Proudly representing Wisconsin dairy across six generations, Brooks Farms is where tradition and innovation meet. Photo courtesy of Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin
Dairy farming and the families that make it possible have been a part of Wisconsin for more than 180 years. Today, we are home to nearly a quarter of all dairy farms in the United States, 95% of which are still family owned. These farm families understand the importance of healthy cows and healthy land, producing milk with 21% of the number of cows, 35% of the water, and 10% of the land when compared to 40 years ago.
Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin has a recent documentary series called “I’m a Wisconsin Dairy Farmer.” The series “profiles the diverse, dimensional and witty Wisconsinites who relish in early morning milking and working shoulder to shoulder with family while taking the time to pursue passions in tech, photography, running and even flying!”
“A Lasting Legacy” follows Ron Brooks on his fifth, soon to be sixth, generation dairy farm. Ron shares that working with his family is the best part of being a Wisconsin dairy farmer. “We accomplish and we fail together… I don’t know if there’s any greater validation for your life’s work than a child coming to you and saying I want to spend the rest of my life building on your legacy.”
“Three Men and a Dairy” tells the story of Matt Lippert, whose day job is working as a county agent helping other dairy farmers. His family farm is over 100 years old now and he’s thankful his sons, Paul and Carl, came back home with dairy science degrees (and a bonus computer science degree) to help keep the dairy farming tradition strong. Paul says, “A big thing is trust. If we fall down, we can pick each other back up because we just have that experience and we’ve worked with each other for so long.”
“It’s more fun than you can shake a stick at,” says Blake Heller of Heller Farms, where they like to combine family, farming, and fun into a winning combination. “Game Changer” takes us to Alma Center, where Blake’s son Cody is thankful for his childhood on the dairy farm, where the access to animals and the great outdoors was empowering. He’s now bringing technology to the farm to help protect our environment. The Hellers are using methane digesters and the next big project is a solar installation that includes panels wide enough to produce a crop between the rows!
This is just a small sampling of our many farming families and their stories. You can view these full videos and several others at www.WisconsinDairy.org.
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