Connecting past to future

REEDSVILLE, Wis. — Jason Baroun is working hard to ensure his family’s 150-year-old farm remains in the family for years to come. Since buying the farm near Reedsville in 2008 and then purchasing a neighboring farm in 2011, he has expanded the farm’s overall footprint and modernized facilities.

“I always had interest in dairy cows and making farming my full-time career,” Jason said. “I’m a first-generation dairy farmer but a fifth-generation farmer in my family.”

Jason’s parents, William and Helen, raised beef cattle and hogs, so when Jason decided to milk cows, he had to find another place for them.

His mom continues to live on the home farm in the house that was built in 1900 after his dad passed away in 2007. Jason and his wife, Katie, and their children, Russell and Kenzie, live down the road on the neighboring farm where they milk 125 cows and farm about 400 acres of alfalfa, corn, soybeans and wheat.

Katie works full time for GreenStone Farm Credit Services as a real estate appraiser while also helping on the farm and doing the bookkeeping. Jason’s brother, Tom, has a full-time job but helps Jason nearly every night with mechanical work. The Barouns also receive part-time help from several high school students.

With the sixth generation showing strong interest, the decision was made to implement robotic milking in 2024, and cows are milked by two DeLaval VMS V-300 robots.  

 “My son, Russell, is 15 and does a lot of work here,” Jason said. “He really took an interest in the farm, so when planning for robots, I asked him, ‘Do we put robots in or buy a new tractor?’ He thought about it and said, ‘Let’s put robots in.’ I knew there would be a future for him.”

Baroun Family Farm LLC was recognized as a sesquicentennial farm this year at the Wisconsin State Fair. The family’s involvement in the farm began Oct. 27, 1876, when Francis Baroun purchased 100 acres for $825.

Generations that preceded Jason’s parents kept a few dairy cows along with a variety of animals. William and Helen took over the farm in 1968 and raised other livestock while William also worked full time for the Town of Franklin.

Jason dipped his toes into dairy when he began raising heifers in 2003 and built a heifer barn at the home farm. He started renting his current farm in 2004. He bought 60 cows and milked around 50 in the 48-stanchion barn. Helen helped Jason with milking and feeding calves.

Motivated by a passion for improving, Jason made many changes to the farm since buying it in 2011. One of the largest upgrades came in the form of building a freestall facility in 2015. 

He then converted the stanchion barn to a flat-barn parlor. The intention was to eventually build a pit parlor next to the new barn until Jason started looking at robots. Labor savings drove the purchase of robotic technology.

“Being a smaller dairy, we always struggled with finding help,” Jason said.

Rapid adoption of other technology has also followed, as Jason said he recently signed a contract for trial equipment that will test butterfat, protein and somatic cell count for each cow in real time.

“Robots have their challenges at times, and they have their advantages at times,” Jason said. “You’re on call 24/7, but they also allow us more freedom. We notice we pay a lot more attention to details about the cows than we used to. Before, we concentrated on milking. Now, our attention is on looking at the cows and seeing health problems, etc.”

Jason built an addition that included space for the robots, a milkhouse and an office. Cows average 2.5 milkings per day, producing 85 pounds of milk per day with tests of 4.3% butterfat and 3.1% protein. A feed pusher and alley scrapers round out the barn’s automation, which was designed with future expansion in mind. The building could be doubled in size by adding 120 stalls and two more robots.

Jason and Russell also remodeled the old dairy barn, transforming it into housing for dry cows and bred heifers.

“We tore everything out of our old milking facility, including the concrete, and poured new concrete and put in free stalls,” Jason said.

Calves reside in hutches and are fed pasteurized milk. At 4 months, they move to the home farm and remain there until confirmed pregnant.

Through the years, Jason purchased the land between his two farms, connecting the properties and expanding the Baroun family farm. The home farm is where heifers, feed, equipment and the shop are located.

Jason has done a lot to update both farms and ensure the home farm remains relevant. He built a new shop in 2008 and continues to find use for old buildings. For example, the old barn at the home farm serves as a commodity area, storing round hay bales. All feed is put into feed bags at this location.

“The next thing I want to do is modernize the feed pad,” Jason said. “I’m not sure if I’m going to stick with bags or go with piles or bunkers. We need an extensive plan because we have creeks running through both farms, and Branch River is just down the road.”

All overhead electrical lines were taken down at both farms and updated into a new underground system. The new layout alleviated a stray voltage problem on the newer farm during Jason’s earlier years of ownership.

Helen said she is happy and proud to see her son carrying on the family farm while bringing dairy back into the mix.

“It’s great,” she said. “I know my husband loved farming, but I think I loved farming more than him, especially the dairy. I like dairy cows, and I’m very happy the way things turned out.  I’m sure William would really be surprised to see the updates Jason did with the robots. He probably would be stunned.”

Helen is 83 and continues to help her son, feeding grain to heifers every day on the home farm. When the weather is nice, she walks over to Jason’s farm. Jason said he appreciates her involvement as he keeps moving the farm forward.

“Being that Russell has such an interest in it, I’m constantly trying to think of ways to help the next generation thrive and continue dairying,” he said.

The Barouns are scheduled to host Breakfast on the Farm for Manitowoc County in 2029, the same year Russell graduates from high school. The family also hosts farm tours.   

“We made a lot of changes to the farm in 11 years,” Jason said. “I’m making it ours and trying to preserve it for future generations. I’d like to see it keep going.”