Diversified Farm
What does a farm look like when the goal is to, “Make it so my children can make it”, instead of “Make as much money as possible and sell to the highest bidder”? It looks like a farm with diverse farm enterprises managed by different family members.
In the rolling hills of Green County, WI, this family farm is on the edge of the Driftless region, where rolling hills dotted with woodlots and fencerows make the land ideally suited to grazing cows and less well suited to conventional crop farming. Green County was settled by Swiss farmers who found it resembled the dairy regions of their homeland. Swiss cheese makers also settled in Green County. There are still 12 small cheese plants in the county.
The family on this farm was the first to settle in Green County and the farmer is a leader of the community that followed him there. It is a diversified dairy farm operation. They raise their own feed and forages, and built a new free stall barn for improved cow comfort and a state-of-the-art milking parlor. They are moving away from milking Holstein cows to Fleckvieh, a breed of cow that is from the alpine region of Germany and naturally better suited to grazing. They are also moving the herd to produce A2 milk. One of the sons is working to implement managed grazing paddocks on the farm. Another has started a chicken operation on the farm.
This farm is also an ‘old-school’ agroforestry operation in the form of a “Sugar Bush”, or maple tree woodlot that produces maple syrup. Agroforestry is a farm management approach that intentionally includes trees and shrubs in a farming system. Managed woodlots generate income from syrup, wood for building materials, and they also sequester carbon. To maximize their annual production, the family installed permanent taps for gathering sap. When their old sugar shack burned down, their community gathered to help them build a new timber frame sugar shack. They upgraded their syrup making system to use modern ultrafiltration equipment to make maple syrup instead of boiling it over an open fire. They sell all their syrup both off the farm or at local farmers markets.
“Make it so they can make it” was something this farmer’s father told him, and it is something he tells his children. By building diverse farm enterprises on his farm, this farmer is helping each of his sons start businesses that they can eventually take to their own farms.
To learn more about Fleckvieh cattle, see: https://fleckvieh.com/
To learn more about maple syrup production in WI, see the video below produced by the Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producers Association:
For more about agroforestry, visit the Savanna Institute website:
https://www.savannainstitute.org
A note about our photos: We are excited to use photos to connect you to the farms that supply milk for your Organic Squeaks so you can learn about the wide range of eco-active practices they use. Unless noted otherwise, these photos were taken on this farm by a photographer who is also one of our farmers. We respect the culture and privacy preferences of our farm partners, which is why you won’t always see people in our photos.