A Day in the Life at Chapman Farms

TOMAH, Wis. — Becoming a dairy farm milking over 1,000 cows is no accident, and the Chapmans of Tomah know exactly the kind of hard work and comradery it takes to hit that mark. Chapman Farms was established in 1882 and is now owned by brothers Duane and Gail Chapman, and their sons, David and John.

Working as a team was on display Oct. 16 as the four owners, with the help of Peter Chapman and Trevor Zellner, had a busy day. The squad had to work together to finish chopping corn silage, cover their three bunkers and give a farm tour to local fourth-grade students along with everyday chores.

The Chapmans employ eight milkers, with teams of three working 12-hour shifts to accomplish the three milkings a day. Two get the day off. Milkers are on the cows at 4 every morning, with two workers milking in the double-15 parlor and one acting as the cattle pusher. The cattle pusher rotates through the barns housing the cows and then returns them to the correct area.

Gail starts his day using the skid loader to scrape the special needs barn and using sawdust to provide fresh bedding for those cows.

Each cow in the Chapman herd wears a leg band that registers with technology in the parlor. Their system records daily milk weights along with components. It also tracks ovulation, notifying spikes in heat and shows the best time to breed.

David, who is Gail’s oldest son, is the herdsman in the morning. With the technology alerting the owners which cows are scheduled to be bred that day, David bred 11 cows during the morning milking. In turn, the Chapmans also had 11 cows calve during the day.

Duane gets to the office during the morning milking. He runs the latest reports on the current milking, checks test results and looks at the farm’s email. He also works on the financial side and crop schedule and ensures they are working through their Department of Natural Resources permits when required. He is the farm’s administrator, and pitches in to drive the tractor when needed.

Following morning milking, the Chapmans had to finish chopping corn. At noon, their John Deere chopper started and made the trek across the road with Gail behind the wheel. Peter and Zellner hauled wagons and took the freshly chopped silage up to the bunker. David went from herdsman to pack tractor driver, helping move and pack away the final five acres of the 750 the Chapmans chop for their herd.

While the chopper runs across the road, the yellow bus from the Tomah Area School District arrives with Ms. Gould’s fourth-grade class from Wyeville Elementary. Duane greets the bus at 12:30 p.m. and begins his mission of helping educate the youth on dairy farming. Duane takes the class through the parlor, letting the children test the cleaning unit while seeing the process of milking a cow. From there, Duane takes the class up to the second freestall barn, showing them the feed for the cows and where the cows relax during the day. Throughout this time, Duane fields questions from the 19 students and five chaperones.

“I like teaching the chaperones as much as the kids,” Duane said. “They always have very interesting questions. Some make you smile, and they make perfect sense if you don’t have the background knowledge.”

The tour wraps up at the front of the barn. Duane shows the class a few corn stalks, cut alfalfa and ground corn to help illustrate what the cows are eating and how it helps with milk production. At the conclusion of the tour, Duane brings out three calves that were born that morning, one just three hours before the class arrived. He hands out milk and string cheese and the class takes time with the calves and a snack before leaving Chapman Farms at 2 p.m.

“Wyeville is a school that has come to tour before and we actually had a cow calve while they were here,” Duane said. “It happened three years in a row, and they started to think it was all part of the tour.”

With the tour gone and the corn chopped and packed into the bunkers, the time came to get the bunkers covered. The Chapmans originally planned to cover the bunkers the following day, but with a lack of labor and high wind in the forecast the team changed plans. Zellner and Peter carried up the plastic cover, and with the help of four Amish workers, extended the plastic to cover the first bunker. The crew did the same process to cover all three bunkers of its corn silage for the season.

With all the excitement going on, one thing remained consistent: John mixed feed. From the start of the day at 8 a.m. until it finished, John mixed 12 batches of feed for the herd, including six for the milking cows alone.