A day in the life of the Fischer family

PLYMOUTH, Wis. — Fischer Valley Dairy was a busy place May 14 when it welcomed more than 300 elementary students to the farm. Kids in 4K and third grade moved from station to station learning about cows, calves, goats, sheep, pigs and more.

Hosting the Food for America event on behalf of the Plymouth FFA Chapter is a longtime tradition for the Fischer family.

“Kids are so disconnected with farming nowadays,” John Fischer said. “It should be pretty obvious to people where our food comes from, but they’re used to going to the store and getting every little thing they want.”

John and his wife, Linda, farm with their daughter and son-in-law, Sara and Adam Hanke, milking 150 cows and farming 600 acres near Plymouth.

“We take pride in keeping our farm nice,” Sara said. “It’s fun to have the kids here.”

Cows are milked twice a day in a double-12 parallel parlor, and milking began at 5:30 that morning, a half-hour earlier than usual. With extra help on hand, milking was done around 8 a.m.

The Fischers employ four high schoolers, some of whom are members of the Plymouth FFA, as well as a 20-year-old. Linda helps milk 2-3 mornings a week and also volunteers as a librarian at St. John Lutheran School every Friday, something she has done for 35 years.

John started feeding cows around 7 a.m.

“I had to get up early today,” he said. “When I was 60, I told the kids I wasn’t coming out early anymore. For the last 10 years, I’ve been coming at 10:30 to feed, but today, I had to get everything parked and cleaned up before the kids arrive.”

The students came from five local elementary schools in Plymouth, with the first bus pulling in around 9 a.m. A sunny 60-degree day greeted the children as they hopped off the bus.

“It couldn’t be more perfect,” John said. “It’s fun to watch the kids, especially when they climb in the tractor to get their picture taken. When we first started doing this, we had one tractor and a line that went on forever. Now, we have five tractors, and they’ll probably still be lined up. They can’t get enough of that.”

FFA members organize and run Food for America with help and guidance from the chapter advisor, Tracy Heinbuch.

“As consumers become further removed from the farm each year, it’s important to get kids out to a farm to learn about animals, see where milk comes from and learn how it’s turned into products like cheese, yogurt and ice cream,” Heinbuch said. “Unfortunately, some people think their food comes from the store, and they forget about the people working hard behind the scenes to get food on their tables.”

Thirty-three FFA members manned the stations, educating youngsters about agriculture. FFA students began filing into the farm around 7 a.m. to set up. Two of the Fischers’ 11 grandchildren — Hannah and Aubrey — are in the Plymouth FFA and helped run the event.

A family with strong ties to FFA, John is a charter member of the Plymouth FFA Alumni, which started in 1976. His dad was a charter member of the Plymouth FFA Chapter, which was chartered in 1929. Sara is also active with the FFA alumni group.

After milking, Sara and Adam bred a couple cows before waiting for their son, Isaac, to arrive on the bus with his classmates.

“He has a bunch of chickens he shows,” John said. “He also has rabbits, guinea pigs, ducks, turkeys and quail here on the farm.”

Kids received string cheese and a carton of milk and were sent home with a drawstring backpack containing an activity book, information about the dairy industry and other goodies. Each teacher was also given an ag-related book for the classroom.

Plymouth FFA partners with Sheboygan County Farm Bureau in this promotion.

“We’re big sponsors of Sheboygan County Farm Bureau,” John said.

Fischer Valley Dairy is celebrating its centennial anniversary this year. The soon-to-be century farm is on the brink of changing hands to the next generation, as Sara and Adam will be taking over June 1.

“We were planning on it last September when I turned 70, but the paperwork takes forever,” John said. “There are a lot of hoops to jump through and steps to take, and we wanted to get it done right the first time.”

John’s grandma started the farm up the road in 1926.

“My grandpa was a wheeler and dealer who used to have daily meetings on the steps of the bank in downtown Plymouth,” John said. “After moving six times, my grandma said, ‘This is my farm, and this is where I’m staying,’ and she did. She put her name on it, which was rare for a woman in those days.”

John’s grandparents had four sons, and each had a farm in the area. John’s and Linda’s farm once belonged to John’s uncle, Ed. The Fischers also continue to farm the homestead property where John’s grandmother lived.

In 1998, on the Fischers’ eldest son’s 18th birthday, straight-line winds came through and blew the top off the  traditional 44-cow tiestall barn.

“We had a decision to make whether or not we should keep going,” John said. “The girls outvoted me, so we kept going. It was a good decision. I said, ‘I’ll build you something, but I’m not going to do all the milking.’”

That was when the parlor and freestall barn went up.

“We ran over 100 cows through the old barn until April 2000,” John said. “It was a long journey from where my wife and I started in 1981 with four cows. From the get-go, Linda put her foot down and said she is not staying in the barn all night. She wanted to be done by 8:00 (p.m.), and we always adhered to that.”

Following a lunch break, the last group of students arrived in the early afternoon. By 2 p.m., the event was wrapping up. FFA members stayed to clean up and left soon after as the normal daily routine resumed at Fischer Valley Dairy.

Adam spent the afternoon working land, and John continued getting the corn planter ready. The evening milking began around 5:30 p.m. After feeding cows, John ended the day playing weekly Thursday night sheepshead for a few hours with his group of farmer friends.

“It was a long, fun day,” he said.