neighborhood. They cleared the hay mow to make room for a barn dance and partied with a live band until the cows came home. Three hundred people joined the festivities just months after Darren Eichelkrautbecame the farm’s official owner.
“It was a lot of fun, and we got to meet a lot of people,” Darren said. “We have new neighbors who wanted to meet us, and they were so happy to be invited. There aren’t many dairies here anymore, and people watch us closely.”
Darren milks 52 cows and farms 280 acres near Belleville with help from his dad, Junior. Darren is the fifth generation on the century farm he took over in 2015. Darren’s wife, Nicole, works off the farm, and the couple has a daughter, Aria, and a son, Merik.
Like his dad and every generation before him, Darren is making improvements to the farm while also holding onto techniques of the past he finds useful. From planting triticale to implementing intensive grazing, Darren has a love for simplicity and appreciates a mixture of old and new.
“To simplify has worked very well, but it’s hard to do,” Darren said. “Many magazines and newspapers say you should do the opposite. They say you need concrete and technology. But, I find the more you have, the less time and money you have.”
Maintaining the farm as a self-sufficient operation was important to Darren.
“Two of us can handle almost all the work,” he said. “The more you can do yourself, the better. My wife is planning on working into the farm in the future as well. She likes the animal end of it, and the goal is to have her here full time eventually.”
Breezy View Dairy was certified organic in 2010 – a move that helped the farm remain in the Eichelkrautfamily. Darren’s stipulation before taking over was that things had to change.
“I saw my dad struggling to make ends meet farming conventionally, and I told him we have to do something different,” Darren said. “And, we decided organic was the way to go.”
Junior was happy to make the change to organic.
“You don’t know what kind of day that was for me when Darren said he wanted to take over the farm,” Junior said. “It was fabulous. When your dreams come true, it’s one of those unforgettable times.”
Personal property, such as feed, machinery and livestock, was transferred to Darren who had already started purchasing new equipment. He owned the heifer herd and a handful of cows when he made the final purchase of the farm on a land contract Feb. 1. To Junior’s delight, his son is successfully trying new things on the farm.
“There was new rebirth into the farm when Darren took over, as I watched him change things, and the changes were good,” Junior said. “That’s always needed in a next generation transition. I certainly did different than my dad, and he did different than his dad, etc. Granted, some things do stay here forever.”
Replacing corn in the cows’ diet with triticale is a significant change Darren made.
“Triticale is a big source of grain for us now as we remove corn from the ration and downsize our row crops,” Darren said. “We’ve scaled back on protein and grain and are not pushing cows as hard. Financially, it works just as well if not better. I have a 5-year-old kid and a 7-year-old kid, and I like to be able to go do stuff with them rather than live on a tractor.”
Cows average 55 pounds of milk daily and are getting most of their feed from pasture and hay. Darren feeds a lot of baleage. First crop was put up in wrapped round bales, and Darren uses a trolley system to feed the bales in the barn in the winter. One bale covers 50% of the cows’ feed needs.
“I can get 25 acres of baleage done in a day,” Darren said. “We get much higher quality feed, and it doesn’t beat us up. We make small square bales out of second and third crop if weather allows.”  
In the winter, Darren feeds 12 pounds of corn and 5 pounds of triticale. When grazing, cows are fed 8 pounds of corn and 5 pounds of triticale. All corn is put up as high moisture, and Darren would like to feed it only in winter when it is freshest.
“I want to switch to feeding 8 pounds of triticale and no corn in the summer,” he said. “Triticale is our protein source, and it’s higher in protein than corn. The cows really like it.”
Triticale is planted behind corn, and Darren said weeds do not grow on those acres.
“It’s simple to combine and also makes beautiful straw,” he said. “It’s scary to get away from high production; people say you can’t do that. I grew less corn than I wanted to one year, but it worked out. Giant ragweed is a problem with row crops, and being organic, we have to remove it by hand. We’ve reduced a lot of labor by reducing row crops. Our lowered cost of inputs far outweighs our loss in production.”
Junior agreed.
“Being organic also helps,” Junior said. “We get a steady milk price; it’s not fluctuating like the conventional market.”
The Eickelkrauts ship their milk to Westby Cooperative Creamery. When going organic, the Eickelkrauts also began crossbreeding.
“The herd was 100% Holstein, but now we go for a three-way cross,” Darren said.
The cross the Eickelkrauts prefer is Holstein-Montbéliarde-Norwegian Red or Holstein-Jersey-Norwegian Red.
“They have nice pasture genetics and do good on a lower energy diet,” Darren said. “You still end up with duds, but overall, we’re very happy with these crosses, especially when you come back to Holstein. We get a nice, smaller, more compact, sturdy Holstein. They still put out the milk and give nice components. And, the vigor of the crossbred calf is amazing. We don’t lose calves.”
Each generation of Eickelkrauts has also enhanced their grazing techniques. Junior cut pastures smaller compared to what his dad did, and Darren took it to intensive grazing, moving cows every 12 hours or at each feeding.
“I tore fences out and made pastures larger, and now Darren is putting fences back in,” Junior said. “He’s even putting dividers in the grain bins and restoring and bringing back stuff his grandpa had.”
To offer shade on pastures that have no trees, Darren uses a sun shade that moves with the cows from pasture to pasture. He has no permanent pastures but rather rotates all pastures out with crops.
“I’m now at a point where we have more acres than we need, and I’ve been able to play with cover cropping,” Darren said. “Next spring, I plan to experiment with different cover crops like heavy legumes and brassicas. We’re very grass dominated here.”
Heifers are on pasture in the summer and are fed baleage and grain in the winter.
“I have very low raising costs for youngstock,” Darren said.
Junior and his wife, Jeannie, took the farm over in 1976, starting out with 40 cows. In 1988, Junior did a barn addition and remodel, adding 10 stanchions and extending the barn 40 feet. He also widened and lengthened the stalls in the 1921 barn and increased cow numbers to 53. Currently, the barn contains 25 tie stalls and 27 stanchions, and Darren plans to convert the remaining stanchions in the barn to tie stalls before winter.
“When Darren came on, it was good to let him take the reins,” Junior said. “It’s very important for the next generation to do it their way. I’m here for advice if he needs me.”
As the Eichelkrautfarm begins a second century, Darren looks toward the future with excitement in continuing his family’s rich tradition of dairy farming.