Cows are his service animal

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ill. — After 17 years of service in the U.S. Army, including four tours to Iraq and Afghanistan, Corey Trobaugh enjoys being with his cows. Trobaugh’s military career took him to the front lines of combat where he met the enemy face to face. The scars of war continued to haunt him long after returning home, but his cows have helped him through dark times.

“If I hadn’t started milking cows, I probably wouldn’t be here,” Trobaugh said. “The cows saved me.”

Trobaugh milks 55 cows and farms 200 acres near Milledgeville. He rents the same farm where he got his first job when he was 15 years old milking cows for Art Wolf in an 18-stall stanchion barn.

Trobaugh grew up on a farm with stock cows and bucket calves. In addition to working for Wolf, he also worked for other dairy farmers in the area.

Trobaugh joined the National Guard when he was 17. In January 1999, he went on active duty. His first duty station was in Alaska, his location when 9/11 occurred.

“I re-enlisted and went to airborne school at Fort Benning, Georgia,” Trobaugh said. “I was an 82nd Airborne (Division) infantryman stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It was 2002, and I had just gotten married. My daughter was 13 days old when my department was sent to Afghanistan in June.”

Trobaugh served a nine-month rotation in Afghanistan. He was back home for about six months when he was deployed to Iraq in the summer of 2003. During this tour, he fought in Fallujah.

“I got wounded really bad and was sent home,” Trobaugh said. “When I left Iraq on a stretcher for Germany, they told me there was a 50/50 chance I would live.”

Trobaugh was hit by an improvised explosive device, and was also fired upon by the enemy.

“I was hit with bullets and shrapnel in the throat, left forearm, right shoulder, face, neck and the right side of my head, but my helmet stopped that one,” Trobaugh said.

Doctors put plates and screws in his left arm and told Trobaugh it was the only way they could save it.

“My bones grew around it and fused all the way around the metal, which causes numbness in the top of my hand,” he said. “It’s like a headache in my arm.”

After his brush with death, Trobaugh was sent home for a while where he did extensive physical therapy to regain the use of his arm and shoulder.

“I technically should have never jumped out of a plane again, but I became a jumpmaster and went back to Afghanistan,” Trobaugh said. “I was there during their first (Afghan) election, and that was probably the coolest thing I was a part of.”

His unit deployed again to Baiji, Iraq in August 2006, but Trobaugh stayed behind at Fort Bragg because he was slated to go to drill sergeant school.

“I was an E6 about to be sergeant first class, and I was going stir crazy,” he said. “I still had my bags packed and talked to my command sergeant major about letting me join the unit since I didn’t have orders yet for drill sergeant school.”

When  Trobaugh’s buddy, Sgt. 1st Class Tony Knier, was killed by an IED, they sent Trobaugh to take over his platoon in Delta Company 1st Battalion of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which was a heavy weapons platoon.

“It got nasty on our last tour,” Trobaugh said. “We lost about nine guys, and 20-30 more were wounded. We had a problem with a sniper in the area too.”

Trobaugh and his men found out who was responsible for some of the IED attacks and uncovered military intelligence that they turned over to investigators. Trobaugh returned home in February 2008 after a 15-month rotation. His next job would be as an Army recruiter.

“I got orders to go to recruiting school, and by June, I was going to high schools to recruit kids,” Trobaugh said. “I had no time to decompress. After three years of recruiting, it was getting to me. I had issues, and the Army decided to medically retire me Feb. 13, 2013.”

Trobaugh was on terminal leave when he received a phone call that November that would lead him back to Wolf’s farm. Wolf had fallen from the silo and sustained major injuries. He was still milking cows, and Trobaugh stepped in to help. Wolf sold his cows a few months later, but that would not be the end of farming for Trobaugh or Wolf.

“We both still had heifers, and I did chores and put feed up for Art,” Trobaugh said. “In mid-summer, a heifer freshened, so I started milking her. All the milking equipment was still here because I kind of had intentions to milk again.”

Trobaugh said Wolf could not believe he was coming twice a day to milk one cow and told him, “We might as well get some cows and go back to milking.”

Trobaugh bought 12 cows through a buyer and picked up more cows here and there as his heifers came into milk. On Nov. 14, 2015, Trobaugh started shipping milk again — less than a year after Wolf sold his cows.

When Wolf retired five years ago, Trobaugh began renting the farm and bought Wolf’s share of the herd.

“I also rent my dad’s farm and other ground wherever I can,” Trobaugh said. “I have minimal acres, so I have to maximize what I can. I do a lot of double cropping.”

Wolf and his wife, Joretta, passed away this spring, and the land is going up for auction this fall.

“I’m going to try and buy it back,” Trobaugh said. “I want to buy the buildings and keep Wolf Dairy Farm going. I’m trying to keep his name alive. Art and Joretta were like grandparents to me.”

His cows are milked in a double-6 herringbone parlor and average 75 pounds of milk per day.

“It’s nothing to write home about, but it’s good for our place,” Trobaugh said. “I also have cows hitting 135-140 pounds of milk. My theory is if she has four legs and four teats, I’ll run her through the parlor, but she has to earn her keep.”

Trobaugh’s herd includes Holsteins, Brown Swiss and Jerseys. He also has a herd of 30 beef cows and sells feeder cattle.

“Farming is a dying profession, but I love it,” Trobaugh said. “My biggest fear is what I’m going to do if I quit milking. These are my ‘service cows’ — like how vets get service dogs. When I came back here, I was in a really bad spot. My wife divorced me. I was so lost. I missed being overseas. There were points in my life before I started milking that I was looking at the long sleep. I didn’t want to keep going.”

Amid these struggles, Trobaugh developed a drinking problem.

“The cows saved me, and now, I’m trying to save my cows,” he said. “I like watching them grow and develop. I can go out and talk to them.”

Trobaugh’s girlfriend, DeeDee, helps him on the farm along with two part-time employees. In addition to his daughter, Trobaugh has a son and two grandsons and is hoping to pass the farm down to his grandsons someday.

Trobaugh said sometimes he still misses being overseas.

“There is a brotherhood in the Army and the infantry,” he said. “I miss the guys and that brotherhood and camaraderie.”

Nonetheless, Trobaugh said there is no place he would rather be than at home with his cows.

“My cows are my life,” he said. “I was used to taking care of soldiers, but I don’t have soldiers anymore. My cows are that now, I guess. They need someone to look over them. That’s why I keep doing it. I love my cows.”