Second generation strong

HOLLANDALE, Wis. – Dan Johnson has been helping his parents on the farm all his life. When they approached him about joining the operation full time in 2015, it seemed like the logical thing to do.
“They brought the idea to me, and I’m here all the time anyway so I thought I might as well join full time,” Johnson said. “I am set up as an employee.”
Johnson milks around 140 cows with his parents in a free stall and parlor setup near Hollandale. They crop farm a total of 280 acres.
Johnson’s parents, Bill and Connie, bought the farm in 1994. They milked 65 cows in a stanchion barn until 2015 when Johnson joined the operation. A double-8 parallel parlor was installed as part of an expansion.
“I was helping out the farm already, but 60 cows weren’t going to take care of two families,” Johnson said.
The Johnsons redesigned a machine shed to make space for the parlor. The family previously turned a different shed into a freestall barn while continuing to milk in the stanchion barn. When the parlor was added, they connected the two buildings which added more stall space.     
Johnson and his parents researched parlors before settling on the parallel design. They knew they did not have a lot of room because they were using an existing building so the parallel parlor made the most sense.
“I just thought parallel was the simplest,” Johnson said.
An additional 50 cows were purchased from a large dairy near Brodhead.
Johnson runs the farm with his father while his mother works off the farm as the Iowa County treasurer.
Johnson is the first one to the farm every day and arrives by 4:45 a.m. His day begins with scraping the freestall barn before milking. In the meantime, his dad arrives and feeds calves while Johnson begins milking. His dad continues to bring cows to the holding area in between mixing feed and scraping the rest of the freestall barn. By the time the animals are fed and barns are scraped, Johnson is just about done milking, and the pair can move on with their day by 7:15 a.m.
“It goes quickly,” Johnson said. “That’s my time when no one else bothers me.”
Johnson said initially it was a challenge to work with his father every day.
“It’s his farm first and everybody told him that I have to fail somewhere before I’m going to learn,” Johnson said. “Now, during milking time, the only time I see him is when he brings me cows.”
Johnson has worked through management changes in the last seven years. The farm saw an increase in production when the cows moved to a freestall barn. There was also a reduction on somatic cell count, at one point getting down to 91,000.
“I showed my dad that and his eyes bugged out because you never got those numbers in a stanchion barn,” Johnson said.
The cows also adjusted well to automatic takeoffs in the parlor. Johnson said it was a learning curve for him until an expert showed him to let the machine do its job.
The farm has found success in custom hiring a lot of the fieldwork to be done as well. The neighboring crop farmer helps chop silage. He also plants all the corn and combines it when the timing is right, which is another change that was implemented in the last few years.
The Johnsons used to harvest their corn at 22% moisture. They have changed to harvesting at 14%-15% moisture because Johnson said the adjustment saves the farm costs on drying the crop and is better for the herd.
“Cows have picked up a lot more and are producing more,” Johnson said. “It’s combined and goes straight from the field to the silo. There’s no trucking cost or drying cost.”
The farm is working toward buying replacements instead of raising calves. They have had good luck with buying bred heifers in the past, Johnson said.
“We’ve talked about the difference in the feed cost and facilities when you can buy one for the same price or a little more,” Johnson said.
With the volatile milk market of the last couple years, Johnson said he is grateful to be shipping milk to Klondike Cheese.
“We would jump over backward for them,” Johnson said. “They are world-renowned.”
Throughout the past couple years, Johnson said that despite struggles with a Covid-19 economy they have continued to be paid for quality premiums. The plant also expanded to include a yogurt factory which Johnson finds encouraging.
“I feel better when the milk prices are dropping knowing that they’re still adding on,” Johnson said. “You know they’re going somewhere and there is a future.”
Johnson said being on the farm full time is important to him to see the farm continue.
“We still need milk and feed,” Johnson said. “It’s important to me to keep the dairy going.”