A golden milestone

BIG STONE CITY, S.D. — More than 50 years ago, William Mueller showed dairy cattle in 4-H and FFA. That tradition has been carried on by his children and now his grandchildren.

“All my friends raised registered cattle and I grew up with registered cattle,” William said. “I enjoy going through bull books. The kids got some really good show cows through the years.”

William’s wife, Raynelle agreed.

“Now, we are leasing the animals to the grandkids,” Raynelle said. “Our son lives a mile down the road and his kids help us out.”

William and Raynelle milk 40 registered Holsteins at their farm near Big Stone City. This year, the couple was recognized for being members of Holstein Association USA Inc. for 50 years. The Muellers are also celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year. They have three children and 13 grandchildren.

William and Raynelle both grew up on dairy farms in South Dakota.

“When I first started buying registered cattle, I registered them under dad’s registered name, Romue,” William said. “Then dad got the opportunity to buy this place 1.5 miles down the road from the home farm. So, we bought that farm contract for deed.”

However, then William had the opportunity to buy a place 1.5 miles down the road from the home farm on contract for deed. The new farm was already a registered dairy farm and had cattle up until the former owner died and the family decided to sell the herd. William and Raynelle purchased the farm and came up with the farm name, Silver-Crest Holsteins, and began their dairy farm in 1975.

“We have their original true type Holstein cow,” Raynelle said.
“The (owner’s wife) of the place gave it to us when we bought (it).”

Issues arose with the contract when the wife of the deceased farmer also died, so the Muellers moved away. William worked on other dairy farms for 12 years, all the while maintaining a small herd of 20 registered cattle that were housed either at William’s home farm or the farm he was working at.

In 1994, the Muellers were able to secure the title for the farm they had originally done the contract for deed on. So they moved their house, cows and three children back to the farm near Big Stone City.

“In December of that year, we built a new barn,” William said. “My banker, whom I dealt with my whole farming career, said this isn’t dairy country, you are nuts for starting a dairy farm.”

The Muellers were able to get the loan for the barn and started to grow their herd of registered Holstein cattle.

“That’s when the interest rates were sky high; one year we paid 21% interest,” Raynelle said.

The Muellers bought more registered cattle and milked cattle for a neighbor who had a barn fire.

“One of my goals when I started farming was to have an excellent herd of cows and produce a lot of milk,” William said. “One year we got the Progressive Breeders’ Registry award from the Holstein Association.”

William served as president of the South Dakota Holstein Association for three years. When it merged with the Minnesota Holstein Association, the Muellers continued to stay involved with the organization.

“We try to bring a couple of animals to the state Holstein show every year,” William said. “We are on the Top 200 (with Holstein Association USA) list in the U.S. for type, which was a goal of mine.”

Silver-Crest Duchess and Silver-Crest Darcy were two cows that most of their current herd can trace their genetics back to, William said.

“Darcy we spent the whole summer taking to shows all over,” Raynelle said. “She ended up being Honorable Mention All-American Junior Two-Year-Old. That was our sport then.”

Since then, the Muellers have focused more on production than type and maintaining the overall herd.

“A lot of people ask me how I continue to milk cows,” William said. “I do yoga, well, my style of yoga, every morning. It keeps me young, and I just like cows.”