Farm tours

Vita Plus nutritionist Barry Visser and MoDak Dairy owners Greg and Jacob Moes highlight their maternity, pre-weaning, and heifer facilities, followed by high-impact conversations on calf management strategies.

The Finger family has farmed in Oconto, Wisconsin, for more than 150 years. With exceptional animal care as a top priority on the dairy farm, the family and its team of employees continue to learn, evolve, and adapt to new strategies to maximize cow and calf success.

In 1960, Gilbert and Carol Helt purchased a farm in Dane, Wisconsin, and started milking 30 cows. Gilbert’s son, Dale, and his wife, Diane, purchased the farm in the late 1980s and updated the milking parlor in 1999.

After cash cropping and raising beef cattle on multiple sites for several years, Keven and Cheryl Schultz of Fox Lake, Wisconsin, decided to consolidate their farming operations and build a brand new 400-cow dairy in 1993.

What facilities provide the best environment to raise calves and heifers?  Answering that question requires us to first consider each farm’s specific needs and management systems. In March, two Midwest dairy farms opened their doors to a group of dairy producers on a tour organized by Vita Plus. 

When Mike and Tim Wettstein of Level-Vu Acres in Cambellsport, Wisconsin, built a new freestall barn for their heifers a few years ago, they had an opportunity to experiment with a new system to raise their preweaned calves and young heifers. The result is group housing that is easier to clean and manage.

Mitch Breunig is focused on raising great calves and heifers at Mystic Valley Dairy LLC in Sauk City, Wisconsin, and he embraces new research and technologies to help his team achieve that goal. The farm’s commitment to excellence allows it to sell about 150 replacement heifers each year.

Felten Farms in St. Cloud, Wisconsin, milks about 400 cows and raises all its heifers onsite with mostly family labor. Eric Felten takes the lead on calf feeding and care. He said he began exploring ways to improve calf management a couple of years ago to increase the efficiency and performance in this area of the farm.

Loehr Farms, LLC in Eden, Wisconsin, is a sixth-generation dairy farm.  After a herd expansion, the Loehr family built a new calf barn with an autofeeder.  Herdsman Ryan Loehr said the autofeeder allows him to spend more time with the calves that need it.

DCS Farms LLC in Waunkee, Wisconsin, is a fifth-generation dairy farm owned and operated by Chris Roth and his father. They milk 66 registered Holsteins with a rolling herd average of 32,900 pounds on twice-a-day milking. Roth said his goal is to “have the best 66 cows I can.”

For this special edition virtual farm tour, we visit a commercial dairy goat farm to compare and contrast management of dairy goats with that of calves and heifers.

Pebble Knolls Dairy LLC in Brandon, Wisconsin, is owned and operated by Eric and Danielle Wetzel and Eric’s parents, Richard and Gail Wetzel.  Eric and Danielle’s daughter, Karsyn, began working as the farm’s calf manager three years ago.  As she learns the ins and outs of raising healthy calves, Karsyn continues the farm’s decade-long tradition of mob-feeding calves in group pens.

It’s not often that farmers completely start over on the same farm where they grew up, but that’s exactly what brothers Sam and Matt Redetzke are doing at Redetzkes’ No Joke Dairy, LLC in Stratford, Wisconsin.  In 2015, Sam and Matt decided they wanted to start milking on their family farm.  Today, they milk 190 cows and about 75% of the herd is Jerseys.

Transition to the next generation can bring about a lot of change and disruption to a farm’s day-to-day operations. However, the Speirs family of Shiloh Dairy LLC in Brillion, Wisconsin, has made it a smooth process by focusing on consistent animal care and continual improvement. 

Dana Allen-Tully, partner and dairy operations manager at Gar-Lin Dairy LLC in Eyota, Minnesota, was looking to design new calf facilities. She recognized the workforce was changing and wanted facilities that provided a nice work environment for employees that also allowed for workflow efficiency. Autofeeders seemed like the right fit and construction on a new barn was completed in October 2016.

Raising calves in group housing continues to gain interest among both dairy producers and researchers. The team at Birchen Farms Inc. in Pearl City, Illinois, has successfully raised calves in group housing for about 16 years. While their calf and heifer program differs from many Midwest farms, they consistently raise strong and healthy replacements for the herd.