Barn full of memories: Mike Frey

Mike Frey

Claremont, South Dakota

What year did you start farming and what year did you retire? I started dairy farming after college graduation in 1992 and retired from milking cows in 2018.

Tell us about your farm when you started and describe what it looked like when you retired, including how many cows you milked when you retired. My dad, Kenneth, sold milk to Land O’Lakes in the 70s with 10 cows. As I grew up in the 80s, we milked 40 cows in a stanchion barn. When we sold out in 2018, we were milking 200 cows.

What were some of the big advancements you made during your career? In 1997, we expanded our dairy and built a double-8 milking parlor and added a freestall barn.

What did you love about milking cows? I enjoyed getting to use the best genetics through A.I. to develop better cow families and see how our herd milk production improved over the years.

What was the highlight of your dairy career? The main highlights of dairy farming were showing our registered Holsteins at county and state fairs and watching our boys grow up showing cattle and working on the dairy farm.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in your career, and how did you overcome it? In 2009-2010, we had extremely wet conditions from winter snow and spring rains. We could not get the milk truck to our farm for multiple weeks and had to dump milk for many days, all while the milk price was extremely low. We cut back on capital purchases and became more efficient during that time.

If there is one thing you wished you could have done differently during your farming career, what would it be? I wish we had installed a sand reclaimer or sand lanes to save on bedding costs.

What piece of equipment or technology has been introduced that you wish you had for your dairy career? We had heat detection collars, but I would have liked to use the technology advancements in rumination collars to help improve animal health.

What do you miss most about dairy farming? I miss being around the dairy cattle every day and milking.

What advice would you give to a young farmer today? You will have many highs and lows while farming, but you just need to be even-keeled while working with the cows.

What is your tie to the dairy industry today? I serve as the dairy superintendent at the South Dakota State Fair in Huron and also at the Brown County Fair in Aberdeen.

Was retiring an easy or hard decision/transition? It was a very hard decision since dairying was all I knew. Our youngest son would have liked to have kept milking, but financially, it was the right decision for our farm at the time. Since exiting the dairy industry, our son, Colin, has graduated from South Dakota State University and is home, farming our crop ground. Together with our other son, Dylan, they have started a cow-calf operation and are utilizing our farm facilities.

What have you been doing since you retired? I work full time as a crop claims representative for Great American Insurance Company. I also help with spring and fall fieldwork for crops on our farm.