People

When Steve Edstrom started Sugar Hill Dairy in 2001, he was milking eight cows in order to produce enough milk to reach the paddle in the bulk tank. Edstrom, who hadn’t grown up in the dairy industry, started out hand-milking his cows and raising heifer calves to increase his milking string until he had enough cows to move into a real facility.

Just about all dairy producers now know someone with robotics, but at Good-Vue Farms in Goodride, Minnesota, the Hanson family not only has robotic milkers – a robot mixes the herd’s feed as well.

Raising calves in the Florida heat is no easy task, but Lindsey Rucks is rising to the challenge.

Glenview Dairy in Odessa, New York, is finding success in a new facility constructed with the cow in mind.

As Daryl Martin, the dairy’s general manager, simply states, “We do it for the cows.”

What essential skill do military veterans have that dairy farmers need? Flexibility, according to two retired army officers – one now a grazing mentor and the other his apprentice.

John Bennett and Michael O’Farrell, West Branch, Michigan, are dairy farmers on opposite ends of careers – O’Farrell is just beginning while Bennett is closer to the exit sign of semi-retirement.