Back up and running

SAUK RAPIDS, Minn. — It is in Adam Scapanski’s blood to be a dairy farmer. But when his dad passed away from cancer and the cows were sold, he was not sure that was going to happen.

However, today, Scapanski’s dream has come true as he is milking 30 cows in a step-up 8-stall parlor at his home farm near Sauk Rapids.

“It was always my dream to milk cows here,” Scapanski said. “I just didn’t know how long it would take to get going again since we sold the cows when I was 9.”

While the cows were sold, the youngstock were kept and the Scapanskis continued to breed and calve them in. Once a heifer calved, she was sold and the calf stayed behind so the Scapanski family could continue to raise cattle.

“Dad was really passionate about the Holsteins and that carried with me,” Scapanski said. “With showing cows, my passion really grew.”

As a freshman in high school, Scapanski had another formative experience.

“Probably the biggest thing that helped me decide to be a dairy farmer was milking cows for my uncle,” Scapanski said. “I did it every day and I just loved it.”

In 2017, a young dairyman, Mitchell Mehrwerth, started renting and milking cows in the Scapanski barn. Then, the Scapanskis started keeping their heifers after they calved and Mehrwerth bought some of his own.

After high school, Scapanski went to Ridgewater College for dairy management. During and after college, Scapanski helped Mehrwerth farm and worked for other farmers in the area.

“We worked together and I did some custom farm work for a number of years,” Scapanski said. “The farmer I worked for encouraged me to buy my own wrapper and start doing custom wrapping. I have slowed down on my custom work this year because I have more to take care of here.
But it is nice to have additional income with the high cow prices and lower milk prices.”

Last year, Mehrwerth found a farm to buy and moved his cows to the new farm. On Nov. 4, 2024, Scapanski milked his own cows in his family’s farm in the parlor and freestall barn that his dad built.

“I love it,” Scapanski said. “I wish I could have started this right out of high school, but college was good.”

Scapanski purchased 23 cows from Mehrwerth and some from other local farmers.

“My herd is mostly registered,” Scapanski said. “The grade animals that I bought, I left as grades. But the ones that I bought that were registered, I kept up the paperwork. I especially love the Red & Whites, if I could fill my barn with Red & Whites, I would.”

Scapanski’s herd is 90% registered, and he is using the same prefix his dad did.

Scapanski has some friends who come out to help with field work during the busy seasons, but the cows are solely Scapanski’s responsibility.

The past year has not come without its share of challenges.

“I had a little stray voltage for a while,” Scapanski said. “Production went down drastically and I was noticing the cows were lapping up the water and not just drinking.”

Scapanski has been able to turn off all the breakers and cross the wires to fix the issue. Although the issue has been recurring, Scapanski said he has been able to resolve the stray voltage problem each time it occurs.

The past year’s cattle prices has caused Scapanski’s herd to grow at a slower rate.

“I am milking 30 cows but want to get up to 60,” Scapanski said.

Going forward, Scapanski has plans to put up a new heifer shed and a manure pit.

“Right now, I haul daily and the heifer shed and manure pit will be big enough for me to go up to 120 cows,” Scapanski said.

Scapanski and his wife, Kayla, gave birth to a son in July, so he wants to build for the future.

“Dad put up this freestall barn and built it right when robots were hitting the markets and built it so that it would be easy to convert to a robot barn if we wanted to,” Scapanski said. “In 18 years, when my son is older, if he is interested in joining, we have room to expand and the option to put in robots.”

In the meantime, Scapanski is working on building his herd of registered cattle.

“I am most proud of milking here again,” Scapanski said. “Seeing my own breedings calve in and watching my herd grow has been great. I have been using sexed semen and have had almost exclusively heifer calves for the past three months so that I can grow my herd from within.”