Bringing home a Brown Swiss for Christmas

TOMAH, Wis. — McCormick Bailey, a 5-year-old from Tomah, received one of the best presents a farm kid can get: a 4-month-old calf. Bailey was the winner of Dairy Star’s annual Great Christmas Giveaway after signing up at Leedstone in Sparta. Bailey is the son of Brock and Nelda Bailey, and the youngest of six children.

“Our three youngest children help with calf chores and help their grandparents, Mike and Jean, when they’re not in school,” Brock said. “We’ll add this calf in with our youngstock, and we get to have another breed of cow in the barn.”

This is the first Brown Swiss for the Baileys, who had five breeds of dairy cattle along with crossbreds on their farm.

“We started with all Holstein cows,” Brock said. “My wife, Nelda, brought the Jerseys in, and then our oldest daughter, Josie, brought in Ayrshires and Guernseys.”

Josie added the Ayrshires after earning a grant to purchase one for their farm. She also built up her own herd of Guernseys and was recently named the National Guernsey Queen.

Bailey’s Cherry Valley Dairy also has Milking Shorthorns as well as a single Brown Swiss now.

“We host fourth-grade classes every year,” Brock said. “So having a variety of cows can help teach them that there’s more to dairy cows than the typical black and white. Our kids are also very active in showing cattle, so this gives them another opportunity to show.”

All six of the Bailey children — Josie, Teagan, Blair, Malynn, Boden and McCormick — have been active in showing at the Monroe County Fair and are active on the family farm.

“It’s good to have our kids so involved in dairy,” Brock said. “They show more cattle than I ever did. They started showing when they were young, and it’s nice to see them so active on the farm and with the cows.”

The calf that McCormick won is named Guyrand Richard Freeze. She was born in early September and is out of Guyrand Carter Frazzle VG-86.  Her sire is Jo-Dee Nemo Richard-ET. The second dam is Guyrand Griffin Faye VG-85, who has lifetime production totals of 135,160 pounds of milk, 5,350 pounds of butterfat and 4,490 pounds of protein.

“It’s pretty cool we get to keep it,” McCormick said. “I like the calves. I fill their buckets with pellets and feed them bottles. I like to pet them.”

The Brown Swiss calf will be added to a herd that currently milks 340 cows with six robots. The third-generation farm transitioned to robots in March 2024.

“We used to milk in a stall barn,” Brock said. “The technology aspect of having everything computerized was a big change. Our cows adjusted well. They were used to people in the stall barn milking from the side, so they’ve adjusted well to the robotic milkers.”

The $500 cash prize for Dairy Star’s Great Christmas Giveaway was won by Mark Karow of Karow Farms in Augusta. Karow partnered with his father until 2014, when his father retired, and now milks 70 cows with his wife, Gerri, and their two sons, Brayden and Caden. Karow signed up for the giveaway at Chippewa Farm Service in Chippewa Falls.

“I just happened to be up there getting some parts I had ordered,” Karow said. “My wife said, ‘Make sure you sign the boys and me up, or sign yourself up,’ and heck, we got lucky.”

The stroke of luck felt atypical for the Wisconsin farmer, who does not fancy himself a game of chance.

“We sure as heck got a lucky one,” Karow said. “I’m a farmer, so I don’t need to gamble.”