Bringing people back to the best

RUBICON, Wis. — Every Friday morning, customers flock to buy fresh produce at Back to the Best Country Store. Fruits and vegetables are not the only items stocked for the weekend, however, at the shop owned and operated by the Dan and Paula Siegmann family on their dairy farm near Rubicon.

“This isn’t everything we want, but it’s everything we need,” Dan Siegmann said. “You just walk up and down four aisles, and you’ve seen it all.”

Meats, eggs, cereals, breads, granola, cake mixes, condiments, cleaning supplies, supplements and more fill the store that stands steps from the dairy barn.

“Folks love the farm experience when they come to shop here,” Siegmann said. “Kids enjoy the cows, calves, dogs, cats, goats, chickens, and especially the tame kittens. We try to bring the farm to the people as much as possible.”

The Siegmanns milk 75-80 cows and farm around 500 acres. Cows are milked in a double-25 swing-style, open-air parlor completed in 2000. Prior to that, milking took place in the farm’s 100-stall tiestall barn. Milking now takes just 45 minutes, Siegmann said. The Siegmanns milk Holsteins as well as Holstein-Limousin beef crosses and ship their milk to Cascade Cheese Company Inc.

The desire to diversify was in the Siegmanns’ blood when they opened their store in 2001.

“We’re not just a dairy farm,” Siegmann said. “Food is something everyone needs, and good-quality food is in short supply. Our dairy farm with its beef herd, butcher shop and store are a perfect combination for us to provide a healthy supply of good food for those who are looking for it. We like to diversify.”

The Siegmanns purchased their farm in 1994 and transitioned from conventional to organic over a 5-year period. The decision to go organic was set in motion for Siegmann in the early 1990s at the encouragement of his father. Siegmann was farming with his two brothers and dad on their conventional farm, but his father could see Siegmann had a different mindset. 

“I knew this place was for sale, and that’s how we got started here,” Siegmann said. “It wasn’t easy; it was a lot of work.” 

During the transition, the Siegmanns found a processor to take transitional milk, which paid $5 more than conventional.

“That was a lifesaver,” Siegmann said. “We were getting paid double once we were organic at $28 per hundredweight. I’m glad I stuck with it. It was a good decision.” 

Cows are rotated on more than 60 acres of pasture containing any grass that grows naturally mixed with red and white clover that is frost-seeded every two years in February. 

Siegmann’s current rotation is three years of alfalfa hay followed by a year of corn.

“I learned that if you keep the soils’ fertility fairly well balanced, weed pressure is minimal,” he said. “I apply calcium sulfate to my hay fields the first two years and apply potassium sulfate as a starter fertilizer for corn.”

Cows are also fed 10-12 pounds of shell corn with all the baleage they can eat and a touch of Redmond salt. During the grazing season, Siegmann cuts grain back to 6-7 pounds per cow per day. Newborn calves run with the cows until weaning.

At the heart of their farm is Back to the Best Country Store — a place where customers are friends and made to feel like family when they walk through the doors. The Siegmanns have nine children and 28 grandchildren, many of whom help run the store today.

They make the experience personable, greeting customers with a smile and a warm welcome. As they fill their carts, shoppers can grab coffee or a chai tea latte from the store’s coffee shop while conversing with one another in an ambient setting.

They also get the chance to interact with animals and the people who produce their food as they directly support their local farmer. When he has spare time, Siegmann meanders through the store to chat with customers, where new and familiar faces visit weekly.

“The people we’ve met have been amazing,” Siegmann said. “You get to know everybody by name. People love talking to the owner, the farmer. They want that connection. We have met so many wonderful people over the years and watched their children grow up, many who now also come to the farm with their family.”

The Siegmanns do no paid advertising, and most new customers come from word of mouth. People travel from all distances, Siegmann said.

“They like the drive, they like the farm, they like the store and they like what we’re doing here,” he said. “It’s nice to see like-minded people come together. We have a lot of local customers too, which is fun. We’re thankful and grateful for all of them.”

Curiosity leads people beyond the store walls out into the farmyard.

“This is a working farm, so you’re getting the real deal here,” Siegmann said. “There’s equipment running, we’re making hay, etc. But that’s what folks like to see too — how does this all work? And that’s what’s missing. There is a disconnect from the farmer to the consumer these days.”

The store is known for its healthy products, and food must meet certain standards to make it on the shelf.

“We don’t sell anything that we wouldn’t eat ourselves,” Siegmann said. “Whatever we can find organic, we get organic. If we can’t get organic, then we look for the healthiest item out there. We try to include local products as much as possible.”

Majoring in healthy meats, the store provides grass-fed beef, chicken, turkey, bison and fish, with much of the beef coming from the Siegmann farm.

Products are priced right for families, Siegmann said.

“Eggs and ground beef are probably priced lower than you can find anywhere else,” he said. “Those are staples, and I don’t want people to think, ‘How much of that can I buy?’ Buy what you need. We know what it is to raise a big family so we want to help wherever we can.”

The store is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Siegmann said with diversification comes risk.

“You’re going to lose money sometimes, but you learn too,” he said. “You can’t be afraid. We don’t worry about how much money we’re making. This is more of a relational place. It’s a place of business, but the business is secondary compared to people.”

The family is currently building an on-farm butcher shop which they plan to complete by next spring. The state-inspected facility will be known as Back to the Best Meat Cutters.

“Our grass-fed beef will be run through our on-farm butcher shop and be sold as packaged and frozen beef cuts through our on-farm store in true farm-to-table fashion,” Siegmann said. 

The farm has been the perfect place to raise his kids, the organic farmer said. 

“The greatest blessing is that our kids and grandkids all get along and work well together,” Siegmann said. “That’s what makes this possible. My wife and I thank our great God and savior Jesus Christ for the family we have and the work we can do. He is the foundation and anchor of our lives.”

Siegmann said he enjoys seeing each day unfold on his organic operation.

“It’s been a fun thing to diversify,” he said. “We look forward to the future and what our children and grandchildren will experience as they run with what we all have built.”