Dairy Profile

How did you get into farming? We were born into it. Our father passed away when Randy was 15 years old and Robert was 7 years old. We continued going to school and farming and are still at it.

What are the most significant ways your farm has changed since you started farming? We added a robotic milking system in 2016. That was a significant change from when our father built the original barn on our home farm in 1956. When we took over, we had about 25 cows, 5 acres of tobacco and 60 acres of crops. We milked in cans. We made progress as time went on by adding on to the barn, installing a pipeline and bulk tank, and then building a parlor in 2000. Transitioning to robots was the biggest change because we more than doubled our cows and moved to a new site.

What was a challenge you faced in your dairy farming career, and how did you overcome it? We suffered a barn fire June 12, 2015. It demolished everything. We ended up losing 12 cows. One cow came out of the inferno with burning plywood and straw on her back, but she survived and went on to milk for quite a while. Her ear tag number was 911. We moved the cows to two different places after the fire. Our neighbors had just built a dry cow facility and allowed us to house our milk cows there while we built a new facility. We were lucky to have them help us. The fire was devastating, but it brought the opportunity to rebuild. That is when we built our robotic facility on a new site about 3.5 miles from our home farm.

What is the best decision you have made on your farm? Making the decision to not stay the same but to keep changing and progressing. That led us to sand bedding, a total mixed ration, silage piles and robots. It has led us to where we are today.

What are three things on the farm that you cannot live without? The TMR because the cows have to eat first. The activity collars on the cattle. We have started putting them on our heifers, too, and it has been a game changer as far as reproduction. Finally, our registered cows. They have given us recognition that allowed us to make friends and contacts in the industry. We have been fortunate to sell bulls for the A.I. industry, which has served us well.

What are your thoughts and concerns about the dairy industry for the next year? Randy: We need a better export market. That would inevitably lead to a better milk price. Robert: Transitioning to the next generation. We are looking at the greatest transfer of wealth and opportunity with the baby boomers retiring.

What strategies do you use to withstand the volatile milk prices? Capital expenditures are minimized. We try to pay down debt during good times so we have cash or a line of credit available.

How do you maintain family relationships while also working together? After all these years, we kind of know what the other one is thinking, to the point it is almost scary. We have like-minded goals and always think of everything as “we.” People ask how often we have meetings, and it is daily. We talk through things as they come up. A positive attitude and a smile goes a long way.

What do you find most rewarding about dairy farming? Randy: It is rewarding to watch the little things happen and see how good an individual cow can be just by being productive and reproducing. Robert: I love to watch cows eat, which translates to putting up really good feed. It is fun to walk the cows. We are not pushing them since installing the robots, so we can just walk through and keep an eye on them and visit.

Tell us something special about your farm. The Holstein USA Association has a progressive genetics award, and we are one of 16 herds in the U.S. that have received the award every year since its inception (33 years). One bull, Drew Dempsey, made it on the Wisconsin Holstein Association Wall of Fame. Our oldest cow on the farm is a maternal sister to Dempsey, and she is 11 years old.

What are your plans for your dairy in the next year and five years? Robert’s son, Ryan, is on the farm full time, and his wife, Kelsey, helps when she is not working off the farm. They manage the calves together, and Ryan does a lot of maintenance and daily chores. Our plan within the next year or so is to transition the farm to them. We also plan to update two of our robots. We have two A4s and one A5. We plan to upgrade to all A5s.

How do you or your family like to spend time when you are not doing chores? We spend time with our kids and grandkids at their activities and events. The grandkids like to come to the farm and spend time with us here.