Building a life in America

NEW LONDON, Wis. — Jamie Macpherson moved to the U.S. in January with just three suitcases and two dogs by his side. Although his belongings were few, he was not short on the courage or determination required to begin a new life in a new country. Coming from Ayrshire, Scotland, Macpherson started his own dairy operation and now milks 310 cows at Jaimac Dairies LLC near New London.

“I’ve been to the U.S. a lot, and I suppose it’s something I always dreamt of doing,” Macpherson said. “I rented three different farms in Scotland, but I felt I wasn’t really getting anywhere. I was running beef and sheep but always wanted to go back to dairy.”

When he stepped off the plane, Macpherson had 100 cows lined up to arrive the following week. He is steadily growing his herd, adding cows nearly every month.

“I want every stall filled,” he said. “I want to keep growing.”

Macpherson’s goal is to milk 500-600 cows before looking for a second farm to milk an additional 500 cows. His ultimate goal is to have 1,100 cows between two sites.

Macpherson saw the farm in person for the first time in August 2024.

“It took 18 months to make it happen,” he said. “The exchange rate allowed me to do it — I sold everything I had. I looked at a lot of farms, but most weren’t ready to milk. A lot advertised as dairy farms had no parlors, no stalls. I’m not saying this place was perfect, but it was ready to go.”

Macpherson did not grow up dairy farming but did work as a herdsman and also had a dairy of his own for a period of time.

“I milked cows from a young age and did a lot of relief milking,” he said. “I’ve always been around it. Dairy farming is always something I said I was going to do.”

Macpherson was instantly christened to Wisconsin winters upon his arrival in the U.S. He faced multiple weeks of intense cold weather followed by heavy snowfall mid-March.

“The weather in Wisconsin is very different from Scotland’s weather,” he said. “I’m used to cold weather, but not this cold. Scotland has wet winters, and it doesn’t snow much.”

Starting from scratch in the U.S. proved challenging for Macpherson.

“When trying to organize all of this from the U.K., people think you’re a scammer,” Macpherson said. “Working with the bank was difficult until I got a visa. Honestly, it’s been pretty tough. I sold my house furnished and didn’t bring anything with me. I had nothing at all, not even a wrench. I had to go out and buy every single thing.”

As a newcomer on American soil, Macpherson was met with distrust and found it difficult to buy tractors and other equipment.

“No one wants to deal with a foreigner because they don’t know you,” he said. “I had to buy a total mixed ration mixer, two tractors, a telehandler, a skid loader and manure spreader, and Ballweg Implement was the only place that wanted to do business with me…I did question my life choices a few times.”

Macpherson had the tenacity to keep going, however.

Purchasing high-quality cows was a must for Macpherson, who is now milking a mixed-breed herd with success. He has about 260 Holsteins, 50-60 Jerseys and 45 Ayrshires.

“All my cows are registered and I’m trying to keep it that way,” Macpherson said.

Colored breeds are housed in the farm’s oldest facility, which was the original tiestall barn.

“Plenty of my Ayrshires are milking 100 pounds, and plenty of Jerseys are milking 90 pounds,” Macpherson said. “I was always against Jerseys, but they’re great milkers, and they calve in with no problems. The colored breeds hit the ground running and you never see them again.”

Macpherson aims to breed a deep-bodied, moderate-size cow while focusing on solid production, high components and longevity. To grow heifer inventory, Macpherson is breeding all animals to sexed semen. Macpherson said he will start seeing the results of his breeding when the first of his own calves are born at the end of September.

Cows are milked in a double-8 parlor, averaging 87 pounds of milk, with tests of 4.5% butterfat and 3.5% protein and a somatic cell count of 120,000. Macpherson ships his milk to Wisconsin Dairy State Cheese Company. In May, he switched to three-times-a-day milking.

“We were milking twice a day, but there was always so much milk in the stalls, and I didn’t like it,” he said. “So when I reached 200 cows, I made the decision to hire help for milking.”

Macpherson has three full-time and two part-time employees. Elijah Hamm is Macpherson’s right-hand man and herdsman.

“He comes every day and knows the cows well,” Macpherson said. “He is also very mechanical — there’s nothing he can’t fix.”

Macpherson is in improvement mode as he works to remodel what he calls old-fashioned facilities. He is in the process of changing all the stalls to flex stalls in his sand-bedded freestall barns and also plans to change out the headlocks and redo the feeding system. He has also made tweaks to the parlor.

“We just pick a project, finish it and start another one,” he said. “Lighting has been a big thing. We put up around 40 LED lights because the place was so dark. We also added more fans. Ventilation was and still is an issue, but we are working on it.
In five years, you won’t recognize this place.”

Putting an addition on the main 4-row freestall barn is part of Macpherson’s plan as he continues to modernize the operation in phases. He is also considering extending the parlor to make it a double-12.

Macpherson’s farm includes 24 acres, thus, Macpherson buys all his feed. A neighbor grows corn silage for him, and Macpherson has bought crops of standing hay.

“I’m trying to do some of the cutting and am looking at getting a merger next year,” he said. “We’ll hopefully change to chopping our own corn as well, but that’s probably a year or two away. The plan is to try and keep it all in-house and keep the cost down. I’m looking for land.”

Nutrition has been a learning curve, and cropping will be a new venture for Macpherson.

“We don’t really feed corn silage in Scotland because we don’t have the climate for growing it, and I’ve never made alfalfa in my life,” he said. “I’m buying it standing crop, which is a bit different.”

Although his days are packed full, Macpherson still finds time for a favorite hobby.

“I do a lot of clay pigeon shooting and got involved in a club here,” he said. “I try to get out a couple of afternoons a week. I quite enjoy that.”

Macpherson is currently in the U.S. on a 5-year visa but said his move to America is permanent.

“I’m not going home,” he said. “I love it here.”