ANAMOSA, Iowa — Abby Fairbanks has always known she wanted to dairy farm. Her dad, Doug, remembers her at 3 years old dashing barefoot down the driveway in pursuit as he drove to the dairy farm.
“I had no choice but to stop and pick her up,” Doug said. “She just always wanted to be on the farm with me. … She’d be out playing with the calves, or walking in her bare feet out in the cow pies and doing little farm girl things.”
The Fairbanks family milks 400 cows and farms 600 acres on their farm near Anamosa. Doug is assisted by Abby, his wife, Jody, his nephew, Josh, and two full-time employees. Abby has been working full time on the farm for a year and a half since college.
“(When) you have a passion for something, it doesn’t need to be about the job or the lifestyle, it’s just everything in general,” Abby said. “I like working seven days a week. I love the cows. … I always wanted to do it.”
Doug said he encouraged Abby to look at other things before she made a decision to farm.
“I don’t want them to come home unless they’re interested in coming home,” he said. “You can’t farm with part of a heart.”
Abby remained settled in her decision. She is the third generation of the Fairbanks family to farm the land.
“I’m proud of the farm as a whole,” she said. “It’s crazy to see how far it has progressed.”
Doug and Jody started dairy farming in the early ‘90s.
“Jody has been an awesome supporter of what I do,” Doug said. “I couldn’t have done it without her.”
The couple purchased cattle, equipment and feed from Doug’s parents, Charles and Carol. His parents had farmed the land as renters for 35 years. Challenges of the ‘80s farming crisis and more had prevented them from owning the farm. Doug said he is grateful their legacy helped him dairy.
One of the things Doug credits for enabling the farm to grow from zero acres to 600 acres in 30 some years is having good loan officers that allowed him to have input.
In the ‘90s his loan officer wanted him to spend $80,000 to buy equipment to reduce custom work bills. Doug made him a counter offer. Instead, he used the $80,000 to build a step-up parlor to replace the 18-stall stanchion, doubled his herd to 120 cows and built a hoop barn for housing.
“I paid that loan really fast,” Doug said. “That gave me the cash flow to go ahead and purchase the farm.”
In 1999, he bought his 180-acre home farm. Since then, he and Jody have made seven land purchases to increase the farmland to what it is today. All land is within manure hauling distance.
Doug’s philosophy on investment has remained constant over the decades: cows over equipment. He does not own a corn planter, combine or chopper. He said he does not want to invest money in something that predominantly sits and depreciates.
“It takes labor to run them, which I don’t have, and it takes knowledge and cost to fix them, which I don’t have,” Doug said. “I’m a dairyman. I love cows, and I want to spend every second I can with cattle.”
In 2014, Doug again made a facilities upgrade. Taking a field across the road from his farm site, he built a 450-stall, sand bedded freestall barn and a manure pit. The building houses milking and dry cows, a double-12 rapid exit parlor and a holding pen.
“I felt like I had to do that to attract the next generation,” Doug said. “I wouldn’t want them to milk 180 cows three times a day in my step-up parlor.”
Doug and Abby combine to milk every cow at least one of the three milkings.
“I get up at 2:45 a.m. seven days a week,” Doug said. “I just feel like (milking) gives me an advantage, because I can keep such a handle on my herd.”
The herd has three strings of registered cattle: 240 Holsteins, 80 Brown Swiss and 80 Jerseys. Doug uses the colored breeds to augment components and profitability without increasing herd size.
“I want to send a semi load of milk every other day,” Fairbanks said. “Once the tank gets full of milk, the next way to make it more profitable is to make it heavier.”
He said shipping a semi load makes him competitive with any dairy.
“It can only leave (anywhere) one truck at a time,” Doug said.
The Fairbanks family beds with sand that is 90% recycled using their sand settling lanes. The lanes paid for themselves in 10 months. Josh is in charge of the lanes.
The Fairbanks family has diversified their income stream. They only raise the heifers they need and sell beef cross animals from the lower portion of the herd. They also sell about 120 herd bulls each year.
Doug and Abby each have their own roles on the dairy. The father-daughter pair said they work well together, do not argue and keep things light-hearted.
“We have fun,” Doug said. “There just is no tension. … We think so much alike that it’s livestock first. I think we both enjoy the farm so much. Our goals really align.”
Abby agreed.
“I can’t think of a time in my whole life where we didn’t really get along, especially with the farm,” she said. “We’ve just grown to appreciate each other and realize our own strengths and weaknesses, and made it work. We complement each other.”
Taking time off is one of Doug’s goals.
“I’ve been better at taking care of the cattle than I have taking care of myself,” he said. “I love what I do. … I just know that I can’t probably continue to work at this pace for a long time without some sacrifices.”
In the future, Doug wants to transition the farm.
“I don’t really see myself retiring,” Doug said. “I’m doing what I want to do. … At some point in time I want to not have all the management decisions.”
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