Staying true to their vision

Kohlweys add maternity, pregnant heifer barns

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ADELL, Wis. – The Kohlweys are careful planners who never build on a whim. With an eye on the future, their choices are deliberate and made in a way that will lead the family successfully into the next phase of their operation.

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“Every time we build, we try to think and plan for the future,” Doug Kohlwey said. “We want everything to be simple, practical, user friendly and efficient. We have moved a lot of ground in the past 13 years to get us where we are today.”
Doug and Betty Kohlwey farm with their son, Jesse, and their daughter, Jolene, milking 510 cows and running 1,400 acres near Adell. The rolling herd average for their all-registered herd is 31,703 pounds of milk. In 2016, the four family members formed Kohlwey Farms LLC.
This year, the Kohlweys built two barns simultaneously – a maternity barn and a barn for pregnant heifers and far-off dry cows. The buildings work in harmony, with close-up animals relocating to the maternity barn one month before calving. More than 230 calves have been born since the first animals moved into the maternity barn during the first week of May.
“I am not an impulse buyer,” Jesse said. “I analyze every possible scenario I can think of before building. Over the years, we have accumulated numerous drawings for buildings.”
Doug and Betty purchased the farm in 1981 when they moved from Saukville with 70 cows and 35 bred heifers. Guided by the vision of building a new setup, the Kohlweys started building for the future in 2009 with the first of several additions to their main freestall barn. In 2012, the family started planning for and building a milking parlor when Jolene returned home two years after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
In February 2013, the Kohlweys retired the old milking barn which consisted of 30 stanchions and upgraded to a double-12 parallel basement-style parlor milking 215 cows. In April of that year, they began milking three times a day. In January 2020, they expanded the parlor to a double-16.
Jolene’s husband, Chad LeClair, also works on the farm, and the couple has two boys – Bryson and Karson. Jesse and his wife, Lisa, who works at Masters Gallery Foods, have three children – Tori, Taylor and Aliyah. The Kohlweys’ other daughter, Jenny, works at the Farm Service Agency in Plymouth. She and her husband, Garett Rortvedt, a mechanic at Mike Burkart Ford, have two children, Lydia and Kole.
The family’s new 2-row maternity barn measuring 57 feet wide by 193 feet long contains 48 sand-bedded free stalls, two group calving pens, and one individual calving pen that could cater to difficult calvings and be used for cesarean sections or other veterinary work. Each pen is bedded with straw and features a headlock. A post and rail feed alley throughout the barn provides unrestricted access to feed. The freestall area has two waterers, and waterers are also located in each calving pen.
“It’s a really quiet barn and a very relaxed environment,” Jolene said. “We also like its location next to the parlor and front office – that’s been very convenient. It’s easy to keep an eye on the cows.”
Doug also appreciates the barn’s proximity to the milking parlor.  
“You can see cows calving right from the parlor, and that pays big dividends,” he said. “It’s much better if calves are born in straw. The maternity pen used to be in the far back corner of the big freestall barn, and too many calves got missed.”
Jolene said the barn’s location next to the road also makes it easy for the Kohlweys to stop in and check for fresh cows when going in and out of the farm. The barn also features a warming room for newborn calves located off one of the calving pens as well as a vet room.
“We’re looking forward to using the warming room this winter,” Jolene said.
A breezeway connection was built to connect the barn to the milking parlor. Following calving, fresh animals are sent to the parlor for milking and then moved to the fresh cow group in the main barn.
Moving in the first week of April, the new 5-row freestall barn for heifers and dry cows replaced an old freestall barn previously used to house bred heifers. In the old barn, heifers were housed in a single group of 120. In the new barn, pregnant heifers are split into two groups of 60. Close-up heifers are on the west side, and confirmed pregnant heifers are on the east side. Both groups have headlocks, making it easy to sort and give shots – a feature not found in the old facility.  
“We needed to replace our old heifer barn,” Jolene said. “It was dark, had low sides and no headlocks. It was difficult to sort heifers or give shots. The new barn has helped us manage pregnant heifers better.”
The heifer barn measures 200 feet long by 110 feet wide and contains 202 sand-bedded free stalls. The heifer side has headlocks, while the other side is post and rail. More than 30 dry cows are also housed here along with 40 steers due to extra space. The Kohlweys finish 150 steers per year.
The family dries off cows every Wednesday, and dry cows spend 20 to 30 days in the barn before moving onto the maternity barn. Every two to three weeks, a new batch of animals is brought up to the maternity barn. The barns are not located next to each other; however, a gate system makes transferring animals quick and painless.
Located on a hillside, the naturally ventilated barns feature curtains as well as fans for additional air movement. The center ridge in the roof of both barns contains solar panels and cupola fans that remove old air from the building.
By devoting separate space to maternity and dry cow housing, the facilities have also made more room for milk cows in the main barn.
“We were overcrowded and wanted to devote that space to a milk cow group,” Jolene said.
Helping ensure future success through growth and opportunity, both new barns fit the vision of where the Kohlwey farm is heading.
“At the end of the day, you always have to see where you’re headed,” Jesse said. “That’s how we got here.”

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