A barn full of memories

Within this feature the Dairy Star  catches up to retired farmers and talks about the highlights and struggles they had when dairy farming. The feature includes how each individual farm changed throughout the farmer’s career and what each has been doing since they hung the milkers up.

Dean Kammes

Darlington, Wisconsin

What year did you start farming, and what year did you retire? I started to help milk cows when I was 10 years old. I retired from milking in November 2023.

Tell us about your farm when you started, and describe what it looked like when you retired, including how many cows you milked when you retired. When we started, we had 48 cows milking. I was the third generation to farm, the second generation on our current farm to milk. We milked using the Surge buckets and carried them to a milk transfer station. When I retired, we had 40 cows and we were milking in tie stalls with a pipeline.

What were some of the big advancements you made during your career? We built three silos on our farm to help with feed. We put up a bred heifer barn in 1980 and a calf barn in 2016. We also installed the pipeline in 1977.

What did you love about milking cows? I loved the calmness that came with milking cows. That’s where I did most of my thinking.

What was the highlight of your dairy career? We had a herd of registered Holsteins, and I had a cow score Excellent 93 with a 94-point mammary in 2003.

What is the biggest challenge you faced in your career, and how did you overcome it? The biggest challenge I faced was the drought we had in 1988. We did the best we could with the crops that year and looked forward to having a better harvest the next year.

If there is one thing you wish you could have done differently during your farming career, what would it be? I wish I had gotten certified organic sooner. We certified our milk in 2016; we had the land certified organic in 2008.

What piece of equipment or technology has been introduced that you wish you had for your dairy career? I liked the setup I used while I was milking. We had everything we needed for our farm.

What do you miss most about dairy farming? I miss the genetics part and breeding cows. It was nice to see how they would turn out when they got to milking age.

What advice would you give to a young farmer today? Manage your debt as well as you can. You don’t have to have all the new stuff. It may be nice on the surface, but managing your debt is the most important part of keeping a dairy going.

What is your tie to the dairy industry today? I have a heifer and some steers yet. I’ll graze some heifers for an Amish herd nearby. I still crop my land, which is about 130 acres, and then I custom combine about 15 acres a year.

Was retiring an easy or hard decision/transition? It was easy for me. About the third time I heard Cody Johnson’s song, “‘Til You Can’t,” I knew it was time to be done. I have 15 grandkids. I wanted to be around and spend more time with them. You can’t get back time, and I want to spend as much time with those kids as I can. 

What have you been doing since you retired? I read quite a bit now and watch some “Court TV.” I go to a lot of football games as well. I also have more time to go to my grandkids’ events. The youngest is 6 weeks old now, and the oldest is 23. I liked to attend their games and plays or whatever event they might have going on. I am around them as much as I can be.